NOVA: Quantum Leap = It takes a leap to believe

[joasia]

Science should be supported by measured observations. Theorizing about alternate universes, is not observable.

It's an interesting subject, quantum physics and the leap. One which comes to mind is, The Philadephia Experiment. Tesla's coil. It was meant to bend light and cause the ship to disappear from radar detection and be invisible to the eye, but it seemed to have disappeared into another dimension. Sort of in between time. Apparently, men who were on the shipped appeared in different places, in their time, while one man jumped off the ship and was transported to a time 40 years in the future. This is taken very seriously. There are a lot of posts on Youtube about this.

But, I always wondered if God would allow such things; time travel. But, then again, there are Buddhist monks that levitate. Of course, this is a sign of demonic influences, so no doubt the other situation is aided by that same evil force.

As far as the saints being in two different places, at the same time, this is only by God's work. I remember a story that a nun spoke about when visiting a Geronda in Greece. She was with a few other nuns and the Geronda insisted that they stay a little longer. She was concerned because they had to get back to the Convent before 11 pm because the gate would be locked. They finally left, which was quite later than planned and it took 2 hours to drive back. When they arrived at the Convent, they saw that the gate was still unlocked. It was before 11 pm. But, to her calculations, it should have been 12 am. Now THAT's time traveling.

Scientists that still believe in evolution and that nothing is special about the laws of matter and the universe are like one dimension thinking where Protestants believe in Sola Scriptura; how can St. Paul be writing about the New Testament Scriptures when they didn't exist as the collection we have now?? His support of Scripture was the Old Testament.

The scientists have a one dimensional assessment of the laws because how can all that is in this universe come from nothing? How can non-movement produce movement that creates a big bang? Or how can a pool of goop, that is simple matter, produce all the elements necessary to be all the living things on this planet? Complex does not come from simple. How can a scientist miss such a basic fact?

The Protestants think they are experts in Scripture and the scientists think they know how the world is made.

[Maria]

It's an interesting subject, quantum physics and the leap. One which comes to mind is, The Philadephia Experiment. Tesla's coil. It was meant to bend light and cause the ship to disappear from radar detection and be invisible to the eye, but it seemed to have disappeared into another dimension. Sort of in between time. Apparently, men who were on the shipped appeared in different places, in their time, while one man jumped off the ship and was transported to a time 40 years in the future. This is taken very seriously. There are a lot of posts on Youtube about this.

Tesla, a devout Orthodox Christian, died in 1943. Did the Philadelphia Experiment happen while he was still alive?
This experiment shows that there are some anomalies that could be explained by parallel universes.

What about the apparitions of ghosts, saints, and the Theotokos? If the Theotokos appears to a monk, then she would have to be in two places simultaneously (heaven and earth), would she not?

Interestingly, in C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia, when the children went into a parallel universe (Narnia), then time momentarily paused in the real world, but seemed to take hours or days or years or centuries in Narnia, so that when they returned to the real world, no time had elapsed, and no one in real time noticed any difference except those who had made the leap and back. Bilocation?

When a saint experiences bilocation, his body appears to sleep or is inactive like in a trance while he is in another country teaching and explaining the Holy Faith.

Has there been any case of a saint crossing the time barrier and appearing in another era?

[jgress]

I'm not sure Tesla considered himself to be a devout Orthodox Christian, although he was certainly raised in Orthodoxy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tes ... tual_views

I'm typically skeptical of paranormal scientific claims: it's one thing if a saint reportedly bilocates, since anything is possible with true faith, but I see no reason to believe this can be achieved by ordinary technology.

If a theory predicts alternate universes, but we do not observe alternate universes, then obviously we don't have to believe in alternate universes. On the other hand, if the theory works well for what we can observe, we have no good reason to think it is wrong in its predictions for things we cannot observe. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. So if quantum theory predicts what we know about physics well enough, then we should take the theory seriously if it predicts unobservable things like alternate universes. The recent discovery of the Higgs boson is relevant: the theory had predicted this particle for decades, but we had no direct evidence of it. Nevertheless, scientists had no good reason to doubt the theoretical existence of the particle, since the theory worked so well otherwise, so they persisted in searching for the particle, and finally observed it just about a month ago.

Anyway, even if physics is right about alternate universes, Maria shows how that doesn't necessarily undermine our faith.

[joasia]

This experiment shows that there are some anomalies that could be explained by parallel universes.

