The Temple of Transition, Burning Man 2011 PHOTO flikr user Michael Holden

During the 2011 Convocation, attending Consociates were asked to address questions regarding the Community’s future path. Of course, outreach was included, and someone suggested that we target the people coming in for Burning Man the week before. There are about 55,000 people flooding into Reno for this weeklong event. Many of these people are presumed to be seekers for deeper meanings in life and thus potential candidates for Cosolargy. To read one Burning Man attendee’s take on the event and its meaning click on the attached link. After you read the article, send us feedback about whether you think this group is worth approaching as part of our outreach.

Read the essay “Burning Down the Temple: Religion and Irony in Black Rock City” online at Religion Dispatches Magazine .

Post submitted by Robert Anderson

Photo NASA

This short article by Ian O’Neill holds two series of extraordinary photos of the sun taken by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory presented with captions by O’Neill and a video of “coronal rain.”

Read the full article published August 9, 2011, on the Discovery News website:

http://news.discovery.com/space/big-pic-sun-explodes-x-class-flare-110809.html

Link submitted by Frieda Nelson.

Apostle Philip painted by Peter Paul Rubens

Fox News published a short article on July 27, 2011, on the discovery of a tomb believed to be that of the Apostle Philip in the Turkish city of Hierapolis. Archeologists have been searching for the site for years and believe they have found it in the ruins of a recently excavated ancient church.

Read the full article at foxnews.com: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/07/27/tomb-st-philip-apostle-discovered-in-turkey/

Link submitted by Robert Roy.

Photo David Elkington/Rex Features

“Whatever happened to the Hebrew Christians?” The fate of the Jews who followed Jesus has been one of the puzzles of Christian history. The emergence of a collection of codices carved in lead, if they are genuine, might lead to the answer.

Read the full article “Whatever happened to the Hebrew Christians?” published July 8, 2011, at economist.com: http://www.economist.com/node/18584132

Link submitted by Robert Anderson.

Photo NASA

A well-written scientific report on the solar minimum without sensationalistic or armageddon overtones appeared June 30, 2011, on physicsworld.com, a website of the Institute of Physics. The report, with graphs and photographs, discusses projected high and lows for solar minimums and maximums in upcoming years and what they could mean for the planet.

Read the full article “What’s Going On with the Sun?”at http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/46387

Link submitted by Frieda Nelson.

Staring blankly: the solar disk with no sunspot activity (NASA)

An analysis published online in Discovery News on June 14, 2011, by self-professed space geek and astrophysicist Ian O’Neill contains a legitimate observation that may indicate our solar reflections are causing a change in predicting solar activity. The article also suggests the possibility that the sun is falling into a quiet period that may repeat the “little ice age” of 1650-1715.

Read the entire article online at http://news.discovery.com/space/is-the-sun-about-to-fizz-out-110614.html .

The link to this article was submitted to us by Frieda Nelson.

A Gallup poll released in early June 2011 reveals that the people of the United States remain extremely religious, unlike Canadians and Europeans. Read the article on the results of the poll online at Salon.com.

Post submitted by Roger Weld

The NASA video of the June 7, 2011, solar flare appeared online on the NASA government mission pages under sun/earth news. The 60-second video is an amazing view of the solar flare.

Post submitted by Elizabeth Reece

Award-Winning Documentary "Eat the Sun" DVD Release: May 11, 2011

Award-winning and controversial documentary film Eat The Sun debuts Tuesday, May 11, 2011, on DVD with a Documentary Channel Broadcast Premiere to follow on Summer Solstice (June 21) at 8 pm. The film will also release on iTunes, on VOD and in specialty retailers later this summer.

The film features major footage on the International Community of Christ, including clips of Sunrise Divine Service and interviews with Church members and leaders. DVD bonus features include an extensive interview with Bishop Gene Savoy Sr., one of the last filmed interviews he gave.

Street Date: May 11, 2011
UPC: 812616022327
SRP: $24.99
Website: www.eatthesunmovie.com
Directed and Produced by Peter Sorcher
Co-Produced by Diana Iles Parker

The film Eat the Sun is featured in an article on Cosolargy.net. The article contains links to the film trailer and to a film excerpt on Gene Savoy. To read more about the film on Cosolargy.net, click HERE.

To read more about the film on Shootonline, click HERE.

The Dirac equation: how electrons behave in the everyday world in relation to electromagnetism and gravity

In this guest blog published in Scientific American on May 23, 2011, physicist Sean Carroll shares his thoughts about the soul and modern physics. Here are some of his questions and conclusions:

“Does the soul respect gauge invariance and Lorentz invariance? Does the soul have a Hamiltonian? Do the interactions preserve unitarity and conservation of information?

“Nobody ever asks these questions out loud, possibly because of how silly they sound. Once you start asking them, the choice you are faced with becomes clear: either overthrow everything we think we have learned about modern physics, or distrust the stew of religious accounts/unreliable testimony/wishful thinking that makes people believe in the possibility of life after death. It’s not a difficult decision, as scientific theory-choice goes. . . .

“There’s no reason to be agnostic about ideas that are dramatically incompatible with everything we know about modern science. Once we get over any reluctance to face reality on this issue, we can get down to the much more interesting questions of how human beings and consciousness really work.”

We invite you to read the article “Physics and the Immortality of the Soul” online and share your comments with us. You may even want to share them with the readers of Scientific American in their comments section.

Post submitted by Frieda Nelson