Jeff's Video Net-Bio

I picked some videos to tell you about my life. Not that is all that important, but its been a ride to be sure. Maybe if somebody sees my mishaps, they might escape some of the same...

Mountain and Valley, Sun and Storm, I have come to understand the simple joy of sitting on the throne next to the Almighty, and taking in a sunset together. Its a wonderful thing. Enjoy.

This song describes my childhood so well its spooky! After years of abuse something snapped. I had a "Jeremy Moment". I guess you could say "Jefferson spoke in class today". The hunted became the hunter and I ran down the group of kids that were beating me up one by one.

I was one of the first "Ritalin Kids". My mother yanked my meds in 6th grade. I found booze in the next couple years; First drinking hers and watering down what was left behind in the house, and drinking the leftovers when the family had get togethers. Finally the big debut; A half gallon of Ancient Age under the bleachers my freshman year in High School. (You say off to the races, I'll say thank-ya!)

This set me up for the slow death of my first marriage. 14 years is torched. Wasn't her fault. I'd gotten deeper and deeper into alcohol over the years. The death of my parents, and some of my closest relatives in a very short time (5 in one year) pushed be over a cliff I was standing far to close to, and I tumbled down into a crevice so deep it blotted out the son. This was me...

I met my current wife in a bar, and as she says, we have a marriage arranged by two drunks. My drinking progressed till, although not quite as old, this was how I felt about 7 Years ago.

Even in the depths there were joys. I love my wife, and even in my drunken stupor I managed to help her win time with her children. I quickly came to love them as my own. In the words of the immortal Johnny Bravo, "We So Pretty!" My well blended family of kids! It isn't always easy but usually very interesting.

I went to the hospital in November, 2002, with a pulse over 150. They couldn't get it to slow down, and told my wife if I didn't begin to respond to the meds quickly I'd die. Finally all of the abuse and lack of nutrition was paying me back. (Who'd of thought the olives in a Beefeaters Over didn't count as veggies. Then again there was Celery in the Bloody Mary, potatoes in the vodka, grains in the whiskey etc... but it availed me not.) The drugs messed up my head a little while, and although I'm a tall lanky guy, but when I get mad... I scare people. I don't know if its from the military, or martial arts, or the stuff I went through as a kid, but it's like I'm on that cold craggy mountain top, where the winds howls. Its a cold desolate place, but I'm quite comfy, and people can tell. It makes them uncomfortable. The medical staff didn't spend a lot of time in my room.

Once you've been in through detox, you end up at kind of a crossroads. Its very confusing. You're not sure who you are or who you want to be. You just know you want to be somebody better then you were.

The first step in changing is to take a hard look at who I had become. The best way I can describe it is I had given the key to me over to somebody else, and I was alone for the ride. I would sleep for a while, wake up and try to give some directions, then fall back asleep. I woke up far from anywhere I knew, and without a way back. I had a DUI years 10 years ago, and while I didn't kill anyone, it is one of the low moments of my life. Whenever I have been at the end of the rope, and about to drink again, I make my self remember the bad thinks, like driving drunk, and it helps my resolve. If anyone reads this, I gotta tell ya this is just the tip of the iceberg. I have sunk to low everywhere was up. If you stuck on the ride, and want to get off of it, don't worry that I would judge anything you did. I guarantee I got ya beat. Anyone who wants to, let me know, and I'll do what I can to help ya get started at getting stopped.

And so then, come to the end of my efforts, with nothing left to throw into the fray... hopeless and fallen, I found a hand, extended to me that had been there through it all, hidden by my errant pride and self will. I didn't escape alcoholism, I was paroled by command of the King. God took my shame and failure, and nailed it to the cross. I imagine it was written on the back of the sign that said "King of the Jews", just in very small print. It has to be small. The sins of the world are nailed there.

And so until today... God is so good!!,

No Science Required- Just add opinions, and rhetoric !

My thanks to Ms. Denyse O'Leary and her Blog "The Post Darwinist" Click here to go to her blog

Her blog is certainly worth the read, and this was too good not to share!


Biological Science

Scant search for the Maker

20 April 2001

The Triumph of Evolution and the Failure of Creationism

This book was written to defend the theory of evolution against the powerful and influential anti-evolution lobby of creationists in the United States who wish to ban the teaching of evolution in science curricula in schools and colleges. It is an up-to-date examination of the evolution-creation debate and provides a useful review of arguments on both sides.

