I've been accused--possibly rightfully so--

of looking for patterns where patterns don't exist...most notably my observation that we had a major earthquake/tsunami on the day after Christmas and a major earthquake/tsunami warning the day after Easter.
Let me continue to pontificate the things I find strange and/or coincidental.
Terri Schiavo (who was beatified by the Christian right) was dying because her feeding tube was pulled. The day the Pope spoke out against it, he was stricken with a massive infection and also required nutritional assistance via a feeding tube.
Maybe it's God, maybe it's a coincidence, maybe it's karma...who knows.
The last time a beloved public figure (also a tortured woman soul) died was on August 31, 1997. Princess Diana. 5 days later, a beloved religious icon died on September 5, 1997. Mother Teresa.
Sooo, if it is karma, whereas Terri Schiavo died on the 31st, shall we see if the Pope dies on the 5th.

2005- * re-installed as u.s. pres
2005- pope dies

on edit: my point being: evil triumphs, good dies

(from an atheist that hopes he's wrong)

:sarcasm:

:tinfoilhat:

:eyes:

I don't think he's going to last anywhere near that long.

Is the cosmic justice clock running slow? For the record I believe you are being concerned over nothing. Your energies would be better directed towards other endevours.

I'm not concerned about it. I just find little idiosyncrasies like this amusing.:)

BWHAHAHA!!!

The pope was struck down with an infection by God for speaking out against Terri's' feeding tube being pulled?

"God" controls nature? The tsunamis happened post Christian holidays by design? SHEESH. That sounds very Armageddon like.

:silly:

I was, then when I woke up I found that our world was overtaken with psychotic religious zealots who were obsessed with feeding tubes and stealing elections....so I took another hit.;)

If by "making progress" he means "walking toward the light" this would not be a bad thing.

If you want another cosmic coincidence, watch to see if Falwell and The Poop both meet Satan on the same day.

Falwell to meet with doctors
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Apr 1, 2005

LYNCHBURG - The Rev. Jerry Falwell's condition remained unchanged Friday, but his doctors planned to meet with him to evaluate his progress, a hospital spokesman said.

Lynchburg General Hospital spokesman Thomas Urtz said Falwell's condition continued to be listed as serious.

"Physicians will meet with him later (Friday) to assess his progress, but indications are positive," Urtz said in a statement. Falwell said in a newspaper interview Thursday that he might be released in time to preach Sunday at his Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg.

<snip>

Falwell had left the hospital March 4 after 13 days, spending four to five days on a ventilator for what was called a viral infection. Doctors said Falwell's current medical condition is not as severe as the first.

More:
http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031781914285

<snip>

Humans are pattern-seeking animals. Our brains are hard-wired to seek and find patterns, whether or not the pattern is real. Psychologist Stuart Vyse demonstrated this in his research with his colleague Ruth Heltzer in an experiment in which subjects participated in a video game, the goal of which was to navigate a path through a matrix grid using directional keys to move the cursor. One group of subjects was rewarded with points for successfully finding a way through the grid's lower right portion, while a second group of subjects was rewarded points randomly. Both groups were subsequently asked to describe how they thought the points were rewarded. Most of the subjects in the first group found the pattern of point scoring and accurately described it. Interestingly, most of the subjects in the second group also found "patterns" of point scoring, even though no pattern existed and the points were rewarded randomly. We seek and find patterns because we prefer to view the world as orderly instead of chaotic, and it is orderly often enough that this strategy works. In an ironic twist, it would appear that we were designed by nature to see in nature patterns of our design. Those patterns have to be given an identity, and for thousands of years many of those identities were called gods.

In his 1993 book Fuzzy Thinking, Bart Kosko suggests that belief in God may be something similar to what we see when we look at the pattern in the Kanizsa-square illusion. The experience, Kosko suggests, is not unlike "our vague glimpses of God or His Shadow or His Handiwork ... an illusion in the neural wiring of a creature recently and narrowly evolved on a fluke of a planet in a fluke of a galaxy in a fluke of a universe." The neural wiring in our brain creates "neural nets"--or the sequence of neurons and the gaps between neurons called synapses that together operate in the brain to store memory and pattern information. "These God glimpses or the feeling of God recognition," Kosko intimates, "may be just a `filling in' or deja-vu type anomaly of our neural nets."

The Kanizsa square works to create the illusion of a square that is not really there. The four Pac-Man figures are turned at right angles to one another to create four false boundaries and a bright interior. But there is no square in this figure; the square is in our mind. There appears to be something there when in actual fact there is nothing there. As pattern-seeking animals it is virtually impossible for us not to see the pattern. The same may be true for God. For most of us it is very difficult not to see a pattern of God when looking at the false boundaries and bright interiors of the universe.

