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Welcome back, my friends, to the "Battle" that never ends.
We're so glad you could attend. Come inside! Come inside!
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This is 'BATTLE OF THE BANDS' ('BOTB') where you listen to different recordings and vote for the one you like best. A new Battle gets posted on the 1st of each month and on the 7th, I place my own vote, tally 'em all up and announce the winner.
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Friend? Foe? Stranger? No matter, ALL are welcome. So pull up a chair, pour yourself 24 oz. of DOG BITE High Gravity Lager (or the poison of your choice) and turn it up to Eleven!
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[NOTE: Links to the first year of 'BOTB' (#1 - #24) can be found at the very bottom of this page.]

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

RESULTS: BATTLE OF THE BANDS -- 2017, FEB. 15 (Or, MARTY ROBBINS VS. MARTY ROBBINS)

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STMcC’s Vote On '2017, February 15th:
Valentine's Day Battle Of The Bands, Vol. 2'
(Or, 'Marty Robbins Versus Marty Robbins')
And The Final Tally:
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I thank you all for making this my favorite 'Battle Of The Bands' (BOTB) installment ever. The voter turnout wasn't great, but I think this is now the "new normal" for BOTB. However, most of you answered all or at least some of my questions. The questions obviously tied into the theme of "eternal love" and "life after death" as suggested by pairing Marty Robbins' songs EL PASO and EL PASO CITY. And it was the novelty of this concept combined with the interesting comments from voters that made this one so special to me.
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So, again, I thank y'all for your participation!
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And now to answer the questions myself, cast my own vote, and provide you with the results of the informal poll I was conducting...
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❤
Do you believe in love at first sight?
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Just a couple years ago I would have said no. There can be a strong attraction, even infatuation at first sight, but it takes really getting to know a person before that can grow into love.
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Today I say that yes, there is such a thing as love at first sight, but it's a rare occurrence and probably always related to a subconscious or soul recognition of the other person from a previous life experience (i.e., a genuine "soul mate"). In other words, the time needed for love to grow has already occurred in a previous life with that same person or same soul, and you are recognizing them at some level deeper than your conscious mind.
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YES = 8
NO = 6
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Do you think there is life after death?
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Based on my answer above, you already know my answer to THIS question.
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YES = 14
NO = 1
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Do you believe a person's romantic love for another can be maintained even after the physical body has died and disappeared?
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I certainly believe that love lives on, but not a "romantic" form of love. In Matthew 22, Jesus is asked about marriage in the afterlife and He responds: "You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven." In other words, in the Heavenly realm, we are pure Spiritual, asexual beings. It won't be a romantic love we experience, but a more Godly, and even more powerful Love, untainted by the physical.
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YES = 7
NO = 6  
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Do you think the souls of the deceased sometimes reincarnate and inhabit the earth in newly born bodies?
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No, I don't think that. I KNOW that. This is actually a subject that I have spent many years studying in great depth. Believe it or not, it has been shown repeatedly, in no uncertain terms, that some people (and apparently a large number of folks) have reincarnated. I know that I have.
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Although I know reincarnation can and does occur, I am NOT a believer in soul transmigration, which is often confused with reincarnation but is actually a different concept with no evidence to support it. Soul transmigration posits that a person might return as a dog, a cat, a raindrop, or even a "holy cow". Reincarnation implies that the soul returns (sometimes many times) solely in the human form.
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YES = 8
NO = 4
MAYBE = 2
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There are a lot of sensational (and sensationalistic) stories out there about reincarnation. Many of them are true. But me, I am a "Just the facts, Ma'am" kind of guy, which is why I prefer to keep my studies in the more scientific realm, even if that can be on the dry side. To any reincarnation doubters, I would recommend two books by Dr. Ian Stevenson: '20 Cases Suggestive Of Reincarnation' and 'Where Reincarnation And Biology Intersect'.
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Because Dr. Stevenson had a scientific mind and took science very seriously, those two books read rather dry -- like the scientific studies they describe. However, if you're like me and just want to know the unadorned facts without spin or bias so you can make up your own mind, then you will value those two publications as I do.
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Here's just one little fact as an example of what you might find in those books:
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A boy named Indika was born in Weligama, Sri Lanka on October 24, 1972. At the age of 3, he began speaking of a life he had lived in another town. He gave many specific names of people and places he had known in his prior life. Eventually, it was determined that he was speaking facts about the life of a boy named Dharshana who had lived in Balapitiya, Sri Lanka and had died of an illness on January 24, 1968, having lived not quite up to eleven. (Sorry. I couldn't resist that.)
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Indika was taken to Balapitiya to meet the family of the deceased Dharshana. At one point he began intently searching the compound area where the family home was located, while the adults followed him. Finally, he located what he'd been looking for. He pointed out where "Dharshana 1965" had been scratched into the concrete of a drain while the cement had still been wet. None of Dharshana's family had ever noticed his name in that concrete until Indika showed it to them. In other words, no one other than Indika, a boy born in another town of Sri Lanka, 5 years after Dharshana had passed away, knew about that personalized graffiti.
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I don't believe that any intellectually honest skeptic could read the Dr. Stevenson books and remain unconvinced that reincarnation occurs.
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Most Christians reject the idea of reincarnation because they mistakenly believe it contradicts The Holy Bible, the Word of God. I am a follower of Christ and a big league believer in The Bible, and I have rather extensively blogged about why reincarnation is not only compatible with the Word of God, but is repeatedly found in the Word of God. For anyone interested, I give you this...
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REINCARNATION & THE HOLY BIBLE [Part 1 Of 4]
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THE REINCARNATING JESUS: WILL IT BE HIS "2nd COMING" OR HIS 34th?
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In this BOTB installment, I voted for EL PASO CITY. I love the cleverness of it, and the mystical element of reincarnation added as the denouement to the 'EL PASO Trilogy'. Also, from a musical standpoint, I prefer the nice but more subtle melody of EL PASO CITY. Although I like the original EL PASO well enough, the "sing song-y" melody of it isn't really my mug o' beer.
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This was indeed a blowout, as I predicted, but not nearly as bad a blowout as I expected. Going up against the famous original, I figured my vote and maybe just one or two others is all that EL PASO CITY would get, but the final tally looks like this:
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El Paso = 14 votes
El Paso City = 6 votes
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Anyway, my thanks once again to all y'all for making this BOTB installment so fun and memorable for me. I hope to see ya here again for my March 1st Battle.
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~ Stephen T. McCarthy
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16 comments:

