…today I am removing prior posts that document the gross abuses of the Assemblies of God Michigan District against the churches that God entrusted to it.

Undeserved mercy.

Undeserved forgiveness.

Because there may be a slim chance that they don’t realize what they did, just as Jesus prayed for those who crucified him because they didn’t know what they were doing. Even though it is extremely unlikely that after 7 years they still don’t realize the evil of their actions, maybe there is still a saving grace for them somewhere, somehow. I hope there is a redemption in this for them.

Somewhere.

Somehow.

In my opinion, only if Genesis is literal. In that case, a created being made with a free-will must be able to obtain the consequences of its decisions. God did everything he could to prevent the wrong decision:

He clearly explained the choice to his creation. He clearly explained the consequences that would occur from making the wrong choice (“On the day you eat of it, dying you shall die”.) And he clearly gave enough other choices so that idle curiosity or boredom weren’t a factor (“You may eat of ANY tree of the garden except one”). The Genesis account is clear that Eve did not take the forbidden fruit out of curiosity or boredom. She was presented with a challenge (which her pristine, fully-engaged mind would readily have recognized), and that challenge clearly would have led her to the logical conclusion, “either this snake is lying to me, or God is lying to me.” So who did she choose to distrust? God or the snake? The temptation was fair, in that it purely tested her faith in God only, and didn’t prey upon an inherent weakness or design flaw. Squared face to face with the idea that God may not be trustworthy, she embraced that idea rather than choosing to believe the best about God and that the snake was the untrustworthy one. And then, as a result of that decision, the curse fell upon mankind, and Adam and Eve’s decision to distrust God became a weakness that their descendants have inherited as part of the curse. I describe this to show that it doesn’t take much explanation from the Genesis account to de-couple God from the supposed blame that most thinking on this subject tend to ascribe to him. God isn’t to blame for mankind’s fall, nor for the world of suffering that resulted. If God had given Adam and Eve a good result for their disobedience, then they wouldn’t have really been free to choose good or evil. When you get the same thing no matter what you decide, then there was never really a choice to be had. So is the suffering our fault or God’s? We can’t have it both ways – you can’t have both free choice AND ascribe to God all culpability for the consequences of making a wrong choice.

Incidentally, I don’t know where “all-benevolent” idea came from. “All-…” implies the exclusion of everything to the contrary. The Bible describes a God who is more than one-sided. Yes, he is loving, more so than any human being, but the Bible also describes that God has a big problem with our lack of faith and of our lack of holiness. He hates it so much, that he sent Jesus to pay the penalty. And even Jesus frequently showed disappointment with his disciples. At how slow they were to “get it”. He would sigh at them. He would say, “are you so dull?”. Since Jesus was the fullness of the deity (Godhead) represented in human form, then we must take Jesus’ words as an extension of what God the Father feels. When Jesus was expressing frustration, that was God expressing frustration. The Bible says that every one of us will be called to account for the deeds we have done, so in my mind that contradicts with the post-modern idea of a fluffy pink bunny “all-loving” “all merciful” God who does nothing but sit in the theological box we have confined him to, and then we take him out and hold him in front of others and pet his soft fur and say, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.” Somehow, that’s not “the whole truth and nothing but the truth.” The Bible says “God is a consuming fire.” And “who can stand before him?” He’s not a sugar daddy in the sky. And unfortunately, he’s been presented as such that the view of God presented is incompatible with a “world of suffering”. Even the word “omnipotent” is a man-made word made up to summarize God and put him in a theological box. God never uses this word when he describes himself in the Biblical text. So why do we presume upon God to think we can better describe him than he can? Why do we believe our man-made creeds over what God himself has revealed about who he is?

