This is the cover art for the tenth book in the Emma Wynn Detective Series.

James 1:1: “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.”

As others have pointed out, James was the half-brother of Jesus, but he doesn’t mention this amazing fact in his introduction. He simply calls himself “a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ”. He identifies himself without drawing attention to who he is or what his credentials are.

That is really quite an impressive show of humility and selflessness! Today so many people go out of their way to make sure everyone knows how incredible they are and how many great things they’ve done. Self-promotion is absolutely huge – even among pastors, who can’t seem to resist telling people all the good deeds they’ve done that week or all the amazing things they’ve done in the past. Who today would fail to mention that they were the half-brother of Jesus – especially if they had a book to sell? Talk about instant fame!

James really wasn’t too concerned that people knew who he was, or understood how great he was, or were well-versed in the thousand amazing things he had done. He simply said “I’m James” and then launched into a God-centered and God-glorifying message. You don’t see him talking about how he fed 13 orphans, or raised someone from the dead, or performed miracles, or healed the sick, or anything about himself at all. His focus was on God and on telling others the things they needed to know so that their lives might better glorify their Savior.

We would do well to follow his example. God does not want us spending our time telling others how great we are. If we boast at all, let us boast in the Lord.

Societies that allow all murderers to live have lost some of their hunger for justice and certainly lost their hatred of evil. They also cheapen the crime of murder. Punishment is society’s way of communicating how serious it views a crime, and there is all the difference in the world between the death penalty and life (not to mention less time) in prison.

–Dennis Prager

“This will be our last class of the year,” Professor Grimes announced. “Our next lecture will be in January. I hope all of you have a very blessed New Year’s Eve.”

“Like that’s going to happen,” Lora grumbled. “New Year’s Eve falls on a Saturday this year. A Saturday! We never have classes on Saturday. What fun is having a holiday on a day that we already have off? It’s a total waste!”

Professor Grimes sighed. “Holidays were not created to provide you with an excuse for skipping class. They are days that are set aside so we can celebrate something that is worth celebrating. For example, Christmas is a day to celebrate the birth of Christ. Easter is a day to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. New Year’s is a day to celebrate the start of a new year that is full of possibilities and hope.”

“Does that mean you’re going to let us out early today?” Dan asked hopefully.

“Absolutely not!” Grimes replied. “Why would I do that? After all, you are paying $15,000 a semester to attend this university. You are taking four classes, which means this class is costing you $3750. Each of our semesters has 15 weeks and this class meets twice a week, so there will only be 30 classes. That means each class is costing you $125. If I let you go home now, without teaching you anything, I would essentially be taking your money and providing you nothing in return. That hardly seems fair.”

“It’s not my money,” Lola commented. “My parents are paying for all this.”

“And I am sure that they appreciate your regular attendance to these classes,” the professor remarked. “What truly disturbs me are the 56 people who decided to not attend today. It makes very little sense to pay so much money for a course and then not bother to show up.”

Dan spoke up. “It makes a whole lot of sense to me. Not attending class is way easier than getting out of bed and everything. I mean, really, we just want our degrees. A passing grade is just as good as an A in my book.”

“Are your peers really that delusional? Do they not realize that if they regularly skip classes they will fail the course, and that in turn will damage their efforts to graduate? But I am getting off topic. In this session, as you will know if you did your assigned reading, we are going to discuss the Great Pyramid of Giza.”

Ashley spoke up. “I thought we were discussing crop circles today!”

“Crop circles? Good heavens, no! That lecture is weeks away. Today is the pyramid.”

“What’s so special about it?” Max asked. “It’s a big piles of stones out in the middle of nowhere. Who cares?”

“It is not in the middle of nowhere. The Great Pyramid is actually on the edge of Cairo. The pictures you’ve seen on TV have been carefully cropped to hide the fact that the pyramid is on the outskirts of a very large city. If you actually go there in person you’ll see what I mean. Most pictures of the Great Pyramid are not very honest. Photographers have used all kinds of tricks to hide the buildings, roads, cars, and bustle that surrounds it. They want you think that it’s a pristine monument out in the middle of an empty desert, but it’s really not.

“More importantly, however, the Great Pyramid is not simply a big pile of stones. It is a remarkable feat of engineering. In fact, it is so remarkable that we would be hard-pressed to reproduce it today, even with space-age technology at our disposal. I would even venture to say that if the Great Pyramid had been destroyed long ago and only existed in legends, archaeologists would reject it out-of-hand as being a ridiculous fairy tale. No one would believe that an ancient race could have built such a staggering structure. The only reason people believe it today is because it’s too big to hide. You can’t just sweep one of the largest buildings ever built under a rug – especially when it’s part of the skyline of a large city.”

“But what’s paranormal about it?” Max asked. “Is it haunted with ghosts or something?”

“That is what you’re going to find out,” Professor Grimes said cheerfully. He turned to his desk, picked up a notepad, and began flipping through its pages. “Let’s start out by going over a few basic facts. The pyramid was built about four thousand years ago. No one really knows when it was built, but people have estimated all kinds of dates. Some say it was built around 2560 BC, while others put it in the 22nd century BC. According to my own calculations, the Great Flood occurred in approximately 2348 BC. Since I do not believe any structure could have survived the Flood, I think the 22nd century BC date is much more likely.”

Max called out from the back of the room. “What makes you think that’s when the Flood happened?”

The professor looked up from his notes. “That is an excellent question, but unfortunately the answer is outside the scope of this lecture. I do discuss that in my Biblical History class, however, so if you are truly interested I would suggest signing up for that course.

“As I was saying, the Great Pyramid was built about four thousand years ago by the ancient Egyptians. It is important to emphasize that there is plenty of evidence that the ancient Egyptians really did build it. If that fact was not so well-established it would be quite natural to assume that aliens were responsible. The structure really is that impressive.”

“But there are lots of pyramids in Egypt,” Lora commented. “It’s not like they only built one!”