I don't think this is an example of parallel universes. It's more of moving through time. Parallel universes is science fiction. That's "their" way of messing with us. Otherwise, we can say that you became Orthodox in this universe, but you may have rejected it in another. How awful would that be? We have only one timeline, one soul, one body and one death.

Interestingly, in C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia, when the children went into a parallel universe (Narnia), then time momentarily paused in the real world, but seemed to take hours or days or years or centuries in Narnia, so that when they returned to the real world, no time had elapsed, and no one in real time noticed any difference except those who had made the leap and back. Bilocation?

No. Fantasy. Sounds more like hypnosis. Not reality. And that's where C.S. Lewis departs from Christian thinking. It's a story of fantasy which the Holy Fathers don't support....fantasy that is, not his book, since they didn't read them. Personally, I really don't like his writings. I don't see anything "Christian" about them except the basic theme of the battle between good and evil. There's magic, talking animals and strong mythological influences. I really don't understand why his works are praised so much, by Christians. I think that people have been made to believe that the lion is some kind of symbol of Christ. How? Who told them that he is? For that matter, Disney's movie, The Lion King, can also be a fantasy version of Christianity. It's as if people are so willing to accept these fantasy versions of God because in their souls they yearn for the truth, but when they are shown the truth of God in Christianity, they can't handle it.

What about the apparitions of ghosts, saints, and the Theotokos?

God is the center of their appearances. They appear for a reason that is very important for that circumstance...to do His works. But, the main point is that their appearances are blessed by God.

If the Theotokos appears to a monk, then she would have to be in two places simultaneously (heaven and earth), would she not?

Actually, I read from some saints a while ago, that when she appears to someone, on earth, then she is not physically present in the Holy Kingdom because she is in her physical body. But, the great mystery is that she can still hear all our prayers at every moment because the Holy Spirit is ever present everywhere. Whereas the saints that have fallen asleep in Christ, are in spirit and can be in multiple places at the same time. But, even saints living in the flesh, like St. John Maximovich has been in two places at the same time. Don't try to rationalize it in order to understand. You'll just get a headache. It's all a great mystery. God is in control of all that.

Has there been any case of a saint crossing the time barrier and appearing in another era?

The only ones I can think of are Prophets Elias and Enoch. But, that is yet to come.....

[Cyprian]

Greetings in Christ!

I would like to add that I tend to agree with Joanna with regards to C.S. Lewis. I actually began to compose a message regarding C.S. Lewis several days ago, but did not want to step on anyone's toes or hurt anyone's feelings, so I did not complete the message, feeling it would be better to reflect for a few days before posting a response. However, now that I have seen that our friend Joanna has not minced any words, but has spoken very plainly and to the point, I must confess I feel the same way.

I am no expert or authority on the writings of C.S. Lewis by any means, but after learning about the man and perusing some of his writings (specifically the Narnia series, his most popular by far), I came to the same conclusions as Joanna. Lewis strikes me as more of a pagan and an occultist than a Christian, and I actually find his Narnia series to be rather disturbing. I am not familiar with any of his other works.

There seems to be a (not so) subtle theme of pedophilia in his story of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. This has clearly been understood by those who adapted the story for film, because in the film produced by Walden Media it is blatant and obvious. The specific scene I refer to is the scene where the young girl Lucy first encounters the faun Mr. Tumnus, and he lures this very young girl back to his cave.

The key to understanding this pedophilic theme is to recognize the traditional understanding of the mythological god Pan (Greek) also called Faunus (Latin), and also recognizing what satyrs and incubi represent. Once you recognize that Mr. Tumnus is a Pan-like figure, then everything else will begin to make sense.

[Maria]

Greetings in Christ!

I would like to add that I tend to agree with Joanna with regards to C.S. Lewis. I actually began to compose a message regarding C.S. Lewis several days ago, but did not want to step on anyone's toes or hurt anyone's feelings, so I did not complete the message, feeling it would be better to reflect for a few days before posting a response. However, now that I have seen that our friend Joanna has not minced any words, but has spoken very plainly and to the point, I must confess I feel the same way.

I am no expert or authority on the writings of C.S. Lewis by any means, but after learning about the man and perusing some of his writings (specifically the Narnia series, his most popular by far), I came to the same conclusions as Joanna. Lewis strikes me as more of a pagan and an occultist than a Christian, and I actually find his Narnia series to be rather disturbing. I am not familiar with any of his other works.

