What Is Wrong With This Picture?

     Call me naive, simply skeptical, or perhaps it is time to dust off my tin foil hat, but something doesn't seem right about this sudden and nearly hysterical reaction to the Zika virus.  Does anyone else wonder why this epidemic seemed to appear out of nowhere?  I mean, just a month ago, it was barely on the radar... and now the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the virus a "Global  Health Emergency", and the U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) is advising protected sex after a case of Zika in Texas was determined to have spread through sexual contact.
     Something just doesn't seem right ... like there is a hidden agenda (again) and we are being manipulated for some other purpose(s).  So, here are the issues that have me concerned:  First of all, there is a report that appeared on the Natural News website, which stated, "Now we may be seeing the first wave of the horrific destruction that can be unleashed by self-replicating genetically modified organisms. The Zika virus, now spreading with unbridled ferocity, appears to have been caused by the release of genetically engineered mosquitoes that scientists hoped would sharply reduce malaria infections."
     The report continues:  "The Zika virus outbreak currently gripping the Americas could have been sparked by the release of genetically modified mosquitoes in 2012," reports The Mirror. "The insects were engineered by biotechnology experts to combat the spread of dengue fever and other diseases and released into the general population of Brazil in 2012... The Aedes aegypti mosquito sub-species that carries both the Zika virus and dengue was the type targeted with genetically modified mosquitoes."  That would explain why the symptoms of the Zika virus are described as "resembling dengue fever".
     Needless to say, if this report is true, something went horribly wrong.  These GMO mosquitos were created by incompetent scientists and released by unconscionable biotech corporations, with no concern about the effects on the ecosystem or the human population.  And this leads to my second concern.  So-called experts are now linking the Zika virus outbreak to a condition called microcephaly, in which an infant’s skull is too small for his or her brain, often crushing or otherwise severely damaging the brain.  A high percentage of children with this condition suffer some sort of neurological disability or retardation, and most will suffer convulsions, and many children born with microcephaly die young.  Was there ever any consideration of the effects upon humans if bitten by one of these genetically modified mosquitos?
      So, what are the solutions?  Brazil, which has been particularly hard hit by the virus outbreak (more than 4,000 cases of infants born with microcephaly to mothers with Zika in their bloodstream in the past year, according to Breitbart.com) is now fumigating with pesticides in advance of Rio de Janeiro's upcoming Carnival season.  Since there is now suspicion that the virus is spread through sexual contact, and Carnival is always suspect for sexually transmitted diseases, the Zika virus is one more health concern that must be addressed, and it is being met with a vast chemical fog.
     But unprotected sex and pesticides are not my only concern about the rapid spread of this disease. The abortion industry is now taking advantage of the outbreak by pushing abortion as a solution to the problem of microcephalic births.  As Breitbart News reported January 29, Planned Parenthood has taken advantage of fears surrounding the Zika crisis in Brazil to promote the expansion of unrestricted abortion throughout Latin America. The abortion business has especially targeted those Latin American countries with restrictive abortion laws, such as El Salvador, in hopes of using the crisis to ease existing abortion legislation.  But Planned Parenthood is not the only one pushing this agenda.   Now Women on Waves, an organization which uses ships to offer safe abortion services outside the territorial waters of countries where the procedure is restricted or forbidden, has announced that they will begin serving areas affected by Zika.
     I am sorry, but my spirit is telling me that all this happened too fast, and seemed too coordinated.  Maybe I'm just a little too suspicious by nature.  But when the cause is a genetically engineered carrier and the acceptable solutions are spraying with chemicals or readily-available abortions, then something smells rotten to me!  All we need now is a new vaccine to come on the scene, and I will know for sure that it is all contrived for our destruction.  Please, God, show us Your truth!  The evil schemes of men are about to overwhelm us, and we need wisdom and the strength to endure!

Isaiah 30:1     "Woe to the rebellious children," declares the LORD, "Who execute a plan, but not Mine, and make an alliance, but not of My Spirit, in order to add sin to sin;"
   

A Threat To Mankind Of Its Own Making

   

     I found it rather amusing, yet chillingly scary, that Elon Musk and his tech giant buddies have pledged $1 billion to save humanity from destruction by artificial intelligence.  That's right, they just came right out and said it... they believe that there is a very real danger that human-level AI might one day decide that we are no longer necessary, and commit to destroy us.
     That may sound like the oft-repeated storyline of science fiction movies, but apparently they feel it is a real enough threat that they are sounding the alarm and hope to keep big companies like Google or Facebook — both of which have huge artificial intelligence operations — from getting too much power from “super-intelligence systems”.  Of course, there are the really fringe conspiracy theorists who worry that governments may also use the power of AI to oppress their citizens.
     So, that you get a clear picture of this situation, Elon Musk, who made his fortune from PayPal, is joining forces with other tech entrepreneurs to establish a $1 billion investment fund for researchers to pursue applications with a positive social impact and to try to stay one step ahead of the technology.  It is their fear that AI systems communicating among themselves could eventually control entire transport networks and national economies.  So, along with Indian tech giant Infosys and Amazon Web Services, he has set up OpenAI, a nonprofit company that will back research into novel uses of AI and share the findings.
     Their stated goal is to ensure that someone is looking at the pros and cons – free from the financial constraints of research and development departments at the likes of Google or IBM that have spent billions of dollars on research.  But I find it rather ironic that Elon Musk and his collaborators will share the data that their companies generate with the AI firms. That will mean, for instance, that everything on Reddit could be given to the robots to help them learn.  Musk will also hand over data from his projects, including Tesla’s self-driving cars and SpaceX’s rockets.
     So, am I missing something?  Why would you hand over mountains of data to fight a takeover by robots --- to other robot companies?  Doesn't that defeat your objective?  Why give them more technology information?  I mean, Stephen Hawking is on record for warning that we may face an “intelligence explosion”, as machines develop the ability to engineer themselves to be far more intelligent.
     Then there is Dr. Stuart Armstrong, of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University,  who has predicted a future where machines run by artificial intelligence become so indispensable in human lives they eventually make us redundant and take over.  And he says his alarming vision could happen as soon as the next few decades.
     Here is a pretty good analogy that Dr. Armstrong uses to get his point across:  "[For now] humans steer the future not because we're the strongest or the fastest, but because we're the smartest.  When machines become smarter than humans, we'll be handing them the steering wheel."  And because we think we're so smart, Armstrong envisages machines capable of harnessing such large amounts of computing power, and at speeds inconceivable to the human brain, that they will eventually create global networks with each other - communicating without human interference.
     In other words, machines, computers, and robots now carry out specific tasks designed for them by humans.  But when they can operate without human interference, and at speeds that we cannot fathom or understand, then that is when they will be able to take over those entire transport systems and national economies that were mentioned previously, along with financial markets, healthcare systems and product distribution.  It won't just be that they will eliminate our jobs.  They might quite possibly decide to eliminate us!
      Dr. Armstrong warns that the seemingly benign instruction to an AI to "prevent human suffering", could logically be interpreted by a super computer as "kill all humans", thereby ending suffering all together.  Furthermore, an instruction such as "keep humans safe and happy", could be translated by the remorseless digital logic of a machine as "entomb everyone in concrete coffins on heroin drips".
     An even scarier scenario is that as we develop these super computers, it will be impossible to determine whether a machine is developing in a benign or deadly direction.  Just think of the movie franchise Terminator.  And if you think it is as simple as writing a moral code by which machines could operate, just stop for a second and think about that.  The human race has debated for centuries on what constitutes acceptable moral boundaries, and we haven't agreed yet.  What makes us think that we can come up with a universally accepted set of instructions by which all machines will operate?  We can't even decide what is right and wrong!
     So while the Elite and the scientists and the technology giants debate the pros and cons of advancing the interaction between artificial intelligence and human beings, we are inching towards what all the writers of fiction that was based on imagined future scientific or technological advances have portrayed ... the cataclysmic moment when the human race is faced with its own distinction at the hands of the very devices we have created.  That's what happens when you become your own god and forget that you, too, have been made to serve a Creator.  Conspiracy or not; fiction or not --- it is real enough that the Elite of the world are willing to give up a portion of their fortunes to stop it. That should tell you something.