So I conclude that it’s a man-made construct to pit an “omnipotent, all-benevolent God” against anything, because the Bible doesn’t describe an “omnipotent, all-benevolent God”. Instead it describes a God for whom nothing is too difficult (which is different than omnipotent, when you deeply consider it), who is both benevolent and full of vengeance. He will reward the righteous and destroy the wicked. Somehow, I can’t see the cotton candy poofy “all-benevolent” God destroying the wicked. Maybe that’s why there are homosexual ministers in the church today, who say that God will overlook it. Maybe that’s why we can “pray for others” by revealing all their dirty secrets and not call it slander (the Bible lumps slander and homosexuality into the same pot, by the way. Neither one is more egregious nor less egregious than the other.).

OK, enough said. Just wanted to communicate that the question is slanted, because it tends to pit an imaginary, non-Biblical God against the world of suffering. I find no conflict with the Biblical (non-theologized) God and the world of suffering. I find that the book of Genesis, taken literally, actually answers all my objections. Even though it’s a difficult lesson to learn (to understand and take ownership that our rebellion is responsible for our own mess).

Where's the Octopus?

And I’ll come out and boldly say it: If you can watch this video and not be in awe; if you can observe this and somehow think that this sophisticated operational capability resulted from an undirected, random, blind process of natural selection and chance variation of DNA, then I don’t think you’re being honest with the empirical data.  It’s time to stop insulting the creator’s ingenuity, and believe. On the final day we all stand before God and he asks us to account for the life he has given us, nobody is going to venture the objection, “I wasn’t sure if you existed.” Not after seeing this octopus.

Today it has been reported that a ‘Goldilocks’ planet has been found; that is, a planet where conditions are “just right” to support life. Are scientists basing this conclusion on empirical data, or has unbounded evolutionary optimism crept into this latest proclamation by scientific journalism? Has faith in the evolutionary origins of life grown so ardent that scientists are ignoring scientific observations about how the universe functions? Today’s proclamation suggests so. Take a look at the article yourself, and see if you can spot the lapses in scientific reason. Here’s the article:

Goldilocks Planet Found

Here’s a few obvious things the scientists have overlooked in their evolutionary fervor:

1. The planet is locked to its sun. The planet does not spin. There is no daily rotation. One side perpetually faces its sun, while the other side perpetually faces away. A ‘Goldilocks’ planet must possess spin, for several reasons: First, temperature extremes on both the hot side and the cold side will prevent liquid water from stabilizing. All known life is aqueous-based, so as far as we know, liquid water is a must. Second, even if liquid water could exist under a shaded rock near the planet’s thin ring where its perpetual day meets its perpetual night, the water temperature would not likely be a balmy 70 degrees. From what has been scientifically observed about weather, if the planet has an atmosphere, it would be subject to extreme winds unlike any known on earth. The temperature extremes between hot air on the sunny side and cold air on the unlit side would create enormously violent winds that would always be seeking equilibrium, but never finding it. As cool winds rush from the unlit side to the planet’s sunny side, instead of reaching equilibrium, the sun would continue heating the atmosphere and energizing the vicious cycle of weather. Imagine life evolving in a perpetual hurricane, rather than “in some warm little pond” as Darwin envisioned.

2. The planet’s water supply and atmospheric composition are not confirmed to be capable of sustaining life. But we can overlook these small details and perhaps plan an expedition to the planet. Don’t bother packing air bottles – we’re confident that when we arrive, we can open the spaceship door and breathe in the planet’s fresh, life-sustaining air.

A ‘Goldilocks’ planet? Hardly. Were we to visit the planet, we would find it completely uninhabitable from the winds and temperature extremes alone. Yet it is clear that many people are overlooking the facts in favor of science fiction. And it’s not just limited to the scientists who state that developing life would have a number of stable habitats to choose from (hurricaine = “stable”). What is most disturbing is the degree that the average person’s faith in evolution is influenced by these “scientific” articles that are devoid of scientific scepticism. Reader comments on the article’s website reveal that people seriously believe that the planet is habitable. Incredibly, this belief spawned lengthy reader discussions on whether or not we should form expeditions to the planet. One reader even asserts that discovery of life on Mars has been proven – an established scientific fact. And this demonstrates the point perfectly – that what empirical science observes isn’t nearly as important as what people believe that science has observed. So try this next time you talk to an evolutionist. Ask them, “What scientific observational evidence can you give me that proves that life arose without a designer?” (And if they point out the observed similarities in living organisms, just point out the observed similarities in automobiles, and ask if those similarities therefore prove that none of the automobiles had a designer.)

