“The Creator and the Cosmos” is another one of Hugh Ross’ books that deals with using modern day scientific discoveries to not disprove Biblical accounts, but instead to use them as a vehicle in proving them. His other book that I read, “The Genesis Question”, is basically about the same thing, but this one is one is extremely more scientifical in nature. I consider myself somewhat of a scientific guy, but this thing at times is over my head. He does do a good job of portraying discoveries, and then relating them back to the Bible, although sometimes he may go off on a very detailed explanation tangent of the discovery, thus leaving the reader more confused. He also seems to do some stretching when it comes to “connecting the dots” b/t the Bible and discoveries, but that is to be expected at times. I do like his talks of Einstein and Stephen Hawkings, and how, although they eventually come to the conclusion that there must be a higher power, b/c the extreme chances of Darwinism and everything falling into place for evolution, even given infinite time and chance, are basically impossible.
A key revelation that this book brought to me personally is the belief in a “Big Bang Theory” for the beginning of the universe. I don’t remember the specifics of Hawkings explanation, but Ross (the author) shows that the Universe did begin from one large explosion, and is continuously expanding. Another cool fact is that there were like 11 dimensions at the original conception of the Universe. Can you imagine an 11 dimension world…and we think 3 dimensions is enough at times. As you can see, with talks of things like this, you should probably enjoy science and physics before reading this book.

So…it has been a long time since I last wrote a book review, and I wish I had kept up with it. My plan is to try and give a quick overview of the books I have read recently, but I can’t promise anything great since I may have read some of them a while ago.

Anyways, I just finished “Devil in the White City” by Erik Larson. The book is about two people living in different worlds, although in the same city at the same time…Chicago in the late 1800’s. The first man, Daniel Burnham, is one of the top architechts in the States and is in charge of building up the World’s Fair. The other man, Dr. Holmes, is a wealthy man as well, but is a serial killer. It details the different things that goes on with both of these men during the building and running of the World Fair in Chicago.

The book is non-fiction, but basically reads like a Novel. It is a great book for the first half, then slows down quite a bit in the middle, only to pick up again at the end. Of course I enjoyed it since it is non-fiction, but even hardcore fiction lovers like Barbie enjoyed this book. I think the only downside of this book is when the author begins to spend too much time on Burnham and the World’s Fair troubles, and forgets to include some of the spice…aka. Dr. Holmes. A funny thing about the name Holmes is the fact that once a detective starts to hunt down and track down Dr. Holmes, they people around the nation begin to compare to the infamous Sherlock Holmes. Overall this is a good read. If you have any interest in the history of the Ferris wheel or architecture or are into serial killers, then I’m sure you’ll enjoy this one.

Now this is just funny…for both Republicans and Democrats alike. Watch both the “This Land” and “Good to be in DC”…they are both hilarious.

www.jibjab.com

I’m not sure how much of this is true…but I still enjoy posting it.

I’m trying to get all this political stuff straightened out in my head
So I’ll know how to vote come November. Right now, we have one guy saying
one thing. Then the other guy says something else. Who to believe. Lemme
see; have I got this straight?

Clinton awards Halliburton no-bid contract in Yugoslavia – good…
Bush awards Halliburton no-bid contract in Iraq – bad…

Clinton spends 77 billion on war in Serbia – good..
Bush spends 87 billion in Iraq – bad…

Clinton imposes regime change in Serbia – good…
Bush imposes regime change in Iraq – bad…

Clinton bombs Christian Serbs on behalf of Muslim Albanian terrorists- good…
Bush liberates 25 million from a genocidal dictator – bad…

Clinton bombs Chinese embassy – good…
Bush bombs terrorist camps – bad…

Clinton commits felonies while in office – good…
Bush lands on aircraft carrier in jumpsuit – bad…

No mass graves found in Serbia – good…
No WMD found Iraq – bad…

Stock market crashes in 2000 under Clinton – good…
Economy on upswing under Bush – bad…

Clinton refuses to take custody of Bin Laden – good…
World Trade Centers fall under Bush – bad…

Clinton says Saddam has nukes – good…
Bush says Saddam has nukes – bad…

Clinton calls for regime change in Iraq – good…
Bush imposes regime change in Iraq – bad…

Terrorist training in Afghanistan under Clinton – good…
Bush destroys training camps in Afghanistan – bad…

Milosevic not yet convicted – good…
Saddam turned over for trial – bad…

Ahh, it’s so confusing!
Every year an independent tax watchdog group analyzes the average tax
burden on Americans, and then calculates the “Tax Freedom Day.”
This is the day after which the money you earn goes to you, not the
government. This year, tax freedom day was April 11th. That’s the
earliest it has been since 1991. Its latest day ever was May 2nd,
which occurred in 2000. Notice anything special about those dates?
Recently, John Kerry gave a speech in which he claimed Americans are
actually paying more taxes under Bush, despite the tax cuts. He gave
no explanation and provided no data for this claim.

Another interesting fact: Both George Bush and John Kerry are wealthy
men. Bush owns only one home, his ranch in Texas. Kerry owns 4 mansions,
all worth several million dollars. (His ski resort home in Idaho is an
old barn brought over from Europe in pieces. Not your average A-frame).
Bush paid $250,000 in taxes this year; Kerry paid $90,000. Does that
sound right? The man who wants to raise your taxes obviously has
figured out a way to avoid paying his own.

“If you can read this, thank a teacher. If it is in English, thank a
soldier.”