Wow, I’m so glad to see that God is cool after all!  You go, girl!

Ya know, for some reason I’ve always suspected that God was from the United Kingdom. Probably all that time being exposed to the King James version of the Bible…

Ya know, for some reason I’ve always suspected that God was from the United Kingdom.

Thanks to Eddie Izzard’s whole Noah routine I can not see God as any one other than James Mason, with Sean Connery as Noah.

Thanks to Eddie Izzard’s whole Noah routine I can not see God as any one other than James Mason, with Sean Connery as Noah.

I agree. Paul Hogan may have worked as Noah but god would have had to be James Mason.
I wonder who the French or Germans, let alone the Italians, would have picked.
And how would we understand him anyway?
Maybe we all have one of those little translating implants they showed us in Hitchhiker’s Guide TTG. Wasn’t it a special type of fish?
And to think my memory can only continue to go down-hill from here. 

The Babel fish, which feeds of brain waves

The practical upshot of this, is that if you stick one one in your ear, you can understand anything that is said to you.

This has been used to prove the non existance of God.  The argument goes like this.

God says ‘I refuse to prove that I exist, because proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.

‘Aha’ says man, ‘but the chance of anything like the babel fish happening by accident is so astronomical, that it proves that you must exist, and therefore by your own argument you do not’.

‘Oh Bugger’ says God, ‘I hadn’t thought of that’ and promptly disappears in a puff of logic.

Man goes on to prove that Black is White, and gets knocked down at the Zebra Crossing

And to think my memory can only continue to go down-hill from here.

Yes, and no, LuckyJohn.  I too am old enough (56) that memories are starting to dance tauntingly further and further out of reach; but practice helps a good deal.  What I do is memorize songs- my posslq and I perform marionette shows, where she plays the puppets and I do the music, all by heart.  Seems to tone up the old neurons.

Zilch is right. More and more studies are showing that your brain is a use-it-or-lose-it organ as you get older. The best way to keep it sharp is to exercise it. Thinking on difficult topics, puzzle solving, game playing, all contribute to keeping your brain in shape.

Research from UNSW provides the most convincing evidence to date that complex mental activity across people’s lives significantly reduces the risk of dementia. The researchers found that such activity almost halves the incidence of dementia. The paper, which has just been published in Psychological Medicine, is the first comprehensive review of the research in the field of ‘brain reserve’, which looks at the role of education, occupational complexity and mentally stimulating lifestyle pursuits in preventing cognitive decline. The paper integrates data from 29,000 individuals across 22 studies from around the world. “Until now there have been mixed messages about the role of education, occupation, IQ and mentally stimulating leisure activities, in preventing cognitive decline. Now the results are much clearer,“ said the lead author, Dr Michael Valenzuela, from the School of Psychiatry at UNSW. “It is a case of ‘use it or lose it’. If you increase your brain reserve over your lifetime, you seem to lessen the risk of Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.“

In addition to mental stimulation there’s quite a bit of evidence that physical exercise is also good for the brain.

I’ve always had a great (long-term) memory, but I find that as I get older it seems to be improving even more (granted, I’m not even 29 yet). Even odder is the fact that, when stoned, my long-term memory is sharper than ever. I can totally see time, man!

My short-term memory, on the other hand, has never been impressive, and it seems to get progressively worse at times.

Of course, some memories will always be crystal clear simply for the personal significance they hold for their owners. I believe the psychological term for such phenomena is the “flashbulb” memory.

Ahhh, take me back, memories of Intro Psych! Man, college was fun.

yea i am scotts daughters cousin,he did go crazy all because of my aunt angie talking to him about religon and demons and stuff and angie said she fully suports what he did,wan’t to give he rants be my geust,her name is angie rose.

Not much to go on there, noone.

To my daughters cousin.  I had made plans with Angie to go to church with my daughter and Angies family (on that weekend that I had my flight in terror).  There was no preconcieved ill intent on my part.  It was me who was being misled by the product that Higherbalance.com offered.  The newspaper could have just as easily printed , “Man uses a product of a spiritual nature and has a terrible spiritual experience.“
The bible says carnal man cant discern things of a spiritual nature so they call it a psychotic episode.  Psychosis is when you believe a thing and it becomes your reality.
I have passed three psych evals and they report no organic brain damage and no family history of mental issues.  I scored quite high on my eval so they called it an isolated psychotic episode and released me with a clean bill of health, “No, therapy or medication required.“

So where then is the truth of my circumstance?
I gave my heart to Jesus in jail and have been seeking understanding since.

