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A murdered Ecuadorian cartel boss known as “El Fatal” was buried with hundreds of pistols, shotguns and rifles in his coffin so he could be “armed to the teeth in the afterlife.” Julian Sevillano, the 39-year-old reputed leader of “Los Fatales,” was with his 20-year-old daughter getting a regular car wash in Moroche last Wednesday when they were suddenly ambushed by gunmen, according to La Nacion. Both were killed in a hail of more than a dozen shots blamed on members of a rival gang, the outlet said. Sevillano’s relatives refused to leave the bodies for local police, however, instead...

Eben Alexander, a neurosurgeon doctor who claims to have experienced the afterlife during a seven-day coma, says the experience was like Plato’s world of ideals. In 2008, Dr. Eben Alexander went into a coma after catching an acute bacterial infection that had a severe neurological impact on his brain. For seven days, he lay unconscious. When he awoke, he described seeing a beautiful spiritual guide on a butterfly wing that took him through a wormhole. Sharing his story with the U.S. Sun, Dr. Alexander described a land of “beautiful very lush forests and meadow waterfalls into crystal blue pools, absolutely...

The first time I reached past the sheer horror of the concept of death and wondered what the experience of dying may be like, I was about 15. I had just discovered gruesome aspects of the French revolution and how heads were neatly cut off the body by a Guillotine. Words I remember to this day were the last of Georges Danton on April 5, 1794, who allegedly said to his executioner: “Show my head to the people, it is worth seeing.” Years later, having become a cognitive neuroscientist, I started wondering to what extent a brain suddenly separated from...

“The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” Psalm 9:17. It’s true, there really is a Hell. I know because I’m standing in the midst of the most horrible place anyone could imagine. Truth be told, no human being could ever come close to imagining what I am seeing and experiencing without experiencing it personally for themselves. Hollywood could not do justice to the immense hideousness of this place. What I am seeing cannot be described in human terms. Why am I here? I rejected God’s free gift of salvation, and if you keep...

Oldie but goodie. Psychic Medium Matt Fraser who communicates with the dead goes on a live show, reads one of the hosts and says something shocking on air about a "child" with the grandmother who passed away.. For the first 3 minutes, he communicates and explains the grandmother of one of the hosts on the "other side" UNTIL the 3:05 mark "oh yeah, she's cradling this child in her arms.." and that's when the host has the look of "God, please cut into commercial"

Scientists have momentarily restored a faint twinkle of life to dying cells in the human eye. In order to better understand the way nerve cells succumb to a lack of oxygen, a team of US researchers measured activity in mouse and human retinal cells soon after their death. Amazingly, with a few tweaks to the tissue's environment, they were able to revive the cells' ability to communicate hours later. When stimulated by light, the postmortem retinas were shown to emit specific electrical signals, known as b-waves. These waves are also seen in living retinas, and they indicate communication between all...

Over the course of my military career, I’ve been around A LOT of health/fitness-conscious people. Many of them have become true believers in things like cross-fit, yoga, and other forms of exercise and it becomes a way of life for them. Similarly, I’ve seen all the passing diet and nutrition trends that seem to come on strong, make a big splash, then fade off into the twilight as quickly as they arrived. My observation is that younger people generally want to look good by putting in the work (sweat equity), while older people generally want to look good by changing...

Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker posted on Facebook, “Belief in an afterlife is a malignant delusion, since it devalues actual lives and discourages action that would make them longer, safer, and happier.” I can see why a secularist would think this if such belief would focus him on the future to the neglect of the present. However, for Christians, the opposite is actually the case. Jesus clearly believed in an afterlife (cf. Luke 23:46), but he clearly valued actual lives and encouraged action that “would make them longer, safer, and happier.” He launched his public ministry by “teaching in their synagogues...

Beloved "Jeopardy!" host Alex Trebek has been battling cancer for a little over a year now and in his new memoir, The Answer Is ... Reflections on My Life, he admits that he’s not afraid of death nor does he believe in a specific God or afterlife. The book was released this week and in it the 80-year-old TV personality is honest about the emotional toll his bout with pancreatic cancer has had on him Trebek writes that his ability to overcome his diagnosis "is simple biology. You get treatment and you get better. Or you don’t. And neither outcome...

We are all too familiar with the hackneyed charge that thoughts of heaven are delusional. But according to Steven Pinker, they're malignantly so. That’s a new twist. There should be an algebraic equation to calculate something we experience far too often in the public square today. It would determine the ratio between a person’s absolute brilliance in one arena – their uncontested expertise – and their regularly articulated ignorance in others. This would then be multiplied by the confidence with which they say such things. It would be applied to things like Stephen Hawking’s pontifications on subjects such as religion...

