The Things Nightmares Are Made Of!

CALEDONIA, Mich. - A couple sat by their daughter's hospital bedside for weeks after an auto accident until she came out of a coma and they realized she was not their daughter after all, but another blond-haired young woman injured in the wreck. Their own daughter, it turned out, was dead and buried.

In a tragic mix-up, one family had been incorrectly told their daughter had died in the April 26 crash in Indiana, and another was erroneously informed their daughter was in a coma.
The two young women — both students at Indiana's Taylor University — looked remarkably alike, and the one in a coma suffered facial swelling, broken bones and cuts and bruises, and was in a neck brace.

The family of Laura VanRyn, 22, disclosed the mix-up Wednesday on a Web log that they had used to record detailed updates on the young woman's recovery.

"Our hearts are aching as we have learned that the young woman we have been taking care of over the past five weeks has not been our dear Laura, but instead a fellow Taylor student of hers, Whitney Cerak," the VanRyns said on the blog.

Cerak's grandfather, Emil Frank, said news of his granddaughter's survival was a shock. "I still can't get over it. It's like a fairy tale," he said.

Coroner Ron Mowery, whose office handled the case, apologized for the mistake. He said acquaintances of the students had identified the survivor as VanRyn, but no scientific tests were conducted to verify the IDs. "This tragedy unfolded like we could never have imagined," he said.

The VanRyns said that as the young woman began regaining consciousness at a rehabilitation center in Grand Rapids, Mich., she said things that made them question her identity.

As recently as Monday, the VanRyns reported: "While certain things seem to be coming back to her, she still has times where she'll say things that don't make much sense."

The coroner said that VanRyn's boyfriend raised initial questions about her identity. Then her father became suspicious when she referred to him by a pet name he didn't recognize. "He started asking questions and the process evolved to where she actually came to and suggested who she was and wrote her name," Mowery said.

In a statement, the two families said they took their concerns to hospital officials, and dental records confirmed that the injured woman was Whitney Cerak.

"Both families understand how this could have happened," said Bruce Rossman, a spokesman for Spectrum Health, which operated the rehab center.

Frank, a retired minister in Portland, Maine, said his granddaughter's parents declined to look at the body before the funeral. "They wanted to remember her the way she was," he said.

An official at Taylor University, an evangelical Christian college in Upland, Ind., about 60 miles northeast of Indianapolis, said the Grant County coroner had notified the school of the error.
"We rejoice with the Ceraks. We grieve with the VanRyns," said Taylor spokesman Jim Garringer.

The VanRyns, who are from Caledonia, Mich., said their daughter and Cerak, 18, of Gaylord, Mich., bore an "uncanny resemblance."

The coroner described an accident scene strewn with purses and wallets. "I can't stress enough that we did everything we knew to do under those circumstances, and trusted the same processes and the same policies that we always do," Mowery said.

Four Taylor students and an employee were killed when their van was struck by a tractor-trailer that had drifted across a highway median. Those in the van worked for Taylor's dining services and were preparing for a banquet for the inauguration of a new president of the 1,850-student school.

Most of the crash victims had funerals with closed caskets. A month ago, an overflow crowd of more than 1,400 people turned out for what they thought was Cerak's funeral in Gaylord, Mich.

Joe Sereno, associate pastor at Gaylord Evangelical Free Church, said the casket was closed both for visitation and for the funeral. "We did everything you usually do," Sereno said. "We had a memorial service at the church. The family did a private burial the next day. Everybody thought it was Whitney."

The VanRyn family used the blog to provide progress reports on the young woman, reporting, example, that her hair was in pigtails or braids, that she managed to feed herself some applesauce, that she played a game of "Connect Four" with one of the therapists and did quite well, and that she performed an exercise in which her therapist gave her a word and she had to supply the word's opposite.

Calls to the VanRyns and Ceraks were not immediately returned, and a young man outside the VanRyns' home declined to comment to a reporter. An attorney for 'the Cerak family did not return a call either.

Prosecutors are weighing criminal charges against the truck driver, saying he may having fallen asleep at the wheel.

A memorial service for VanRyn is scheduled Sunday in Grand Rapids.

As I've Matured

I can’t take credit for this as much as I would like to. Nonetheless, I find it full of wisdom, so enjoy.

As I've Matured...

I've learned that depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.

I've learned that I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy it.