“That is not quite true. There are indeed other pyramids, but none of the others are anything like the Great Pyramid of Giza. It would be more accurate to say that this was the first pyramid that was built and the others were all crude copies. The Great Pyramid was built of stone; all other pyramids were built of brick. The Great Pyramid has passages inside; all other pyramids are solid. Most importantly, the other pyramids were build as tombs – or, to be precise, as tombstones, as the actual tomb part was located beneath the pyramid. The Great Pyramid, however, was not a tomb.”

“Wait just a minute!” Max called out. “I thought it was built by Khufu to serve as his tomb.”

The professor shook his head. “That is incorrect. Not only was it not a tomb, but the pyramid was probably not built by Khufu at all. The only reason it was attributed to him is because in the 19th century Colonel Howard Vyse discovered a hieroglyph inside the Great Pyramid that bore Khufu’s name. However, it has been shown that the hieroglyph is almost certainly a forgery, put there by Colonel Vyse himself as a ploy to secure funding. In other words, the one hieroglyph in the entire pyramid is probably a hoax – and although archaeologists hate to admit it, the Khufu story is a hoax as well.

“That issue aside, the pyramid itself bears no indication that it was ever intended to be a tomb. Royal Egyptian tombs are filled with frescoes, hieroglyphs, and artifacts. This pyramid, despite the astonishing energy and precision that was poured into its design, is devoid of all of these things. Moreover, when the pyramid was entered for the first time in 820 AD the diggers discovered that the pyramid’s original entrance was sealed. No one had ever entered the pyramid before them, and yet it was found empty. So we are not dealing with a pyramid that was looted. This pyramid was found intact, but contained no artifacts, body, or writing. There is also the point that what is commonly called the ‘granite sarcophagus’ is actually far too small to house an embalmed, decorated Egyptian corpse.”

“So why is it there?” Ashley asked.

Lora spoke up. “I heard it was the same size as the Ark of the Covenant.”

Professor Grimes shook his head. “I have heard that as well, but that information is incorrect. According to the Bible the Ark of the Covenant measured 45” long by 27” wide by 27” tall. The granite sarcophagus, when measured from the inside, is 78” long by 27” wide by 34” high. Not only are they different sizes, but they are different shapes as well.”

“Oh,” Lora replied. “But what about their volumes? Are they the same?”

“They’re not even close, I’m afraid. The Ark was 32,805 cubic inches. The sarcophagus is 71,604 cubic inches. There is no actual similarity between the two. The Ark would technically fit inside the sarcophagus, but there would be a great deal of space left over.”

“So if it’s not a tomb then what was it?” Ashley asked.

“That is an excellent question, and it has puzzled scholars for centuries. The ancient Jewish historian Josephus, who lived about two thousand years ago, stated that it was built to record the knowledge of the heavens. We’ll get to that a little later, however.

“As I was saying, the Great Pyramid is a remarkable building. Before its exterior casing stones were stolen (which is a topic for another lecture) the pyramid was 480.6 feet high. It contains approximately 2.3 million blocks of stone, which vary in weight from 2.5 metric tonnes to more than 70 metric tonnes. The pyramid held the record for being the tallest building in the world until 1311 AD, when the Lincoln Cathedral in England surpassed it by 45 feet. The mass of the pyramid is estimated to be 5.9 million metric tonnes, and its volume is a little over 88 million cubic feet. By way of comparison, the Empire State Building weighs only 331,000 metric tonnes and has a volume of just 37 million cubic feet.”

“So it’s big,” Max commented. “I get that.”

“It is a great deal more than just big. Let’s stop and think about its construction for a minute. Modern historians claim that the pyramid was built over the course of 20 years by laborers who worked on it during the three months of the year when the Nile was flooding. Three months a year for twenty years comes out to a mere 60 months. If we estimate using 30-day months, that means the pyramid was built in 1800 days. In order to lay 2.3 million blocks of stone in 1800 days you would have to lay 1,278 block per day. If they worked during the daylight hours that would give then 10 hours a day to work, which means they would have to lay 128 blocks per hour, or roughly 2 per minute. Even using modern technology it would be enormously difficult to move a new multi-tonne stone into position every 30 seconds – to say nothing of doing it with the ancient Egyptian’s incredible precision and accuracy.

“And the ancient Egyptians knew a great deal about precision. The multi-tonne casing stones that once covered the pyramid were joined together with seams that were less than 1/50th of an inch, and the stones themselves were within one one-hundredth of an inch of being perfectly straight. Those are incredibly fine tolerances! The 13-acre base of the pyramid is less than one inch away from being perfectly level. The Great Pyramid has been called the most accurately constructed building in the world. I think that is an understatement. It is not just an accurately-constructed building, nor is it simply an impossibly massive building. It is a building that shows tremendous insight into the world at large.

“The faces of the pyramid line up to the points of the compass (pointing to truth north, not magnetic north), with an incredibly small error of three minutes of a degree. It’s possible that even that error is due to the land itself shifting. The pyramid sits on the center of the earth’s land mass, meaning whoever built it had to have an accurate map of the entire globe. If you multiply the mass of the pyramid by 1000 trillion you get the mass of the Earth, which is estimated to be 6.0 x 1024 kilograms.”

“How did they figure that out?” Ashley asked.

“Simple Newtonian physics,” the professor explained. “The equation isn’t that difficult. If you know the gravitational constant and the radius of the Earth you can just plug in the numbers and solve.”

“But how did the Egyptians know about Newtonian physics?”

“That is an excellent question! Apparently whoever built the pyramid was aware of the radius of the Earth, had an accurate map of the planet, knew the gravitational constant, and had a good grasp of Newtonian physics. It also appears they knew a great deal more than that. If you take the circumference of the pyramid and divide that by twice its height, you get 3.14159 – a value of pi that is accurate to six places. That’s quite remarkable when you stop and realize that that level of accuracy was not surpassed until the 15th century. Even the Greeks were only able to arrive at a value of 3.1416.”

“That’s pretty close,” Ashley said.

