THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM

Yesterday, was a non-computer day….The monitor died, the box didn’t seem to work, and one of my wife’s closest friend’s husband committed suicide. We were discombobulated all day to say the least. Without a working monitor I learned something new today! It will help many weak and agnostic people think about facts seldom ever considered.

THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM

“We saw His star in the east and we have come to worship Him.”
—Matthew 2:2

Here is a six minute trailer about this production. There are some things that come along that can capture your attention, this is one of them. For believers, and for non-believers who claim there is no proof of Jesus Christ, and that He is a myth, you will see tangible proof of what the people of Israel saw and knew over 2000 years ago. The DVD is one hour, and when you get through watching it, you will do so a second time and maybe a third time. I did! If you are like me, I shunned Astronomy, still do to this day. This DVD really opened my eyes.

Words are not enough! Just watch the trailer, and you’ll want to get it and view it. I have no vested interest in the production or distribution of this material. I just think it is a fascinating discovery of scientific scholarship. Science truly complements religion, and does not contradict it.

THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM

Watch the DVD, you'll be amazed.


“We saw His star in the east and we have come to worship Him.”
—Matthew 2:2

Here is a six minute trailer about this production. There are some things that come along that can capture your attention, this is one of them. For believers, non-believers who claim there is no proof of Jesus Christ, and that He is a myth. The DVD we just got is one hour, and we you get through watching it, you do a second time and maybe a third. I did.

 This information will turn many heads!

Answering the New Atheism

Dismantling Dawkins' Case Against GOD, by Scott Hahn - Benjamin Wiker

By way of disclosure I begin saying that I am neither a theologian nor a scientist. I bought this book to read so that I would be able to answer the many challenges I experience here on the Vine about my faith, and my position and belief in Christianity and Catholicism. Since this book was written as an intellectual rebuttal to Dawkins' book, "The God Dilusion" by Scott Hahn, a best selling theological author, and Benjamin Wiker, a scientist at Franciscan University in Stubenville, Ohio, I an going to present opinions and praises for this book from people who know much more than I do about this growing trend in our schools and country.

* "Rarely, if ever, in my many years as a professor of philosophy did I ever have an opportunity to read such a compelling argument." ~Anthony Flew~ Author of There Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist changed His Mind
* "Dr. Scott Hahn and Dr. Benjamin Wiker show again and again, that atheists like Richard Dawkins are putting forth shoddy arguments, and once those arguments are dismantled by cool reason, there is very little left." ~Dinesh D'Souza:~ Research Scholar at the Hoover Institution, Author of What's So Great About Christianity
* "In a better world than ours there would have been no need for Answering the New Atheism. But under the circumstances, I'm grateful to Dr. Scott Hahn and Dr. Benjamin Wiker for their essential service in coolly, rationally taking apart Richard Dawkins' inflamed rhetoric and exposing the absurdities, and the dangers, at it heart. Their final chapter is a particularly chilling, important reminder of what Dawkins' secular faith would lead to if it were more widely embraced." ~David Klinghoffer:~ Author of Shattered Tablets: Why We Ignore the Ten Commandments at Our Peril and Why the Jews Rejected Jesus: The Turning Point in Western History
* "Answering the New Atheism is a superb exposé of Dawkins' The God Dilusion. Systematically and lucidly, Scott Hahn and Benjamin Wiker dissect and dispose of the fundamental errors that riddle Dawkins' attempt to demonize the divine. Dawkins has declared a jihad against religion and his main weapons are diatribe and charicature. But the aithors refuse to respond in kind and instead turn to reason, the one tool that Dawkins seems to disdain. As readable and humorous as it is rigorously reasoned, Answering the New Atheism is the best antidote in the marketplace for Dawkinitis." ~Roy Abraham Varghese:~ Co-author with Anthony Flew of There Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind, a book denounced by Dawkins. Editor of Cosmos, Bios, Theos, a work with 24 Nobel Prize winners that was described by Time Magazine as "the year's most intriguing book on God."