I've learned that there is a fine line between genius and insanity.

I've learned that you cannot make someone love you. All you can do is stalk them and hope they panic and give in...

I've learned that whatever hits the fan will not be evenly distributed.

I've learned that no matter how much I care, some people are just jerks.

I've learned that it takes years to build up trust, and it only takes suspicion, not proof, to destroy it.

I've learned that you shouldn't compare yourself to others - they are more screwed up than you think.

I've learned that it is not what you wear; it is how you make it look.

I've learned that you can keep vomiting long after you think you're finished.

I've learned to not sweat the petty things, and not pet the sweaty things.

I've learned age is a very high price to pay for maturity.

I've learned that we are responsible for what we do, unless we are celebrities.

I've learned that artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

I've learned that 99% of the time when something isn't working in your house, one of your kids did it.

I've learned that the people you care most about in life are taken from you too soon and all the less important ones just never go away.

Senator John Glenn On President Bush

I received this email over the weekend and find it fitting to post. I have lost some confidence in our President, but I do believe he was and remains the best man for the job where the war on terror is concerned.

There were 39 combat related killings in Iraq in January. In the fair city of Detroit, there were 35 murders in the month of January. That's just one American city, about as deadly as the entire war-torn country of Iraq.

When some claim that President Bush shouldn't have started this war, state the following:

1. FDR led us into World War II. Germany didn’t attack us; Japan did. From 1941-1945, 450,000 lives were lost; an average of 112,500 per year.
   
2. Truman finished that war and started one in Korea. North Korea didn’t attack us. From 1950-1953, 55,000 lives were lost; an average of 18,334 per year.
   
3. John F. Kennedy started the Vietnam conflict in 1962. Vietnam didn’t attack us.
   
4. Johnson turned Vietnam into a quagmire. From 1965-1975, 58,000 lives were lost; an average of 5,800 per year.
   
5. Clinton went to war in Bosnia without UN or French consent. Bosnia didn’t attack us. He was offered Osama Bin Laden's head on a platter three times by Sudan and did nothing. Osama has attacked us on multiple occasions.
   
6. In the years since terrorists attacked us , President Bush has liberated two countries, crushed the Taliban, crippled al-Qaida, put nuclear inspectors in Libya, Iran, and North Korea without firing a shot, and captured a terrorist who slaughtered 300,000 of his own people.
   
7. The Democrats are complaining about how long the war is taking, but it took less time to take Iraq than it took Janet Reno to take the Branch Davidian compound. That was a 51-day operation.
   
8. We've been looking for evidence for chemical weapons in Iraq for less time than it took Hillary Clinton to find the Rose Law Firm billing records.
   
9. It took less time for the 3rd Infantry Division and the Marines to destroy the Medina Republican Guard than it took Ted Kennedy to call the police after his Oldsmobile sank at Chappaquiddick.
   
10. It took less time to take Iraq than it took to count the votes in Florida!

Our Commander-In- Chief is doing a GREAT JOB! The Military morale is high! The biased media hopes we are too ignorant to realize the facts. Wait there's more!

JOHN GLENN (ON THE SENATE FLOOR) Mon, 26 Jan 2004 11:13.

Some people still don't understand why military personnel do what they do for a living. This exchange between Senators John Glenn and Senator Howard Metzenbaum is worth reading. Not only is it a pretty impressive impromptu speech, but it's also a good example of one man's explanation of why men and women in the armed services do what they do for a living. This IS a typical, though sad, example of what some who have never served think of the military.

Senator Metzenbaum (speaking to Senator Glenn):

“How can you run for Senate when you've never held a real job?"

Senator Glenn (D-Ohio):

"I served 23 years in the United State s Marine Corps. I served through two wars. I flew 149 missions. My plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire on 12 different occasions. I was in the space program. It wasn't my checkbook, Howard; it was my life on the line. It was not a nine-to-five job, where I took time off to take the daily cash receipts to the bank."

"I ask you to go with me ... as I went the other day...to a veteran's hospital and look those men with their mangled bodies in the eye, and tell THEM they didn't hold a job!"

"You go with me to the Space Program at NASA and go, as I have gone, to the widows and Orphans of Ed White, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee...and you look those kids in the eye and tell them that their DADS didn't hold a job."

"You go with me on Memorial Day and you stand in Arlington National Cemetery, where I have more friends buried than I'd like to remember, and you watch those waving flags."

