Heaven's Gate (1997) and more

Hale-Bopp comet with two tails. 7 April 1997

(wikimedia)

The Heaven's Gate UFO religion is a striking example of human spirit seeking freedom from the material and physical constraints God of Israel has placed upon His creations.

Physical constraints
In the Holy Bible God tells us that He has made us Adam, the man, out of dust.

"This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made earth and heaven. Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the LORD God had not sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground. But a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground.
Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground."
Genesis 2:4-7

Even if we do not accept biblical Geocentricism as our world view, we all do live in a rather lonely planet Earth in this our Local Group of Galaxies where good Lord has planted us. The enormous astronomic distances in space and the cosmic speed limit of light make space travel even to nearest stars rather impractical in terms of human time scales.So it is pretty much us and us alone in this neighbourhood of the Cosmos.

Humans are constraints by living in a created world that is not based on randomly colliding atoms as the brilliant Greek philosophers Democritus and his disciple Epicurus were thinking. The mathematical order God created in atomic world is just amazing.

However, even if we do not accept Materialism as our world view, we all do live in a dynamic Universe that is made of energy and particles in a Spacetime continuum. Laws of Physics, the border cases described by Sir Isaac Newton and others as well as the broader general relativity described by Albert Einstein and others, pretty much constrain us to the material existence. The physical order in Creation places rather severe constraints on us as not-so-random beings as we are ruled by gravity and other fundamental laws of Physics.

Nor are we the product of random mutations as brilliant American philosopher D.C. Dennett suggests - the order in God created DNA is just amazing. Evolution is not an excuse to free us from moral constraints to behave like wild beasts.

Even if we do not accept Biological determinism as our world view, we all carry the heritage of life in our genes. According to current scientific understanding all life begins from One and only life generates life. This means that we all carry in our genetic heritage signs of the entire history of life on this planet and live under the constraints set by our Biology.

The most dramatic biological constraint is our death. Some of us live happily seventy or eighty years, many much less, a few live over hundred years making it in the news at Joseph's 120. Then time is over and our dead bodies disintegrate back to the dust of ground it came from.


Spirit seeking freedom
In the Holy Bible God tells us that He has made us Adam, the man, is not only dust from the ground.


"Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being."
Genesis 2:7

We are NOT just matter and energy and what we are, living beings, seeks to break from the constraints of Space and Time and matter and energy and genetics and everything. We want to Free Willy!

The Heaven's Gate UFO religion is a striking example of human spirit seeking freedom from the material and physical constraints God of Israel has placed upon His creations.


False call to freedom

George Bush visiting Heaven's Gate, Guyana 

Is this photo true or fake? (ref)

Two things collided with tragic results on March 1997
1. misinformation about a mysterious spaceship supposedly tailing the approaching Hale-Bopp comet
2. an esoteric ascetic religious cult seeking to escape the constraints God has placed upon his Creation.

1.
"In November 1996 amateur astronomer Chuck Shramek of Houston, Texas took a CCD image of the comet, which showed a fuzzy, slightly elongated object nearby. When his computer sky-viewing program did not identify the star, Shramek called the Art Bell radio program Coast to Coast AM to announce that he had discovered a "Saturn-like object" following Hale–Bopp. UFO enthusiasts, such as remote viewing proponent Courtney Brown, soon concluded that there was an alien spacecraft following the comet.
Several astronomers, including Alan Hale, claimed the object was simply an 8.5-magnitude star, SAO141894, which did not appear on Shramek's computer program because the user preferences were set incorrectly. Later, Art Bell even claimed to have obtained an image of the object from an anonymous astrophysicist who was about to confirm its discovery. However, astronomers Olivier Hainaut and David J. Tholen of the University of Hawaii stated that the alleged photo was an altered copy of one of their own comet images."  (quoted from wikipedia)

2.
"Heaven's Gate was an American UFO religion based in San Diego, California, founded and led by Marshall Applewhite (1931–1997) and Bonnie Nettles (1928–1985). On March 26, 1997, police discovered the bodies of 39 members of the group who had committed suicide in order to reach an alien space craft which they believed was following the Comet Hale-Bopp, which was at its brightest" (quoted from wikipedia)


True freedom
In the Holy Bible God gives us humans the freedom - and even duty - to carefully evaluate all sorts of prophets coming to us with false promises of freedom.
"Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many."