Since this book is written by two Catholic intellectual heavyweights, I had to reread most of the eight chapters several times. The book is only 150 pages in length but it is chocked full of answers to help you in serious discussions about atheism.

Mans Purpose on Earth, a Spiritual Reflection

Taken from: My Daily Bread, CONFRATERNITY OF THE PRECIOUS BLOOD by Anthony J. Paone, S.J.

The Way of Purification - Conversion

CHRIST'S VOICE
My CHILD, the highest goal of your life is union with Me in Heaven. Let your intentions throughout the day be guided by this truth. In all things be sure to stay on the path that leads to Heaven. Do not become too deeply interested in passing desires and brief enjoyments of this earthly life.

I have given you everything that you are and everything that you have. All things come from to you from Me, the Supreme Good. Whatever comes, accept it, use it, enjoy it, and I wish and as much as I wish.

If you think only of satisfying yourself, without considering My approval, your mind becomes confused and your will becomes weak. Mistakes and sins will rob you of peace on earth and of unending happiness in Heaven. In all things therefore, keep your eyes on Me.

Happy are those who desire only what I want, trying steadily to do My will. Such people do not let themselves become completely absorbed by their daily activities. They frequently offer their activities to Me. They see the brevity of human contentment on earth.

Examine your motives in your daily words and actions. Find out how you may please Me more, and avoid everything which may draw you away from Me.

THINK
I was created for eternal happiness with God in heaven. Everything else must take second place in my life, because if I lose Heaven, I will be losing everything. The sure guide to Heaven is God's holy Will. If I follow it in my daily life, every moment on earth will be a sure step toward the perfect happiness which my heart craves.

PRAY
My God and loving Father, grant me the wisdom to think, speak, and act each day as You want me to. May I never be such a fool as to disagree with Your supreme goodness and wisdom. Nothing on earth can bring me any lasting happiness. Therefore, let me never sin for the sake of anything. I want to live for the perfect happiness for which You created me. Amen.

The author, Fr. Anthony Paone, S.J., suggests that the reader read between the lines, and He will give you a message for you alone. This will be the grace of the chapter. God's grace will show us how to live a better life today, and it will give you the strength to do so. If you use these graces well, God will grant you greater ones. Daily you will grow more like Christ and less like your old self. The chapter is simple: (a) listen; (b) think; and (c) answer Him.

We Are Grandparents - Stop Spending Our Money Mr President

The country needs to organize to stop the government from spending anymore money. If you believe we should tell our elected representatives that it is time to:

• Really Balance the Budget
• Reduce Spending
  
• Stop Trying to Budget Things We can't Afford

Then you need to email me now and say you would like to know what to do? First I would like to organize by state. If the response is great enough I will immediately set-up a permanent web site. This site is temporary. Permanent site under construction. GRANDPARENTS UNITE

Fox New's Glen Beck found a huge niche. Mom's that are not empowered. I propose to do the same. Get teams of grandparents, thousands, in every state in the union to make plans to tell our legislators to STOP, and DESIST spending and proposing these unaffordable programs.

A Quote from Glen Becks "Mom's Show."

"I've been thinking about the show with some of America's great moms we did last week and the response we've been getting has been overwhelming.

I went out to an event last night and something struck me: The amount of females in the audience was more than ever and clearly they were not there because of my molten hotness. I mean, look at me: Chubby, pasty, multiple chins — I could go on. They are there because as moms, it's in their nature to protect their children and they are realizing that this government is putting their children's futures at risk."

IDEAS, HELP, DO SOMETHING, Mom's and Grandparents need to rise up and stop this destruction of our nation.

Charlie Courtois

Election, 2008, Lies, Lies, Lies!