Both the scientist and the unsuspecting public have somehow fallen prey to the evolutionary paradigm, which asserts evolutionary theory (and the assumptions necessary to support it) regardless of what is actually observed. Have these people lost their minds? Or are they simply unwilling victims of unbounded evolutionary optimism?

I have a 2002 Santa Fe 2.7L 2WD, but any 2001-2006 2.7L Santa Fe engine should be pretty identical. Took me about 7 hours to replace the timing belt. One hour was figuring out how to get the crankshaft pulley off – the instructions below will save you that aggravation!

Replacing the timing belt is not difficult – just a bit time-intensive to remove everything to get to the belt. If you have access to Chilton manuals or AllData, then you can get some pics to go with what I describe below.

Here’s the basics for changing a Hyundai Santa Fe 2.7L timing belt:

OVERALL: Everything is metric. You’ll need a good metric socket set. In my opinion, the longer the socket wrench you have, the easier and quicker the job will go. You’ll find most bolts are “stuck” and take a good amount of force to initially break loose. But with a long socket wrench, you don’t have to push that hard to apply this force. Once the bolts initially break free, most of them can be unscrewed the rest of the way by hand. Seriously, having a long socket wrench will take an hour off the job. Also, a good air-driven impact wrench is a MUST for this job. You cannot complete the job without it (unless you have a special tool to hold the crankshaft pulley from rotating while unbolting it, or are willing to do something dangerous like put a socket on the crankshaft, wedge it against something and then crank the engine).

BEFORE STARTING: Remove the battery cables from the battery.

1. Remove the plastic engine cover. 5 or 6 bolts.

2. Remove the front passenger wheel. Put an extra jack stand underneath the car frame for safety.

Note: I actually dropped my vehicle on the rotor because the Hyundai Santa Fe’s rear spare tire carrier bolt gets so rusty, it really shakes the car trying to unscrew it and get the spare tire out (and that’s after two liberal dousings with WD-40) – the vibrations and shaking can cause the vehicle to fall off the wimpy car jack that comes with the vehicle. I eventually had to replace the spare tire carrier bolt, and from the replacement part I discovered that Hyundai had changed the design.

3. Remove the plastic wheel well panel behind the front passenger wheel. It’s held on by 3 or 4 bolts along the top of the panel. To see these bolts, you kinda have to get your head into the wheel well and look up at the top of the panel. Removing this panel gives you access to the front of the engine (which faces the passenger side of the vehicle).

4. Remove the serpentine accessory belt. Just take an extra-long socket wrench – the wrench’s square fits in the end of the belt tensioner – and pull the tensioner clockwise to take tension off the belt, and then slip the belt off one of the pulleys. Easiest to do this coming through the wheel well, but could probably be done from above, too. The belt will not actually come completely off until you unbolt the tensioner.

5. Unbolt the serpentine belt tensioner. There are two long bolts that hold it on. Take the tensioner and serpentine belt off. You’ll see that the tensioner covered a hole in the timing belt case, and through that hole you should now see a portion of the cogged timing belt.

6. Unbolt the power steering pump pulley. It’s the top pulley in the middle. You’ll need to stick something through one of the holes in the pulley to keep the pulley from turning as you unbolt it. I used a smaller socket wrench with a long socket on it, holding on to the socket wrench and sticking the socket through the pulley’s hole, jamming the socket against the body of the power steering pump behind the pulley. Remove the nut and the pulley.