"You stand there, and you think about this nation, and you tell ME that those people didn't have a job? What about you?"

For those who don't remember During WW.II, Howard Metzenbaum was an attorney representing the Communist Party in the USA.

Now he's a Senator!

TruthorFiction.com had an entry on their site telling the truth about this exchange. The bulk of it follows:

This exchange did take place but not on the floor of the Senate, but the content of Glenn's words is accurate. The exchange occurred during a campaign debate in 1974, when Metzenbaum was running for re-election and Glenn challenged his seat. Glenn and Metzenbaum had also run against each other for the same seat four years earlier; a race that Metzenbaum had won. A few days prior to this debate, however, Metzenbaum made a widely publicized statement that Glenn had never met a payroll (he didn't actually say that he'd never held a real job). In other words, Glenn had been a military man not a businessman, like Metzenbaum.

Metzenbaum did not repeat that charge during the debate, but Glenn came prepared to respond to it, and did it so powerfully that he also went on to win the election. If Howard Metzenbaum represented the Communist party as an attorney during World War II, we have not found substantiation to that affect.

The History of Memorial Day

Enjoy your liberties and freedom? Remember to thank a veteran! This weekend is a weekend of remembrance and honoring those who have gone before us. Their sacrifice has made our country great. I hope you'll find a moment to shake the hand of a veteran or their family and verbalize your gratitude.



From the History Channel

Memorial Day was originally known as Decoration Day because it was a time set aside to honor the nation's Civil War dead by decorating their graves. It was first widely observed on May 30, 1868, to commemorate the sacrifices of Civil War soldiers, by proclamation of General John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of former sailors and soldiers. On May 5, 1868, Logan declared in General Order No. 11 that:

The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land. In this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.

During the first celebration of Decoration Day, General James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, after which 5,000 participants helped to decorate the graves of the more than 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers buried in the cemetery.

This 1868 celebration was inspired by local observances of the day in several towns throughout America that had taken place in the three years since the Civil War. In fact, several Northern and Southern cities claim to be the birthplace of Memorial Day, including Columbus, Miss.; Macon, Ga.; Richmond, Va.; Boalsburg, Pa.; and Carbondale, Ill.

In 1966, the federal government, under the direction of President Lyndon Johnson, declared Waterloo, N.Y., the official birthplace of Memorial Day. They chose Waterloo—which had first celebrated the day on May 5, 1866—because the town had made Memorial Day an annual, community-wide event during which businesses closed and residents decorated the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags.

By the late 1800s, many communities across the country had begun to celebrate Memorial Day and, after World War I, observances also began to honor those who had died in all of America's wars. In 1971, Congress declared Memorial Day a national holiday to be celebrated the last Monday in May. (Veterans Day, a day set aside to honor all veterans, living and dead, is celebrated each year on November 11.)

Today, Memorial Day is celebrated at Arlington National Cemetery with a ceremony in which a small American flag is placed on each grave. Also, it is customary for the president or vice-president to give a speech honoring the contributions of the dead and lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. About 5,000 people attend the ceremony annually.

Senate Ignores American People

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Thursday easily passed an immigration overhaul that would give millions of illegal immigrants a chance to become American citizens, as supporters braced for a bruising battle with the House of Representatives.

Isn’t it amazing? The American people have spoken so loudly about this issue of amnesty and still our politicians ignore us. I can't remember an issue that the country has been more united on. I hope the House will give more credence to us then the Senate did. I urge each of you to go to Senate Vote on Immigration Bill and see how your Senator voted on this issue and remember him/her when you vote the next time. Follow-up with them and either congratulate them or tell them that it has cost them a vote depending on how they voted. If, after being so clear on this subject, they choose to vote against the wishes of their constituents then they have no business representing us.

If asked, they’ll tell you that not providing some sort of amnesty will devastate our economy. I hope you’re all smart enough to know how much hogwash that reasoning is. Do you know what it cost each taxpayer, customer, and citizen to fund the social programs that make it possible for the illegal’s to be here? Ever wonder why an aspirin in the hospital cost $10 or more? It’s because someone has to pay for the services that the people who can’t, don’t, or won’t pay for. I heard on the radio the other day (I forget the exact number) that several hospitals in border communities have closed because of treating, required by law, and non-payment.