Judge not lest you be judged, for with the same measure you meet, it will be measured to you.  The Lord said this, and the times I scorned a few women who were in the news claiming God told them to kill their children comes to mind.
The jokes I use to take pleasure in on the late night cable comedy shows about shortbus and handicap people also comes to mind.  I use to be a ladies man from my youth, breaking hearts without care, and when they retailiated, I called them psycho.  I use to spend alot of time watching tv to entertaining myself after a hard days work.  What kinda shows did I like, love stories, action (like xtrem videos and car chases), COPS, horror movies, etc.  Much of the worldy things I loved and put before God got measured against me and are now my shame.  Yet I learned these things from worldly people who practiced the same things I was taught.
When I was a young Marine at the age of 20, I saw an adulterous man, getting the attention and affections of many women.  I wanted that attention.  He offered to teach me the game and the question of morality came up.  He cast down the word of God saying it was full of hypocrisy and what kind of God would ask Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac.  I didn’t know anything about the Bible or Jesus so I took his counsel and a womaniser was born.
Jesus told parables about how the servant judged the Lord and he was judged back in measure.
I told a psychiatrist just a few of these revelations and he cast them down and said I think too deeply.
I also had a friend who use to toss about that comment ,“Stupid, evil bastard.“ I think he got it from a movie.  I thought it was a funny thing to say, so I would say it too.  Well, here I am to my shame.

I stand as an example of what an ungodly life will lead you to and example of Gods great love and mercy through Jesus Christ.  The truth I use to cast down I now preach and unless you repent and be saved the wrath of God abides on you.  For it is written the wrath of God abides on all the who hold the truth in unrighteosness.
Jesus is the way the truth and the life and noone comes to the Father but through Jesus.
Also,
In the last days, people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, concieted, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.  I was many of these as are many of you, but I have a savior in Jesus Christ and He teaches me a better way.
One psychiatrist cast down the word of God saying its something they use to recreate themselves, another psychiatrist writes a book called, “How to recreate yourself.“  Where then lies the truth?  The bible says if we be in Christ we are a new creation.  To God be the glory.

Consider this a small portion of a sparrows testimony…

http://www.myspace.com/sparrowstestimony

He who has ears let them hear,
A dark day, a dreadful day.
A dark and dreadful day.
A day of wrath and revelation.
A day of terror and tribulation.
They say, “How can this be?“
Let us build a stronghold,
That we may cast him down further still.
Let us take his substance,
That our high place may be higher still.
He cries for help, let us give him understanding.
Let us pierce hime with our sword to see what comes out.
Let us uproot him further still,
That we may lay bare the branch.
Oh how the firewood will warm our hearth.
He mutters a foolish thing,
Hah!God cannot help him.
Lets fill him with our medicine, lets give him cure,
That we may profit even more.
Let the genie in the bottle be his help.
Behold! What is this?
He breaks our arrows with his teeth
His words reveal our lack of understanding.
He is a liability, who will pay?
Sir!  You are smart, you need no help.
Good luck with your burden.

I say this, “How am I smart?!
I have fallen in a pit.
Your words and wisdom have not removed me.
They only send me to a darker place,
Cast me away further still,
Cover me with more dirt.
And you say, “I am wise?!“
Am I so wise as to sit behind an ornately decorated desk, carved from a tall tree that has been hewn down?
Can I be warmed by your hearth from the timber of other tall trees that have met a similar fate?
Since you are unable to burn my timber,
What then shall I use it for?
Is it good for anything?
Can I pour over the volumes of your tomes and incantations of opinions and beliefs,
Grind my timber to pule, make papyrus?
That I might decorate my walls with words that boast how smart I am?
What profit would there be in that?

I look to the heavensand cry out for God!
You look to the heavens to admire the eagle
that soars on high, that makes nests in high places.
Oh! How majestic.  Swooping down from great heights to devour its prey. 
Its eyes as sharp as its talons.
Yet take time to consider the buzzard.
Are they not closely related?
Are they not both scavengers devouring the same carrion?
What then sets them apart?
When they oar on high, one soars alone and the others congregate.
Yet where they circcle hungrily, death follows.

Oh, to soar high on wing.  Do you soar alone or congregate?
Where the eagles are gathered, there the carcasses will be.
Or is buzzards a more fitting interpretation?

Praise God Jesus delivers!

I was really enjoying your story there, Scott, up until you got all preachy at the end. Still sounds like you traded one delusion for another, but good luck with that.