Starlord??

I haven't visited this group for 2-3 years.

Anyone know the current whereabouts and condition of Starlord -- Dennis Bishop, the Lone Sidewalk Astronomer of Rosamond?

The last I heard was this response from his brother back in August 2014.

-- quote
There has been no significant change in my brother's condition. He is in a near vegetative state at the Covina Rehab Center.
Staff there are unsure if he can hear/comprehend what goes on around him. He is blind in one Eye and doctors are not sure how much sight, if any, he has in his other eye. I live in Hawaii and have only been able to visit him a couple of times. I was unable to get any type of response from him and I have no idea if he knew I was there. Because he had no advanced health care directive, they are just "keeping him alive" although they have told me that they don't expect him to get any better at this point. He is allowed visitors if anyone is in the area, but if you call for information, they won't give any due to HIPPA laws.
Mahalo, Darren Bishop
-- end quote


Based on his brother's comments, I suspect Dennis may not be with us any longer.

It seems, then, appropriate to use Dennis' signatu

"In This Universe The Night was Falling, The Shadows were lengthening
towards an east that would not know another dawn.

But elsewhere the Stars were still young and the light of morning lingered: and
along the path he once had followed, Man would one day go again."
Arthur C. Clarke, The City & The Stars

On Sunday, April 3, 2016 at 3:11:47 PM UTC-6, Old Guy wrote:

I haven't visited this group for 2-3 years.

Anyone know the current whereabouts and condition of Starlord -- Dennis
Bishop, the Lone Sidewalk Astronomer of Rosamond?

The last I heard was this response from his brother back in August 2014.

-- quote

----

Based on his brother's comments, I suspect Dennis may not be with us any
longer.

It seems, then, appropriate to use Dennis' signatu

"In This Universe The Night was Falling, The Shadows were lengthening
towards an east that would not know another dawn.

But elsewhere the Stars were still young and the light of morning
lingered: and along the path he once had followed, Man would one day
go again."
Arthur C. Clarke, The City & The Stars

I love that novel, and its earlier version, Against the Fall of Night.

On Sunday, 3 April 2016 23:11:47 UTC+2, Old Guy wrote:
I haven't visited this group for 2-3 years.

Anyone know the current whereabouts and condition of Starlord -- Dennis Bishop, the Lone Sidewalk Astronomer of Rosamond?

The last I heard was this response from his brother back in August 2014.

Based on his brother's comments, I suspect Dennis may not be with us any longer.

It seems, then, appropriate to use Dennis' signatu

"In This Universe The Night was Falling, The Shadows were lengthening
towards an east that would not know another dawn.

But elsewhere the Stars were still young and the light of morning lingered: and
along the path he once had followed, Man would one day go again."
Arthur C. Clarke, The City & The Stars

If one were to weigh the value of one man against another, who is to say that Starlord was not worth his own weight in gold? And, infinitely preferable to some alive today, who should already have been weighed by a rope, rather than move so freely about their tawdry and tacky Elysium. What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his own soul?

On Tuesday, April 5, 2016 at 2:33:32 AM UTC-4, Chris.B wrote:

What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his own soul?

Oh, so you think you're Jesus now?

On Tue, 5 Apr 2016 05:20:08 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

On Tuesday, April 5, 2016 at 2:33:32 AM UTC-4, Chris.B wrote:

What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his own soul?

Oh, so you think you're Jesus now?

Why would he think that? He's smarter than the mythical character.
He's more moral than the mythical character. And he actually exists,
unlike the mythical character.

On Tuesday, April 5, 2016 at 10:28:19 AM UTC-4, Chris L Peterson wrote:
On Tue, 5 Apr 2016 05:20:08 -0700 (PDT), wsnell01 wrote:

On Tuesday, April 5, 2016 at 2:33:32 AM UTC-4, Chris.B wrote:

What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his own soul?

Oh, so you think you're Jesus now?

Why would he think that?

Because he's an idiot, same as you.

On Tue, 5 Apr 2016 07:36:28 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

On Tuesday, April 5, 2016 at 10:28:19 AM UTC-4, Chris L Peterson wrote:
On Tue, 5 Apr 2016 05:20:08 -0700 (PDT), wsnell01 wrote:

On Tuesday, April 5, 2016 at 2:33:32 AM UTC-4, Chris.B wrote:

What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his own soul?

Oh, so you think you're Jesus now?

Why would he think that?

Because he's an idiot, same as you.

Oh, the wit. It burns.

Not.

On Tuesday, 5 April 2016 16:36:30 UTC+2, wrote:

[Edit] Because he's an idiot? The same as you?