  1. You have this well thought out and intelligently written. There are also 2 cases of reincarnation that come to mind-Brodie Murphy and Seti. Now the first was a lady from the 1800's who underwent hypnosis and went back before she was born. She started talking about her life in Ireland (If I can remember correctly) and detailed many things that she could not have known since she never left the States. The other is about a young girl of 3 who traveled with her parents to Egypt. When they came across a certain area the girl started saying she was home and speaking in an old language. When she got older she said she was the reincarnation of Seti (Can't remember the number) and she spent her life finding out information from a long ago place that had remained hidden for centuries. On a more recent trip(hahaha), my mom recalled travelling to Austria when she was in her 20's and coming to a town she never visited before but she knew where every store was, every street and felt at home. I find this fascinating.

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    1. Thank you, BIRGIT.
      The Bridey Murphy story was, if not the first, one of the first reincarnation stories I ever heard about. I don't recall all the details, but I kind of question that one.

      The Seti story you related, I am not familiar with. But there are lots and lots of accounts out there that are just astounding and can't possibly be explained away in any other way but reincarnation.

      Being a major Bible believer, I would question all of it if not for the fact I find it clearly in Scripture. (You know, the Biblical saying, "For those who have eyes to see and ears to hear...")

      ~ D-FensDogG
      Check out my new blog @
      (Link:] Stephen T. McCarthy Reviews...

      Delete
  2. The voting in favor of "El Paso City" was better than I would have expected, but I would have been surprised if "El Paso" had not have taken the win.

    Interesting outcome on the question answers as well. I think I still would be more inclined toward a collective memory theory than reincarnation, but the evidence for it is indeed interesting. I won't absolutely discount it yet. I'll let you know my final answer in my next life.

    Arlee Bird
    Tossing It Out

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    1. LEE ~
      I knew there was no chance whatsoever of El Paso City beating El Paso. This one was done just for the fun novelty of it.

      As far as the other, as you said, a Collective Memory Theory is really just a theory. Just as Darwinian and Neo-Darwinian Evolution are just theories. I would say all of them have about an equal amount of evidence to support them.

      Reincarnation, however, has a ton of not just circumstantial evidence behind it, but also what borders on scientific support. And then the fact that a number of passages in The Bible cannot be understood until reincarnation is applied to them -- that's good enough for me. I always go where the evidence leads me.

      ~ D-FensDogG
      Check out my new blog @
      (Link:] Stephen T. McCarthy Reviews...

      Delete
  3. Looks like I'm the only cynic here who doesn't believe in life after death, but I'm in no hurry to find out whether it exists or not. ☺ There are so many unexplained mysteries in this world! Your story about Indika is fascinating, but my mind always assumes there's a logical explanation for everything. Not sure what that might be, though. Since you're a "just the facts" kind of guy, I might be inclined to check out Dr. Stevenson's books. As for the battle, "El Paso City' did better than expected. That was a clever matchup!

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    1. Thanks, DEBBIE, I'm glad you liked the match-up.

      I always look for the obscure but logical explanation first, also. And having a very logical mind, I usually find it, if it's there.

      The Dr. Stevenson books are, like I wrote, pretty dry; he's all about the facts, too, and not interested in creative writing flair. But the information is more than a little eye-opening.

      I even like how he titled that first book '20 Cases SUGGESTIVE Of Reincarnation'. I saw where some reviewer of the book (not me) wrote something like: Yeah, those 20 cases are a whole lot more than just "suggestive".

      But Stevenson was extra careful about the words he chose and he always offered alternative explanations when he could conceive of any.

      ~ D-FensDogG
      Check out my new blog @
      (Link:] Stephen T. McCarthy Reviews...