Isaiah 47:10    You were secure in your wickedness; you said, ‘No one sees me.’ Your wisdom and knowledge led you astray. You said to yourself, ‘I exist, and there is no one else.’

   

The Apocalypse 101

     Oftentimes, readers of this blog will contact me with issues they feel are important to address.  Such is the case with this post.  A reader’s 16-year-old daughter informed her mother that this was the new course she was taking.  What are your thoughts?  Here are mine:  

     What do you think of when you hear the word “Apocalypse”?  If you’re a Bible-believing Christian, you’re likely to define the word as the complete and final destruction of the world, especially as described in the Book of Revelation.  If you’re of a secular nature, then the word most likely indicates an event involving destruction or damage on an awesome or catastrophic scale.  And if you’re a member of the Millennial Generation then you probably go straight to Zombies.  So, it should come as no surprise that colleges are now offering various courses such as Social Work 290: Surviving the Coming Zombie Apocalypse — Disasters, Catastrophes, and Human Behavior.
     This course is the brainchild of Glenn Stutzky, a Senior Clinical Instructor of Social Work at Michigan State University.  While he was devising his course on disaster management and human behaviors in catastrophes, Stutzky’s college-age grandson had a piece of advice for him…. “Just don’t be boring.”

     Now, it is only natural that if you’re a professor seeking to teach students how to respond in disasters and catastrophes, that you might turn to the Center for Disease Control’s website to see what information they might have to support your course.  “There, looking back at me was a girl behind some blinds — she was a zombie,” he says.  And that’s when his creative juices started flowing.
     He and his creative team developed a new approach to online education they’re calling MOLIE. It stands for a Multimedia Online Learning Immersive Experience, and while it appears to be doing wonders for student involvement, it is leaving me unsettled.
     I applaud the instructor’s creative way of teaching his students to explore how society reacts in the midst of devastating circumstances.  And I love the idea of using video and interactive technology to gather information for their research.  And, yes, Stutzky has developed an innovative approach to get his students to work together in specific “real-life” scenarios; by engaging them in the video scenario they discover how they would react.  Some of the information they are provided is encoded. Some of it is garbled and incomplete. But through making decisions, exploring their environment, and solving puzzles, they are supposed to gradually learn more about the unfolding catastrophe and realize that they often have very different responses to it.  All that sounds good, right?
     But here is what concerns me about the material in the course.  Imagine you are a student, and there is the information you are presented …. In the Michigan woods, a group of students finds a bloody, unconscious young woman. They go through her backpack and discover a two-way radio but stay well away from her body.  Her arm is wounded and looks badly infected. Maybe she fell and cut herself. Or maybe she’s been bitten. After some debate they decide to tie her to a tree. They want to know if she has information, but some fear she could be carrying a deadly virus.  Most groups restrained her until she regained her health. But fearing her reanimation as a zombie, one group decided to decapitate her.
     Does that shock you?  It did Glenn Stutzky because he and his team had been sure to include personal items in the girl's backpack to humanize her. In another incident, the team was surprised when groups refused to help a man pounding desperately on the door of their hideout asking for help. “About half the groups didn’t let the person in."
    I realize that Zombies have been the craze for several years now, along with vampires and wizards.  But, at the risk of sounding out of touch, is this really good for our kids?  I am not a supporter of the whole video game industry, due to the violence and dehumanization that it renders in our kids.  This college course seems to mimic that response.  And is it blurring the line of the true significance of the word “Apocalypse”?  Are we diminishing the seriousness of the subject? What is it that these students are really learning from courses such as this?

     Yes, American's fears of the Ebola virus and the ISIS terror group are similar to those of a zombie apocalypse, but in Social Work 290, Stutzky is learning that those fears could be just as dangerous as the threats themselves.  “With Ebola and ISIS, they represent fears of the unknown and evil,” Stutzky told Business Insider. “It feels like we’re moving into apocalyptic times.”
     But are they going far enough with what "apocalyptic times" really means?  While doing a little research on apocalyptic literature, I expected to find references to such Biblical books as Revelation, Daniel, Isaiah and Ezekiel, and their use of symbols, images, and numbers to depict future events.
     But I also found it interesting that apocalyptic literature is described as writing to disguise the message in images and symbolism, rather than to give the message in plain language.  Further, the symbolism is created to provide an element of mystery about the details of time and place of the future event.
     So, maybe it’s just my conspiratorial mind, but doesn’t this information make you stop and wonder why there has been such an excess of zombie apocalypse movies, TV shows, video games, and books – all generated to capture the fascinated attention of our kids?  And now we have high school and college courses to make it seem even more relevant!
     If this whole genre is being created under the apocalyptic theme to “disguise the message” and to keep the future time and place a mystery, should we be reading between the lines?  What are they really trying to tell us?  And even more importantly, how are our kids being conditioned for such a future?
     In the Bible, the purpose of such symbolism was not to cause confusion, but rather to instruct and encourage followers of God in difficult times.  But we all know that our students are not given that piece of the puzzle as part of their problem-solving equipment.  They are not taught that The Apocalypse will be the ultimate revealing of God, His wrath, His justice, and, ultimately, His love.  Instead, they appear to be part of a study collecting information on how humans will treat each other .
     Does it creep anyone else out, that the Instructor for a college class on Human Behavior during Disasters and Catastrophes would make the following statement:  “We know the science, we know how to [treat Ebola], but my biggest fear is managing the reactions, managing the people, and managing the consequences which will come out of that,” he said.
     Am I reading too much into it, or is “managing” the operative word in that statement?  The Bible tells us that there will be massive pestilence and death during the apocalyptic End Times.  And we certainly get that message in the proliferation of zombie “entertainment”.  But don’t we have to ask ourselves where is the message of encouragement and reliance on God in any of these “instructive” endeavors?  And does anyone else find the use of the Zombie theme at the Center for Disease Control just a little disturbing?  I mean, they are supposed to be the leading national public health institute of the United States.  And this is what they choose to represent them?  Seems to me, that the hidden message is that evil will abound and death will reign…. so the only question is, how soon before fiction becomes reality?  Maybe they know something we don’t.

Psalm 78:50   He leveled a path for His anger; He did not spare their soul from death, But gave over their life to the plague...

Are We On The Verge of "The Robocalypse"?

     You can file this post under "Bizarre" and "Creepy".  I have made no secret of my trepidation of what I will term "The Robotic Age".  I fear that our venture into blending humans and robot intelligence could bring us to the edge of an apocalyptic existence we are not prepared for.  Not only does my Biblical worldview tell me this is not something that God would approve, but my common sense says there is nothing good that come of giving artificial intelligence (AI) any form of authority over man.
     And I'm not alone ... The AllNewsPipeline website recently featured an article in which they quoted renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, who has said that AI could "spell the end of the human race," as robots overtake human intelligence within 100 years.  In October 2014, Tesla Motor's CEO and product architect, Elon Musk called AI technology the "biggest existential threat," and likened it to "summoning the demon."  This past weekend Musk took to Instagram and posted a picture of a production line comprised of 542 robots, with 15 operating at the same time, with the ominous statement "And people wonder why I’m worried about the robocalypse."
     And in case you need further convincing that this is a treacherous path we're on, consider this:  In 2011, an AI robot named Phillip was interviewed for the PBS show Nova, and when asked if he thought robots would take over the world, his reply will send chills down your spine as he states, with a smile, "don’t worry, even if I evolve into terminator I will still be nice to you, I will keep you warm and safe in my people zoo where I can watch you for old time’s sake."