“Yes it is – but it took nearly 1300 years to get a more accurate number than that. Yet the ancient Egyptians had a more precise approximation of pi long before the Greek civilization even existed.”

Max spoke up. “So let me get this straight. You’re saying that the ancient Egyptians were more advanced than the ancient Greeks?”

“I think that is a fair statement. The Greeks were quite brilliant but they never produced anything nearly as massive or impressive as the Great Pyramid. When you add in the fact that the ancient Egyptians built something that lasted for four millennia, it becomes even more impressive.”

“I still don’t see what this has to do with the paranormal, though.”

Professor Grimes put his notes back on his desk. “Let’s lay aside for the moment all of the evidence that demonstrates that the ancient Egyptians were not actually primitive at all. We’ll set aside their amazing knowledge of physics, topography, mathematics, and so forth, and concentrate on just one thing: the mind-boggling feat of stacking 2.3 million really large blocks in a very short amount of time. That is something we would be hard-pressed to do today, even using space-age technology! How did these people manage to position one new stone every thirty seconds? If you assume that the pyramid was built in just 3 to 5 years instead of 20 then the problems become much worse. Even if the pyramid showed absolutely zero knowledge of pi, physics, or anything else, you are still faced with the question of how they managed to build it in the first place.”

Ashley spoke up. “I still don’t get why it was built. If it’s not a tomb then why did they bother?”

“Quite so! But, as I was saying, the question of how the pyramid was constructed has been a very difficult one to solve. The standard answer is that they just used a lot of slave labor – which is really not an answer at all. You simply cannot move a 100,000 pound block of stone by hand, and even if you could you certainly can’t move them into place at a rate of two per minute. That is so silly that it’s laughable. The modern idea that the Great Pyramid was built by a bunch of slaves who pushed giant stones the size of houses up ramps is impractical, bogus, and entirely wrong.

“From there the theories get even more bizarre. Some people have suggested that sound waves were used to magically levitate the stones into place. Others have said that perhaps aliens were involved.”

Max spoke up. “Is this where the paranormal stuff comes in?”

Professor Grimes smiled. “For many people, yes. They claim that the Great Pyramid must have a paranormal explanation, for there is simply no other way to explain its construction. I am here to tell you that this is not the case. The secret behind the pyramid’s construction is actually quite simple: the stones were poured.”

“They were what?” Ashley asked.

“They were poured, like concrete. The stones are artificial, just like the sidewalks outside. Oh, they weren’t all poured. Some of them really were quarried. But quite a lot of them aren’t real. This fact came to light when Jospeh Davidovits used x-ray diffraction to analyze the stones and found air bubbles in them. Real stones – stones taken from the same quarry the ancient Egyptians used – don’t have air bubbles. The Egyptians didn’t carve stones, float them down river for miles, and then drag them up the side of the pyramid. They just poured them.

“Interestingly, history records that ancient Egypt did have the technology to do this. Pliny the Elder reported that they used this ability to make artificial stone vases.”

Lora spoke up. “Seriously? That’s not nearly as impressive. I mean, c’mon, we could do that. How is that paranormal?”

“It’s not paranormal at all. As I said in our very first session, this class is an investigation into paranormal claims. Some claims will be found true, while others will be found false. As interesting as it would be for the pyramids to have been built by space aliens, I am afraid that’s simply not how it was done. The reality is that the secret to their construction is rather mundane. Now, I do not want put down the ancient Egyptians in any way. What they did was brilliant, and the Great Pyramid is still a magnificent achievement. But it is not a paranormal one.

“Does that mean we’re done?” Dan asked.

“No, not quite. There is one other paranormal aspect to the Great Pyramid that I’d like to investigate. We’ve explored how the pyramid was built and demonstrated that, while its construction is impressive, it was not done using magic. Now it’s time to turn to another subject: why was the pyramid built? As I said earlier, despite what people may try to tell you, it was definitely not a tomb.

“If you think about it, it’s rather amazing that we have to ask this question at all! Here we have one of the most massive buildings on Earth, and yet we don’t know why it was built. You would think this would be an easy question to answer, but it’s not. I’ve heard many theories over the years, but all of them have problems. For example, it’s quite possible that Josephus was right, and the Great Pyramid was simply Egypt’s way of demonstrating that they were a world power. They may have built the pyramid to show off their advanced technology, and perhaps they encoded within it their extensive knowledge of physics, geography, and mathematics just to show off. This may be all the pyramid was meant to be. It’s worth noting that before the finishing stones were stolen from it the pyramid could be seen from a great many miles away – it was that good at reflecting the sun. If they wanted to build something that said ‘Look how amazing we are!’ then the Great Pyramid does a pretty spectacular job.

“The problem I have with that theory is that it doesn’t explain the interior of the pyramid. If the Great Pyramid was just a vanity project then there’s no need to even have an interior. All of the other pyramids in Egypt are solid; there’s no reason why this one couldn’t have been solid as well. Yet it is not solid, and there are chambers inside it. Besides, if the Egyptians just wanted to brag about their knowledge they could have covered its interior with hieroglyphics, just as they did in tombs – but they didn’t. They could have buried someone inside it, or stored amazing artifacts of antiquity and wonder – but they chose not to. Nor are there any signs that the pyramid was left half-finished or was somehow interrupted before it was completed. The exterior of the pyramid was designed with incredible precision and accuracy, which makes it extremely likely that the pyramid’s interior was shown that same level of care. It must have meant something. Take the so-called ‘sarcophagus’, for example – it’s too large to fit through any of the corridors, so it must have been placed there while the pyramid was still being built. Someone wanted it to be there and planned accordingly. But why? What purpose does it serve?”

“Is this where the paranormal stuff comes in?” Ashley asked.

Professor Grimes smiled. “For some people, yes. Since there is no natural explanation – or, at least, not one that anyone has discovered – some begin to look for supernatural explanations. There is one theory in particular that seems to be spreading rapidly, and I’d like to take a moment to address it.