7. You may need to unbolt the cruise control module at this point in preparation for jacking the engine. I did as a precaution, but discovered that on the 2002 Santa Fe, I really didn’t need to. However, I have read an internet post that pointed out that on their Santa Fe, failure to unbolt the cruise control module caused the cable to come uncrimped when the engine was jacked, and that caused the engine to race after everything was put back together. Unbolting the module prevents its cable from getting pulled too far when you jack the engine.

8. Place a block of wood on a hydraulic jack underneath the engine oil pan, and jack it up to support the front of the engine. (“Jack it up” here means to raise up the jack, not “ruin it”.) The oil pan is immediately below the front of the engine (just behind the pulleys).

9. Unbolt the front engine bracket and take it off. This is done from the top. One bolt on the vehicle frame side (on top of the wheel well) and three bolts and/or nuts on the engine side.

10. Remove the serpentine belt idler pulley. Easy to come off. No need to hold pulley from turning, because the bolt goes through to the engine. Be careful once you get the bolt off – basically you have this pulley sandwiched by two plates – make sure you don’t lose the back plate and you know which way it goes back on the pulley.

11. Remove the other half of the engine bracket still attached to the engine. First, you’ll need to remove the small bolt on this bracket that faces the front of the vehicle. This bolt holds on the engine oil dipstick tube. Then, you’ll find another small bolt facing the passenger side near the top of the bracket – this bolt is impossible to see, but you’ll be able to feel for it. Access this bolt from under the hood. Then return to the wheel well and remove three large bolts and the bracket will be free.

Before you remove the crankshaft pulley, you’ll need to make sure the  timing belt is properly aligned. To do so, you must remove the top half of the timing belt cover next.

12. Remove top half of the timing belt cover, by removing three bolts around rear sprocket, three bolts around front sprocket, and one long bolt at the bottom of this cover. This cover only goes halfway down the engine, so you can get to all these bolts from the engine compartment. I believe they require a 10mm socket.

13. Once the top half of the cover is removed, you will want to locate the timing marks on the exposed sprockets. It’s a little dot imprinted on the front of each sprocket. Best viewed looking under the hood from the  passenger side. The dots need to be aligned with the timing marks on the  engine case. The timing mark on the engine case for the left sprocket towards the rear of the vehicle) is a little notch located at about 11:00, and the timing mark for the right sprocket (towards the front of the vehicle) is at about 1:00.

14. Once you’ve located the timing marks on the sprockets and the engine, put a long wrench on the crankshaft pulley center nut and rotate the pulley clockwise until you get the top sprocket timing marks in place. (The crankshaft pulley is the very bottom center pulley. You access it through the wheel well.) You’ll notice that when you get the top timing marks in place, the crankshaft pulley timing mark will be more or less aligned with a protrusion on the timing belt cover (at about the 1:00 position). If the bottom pulley is not perfectly aligned with one of the marks, don’t worry about it. The important thing is to have the top timing marks for both sprockets perfectly aligned. Once you remove the crankshaft pulley and bottom half of the pulley cover, you’ll see that the crankshaft sprocket tooth is properly aligned. You’ll also notice that you have to turn the crankshaft pulley two entire revolutions to get the top sprockets to turn a single revolution. They are geared exactly 2:1.

15. Soak the crankshaft pulley bolt with WD-40 (or even better, I’m told, use PB Blaster or Breakfree) where its shoulder meets the pulley. I found this to be important.

16. Use an air impact wrench to remove the crankshaft pulley bolt (counterclockwise). I found that the air impact wrench on maximum setting was enough to loosen the bolt without actually turning the crankshaft. It may take about half a minute to loosen up. If it doesn’t want to come off, try some more WD-40 and let it sit awhile. If you try to use a socket wrench, you’ll just end up turning the engine backwards. AN AIR IMPACT WRENCH IS A MUST TO DO THIS, unless you have a special tool to hold the crankshaft pulley still while turning its bolt counterclockwise. The crankshaft pulley bolt will come off along with a thick spacer.