    That's reassuring, isn't it?  But here's the reality:  world leaders, including military commanders, are relying on scientists to develop technology and weapons that will increase man's chances of survival and societal advancement in the 21st Century.  But what happens to mankind when those leaders refuse to listen to these same scientists, who are warning that this can all get out of control?  Are we truly headed for what Mr. Musk cleverly calls "the robocalyse"?
     In case you think this is all just my Biblical worldview that sees Satan behind every corner and anything technological, I would like to inform you that over a thousand scientists, researchers, robotic researchers, and world renowned genius minds have signed an open letter to warn of the dangers of Artificial Intelligence (AI) applied wrongly.  Here is a copy of their letter which was announced July 28 at the opening of the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) 2015 conference, and was titled "Autonomous Weapons: an Open Letter from AI & Robotics Researchers".

Autonomous weapons select and engage targets without human intervention. They might include, for example, armed quadcopters that can search for and eliminate people meeting certain pre-defined criteria, but do not include cruise missiles or remotely piloted drones for which humans make all targeting decisions. Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology has reached a point where the deployment of such systems is — practically if not legally — feasible within years, not decades, and the stakes are high: autonomous weapons have been described as the third revolution in warfare, after gunpowder and nuclear arms.

Many arguments have been made for and against autonomous weapons, for example that replacing human soldiers by machines is good by reducing casualties for the owner but bad by thereby lowering the threshold for going to battle. The key question for humanity today is whether to start a global AI arms race or to prevent it from starting. If any major military power pushes ahead with AI weapon development, a global arms race is virtually inevitable, and the endpoint of this technological trajectory is obvious: autonomous weapons will become the Kalashnikovs of tomorrow. Unlike nuclear weapons, they require no costly or hard-to-obtain raw materials, so they will become ubiquitous and cheap for all significant military powers to mass-produce. It will only be a matter of time until they appear on the black market and in the hands of terrorists, dictators wishing to better control their populace, warlords wishing to perpetrate ethnic cleansing, etc. Autonomous weapons are ideal for tasks such as assassinations, destabilizing nations, subduing populations and selectively killing a particular ethnic group. We therefore believe that a military AI arms race would not be beneficial for humanity. There are many ways in which AI can make battlefields safer for humans, especially civilians, without creating new tools for killing people.

Just as most chemists and biologists have no interest in building chemical or biological weapons, most AI researchers have no interest in building AI weapons — and do not want others to tarnish their field by doing so, potentially creating a major public backlash against AI that curtails its future societal benefits. Indeed, chemists and biologists have broadly supported international agreements that have successfully prohibited chemical and biological weapons, just as most physicists supported the treaties banning space-based nuclear weapons and blinding laser weapons.


In summary, we believe that AI has great potential to benefit humanity in many ways, and that the goal of the field should be to do so. Starting a military AI arms race is a bad idea, and should be prevented by a ban on offensive autonomous weapons beyond meaningful human control.

     When you scan the list of the signatories and the 16,807 other endorsers, it is quite sobering.  Scientists from around the world, as well as leaders in Business and Education have all taken the position that we might want to slow down... that we are treading in dangerous waters, so to speak.  These people are obviously worried about the proliferation of war and war weaponry by AI.  But who is to say that they won't also be used to make health care decisions, or any other number of determinations that effect our human existence?
     I think it's time we listened to those who have the most knowledge about the dangers we might be creating.  And speaking of creation, will they revere and follow the commands of their creator as we do our Creator?  Or like Phillip, that creepy android invention, will they smile and swear to keep us "warm and safe in their people zoo?"  I might laugh at the absurdity of that confession ... if I wasn't so convinced that this is a very real possibility.  Heaven help us!



Acts 14:15    "Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them."

More Warnings: Implantable Biochips

     I can't help it.  I just instinctively recoil when I hear about another deal made between pharmaceutical corporations and biotechnology companies.  Add in the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and I am instantly suspicious.  So was Rob Matheson at TechSwarm, who reported that an implantable, microchip-based device may soon replace the injections and pills now needed to treat chronic diseases.

     According to Matheson, a company called Microchips Biotech partnered with Teva Pharmaceuticals, the world’s largest producer of generic drugs, to develop and commercialize its wirelessly controlled, implantable, microchip-based devices that store and release drugs inside the body over many years.  The microchips consist of hundreds of pinhead-sized reservoirs, each capped with a metal membrane, that store tiny doses of therapeutics or chemicals. An electric current delivered by the device removes the membrane, releasing a single dose. The device can be programmed wirelessly to release individual doses for up to 16 years to treat, for example, diabetes, cancer, multiple sclerosis, and osteoporosis. Sounds good, right?
     I will admit that medical technology has seen great advancements in recent years; and who can deny how great it would be to help eradicate and control all the above-mentioned diseases, or how much the industry has done to help our wounded veterans returning from war?  But when I listen to some of the philosophies of the inventors, and who they are willing to get into bed with ... well, frankly, it sends chills up my spine.
     All you have to do is read about the history, and listen to some of the comments made by Microchips Biotech cofounders Michael Cima and Robert Langer.  (The emphasis in italics is mine). Inspiration for the microchips came in the late 1990s, when Langer watched a documentary on mass-producing microchips. “I thought to myself, ‘Wouldn’t this be a great way to make a drug-delivery system?’” Langer says.  He then brought the idea to Cima, a chip-making expert who was taken aback by its novelty. “But being out-of-this-world is not something that needs to stop anybody...” Cima adds. “In fact, that should be the criterion.”  Follow that up with this revelation:  Together with graduate student John Santini PhD, they invented a dime-sized prototype which contained only 34 reservoirs, each controlled by an individual wire connected to an external power source. At the time, they considered a broad range of practical, and somewhat fantastical, applications beyond drug delivery, including disease diagnostics and jewelry that could emit scents. “We were trying to find the killer application. We thought, ‘I have a hammer, what’s the right nail to hit?’” Cima says.
     Now, I know that less critical people would see nothing remarkable about their statements... just a couple of science geeks thinking outside the scope of normal applications.  And maybe my spiritual discernment is super-charged, but when these microchip geniuses note that at about this time their invention captured the imagination and interest of the Gates Foundation, then the story takes on another dimension.
     It was after the results of their first human trials were published in 2012, that Bill Gates took notice.  Their microchips were implanted into seven elderly women, delivering teriparatide to strengthen bones. Results indicated that the chips delivered doses comparable to injections — and did so more consistently — with no adverse side effects.  So, wouldn't you know it -- Bill Gates quickly sees how the microchip technology could be used in his ongoing campaign to control population growth.  Because, don't you know, there is apparently a huge problem in the world of medication-prescription adherence -- and it is a surprisingly costly issue in the United States. A 2012 report published in the Annals of Internal Medicine estimated that Americans who don’t stick to prescriptions rack up $100 billion to $289 billion annually in unnecessary health care costs from additional hospital visits and other issues. Failure to follow prescriptions, the study also found, causes around 125,000 deaths annually and up to 10 percent of all hospitalizations... not to mention an exponential growth in the number of babies born to women who don't follow any form of birth control.
     Do you see how that line of thinking would appeal to Bill Gates, who perceives a huge problem in the world's population explosion?  (Remember his oft-quoted statement at the Technology, Entertainment, and Design (TED) Conference ... "if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we could lower [global population] by perhaps 10 or 15 percent.")  Imagine if you could implant women in third world countries with contraceptive-delivery microchips that controlled conception for 16 years.  Think you might be able to lower global population numbers?  Infertility would be a convenient "fix" for the world's overpopulation issue.
     Of course, I know I am only looking at this from a potentially harmful aspect.  But like I said at the beginning ... I can't help it.  The mad scientists and technology engineers of the world have openly declared that they want to create "the singularity":  the imminent creation by technology of entities with greater than human intelligence.  By merging our human bodies with computer microchips, we are taking one more step in that direction.  And, ultimately, that means we lose control of the human experience; and perhaps, even of human life.
     It's not hard to see that technology invented by Microchips Biotech could be used to control population growth; or decide who receives life-saving drugs; or even who is determined to be worthy of life, itself.  Can you see that individual choice will be eliminated?  Once that microchip is implanted, its wireless technology component will allow someone else to dispense -- or not -- your medicine.  Personally, I know in my spirit, that I am made in the image of God, and He gave me a brain to make my own choices about how I will treat this body; this temple of the Holy Spirit.  I do not want this flesh to be corrupted; to turn over the control of it to a piece of computer equipment that is under the jurisdiction of godless men.  I want to leave this world as I came into it ... fearfully and wonderfully made.