Is there anything we can believe about the election now? How does one separate the ½ truths from the ¾ truths and so on? Sources that I came to trust over the decades of my life are no longer reliable, and it seems that is it an ever increasing battle to root out the truth. Sooner or later each of us becomes tainted by this darkness. What really happens is that we begin to form our own misguided precepts that make us feel good. Truth is not about feeling good. Truth should be the basis with which we evaluate if someone is worthy of our vote.

If our candidate is exposed by a hint of scandal, or a partial lie, what do we do? Do we hunker down and deny it? At the very least I am guilty of that. We immediately discredit the source in our mind, be it good or bad or maybe even true. That is a very unhealthy situation. Nevertheless, the network video engineers rule the roost.

The spectacular dirt dug up on each and every candidate will surface, true or untrue, and eventually will be thrust in our faces with music, sound effects, and the latest flashing, blinking technology. Madison Avenue used to call this subliminal advertising, or messages. Now it is in your face exploding video messages. Brainwashing by our media which burns in the lies, half-truths, and whatever message the advertiser chooses to thrust on the public, is the beginning of the grab for power. Greed and the accumulation of money is how the election will be won. Yes and a skillful collection of deceptions and deviousness will be at the forefront of the march toward office.

Horror of horrors, there is always the latest poll. While I was perusing various news outlets political pieces, I was struck by the hundreds and hundreds of polls, which were emblazoned with red, white and blue American Flags, that were not worth the ink and drawing it cost to present them. I think it sad to say that there will be hundreds of thousands of people, maybe millions, misled by the anecdotal evidence they represent.

Election-2008 will break all previous spending records. The estimates now are in excess of a billion dollars. When it is all said and done this November, what will the hundreds of millions of dollars have accomplished, that some simple, truthful, and meaningful editorials about each new candidate would not have achieved?

U-Tube Clips, Cable Networks, Main Stream TV Media, Talk Radio, Print Media

After reading and listening to various portions of the above sources of news and information these last few weeks, I, for one, have become disillusioned about the veracity of any of it. The amount of money being spent on this upcoming election is beyond any human’s capacity to comprehend neither the meaning nor the impact of its use. The goal is winning. Lies become truth. Truth becomes a lie. Truth looses it meaning. The voting public is on the outside looking inside. The hundreds of promises declared by the candidates become blurred and meaningless. If this over-saturation continues, and it will, we may see a voting apathy occur in 2008 that will set a sad new record.

When one adds to that media bombardment the impact of the Internet and the Blog sites, it no wonder that people are beginning to feel everything associated with polls, talking heads, newscasters, reporters, editors, publishers, etc. etc is out of control. I am completely convinced that it is a physical impossibility to be well informed about Election-2008 without standing back and putting your own research effort into gear. I mean by this that you alone will have to evaluate each fact, bit by bit, and come to your own conclusions. Not only that; but, you will need to go back and start from scratch. I have been, and maybe you too, have been brainwashed. The unequivocal truth is that it is nearly impossible to be well informed with this years overwhelming media saturation about the pending Election-2008; because, it has become a farce and the lies and distortions are just beginning. Think about that!

May be it is just me; but, I am sick of the lies, distortions and self-serving political parties and the people associated with them. Politics is all about money, power, and the promises of those who claim to want to represent the people. Very shortly each political party will host their farcical national conventions, which will be led-off by a Hillary dominated democratic week. I urge each one of you to put on your thinking cap, and whatever you do, please go to the polls and vote your own true beliefs. Not that of some network, announcer, liar, promoter, or newspaper.

Charlie Courtois
Forsyth, Georgia

The Right To Life, The Election, and What Some are Doing About It

We can close our eyes and not see abortion, but this culture of death is all around us and it aids and abets choices in our lives which God will make us accountable for when the time comes.

The subject Pro Life affects every one who is alive. What the phrase often implies, wrongly to many, is that we humans make the choice of life ourselves. This could not be farther from the truth. The right to life is a gift from our Lord and Savior! The voluntary participation of the many in the work of “40 Days for Life,” depicted in the video presentation below, is just one small effort to pray and act against the abomination of abortion.

