Ah. But, as you know, the state of my mind does not change anything. I can believe that there are no bears in the woods; my belief has nothing to do with the actual population of bears. If I walk into the woods without bear spray or a gun, I could be killed and eaten.

I have made a lifetime out of studying Christ and the Bible. There is, beyond any shadow of a doubt, the fact that Jesus lived and walked the earth and had many followers, and that after his death he reappeared to his followers and gave them further guidance. Actually, it had not dawned upon the Apostles that Jesus had been telling them of his death and resurrection until after they saw him resurrected!

But when you have God, who created the entire Cosmos, all the dimensions, time itself, and us, it would be child's play for him to bring the mortal body of his Son back to life.

Believing that we are all the product of an endless series of lucky cosmic and biological accidents is like believing that a tornado could blow through a junkyard and assemble an airworthy Boeing 767 as it did so.

Which sounds like the more difficult thing to believe?

Interesting how a Buddhist monk would have supported his widowed mother thousands of miles away!

I believe in people getting their "just due." I endeavor to not cheat anyone; and I endeavor not to be cheated. As a matter of fact, I do not answer my phone unless I know who is calling, unless the call is coming from someone on my contact list. The last three calls coming into my cell phone were from scammers; I know this because I researched their phone numbers. In the States, I have a monitoring device on my phone that stops robocallers. I will tell you now that the "do not call" list is a joke. The telemarketers will still call you--and they do it robotically. But my device stops them cold. Over the last year, some 5,300 robocalls have been stopped!

I once worked in an office where women outnumbered men three to one. The boss was a woman. Whenever one of the women went on a date and told about it, the boss would get jealous--because nobody dated her (poor woman!).

I agree with you about profits from war--to an extent. Defense contractors have to make a profit or go out of business.

Also, those "psychopaths" were not creations of the CIA, but the Wahhabist school of Islam that began some 200 years ago in Saudi Arabia--but which gained control of Sunni Islam in Saudi Arabia with the sudden explosion of oil wealth. After the "Muslim Crusades", including the assaults on Europe had petered out, and until the rise of Wahhabism, all of Islam was indeed a peaceful religion.

Today there is a civil war raging within Islam--and the rest of us are caught in the middle of it.

And, I might add, the Arab slave trade in Africa, the Near East and the Middle East has been going on for centuries--long before the CIA or even the United States existed.

The "cure" does involve education--and, of course, the fanatics are doing their best to kill the teachers and the aid workers.

Security must be established before war torn nations can be rebuilt. When you are dealing with fanatical elements with whom negotiations are impossible, the only answer to the problem is annihilating those who are trying to destroy civilization. It's sad--and I hate it--but it's true.

I have also taught courses on religion and have used some of Ehrman's works. He cannot connect the dots because his atheist frame of reference does not allow him to. For example, Ehrman claims that victims of crucifixion were not buried. Wrong--and we have archaeological proof. I could go on, but it would take weeks and the writing of many books!

You are wrong about Josephus' writings. He wrote "The Jewish War" in 75 A.D. As a historian, he was familiar with events just before his lifetime. He mentions both Jesus and John the Baptist. We also know that Pontius Pilate was a real person--a tablet bearing his name, and dated to the time period of Jesus, was found in Israel. Josephus also mentions Pilate, who is also mentioned by Tacitus and Philo of Alexandria.

After the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ, strange things happened in the temple. When the lots for the goats were chosen by the high priest on the Day of Atonement, the priest always picked the black lot first--considered a bad omen. Black lots were picked from the Crucifixion until the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D. The odds of that happening year after year from 33 A.D. to 70 A.D. are about one in 5 billion. Also, when the red sash was cut in two and one part retained by the high priest, and the other part placed on the scapegoat, the red cloth NEVER turned white as it did in years past. The heavy bronze doors to the temple would also open by themselves every night--it took 20 men to move them, but they opened by themselves. The light on the menorah closest to the Holiest of Holies would always go out--it would not stay lit. Finally, just before the temple's destruction, Josephus records that a strange white light permeated the entire temple at night for a few hours, and then went out. This was perceived as the spirit of God leaving the temple. Now--these facts are recorded in the Jerusalem Talmud, which, Serenity, is a JEWISH source. The Sanhedrin blamed all of these happenings on Jesus. What is NOT in dispute is that they HAPPENED.

Some of Paul's letters are dated from around 55 - 60 A.D. The Gospels themselves were written from around 60 - 70 A.D. The synoptic Gospels were written by people who KNEW the original Apostles; the Gospel of John was supposedly written by the Apostle John himself--John the son of Zebedee.

Islam, if you recall, was spread by the armies of Islam after the death of Muhammad. Christians and Jews living in conquered lands were required to pay a heavy tax, the jizyah, to their new overlords or face execution. The Muslim Crusades predate the Christian Crusades by centuries. Both were bloody affairs. Right after the death of Muhammad, his son-in-law and cousin, Ali, was killed in internecine warfare.

Finally, the Apostles were NOT fanatics. They were scared s*****ss after the Crucifixion. There is quite a difference between people like that and fanatics. Fanatics have limited capacity for reason. The Apostles preached with both reason and the words of Jesus on their side.

Christianity is not a myth. It is real. And the truth is there for those who will but seek it.

Glad you had fun.

I was in the military for 22 years and have been serving as an advisor after retirement.

I can tell you that we need a military, and we need those military manufacturers, because the world is a dangerous place--and there are people who want to take YOUR place and your daughter's. I know. I have met these people. They do not think like you or I. They believe that God has conferred some extra-special status upon them and that God has given them a license to kill. I have seen, first hand, what these people are capable of doing. They snatch children to use as child soldiers or prostitutes; they force people to live under a set of primitive and harsh rules and kill people for violating them; they use terror as a means of controlling the population; they strip women of their human rights and force them into sexual slavery; they sell and buy people as slaves; and they kill aid workers who come to help the population.

And then you have the Russians and the Chinese, who are teaming up for joint military exercises as I write this. North Korea gets 99% of its food and fuel from China, and virtually all of its military hardware. China controls North Korea. Kim Jong Un will not so much as burp before getting permission from his Chinese handlers.

I think we have finally decided we cannot be the world's policeman--that must be a joint effort of all the free countries of the world.

But the day we become a second- or third-rate military power is the day that our freedoms will be taken from us, and the day the conqueror's boot is felt upon our necks.

Remember, she is responsible for what goes on during that shift. If something is forgotten, it will have an impact and she will get the blame. Therefore she has to make sure all the "i's" are dotted and all the "T's" are crossed. Same for any boss.

Come up with a checklist for all of the required tasks and checks and tick them off at work to make sure all bases are covered.

Show her the checklist. She may adopt it for the whole department.

That is how you get into management--systematize, and streamline when you can!

I cannot imagine any basis she would have for trying to "catnap" Albert.