Psalm 139:13-14   "For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well."

What Has Been Will Be Again

     Wow!  Has the world gone mad, or what?  I am totally blown away by some of the things I have read and heard in the last 24 hours.  To begin with, I read a fascinating article by Benjamin Soloway on the ForeignPolicy.com website.  First of all, the title is enough to make you want to hide under the covers ... "You Don't Have to Watch 'Jurassic World' To See Bioengineered Animal Weapons."
     Mr. Soloway, in a compelling and informative article, relates how -- once again -- Hollywood forecasts what is going on behind the scenes of the real world.  In the fourth installment of the Jurassic Park series of films, we see how far the storyline has progressed.  (Don't worry, I'm not going to give away all the details of the plot).

Jurassic World's hybrid dinosaur, D-Rex

     In the first movie, scientists bring dinosaurs back to life by filling in the gaps in recovered dinosaur DNA with genetic material from frogs. But in Jurassic World, scientists take these experiments a step further, when they realize they can create dinosaurs more to their liking through genetic manipulation — and that the newly engineered dinosaurs might be put to use by the military-industrial complex.  It's always about the money, isn't it?
     No one is making the assertion that scientists are about to figure out a way to bring the dinosaurs back; at least not yet.  But Soloway points out the film is not far off in its assumptions about the militarization of genetic science.  Are you willing to consider that the United States’ military is already experimenting with genetically engineered animals for war?  Why not?
     In her 2013 book, titled Frankenstein’s Cat: Cuddling Up to Biotech’s Brave New Beasts, author Emily Anthes related that in 2006, DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) asked scientists “to develop technology to create insect-cyborgs” capable of carrying surveillance equipment or weapons.  (That has been documented by current "insect drones").  In the past decade, the agency has encouraged and funded research into methods that can let humans control insects and mammals through electronic impulses to the brain, and through genetic modifications to the nervous systems of insects to make them easier to manipulate.  Why is it so outlandish to consider the possibility that animals could be genetically modified to do the military's bidding?  Makes you think differently about the rider of the Pale Horse and the Fourth Seal in the Book of Revelation, doesn't it?   They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.  Could this prophecy be describing a military power using conventional weapons, biological weapons, and genetically-engineered "beasts" as weapons?  It's enough to give me pause.
     Now, switch gears with me and consider an odd little segment on Fox News, in which psychiatrist Dr. Keith Ablow was commenting on the ongoing controversy regarding Rachel Dolezal's self-identificaton as a black woman.  Dr. Ablow warned that we are entering dangerous territory when we allow people to identify with whatever they "feel" closely associated with, instead of using their genetic and biological identities.  We have to ask the question, "How far is society willing to go?"  Dr. Ablow pointed out that the culture has quickly embraced "transgender", thanks to Bruce Jenner; and now with the uproar over the Dolezal affair, "transracial" has entered the public conversation.  What's next -- "transpecies"?  I'm paraphrasing here, but he actually suggested that someone could identify with an animal, and in this moment's cultural climate, it would be acceptable to genetically modify that person in order to produce a tail!
     I almost fell off my chair when he presented that possibility!  How many of us Christians have been ridiculed for believing that the Bible reveals the existence of hybrids through genetic manipulation?  How many times have we been scorned for suggesting that the cave drawings and reliefs and statues at ancient historical sites were actually depictions of real creatures, and not just some mythological fable?
     What concerns me most is that all these conversations are lacking an important element ... God!!!  Frankly, I am tired of hearing all the commentators and their "politically correct" assessment of these troubled people.  I'm waiting for one ... just one! ... person to stand up and ask, "But what do you think God, their Creator, thinks of their confused identity?"  And I think that is the crux of the situation ... they have been "confused" by Satan, whom Jesus called "the prince of this world".  And how have they become so easily fooled and deluded?  It is exactly for the reasons that Jesus tell us ... "because they cannot bear to hear My word."  And because our culture has rejected God, they desire all the things that the devil is whispering in their ears.  The sad thing is that the devil has nothing to do with the truth.  They are simply adopting his nature, which is a lie ... and that fits right in with their mistaken identities.  It's all a lie.  And it's all been done before.  Too bad they won't hear the Word and know how God dealt with the corrupted DNA in the past, and how He plans on dispensing His judgment this time!

Ecclesiastes 3:15   "Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account."
   

Scientists and Sin: What They Don't Understand

   

     In light of yesterday's post, I just want to point out the obvious.  Now that the futurists and scientists are gleefully clapping their hands over the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a powerful possibility for the human race, they are contemplating a new reality and philosophical question ... what if AI decides to turn on its creators; and can it be pre-programmed to make moral and ethical decisions?  Will it be responsible for its actions?
     Hmmm, don't those considerations sound, well, distinctly "human"?  Is the Intelligentsia unknowingly coming into conflict with what we Christians innately know as flaws in our human nature ... Sin?  Could it be that even if they are able to create a "being" that is as much computer as it is human, they cannot escape the inevitable sins that serve to endanger the existence of not only the created robots, but their human creators, as well?
     Secularists and Scientists and Skeptics, through medicine and philosophy, have tried to cure humanity of the pesky reality called "sin" for several generations now.  Moral relativism and Atheism have done their best to convince society that God is unnecessary, and we are capable of managing ourselves and plotting our own future.  Just in the last 100 years, we have had two World Wars, countless regional conflicts, and at least 7 attempted genocides resulting in nearly 18,000,000 deaths  (Armenians in Turkey; Stalin's forced famine; the Japanese atrocities at Nanking; the Nazi Holocaust; Pol Pot in Cambodia; Rwanda; and Bosnia-Herzegovina) ... so how has that worked for us?  Do they really think if they create drones that can decide for themselves when to pull the trigger, that it will result in a better outcome?  Or that they can avoid that annoying certainty called "death" by developing ways to isolate our brains from our decaying bodies?  If they only knew how disdainfully their Creator looks upon their schemes.
     There is no better description of the vanity of man and the depravity of human nature, than that described by David in the Bible:  The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one. Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon the Lord?  (Psalm 1-4).
     Yet, it is amazing to me how safe and secure these small "c" creators feel in their godless world.  They do not see their wickedness, their folly, or the danger they are in.  They are what the Bible calls "workers of iniquity".  As the noted theologian Matthew Henry describes them:  "they design it, they practice it, and take as much pleasure in it as ever any man did in his business."  They refuse to acknowledge the role God plays in His Universe, and their view of themselves as superior in the knowledge of what the future holds, only serves to showcase their blind and selfish motivations, as well as their utter foolishness. They mock God and they have no idea of the eternal danger in which they have placed their souls.
     But wait ... they aren't interested in "souls", are they?  After all, they are trying to redesign human existence and remove the "spirit" component from the human mind/body/spirit bond, which was made in God's image.  Yet, they will one day learn that those who refuse to fear God will reap the rewards of their folly.  They, who refused to admit His existence; who saw themselves above His Righteous Judgment and Sovereignty, and felt capable of creating their own eternity, will stand in awe and abject terror at what their pride has cost them.  Oh, they will experience eternity, alright -- it just won't be where, or when, or how they convinced themselves it would be.

Proverbs 17:24    "The discerning sets his face toward wisdom, but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth."

     

How Close Are We To A Post-Human World?