For most of my life I went around thinking that our courts had decided about abortion, partial birth abortion, euthanasia, stem cell research and other related life issues. These things were not on my radar screen. Now I realize that these civil law decisions are a violation of the 10 commandments that God handed down to us from our church fathers and as Disciples of Christ we are expected to stand up for the truth and to try to do our part in letting those who do not realize the error of their ways to understand what they are doing is against God’s will.

Two vital pieces of the “Right to Life” issue is the understanding of it and the doing of something about it:

UNDERSTANDING: http://www.worksforchrist.org/right%20to%20life.htm at the bottom of the noted URL you will find the heading, “The Fetus is a Baby and a Life. “ This is about the technical and the truth about life in the uterus.

DOING: This URL was produced by the “40 days for life” volunteers to promote what it is that they are doing in support of God’s Will to inform the protagonists and antagonists of abortion. Through prayer and peaceful support we can do a tiny something about this gargantuan issue.

The 39-minute video is a comprehensive case study of a very successful 40 Days for Life campaign that was held in Fargo, North Dakota.

You'll hear from their entire campaign team – as well as other volunteers and leaders, including a local radio station owner, the North Dakota leader of Concerned Women for America, and Catholic Bishop Samuel Aquila:

http://40daysforlife.com/blog/?p=120

The 2008 election is close. I hope this presentation will make you think about the 50,000,000 million, or so, deaths attributed to abortion in the U.S. since “Roe versus Wade” and what effect this election will have on the prospects for overturning this 1973 law in the States, the Courts, and our everyday lives.

Charlie Courtois

Who is Guarding the Financial Chicken-coop in Our Country?

A Brief Comment of Modern Finance and Where It has Taken Us!

Mortgage lending has been in the headlines for months. The figures reported for bad loans, those the banks call non-performing, are at astronomic heights. Most of us can not fathom the impact one/half a trillion dollars in loses or more. To save face we hear of many, many schemes to bail out the lenders, the property purchasers, the brokers and just about everybody involved in these sub-prime loans. According to the F.B.I. reports, they are beginning to take some criminal action toward the perpetrators; two Bear Stern operators, and 406 individuals around the country. One such scenario of many is inserted below.

Instead of stealing an identity to secure a credit card, scammers have been zeroing in on people they think have a lot of equity in their homes. They steal their identities, then go online and get a home equity line of credit on that person's house and take the money. The FBI said the possibilities seem to be endless, and even in a down market, there are many opportunities for scam artists. NY Times 6/21/2008

The total impact of this financial debacle is a long way from being settled. These crimes and abuses of power appear to be more far reaching than the Savings and Loan scandals in the early 1980’s. The S & L’s were bailed out by the Federal Government, and to the best of my recollection nobody did any real hard time for those abuses. This time these greedy, mendacious loans were executed at several levels. The fallout and financial impact of thousands of unsuspecting victims, those who failed to read the fine print of their mortgage contracts, and a small army of bankers, brokers, lenders of all stripes, and now a whole new agglomeration of predators poised to scam the unsuspecting, will be decided in large part with tax payer dollars, a declining stock market, and an untold amount of financial instability.

The scariest part of all this is that it will be a long, long time before the financial institutions will reveal the complete extent of the losses which they are supposed to declare. Since the numbers are in the billions, it is bound to have long term implications for hundreds of thousands of people. In the fall of 2007, I said of the first announcement from one of the big banks: “This is going to be like discovering cockroaches; if you find one or two there are probably 100’s.” Well, we have heard about 200-300 billion.

We talk about billions and trillions today without really understanding what the numbers translate to in life impact for the average citizen. In Lee Iacocca’s book, Talking Straight, he describes what you can think of a billion as in terms of time. It would take you and me around 33 years to count to one billion. Who is guarding the financial chicken-coop? It sounds like the Fox is to me!

Charlie Courtois,
Forsyth, Georgia