17. Remove the crankshaft pulley. You’ll probably need to wiggle it back and forth as you pull it straight off. The more you can wiggle it, the easier it is to come off. The pulley is “keyed” to the crankshaft with a pin (located now at about the 1:00 position). This pin will stay on the crankshaft, and will be what you use to make sure the crankshaft is aligned once you get the new timing belt on.

18. Remove the lower timing belt cover. 10mm socket is used to remove the 4 or so bolts holding it on (best accessed through wheel well).

19. Notice now that the crankshaft (where you pulled the crankshaft pulley off from) has its pin (the pin we mentioned in step 17) aligned with a timing mark on the engine. Take note of this alignment! You’ll see the teeth on the crankshaft that drive the timing belt. One of these teeth is aligned with the pin, and therefore aligned with the mark on the engine.

NOTE: Take stock of how taut the timing belt is at this point. This is what the belt feels like under tension. It’s pretty tense, right?

20. Remove the timing belt auto-tensioner. It is the cylinder-looking thing up and to the left of the crankshaft. Two bolts hold it on. Unbolt these bolts, and tension on the timing belt is released.

21. After removing the timing belt auto-tensioner, use a large C-clamp to slowly compress the pin in the auto-tensioner all the way, until you can slip a smooth end of an old drill bit (or other comparable pin or nail) in through the little hole on the top of the auto-tensioner. This hole locks the tensioner’s pin in the compressed position. Before you put the drill bit in, cover it with WD-40 (PB Blaster) , and spray a little WD-40 (PB Blaster) in the little hole on the top of the auto-tensioner too (front and back). The drill bit should go all the way through from the front, through the center pin, and through the back. Enough of the drill bit should be sticking out the front so you can later grab it with a pair of pliers and pull it out.

22. Enough tension should have been released from the timing belt so you can now gently pull it off.

CAUTION!! Be very careful not to rotate the belt as you are taking it off, or as you are putting the new belt on. Also be very careful not to rotate the left top sprocket at all after the belt is off. The reason is because the left top sprocket has its springs in the compressed position (at the top of the hill, so to speak). If you rotate this left top sprocket even one tooth, its compressed energy will cause it to rotate about 8 teeth, taking it out of timing with the crankshaft and the right top sprocket. This is the voice of experience talking. (If this does happen to where the top left sprocket gets pushed 8 teeth forward, I think I got everything back in sync by also rotating the right top sprocket 8 teeth forward, putting the timing belt back on, rotating everything slowly through 1 crankshaft revolution, taking the belt back off, then rotating the crankshaft foward the additional 8 teeth.)

CHECK: Check the idler and tensioner pulleys that they are in good condition, and turn freely with little to no play. Replace if needed.

23. Temporarily put the crankshaft pulley back on (no need to put its bolt in), and rotate the crankshaft pulley by hand back (counter clockwise) about 5 degrees. Shouldn’t be too hard to do, because the crankshaft is not in a position where it takes much force to move at this point. Pull the pulley back off and check where you are at. Keep doing this until you have moved the crankshaft by one tooth. In other words, you need to rotate the crankshaft so that instead of the crankshaft pin being aligned with the mark on the engine, the tooth to the right (clockwise) of that pin is aligned with the mark on the engine. WHY DO WE DO THIS? Because there will be a little bit of slack between the right top sprocket and the crankshaft sprocket when you install the new belt. You’ll find that after taking up this slack, the crankshaft will be properly aligned with the top sprockets. But don’t worry. We’ll be double-checking to make sure we got it right.

NOTE: The timing belt tensioner pulley is towards the left (rear of vehicle), and the idler pulley is towards the right (front of vehicle).