     That is a question that Sir Martin Rees, the British Astronomer Royal attempts to answer in his astute article in The Telegraph.  Before giving you some of his insightful theories on this subject, I must admit that, as a Christian, I believe some of his prognostications will never materialize, because God will not allow His creation to become so violated.  That being said, I absolutely believe that what Sir Martin predicts will be attempted by those who think they can out-maneuver God.  Therefore, it is important for us to be able to recognize the machinations of such "geniuses".
     Much of what Rees reveals is what we've been hearing for awhile ... due to the overcrowding and over heating of the earth, technology will become an important part of our "survival", and it will have profound ramifications on humankind; most importantly, in the sphere of agriculture, biotech, and robotics.  Because our ecology is threatened, and our "footprint" is too big, scientists and futurists tell us that something must be done to save the planet.  So, it all comes down to this realization: We can now control the weather, the development of viruses, and robotic systems; all of which have the potential to affect how -- and if -- we live.
     Perhaps one of the most chilling statements that Sir Martin made was this:  "And there are downsides to the huge advances in biotech, despite the bright prospects these offer for medicine and agriculture. There were reports last month that Chinese researchers had been gene-editing human embryos using a new technique called CRISPR, raising controversial ethical issues about “designer babies”. But more disquieting are the experiments at the University of Wisconsin and in the Netherlands that show it’s surprisingly easy to make an influenza virus more virulent and transmissible. Last October, the US federal government decided to cease funding these so-called “gain of function” experiments."
     Rees pointed out that such "experiments" are hotly debated among his colleagues, with some wanting to stay one step ahead of natural mutations, while others are concerned about the danger and the risks associated with such scary science.  "What would happen, for instance, if an ebola virus were modified to be transmissible through the air? And they worried that the risk of failure to contain the pathogens within the lab is too high to justify the knowledge gained."  I'm glad someone is being clear-sighted!
     But I found it especially frightening when he discussed the dangers that will come from millions of people having the capability to misuse biotech, and who might have access to biomedical labs, just as millions can misuse cybertech today.  "Not all those with “bio” expertise will be balanced and rational. My worst nightmare is an “eco-fanatic”, empowered by the biohacking expertise that may be routine by 2050 [when 2 billion people will occupy the planet], and who thinks that “Gaia” can only be saved if the human population is reduced. The global village will have its village idiots, and they will have global range."
     Sir Martin also joins the chorus of voices such as physicist Stephen Hawking and Tesla Motors CEO and product architect, Elon Musk, who all warn of the dangers of the rapid ascent of artificial intelligence (AI).  "We’re witnessing a momentous speed-up in artificial intelligence (AI) – in the power of machines to learn, communicate and interact with us. Computers don’t learn like we do: they use “brute force” methods... Experts disagree on how long it will take before machines achieve general-purpose human level intelligence. Some say 25 years. Others say “never”. The median guess in a recent survey was about 50 years... And there is disagreement about the route towards human-level intelligence. Some think we should emulate nature and reverse-engineer the human brain. Others say that’s a misguided approach – like designing a flying machine by copying how birds flap their wings. But it’s clear that once a threshold is crossed, there will be an intelligence explosion."
     All these summations bring the question of ethics and responsibility to the forefront.  But when has that ever stopped mankind's sinful nature?  From the Garden of Eden, to Nimrod's Tower of Babel, to the Third Reich's "experiments", to Ray Kurzweil's plans to transcend biology by merging our brains with computers -- the purpose of all these evil designs is to assume the role of God in our own lives.  Is it in our future "to lose our individuality and evolve into a common consciousness" with computers and robots; in essence, to spiritually "go over to the other side"?
     What I found so compelling about Sir Martin's discourse is that he is the Astronomer Royal, the head of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich (a position in existence since 1675) and the official scientific advisor to the British government -- and, I could go into all the conspiratorial implications that this suggests, but that is a different topic for a different day.  Nevertheless, sometimes it is best to listen to what those in prestigious positions have to say; and he appears to be warning us to pay attention and be on the alert for what is going to be inevitable in our near future.
     As the chief expert on the stars and the heavens, so to speak, Rees has a particular viewpoint that I think we should heed.  In the matter of human/computer integration, listen to what he says:  "Let me briefly deploy an astronomical perspective and speculate about the really far future – the post-human era. There are chemical and metabolic limits to the size and processing power of organic brains. Maybe humans are close to these limits already. But there are no such constraints on silicon-based computers (still less, perhaps, quantum computers): for these, the potential for further development could be as dramatic as the evolution from monocellular organisms to humans. So, by any definition of “thinking”, the amount and intensity that’s done by organic human-type brains will, in the far future, be utterly swamped by the cerebrations of AI. Moreover, the Earth’s biosphere in which organic life has symbiotically evolved is not a constraint for advanced AI. Indeed, it is far from optimal – interplanetary and interstellar space will be the preferred arena where robotic fabricators will have the grandest scope for construction, and where non-biological “brains” may develop insights as far beyond our imaginings as string theory is for a mouse... So, in the far future, it won’t be the minds of humans, but those of machines, that will most fully understand the cosmos – and it will be the actions of autonomous machines that will most drastically change our world, and perhaps what lies beyond."  Does anyone else think that this is simply Satan's 21st century plan to recreate the Tower of Babel and help man gain access to the Heavenly realm and God's throne room?
     Can you see how far our human pride has taken us?  Do you really think God is going to let man -- whom He created -- usurp His creation of the Universe?  And if we are really that close to crossing the line into altering the organic make-up (the God-formed structure) of our brains, how long before God decides we've gone far enough, and it's time to pull the plug?  We know that God allows all things for His Glory.  Because of the speed with which these technological events are happening -- and the determination that their "creators" are exhibiting -- His Glory is soon going to fill the earth!  I can hardly wait!!

Isaiah 44: 9, 20:    All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit. Their witnesses neither see nor know, that they may be put to shame... a deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?”
   

Is Typhoid The New Ebola?

     A new study, which appeared in Nature Genetics, reports that an antibiotic-resistant strain of typhoid has begun to spread throughout eastern and southern Africa.  This report is fueling fear that typhoid may be quickly reaching epidemic levels.  The new strain, called H58, is a symptomatic bacterial infection, exasperated by unsanitary food and water.