In the Holy Bible God tells us humans that our false freedom, liberties taken from the Laws of God causes coldness in human hearts
"Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold."

In the Holy Bible God tells us humans that He Himself will give us real freedom
"But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved." 


The End of Constraints
Yes, the end will come to this constraint existence of ours - but only God knows when (probably quite soon considering...)

"This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come."

The words of Jesus are from Matthew 24:11-14

Emily Browning and necrophilia

Emily Browning Sleeping Beauty (2011)

StarPulse.com writes:
"Former child star Emily Browning forced herself to meditate during shocking scenes in the upcoming adult adaption of Sleeping Beauty in a bid to shut out the horror.

The Aussie star plays the dozing princess in a new indie re-telling of the traditional fairytale, which is aimed firmly at the adult market. Browning reveals her character is left naked and sedated with several older men in some disturbing scenes - and she had to close off her mind to make sure she wasn't left scarred by the experience.

Promoting the film at the Cannes Film Festival, the Sucker Punch star says, "I didn't become as disturbed during those scenes in the sleeping chamber as you might imagine, because I kind of taught myself to meditate through those scenes. "I wasn't present in those scenes at all, so they didn't really have as much of an effect on me as I thought they might have."

The 22 year old, who made it big as a teen opposite Jim Carrey in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, admits her Sleeping Beauty will shock many film fans. She adds, "She (character) falls into this bizarre area of prostitution, where she is willingly drugged. It's very, very heavy." And she had to call on her meditation skills to block out fear and nerves before her nude scenes in the film: "I remember I was nervous before the first nude scene, and then as soon as the camera's on, you're in another place - it's not scary."
(StarPulse)

Sleeping Beauty, Emily Browning, is basically acting a corpse and those men, not virile enough to penetrate her and in any case not allowed by the deal, are not far from what is called in Psychiatry Necrophilia.


About sexual perversions
The human sexual engine working between men and women consists of highly complex brain activities, chemistry of many hormones and neural pulses. It is an extremely delicate and powerful system that can go wrong.

Sexual perversion are characterized by overheating of some element in this very fine and sensitive system our God has created in us, far more complex than in other living species on this planet.

When things overheat, go out of control, it usually involves a strong dose of selfishness. At the same time the God given purpose of reproduction is pushed aside and fulfilling the overwhelming desires becomes the main goal. One's own desires.

Pedophilia, for example, is probably related to the lust after purity. The fundamental thing is that men are excited by virgins, whether young girls after puberty, nuns in a monastery or other virgins waiting to be conquered. This is so nicely described in Mozart's opera Le Nozze di Figaro where the landlord has the traditional first night right on the bride.

Who is more pure than an innocent child? So the perversion steps in and the purpose of virginity, being a price to be achieved by the male, turns into lust after pure innocent. Often this comes with horrible results for the child and lifelong scars that may prevent her being happy ever with a man. In most countries the law is severe against those getting into such selfish and destructive behavior.

Necrophilia boils over that moment, when something snaps in the woman and she stops resisting and joins the sexual act allowing things to happen to her. This conquest often takes a lot of work and charm and effort from the male and is not easy to achieve. Rapists do not care, they just do their thing by force.

In war situations, at morgues, there are dead women who do not resist. This can be very attractive in a perverted man who perhaps does not succeed with living loving women or otherwise his brain has this twist. And the purpose of reproduction is lost, the only thing that matters is the situation where the man can do anything he wants to the defenseless corpse. Law takes a serious attitude to such defiling of the human body after death.

Bondage games can be part of normal sexual relations and many couples enjoy the feeling of being totally at the mercy of the trusted partner. Bondage games against unwilling subjects are a favorite subject of porno industry. Necrophilia is an extreme form of bondage.

Sleeping Beauty drugged for abuse
The basic setting in Julia Leigh's new movie has elements of pedophilia because of the youthful appearance of Emily Browning and the father figures mistreating her under sedation.