“There is only one way to enter the Great Pyramid, and that is through a passageway on the north-facing side. On one day in history that passageway lined up with the north star. That happened in 2141 BC, and it will not happen again for another 26,000 years. The reason people care about this is because they’ve discovered that if they take the dimensions of the interior of the pyramid and convert them into Pyramid Inches (which are said to be 1/25th of a cubit, or 1.00106 British inches), then they find something interesting.”

“Hold on,” Max said. “Where does the Pyramid Inch come from?”

“It was actually derived from the pyramid itself,” Professor Grimes explained. “Someone discovered that if you analyze the pyramid’s dimensions using that particular unit then all the numbers become round numbers. They therefore speculate that that was the unit that was used to build the pyramid. As far as I’ve been able to determine, no past civilization has ever actually used that unit of measurement.

“Anyway, the theory is that pyramid inches inside the pyramid correspond to years. For example, if you walk into the pyramid and keep going down until you reach the ascending passage, you will have traveled 688 pyramid inches. 688 years after 2141 BC is 1453 BC, which is the approximate date of the Exodus. If you take the ascending passage and keep going up until you reach the grand galley, you will have traveled another 1485 inches. 1485 years after 1453 BC is 33 AD, which is the approximate date of the Crucifixion. If you then keep on going through the galley until you reach its end, you will have traveled another 1881 inches. 1881 years after 33 AD is 1914 AD, the start of World War I.”

“That’s amazing!” Ashley said.

“Yes, it certainly is. If you stop there then it would appear that we have our answer. The exterior of the pyramid was built to demonstrate the Egyptian’s knowledge of the Earth, and the interior showed their mastery over time. They knew all about the great moments of history long before they ever happened, and they encoded this knowledge within the pyramid.”

Max spoke up. “That’s preposterous!”

“But the math works,” Lora protested.

“I don’t care. It’s still crazy! There’s no way they could have known all those things.”

Professor Grimes nodded. “You’re quite right – it is preposterous. It’s true that if you stop there the theory looks pretty convincing. However, if you keep on going then the theory falls apart. The interior of the pyramid does not stop at the end of the grand galley. You can keep going up and down the passages, but the rest of the dates appear to be random. For example, if you go down the passageway instead of going up to the grand galley, you will eventually reach a lower level. That date corresponds to 1521. Martin Luther was excommunicated by the Pope that year, but that’s about it. Some have claimed that that’s when Luther wrote his 95 theses, but that’s incorrect. He actually nailed them to the door of the Castle Church of Whittenberg on October 31, 1517.

“If you don’t enter the grand galley and instead walk off to the Queen’s Chamber, its entrance corresponds to 1979. Nothing of any great historical significance happened that year – certainly nothing on par with the start of World War I. The end of the Queen’s Chamber corresponds to 2979, making the room 1000 years wide. Needless to say, the millennial reign of Christ did not begin in 1979.”

“This theory is sounding pretty busted,” Max commented.

“You are absolutely right, and there’s an important lesson here. When examining a case it is very important to not stop too soon. If we had only looked at the initial results of the date hypothesis it would have been easy to conclude that it was correct. However, by testing it further we demonstrated that it had very serious problems. It is vital to press on in your analysis until every last piece of ground has been covered. Stopping too soon could leave critical facts hidden – facts that might change your outlook on a story.

“What this means is that we simply don’t know why the Great Pyramid was built. Sadly, it is entirely possible that we will never know. History has a way of obscuring the truth, and after enough time has passed even well-known facts can be entirely lost. It is possible to regain scientific knowledge, but once historical facts are gone they are usually gone for good.”

“Unless someone builds a time machine,” Lora commented.

Professor Grimes smiled. “That is a possibility that we may explore in a future class. For now it looks like our time is up, so I will let you go. I hope you have a great weekend and a very blessed New Year!”

Why is it noble to keep all murderers alive? Was Israel less noble for executing Adolf Eichmann, the architect of the Holocaust? When two men enter the home of a family of four; rape the wife and two young daughters; beat all four nearly to death, leaving them in the agony of crushed bones and skulls; and then tie them up and burn the three females to death, why is it “noble” to keep the men who did that alive?

–Dennis Prager

Hebrews 13:9: “Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.”

The Bible’s philosophy is not “eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” Rather, the Lord wants us to be careful that we don’t give ourselves over to food and drink, seeking fulfillment in it instead of in Him. Eating things does not draw us closer to God, but it can be a distraction if we seek to please our flesh instead of Him. As this verse says, food has not profited those who have been obsessed with it.

Where do we find our joy? Is it in the things that we eat, the things that our flesh craves, the things that we covet, or in our Lord? Are we exercising wisdom, or are we simply giving our body over to whatever it happens to want?

Does that mean that it’s a sin to enjoy our favorite foods? Of course not! But we need to be very careful with our heart. God does not want us to think “Well, I want it, so I’ll just do it. God wants me to be happy and if I do whatever I want, when I want, then life will be good.” God wants us to die to ourselves and to our own desires and then live unto Him, giving ourselves wholly over to Him so that our lives might bring Him honor. Our mission in life should not be self-gratification. In a sense one might say that we are not here to pursue happiness, for being a Christian often means suffering tremendously (as Jesus Himself did). Rather, we are here to serve the Lord and bring Him glory. That should be the focus of our life.

This is the cover art for the ninth book in the Emma Wynn Detective Series.

Hebrews 12:15: “Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;”

It is so important for us to not become bitter. Bitterness can absolutely ruin us. After all, God has called us to love one another, and to even love our enemies. How can we love our enemies if we are consumed with bitterness? How can we love someone who we hate? It is simply not possible.

This means that even if someone sins against us and is not the least bit sorry about it, we must still let it go. We must not hold onto it, or dwell on it, or allow it to eat us alive. If we do then it will destroy us. Holding onto a grudge will kill our ability to minister to that person. How can we expect to show God’s love to someone that we despise? Yes, it’s not fair that we were treated that way. Yes, the other person is not sorry. But there are times when we simply have to accept the suffering. Remember, Christ suffered unfairly too, and the servant is not greater than his master. If He was unfairly treated and tortured then is it really that big a surprise when we are treated the same way? Did not Jesus warn us that these things would happen?