24. Put on the new timing belt in this order: First, put it on the crankshaft sprocket at the bottom. Next, from under the hood pull the timing belt snug against the idler pulley (don’t pull hard – just enough to remove most of the slack), and wrap the belt counter clockwise around the right top sprocket (the sprocket towards the front of the vehicle). With the teeth of the belt engaged on the right top sprocket, pause to check the play in the belt between the sprocket and the crankshaft sprocket. Remember when you took stock of how taut the old belt was? The belt should not be this tight. But then, it shouldn’t be so loose that it comes off the idler pulley. There should be just a little bit of slack, which will be taken up when you later on replace the crankshaft pulley. Continue wrapping the new timing belt around the water pump pulley (smack dab in the middle of the engine, between all 3 sprockets, and then back up around the left top sprocket (toward the rear of the vehicle). Make sure that there is AS LITTLE PLAY in the belt between the two top sprockets as possible. The belt should be nice and snug between these two. The belt should be pretty tight at this point. You should have just enough play left in the belt to muscle it over the tensioner pulley (which is currently not under tension). If that is so, you can be assured that your timing belt is probably properly installed.

25. Now we check the timing belt installation. DO NOT CHECK THE SPROCKET ALIGNMENT YET. FIRST WE HAVE TO ROTATE THE TIMING BELT CLOCKWISE TO DISTRIBUTE THE TENSION ON THE BELT PROPERLY. Bolt the tensioner pulley auto-tensioner back on (two bolts). In one quick movement, pull out the pin (or old drill bit) from the auto-tensioner with a pair of pliers.

26. Temporarily put the crankshaft pulley back on, and screw in on with its center bolt.

27. With a long wrench on the crankshaft pulley center bolt, rotate this pulley two entire revolutions until the two top sprocket timing marks have made one entire revolution and are lined up once again with the timing marks on the engine. As you start to rotate the crankshaft pulley, you should see the auto-tensioner pin come out and return to its normal length. The entire timing belt should return to the tension you observed on the old belt before removing the auto-tensioner. If not, then you need to remove the auto-tensioner and check it.

28. Remove the crankshaft pulley center bolt with the air impact wrench, and remove the pulley.

29. CHECK THE ALIGNMENT CAREFULLY. ALL THREE SPROCKETS SHOULD NOW BE ALIGNED TO THEIR TIMING MARKS. If even one timing mark is off, you’llneed to pull the belt back off and reinstall. It is easy to see if a timing mark is off by one tooth. Just look at the belt and the sprockets and observe the distance from one tooth to the next. If any one of the three timing marks is off by this amount or more, your timing is maligned. But if the marks are off only a smidgen (a small fraction of the distance between two adjacent teeth), then your timing is aligned.

30. IF YOUR TIMING BELT IS MISALIGNED, GO BACK TO STEP 20. Note that it is easier to align the crankshaft individually than the top sprockets, so if the top sprockets are in sync with each other but out of sync with the crankshaft, turn the crankshaft until the top sprockets are aligned with their timing marks, remove the belt, then temporarily put the crankshaft pulley back on and adjust it.

NOTE: It is ok to turn the crankshaft back a few degrees if you need to. You may be able to do this by hand by just pushing the crankshaft pulley on the crankshaft (without its mounting bolt) and turning the pulley by hand. However, if you need to adjust the top sprockets, you’ll probably need to do so with timing belt installed, and turning the crankshaft in clockwise direction using a socket on its center bolt. If you need to go an entire revolution on one of the top sprockets, you’ll need to do so with the timing belt installed, so the entire engine rotates more or less in sync. REMEMBER THE CAUTION ABOUT THE LEFT FRONT SPROCKET. IF YOU TRY TO MOVE IT CLOCKWISE EVEN JUST A LITTLE BIT PAST THE TIMING MARK WITH THE TIMING BELT OFF, ITS LOADED SPRINGS WILL LIKELY SUDDENLY POP THE SPROCKET FORWARD ABOUT 8 TEETH.

NOTE 2: After each time you rotate the crankshaft pulley with timing belt installed (using a socket on the crankshaft pulley’s center mounting bolt) you’ll need to remove the crankshaft pulley again with the air impact wrench.

31. IF YOUR TIMING BELT IS NOW ALIGNED (all three timing marks on the sprockets are lined up with the three timing marks on the engine) , IT’S TIME TO PUT EVERYTHING BACK TOGETHER, in the reverse order of what you took it off.