But because of the dating drops that render her totally defenseless the basic configuration of male female relations resembles necrophilia.


So what?
Well, the movie certainly shocks and attracts viewers and is very interesting and arousing study of human sexuality in the safe context of a movie.

It fits - like so many other honest movies do - the words of Jesus Christ

And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Perceive ye not, that whatsoever from without goeth into the man, it cannot defile him; because it goeth not into his heart, but into his belly, and goeth out into the draught? This he said, making all meats clean.

And he said, That which proceedeth out of the man, that defileth the man.
For from within, out of the heart of men, evil thoughts proceed, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, covetings, wickednesses, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, railing, pride, foolishness: all these evil things proceed from within, and defile the man.
Mark 7:18-23

Some of the movies proceedeth out of the man and defileth the man.

Let me guess!

After watching Sleeping Beauty some people somewhere say "Hey. what a great idea! Let us do it in real life"

And so we get secret societies in Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Mexico, Paraguay, USA where innocent child like girls (and boys) are drugged and abused in every possible ways, with or without penetration.

Copycats of  Julia Leigh's cinematic art in real life situations.

Where the victims may not necessarily be able to avoid damage from what is done to them under heavy sedation.

Should such movies not be done, to be censored?

Futile question - where is the money there is the will.

This is the truth about us, humans, and this is the reason why we need a Savior who can give us pure hearts so that we can see God.

And direct our sexual energy to the wonderful loving actions towards each other and bringing children to this world as intended by our loving Creator and not to self-destruction and destruction of others in the name of  Uncontrolled Lusts of the Flesh.

Ray Charles - Unbound my heart

Ray Charles (1930-2004)

Take these chains from my heart and set me free

You've grown cold and no longer care for me

All my faith in you is gone but the heartaches linger on

Take these chains from my heart and set me free

Take these tears from my eyes and let me see

Just a spark of the love that used to be

If you love somebody new, let me find a new love, too

Take these chains from my heart and set me free

Give my heart just a word of sympathy (sympathy)

Be as fair to my heart as you can be (you can be)

Then if you no longer care for the love that's beating there

Take these chains from my heart and set me free

Take these chains from my heart and set me free (set me free)

Hank Williams

-----
Lord Jesus says in the Gospel of Matthew 5:8  "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God."  

Watching and listening to Ray Charles performing raised in me an uneasy question "is this phenomenal artist pure in heart?"  If not, it could explain why Ray does not seem to see God.

I say this on the basis of his autobiography and also the movie Ray (2004) which he endorsed. (Except for the parts showing him taking grudgingly to piano and the one where he demonstrates to Margie Hendricks how to shoot heroin).

We have been told that Ray's mother, Aretha Williams, was a devout Christian.

The boy was born September 23, 1930 in Albany, Georgia and lived his childhood in the little town of Greenville, Florida. The family attended local Baptist church; in the 1930'ies it was from outside a touchingly poor wooden structure but from inside a mighty house of God of life and death.

So Ray probably received a warm, possibly tough, Christian upbringing at home and possibly also in Florida School for the Deaf and Blind where he learned also to know classical music. Yet he talks about his mother in strongly humanistic terms making clear her enormous importance to his entire life. "Do not be a cripple!" And the awful trauma of his brother drowning, an accident that Ray possibly might have prevented, is central theme in the mother/son relationship.

But no word of God in connection with Aretha almost as if Ray was also spiritually blind and could not see Him.

Certain kind of uncleanness of heart can be assumed from the impressive list of his children:

• Born ~ 1950: Evelyn Robinson (to Louise Mitchell)
• Born ~ 1955: Ray Charles Robinson, Jr. (to Della Robinson)
• Born ~ 1958: David Robinson (to Della Robinson)
• Born ~ 1959: Charles Wayne Robinson (to Margie Hendricks)
• Born ~ 1960: Reverend Robert Robinson (to Della Robinson)
• Born ~ 1961: Raenee Robinson (to Mae Mosely Lyles)
• Born ~ 1963: Sheila Raye Charles Robinson (to Sandra Jean Betts)
• Born ~ 1966: Alicia Robinson (unknown)
• Born ~ 1968: Alexandra Robinson (to Chantal Bertrand)
• Born ~ 1977: Vincent Robinson (to Arlette Kotchounian)
• Born ~ 1978: Robyn Robinson (to Gloria Moffett)
• Born ~ 1987: Ryan Corey Robinson (to Mary Anne den Bok)

