Spike wrote:
I took my college girlfriend to a physics seminar featuring Carl Sagan's
Cosmos, because she thought Sagan was the most gorgeous man on two feet.
(end)
My mother was also very fond of Sagan, though she did comment he must have
thought similarly about himself because the camera in Cosmos often showed
Sagan's profile for extended periods as he gazed in wonder at the universe!!
I have read that Sagan was quite the ladies man.
you continue:
That changed both our lives: she soon threw me back for another guy who
looked more like Sagan, and I was led to study
Steven Jay Gould, which led to Douglas Hofstadter's Escher Godel Bach, which
led me to realize that my religion and all religions I know of are self
referential systems, unverifiable. Changed my major from theology to
engineering. Atheists make poor ministers. spike
(end)
Think if you had both been prevented from going to that lecture! You would
probably be a Unitarian minister right now, and they are generally not paid
well! What denomination had you planned to go into?
My bestfriend attended a small, conservative Bible college in Decatur,
Georgia, lead by Earl Paulk. He worked as he went doing landscaping to
avoid going into debt while there. He did manage to get a bachelors in
pastoral studies but in his final year the dean and head minister (and his
ministerial younger brother) who were both married, were found to be having
affairs with their secretaries.
This created a major media scandal and my friend was mocked by people in the
community and at work. The younger brother to the dean would rush the
cameras like he was going to hit someone and then verbally rage at the
reporters! That only added to the media feeding frenzy.
About half of the church elders resigned and left because of the unrepentant
attitude of the dean and his brother. The other half my friend said 'sold
out' and became yes men. About a third of the congregation left also. The
original spirit of the church died.
My friend attended this school because the head minister was a 'real man'
who had seen action in WW2. He really enjoyed his taped sermons and decided
to go their to school after much thought.
Every year the students were told the school would be accredited but never
was. He saw athletes who were allowed to get away with behavior that
regular students could not, because they were the basketball players who
would win games and gain glory for the school. This really irked him no
end.
My friend got several offers to become a youth minister but he turned them
all down and came back to Alaska. He had lost most of his faith in
Christian people which lead to lack of desire to remain a devout Christian.
He has floated around aimlessly in his life since this happened about a
decade ago.
I would love to bump into Earl Paulk, dean of a certain Earl Paulk Bible
college(and he named it after himself! lol) and tell him the effect he had
on my bestfriend's life. Then I would dare him to visit my friend and beg
for forgiveness for having wounded his psyche in his formative years. Then
he should spend about a year living with or near my friend and REALLY assist
him in all respects, if he really has any strength and goodness to give
anymore.
looking back,
John Grigg
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 27 2000 - 14:09:48 MDT