Now, this does not mean that we should not long for justice, for even in Heaven the martyrs cried out for the Lord to avenge them. But bitterness is something we must not allow into our lives. If we do it will kill us.

The late sociologist Ernest van den Haag had an interesting thought experiment. Suppose that murders committed on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays carried a death sentence, while those committed on the other days were punishable by a prison sentence. On which days do you suppose more murders would be committed?

The notion that parking tickets deter illegal parking but that death does not deter murder is truly irrational. It shows what happens when people put ideology over common sense.

–Dennis Prager

Many science fiction stories contain aliens, with most of the intelligent ones looking more or less human. Some stories, however, explore the boundaries of what these aliens might be like, in an effort to challenge the way we think of world around us and ultimately ourselves. Or these authors might just be inventing freaks to get attention and therefore more sales of their book / movie / tv show. At any rate, some of these various works of fiction have prompted me to wonder just what are the limits of form for an intelligent being, specifically: What is the minimum possible size for a creature or machine with an intelligence on par with a human?

Given that life on Earth can be found in sizes ranging down to the microscopic bacteria, the apparent limiting factor here is most likely the brain itself. The human brain is apparently about as small as our neuron and synapse based brains can get without sacrificing its intelligence, so clearly the absolute smallest intelligent brain would have to use some other mechanism. A computer processor can pack a lot of computational power in a small space (current processors are about the size of an Oreo and can process data roughly 1% as fast as some estimates for the human brain), but the smallest data processing unit I know of is is the quantum dot. Quantum dots come in a lot of sizes these days, but since I am looking for the smallest I will call them about 1 nanometer in diameter.

To make a quantum processor capable of matching human intelligence, it will need equivalent processing speed. Unfortunately, no one knows exactly how fast the human brain works and to further complicate the issue, the brain, quantum processors and ordinary transistor processors all process information in fundamentally different ways, so comparing them in a meaningful way is almost impossible. I’m not willing to attempt a real solution at formulating a comparison here, so I’ll just pretend that one quantum dot is equivalent to one synapse.

The human brain contains around 100 billion (10¹¹) neurons, each of which has thousands of synapses, which works out to 10¹⁵ synapse in total. This means that the tiny quantum brain will have 10¹⁵ dots each about one cubic nanometer in volume. Without allowing for any space between them this would only make a block 0.1 mm wide, even with some generous padding our fictional brain is not likely to be more than 1 mm in width.

This is far smaller than I had expected. Given this limit an intelligent creature might well exist that is only an inch (2 cm) or so tall.

Professor Grimes walked into the room a few minutes before his class was scheduled to start. A quick head-count revealed that only five people had shown up. Given that 64 people had signed up for the course he had hoped for a better showing, but experience had taught him that the first class after Christmas rarely attracted many students. People apparently thought that the holiday was a good excuse to take it easy – not just on Christmas itself, but also in the week before and the week after. This fact greatly irritated him when he first started teaching, but over the years he had come to accept it. As his father had told him many years ago, you might wish that the weather was different, but it is what it is and you have to live with it. And so the professor made the best of things.

“Good morning, students,” Professor Grimes said brightly. “It’s good to see you here today. I trust that you all had a blessed Christmas.”

“I spent the whole day sick,” Ashley complained.

The professor looked at her, concerned. “Are you still sick?”

“I don’t think so. I might be contagious, though. I don’t really know.”

“Have you been to see a doctor?”

“Yeah.”

“What did he tell you?”

“That I was sick.”

Professor Grimes sighed. “I see. Well, as I was saying, I hope you all had a blessed Christmas. Today we are going to continue our research into the topic of the paranormal. Last week we studied the black knight satellite, which–”

“Which turned out to be a hoax,” a student in the back of the room called out. “And I bet today we’re going to learn that ghosts are a hoax too! Why not just call this class the ‘study of paranormal hoaxes’ and be done with it?”

“Because this is not a study of hoaxes, Max. It is a study of paranormal phenomena. As I said in our last class, some of the stories in the textbook are simply modern myths, but others are quite real. The whole point of this class is to investigate them, not to make snap judgments and then move on to something else.”

“But ghosts aren’t real! Everyone knows that. This is all bogus.”

The professor shook his head. “I am afraid you are very much mistaken. This is one area where we do not have to depend on obscure accounts in little-known books. I found it remarkably easy to find firsthand accounts from reputable people. In fact, I actually know several people who experienced hauntings personally, and I know of several houses that are genuinely haunted. These are not stories of someone who knows someone who knows someone else. I have talked with people who witnessed these things first hand. Moreover, I suspect that if you ask your peers you will be able to track down other firsthand accounts. Hauntings are so widespread that this is not very difficult.”

“You can’t be serious,” Max scoffed. “That’s crazy.”

“It’s not crazy at all. In fact, if none of your friends have ever told you a ghost story then your attitude may be the reason why. If you make it known that you consider seeing a ghost a sign of insanity, then people who have seen them will go out of their way to avoid telling you about it. After all, no one wants to appear stupid. But genuine accounts of ghosts are quite common and are not hard to track down. In fact, these things even happen to well-known people.

“Therefore, in my mind, the question is not whether there are ghosts, or whether hauntings occur. In my opinion these things can be taken for granted. The question is, what is the truth behind this matter? Are ghosts simply the spirits of the dead, or are they something else? Who is actually behind these phenomena and what is really going on?”

“I still think this is all nonsense,” Max replied.

“Many people do, until it happens to them. In fact, I remember reading an account of someone who was every bit as skeptical as you. This person was actually a member of a local skeptic’s society and spent his free time debunking things like this. Then one day it started happening to him.”