Harvard professor of psychology Steven Pinker tweeted last week: "Belief in an afterlife is a malignant delusion, since it devalues actual lives and discourages action that would make them longer, safer, and happier. Exhibit A: What's really behind Republicans wanting a swift reopening? Evangelicals." Before responding to Pinker's remarkably ignorant tweet, I want to praise him. He is one of the few professors in America to call out the left's destruction of our universities. Most human beings lack courage, but no group is more cowardly than academics. This has been true for 100 years. From the German universities to today,...

Here is the first chapter of a short story I have written. If you like it, Freepmail me and I'll email you the whole book.

Does life after death really exist? The answer to this question has fundamental implications for every man, woman and child on the entire planet, and yet most people don’t spend very much time thinking about it. If this life is not the end, so much of the petty stuff that we spend so much time obsessing over in this life really doesn’t matter, and instead we should be focusing on the things that actually do matter for the life to come. However, if this life truly is the end, we might as well eat, drink, party and enjoy this life...

El Dia de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead, is an ancient holiday that celebrates death and loved ones who've passed on. Google on Thursday is joining the holiday, observed each year on Nov. 2, with its own Doodle altar to the dead. The celebration traditionally features gatherings in which families pray and remember relatives and friends who have died and help them with their spiritual journey. Rather than mournful events, the holiday celebrates death as a part of the cycle of life, thereby dispelling fear of dying. The holiday also often serves as a source of...

It was Jesus who appeared to Thomas. Jesus is a man, and Thomas recognized him. Therefore Jesus retained his gender after his resurrection. Furthermore, Jesus retained his crucifixion wounds further demonstrating he retained his physical characteristics. So, we conclude that we will retain our gender when we are resurrected in our new glorified bodies and go to heaven. But, as I said at the beginning of this article, we will not be married nor will he have any need of procreation. But, some might ask how this is possible since the Bible says... "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there...

Pope Francis was tasked on Sunday with answering a challenging question by a little boy, who asked whether his late atheist father, described as a "good" person, is in Heaven. According to Catholic news site Aleteia, the encounter took place when the Vatican leader was meeting with parishioners of St. Paul of the Cross before celebrating Mass. A boy identified only by the name Emanuele was invited to whisper a question he had for Francis, which he did, but was too overcome with emotion to repeat it in public. The pontiff then shared with the parishioners what Emanuele had whispered...

In 1946, Billy Graham had a friendly rival for the title of the most up and coming evangelist in the world. The friendly rival was, in fact, Billy Graham’s best friend Charles Templeton.Charles Templeton was from Canada and was co-founder of the organization Youth for Christ, which hired Billy Graham as its first full time evangelist.  Templeton and Graham led rallies together in America and in Europe.  Many thought that Templeton was the more talented preacher of the two.  However, what followed was a truly sad story.By the late 1940’s Templeton began to doubt the Genesis account of creation.  Further,...

Jesus often used parables to teach lessons. Well here are three modern-day parables concerning the lives and deaths of Wanda Dunn, Eddie Maintenance and Jack Shephard. Each parable reinforces the lesson of Easter: That the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Wanda was a lonely old woman who dared not set foot outside of her one-room basement apartment for fear that death awaited her one the other side of her front door. One day there was a scuffle outside Wanda’s apartment during which a policeman was shot. When she peered through her window, Wanda saw...

Never talk with the devil, he is a "liar" and "swindler", "seeking our ruin" and for "this will be thrown into the abyss." If "we open our hearts", as Jesus asks us, and we do not go our way, we will have "joy and salvation."Vatican City (AsiaNews) - Eternal damnation "is not a torture chamber," but distance for ever from God, from the "God who gives happiness". But if "we open our hearts," as Jesus asks us, and we do not go our way, we will have "the joy and salvation” said Pope Francis at Mass this morning in Santa...

On the Paradoxical Beauty of Dying Msgr. Charles Pope • November 6, 2016 • As most of you know, the Washington, D.C. City Council recently took a step toward legalizing physician-assisted suicide for those with less than six months to live.Although I have written elsewhere about the dangerous implications of this legislation, in today’s post I want to stand up for the dying, at home and in nursing homes, the fully lucid and those with advanced Alzheimer’s, those who are moving toward death relatively painlessly and those who are suffering.As a priest, it has been my privilege to accompany...