Nice appreciation of this site from a reader

[Scepcop]

From a reader email:

"Hello, Winston:

I read with utter fascination your personal faith history. It is much like mine. I have gone from indifferent Christian to evangelical to skeptical, but with the difference that I know prayers for healing are answered, often in dramatic fashion. Who Jesus was, I don’t know, but he did heal people and healings are happening today in His name, but also in answer to the prayers of those who don’t know Him. There was the universal religion/ faith of Jesus, and there is Christianity, a group of faiths about him, all in conflict with each other. Jesus was a believer that the end of time was at hand, which puts Him in some unimpressive company. He knew that he had to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, which suggests that he knew he was human and not the son of God. His followers often did not understand him, and the confusion and ignorance got worse after His death. Do you know the work of Ramsay MacMullen of Yale?

The Resurrection was most likely a dramatic After-Death Contact, such as those events detailed by Victor Zammit and the people whom he cites. Human consciousness is eternal. The work of Pim van Lommel, Brian Weiss and Alan Botkin explore various aspects of this continuity of consciousness. Interaction of consciousness with the rest of the world, as in the work of Robert Jahn and the PEAR lab, suggests how prayer works.

I like to say that if you think you know the answers, you haven’t been asking the right questions. It is all too common to see the tremendous ego investment people have in the present state of their knowledge. For them, a challenge to that received knowledge is an attack on the very core of their being. Certainty is the enemy of wisdom. Whether it is James Randi or the Pope, intransigent conviction is an insurmountable obstacle to enlightenment.

You and your colleagues are doing work that is as important as any intellectual effort the world has known. Thank you for all you do for our universe and its occupants!

John"