“But with dogs, we do have �bad dog.� Bad dog exists. �Bad dog! Bad dog! Stole a biscuit, bad dog!� The dog is saying, �Who are you to judge me? You human beings who�ve had genocide, war against people of different creeds, colors, religions, and I stole a biscuit?! Is that a crime? People of the world!��Well, if you put it that way, I think you�ve got a point. Have another biscuit, sorry.�”
“Since obtaining a greater understanding of quantum physics, I am beginning to draw conclusions about why things happen the way they do. Specifically, I have learned that everything outside of me is a mirror of what is inside of me. I have also learned how to "infect the quantum field" or manifest reality by concentrating on particular ideas that I want to call into existance. My career success is due in large part to this new understanding of quantum physics, combined with the love and trust I share with Brian [Lewis].”
“There is much pain that is quite noiseless; and vibrations that make human agonies are often a mere whisper in the roar of hurrying existence. There are glances of hatred that stab and raise no cry of murder; robberies that leave man or woman for ever beggared of peace and joy, yet kept secret by the sufferer /committed to no sound except that of low moans in the night, seen in no writing except that made on the face by the slow months of suppressed anguish and early morning tears. Many an inherited sorrow that has marred a life has been breathed into no human ear.”
“If, in the present chaotic and shameful struggle for existence, when organized society offers a premium on greed, cruelty, and deceit, men can be found who stand aloof and almost alone in their determination to work for good rather than gold, who suffer want and persecution rather than desert principle, who can bravely walk to the scaffold for the good they can do humanity, what may we expect from men when freed from the grinding necessity of selling the better part of themselves for bread?”
Invariably, I will be referred to Gleason Archer's massive Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties, a heavy volume that seeks to provide the reader with sound explanations for every conceivable puzzle found within the Bible - from whether God approved of Rahab's lie, to where Cain got his wife. (Note to well-meaning apologists: it's not always the best idea to present a skeptic with a five-hundred-page book listing hundreds of apparent contradictions in Scripture when the skeptic didn't even know that half of them existed before you recommended it.)
the subject of free will another debated topicdo we or don't we have the ability to pick?greatly controlled by mind at lower levels of consciousnessalmost non-existent, one's free will is notably lessat this level one’s actions are purely reactionarylacking self-awareness, animal instincts are primarynot going along with the mind, free will increasesthen higher up, it's surrendered until it ceasesthus, there both is and is not the capacity to chooseeven when we do it's limited by one's viewschoosing alternatively, with a mind conditioned and boundfree will, then, is at best constrained and drowned
Present global culture is a kind of arrogant newcomer. It arrives on the planetary stage following four and a half billion years of other acts, and after looking about for a few thousand years declares itself in possession of eternal truths. But in a world that is changing as fast as ours, this is a prescription for disaster. No nation, no religion, no economic system, no body of knowledge, is likely to have all the answers for our survival. There must be many social systems that would work far better than any now in existence. In the scientific tradition, our task is to find them.
“Barbara Bush has her finger on the pulse of America. I'm so glad she's back and more compassionate than ever, ... That's right, of course people just sat around New Orleans, boring, uninspired, soulless New Orleans, and dreamed of someday relocating to the Astrodome. 'Oh, dear lord, if only I could leave my unhappy existence and head on up to wonderful Houston and live with my friends side by side in a spacious football stadium, my life would be so much richer and complete.'”
Molecules form and dissolve, returning to the primordial soup of atoms. But consciousness survives the death of the molecules on which it rides. What was once a bundle of energy in a sunbeam turns into a leaf, only to fall and change again into soil. The change of state crosses many boundaries. A sunbeam is invisible, whereas leaves and soil are visible.A leaf is alive and growing,whereas sunbeams aren't.the colors of light, leaf, and soil are different, and so on.But all these transformations exist as constructs of the mind.The actual energy present in the sunbeam experiences no change at all.
How can it not exist? What does that—” A tiny grey body shot in front of the Land Rover. “Squirrel!”Mad Rogan swerved to the side, trying to avoid the suicidal beast. The SUV hit a curb and jumped. For a terrifying second, we almost flew, weightless. My heart leaped into my throat. The heavy vehicle landed back on the pavement with a thud. The squirrel leapt into the grass on the other side.I remembered to breathe. “Thank you for not killing the squirrel.”“You’re welcome, although now I want to go back and strangle it.