NOTES: When reinstalling the top half of the engine bracket (the one that attaches between engine and frame), you may need to jack the engine a little higher in order to get this bracket snug against the bottom half of the engine bracket.

DO NOT RESTART YOUR ENGINE UNTIL YOU WORK YOUR WAY BACK  PAST STEP 4. (But don’t put the vehicle in drive until you work your way back past step 2.)

Best of luck to you in your belt-changing endeavor! I hope this saves you some money. And please consider that Jesus is the Christ, and the only doorway to heaven that God himself has initiated, as proved by his resurrecting of Jesus from the dead. All other ways to God/heaven are initiated by people. Why should God capitulate to a methodology, doctrine, or religion that mankind invents?

This article was written by a mechanical engineer  in the automotive industry who is convinced that the sophisticated systems found in molecular biology, composed of interacting parts that have no comprehension or foresight into their system’s total function when assembled, are proof positive of God’s existence. Why hold on to an exception (Darwinian evolution, which holds that living organisms are the only example of self-organized, self-produced information in the universe) when the rule of common experience (that all information and intelligently arranged systems whose origin we have observed have an intelligence at their source) is a more likely explanation?

First number is front derailleur, and second number is rear derailleur.

1-1
1-2
1-3
2-1
1-4
2-2
3-1
1-5
2-3
3-2
1-6
2-4
3-3
1-7
2-5
3-4
2-6
3-5
2-7
3-6
3-7

Anyone see a problem? Like, can you actually remember to go from gear combination 3-1 to combination 1-5 when cycling?? Based on this sequence, if you examined the actual number of practical gears available to you (gears you will actually use, where you strictly upshift a single gear at a time, without having to downshift another gear), a 21-speed bike really only gives you up to 9 “usable” linear gears:

Example 1:

1-1
1-2
1-3
2-3
3-3
3-4
3-5
3-6
3-7

Example 2:

1-1
1-2
2-2
2-3
2-4
2-5
3-5
3-6
3-7

Example 3:

1-1
2-1
2-2
2-3
2-4
2-5
3-5
3-6
3-7

This result is the product of basic math, as you’ve got 6 gear shifts on the rear derailleur, and 2 gear shifts on the front. This makes 8. Add 1 for your starting position, and you’ve got 9 usable gears.

So the bottom line is that on a 21-speed bike, there are 12 gears that you will likely almost never use (or need).

Now that you know that a 21-speed bike is really a 9-speed bike, a 7-speed integrated hub shifter doesn’t sound so bad, does it?

Click here to read the article.

I enjoyed reading this article. However, my recent reading of “Signature in the Cell” by Stephen Meyer convinces me that Markram’s theory (that consciousness is a product of self-organised complexity) is wishful thinking. As Meyer points out, there is a universe of difference between natural patterns and information-bearing (functionally specified) patterns. Markram would be well-served to familiarize himself with Meyer’s arguments. Evolutionists have been trying for decades to explain, through naturalistic mechanisms, the origin of biological information and the brain’s organization. And all such explanations fail. In my opinion they fail because they are based upon a wrong presumption (naturalism). Let’s recognize the brain for what it is: the construct of a mind. The imposition of functionally relevant structure upon matter is the result of engineering. Not chance. Not self-organization. Systems engineers understand that self-organizing systems themselves must be engineered.

But even more interesting are the implications this has for Biblical prophecy. The book of Revelation states that the antichrist’s right-hand man, the false prophet, will bring an image of the antichrist to life and make it speak and cause all who will not worship the antichrist to be beheaded. Markram’s research may provide key technology to make this happen. As the antichrist (Islamic Mahdi) and the false prophet (Islamic Jesus a.k.a. Isa) perform their false signs and wonders to deceive the world into uniting to follow the antichrist religion of Islam, there will apparently be a union of techology and supernatural signs. The technology appears as a mark in the hand or forehead that is necessary for buying and selling. The supernatural signs appear as fire from heaven and other satanically empowered signs that will deceive all who refused to love the truth (the historical reality of Jesus’ death and resurrection, as reported by eyewitnesses whose accounts survive to this day in the Biblical books of Matthew, John, Peter, etc.). Therefore, those who refused to believe the truth will have nothing remaining but a lie to believe. A lie supported by a living, thinking image of the antichrist.

