PHOTO: newsreview.com/reno

In the September 2012 issue of Reno Tahoe Tonight (RTT) magazine, Sean Savoy uses his monthly editorial column to mildly take to task the author of a pro-atheist opinion piece that appeared as the feature article in the popular free weekly magazine Reno News & Review (RN&R).

That critical and judgmental piece, titled “Are You There, God? It’s Me, Jake,” by longtime University of Nevada-Reno professor of journalism Jake Highton, addresses the pretenses and hypocrisy of modern-day religion and at the same time wags a finger at the moral foibles of famous professed believers whose behaviors, he believes, prove to him their moral hypocrisy. Professor Highton’s article begins with the childhood trauma that convinced him that God did not exist, then hops from eighteenth-century deistic points to ancient and modern atheistic points to contemporary scientific points, and ends with the arguments that all religion and all concepts of God defy reason, that modern empirical science alone is reasonable, and that the most morally decent nations are the most secular.

Bishop Savoy, in his article, recognizes the correctness of Professor Highton’s stance when the professor makes solid arguments and promotes an intelligent and more reasonable spiritual perspective when the professor does not.

Read Professor Jake Highton’s original article in RN&R.

Read Bishop Sean Savoy’s response in RTT.

Papyrus scrap referring to the wife of Jesus. PHOTO: nytimes.com

A historian of early Christianity at Harvard Divinity School has identified a scrap of papyrus that she says was written in Coptic in the fourth century and contains a phrase never seen in any piece of Scripture: “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife …’ ”

Read the translated legible text and the entire article online in the New York Times.

Note from Bob Anderson: Be sure to read people’s comments following the article—some insights and several laughs!

Link submitted by Michael McIntyre

Greg Braden PHOTO: gregbraden.com

In this report, visionary author Greg Braden, a pioneer in bridging science and spirituality, discusses three astonishing experiments with DNA that show how DNA can heal itself according to the “feelings” of the individual. The report focuses on how physical life can order nonphysical events. Consociate Terry Hutchinson, who brought this report to our attention, expressed his hope that “along with our known DNA, one day doctors will discover the true light template that helps form our DNA.”

PHOTO: garybraden.com

Read the article posted online at Red Ice Creations.

Link submitted by Terry Hutchinson

PHOTO: bigthink.com

Can the human body learn to photosynthesize? This is the question investigated by Orion Jones at BigThink.com. Take a look at the backwards method that investigative science (and investigative journalism) takes when seeking to discover how the human body works with light.

Read the article online at bigthink.com.

Link submitted by Frieda Nelson

Saturno excavates the Xultun Room. PHOTO: Tyrone Turner

Mitch Battros discusses Saturno’s finds in the opening to his June 22, 2012, posting titled “Mayan Cosmology Reflects Biblical Creation and Scientific Discoveries”:

“The Maya conceived the world as a quadrangular space that was ordered and measured at the time of creation. The gods created the face of the Earth, ‘u wach ulew,’ as a favorable place for human life. The world creation is described in the ancient sacred book Popol Vuh – the “Bible” of the Maya. The book was found in the 16th century, in Chichicastenango, Guatemala, hidden in a church altar and written in Ki’ch’e. It originally was thought to be a type of fairytale or local folklore.

“However, in the recently discovered ancient Murals in San Bartolo located in Petén, Guatemala, evidence depicts the ‘Popol Vuh’ as being the Maya record of Creation. In March 2001, archaeologist Bill Saturno, during a trek through northern Guatemala in search of Maya hieroglyphics, crawled down a looter’s trench into the base of an ancient jungle-covered Maya structure. It was then he discovered some of the earliest Mayan glyphs yet found.” Subscribers to Battros’s web site, earthchangesmedia.com, can read the entire article online.

For the rest of us there is the current issue of National Geographic magazine online, where a brief article on the recent work of Saturno, which describes his work and findings in a more sober tone, with an emphasis on the mathematical and astronomical calculations that were found in the same room as the murals. At the end of the article there are links to both a video report and a written report on Saturno’s findings.

Read the article online in the September 2012 issue of National Geographic: “Explorers Journal – William Saturno.”

An example of simulated data modeled for the CMS particle detector on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Here, following a collision of two protons, a Higgs boson is produced which decays into two jets of hadrons and two electrons. PHOTO: CERN

The first article we collected, originally posted at discovermagazine.com, gives a good layman’s explanation of what the particle is and what its discovery actually means to the past fifty years of particle theory. The punch line of the article also gives a clear sense that you get what you look for. As Consociate Robert Anderson puts it: “Everyone seems to forget that the original insight of quantum theory was that the observer is part of the phenomenon. If you’re looking for something specific, eventually you will find it, no matter how weird since your thoughts are part of the equation.”

