Better reasons to quit Christianity

[Jackalope]

Let's put it this way: My wife is the most skeptical and logical person I know. She never talks about the paranormal. Yet, the day she watched a news program about the first teacher to take a ride in to space in the space shuttle, she turned to her mother and said, "Mom, I know she is going to die." That shuttle exploded on take off.

So what does this mean? Was she crazy? No, the proof was in the tragedy. Was she lying? She is actually the most honest person I know (I should know, because I've been married to her for many years). She has a type A personality, and would rather confront someone and die, than tell a lie. So how did she know? I don't know. I just know she did, and I cannot deny the evidence.

Does this prove there are ghosts? No. But it does prove to me that there are experiences others have that I have never had that cannot be denied as genuine. So when someone talks about an experience he has had which seems remarkable to me, and I know that person to be sincere and sane, I hesitate to brush off what he says.

Coincidence.

Let me tell YOU a little story. I'm an avid poker player. One time, I found myself in a hand heads up with a friend. The game was no-limit Texas hold'em and we were all-in on the flop with two cards to come.

(If you are not familiar with the game, we each had two hole cards, and there were three exposed community cards on the board. The combination of one's hole cards and the community cards make your hand. As we were all-in (all of the money was in the pot), no further betting would occur).

We turn over our hands, and I see that I am WAY ahead - the only way that my opponent can win is if the two cards to come are either the two remaining nines in the deck, or two spades.

I do not often do this, but this particular time, I called for the dealer to deal the worst possible card for my hand (i.e. the one card that would give my opponent the best chance of beating me, even though the odds would still be slim): the nine of spades. All in the interest of keeping things interesting.

The nine of spades came on the next card. So the sensible thing to do is to call for the least likely card that could beat me: the nine of hearts. Which, by the way, also came.

Improbable things happen, and absent any kind of corroborating evidence that there's something supernatural occuring, I see no reason to chalk such happenings up to anything other than coincidence.