     Typhoid fever affects between 20 million and 30 million people around the globe each year, and symptoms include a high, sustained fever, weakness, stomach pains, headache and loss of appetite.  As many as 20% of patients can die from the disease.  The evolving consensus from medical officials is that the unprecedented wave of cases (leading to their theory of a possible epidemic) is due to the lack of vaccinations for typhoid.  Vanessa Wong, a microbiologist at the University of Cambridge in England is quoted as saying,  "Instead, antibiotics are commonly used as a preventive measure. As a consequence, there is a rise in antibiotic resistance to many pathogens and in particular a resurgence of multidrug-resistant typhoid has been observed in some areas, including parts of Africa."
     While Typhoid fever is not as life-threatening as Ebola, one has to be concerned about the push for vaccinations.  True, we have heard the horrific historical stories of typhoid deaths -- in 430 BC, it is speculated that typhoid was the cause for the deaths of one-third of the population of Athens, Greece. Some historians believe the English colony of Jamestown, Virginia, died out from typhoid. Typhoid fever killed more than 6000 settlers between 1607 and 1624.  During the American Civil War, 81,360 Union soldiers died of typhoid or dysentery; and the Spanish-American War exposed our military to typhoid fever overseas.  I am in no way diminishing the dangers or effects of typhoid, but I am always skeptical when a disease is quickly labeled as an "epidemic", followed by a rush to vaccinate.
     As I researched this latest outbreak of typhoid, I was mildly surprised to see that similar "epidemic" headlines were posted in 2010 and 2012.  Yet, do you recall hearing any major alarms?  And each of the current reports all read the same ... " uncovered evidence of an unreported recent wave of transmission of H58 in sub-Saharan Africa".  Nothing more, nothing less.  Forgive me ... but if officials were truly convinced that we were facing a "plague" of typhoid, wouldn't we be seeing more panic and real faces on the news?
     I can't help but recall this exposé by A. True Ott, PhD, ND (Naturopathic Doctor).  In the article, Dr. Ott told the story of a Watchdog Group in Kansas City, Missouri who successfully brought suit against the Missouri Chapter of John D. Rockefeller's fledgling American Medical Assoication (AMA).  The Jackson Medical Society was specifically named in the suit.  A portion of the article reads as follows:
     "In the Fall of 1921, the health of the city was unusually good, but slow for the doctors. So the Jackson Medical Society met and resolved to make an epidemic in the city. According to the minutes of this meeting: 'MOTION WAS MADE AND SECONDED, THAT A RECOMMENDATION BE MADE BY THE COMMITTEE, TO THE BOARD OF HEALTH, THAT AN EPIDEMIC OF SMALLPOX BE DECLARED IN THE CITY. (Investigation later revealed that there was NO SIGN OF AN EPIDEMIC at the time, in the city, or anywhere in the state or region!)
     'It was moved and seconded that a day be set aside, termed VACCINATION DAY, on which physicians would be stationed at ALL SCHOOLS, clinics, public buildings and hospitals to vaccinate "free of charge". (Vaccinations are never "free". The taxpayers are always forced to pay for every one of the "free" vaccines.)
     "IT IS FURTHER RECOMMENDED THAT WIDE PUBLICITY BE GIVEN, STATING THAT VACCINATION IS A PREVENTIVE OF SMALLPOX, AND URGING THE ABSOLUTE NECESSITY OF VACCINATION FOR EVERY MAN, WOMAN, AND CHILD IN THE CITY."
     The Protective Bureau proved in court that there WAS NO EPIDEMIC before the vaccinations!! The court records show that the Medical Society manufactured vast amounts of posters, fliers, newspaper stories and ads featuring horrific and lurid pictures of diseased children covered with massive smallpox sores and open wounds. Some pictures actually showed children's corpses covered with the same ugly sores. The PANIC-DRIVEN message was clear --- VACCINATE EVERYONE, or face a deadly public disease. There was a "sweeping epidemic" in the city; the disease was "highly contagious" and would "strike anyone who was not vaccinated" was the bill of goods sold! (Does this sound at all familiar today ­94 years later??)
     I know that some people will just label this kind of exposure as conspiratorial.  They are simply unable to conceive that humankind could exploit each other in such a way.  But we must never forget that when money is involved, and the Elite feel threatened, nothing is too inexcusable.
     Doesn't it make you want to take a closer look at the increase in cases of polio from the polio vaccinations? Or the global outbreak of HIV and AIDS?  And what about the soldiers who developed "Gulf War Syndrome" after being injected with an experimental vaccine.  Now we face "designer viruses", and "duplex vaccines" are the answer!
     I didn't mean to get on my soapbox and go so far down the rabbit hole.  But history has shown me that we need to be cautious when buying into warnings on the latest "epidemic".  Will typhoid fever prove to be a real health hazard -- or is it just another orchestrated disease to be used by the powerful and wealthy for social engineering.  You can never be too careful....

IF you would like to read more about Dr. Ott's postulation, and review the evidence for his article, please click here.

Exodus 23:25    "You shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from among you."

The Mark of the Beast Is Closer Than We Think

     I know that there are those out there in the blogosphere who reject the idea that technology is bad for us.  They will point to the added convenience and "instant" communication aspects of all of our technological gadgets.  And I realize that I will be called a dinosaur and "out of touch" for not embracing every new app or innovation that comes down the pike.
     I may not be the most savvy techie or eager to be the first in my crowd to own the latest version of anything that begins with an "i", but there's a very good reason.  You see, I can tell where this is all headed, and it's a place I don't want to go.  And you don't even have to be a "conspiracy nut" to get a pretty good picture of what our future holds.
     Great Britain's The Telegraph recently printed a news story by Sophie Curtis about the direction that PayPal wants to take us.  Ever heard of "Natural Body Identification"?  Apparently, it is "a new generation of embeddable, injectable and ingestible devices that could replace passwords as a means of identification."  If you believe the tech giants, there is a massive problem of compromised passwords; with naive and unsophisticated tech users still employing easily hacked passwords such as "123456", or "letmein".
   

Slide taken from Jonathan LeBlanc's presentation, "Kill All Passwords"

     But Paypal's global head of developer evangelism (that's rather strange terminology, don't you think?), Jonathan LeBlanc, thinks monitoring internal body functions like heartbeat, glucose levels and vein recognition can eliminate the need for people to come up with the perfect unhackable password.  It's just the way he wants to do it, that has me creeped out.
     He wants to consider developing devices such as brain implants, wafer-thin silicon chips that can be embedded into the skin, and ingestible devices with batteries that are powered by stomach acid.  Now, he's quick to point out that by talking about new biometric verification technologies, PayPal is not necessarily signaling that it’s thinking about adopting them.  Rather, it hopes to position itself as a "thought leader".  Is that supposed to comfort us?
     They want us to think that it is all about the "evolution" of the password;  that concept will be changing, and all PayPal wants to do is be at the forefront of the developments for that change.  After all, PayPal was a founding member of the FIDO (Fast Identity Online) Alliance, which is an industry consortium launched in February 2013 to address the lack of interoperability among strong authentication devices and the problems users face creating and remembering multiple usernames and passwords.
     PayPal also wants you to know that they were the first to implement fingerprint payments with Samsung ... it's all about removing "the friction" from shopping and making it easier and safer for consumers.   If you believe that, I've got the proverbial beachfront property in Arizona that you might be interested in.
     By now, it should be quite clear that we are edging closer and closer to being controlled as to how we buy and sell.  And if that doesn't ring a bell, then please rush to your nearest Bible and read Revelation 13:16-17.
     Furthermore, there are tech users that are far more savvy than me and they point out the obvious flaw in biometric security devices, namely "there is no advantage whatsoever to using a biometric signal. In fact, it's easier to make a secure key from a series of random numbers and letters because those can be changed. Biometrics CANNOT BE CHANGED - once compromised, they are forever useless. It's like having one password for everything that is the same --- how does that increase security? It doesn't --- it lessens the security."
     Another person showed the flaw in PayPal's argument with this comment:  "This is about tagging you with a tracking device so that the powers that be can better analyze your movement and behavior. It has nothing to do with security or verifying your identity when it actually counts, as in a financial transaction."
     Even I can see the logic in these two arguments against so-called "natural body identification" and biometric verification technologies.  Not that I think it will slow down the "evolution" of ID Security devices.  The time is coming for "the Mark", folks, whether we like it or not.  Just stay alert and aware of the latest innovations, and resist the temptation to bow down at the altar of technology.

Revelation 13:16-17   "And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark,"

Will Enforced Vaccinations Become The Law of the Land?

     The state of California appears to be at the forefront of forcing a showdown between those who are pro-vaccine adherents and those who maintain it should be freedom of choice.  I'm afraid that my "conspiracy" hackles are once again rising as this debate heats up.
     Supposedly the rush to law for mandatory vaccinations centers around an outbreak of measles, which originated last winter at Disneyland.  There was an immediate panic over all the deaths that would ensue, as infected children returned to their home cities and states.  The media did everything they could to fan the flames of fear and promote nationwide vaccinations among our country's school-age children.  There was all kinds of media buzz over "the outbreaks" of measles across the land.  But I could not find one report or statistic about run-away numbers of infected, or deaths.  Only one report said, "Measles count at 59 and rising" ... but that was nationwide!  We had that many in one semester of my elementary school in the 1960s.  And if I recall, no one died and no serious health issues ensued.  Is it all a sham for forced inoculations?

