At good ol EvC there's a thread now about Steve Jobs' supposedly saying "Wow wow wow" just before he died, and they're wondering if that proves anything about the afterlife.
Unbelievers are saying no, it could just be a chemical or physical effect of the dying process or of the drugs given him for pain. Believers in Christ are claiming yes, but get themselves all tangled up in the untenable implication that Steve Jobs must therefore have been saved at the very end.
My guess would be that Jobs WAS seeing into another realm just before he died, just because of how he's described as having a faraway look, and it must have been a pleasant other realm because the expression "Wow" does not sound unhappy.
I don't know what general condition his mind was in at the end but I do know that some kinds of illness affect the mind and produce hallucinations. A relative of mine saw long-dead family members in her room a day or two before she died, and kept talking about a "party going on downstairs" that she wished she could go to. Its being "downstairs" was disturbing to me as that's the wrong direction for a Christian's last wishes to be directed. It wasn't her last words, she became more or less comatose right before she died, but the point is that even a happy vision of another world isn't necessarily a sign of salvation. Since she was a Christian what she experienced (heard?) of a party going on "downstairs" (her apartment was on the ground floor) does bother me and I won't know until I see the Lord myself if that said anything about whether or not she was really saved, or was simply the toxins of the cancer in her liver affecting her brain.
If Jobs was fairly lucid when he exclaimed his "Wow" and it was RIGHT before he died, I'd guess he did see into the other world he was going to but that it was a counterfeit show put on by the demons waiting to receive him into their company, to convince him and the people with him that he was going to a good place. Anything to call the Bible into doubt.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Long warm Autumn
Trees out my window -- Chinese elms -- are still GREEN and we're already into November! What a strange long warm Fall we've been having. It's that way all over town, green green green with just the occasional blazing gold or red tree here and there. The trees normally start turning color by the middle of September and are completely bare by now.
The temperature is dropping, though, so it shouldn't be long now. I hope we still get some color before the snow or we'll have depressingly dead brown leaves on the trees all winter.
======================
Nov 3
Yep, lots of trees just fading and turning brown without turning bright colors and without dropping their leaves. Still a lot of green ones out there though, but it's freezing overnight now -- going down to 23F tonight, and we're also to get some snow. The wind is knocking the trees around outside my window, which often means something wet is coming over the mountains. All the leaves are still on those trees even in the wind. Weird.
Some are saying the strange weather seems to be part of an overall changed weather pattern but I don't see it. Just seems like we're having an unusual pattern this particular year. We've had every kind of winter over the last twenty years, from very cold to mild years, heavy snow and light snow years, a couple of years when it's rained in January -- huge flooding one of those years -- that's when the weather comes over from Hawaii. If it comes down from Alaska then it can get down to -10 or so with or without snow.
And everything in between. If there's a pattern here I guess I don't know what to look for.
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Nov 6
Odd to see white roofs framed by green though fading leaves, skipping Fall this year.
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Nov 18
Yesterday the trees around town were still mostly green although there were more yellow and red than before. Out my window the leaves were mostly green with a little yellowish among them, and one tree all withered though greenish still. At last leaves were falling but still a lot of green remained on the branches. Then this morning a big wind just about denuded them all. Now it looks the way it should look at this time of year. Almost. Oddly there are still a few green leaves clinging to branches. But most are on the ground where they should be.
What I don't get is how the green has held out so long considering how cold it has been for the last few weeks. My computer corner seems to collect the cold air. Been piling on the layers until I'm finally almost warm enough but the keyboard is cold and my hands are cold too.
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January 14,2012 Not only a very strange Fall -- or a skipping of Fall altogether, but we've also been skipping Winter. No snow has fallen since Thanksgiving! Nor rain either. It goes down to the low 20s and 'teens at night and some days it's pretty cold as well but it's also been up around 60 way too often for winter. Finally we're to get some rain/snow this coming week, starting Wednesday.
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April 15. But since then we've been having wintry weather, at least all through March, rain and snow and it's still very cold. There are blossoms out but the basic feel is more like winter than spring. Everything's out of order still.
The temperature is dropping, though, so it shouldn't be long now. I hope we still get some color before the snow or we'll have depressingly dead brown leaves on the trees all winter.
======================
Nov 3
Yep, lots of trees just fading and turning brown without turning bright colors and without dropping their leaves. Still a lot of green ones out there though, but it's freezing overnight now -- going down to 23F tonight, and we're also to get some snow. The wind is knocking the trees around outside my window, which often means something wet is coming over the mountains. All the leaves are still on those trees even in the wind. Weird.
Some are saying the strange weather seems to be part of an overall changed weather pattern but I don't see it. Just seems like we're having an unusual pattern this particular year. We've had every kind of winter over the last twenty years, from very cold to mild years, heavy snow and light snow years, a couple of years when it's rained in January -- huge flooding one of those years -- that's when the weather comes over from Hawaii. If it comes down from Alaska then it can get down to -10 or so with or without snow.
And everything in between. If there's a pattern here I guess I don't know what to look for.
====
Nov 6
Odd to see white roofs framed by green though fading leaves, skipping Fall this year.
====
Nov 18
Yesterday the trees around town were still mostly green although there were more yellow and red than before. Out my window the leaves were mostly green with a little yellowish among them, and one tree all withered though greenish still. At last leaves were falling but still a lot of green remained on the branches. Then this morning a big wind just about denuded them all. Now it looks the way it should look at this time of year. Almost. Oddly there are still a few green leaves clinging to branches. But most are on the ground where they should be.
What I don't get is how the green has held out so long considering how cold it has been for the last few weeks. My computer corner seems to collect the cold air. Been piling on the layers until I'm finally almost warm enough but the keyboard is cold and my hands are cold too.
====
January 14,2012 Not only a very strange Fall -- or a skipping of Fall altogether, but we've also been skipping Winter. No snow has fallen since Thanksgiving! Nor rain either. It goes down to the low 20s and 'teens at night and some days it's pretty cold as well but it's also been up around 60 way too often for winter. Finally we're to get some rain/snow this coming week, starting Wednesday.
===
April 15. But since then we've been having wintry weather, at least all through March, rain and snow and it's still very cold. There are blossoms out but the basic feel is more like winter than spring. Everything's out of order still.
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