Americans typically assume that we can swallow poison and not be harmed. We swallow poison because it tastes good, and then wonder why we’re sick. I’m not talking about physical poison here. I’m referring to the harmful influences we allow in our lives, oftentimes without thinking. It’s as if people are oblivious to the fact that risky decisions can actually lead to unpleasant outcomes. Perhaps the time is ripe to understand the consequences.

Some Ways that Americans Swallow Poison

People watch movies and television containing horror, sexual immorality, and the depiction of every kind of deceit imaginable. Yet the things we see and experience cause rewiring of the brain. As memories are formed in our brains, our personhood changes ever so subtly.  Do we know for sure that watching hours of sitcoms and soaps full of stinging putdowns and zingers doesn’t taint our attitudes towards others? Why are we so unconcerned, that we glibly assume the risk? How can we be sure that the insane mass-murderer didn’t become insane from the music and movies he chose to pump into his brain?

Parents let their kids dress up as the ‘princess of darkness’ during Halloween (a holiday celebrating death, darkness, and demons), and so embrace evil because it’s sugar coated in trick-or-treat candy. (Somehow, poison doesn’t do so much damage if it actually tastes good.) Then two months later, the same people celebrate the holiday of God’s light (Jesus) coming into the world. So people are embracing darkness, then light. Well, which will it be, people? And that’s part of the delusion. People think they can embrace both life and death, and somehow they will only experience abundant life as a result. They ignorantly assume there will be no consequences to themselves as individuals or society as a whole if they swallow another poison pill.

People regularly justify the use of profanity. Thereby in their language they degrade everything of value. Yet they think nothing will be affected by the negativity and corruption that their speech embodies.

People think they can puff on their cigarettes and lay out in the sun’s cancer-causing rays for hours and not suffer any future ill effects. (Of if they do, their health care will be paid for by health insurance premiums contributed by their healthy neighbors.)

Teens ignore the blatantly satanic horned creature in Guitar Hero, just because other aspects of the game are fun. Would we feel the same if our teens participated in Russian Roulette just because it was exciting and socially stimulating? When are we going to understand that evil is the corruption of goodness, and that if a thing of goodness that has been inextricably intertwined with evil, it is therefore corrupted and needs to be tossed in the garbage can?

People think they can talk on their cell phones and drive at the same time. (No, they haven’t actually been drinking. They’re just driving like they’ve been drinking.)

People think that if they throw trash out their car window, somebody else with their mindset will pick it up for them.

Teenagers think that if they walk down the middle of the street or just hang out in the street talking, cars will patiently wait (or perhaps drive on the sidewalk). There is obviously no risk if a car were to hit them, since they are immortal.

CEOs of American financial institutions think they can forget what their securities represent, and make glib decisions with them. Yet they will be shielded from failure by bailouts and exit clauses, essentially rewarding them despite their decisions.

The American government thinks they can keep propping up unstable companies, but not inherit a huge bill in the future when the fatally flawed company finally dies.

People ignore God all their lives and assume that somehow they’ll be ok in the afterlife, despite the fact that they haven’t invested a single “penny” into their “ultimate retirement.”

And last but not least, Americans believe they can overspend or overextend their credit, and not reap the consequences. A ton of people mortgaged through ARMs, never considering the possibility of a market downturn when refinance time came around. Were they in la-la land when they signed the loan? Well, now everyone in America is in “la-la land” – a land where we daily go to our jobs so we can earn more money to pay more taxes to float a loan to these bankrupt companies so they can lose even more money before they crash. Tell me how this is rational.

To summarize:

 We treat poison….as something innocent…