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I had the honour of being accepted into O’Reilly’s Diversity & Inclusion Scholarship Program for the inaugural O’Reilly Security Conference this year from 31/10-02/11. I am thankful for the opportunity from O’Reilly and Etsy (who sponsored 3 other folks for a total of 13 scholars). It was an instant sheer awe at the range of experiences and diversity; folks actively working on bachelors to doctorates; those working in various industries already. Engaging conversations throughout the conference, a mutual understanding and solidarity in many of the hurdles facing us, and overall support across the group for each other. I am so excited to see where everyone goes from here on further.
It makes things quite a bit more exciting as I view it as a challenge. I want to show that nontraditional individuals—such as myself without any college education or degree—do belong here, too. Not only that I want to challenge the de facto way the industry views hackers and routes to getting into the industry.
Side tracking for a while I want to talk about my experience in an intersectional way.
While it was absolutely phenomenal seeing so many folks of multiple underrepresented groups present we were still significantly outnumbered by the de facto norm in this field: white cisgender men. Speaker wise it was phenomenal seeing a much more proportionate amount of variance but with actual attendees it was definitely clear when looking into a room. Connecting with several folks of colour was a relief to be able to relate in certain experiences.
Regardless this was by far the most diverse conference I have ever gone to. The fact that O’Reilly consistently showcased and shared their love for diversity is beyond anything I have ever come across. This will be the de facto set everywhere and O’Reilly is one of the pioneers setting our course forward.
There were various looks of confusion from folks when they saw me. Granted I didn’t help the case with my blue hair nor my Transtocat, Defcon pride, and Queercon shirts considering this is a much more business and corporate-y conference. Due to the infancy of the conference I’m sure eventually they’ll have a more solid identity in the type of folks they attract. This time it was quite a range of folks. It was a mix of t-shirts, hoodies, button downs, suits and ties.
Being trans, nonbinary, and queer: I express myself fairly across a good part of the gender expression spectrum. Thank you to those who asked me for my pronouns when unsure (it’s just Avi, they/them/theirs, or he/him/his). While I did run into a few queer folks if there was someone else who is also trans and/or nonbinary from the conference please reach out, I’d love to chat to see how our experiences were similar or varied!
Bathroom wise I had the occasional terrified middle age white guy in the bathroom freak out upon seeing me, leave without washing their hands (ew). That said I am also thankful that O’Reilly had the Code of Conduct prominently all over the conference. I’ve never seen anyone proactively feature it to that degree until now, major props and kudos to O’Reilly. I hope this becomes a thing everywhere.
Really though to have had a taste of the future in terms of inclusivity, genuine warmth, and kindness from the diverse community at the conference I know I’ll be craving this from now on. They have set the bar for every conference I’ll be attending when it comes to diversity and inclusion.
Cats, Zyrtec, morning. I got to the venue fairly early where I got to meet the lovely Suzanne Axtell (@SuzAxtell) of O’Reilly Marketing Operations and Diversity Outreach. I met another scholarship recipient at the same time while checking in. Immediately became enchanted by the O’Reilly polar bear and I ran around the venue for another day to get all the O’Reilly animals.
The first workshop I attended was Writing secure Node code. Initially while I tweeted favourably towards the workshop it could have easily been an article online with the points made. This was not an interactive workshop more so than a talk. That and with the “casual” show of their company’s product for the last 20-30 minutes it was off putting as I do not like that it was vendor biased without being warned in advance of it.
I met the vast majority of the scholarship recipients during lunch. Sitting next to a PhD candidate on my right and someone working at Apple with a college degree on my left (they’re both really lovely), it was one of those, “Oh golly did this actually just happen to me,” moments. It felt rather stark to introduce myself as being nontraditional and having no college education whatsoever next to them. Even with that it was a relief to relate with so many folks and also see the differences in paths taken.
My favourite workshop was Using Python to automate forensics. Interactive, engaging, and actually having the instructor walk around the room was phenomenal. Philip Polstra (@ppolstra) teaches at a university which clearly showed throughout the three or so hours. Unfortunately my new Chromebook with Kali did not stand up to the test due to not having enough storage (ouch) and I didn’t have time to set up a VM (this was a really engaging and fast workshop). I did follow along best as I could and will be re-doing it once I figure out if my old Macbook Pro is recoverable or if I need to go an alternative route.