After setting the scene (religious, scientific and political), Niles Eldredge devotes three chapters to considering the evidence for evolution: that all life has descended from a single, common ancestor, that there is a record of that evolutionary history preserved in the rocks and that the driving force behind evolution is natural selection combined with dramatic ecological and physical catastrophes resulting in the extinction of large groups of animal and plant species.

Throughout, the author scathingly ridicules creationists and this intensifies in chapters five and six where he tackles their views head-on under the titles, "Scientific style and notion of time" and "The origin and history of life". In the final chapter, "Can we afford a culture war?", he adopts a more conciliatory approach, urging evolutionists and creationists to drop their antagonisms and focus on the urgent need to stem the tide of ecosystem destruction and species loss to preserve a long and fruitful existence on this earth.

Despite the conciliatory comments in the final chapter, the book's title is essentially emotive and provocative. Since most theories, if proven to be false, are rejected by scientists, Eldredge claims that, after 150 years, science has failed to disprove the theory of evolution and, therefore, "evolution has triumphed". In other words, the theory of evolution rests on the failure of science to show that it is false. Nevertheless, he believes the theory can be scientifically tested.

But where is the experimental evidence? None exists in the literature claiming that one species has been shown to evolve into another. Bacteria, the simplest form of

independent life, are ideal for this kind of study, with generation times of 20 to 30 minutes, and populations achieved after 18 hours. But throughout 150 years of the science of bacteriology, there is no evidence that one species of bacteria has changed into another, in spite of the fact that populations have been exposed to potent chemical and physical mutagens and that, uniquely, bacteria possess extrachromosomal, transmissible plasmids. Since there is no evidence for species changes between the simplest forms of unicellular life, it is not surprising that there is no evidence for evolution from prokaryotic to eukaryotic cells, let alone throughout the whole array of higher multicellular organisms.

The author rejects the creationists' arguments for order and design in nature but the extreme complexity of structure and function in all living things cannot be disregarded. The biochemical complexity of cascades of enzymes required to perform a single function in the cell is mind-boggling, and for a structure or function to be selected it must be functionally complete. The formation of amino acids from ammonia and methane under extremes of pressure and temperature is quoted, but this synthesis is nothing compared with the complexity of a single protein enzyme, let alone a series of highly specialised enzymes functioning in a cascade sequence. Such irreducibly complex systems are of no selective value unless they are complete. The author naively states that "all biochemical steps leading to the formation of the first organism... have yet to be deciphered".

All creationists believe in a Creator but often hold divergent views on biblical interpretation. They include leading research scientists, past and present, who find the theory of evolution to be scientifically untenable; the natural world bears the hallmarks of order and design by a Great Intelligence. The astronomer Kepler confessed, "O God, I am thinking Thy thoughts after Thee", and over the door of the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge is written, "The works of the Lord are great, sought after by all them that have pleasure therein" (Psalm 111.2). The natural world is worthy of our finest investigations, and is in my view the expression of a Master Mind.

Evolutionists, creationists and educationalists planning curricula for teaching science will read this book with interest. But they should keep an open mind on whether the title is justified by the evidence provided.

Alan H. Linton is emeritus professor of bacteriology, University of Bristol.

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The book reviewed was:

The Triumph of Evolution and the Failure of Creationism
Author - Niles Eldredge
ISBN - 0 7 167 3638 1
Publisher - Freeman
Price - £18.99
Pages - 223

It's not a hat!

I explained this to my kids the other day. Our Christian faith shouldn't be like a hat that we wear sometimes, and take off others. That's not deep rocket science... it's just rock solid sense. If I am a new creation in Christ, and the old self is gone, I shouldn't be putting on the old self mask when I'm around my old friends.

For me it's easy. I know for me to go back to the way I was is to die, pure and simple. I'm a recovered alcoholic with 6 years parole from the prison of alcohol, and that by the grace of God. God is my life support.

For my kids its different, as I'm sure it is for many people. It seems God makes people feel like a teenager when their parents show up. They're embarrassed... 'cause their parents are "SO Not Cool". Maybe some think God's not cool either. They're probably right, but that's probably exactly the point.

If we're embarrassed to have God in the room, or tempted to take of our "Christianity" in the presence of certain crowds, perhaps we are precisely where we are not supposed to be.

"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come." 2 Cor 5:17

Be well, and don't settle for any lesser truth,

Jeff