The second part of why that is hogwash is because even though our economy is the best it has been in decades there are still people who need jobs. Legal, law-abiding, and contributing members of society can’t find a job because of the serf labor being provided by these invaders.

We do need to give these people a path. We need to give these people a path to their country of origin and force them to start the process legally. No guest worker, no path to citizenship equals no amnesty!

Why I Love My Wife

When I look at my wife, I see such radiant beauty permeating from the depths of her soul through her smile and that glimmer in her deep baby blue eyes. Sadly, I often look right through that beauty and take it for granted. I often fail to complement her and am quick to criticize. Shame on me!

I love my wife. Next to God, there is no one more important to me in this world. I love my wife because she is kind and compassionate. She is gentle and usually patient. She sees the best in people. She wants to make a difference in peoples lives. She is generous with her time, energy, and talents. Did I mention she loves to cook and is rather good at it?

My wife seeks a right relationship with God. She endeavors to lead by example, daily, her walk as a model for her family. She is an excellent mother, wholly devoted to the teaching and rearing of her children (including me).

Perhaps my wife’s greatest asset is her ability to love me, for I am often not very loveable. My wife knows me; I mean really knows me. She can see right through my excuses, attitudes, pain, and frustrations. She loves me despite of myself.

I love my wife because she inspires me to aspire for greatness. She is motivating and her joy is contagious. She is the other, better, half of me. She makes me want to live life to the fullest and to be the man of God that I should be. She completes the cavernous void in my life that only a true soul mate could.

The number one reason I love my wife is because she is the perfectly packaged gift that God designed for me alone. Knowing that you have the person God intended you to have removes all doubt, all suspicion, all jealousy, all competition. She satisfies me in every way.

My wife…My helper…My partner…My love!

Why I Fear My Child!

At the time of this writing, my oldest child, Joshua, has recently just turned five and his younger brother, Nicholas, recently three. Both are generally well-behaved children and other than chronic respiratory and sinus related health issues from being premature we couldn’t be more proud of them.

Tonight Joshua will have a preschool graduation program as he makes his way to kindergarten in the fall. Some well-respected experts assert that a child’s identity in adulthood is determined with in the first five years of their life. So how did we do? What will he be like? Have we instilled in him the values and morals that we hope will shape his character and values? There's still a lifetime of effort left to be made on our part, but I'm referencing just these five years.

I look into his beautiful innocent blue eyes everyday. I hear repeatedly his quest for knowledge as he asks questions. He’s only three feet tall and full of questions. He must think I’m the smartest man alive. I don’t have all the answers to his questions on every little how and where and why.

His innocence still amazes me. His dependence on his mother and me for basic functions of life is slowly eroding. One day she and I will be begging him for his time and his affection. One day his innocence will be more a matter of his choice then of our shielding him.

Yet every parent worries about what their child will become like. Will he hold dear the values that we have tried to implant in him? Will he seek the God that we serve? Will he be a man of integrity and character? Will he right the wrongs and stand on principle? OR will he do and be all the opposites of this? I pray I never have to face a conversation with a police officer bringing my child home or worse. I pray I never have to have a conversation with my child concerning his sexual orientation. I pray I never have to deal with abusive tempers or destructive patterns.

As his innocence erodes, and in many cases is stolen from him by the world, part of me fears my child and his future. Part of me also has great anticipation for his success and helping to guide him there. In the end, all I can do is what God has entrusted me to do and the rest will eventually be up to him and God. For now, we enjoy snuggle time, hugs & kisses, and ice cream in bed.

I Don't Belong!

First I want to thank You Lord for being who You are; for coming to the rescue of a man who's drifted far. For calling me to be Your son and calling me to serve. Lord the way You've blessed my life is more than I deserve. - Amen

Several events in recent days have inspired this writing. I got to thinking about events that have shaped my life; my adolescents, my choices, my wife and my children, my faith, etc. Then I began to lend thought to the things that cause me discontentment. That list is very long and included such things as hostility around the globe, politics, abortion, homosexuality, classroom curriculum, etc. You get the picture.

I came to this conclusion. I DON’T BELONG! It’s a simple concept really. Christians are told explicitly that we’re to be in the world and not of it, because this isn’t our home. We’re to make the greatest impact in the setting God has placed us and to set the example instructed in His Word. However, the parallel that I drew in not belonging and my discontentment is what caught my attention.

