The 15 Craigside Photo Club meets the first Sunday of the month.  The originators are Irene, who lives on my floor in this seniors community, and Scott Kubo from the Honolulu Museum of Art, our mentor.  Here is a photo of the two.  We are asked by Scott to submit a few photos on a theme he selects for show and tell at our gathering.  This month it had something to do with being thankful.  Of course, family, friends and health are at the top of the list.  At least, Google AI indicated that to me, and I agree.  Most members here will no doubt submit these kinds of photos.  Or something to do with religion. However, when I thought about this earlier in the month, I couldn't come up with interesting enough photos to take or from my photo file.  So I picked rainbows and sunsets, because those photos had a lot of color.  I then narrowed my choice down to only sunsets. Thus, when I sat at the computer this morning, I had further thoughts about ...

Did you know that both Mother's and Father's Days are national holidays?  Of course they are always celebrated on Sundays, so they are not a federal holiday.  President Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation in 1914 designating  Mother's Day  as the second Sunday in May.  Of course motherhood has long been cherished, and the ancient Greeks and Romans held festivals in honor of mother godesses Rhea and Cybele. Mind you, the Greeks and Romans also honored fathers, and in Catholic Europe, St. Joseph's Day ( March 19 ) is a feast day dedicated to Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus.  But Father's Day in the USA had a rather startling beginning that few know. First, Father's Day did not become a national holiday until 1972. The reason why has everything to do with civil rights movements in the 1960s. The story starts in 1964 when a middle-aged father and mid-level federal appointee, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, dreamt a solution to America's racial conflict in his sle...

Learned minds for more than 10,000 years have written about Heaven.  Every religion has some form of Heaven or life after death.  According to a  Pew Research Center  study in 2012, approximately   84%   of the global population is considered theistic, meaning they are affiliated with a religion and believe in a higher power;   this is based on data from a comprehensive study across over 230 countries and territories.   The remaining 16% are called atheists.  To some degree, atheism is forced on the population by dictatorial governments. 157 of 232 countries have Christian majorities. Earlier this year, a Pew survey revealed that 70% of Americans as spiritual. While 28% of U.S. adults claim no affiliation with organized religion, this number jumps to 43% for those under the age of 30.  The younger generation is less inclined to be theistic. Seven in ten believed in Heaven, the same percentage as being spiritual.  In most ways, they ...

Miracles are important in  The Bible .  Here are  seven  of them.   Jesus  is prominent in the field of miracles.   Buddha  similarly had supernatural feats, as did Hindu Shiva.  All religions depend on miracles, with the  revelation of the Quran  being the greatest by Muslims.  And, of course there too are  modern-day miracles . Joe Biden needs a couple of miracles to prevail over Donald Trump.  One of them could come tomorrow from the Supreme Court.  If Trump is announced not to be immune from prosecution, that could become a game-changer.  A sentence of 4 years in jail by Judge Juan Merchan in eight days will only add to Trump's desperation. Whether you believe  The Bible  or scientists, the sudden appearance of Earth or the Big Bang from essentially nothing....they are all difficult to explain, and each one surely falls in the category of miracles.  The creation of life qualifies...