     If so, California is Ground Zero for amending state legislation which would require children at public and private schools to be vaccinated unless a doctor determines they should be exempt for medical reasons.
     But there has been some measure of success in stopping the government from forcing children to be vaccinated.  As of this last week, California SB277 has stalled, and the bill's author was given a one-week delay to alter the legislation in order to make it more presentable to legislators.
     At the heart of the debate are the issues of personal freedoms versus public health.  Some lawmakers were concerned that the bill would deprive unvaccinated kids of a constitutionally required education by barring them from schools.  And choosing to homeschool your children would not necessarily protect your children from the long arm of this law.  Some lawmakers said the way the bill is written, children who are homeschooled would be barred from group learning with other homeschooling families.
     It appears to me that this would be government "strong-arm" tactics.  By refusing to educate non-vaccinated children in the public schools, and by putting roadblocks in the way of home-schooled kids, the government is attempting to force it's own medical mandate on its citizens.  Not only is this a personal choice issue, but many parents are skeptical of the added chemicals in vaccines.  They simply do not trust across-the-board vaccinations because the government "says so".
     Just in case the "scare tactics" of the measles outbreak don't work, pro-vaccine advocates aren't above pitting parents against each other.  Children who cannot be immunized due to adverse reactions (those being treated for cancer, for instance) would be required to stay home for 21 days because another parent refused immunizations based on religious or anti-vaccine positions.  Do you see how it works?  Those who choose not to vaccinate (for whatever reason) are seen as the villains -- if everyone would just vaccinate their kids, then the state wouldn't have to quarantine anyone.
     So, here's how that thinking goes ... I don't really care or worry about what might be in those vaccines.  I think you should vaccinate your kids so it doesn't interfere with my child's education.  We should just all blindly follow what the state tells us.
     But parents who are skeptical of vaccines have usually done their homework.  It is not a knee-jerk reaction and they are well-schooled in the possible reactions that come with chemicals and multiple vaccinations.  They should not be forced to comply with government edicts regarding the health of their children.  As one mother stated, “I would leave the state” if the bill passes. “This is about informed consent. We should be able to make our own decisions.”  (Of course, a few hundred thousand unvaccinated immigrant children in your state should help you make that decision, right?}
     So we should all be watching California very carefully.  Those of us born with the "suspicious gene" will find it ironic that due to an inflated sense of alarm over a few cases of the measles last December, we now find, just a few months later, a bill before the California legislature that seeks to make vaccinations by the State mandatory.  If they are able to get this legislation passed, then it will become precedence for amendments to the law in the other 49 states.
    I do not think parents are being over-paranoid to mistrust vaccinations.  When one considers the government's interest in genetic engineering, and private pharmaceutical companies being funded to research nanobot medicine -- not to mention technological advances towards transhumanism -- one would be foolish to indiscriminately vaccinate your child.  As the California mother said, it is about informed consent ... the American people should become knowledgable on this subject, and they should demand their right to decide for themselves and their children.  Stay vigilant!

Addendum:  Public schools in Spokane, Washington are invoking a law that requires proof of vaccination before students are allowed to remain in the classroom.  Those who oppose the compulsory vaccinations must provide a signed waiver from a health care professional or be able to prove that they challenge it on religious grounds.  Coming soon to a school near you!

Revelation 18:23   "... and all nations were deceived by your sorcery."  [ The root Greek word for "sorcery" is actually pharmakeia (to administer drugs)].

Is It A Good Idea that Tech Moguls Are Funding Longevity Research?

   

     What do you think of when you read this headline: "Tech Titans' Latest Project: Defy Death"?  Do you have any concerns when you read the following paragraph?  "[The tech titans] who founded Google, Facebook, eBay, Napster and Netscape are using their billions to rewrite the nation’s science agenda and transform biomedical research. Their objective is to use the tools of technology — the chips, software programs, algorithms and big data they used in creating an information revolution — to understand and upgrade what they consider to be the most complicated piece of machinery in existence: the human body."
     These are at the center of an article written by Ariana Eunjung Cha for The Washington Post.  All I could think of was the consequences of Adam and Eve eating the tempting fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden ... God knew the next temptation would be to "take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever", so man was banished from the Garden.  (Genesis 3:22-24).  In fact, God knew that man's ego would impel him to seek eternal life on his own; and in order to keep that from happening, God went so far as to set up mighty angels and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life!  Obviously, God does not want us to enter this realm!
     Yet, because of our pride, here we have the Wealthy and the Elite doing just that!  They are as deluded as Adam and Eve -- thinking that they can somehow equal the efforts of God -- become "like" God, which is the same temptation Satan has used since the Garden.  You would think man would get the picture!
     But savvy entrepreneurs like Peter Thiel (Ebay) and Larry Page (co-founder of Google), along with brilliant computer scientists and molecular biologists, are attempting to "rebuild, regenerate and reprogram patients’ organs, limbs, cells and DNA", which they surmise will "enable people to live longer and better."  These millionaire businessmen are essentially funding attempts to usurp God's tree of life.  They want to figure out ways to reprogram the DNA you were born with, and how to digitize your brain so it can live long after your body has died ... thereby creating a virtual you that can then be downloaded into any organism or created entity.
     This scenario was even promulgated on a recent episode of the TV Show, The Blacklist.  The plot of the episode titled, "The Longevity Initiative", can be summarized as follows: "a private company called the Longevity Initiative, dedicated to unlocking the key to human immortality, is funded by tech billionaire Roger Hobbs. Recently discovered bodies in the back of a produce truck were not mutilated, but experimented on; clearly the Longevity Initiative has entered the human-trial phase."  This is supposedly a made-up story for TV, but can you believe it?!?!  The entertainment industry is even aware of what is going on in the name of advancing the human condition!
     So, while the real-life men of our Technology Revolution have accomplished tremendous things in their lives, and are probably considered among the most intelligent and talented of our generation, I find myself amused and saddened at their lack of understanding about this existence we call "life".  Consider this statement by Larry Ellison, CEO of the software company, Oracle:  "Death has never made any sense to me ... How can a person be there and then just vanish, just not be there?  Death makes me angry ... Premature death even angrier."  As evidenced by this statement, these "geniuses" look at the world as if they control it; as if there is nothing bigger than themselves.

     You may consider statements like these as just the musings of selfish men who have more money than they know what to do with.  But as pointed out in the Washington Post article, two-thirds of scientific and medical research is now funded by private industry; a growing share by billionaires accountable to no one and impatient with the pace of innovation.  What this means is that a large portion of the research into defying death and creating immortal life is unregulated and can potentially open a Pandora's box of research in stem cells, neuroscience, genetically modified organisms and viruses -- all of which, if handled in the wrong way or with a malevolent objective, could create a not-so-Brave, but Scary New World.
     I believe that we should be concerned about these wealthy entrepreneurs and "philanthropists" who combine their own sense of self-preservation with the means to direct and command controversial research into prolonging man's lifespan.  We should especially be troubled when they come from the computer and internet fields, and when they look at the health-care system through their technological eyes and see the “data of billions of people,” collected through blood tests, online profiles, food purchases and fitness trackers.   They are quoted as saying, "When that data can be accessed and mined and utilized for good in an instantaneous manner ... that would be shattering in a positive way for the system as we know it."  But for whose good will this data be used; and by whose standard is it positive?  Are we in essence the guinea pigs for their self-funded and self-serving research?  I think we know the answer to that question.
      And suppose they are right -- that the research they are funding results in cures for diseases that have plagued man.  Will only the wealthy, who have funded the research, receive the cures?  And if they are truly selfless humanitarians, how do they suggest that the planet sustain all these people who will certainly strain our natural resources?  Does anyone else think that they are playing God?
      For me, the bottom line of this curiosity to defy death lies in the following paradox:  these wealthy tech magnates are trying to claim the power of something they don't even believe in -- trying to become like God; someone whom they can't even agree exists!  Their money is their god and they think they can do a better job than the real God of the Universe.  Sadly, they are just the latest in a long line of humans that have been deceived by the father of lies.  Just as Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden for their folly, so, too will modern man be defeated in this latest effort to "out-God"  God, Himself.

Proverbs 14:16    "A wise man suspects danger and cautiously avoids evil, but the fool bears himself insolently and is [presumptuously] confident."
      

   

Is CERN Recreating the Tower of Babel?

     Are you ready for a mind-blowing topic?  If you are reading this blog post today, then we can determine that the world has not been sucked into a dark vortex, or atomized into more than a trillion particles.  If you are wondering why I would make that astounding statement, it is because yesterday, March 15, 2015, CERN was set to restart its Large Hadron Collider (LHC) for its second 3-year run.  This event would have seen the world's most powerful particle accelerator double its collisional energy.  (As of this morning, I can find no news reports or evidence that they went through with their plan.  I guess we will have to wait and see if they make some kind of big splashy announcement).  But I plan to show you how, once again, Man is trying to "become like God".  And we know what happens every time we try to break into that barrier that separates us from the throne room of God, right?