Maybe I (I’m sure I am not the only one) get so worked up, so involved, so frustrated and angry about certain topics because I see the contradiction to the choices our leaders and the liberal base make and the Word of God. One thing is for sure, this world isn’t my home. God has promised all Christians a better place without all the contradiction. A place where crystal clarity will reign supreme.

I look forward to that day, for in that day we will not have to deal with obnoxious people. We’ll not have to deal with heartache, disappointment, greed, lust, anger, or money. That day will be glorious.

National Guard Becomes Border Patrol

I watched with great interest the president’s speech last evening concerning his plan for dealing with our nation’s border dilemma. After the speech, with which I had a hard time swallowing as a whole, I began to watch some of the commentary on the network news stations.

One thing that kept repeating on every station was imagery of the border walls that we have presently. I was dumbfounded to see how low tech and dysfunctional they really are. From a border protection stand point we might just as well have nothing at all. The U.S. is the most technically advanced nation in the world and we really use nothing high tech to secure our borders.

I like the president’s notion of a comprehensive plan. I did not like his amnesty compromise. He said it isn’t amnesty, but anything that allows a known criminal to achieve citizenship without having begun the process legally is amnesty no matter how you paint it. Make no mistake about it, if their here illegally then they are criminals and allowing them to stay under any circumstance is amnesty.

One thing is for certain, no matter how we as a nation choose to deal with the illegal’s that are already here, the most important thing for us to do first is to seal the borders. This country is focused on the Mexican border, because it is our main problem, but what about our ocean fronts and our northern borders? What about our Cuban crisis in the Keys?

Someone said that this isn’t the role of the National Guard. I couldn’t disagree more. They are called the National Guard for a reason. Close the borders! Close them now! Keep the Guard there until a high tech system is put into place that will ease the burden of the Border Patrol. Heck, use the military to help build it.

After that is complete then we need to reform our immigration laws. We need to make the process more clearly defined, more scrutinizing of potential security threats, and we need to do it in a much timelier manner then the present system works at. I am of the mindset that we need to detain and deport every illegal alien that we find here, no exceptions; no matter how sad their story is. Let Americans step up to the plate for their jobs. We don’t need a serf level citizen. Those illegal aliens are taking money from our citizens who need jobs and their adding struggle to our already over drawn economy.

Finally, after the borders are sealed properly we need to attack the employers who employ these aliens. Go after them in the form of huge penalties and stiff jail time. Take the money that we receive from the huge penalties and use it to fund the border reconstruction effort and border patrol.

Every single poll out there overwhelmingly shows the mindset of the U.S. citizenry. On this issue, the American people are expressing their want of the borders sealed and the deportation of people who shouldn’t be here. I don’t know why our representatives are not listening. They think they know what’s best for us I would surmise. Maybe, just maybe, they ought to follow the desire of their constituents for the first time in history.

Christians Are Hypocrites!

I’ve talked with you a little bit recently about the sociology class that I am presently participating in. It has a focus on issues of family. While conversing about different sociological theories involving the family we discussed perceptions. When we enter an environment our minds automatically begin to form opinions of the environment. The stimulation of the senses (hearing, touch, smell, etc.) begin to merge with regions of the brain that recall the experiences of our past and those combinations are where our preliminary perceptions or opinions come from.

This is true of people too. Everyday we see people we don’t know and based on our senses and our memory recall we draw an initial conclusion about that person. That conclusion can and most often does evolve as we interact with that person, but that initial snapshot our mind takes forces our brain to summarize our experience and form an initial assessment of the person. What kind of clothes is the person wearing? Are they designer or are they from K-Mart (nothing wrong with K-Mart)? Are the clothes new or worn? Is the person’s hair neatly styled and fashionable? Does the person know how to color coordinate? Are their hands and fingernails clean? How does that person smell…too much cologne or perfume, bad breath, etc? You get the point.

All of those things in a discussion may seem petty and shallow, but our mind notices those things whether we care to admit it or not. Some people are better judges of character then others and so their perceptions often appear to be more accurate, although I don’t know of any scientific evidence or systematic manner to increase the odds of prejudging someone based solely on their immediate presentation in a random environment.