Read the article online:  “We (Apparently) Found the Higgs Boson. Now, Where the Heck Did It Come From?”

Another article gave the early announcement of the discovery. Read this article online along with other related articles at bigthink.com:  “Scientists Announce They’ve Found the Higgs Particle”

Theoretical physicist Michio Kaku says that even with strong evidence of the Higgs Boson, it is not “time to pop the champagne.” Watch his four-minute video online at bigthink.com : “The Higgs Boson: Fireworks or Flameout?”

Links submitted by Frieda Nelson

This is an artist's concept of the Universe's expansion, where space (including hypothetical nonobservable portions of the Universe) is represented at each time by the circular sections. Note on the left the dramatic expansion (not to scale) occurring in the inflationary epoch, and at the center the expansion acceleration. The scheme is decorated with WMAP images on the left and with the representation of stars at the appropriate level of development. PHOTO: NASA/WMAP Science Team

In an analysis by Ray Villard, posted at discovery.com on June 15, 2012, the basis of the “Big Bang” theory is questioned by the findings of a veteran radio astronomer who suggests that the astronomers who posited the theory analyzed their data and stopped when they found what they were looking for!

Consociate Ron Theriault has this to say about the article: “It has been said that although most people like eating hot dogs, few would want to see how they are made. Science is a lot like that. The cosmic microwave background radiation is a relatively recent discovery, and instruments that precisely map it are more recent still. The article gives a glimpse inside the scientific ‘hot dog factory’ to see a bit of the process by which these new data are bring incorporated into the body of received knowledge.”

Read the article online at discovery.com.

Link submitted by Frieda Nelson

 Member Robert Anderson recommends “Three Treasures of Life with Ron Teeguarden” as a quick and easy video teaching of how to generate chi and heal the body-mind of self and others and thought it worth sharing with Community Communiqué members.

He says, “Ron Teeguarden is perhaps the foremost expert on Chinese herbalism, particularly tonic (health-building) herbs. His line of Dragon Herbs includes some of the most powerful formulas on the planet. The following was delivered to the attendees of the Longevity Conference held in May 2012 in Orange County, California (featuring David Wolfe et al.), and includes some helpful techniques for generating and circulating chi w/in the body for healing of self and others. It can serve as a quick intro to such healing modalities or a helpful refresher for those already familiar. Notice, he mentions just at the end that the ‘deeper’ use of the technique is applied to the force centers (chakras), and Cosolargists will recognize the technique as well as being privy to the greatest tonic of them all: Divine Light.”

Dr. Tom Lee, another Communiqué member, concurs that the video provides some practical techniques for health and power: “These videos are wonderful as entry efforts at getting people interested in building their health experiences through ancient techniques to work on the body, mind, and spirit. “I would not rate these presenters as ultimate Masters, but they are certainly informative teachers. Their interests and skills are consistent with our teachings and studies. Efforts directed toward all the ancient mysteries will lead toward Source and our Community of Light.”

Link to longevity.com to watch the video “Three Treasures of Life with Ron Teeguarden.”

Link submitted by Robert Anderson

Explorer Thor Heyerdahl excavated this Easter Island statue in 1954-55. The UCLA project is the first, legally permitted archaeological project in the quarry since Heyerdahl’s dig. The grandchildren of diggers on that project now work on Van Tilburg’s project. PHOTO is from Heyerdahl's book Easter Island: The Mystery Solved.

The Easter Island statues have bodies! Apparently this is not really news. It is only news to people like me—and maybe you. Apparently this has been known since the Thor Heyerdahl dig in1955 exposed the bodies for the first time.

Here is a link to a blog entry on the subject posted on snopes.com with photos: “Head Case.”

For more information, follow this link to an article posted May 30, 2012, in UCLA Today.

In recent years the Easter Island Statue Project (EISP) has excavated and studied a number of the statues, revealing their bodies in the process. The EISP official website (www.eisp.org) provides a great deal of information on the expeditions undertaken to discover information on the statues and a lot of photos. Click on the link above to visit the site.

These articles were brought to our attention by Elizabeth Reece.

An extreme ultraviolet image of the August 1st global eruption. Different colors represent different plasma temperatures in the range 1.0 to 2.2 million degrees K. PHOTO: Solar Dynamics Observatory.

On December 13, 2010, NASA Science/Science News published an article on the sun that began:

“On August 1, 2010, an entire hemisphere of the sun erupted. Filaments of magnetism snapped and exploded, shock waves raced across the stellar surface, billion-ton clouds of hot gas billowed into space. Astronomers knew they had witnessed something big.”

What the astronomers apparently didn’t know is that August 1 is an auspicious date for such an event, according to the Second Advent Sacred Calendar.

Read the article online at NASA Science / Science News.

Gary Huss Sr. recently brought the article to our attention and submitted the link to us for publication.