Monday, December 29, 2008

Lou Reed

"And I thought you were a Christian . . . ! Shouldn't you be listening to Michael W. Smith or [insert your own favorite Christian music]?" WHAT WOULD JESUS LISTEN TO? How could we know? I have a hunch he would be listening to Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, and Tom Petty (insert your favorite singer-songwrtiters here). After all, the gentry (i.e., the Pharisees, etc.) excoriated Josh for hanging out in the wineshops with tax collectors, whores, thieves, and other riffraff. These were the people who were telling him what was really going on. I'll bet if there were poets and singers to be heard, he listened to the ones describing the underside of life. Of course, he was on a mission from his Father, so he was trying to keep them from going down in flames--showing them the Kingdom of God.

I'm not saying Lou Reed has been preaching the Kingdom of God . . . far from it, sometimes. What he's been doing for the last forty or so years has been picking up the rocks under our feet, turning them over, and showing us the things we've hidden, kicked under there. Then he's been searing them across our hearts with words like hot branding irons in songs such as "Sweet Jane", "Heroin", and "Waitin' for the Man", anthems to the underside of life, messages from the black holes beneath our society. Like Dylan, Lou has never sought lasting popularity. He has constantly changed and experimented with his music. I don't like all of it; I think Lou would be surprised if anyone did. My favorite is Rock 'n' Roll Animal and Lou Reed Live! recorded at a concert at the end of 1973 in New York. Of all rock concerts, this is the one I wish I had been at. Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner fronted a five-piece band, playing magnificent, symphonic, dual-lead guitars. Hunter's "Intro" to "Sweet Jane" is "arrogantly long", as one critic said, and brilliant--worth the price of admission itself. After all these years, it still sends shivers through me. The rest of Lou's noble and comic characters show us everyday life, as she is lived at the street level. Thank God for Bach--and thank God for Lou Reed. Rock on, baby, rock on!

Friday, December 12, 2008

Merry Christmas, Richard!

This column is dedicated to an author I encountered online recently. Your website is highly interesting to me, dealing with what I call "protohistory". In particular, your expertise in anthropology and linguistics inspire me. You have published several books in the general area. In addition, you write very well, which is a rarity. I assumed we had some common ground, so I initiated an e-mail correspondence with you. You thanked me for being a "fan". This is a term I will gladly suffer for someone I really respect. For instance, I am happy to be a fan of the great writer Gene Wolfe. Then I made the mistake of telling you I am a creationist. My few readers know this--and still read me, apparently!--even though their views are not necessarily the same. You have taken the trouble to read my columns in this blog, Richard, and have responded by telling me I know nothing about science, history, or anything else and that I am a bigot. Please! I am opinionated, stubborn, and sometimes facile, but anyone who knows me knows that I try hard to rid myself of unreasoning prejudice. We Christians call this quality humility. You told me--warned me--that you were neither atheist nor Christian. This should have tipped me off. I still assumed we could share some common ground in our interest in a previous great civilization. I was wrong. I see from Wikipedia that you are in your mid-seventies; I am 60. I guess that as one ages one's views either harden, like arteries, or become more open, more accepting--though one must beware of gullibility. I have been accused of being overly credulous, and I have had to admit I didn't know what I was talking about. It hurts. What hurts even more, Richard, is unreasoning rejection and the imputation of narrow-mindedness. I know when I am wrong, and have done wrong, Richard; do you? I know you will not read this; you have cut off any communication. But I will try my best to pray for you, Richard. Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Nephilim

In Genesis 6:2 it says, ". . . the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose." In 6:4 we are told "the Nephilim [giants] were on the earth in those days. . . the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown." This is from the New American Standard translation, perhaps the most literal of tranlations. Some of the older ones have "giants" instead of Nephilim. The root of the word means "fallen". Whether this is in the sense of fallen angels, or demons, or men who "fall" upon women, is debatable. The term "sons of God" seems generally to mean angelic beings. There are, as far as we are told, two classes of created beings: humans and angels. Demons are angels who rebelled against God. Demons seem to be able to take physical form and interact with humans; there are a number of instances in the Bible. The resulting offspring might well be giants, "mighty men . . . of renown".