So how does any of this tie in with the topic of Christians are hypocrites? One of the most prevalent excuses that are heard of why people do not go to church or participate in any organized religion is that they feel Christians are too judgmental and hypocritical. Guess what, they’re right. We are very judgmental, despite our best efforts not to be and despite our ability or inability to veil the judgment. Also, we often proclaim a certain attainment of righteousness that we’re unable to achieve and maintain ourselves. That is hypocrisy!

At this point I feel a need to discuss some of my own experiences with Christianity. I became a Christian at the ripe old age of eight just shortly after my father’s untimely accidental death. From that time till now my expression as a Christian has changed many times. I have had extreme high periods of moral character, integrity, and closeness to God and conversely I have had times when I questioned the very existence of God and acted in rebellion to what I knew I believed to be the will of God.

I’ve probably sinned more or at least in greater contrast to the good I have done as a Christian. During my junior high school days while trying to make it through early adolescents I stole merchandise on two occasions. I’ve lied, cheated, had impure thoughts that I chose not to bring into check, lusted over pornography, had premarital sex on numerous occasions, though never using any tobacco products or recreational drugs of any kind I did get drunk a lot for a period of time (I don’t drink at all anymore), violated the sacred bonds of best friendship, and I even came between a man and his wife once. I am sure this isn’t an all inclusive list, but it doesn’t need to be to drive my point home which is this…

During all my transgressions I had already encountered God and had a saving experience with His son Jesus Christ. I placed my faith in Christ making me, I believe, a Christian; a Christian that often professed one thing but whose lifestyle often did not parallel my faith or profession. My iniquities and their hard earned, often painful, consequences have helped to shape my perspectives and given me insight. Thank God for mercy and grace for without it we would all be doomed to eternal separation from God…damnation.

I’ve said all of this to bring me to this point. It is so extremely easy to draw a conclusion about someone from things that are superficial. It’s even easy to have knowledge about a person and rush to judgment. Herein lies the problem; not many people will willingly walk into a situation knowing a judgment will be cast upon them. The next time you encounter a stranger be conscious of the process your mind takes as it forms its initial assessment. Do it as an experiment.

We’re neither qualified nor responsible for judging each other despite the fact that we all do it to some degree or another. That doesn’t mean we have to accept a certain behavior or sinful act. We’re not responsible for the actions of another person, but we are solely responsible for our own actions. As the teaching of Christ goes, “Hate the sin, Love the sinner.” It’s through our expression of love and willingness to accept a person where they are that a person will begin to obtain a level of open-mindedness that will lead them to an encounter with Christ. We’re the first picture of Christ that many people will ever see. We need to reflect His image.

As long as people place Christians on a pedestal and/or as long as we put ourselves there we’re always going to have periods of failure. We fall down, but we get back up. We should be striving to reach a level of sanctification while we journey through life. Christians aren’t perfect, but we do have grace, mercy, and redemption because we know enough to seek it out. We can’t help but be hypocritical because we’re fallible. We are, after all, only human.

How Old Is The Earth?

The religion of evolution contends that the Earth and the galaxy are millions and/or billions of years old. They hypothesize that both were formed by cosmic coincidence; something void of life suddenly exploded and the most basic forms of life began.

Their religious beliefs teach Cosmic evolution (the formation of the galaxies, stars, and at least nine known planets around the sun); Chemical evolution (life began from non-living material); and Biological evolution (the first life form spontaneously diversified into different forms of living things such as plants and animals and that those living creatures are capable and interested in reproducing themselves).

I call evolution a religion because like a religion their summations are based solely on belief and not on indisputable scientific fact. Without going into great detail, mainly because I am not a chemist, the famed radiocarbon 14 testing is only accurate up to several thousand years. To use it as a gauge for a presumption of millions of years creates a great deal of room for miscalculation.

We can all assume three very important and common positions. One, a universe with great design and order exists. Two, at least one planet in our universe contains a wide variety of life forms. Three, man appears to be the most advanced form of life on this planet.

With those three building blocks let’s examine the factual evidence. The Earth is located exactly the right distance from the sun. Consider the temperature swings we encounter, roughly -30 degrees to +120 degrees. If the Earth were any further away from the sun, we would all freeze; any closer and we would burn up. Even a fractional variance in the Earth's position to the sun would make life on Earth impossible. The Earth remains this perfect distance from the sun while it rotates around the sun at a speed of nearly 67,000 mph. It is also rotating on its axis, allowing the entire surface of the Earth to be properly warmed and cooled every day.