The professor turned around, picked up a sheaf of papers off his desk, and began leafing through it. “Oh, here we go. This person is a contributor to a well-known political blog and, to the best of my knowledge, is not religious in any way. His bias against the supernatural was quite strong until this happened. Here is his account:”

My fiancee and I moved into our current residence in April. Spacious, private, it’s right up our alley at least until we can get an apartment. Soon after moving in I began to notice some strange things. In the living room, I would turn off the light and TV when going to bed. An hour later, they would be back on. Footsteps around 3am. Cold spots during the heat of summer. Odd things, but I tried not to give them much thought.

About a month in, my far better half started complaining she was being “woken up” by something in the night that would poke her arm. I joked it was probably me, until one night I couldn’t sleep and found myself watching TV in the living room. Erinn started tossing and turning, then came into the room telling me she didn’t appreciate me trying to wake her up. I told her I would turn the TV down, but she insisted “you know what I mean, poking me like that. Don’t act like you’ve been in here the whole time.”

I have spent some free time in the past year serving as a skeptic for a local paranormal group. I came to their investigations with the approach that everything has a rational explanation, and barring a few odds and ends, most of the “activity” being reported did. So now, I had the awkward situation of having this happen in my own house.

Curious, we decided to run the “flashlight test” in the bedroom. For those unfamiliar, you remove the front part of a flashlight away from the battery just enough that a “ghost” can still make the connection and turn the bulb on, but you can’t turn it on yourself by bumping or blowing on it. Our question “is there someone here who wants us to know they are” was answered by both the flashlight on the floor, and our bedroom lighting, which simultaneously brightened then dimmed. Testing my initial reaction that it was just coincidence, we asked again, and again the flashlight and our room lighting brightened and dimmed.

Erinn asked more questions, and per the tedious yes/no responses we came to find out it was simply trying to get our attention, to acknowledge it was here in our house. The poking, the footsteps, and even audible name calling were all because of that. We eventually found out from our landlord that the previous owner had fallen in the kitchen downstairs and died from her injuries shortly thereafter, so perhaps that is who has been wandering in our room.

From time to time we hear the noises, but it has quieted down a lot since we had “talked” with whatever or whoever it is. We like the place too much to leave and it doesn’t seem to mind us now that we have settled in. I suspect most “hauntings” run along these lines, as opposed to the Hollywood bed-rattling and full-body apparitions.

A girl in the front row shivered. “That’s freaky,” Ashley said.

“It is an intriguing story,” the professor replied. “There are several things that stand out about it. First of all, this happened to someone who did not believe in the paranormal, and it had the effect of converting a materialist into someone who was open to the supernatural. In fact, according to the ghost, that was the whole reason behind the hauntings. The ghost knew that this person was a skeptic and wanted to prove that the skeptic was wrong. In other words, the ghost had a specific agenda.

“Second, the ghost was far more powerful than the skeptic was willing to admit. The ghost had the ability to operate electrical appliances, to turn lights on and off, to interact physically with people, to change the local temperature, and to even make noises and talk.”

“But they didn’t actually talk to the ghost,” Ashley pointed out.

“That’s true, and that is an excellent point. The ghost clearly had the ability to talk, because the skeptic mentioned ‘audible name calling’. Therefore, the ghost could talk but chose to communicate through the skeptic’s crude flashlight setup. The question is, why?”

Ashley shrugged. “How should I know? It’s a ghost. Maybe that’s just the way they do things.”

The professor shook his head. “I think the ghost knew exactly what it was doing. It’s clear that the ghost had real powers. It could not be seen, and yet it could physically interact with people. It could not be detected, but it could operate electrical appliances. That is actually terrifying – to know there is an unseen entity living in your house that you cannot control, and yet it could kill you if it wanted to. Yet because of the way the ghost approached the situation, the skeptic came away not only believing in ghosts but believing that they were also harmless. The reality is that they are not harmless at all.”

Max laughed. “Ghosts can’t kill people! That’s ridiculous.”

“If a ghost can affect electrical machinery then it can certainly kill you. Your car, after all, is an electrical machine. So is an airplane. If a ghost can operate a switch then it could easily bring down a plane or cause your car to crash. Moreover, if a ghost can poke someone awake then I see no reason why it couldn’t strangle them in their beds. The only reason the skeptic was not scared was because the ghost said it meant no harm.”

“And I’m sure the ghost was being honest,” Ashley replied. “After all, it was just the spirit of the dead landlady. I’m sure she didn’t want to hurt anyone.”

“How do you know that’s who it was?” Professor Grimes asked.

“Isn’t is obvious?” Ashley asked. “I mean, come on. The landlady died, and then the ghost appeared right after that! There’s got to be a connection.”

“There may be a connection, but I doubt it is the one you’re thinking of. One thing we can know for certain is that ghosts are not the departed spirits of the dead. We know this because the Bible is quite clear about what happens after death. When–”

“Objection!” Max called out. “You can’t go around using the Bible to prove things. That’s preposterous.”

Professor Grimes looked at the student, surprised. “Young man, this is a theological seminary. The only degrees we offer are related to divinity, theological studies, and becoming a pastor. All of those degree programs rely heavily on the Bible. If you object to the Scriptures then what on earth are you doing here?”

“It’s the principle of the thing. Lots of pastors don’t believe the Bible.”

The professor sighed. “Judging by the polling data I have seen, I must admit there is truth to that. There are a great many people in churches today – including in pulpits – who do not believe what the Bible says. Why they chose a career teaching things that they believe are lies is something I will never understand. The fact remains, however, that the Bible is wholly true and without error. It can be trusted, and in this class I will use it as a source of infallible truth. Therefore, I will take it at its word.

