There is so much controversy over the God issue these days that people are having seizures in the streets. Evolution or creationism? What is the truth? Who has the best religion? Who can pee the farthest? How was the world created and who done it?

All of this debate forced me to leave the comfort of my small New England summer home and take a trip across the world. After a week of travel I ended up at the foothills of the Himalayas and led to a small hut miles from anywhere. Once in a while I’d see a shepherd or a young fellow pulling at the reins of a water buffalo, but besides this, the area I was in was pretty sparse. I sat in the hut for seven days. I made a nice fire and brought plenty of provisions. It was quite peaceful, really. Anyhow, at last, as promised by my sherpa guide, an old sage appeared at my doorstep bearing yak butter tea and a little drum. His name was Darmya. He told me the secret to the universe in simple words that would make the heads spin of Christians, Jews and Muslims.

Darmya told me the world was created by a guy named Bernie. Some people call him God, but definitely not his wife. Read the rest of this entry »

Share This

What is a time warp? Is this real or a product of science fiction? Something you’d see on Star Trek? This is a question that nagged me in the middle of the night. Well, actually, in the middle of the night I’ve been nagged by a barking beagle, but this in no way diminishes my need to discover the meaning of a time warp, believe you me. People use the phrase “time warp” all the time now. It’s usually a term of derision, like, “Wow, that guy’s living in a time warp. He still watches television.” That whole diatribe could have been summed up in two words: “He’s old.”

A lot of science fiction is extracted from real science. But what about the time warp? A time warp has come to mean the exhibition of characteristics of an earlier era. Like you’re stuck in a certain period of time and cannot move forward. This seems to happen to older people. They keep talking about their younger days. And they wear clothes that are out of style by about 25 years. They also tend to eat with food on their lips, but this is something else altogether. Read the rest of this entry »

Share This

My son, a wonderful filmmaker, writer, editor and director, introduced me to the term “artificial lighting.” Essentially, when you shoot a movie, you can’t rely on ambient lighting because it doesn’t do the job unless you’re shooting outdoors under ideal conditions. But inside, you have to create your own lighting so you can control the outcome of your film. Filmmaking aside, I started to contemplate the term “artificial lighting.” This led to thinking about other things designated as artificial.

If something is artificial, is it bad or good? Read the rest of this entry »

Share This

Send us your bogus psychic experiences in the “comments” section below…

—————————————

In 1903, Henry Werble, a 23-year-old graduate student from Yale, stood on the edge of a cliff overlooking Jamaica Bay, and called out to the world, “I am man no more!” Then he sprang into the air and dove through a torrential waterfall never to be heard of again. How do we know this? Because he was with a group of five friends on their second day of spring break after visiting with the one called Janu, a Jamaican psychic of Irish descent who awarded the entire clan with the knowledge that life springs eternal even after death. Read the rest of this entry »

Share This

When I was a boy I remember people complaining about the weather. In the summer it was hot and people used to say, “It’s a hot one today,” or “Is it hot enough for you?”

Is there a reason people discuss the weather, or why they complain about the weather? What does this accomplish? Does it take a special type of thinker to be so concerned with the weather, or does everybody get involved in the commentary? I flew to Boston to meet with Harvard professor Julius Q. Endicott, PhD, a psychometeorologist, to talk about the weather.

Dr. Endicott’s office was, to my surprise, very unassuming. As imagined, however, there were ivy-covered towers adjoining the group of 150-year-old offices across from campus where Dr. Endicott was quartered. I found my way between two well-worn brick buildings and entered through a wrought iron gate into a courtyard. If I didn’t know any better, I could have sworn I had entered 1858. Dr. Endicott’s office was on the second floor overlooking the courtyard. Read the rest of this entry »

Share This

Did the world begin less than 10,000 years ago? The answer is a resounding yes, if you are the recent recipient of a labotomy or if your anatomy is such that your head has somehow become lodged in an unmentionable orifice. Otherwise, the answer is just plain “no.”

Some people sit awake in bed at night and think up great questions about life. They ask, “If the world is flat, then how did God make a man in the Garden of Eden without having to travel to Japan for some of the spare parts?” Questions like this fuel debates between modern-day scholars and a bunch of people who don’t know what they’re talking about. The latter subscribe to a theory that I like to call Godvolution. To restate the two sides of this debate, we have one side saying “Look at all the evidence. Let’s applaud our science. Here’s carbon dating proof. Here are a bunch of bones. Look at these ancient tools, etc.” and the other side that says no life existed on earth until then it suddenly did.

Read the rest of this entry »

Share This

I was reading in the news that the NASA Shuttle crew is preparing for a space walk. By the time you read this, they will hopefully have completed their walk and settled back down on the couch with some sandwiches. Their feet will be resting shoeless on the coffee table, and a remote control will be in their hands as they start channel surfing on their flat screen TV.

This brings to mind the idea of walking. Is a “space walk” really a “walk”? I don’t think it is. It’s like saying that if you lie down on the floor on your stomach and stick your hands out in front of you you are flying. Not to take anything away from the phenomenon, but when astronauts step out into space, their feet aren’t touching the ground. When your feet are not on the ground, it’s not walking. I can’t make this any clearer. But I’ll try. Read the rest of this entry »

Share This