And our moon is the perfect size and distance from the Earth for its gravitational pull. The moon creates important ocean tides and movement so ocean waters do not stagnate, and yet it restrains our massive oceans from spilling over across the continents.

The human brain simultaneously processes an amazing amount of information. Your brain takes in all the colors and objects you see, the temperature around you, the pressure of your feet against the floor, the sounds around you, even the dryness of your mouth. Your brain registers emotional responses, thoughts and memories. At the same time your brain keeps track of the ongoing functions of your body like your breathing pattern, eyelid movement, hunger and movement of the muscles in your hands.

The human brain processes more than a million messages a second. Your brain weighs the importance of all this data, filtering out the relatively unimportant. This screening function is what allows you to focus and operate effectively in your world. A brain that deals with more than a million pieces of information every second, while evaluating its importance and allowing you to act on the most pertinent information...all of this without intentional design!? You wouldn’t say the watch your wearing just came into being would you? If you believe there is a watch, then you have to believe there is a watch maker.

So back to the original question...just how old is the earth? Protestant Bishop James Ussher (1581–1656), one of the greatest scholars and theologians of his time, who around 1650 A.D. insisted that God created the world in 4004 B.C. Science and what we can observe tells us that this statement is incorrect. Of interest though - nothing in the fossil records indicates man existed more than 6,000 - 8,000 years ago. So perhaps Bishop Ussher and the chronological time scale of the Bible is exact after all - 6009 (in 2005) years or so.

Accounts of the worldwide flood come in from nearly every culture on earth. Most of these are identical. Flood accounts come in from Mayan, Persian, Aztec, Sanskrit, Chinese, Egyptian, Babylonian, Inca, Samarian, American Indian, Jewish cultures, and more. The Mayan writings say that water cleansed the earth in 3113 B.C. dating creation to about 6009 years ago.

Bishop Ussher was the Primate of All Ireland. The Bishop established the first day of creation as Sunday 23 October 4004 BC. He calculated the dates of other biblical events, concluding, for example, that Adam and Eve were driven from Paradise on Monday 10 November 4004 BC, and that the ark touched down on Mt Ararat on 5 May 2348 BC `on a Wednesday'.

Ussher began his calculation by adding the ages of the twenty-one generations of people of the Hebrew-derived Old Testament, beginning with Adam and Eve. Working backwards through the Book of Judges, Ussher computed 330 years for the duration of the rule of Judges. The chronology first appeared in The Annals of the Old Testament, a monumental work first published in London in the summer of 1650.

Ussher's proposed date of 4004 BC was not greatly different from the estimates of the Venerable Bede (3952 BC) or Ussher's near-contemporary, Scaliger (3949 BC). It was widely believed that the Earth's potential duration was 6,000 years (4,000 before the birth of Christ and 2,000 after) corresponding to the six days of Creation, on the grounds that "one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" (2 Peter 3:8).

Shakespeare, in As You Like It, has his character Rosalind say, “The poor world is almost six thousand years old.” Martin Luther, the great reformer, favored (liking the round number) 4000 B.C. as a date for creation. Astronomer Johannes Kepler concluded that 3992 B.C. was the probable date. The Mayan calendar dates the creation of the Earth to August 11 or August 13, 3114 BC (establishing that date as the zeroth day of the Long Count 13.0.0.0.0). The Mayan Calendar ends abruptly in 2012 A.D.

Currently, there is a near consensus among earth atheist scientists that the age of "Earth and the rest of our solar system is 4.54 billion years, plus or minus 0.02 billions years." This seems to change by a billion or so years every 5 years or so, however.

What about dinosaurs? Every natural history museum in the world today displays large dinosaur models so we know they existed. They did exist, but not millions of years ago. There are many references to dinosaur-like creatures in both the Protestant and Catholic versions of the Bible. However, the word "dinosaur" isn't found anywhere in the Bible because it didn't exist as a word until the 1840's. Prior to that, the most common word used to describe dinosaur-like creatures was "dragon", and that word is found many times in scriptures. The word "behemoth" was also commonly used. The Bible best description of a dinosaur is in Job 40:15-24. Job is a very old book, probably written around 2000 B.C. Here God describes one of the larger dinosaurs. It is said to be describing a Brachiosaurus. It is a giant plant eating animal with strong bones. It is not afraid of anything. In Job this dinosaur is compared to the ancient cedar. The Lord then described a monstrous creature that was beyond man’s ability to control, and thus a striking example of the superiority of Heaven’s power as compared to man’s.