Thus spake Zarathustra? To quote another, hardly espouses some adherence or loyalty to a vacuous superstition. One which can hardly bear the merest examination before falling asunder. Religious belief might have offered some consolation to those who suffered at the hands of ignorance and injustice. It hardly commends itself when the ignorance and injustice are forced upon the believer by the very organizations claiming to represent its supposed prophet. Only drooling fools would attend to the murdering, slave-driving, child abusing, torturing, raping taxmen and money launderers who call themselves the servants of god. Organized religion is just another absolute proof of the non-existence of a god with any sense of responsibility or even half a conscience.

We are specks on a speck in a speck in a speck within a universe without apparent boundaries. Do you suppose its creator gets down on its knees with some form of extreme electron microscope, completely beyond our comprehension, to watch the subatomic motes going down to their own tiny knees in worship? Does the superpower microscope have audio so "their" creator can hear the selfish prayers of these same, subatomic motes?

Is there a factory somewhere manufacturing souls as fast as its unpaid workers can manage just to keep up with population growth and to make a nice offshore investment of the tax free profits for the Director? Or is there a rich and [probably] corrupt secondhand souls market we haven't been told about? Do they have insider trading and do I really care?

On Tuesday, April 5, 2016 at 9:39:03 AM UTC-7, Chris.B wrote:

We are specks on a speck in a speck in a speck within a universe without apparent boundaries. Do you suppose its creator gets down on its knees with some form of extreme electron microscope, completely beyond our comprehension, to watch the subatomic motes going down to their own tiny knees in worship? Does the superpower microscope have audio so "their" creator can hear the selfish prayers of these same, subatomic motes?

"The most preposterous notion that H. sapiens has ever dreamed up is that the Lord God of Creation, Shaper and Ruler of all the Universes, wants the saccharine adoration of His creatures, can be swayed by their prayers, and becomes petulant if He does not receive this flattery. Yet this absurd fantasy, without a shred of evidence to bolster it, pays all the expenses of the oldest, largest, and least productive industry in all history."
- Robert Heinlein

Empiricists spend more time talking about their notion of God than anyone else only to reject their own conception. It hardly matters that people understand God at their own level in dealing with issues much greater than themselves and there is nothing to argue against there however the early Christians often dealt with the experience of God where the difference between Spirit and Inspiration is negligible -

"God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth." Johannine letter


There are no clear boundaries between the Judaeo-Christian writings and those writings outside the collection of books known as the Bible so that often common sense accompanies an approach to those writings. It doesn't help that denominational Christianity has the Spiritual content locked up in moral dictates but this is more historical accidents than anything else and often the Christian writers did take the time out to comment astronomy and terrestrial sciences and Christianity -

"Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other elements of this world, about the motion and orbit of the stars and even their size and relative positions, about the predictable eclipses of the sun and moon, the cycles of the years and the seasons, about the kinds of animals, shrubs, stones, and so forth, and this knowledge he holds to as being certain from reason and experience. Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn. The shame is not so much that an ignorant individual is derided, but that people outside the household of faith think our sacred writers held such opinions, and, to the great loss of those for whose salvation we toil, the writers of our Scripture are criticized and rejected as unlearned men." Augustine

The crude and brute personality, if it can be called that, try to make themselves feel better by projecting an idea of God only to reject it as intellectually inferior but miss the point in the process. In truth a belief is not the same thing as a conviction insofar as the former comes from an internal resonance that lights up reason whereas the latter is purely ideologically driven in the mind.

Augustine was familiar with the predictive side of astronomy as well as circumpolar motion but had enough sense to classify it appropriately as being beyond his remit while giving it the stamp of importance -

"Some of the brethren raise a question concerning the motion of
heaven, whether it is fixed or moved. If it is moved, they say, how is
it a firmament? If it stands still, how do these stars which are held
fixed in it go round from east to west, the more northerly performing
shorter circuits near the pole, so that the heaven (if there is
another pole unknown to us) may seem to revolve upon some axis, or (if
there is no other pole) may be thought to move as a discus? To these
men I reply that it would require many subtle and profound reasonings
to find out which of these things is actually so; but to undertake
this and discuss it is consistent neither with my leisure nor with the
duty of those whom I desire to instruct in essential matters more
directly conducing to their salvation and to the benefit of the holy
Church." Augustine

Those in the celestial sphere community today are even more homocentric than the people in Augustine's era and they are so dominant in the education system that it is presenting huge difficulties for a society that no longer uses its interpretative faculties which in turn is producing an effect with a rise in autistic conditions that can be easily undone with effort.