Aside from Biblical references to Goliath and other giants, there have been numerous discoveries of giant burials: great skeletons measuring seven to twelve feet in height. They were often buried with armor and weapons of great size and weight. I believe these were descendants of demon-human interbreeding: nephilim. They originally possessed great intelligence and strength. The pantheons of "gods" refer to these nephilim. In other words, Zeus and Thor existed as actual beings. Any preternatural powers they might have possessed would have come from their demonic sires. Great intelligence, demonic knowledge, and great physical abilities would have been enough to dominate their world. Several epistles of the New Testament, Peter and Jude, indicate that God chained some of the fallen angels responsible in deep pits (i.e., Hell).

The fabulous creatures of myth, legend, and folklore (MLF), such as pegasus and centaurs, were actual beings created by demonic manipulation of genetic material. This, I think, is perhaps the main reason why God chose to wipe out most life on Earth. The Enemy perverts, but only God can create. "There were giants in the earth in those days . . ." Until the Flood. . . .

Monday, December 8, 2008

UFO's

Herewith a post I originally wrote in September but didn't publish. Perhaps my left brain doesn't know what my right brain is up to . . .

"UFO" stands for " unidentified flying object". As a fair percentage of these objects go into, come out of, or operate in water, the "U" could also stand for "underwater" (actually, "USO" is used--S for "submersible"). They have been reported by U.S. astronauts outside the atmosphere and even on the Moon. The existence of these objects, their display of advanced technology, and their reported flight characteristics would seem to place them outside of human manufacture. Their acceleration and maneuverability strongly imply a negation of inertia and control of gravity far outside our capability, let alone physical theory. They exist. There are some interesting hypotheses about what they are. Most people think they are intelligently guided, manufactured craft. A few believe them to be alive! That is, they are manifestations of unknown aerial life. Some fascinating work has been done on this hypothesis but is not relevant here.

If they are made and guided, who made them? At best, the military-industrial black operators (who undoubtedly exist) have only succeeded in "revese engineering" captured or crashed craft. If they are not products of extant technology, where do they come from? There are four answers: aliens, the future, the past, or parallel dimensions. The first and last possibilities place the phenomenon outside the Bible and God's creation. I do not believe in aliens--that is, I do not believe in intelligent non-terrestrial beings. The Bible only mentions two kinds of self-reflective created beings: humans and angels (including fallen angels). I think fallen angels, or demons, have confused the picture here. As for parallel dimensions, I cannot reconcile them with God's creation of the Universe. Why do we need more than one? God may create whatever He wishes, of course. . . . A third suggested origin is the future. This would involve us travelling back in time to observe and interact with our present selves. This has been suggested by Jacques Vallee, a French ufologist, among others. Putting aside problems of causality violations and paradoxes, time travel would seem to be a prerogative of the Lord. Since God is the author of time, He must stand outside of it. Only once did He violate His own nature. . . .

The last possibility is that these craft come from the past. I don't mean by time travel. I believe we are being observed by our own ancestors. These are the descendents of the civilization which flourished before the Flood, or Cataclysm, the world-altering event that happened circa 10,000 B.C. The ancient Dravidian scriptures, some of which may hand down information of a non-religious nature from before the flood, have numerous references to flying machines, called vimanas, including how to make, maintain, and operate them. There are also discussions of space flight, including father-son advice on the subjugation of the "three planets" (Mahabharata)! Atomic bombs and warfare; the effects of nuclear explosions; and the aftermath of nuclear attacks are discussed. Perhaps some of our pre-Flood ancestors survived off-planet. I do not wish to argue with "Genesis"--that only Noah and his family survived. My speculations are definitely extra-Biblical. If UFO's exist, though, this is one explanation.