Do people see the pattern of God in the world and in their lives and therefore believe in God for perfectly rational reasons? And if they do, does that pattern represent something there or nothing there? Or are there other reasons people believe, such as an emotional need, a fear of death, a hope for immortality, an explanation for evil and suffering, a foundation for morality, parental upbringing, cultural influence, historical momentum, and so on?

More:
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1374/is_6_59/ai_57800244

See also:

Reviews of science books
... He points out that “Humans are pattern-seeking animals” and want to believe
ideas that are simple or comforting and appear to give meaning or ...

Bibli
... Humans are pattern seeking animals, and that's why the virgin Mary shows up
in the darndest places. This enjoyable book cleared up a good deal of my ...
www.cryptoclast.org/main/about/bibli.htm
http://www.rogerdarlington.co.uk/science.html

Remember all the stuff about 9/11?

You could drive yourself nuts with it.

"The last time a beloved public figure (also a tortured woman soul) died was on August 31, 1997."

I hardly think so.

especially when you are already in a very weakened state. I don't think he can last 5 days, even if they are treating him with the incredibly expensive cutting edge drugs now available to treat it.

First we have to make a basic assumption that there is a spirit realm, something that can't be proved yet, but for the sake of a mind excercise go along with me.

So let's say that in this realm there is a constant struggle between the good and bad, the virtuous and the evil, dare I say heaven and hell. Okay, so like any army they need recruits.

I have been wondering about so much natural disaster happening these days with so many innocent lives taken before their time, like in earthquakes and tsunamis, not to mentions the wars going on, like they are calling souls into the ranks.

Now it seems downright bizarre to me that the Pope and Jerry Falwell could be seeing their masters very soon. Now I know Pope John Paul has been very conservative and wrong about many things, but I do believe he was sincere and tried to live his life in a saintly manner as he perceived his church and god expected him to.

Falwell on the other hand has been the perfect messenger of lies for the prince of lies. So for the sake of argument if this was true, I'd say the spirit realm is calling in the generals. Armaggeddon will be played out in the spirit world and we as part of it, will feel the outcome.

50 a year or so? So since Mother Theresa died 300 famous people have died. And you count only two times when it occurred close together? Do you know that if you have 30 kids in a classroom odds are pretty close to half that two of them will have the same birthday (or very close to it). Talk to a statistician - these things are normal.

You ignore all the hurricanes in Florida? Why do you ignore them?

Perhaps because when these two events happened they affected me in some weird cosmic way which has left me wondering? I applauded Princess Diana for her work on the land mines and her work with the children who had AIDS. I also happen to think that Mother Teresa was one of the finest human beings ever to grace the earth. No big mystery that when they died that I felt a void was present by their absence and thought it odd that they died so close together given their age difference. Also lots of famous people do die, but do you believe like many do that they die in 3's?
Perhaps I ignore the hurricanes in Florida because for some reason they didn't strike me as being numerically odd or out of order in the universe.
I've taken college statistics and I know the probable odds of these things being connected are astronomical, still I believe that every now and then we should question things that strike us funny.
I often wonder if sometimes people get so serious here that they cannot see an effort to lighten the mood by some off the wall thinking--nonsense if you will, but just a different train of thought other than the mess our country is in and the helplessness and hopelessness we sometimes feel.
Laugh once or twice in your life and don't make everything a life or death analysis...you might feel better.

two of them occured within a week of them is not odd.

next time I feel something is odd-I'll consult you for your opinion first and make sure it's okay since you seem to be the only one who can decide these things.
Geez.

Edited to add: I wonder how you got over 3000 posts in 6 weeks, I wonder what the odds of.....that you are....oh, never mind.
Mother may I....puleeze.
Buh Bye.:crazy:

You are at two. Relax.

,...than trying to understand something bigger than we can possibibly perceive. I wonder what Einstein's comment would be about looking for patterns in the timing of human events.

.... Repo Man:

"A lot of people don't realize what's going on. They view life as a bunch of unconnected incidents and things. They don't realize that there's this like, lattice of coincidence that lays on top of everything. I'll give you an example. Show you what I mean. Suppose you're thinking about a plate of shrimp. Suddenly, somebody'll say like, plate, or shrimp, or plate of shrimp. Out of the blue. No explanation. No point looking for one either. It's all part of the cosmic unconsciousness."

for a couple of weeks now. I don't know if its just the Shrubs crisis d'jour percolating down into my subconcious or if its the cosmos. Last time I had this was right after the elections. The coverage just didn't feel right. That's when I tuned into AirAmerica and then found DU. Sort of a sheeple getting sheared.

Maybe something good will come from this bad feeling. Maybe it will be Falwell on the 5th. Even so, think I'll start thinking about shrimp. Much safer. LOL.

All of his systems are shutting down. We're talking hours.