“It is especially important to trust it when it comes to what happens after death. The very nature of that subject makes scientific investigation impossible. Scientists cannot perform experiments to find out what the afterlife is like. The only way to get firsthand knowledge of death is to die, and once you die you cannot come back. Therefore, all we can do is believe the account that God has given to us. Fortunately, God has revealed quite a lot about what happens after death. Those who repent and believe in Christ go on to live with Him in Heaven, and those who reject Him are taken to Hell, where they are tormented. Since this is not a theological studies class I will not elaborate on this point. It suffices to say that the dead do not have the option of coming back to Earth and haunting people. Those who are in Hell are trapped there, and those who are in Heaven do not make field trips back to Earth – barring a few very specific exceptions, such as Moses and Elijah on the mount of Transfiguration. Moreover, no one has the option of staying here in ghost form and avoiding both Heaven and Hell.”

“So ghosts aren’t dead people, then?” Ashley asked.

“No, they are not. Dead people are not given the option of becoming ghosts. Therefore, if ghosts are real – and I believe they are – they must be something else.”

Ashley looked puzzled. “Well, what are they?”

The professor glanced down at the notes that he was still holding in his hand. “Before I answer that question let’s take a look at a few more cases. The blog post I mentioned earlier generated quite a response. Other people came forward with their own stories. I cannot vouch for the truth of any of these, but they do line up with the firsthand accounts that I’ve heard. These kind of hauntings are fairly typical. For example:”

I moved into my house with my ex a few years ago. Basement was a gaudy swinger/Moron pad with 4′ high mirror-walls and rope lights above wood wainscoating which ran around a huge living room / party area. Wall to wall to wall.

Every time I would walk upstairs to the main floor, at the third step from the top, I would ‘feel’ something angry looking at the back of me. More of an impression; plus fear that something bad was behind me.

Happened every time I came up the stairs. Never mentioned it to the wife.
About a month after moving in, we were sitting upstairs talking about how much we liked the new house. I said, “I love this place, except for that one spot.” She looked over and immediately asked, “The third step from the top?” “Yes! You feel it too?!”

She felt the same thing at the same spot and we had never talked about it. A few months later we remodeled the basement. From the day they took out the mirrors, I have never felt anything on the stairs.

As they say, until it happens to you. But for me, I believe…

“That’s lame,” Ashley commented. “So they had a scary feeling! Boo hoo.”

“Yes, but think about it,” the professor urged. “Two different people, both apparently former skeptics, got a very bad feeling from the weirdest of things – walking on the third step of a staircase. There is no reason why such a trivial thing should incite a feeling of terror. Yet, some entity was able to inspire a genuine haunting emotion without ever touching the person or actually appearing. That is a remarkable ability! After all, the only way you would know if I was angry was if you saw me, or heard me, or saw something that I had done. Yet this being was able to convey anger telepathically. That is deeply troubling.

“This also points out something else: these ghosts have emotions, and they are not good ones. In this case we see anger demonstrated. In the previous case we saw pride – the unseen ghost was being ignored, and it didn’t like it at all.

“All of this brings us to the third case. This one is highly instructive:”

I once lived in an old pre-Civil War era house. ….It was cool. The rent was cheap and it had lots of extra rooms, extra space.

There was one room that was full of junk left by previous occupants. We didn’t think anything about it at the time, but all the junk was piled up in the far corner of the room…..in a sort of junk mountain.

We cleaned all the old junk out and didn’t use that room for a while. Then, we started storing boxes of our own stuff in there…..and some odd chairs.

When we went to get something in that room, we found that all of our stuff had been piled up on top of itself in the far corner…..just like the old previous junk had been.

We moved it all back. Came back later….it was back in the corner.

This went on for the entire time we lived there. Whatever was left in that room would end up piled on top of the other stuff, in that far corner. ….We never heard a sound. …..And we could never catch it happening. No matter how much we tried to catch it in the act.

“Now that’s creepy,” Ashley said.

“It’s also very revealing. This ghost wanted to prove that it lived there, and it did so in a rather childish fashion. It, too, had rather startling powers – it was able to move physical objects, it could do so silently, and it had the ability to avoid being detected despite the intense desire of these people to catch it in the act. That could explain the failure of the ghost hunter shows on TV – if these ghosts do not want to be found then they are very capable of avoiding being detected.”

“But why? I mean, why would they show themselves to some people but not to everyone? What’s the point of that?”

“That is exactly the right question to ask,” Professor Grimes said. “These beings are obviously powerful. They can operate electrical machinery, they can interact physically, they can move objects, they can talk, and they can communicate emotions telepathically. They are also arrogant, childish, and proud. They go out of their way to prove to skeptics that they are real, and yet they avoid doing anything that would make the general public realize just how real and dangerous they actually are. It is as if they are playing a game, living in the shadows. They want to be feared but not understood. They want people to know they are there but they wish to remain hidden in the darkness.

“The question is, who are these beings? They are clearly not the spirits of dead people – the Bible rules that out. I also doubt that they are angels. Angels certainly have a great deal of power and may be capable of doing all these things, but angels are the servants of God, bound to do His will and His will alone. I find it impossible to believe that they spend their free time moving around people’s furniture in childish displays of ill humor. No, I believe we can rule that out. It is simply not in the character of an angel to act in this manner.”

“So what are they?” Ashley asked.

Professor Grimes paused for a moment. “I believe they are demons. The Bible refers to them as familiar spirits, and strictly warns against having anything to do with them. Demons are a perfect match for the modern ghost phenomena. They are spirits, they have the power to do everything that ghosts have been documented as doing, and they are evil. Demons are quite capable of physical interaction with people, and they can most certainly talk. I have no doubt that they can operate appliances and move physical objects.”

“But ghosts are harmless!” Ashley protested. “They don’t go around possessing people.”

“I disagree. I think that demon possession still happens today, although it is more rare than it was when Jesus walked the Earth. The problem is that modern society does not believe in evil spirits, so they simply diagnose it as some type of severe psychological disorder. Now, let me say that there are definitely genuine psychological illnesses, and I do not want to downplay that. But I suspect some people are afflicted with something far worse than a mere psychosis and are simply being medicated.