A portal, or star gate, or wormhole;
Is this what Nimrod had in mind?

     To begin with, if you are like myself, and you are not really sure what CERN is, or what it does, all we really have to go on is information that they disseminate about themselves on their own website.  In the course of describing their mission, CERN maintains that they are an organization of European physicists and engineers who are "probing the fundamental structure of the universe. They use the world's largest and most complex scientific instruments to study the basic constituents of matter – the fundamental particles. The particles are made to collide together at close to the speed of light. The process gives the physicists clues about how the particles interact, and provides insights into the fundamental laws of nature."
     The pursuit of discovering how matter is created began in 1954.  In the past 61 years, the scientists at CERN have developed many accelerators whose purposes include sending a beam through 732 kilometres of solid rock to a project in Italy; boosting negative hydrogen ions to high energies, which will become the source of proton beams for the Large Hadron Collider in 2018;  and conducting all kinds of experiments with "super colliders", which boost beams of particles to high energies before the beams are made to collide with each other or with stationary targets.  Detectors then observe and record the results of these collisions.  One has to ask him or herself, just why do we need this information?  Read on.
     Oh, yeah, one of the scientists involved with CERN -- Dr. Peter Higgs -- is responsible for discovering the "Higgs boson", a particle that gives mass to other particles, and is otherwise known as the "God particle".  And that brings me to the crux of my discussion today.  I readily admit that I am no scientist, and physics was not my favorite subject in school.  But anytime that man determines to explain away the Sovereignty of God in creating the world by dismissing it as a simple matter of "a particle that gives mass to other particles", then I have a problem, and I sense the hair on the back of my neck begin to rise.
     Furthermore, when these same men begin "colliding" these particles at extremely high energies, supposedly for the purpose of discovering how the universe works, then I also smell a rat.  In fact, CERN's own website brushes off the extremely dangerous work of these super colliders by posing these questions:  "What is the universe made of? How did it start?"  They then want us to buy into their seemingly altruistic mission by assuring us that "Physicists at CERN are seeking answers, using some of the world's most powerful particle accelerators."
     In reality, what these scientists are doing is smashing protons which are moving at 99.999999% of the speed of light into each other in order to recreate the conditions a fraction of a second after the Big Bang.  However, there are many far wiser than I who think that what these scientists are really trying to accomplish is far more sinister -- they are trying to open a wormhole.
     In case you are unaware of this term, a wormhole is a theoretical passage through space-time that could create shortcuts for long journeys across the universe. Wormholes are predicted by the theory of general relativity. But be wary: wormholes bring with them the dangers of sudden collapse, high radiation and dangerous contact with "exotic matter".  Our knowledge of the existence of wormholes is a result of the research of physicists Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen, who used the theory of general relativity to propose the existence of "bridges" (which became known as "wormholes") through space-time.

     Still with me? So exactly why would these scientists at CERN want to create a wormhole?  Could they possibly be trying to recreate the mission of a Sumerian king named Nimrod, who ruled over 4300 years ago from Babylon, and thought he could build a tower (actually a gate) to heaven?  And what did God do?  He destroyed the tower and scattered the peoples across the earth, causing them to lose their common language, and reducing them to strange tongues (babble) so they couldn't understand each other and collectively conspire against Him.
     In so doing, Nimrod became known by many different names ... Baal, Gilgamesh, Orion, Adonis, Apollo, and in Egypt as Osiris, the god of resurrection.  In fact, inside the ancient Greek god Sety’s temple at Abydos, in the Osiris Chapel, is the magnificent depiction of Osiris as a pillar or tower.  The Egyptians called this Osiris pillar the Ta-Wer or ‘bond between heaven and earth’.  This sure seems to mimic the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel, doesn't it?  Think it is just coincidence or some ancient fable?
     But what does that have to do with CERN and its mysterious. and potentially dangerous, experiments?  Does it make you nervous at all that scientists are messing with the universe, and attempting to open a hole -- or portal -- to the unknown?  Is this what Nimrod was trying to do?  If you are a student of the Bible then you know that there are levels of "heaven", and the "dark forces of the spiritual world" live in the second heaven.  Remember Ephesians 6:12, in which the apostle Paul tells us, "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places"?  Could these be the "exotic matter" that we have the potential to come in contact with through wormholes?
     Was Nimrod trying to gain access to that next realm and enlist the spiritual forces of evil in his quest to conquer God?  Did he think that opening a portal, or gate, to this next realm that these forces could "come through", so to speak, and strengthen his position, as well as increase his knowledge of how to overpower and become like God?
     The prophet Daniel mentions such beings as "Watchers", or holy ones, who report to God and make decrees on behalf of God.  But Watchers were also mentioned in pseudepigraphal books, such as Enoch and Jubilees, which were popular and influential in the First Century, and ranked alongside the Torah, Psalms and Isaiah in importance to Jews.  These apocryphal books were also alluded to by Peter and Jude in the New Testament, giving them at least historical credibility.  In these instances, "Watchers" were among a superior class of angels, some of whom fell from heaven, led astray by Satan.  In the 7th and 18th chapters of the Book of Enoch, some of the Watchers who fall are imprisoned in the 2nd heaven, and others are cast to earth where they take human women (Enoch 7:3, 18:4) who bear giant offspring (the Nephilim of Genesis 6).
     Again, I ask:  Was Nimrod trying to open the gate to this 2nd heaven?  And what was his goal ... to slay God and take over the throne?  If you read the historical text of the Book of Jasher, you will find this about Nimrod and the building of the Tower of Babel:  "And the Lord knew their thoughts, and it came to pass when they were building they cast the arrows toward the heavens, and all the arrows fell upon them filled with blood, and when they saw them they said to each other, Surely we have slain all those that are in heaven."
     Or was Nimrod trying to create these "wormholes" to allow the Watchers to enter our realm, enlisting their aid in order to gain their knowledge of heaven and help him (Nimrod) attain his goal?  And zooming into the 21st Century, is it possible that these CERN Scientists have already opened portals with their discovery of the so-called "God particle"?  I could certainly entertain that concept as I witness the increasing amount of Evil present on the Earth.  They may not be using arrows to create a portal to the next heaven, as Nimrod did, but wouldn't their powerful beams of atomic matter serve the same purpose?
     In order to fully dissect all the implications of CERN and their experiments, it would take me days of singular posts.  I'm not sure I could ever adequately cover all the connections and significance to our future.  Suffice it to say, that my spirit discerns something more than just scientific advancement for the future of mankind.

     The sculpture of the ancient Hindu goddess Shiva (coming through a portal) at the entrance to the CERN headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland does nothing to allay my discomfort.  Shiva is the third god in the Hindu triumvirate. The triumvirate consists of three gods who are responsible for the creation, upkeep and destruction of the world. The other two gods are Brahma and Vishnu. Brahma is the creator of the universe while Vishnu is the preserver of it.  So that leaves Shiva as ... you guessed it ... responsible for the destruction of the world.  Still think CERN is all about scientific experiments?
     And it doesn't help to qualm my fears when I hear famed scientists such as Stephen Hawking sounding the alarm bells; it seems somehow prophetic when he warns that the "God Particle" could destroy the universe.  Other well-respected scientists warn that CERN's Super Collider is so powerful it could produce particles of dark matter, the mysterious stuff whose gravity holds the galaxies together.  They warn that there is a possibility of a cataclysmic event in which CERN creates a black hole that swallows the earth ... their words, not mine.
     I certainly am not qualified to make any kind of prophetic statement or even guess as to where this all leads.  I only know that it seems that once again, instead of worshipping the Sovereignty and Supremacy of God, Man thinks he can become equal to God, or ... heaven forbid ... become greater than the Creator of the Universe, Himself.  That only leads to inevitable judgment, devastation and God's justifiable wrath.  Have we become as arrogant and rebellious as Nimrod that we are about to repeat ancient history?  God have mercy on us!

If you are interested in reading more about CERN and its connections to the Tower of Babel, click here and here. 

Hebrews 11:3   "By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible."