Stormbringer's Thunder

Buona sera. No, I'm not going to be serious on you. Just a bit of pondering that was too long for yesterday's grouping. I like many kinds of music. My main choice is rock. There are so many sub-categories and styles, sometimes I wish people would take Billy Joel's remark to heart and say, "It's still rock and roll to me". Even so, I suppose some of the categories are useful. When I want to listen to Christian rock, I don't want to find my way through raunchy stuff until I get there. One category that kind of grinds my gears is "alternative". Alternative to what? It's still rock, isn't it? Sure, there's a style difference from "mainstream" rock. But then, rock itself is supposed to be non-traditional and rebellious. Also, "alternative" is what the 1970s and 80s punk and New Wave evolved into. (Yes, I said "evolved". In this case, the term is valid.) But I have some news for you, Buttercup. The "classi...

I maintain there is much more wonder in science than in pseudoscience. And in addition, to whatever measure this term has any meaning, science has the additional virtue, and it is not an inconsiderable one, of being true. — Carl Sagan Buona sera. I was going to go for something lighter, but Lee Strobel fueled more thoughts in me about evolution and random chance. I have always been amazed when scientists and anti-theists will say ridiculous things like the Carl Sagan (rhymes with "pagan") quote at the top. They will claim that belief in God is not only irrational, but that it takes away the wonder of the universe. Let me ask you something: Which is sillier, to investigate the way God has performed his wonders, or to investigate the dead ends of a philosophy that is based entirely on random chance? When a biochemist examines the intricacies of, say, a single cell, he or she is faced with astonishing complexity and evidence of design. And yet, there are people who b...

Buon giorno. Today's visit will not be loaded with references and proofs. Instead, it will be a philosophical discussion to spur mental activity within people who are actually capable of rational thought. This was sparked by Lee Strobel's book, The Case for a Creator. An atheistic journalist with a background in law, Strobel tells of his discussions with extremely qualified scientists and how he lost his faith in atheism. Yeah, Zeke, I know that's what you're afraid of, but carry on, anyway, willya? The Case for a Creator goes against my grain in that it takes an old earth view, and I am a young earth Creationist and Catastrophist (read: global flood at the time of Noah). But he still manages to bring up some extremely powerful evidences against random chance and evolutionism. This is not an actual book review, and I want to make it clear that I'm putting my words in here as well as Strobel's words. In my own thinking, scientists are rejecting establ...

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen Edited August 27, 2015 My father had the belief that when people are getting into something very heavily, it is because they are seeking a religious (or mystical) experience. I have thought about that off and on for many years, and I see the truth of it more than ever. People have said that there is a "God-shaped hole" in everyone's life that needs to be filled, and only the right shape will fill it. A friend of mine on Facebook suddenly cut loose and started making "friends" seven ways from sundown, as well as becoming a fan of assorted things. These things are of a mystical nature, everything from a spiritual version of UFOs, social justice movements, necromancy and all sorts of hocus-pocus things. To use the vernacular, those things "creep me out". "Enlightenment" / Fabian Nick / FreeImages.com What are ways that we seek our own mystical experiences? Sports Music star idols Sex (I admit, sometimes i...

Look, I can't make them put a quality product in the dispensers. If they want to take the cheap way out, people will just use more. Then, the cheapskates will actually wind up paying more. Oh, hi. Glad you're here. I was discussing cheapness with Nicky. I'm not going to talk about that with you. At least, not today. But I am going to talk about wasting money and time. "Is this going to be a GTD thing, Cowboy Bob"? I think it qualifies, yes. Thinking back on my past lives and how much I have changed, I realized how much I felt that I had to accumulate. Years ago, it was difficult to get a decent audio recording from a television broadcast. Technology was different, and I was poor. I had to rig up something, splicing into the TV's speaker wires and using an input on the cassette deck. I just had to have the sermons by certain TV preachers, and built up a sizable collection. This ran into money for tapes, stick-on labels, cassette storage albums (they...

Situation 1: The Bible is comprised of 66 books that span a time period of over a thousand years, several languages, authors from various walks of life (including kings, fisherman and shepherds), yet it speaks with unity on all sorts of subject, including the most controversial. Just try to do that with ten of your own friends or co-workers! Hundreds of prophesies regarding the life, death and resurrection of Jesus have been fulfilled, and some of those prophesies were made a thousand years ahead of time. Archaeologists have verified the Bible, and a leading archaeologist said that no archaeological find ever contradicted the Bible. Also, the New Testament was written by eye-witnesses of the events related, which would mean that contemporaries could have easily quelled the excitement by their own eye-witness accounts to the contrary. Response to Situation 1: "There is no evidence to even believe that God exists, and I certainly cannot believe that there is any validity to the Bi...

Addendum: When I wrote this, I thought I was being original with the title. It turns out that the name is in use commercially. Oops! One real company has a product to filter your spam, and uses the "Spam-O-Matic" name . To be clear, I wrote about a product that contributes to the spam problem and is totally different . Sorry for any confusion.  Buon giorno . For years, I've been telling people in person, through e-mail and in my Weblog that they should "clean up" e-mail messages before they forward them. Not only as a courtesy to their readers (we often have to scroll though a load of crap before we finally find the message two thirds of the way down), but to cut down on spamming. "How do personal messages forwarded with e-mails add to spamming, Cowboy Bob?" I knew you couldn't resist asking. Here's a letter that I got from a company, asking me to review a spammer's tool: Dear Bob, May I ask you to write a review for Jet...