Stories of ancient encounters with dinosaurs/dragons are found in China, Thailand, including other parts of Asia, and in Roman, Russian, Germanic, Anglo-Saxon, North, South, and Central America, and across Africa too. Are we so much smarter and more academically inclined than all of our ancestors that we should reject all of their historical records - just to prop up temporary evolutionary theory?

Dragons and sea monsters have become mostly extinct prior to our modern era. By the way, there is evidence that they grew much larger prior to the Great Flood. Just as humans lived much longer (Genesis records ages of some people to have reached over 900 years!) so a reptile ... living much longer then could have grown much larger before the Flood - which is indeed what we see in the fossil record of the pre-Flood world.

Humans and lions live on Earth at the same time today. But we live in different places. Porpoises will ram sharks that come into their waters. So naturally then they also live in different places - while living at the same time. Why couldn't humans and dinosaurs have lived at the same time? They'd probably keep mostly separate and then get buried separately if there was a catastrophe, but this could be theoretically possible, correct? There are at least two places known today with human and dinosaur tracks in the same sedimentary layer: one is in Paluxy, Texas, the other in Eastern Turkmenistan. Plus we have the legends, from all inhabited continents mind you, which should not be automatically discounted.

To answer the question of how old is the Earth I used several online resources. I hope my compilation of the theories and facts shed’s new light on the subject, helped to answer the question, and has given you something solid to defend your faith with. It is not a safe thing to remove from God the credit due Him for his creations.

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Welfare and the Public

The following question was the question posed to my Sociology of the Family class in this weeks review of our chapter reading. It deals specifically with the sociological study of Conflict Theory. From what I have read in the text for our class this theory is advanced largely through a scarcity of resources.

Discuss some of the societal restrictions that inhibit full access to resources for women who are on welfare. What are the negative consequences of continued scarcity of resources from a conflict perspective? What are the positive consequences, if any?

From The Constitution Party, the political party for which I have recently become affiliated, as a matter of disclaimer, "Charity, and provision of welfare to those in need, is not a Constitutional responsibility of the federal government. Under no circumstances should the taxpayers of the United States be obligated, under penalty of law through forced taxation, to assume the cost of providing welfare for other citizens.." and "...welfare provisions by the Federal government are not only misdirected, but morally destructive."

I quoted my political parties platform on welfare, because I am a strong proponent in the idea that the welfare, social security, and/or medi-anything has created the reliance on these social policies. At their core they promote laziness and breed the back door for morally bankrupt and irresponsible people. The allowance for having 'accident' or unplanned pregnancies financially supported by socialistic reward systems lends no importance for responsibility or abstinence based thinking and action. It has fostered a new, highly advertised and marketable society of "if it feels good do it" mentality. Beyond my opinion about the improperness of social based aid packages, it is also unconstitutional. The Constitution grants no authority to the federal government to administrate any social policies.

I am sure there are valid reasons why a social program might benefit a person. Constitutionally, the Federal Government has no legal right to tax it's citizen's to support it or for that matter to administer it. If welfare were removed from the equation and it's recipients were forced to take responsibility for their own lives, it is my belief, that there would be a new awakening of responsibility growth; dare I say, even an advancement back to higher levels of morality.

What about the people that are realistically and seriously in need of some outside means of support, you might ask? Remember the days when family took care of family? The area of social support is best left to family and if an organization is needed to become involved, it would be best served by charitable or faith based organizations.

It is my opinion, and the facts support this ideology, that there is no scarcity of resources, but instead a scarcity of responsibility and morality. It is hard for me to view the welfare system as a model for the conflict theory, because the scarcity of resources to fuel such a debate doesn't exist. Our nation has the lowest unemployment numbers in recent history. The job market is strong. The country is prospering, despite energy prices and the undermining illegal alien's effect on our economy (notice I didn't say immigrant; I did that on purpose, because they are not that...but that is another blog topic).

I've probably stepped on a few toes here, but I make no apologies for my stance on this. The world, largely because of modernization, has become very liberal where areas of morality are concerned and we're starting to sow the consequences of what we've for too long reaped; the lack of a solid moral base.

Okay, let me have it. I have broad shoulders.