That Ray did not see (glaucoma) and that he possibly did not see God or praise Him in R&B or Gospel in no way diminishes his value as a human being, his importance as a genius of popular music, rare winner of heroin addiction (which killed Jimmy Hendrix and Janis Joplin at that time) and a truly brave opponent of racial segregation in Georgia (Georgia On my Mind).

 Ray Charles with President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan in 1984

Wikimedia

Human life in its bright and dark moments is in the center of Ray's wonderful repertoire of songs that made him world famous. There are funny rhythmic pieces like Mess Around, touchingly sentimental and true songs like Unbound My Heart, some steel cold stories of life as the unforgettable interpretation of Hit The Road, Jack.

However, Ray Charles did not sing much Gospel, the music of his mother.

Or did he?

Perhaps something happened to him by the amazing grace of God and Aretha and Ray are having great time!

Only God knows and it is good that only He knows.

Let us thank our Lord for Ray Charles, his praying mother Aretha, his life and his wonderful music

 Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona eis requiem sempiternam

Did Silene maritima evolve waving in order to seduce bees?

that

Silene maritima  

More information and photos in Rob's plants page

Are flowers really waving in order to attract pollinators?

According to an interesting study by J.Warren and P.James they apparently do! It is as if they are winking in wind at passing bees and butterflies for their attention! 

Do flowers wave to attract pollinators? A case study with Silene maritima
(Journal of Evolutionary Biology 2008 Vol 21.4:1024-1029)

The problem is that evolutionary biologists commonly use the verb evolve as if the species were the subject of the action: "plants evolved waving in order to..."

Well, how does a nice Silene maritima suddenly decide that it will from now on start to wave in wind to attract those pollinators? What particular part of the plant takes the decision for such a line of action?

Of course, the biologist does not mean what the active mode implies - that the plant itself decides to change in some way beneficial to its survival in nature.

Instead, the Darwinist idea of natural selection is that the plant has variants in its living environment. Some mutations have tough but short stem for the attractive flower, others have taller and thinner stems that wave in the wind. Because insects notice the movement these plants are more successful and have more seeds than those with shorter stems that do not move so much. At some point the genetically inherited stem may grow so tall that the plant suffers from other difficulties and so the ideal height is eventually achieved by the force of natural selection.
(BBC article)

The plant itself is not an active player as if intending to reach some beneficial goal. In evolutionary biology the organism is only a passive player. It provides the genetic raw material through random mutation and is thus raw material in the process. Evolution follows from the combination of many environmental factors, for example the local wind patterns or humidity in the place where it is growing. For the evolution of flowers the behavior of insects is of crucial importance and there are many other things modifying its "behavior."

...
So we can look at this explanation as a beautiful theory that

- more or less explains the ideal length that evolved for the waving movement
- as a look at the divine lathe that was sued to shape Silene maritima

The two views do not necessarily contradict each other and the latter does not add anything to the details of the working of the evolutionary lathe! It just expresses the faith that it is not the result of chance changes but that God of Israel is behind its design and proper working in a process of evolution of life forms living in complex symbiosis.

Resomation

Resomation machine

"Resomation was developed in response to the public's increasing environmental concerns," company founder Sandy Sullivan told BBC News. "It gives them that working third choice, which allows them to express those concerns in a very positive and I think personal way."

The system works by submerging the body in a solution of water and potassium hydroxide which is pressurised to 10 atmospheres and heated to 180C for between two-and-a-half and three hours. Body tissue is dissolved and the liquid poured into the municipal water system. 

Mr Sullivan, a biochemist by training, says tests have proven the effluent is sterile and contains no DNA, and poses no environmental risk. The bones are then removed from the unit and processed in a "cremulator", the same machine that is used to crush bone fragments following cremation into ash. Metals including mercury and artificial joints and implants are safely recovered. 