There seems to be a (not so) subtle theme of pedophilia in his story of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. This has clearly been understood by those who adapted the story for film, because in the film produced by Walden Media it is blatant and obvious. The specific scene I refer to is the scene where the young girl Lucy first encounters the faun Mr. Tumnus, and he lures this very young girl back to his cave.

The key to understanding this pedophilic theme is to recognize the traditional understanding of the mythological god Pan (Greek) also called Faunus (Latin), and also recognizing what satyrs and incubi represent. Once you recognize that Mr. Tumnus is a Pan-like figure, then everything else will begin to make sense.

St. Paul writes in TItus 1:15 "To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure: but even their minds and conscience are defiled."

Below is another rendition that might be preferred over the NKJV (see above) taken from The Orthodox Study Bible p. 1646.

• All things indeed are pure to the pure, but to those who have been defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but even their minds hath been defiled, and their conscience.

Reference: The Orthodox New Testament, Holy Apostles Convent, Buena Vista, CO, 2000, p. 377.

I have extensively studied C. S. Lewis, his life and his works, while I was earning my Master of Arts in Linguistics. Upon his return to Christianity, C.S. Lewis shared many great insights, especially in his spiritual classics which includes The Screwtape Letters, The Abolition of Man, Mere Christianity, The Problem of Pain, and The Great Divorce. It is my opinion and the opinion of many Orthodox Christians, that if C.S. Lewis had been granted a longer lifetime, he may have converted to Orthodoxy. Anyway, many Orthodox Christian Priests recommend to youth that they read the works of C.S. Lewis, especially his spiritual classics.

Anyway, while I was studying Linguistics, I also considered applying for an M.A. in English Literature, so I took quite a number of undergraduate and graduate courses in English, but my experiences with various English professors and English grad students at that university gave me pause. They, like you, Cyprian, were seeing sexual perversion in almost any masterpiece, poem, or piece of literature. Since class book lists were filled with modern writings that glorified immoral lifestyles and contained all kinds of perversions, it was not surprising that class discussions were very indiscreet as students shared writings that were filled with lustful thoughts. Thus, I faced a serious dilemma and struggled mightily with temptations. How could I as an Orthodox Christian consider taking another degree that could very well pervert my soul and cause me to lose my salvation?

Have you ever read The Politically Incorrect Guide to English and American Literature (2006) by Elizabeth Kantor, Ph.D.? I would highly recommend this book as it is "A refreshing antidote to the academic brew that has defaced our literature and diminished our culture." -- David Horowitz (brief review printed on the back cover of Elizabeth Kantor's book).

Now back to your question regarding Mr. Tunmus. Reading the story in context provides a clue. Mr. Tunmus admits that he is wicked. In his repentance, he tells Lucy about the wicked witch, and then releases the girl so that she can return safely to the Lamppost. He knows that failing to report her to the Witch will imperil his very life. For his good deed, he is captured by the spies of the Witch and turned into stone.

[joasia]

Maria,

Judas was one of the Apostles, but he wasn't with them. His actions exposed himself and C.S.L.'s writings exposed himself although he claimed to be a born again Christian, like J.R.R.T. They were members of the G.D. Evil wolves in sheeps' clothing. And just to point out a simple fact, if these men were in the Orthodox Church, their writings would be opposed. But, because they were in heretical organizations, they are praised as great Christians. So, liberal Orthodox clergy have the free will to accept them, but it doesn't make their writings Christian.

Their books express the views of the occult. Where do we see Orthodox saints explaining the faith with fables of witches and demonic images? When they explained a battle with satan or demons, it was an actual occurrence. There were real demons and real witches. St. Anthony the Great comes to mind. He had wild beasts, who were demons, talking and attacking him. And St. Cyprian and Justina are another example. But, it's based on real events in order to warn us of the true spiritual battle.

Whereas C.S.L. describes these thing as a fantasy. But, are they? No. They are a reality to those in the occult. And having these books in your house is allowing the demons in.

John Todd (Collins) would disagree with you. He exposed everything about the occult. And he should know. He was one of them and came to believe in Christ. And the fact that he denounced all the occult views and was taken away shows that he was exposing the truth. His interviews were in the 1970's, but he had a lot of information.

Cyprian is not wrong when we says that there is sexual perversion in these writings. The occult and satan feed on that.

Don't think that Alice in Wonderland and Wizard of Oz are innocent children's stories either.

And I really hope that Orthodox Christians will come to understand the danger of supporting these writings. There's nothing innocent about them.