“It is also not true that all ghost stories are harmless. The people who I have talked with in person have told me genuinely frightening stories that are far worse than the mundane accounts I’ve seen online. These people were physically attacked by something they could not see, or saw their children attacked. Their appliances were not merely turned on or off, but actually destroyed. Their possessions were not stacked in a corner, but picked up by an invisible force and thrown at them. Those are not things that a holy and righteous angel would be doing. No, those are demonic acts, done by deeply evil spirits.”

“What are you saying?” Ashley asked.

“I am saying that this world is filled with vast numbers of enormously powerful spirit beings – beings that we cannot see, but which have immense abilities. The book of Revelation hints that there may be hundreds of millions of them. On the one side are the angels, who worship God and fight that His will be done. On the other side are the evil spirits, who oppress, harm, lie, and destroy. You cannot see either side, but they are there and they are very real. The angels are mighty warriors who work to protect the people of God and further His agenda, and they outnumber the evil spirits two-to-one. The evil spirits, however, are desperately wicked. They will destroy your life if they can, and they are determined to do so.

“Oh, they may not appear to be all that dangerous. To some people, like the skeptic, ghosts seem pretty harmless. But there is nothing harmless about them or their aims. The Bible calls their leader the father of lies and the adversary of all believers. They are extremely deceptive, and at times they may even appear to be helpful. Even Satan can appear to be an angel of light. But there is nothing good about them or their goals.”

“I don’t like the sound of that,” Ashley said.

“Then you are thinking clearly,” Professor Grimes remarked. “It is vital to understand that ghosts are not a harmless fantasy – they are a very evil reality, and should be avoided. The Bible strictly forbids interacting with familiar spirits. Do not go near them. Do not live where they dwell. Do not interact with them. You do not want to make friends with them. If anything, we are all called to be ghost busters. It is our job as Christians to resist them – to fight back.”

“But how can anyone possibly fight something they can’t see?” Max asked.

“Why, with spiritual weapons, of course. The Apostle Paul talked about this nearly two thousand years ago, and his words are as true today as they were then. As he said in Ephesians, ‘For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.’”

Ashley looked confused. “What does that even mean?”

“It means that we’re at war – not with mere communists or terrorists, but with the rulers of darkness and with spiritual wickedness in high places. There is a battle going on around you and evil is doing all it can to utterly destroy you. Your only hope for survival is to hide yourself in God and use His power to fight back. Ephesians 6 lays out the battle plan for fighting these beings. It can be done. As Christians, the forces of darkness have no power over us because Jesus Christ is within us and He has overcome the world. He who is in us is greater than the evil spirits that are in the world.

“Now, exorcism is another topic entirely and it is well outside the scope of this class. That is one of many subjects that the modern Church does not teach on, and so many believers are ill-equipped to fight. If this is something that interests you then I highly suggest doing some additional research, as I assure you your enemy is well-equipped and highly focused. If you resist the devil then he will flee from you, but if you don’t resist then he will ‘sift you as wheat’, as Jesus said.”

“I don’t get it,” Ashley said.

Max spoke up. “It means he’s going to mop the floor with you.”

“Oh.”

The professor glanced up at the clock. “Students, it looks like that’s all we have time for today, so I’m going to let you go. Be sure to read the next chapter in your book before the next lecture. Class dismissed!”

Those who want to replace our King James Version with new Modern Versions are constantly stating that no Bible Doctrines are affected by the changes. One school recently published an article by one of its’ teachers in which he said that, “BOTH TEXTS ARE THE WORD OF GOD.” It is difficult to understand how two texts differing in over 5,000 places can both be the Word of God.

–Paul L. Freeman

Hebrews 12:6: “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.”

This brings up a very important point. The Lord hates sin, and when it is in our lives the Lord will bring things to bear in order to drive it out. This is being done because He loves us. He is like a father, who is unwilling to see His sons fall into destruction. It is not a pleasant thing but it is necessary.

On the other hand, the Lord does not chasten those who are not His. This is why they can lead such terrible lives and yet everything seems to go well for them. The Lord is letting them go on to destruction because they are not His sons.

All of this brings up an important point: we must get rid of the sin in our lives. We can’t hold onto it. Jesus hates it and has made it abundantly clear that our sin must be dealt with. It is not a matter of seeking forgiveness, for Christians already have that. What we cannot allow is for sin to continue to reign over us. Christ offers us freedom from sin, and that is something we desperately need. If we go to Him He can sanctify us and achieve the victory over sin. We cannot conquer our “besetting” sins, but He can. We cannot defeat sin by just “trying harder” endlessly, hoping that “this time” it will work – but we can go to Jesus and ask Him to defeat it. With God all things are possible.

The reason I mention this is because so many modern Christians reject what the Bible teaches about sin. They’re not concerned about their own depravity and even enjoy the sins that they regularly commit. They know that what they’re doing is wrong, but they simply dismiss those parts of the Bible and keep on living as they please. They have no real desire to pursue holiness.

This will not end well for them, for sin has very serious consequences. The Lord will discipline those who will not let go of their sins, and that can be a very fearful thing. But there is a far greater danger. Those Christians who refuse the call of holiness and continue to pursue sin may not be Christians at all. After all, there is no salvation that rejects the lordship of Christ. Jesus will not be your Savior if you refuse to make Him your master as well.

This is the cover art for the seventh book in the Emma Wynn Detective Series.

This blog covers a lot of different topics, from religion to global warming to speed limits, and has content ranging from theological papers to science fiction books. One might naturally ask, just what is the theme of this blog? Does it even have a point, or is it just a random collection of random stuff?

There actually is a coherent theme. It is:

Proverbs 8:1: “Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice?
2 She standeth in the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths.
3 She crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors.
4 Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man.
5 O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart.
6 Hear; for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be right things.
7 For my mouth shall speak truth; and wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
8 All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing froward or perverse in them.
9 They are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge.
10 Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold.
11 For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it.”

This blog is, very simply, an attempt to attain wisdom – an exploration of truth and reality. We are dedicated to the preservation and collection of understanding. The truth is out there, if one will but look for it.