Another life changing story concerns the child in the waiting room of a some medical facility; doctor or dentist, and reading the magazines.  This actually happened to me around the age of eight or nine.  There was a magazine with an article titled, "We Don't Have Bodies, We Are Bodies," or words to that effect.  It startled me to see that in print.  I knew it was wrong.  It's not an uncommon experience.  So many have it that apparently someone thought an article was necessary.  Speakers of English sometimes refer to the experience as the spark of consciousnes or the spark of the divine.  Translation into other languages is problematic.

I didn't want work as a doctor.  Considering there might be one bad apple in any bushel though, I did watch to see how things went.  Later the medical profession, especially in the news, got even worse, becoming the godless and frightful nuisance it is today.  I should mention that I do feel sorry for the few saintly people who work in hospitals.  It must be terribly embarrassing for them, both the financial burden they've become, and the social burden of their failing to uphold good morals.

Many debates concern "proofs" of God or the spirit.  I suspect the proof will for some long time to come remain a personal experience.  If you question whether "Tom Barker" exists you might ask whether anyone has recently communicated with him.  You might ask whether anyone has seen him recently.  In this age of mass communication we have much evidence of people communicating with and even seeing God or, for them anyway, some evidence of God.  Of course large numbers of people can be mistaken about other things and might also be mistaken about God.  That leaves only personal experience.  It still amuses me no end how much people who can believe in heart transplants question others' beliefs in God.

I have come to understand that the personal experiences of God or assurances of God's existence are considered a "grace," which is a much misunderstood, oft misapplied and maligned word.  Some schools hold that God reveals himself to whom he will, and there is no secure track in human knowledge who will be next.  I would argue that anyone with enough intelligence to understand that life could not begin from lightning striking mud should have "sufficient grace" to know God.  I would also note that the circumspection resulting from the knowledge that there must be an intelligent designer of life might well prove to be "efficacious grace."  What sort of grace "aham brahmasmi" might be I will leave to translators with more knowledge of India, and perhaps your own debates over infant baptism.

Again, even with the flightier courses I took in college, about phospholipid bilayers and the intricacies of the life of a euglena, I still cherish the lessons from childhood.  As important as it might be that the best and smartest become doctors, it is also important to remember that simply because someone is a doctor is no proof they are the best and smartest.

I always did quite well in school despite a definite lack of development in some areas not on the curriculum.  I never had much social skill.  I didn't make many friends.  Later in high school I had more "friends" because of my many activities.  I was involved in religious discipline.  I worked on the school's debate team.  I worked at a restaurant.  Even today I have few close friendships, just people with similar goals "working" on them together more than friends.  I was a "networker" long before Facebook.  My closest friends were not the wealthiest.  My own family was poor.  But we were all "intelligent" as measured by the school anyway.  When I was a senior in high school one of my friends and I tied for the highest score in the school that year on the college entrance tests.  And we had similar interests in science, science fiction and religious systems.  Even so, we were not close and with all the moving drifted quite apart after school.

The only problem I had in college at the University of Oklahoma was being torn between my natural propensity for math and physics and my profound interest in religion and philosophy.  For me they were, are and ever will be the same thing.  But there is the issue of making a career choice and an appropriate degree program.  I soon filed papers with the patent office for my discovery of magnetic capacitance.

Shortly thereafter in building some equipment to demonstrate magnetic capacitance I discovered a means of rapidly adjusting the quiescent level of amplifiers and filed those papers as well.  You can read more about those here.
 

But I was not "lazy" either.  I rebuilt the engine to a Chevrolet Impala with no help but a book and parts from an after market car parts store.

The model of computer I was using in those days was discontinued.  It had a very slow processor and the fastest available modem for it was only 300 baud.  Using books again, the machine code to the computer, and the technical manuals, and digital integrated circuits from a parts store, I built an interface for the discontinued computer that worked with a 2400 baud modem.  That started me on the bulletin board discussions that eventually grew into this website.
 

I was stunned at the findings in Kitzmiller v. Dover. The case does appear to be quite a travesty of justice. I developed arguments to overturn those findings. You can find them here. Intelligent Design Is Scientific Fact