Consciousness After Death: Strange Tales From the Frontiers of Resuscitation Medicine - Wired Science

Consciousness After Death: Strange Tales From the Frontiers of Resuscitation Medicine - Wired Science

New book says near death experience essentially universal.  A Hindu describes a Hindu god, an atheist doesn’t see a Hindu god or a Christian god, but some being. Different cultures see the same thing, but their interpretation depends on what they believe.  Overall they have peace and no longer fear death.  Makes you think.

A Welcoming church?

Saw this tweet and picture the other day:
Adrian Bott @Cavalorn
Well, this is a first. A notice on a church door that actually made me want to pay them a visit: pic.twitter.com/bSG0VStRqm

Made me wonder how many churches really feel this way.  I think this was the kind of person Jesus was as they were always hanging around him, but unfortunately not all our churches.  I think a lot of leaders of our modern evangelical churches feel this way, but not all the attenders,  I'm afraid this often leaves those who attend even the best of churches leaving sour.  I guess they say the worst advertisers for Christianity are Christians.  If we aren't the type of people or churches that would make the type of people in the above not feel welcome we should probably look in the mirror as we're not being like Jesus.

The Good American Girl Doll

I have lots of fun with my 1st graders at Buckhead Church UpStreet.  It's fun to see their reactions to the postcards I send them when I travel and to see how they interpret the Bible and the world we live in.  It's also a weekly excuse for me to be silly for an hour.

I try to do "market research" and know what's cool with kids so I can relate to them.  You gotta stay current because fads come and go, but one that seems to have stuck is the American Girl Doll craze.  The kids love it when I make-up stories for them and I usually try to incorporate them as characters and sometimes am even good enough to relate it to the Bible lesson we're doing that week.  I'm nowhere near Orange material, but even a blind squirrel finds a nut once and a while.  This week's Doug made-up story was about Hannah's American Girl Doll named Kit.  As the story goes, Kit was laying on the sidewalk all battered with stuffing coming out everywhere and her head half falling off.  Many people walked by Kit and did nothing.  Mr. Doug saw kit and bandaged her up so she wouldn't lose more stuffing.  He then put Kit in his car and drove her to the American Girl Doll store at Northpoint Mall.  There he gave her to the doll hospital with some money and said that if it wasn't enough, when he returned he would give them more.  The end (of course with some details and fun thrown in).  Yep, the Good Samaritan told about a doll in a way that hopefully a first grade girl won't soon forget what it means to love your neighbor.  It's fun to make this stuff up.

One of the reasons I also love UpStreet are the catchy little songs and phrases we learn that I find myself humming throughout the week.  I remember last month was the "Patience Song" or, as I sang all month, "P-A-T-I-E-N-C-E, you gotta wait for it!"  Although they're meant for kids, I know in my heart that having those refrains coursing through my thoughts is more than healthy.

Well anyway, here's a song from @buckheadkids @buckhead church guaranteed to get stuck in your head "Books of the Bible" from KidStuf!  Click on the pic to go to the video and enjoy!

Shrinking Tumor!!!

Just talked to Dad and his tumor is shrinking rapidly, really rapidly.  He's looking healthy and his numbers across the board are improving.  More later, but feel so blessed right now!

Bible Trivia on Xbox

Pam and I have a few games we play together.  Most of them are on the Wii, but this is the one and only game I can get her to play on XBox.  It has really tough old testament trivia with cool mini-games and an awesome christian soundtrack.  Think some Toby Mac while running through the parting of the Red Sea or some Chris Tomlin while being chased by lions.  We've been known to have a marathon session of this and both have our favorite games.  There's also a "zonk" in each round called the "wrath of God" that makes you lose all your points from that round.  We suck at the trivia, but some of it is really about some really obscure characters in the Old Testament.  I got this game years ago at Best Buy for $5 and was the best entertainment expense I think i ever spent.  Hope they come out with more games like this!

Science and God

I've become a fan of Neil Degrasse Tyson recently.  He has an uncanny ability to take difficult scientific topics and distill them down so that anyone can understand them.  He reminds me of a scientific version of Andy Stanley, well except for the fact that he's an outspoken atheist.  He gave a talk called, "The Perimeter of Ignorance" at a conference that I listened to the other day that really got my wheels spinning (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTFwDpr14Bo).  In that conference he mourned that more scientists we're atheists because he saw faith as a hindrance to scientific discovery.  He pointed to prominent example after prominent example from Newton to Einstein where scientists reached a scientific roadblock they couldn't figure something out and they essentially just gave-up, called it miraculous and said it must be God, only to have a future scientist be able to explain the previously explainable.  He said they "basked in the majesty of God" only have their discovery stop and he wondered how much more a Newton or Einstein could have contributed without having the "parachute" of a God hypothesis.

I guess this is my frustration sometimes with science and church.  I believe God and science can coexist and can actually have a synergistic relationship.  What I don't like is when people look at a tough problem and don't even try to solve it because it appears too hard and just fall back on the miraculous.  I believe there are miracles, but I also believe God setup a systems of natural laws, many of which he is eagerly awaiting for us to discover.  In ancient times people got sick from evil spirits, but we now understand germs.  We also now understand gravity, the atom and hundreds of other former mysteries.  I think it's a shame when people use faith as an improper justification of ignorance for themselves or their children.  It's almost like there's a fear that science will minimize God, but what I see is quite the opposite.  All you have to do is look at something like Hubble or the fact that scientist have discovered more stars than there are grains of sand in all the deserts and beaches to see that science can enhance God's majesty, not diminish it!  I think he smiled when we saw these images for the 1st time and probably is saying, "I can't wait until NASA gets more funding and they build a bigger one, it'll blow their mind!"



Neil DeGrasse Tyson did share one quote from Galileo that I love, “The Bible was written to show us how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go.”  I couldn't agree more.  Let's believe in God, but let's also use the intelligence he's given us for the most good possible.

Extra Mayo

So today and tomorrow my dad is at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.  They're essentially doing assembly line medicine with my dad spending an hour or two with a list of docs and tests all looking at his case from a different perspective.  It's a bit of a mystery as to why his platelet and red blood cell count hasn't come up yet combined with his blood clot issues along what chemo drugs to look at next since he didn't respond well to this one.  One school of thought with counts this low is to essentially "wait it out" and just use transfusions to bridge the gap.  The trip to Mayo is somewhat of a double check to be sure they're not missing anything else that could be causing it other than his bone marrow being slow to recover.

Tomorrow Pam and I fly to Wisconsin for a nice visit and to support my dad for the FVBTC walk (details below).  It will be great to see my parents and my sister and brother-in-law.  My dad is still all there mentally and loves talking Packers and playing cards, so I'm looking forward to an enjoyable visit.  Keep my dad and the Mayo Clinic doctors in your prayers so that they can find anything there is to be found and that my dad gets the best advice as to how to move forward.

From previous post: On Saturday I'll be running for a different reason up in Wisconsin.  The Fox Valley Brain Tumor Coalition (FVBTC) will be holding their annual race.  The race benefits their work to support the patients of brain tumors and their caregivers.  It's a really cool race in that the patients themselves are encouraged to participate!  Some may only make it 50 feet and others just a step or two, but that's not the point, it's all about support and encouragement for what can be a very depressing disease.  My dad's goal is to make one lap, about a half mile.  I have no clue how far I'll go, but all that matters to me is being there to support my dad.  If you're interested in learning more about the great work of the FVBTC or donating, my dad has setup a race page below:

http://www.fvbtc.org/participant/home.php?pid=137