      Delete
  4. Thank you, not just for the in-depth answers and informative post, but also for cracking an 'up to eleven' joke even in the middle of a very serious discussion on reincarnation.

    I'm also fascinated with your answer to the question about romantic love living on in the hereafter. I guess for me what it boils down to is the definition of romantic. I guess what I'm saying in my answer is that it doesn't mean I want to pork my wife's soul (got to keep it classy), but that the love we share is different and will always be different than the kind of love I have for my parents, for example, or even for someone like my cohort. It's a love I only want to share once and only with her, alive or dead, and a love that would still be just as powerful and meaningful in the hereafter.

    All of that is to say that our love is romantic in that it's the only kind of love that a man can share with his woman. Or a man with another man if you're in San Francisco, or a woman with another woman if you're at a Subaru dealership, or a man and a woman and three more women if you're in Utah, or a man and a woman and a donkey if you've paid the cover charge at that one place in Mexico.

    ~6B

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    1. Ha!-Ha! That last paragraph was a classic. (Apparently I'm not up on Subaru dealerships. Could we just as easily substitute a Jeep dealership and have the same effect? If so, then I've got it.)

      It's nearly impossible for me to resist an "up to eleven" remark. It's like that obsessive-compulsive woman Frasier once dated, when he told her, "It's alright, you can move that fork back now." Or Roger Rabbit when the judge rapped out "Shave and a haircut--" and left it like that until Roger couldn't stand it anymore and revealed his hiding place.

      >... I guess what I'm saying in my answer is that ... my wife ... the love we share is different and will always be different than the kind of love I have for my parents, for example...

      I see what you're saying. However (although I could be wrong), I don't think it will work like that in Heaven. Nor do I think you will miss the fact that it doesn't. You will certainly be able to identify your Earthly loved ones -- soul identity is not lost -- but I think you will be so astounded by the understanding of ONE and that ONE LOVE which binds us all together that even the idea of some "special" love would seem foreign to you there.

      I believe that once, in meditation, I was given a quick glimpse of at least a bit of what Heaven will be like. All I can tell you is that the view and feeling was so beautiful I literally inhaled and caught my breath. Just the thought of separating any part of that and calling it "special" would have seemed impossible and even destructive.

      But, we'll see soon enough, I suspect. 2028/2029 is just around the corner, Beer Bro.

      ~ D-FensDogG
      Check out my new blog @
      (Link:] Stephen T. McCarthy Reviews...

      Delete
  5. I don't have enough time to do this comment justice, but if I let it get too far from me, I'll end up not commenting at all. Glad to see El Paso City do as well as it did. Figured it wouldn't win, but considering everything it didn't do too bad. I did my best.

    As to your questions i agree with all, except the romantic love existing after death. I think our difference comes from the need to separate romantic love from other forms of love. IMO love is love, the romantic part (physical) only exists in this lifetime, but the spiritual part is eternal, as is all love. Let's face it the physical part is but a fraction, and a small one at that, of the whole.

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    1. FAE ~
      I'm not really sure if we disagree about romantic love or not. We may be yakking past each other due to terminology, or how we define "romantic".

      Yes, I agree that love is love, that it is eternal and therefore will exist forever.

      But what I mean by "romantic love", is the idea that one certain person or soul is (as Bryan mentioned regarding his wife) different or "special". It occupies a unique place in the heart.

      But I don't believe that will be the case in Heaven. There will be the understanding of ONE LOVE, all encompassing and all equal.

      We have been created BY God, IN God, and OF God. And as The Bible says, God being Love and being Eternal, He is all encompassing.

      So, the idea of there being a "special", unique love for a particular soul set aside from all others would be akin to someone saying, "I especially love God's left thumb, even a bit more or different than how I love His right index finger."

      That wouldn't make sense because Love is ONE, undivided. An eternal totality encompassing all that God created from Himself (i.e., all that God is, which is all that there Is).

      This is getting pretty deep. I think I need a cold Mojito. :o)

      ~ D-FensDogG
      Check out my new blog @
      (Link:] Stephen T. McCarthy Reviews...

      Delete
  6. Replies
    1. Uhm... When was the last time you had your vision checked? ...Isn't that your comment I responded to just above this one? Or are you referring to some OTHER comment (which apparently did not come through)?

      ~ D-FensDogG
      Check out my new blog @
      (Link:] Stephen T. McCarthy Reviews...

      Delete
    2. Must be the lighting.

      Delete
    3. Ha!-Ha! Yeah, this MUST have been a lighting caused problem. ...And Andy called it.

      ~ D-FensDogG
      Check out my new blog @
      (Link:] Stephen T. McCarthy Reviews...

      Delete
  7. Stephen, it looks like I picked the losing song this round but so did five others. At least I wasn't alone. :) Thanks for sharing the outcome of your questions you posed. That was interesting to read. I'll see ya tomorrow, my friend!

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    1. I was one of those six losers, too. Oh well, it was expected.

      See ya tomorrow, CATHY.

      ~ D-FensDogG
      Check out my new blog @
      (Link:] Stephen T. McCarthy Reviews...

      Delete

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