The machine is patented in Europe with patents pending in other countries."
BBC Science/Technology article by Neil Bowdler.  Read the article here.

The Glasgow built Resomator is thus basically a big pressure cooker that within few hours literally liquifies human body into clean water so that only the bones are left. The funeral urn contains only the whitish powder left from the skull and bones and not even ashes.
Since men are about 60% water and women about 70% the resomator performs very efficiently a disappearance act - the body is no more. So one day Alexander passed away. His body was liquefied in a resomator and the water poured back to nature where it came from. The urn containing bone powder was buried in a cemetery.

Where is Alexander now?

Well, the obvious modern answer is "Alexander is no more. He has ceased to exist." What could symbolize this non-existence better than the Glasgow Resomator?

For ancient Egyptians, the dead body continued to be the dwelling of the soul and was preserved for this purpose. This very ancient belief led to elaborate and expensive cult of the dead that has made Egyptology such a fascinating field of study. Their tombs are so full of life! One only has to think the little king Tutankhamen and the national treasures wasted into his royal tomb in order to get an idea of how central role dead body and its tomb home played in that civilization. Pity those men and horses that were drowned in the Reef Sea.

Ancient Greeks gave a very different answer to the question "where is Alexander now". Greeks and Romans practiced cremation since there was no need for the body anymore. Body was considered a material prison of the soul of Alexander. After death his soul is free and hopefully resides in the Elysian fields.

The sharp distinction Greeks made between body and soul is very powerful idea. It is not unique to their brilliant culture. Many other religions believe in the existence of Alexander as a personal soul after death. Also today there are probably millions of people who adhere to such a fundamental view of humans as made of  the watery physical body and an invisible eternal soul. Philosophers sometimes call this configuration "Ghost in a machine."

Sam and Molly in the movie Ghost

Modern popular ideas of separate body and soul are exemplified by the powerful romantic movie Ghost (1990). After his violent murder Sam Wheat (Patrick Swayze) protects Molly Jensen (Demi Moore) from evil.  Sixth Sense (1999) is another unforgettable movie about the ghostly realm before the soul separated from the body has fulfilled the job and is allowed to reach Light.


Where is Alexander now?
Hellenistic and Roman period Jews answered this question very differently from the Greeks and Romans. For them human body and soul cannot be separated and at the end of the world the body will rise from death and be united with the soul.

In the time of Jesus, the people of  Israel had often heated arguments about the new teaching about resurrection of the body. The idea may have reached Palestine during or after Exile from Persia where Zarahustra was teaching similar things. It was strictly rejected by conservative Sadducee party while  Pharisee party wholeheartedly accepted it.

Jews did punish some criminals by burning as the Bible commands. But in order not to destroy the body, the home of the soul, molten metal was poured into the victims mouth. The crematories of Auschwitz thus represent also in this sense the ultimate evil against the people of God.

Bible does not give a clear map of things beyond the grave. The most central message of the New Testament is that there is one human who has died and who was buried in a tomb carved into rock. And who is alive today.

Of all humans, this particular person is the only one who has walked out of the tomb alive and in a body.

Not exactly like the body of a person living in this world and that can be buried, cremated, drowned, hacked into pieces, liquified in a resomator.

But something Saint Paul calls in First Corinthians 15 a "spiritual body".


Word of God
After Jesus of Nazareth had died on the cross his body disappeared. Saul of Tarsos met Him on the road to Damascus and the rest is history.  Sometimes between 50-60 AD he wrote to the Greek Christians living in the sinful harbor city of Corinth: 

But some one will say, How are the dead raised? and with what manner of body do they come?
Thou foolish one, that which thou thyself sowest is not quickened except it die: and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not the body that shall be, but a bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other kind; 38 but God giveth it a body even as it pleased him, and to each seed a body of its own.

All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fishes. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differeth from another star in glory.

So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: it is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

So also it is written, The first man Adam became a living soul. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. Howbeit that is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; then that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is of heaven
1 Corinthians 15:35-47