What I really appreciated about Polstra’s workshop was that it showed the gaps of knowledge I had. I recognised quite a lot of the material from self studying and messing around with Arch (which I swear is not the bane of my existence, it’s adorable). Yet there were procedures and material I hadn’t come across yet or hadn’t thought of before to look into. It is in times like this that the difference of nontraditional versus traditional education is stark: there is no guided route to take and focus on. Bridging the random bouts of information together and hearing about something I knew in a different way was darling.
I do want to say so much love to Github for sponsoring the event. After going to O’Reilly it made me realise I should begin putting up my work online. Not sure how long it’ll take me but eventually I’ll get some code out there to share with folks. Once I change it all from Java that is. That said the most darling part of all this was seeing someone else with a Pridetocat shirt so we matched! Hello Transtocat and Pridetocat. Jamesha (@jamfish728) and I had met briefly at Queercon this past year so seeing someone I recognised was lovely.
This day had the most profound impact in terms of solidifying things I have been struggling with. I went about the conference after the morning keynotes from Heather Adkins, Richard Thieme (@neuralcowboy), and Becky Bace with a weight lifted off of me. Going about the sponsor pavilion and the conference after I couldn’t help but feel like I had already gone through the looking glass. It was a moment of recognising I had been past it, just didn’t know where I was yet. There were many who gave me advice during the day saying that I should hold myself in, let myself be a part of a [bureaucratic] system even if it was soul sucking, to gain work experience. This is advice I have gotten outside of the conference also.
Cold air in my lungs is exhilarating when I sing walking home at night. Counting all the screws and panels by type on trains because they’re cute. My dream of getting an English degree back in high school was crushed by a teacher who took me aside and told me in my analysis of literature I found meaning in smaller details no one else found significant and expanded on them. Interesting but it was implied not seeing the main theme as the most fascinating was wrong somehow.
My determination to go about this in my own way has already received some criticism. I am trying to break into a world that is oddly traditional in an area that is not traditional but being tackled as if it were so.
I am challenging those who proclaim we must find new ways to truly look for those new ways because many of the talks throughout the conference focused on this but most gave traditional polarised solutions.
By the way whoever wrote that on the board is awesomesauce, I had to follow up with my rabbit doodle. Even if I haven’t actually seen the movie yet and my entire experience with it was through the Queercon badge contest.
Throughout the day I got to hug Becky Bace, Jessy Irwin (@jessysaurusrex), and a few other lovely folks. I learned about [Docker] containers from Jessica Frazelle (@jessfraz) during the first part of lunch briefly as she prepared for her talk (which was fantastic). Educating the steel pipeline was a wonderful panel on hearing a diverse range of experiences. Maybe I was born 5 years too early for nontraditional paths to be more commonplace but nonetheless it was a relief knowing this is being talked about. The discussions afterword was wonderful relating and sharing. The OSINT tips for malware investigations talk was another one I liked going to. The rest of the time I spent socialising (yeah I actually did!) and having great debates and conversations with folks.
I should mention I learned how to do networking for the first time at this event. The speed networking event in the morning was an eye opening experience for me. It confirmed I do not know how to network. I struggled quite a bit with talking about myself, getting business cards that I still need to respond to. I also really abhor the idea of having to “play the game” as some told me to get opportunities. That isn’t me. I’m going to have to try to push my projects fast I can so I have something physical to show my skills.
Richard Thieme’s keynote even now is something that won’t leave my head. Hearing truths and several controversial opinions I hold be spoken with such passion openly was refreshing, piercing, and everything I have struggled, worked on, and thought of for years. During lunch I ended up accidentally sitting next to him. Explaining my dilemma moving forward with life job searching wise I asked him a few questions. While he did say he knows at some point of my life I will end up compromising it was reassuring to know I am doing more alright than I thought I was.
That line really summed up my life and how I view the world. Hopefully I can maintain, as he said in his keynote, my conscience, integrity, authenticity, ethical wholeness, and freedom to express my life as I choose it to be. This is something I already was standing inside the edge of the looking glass with but something I now fully followed the rabbit into.
It might be fairly clear I definitely was at several opposing crossroads with a great majority of folks at the conference because of this. Not good at all for networking to find jobs at all is it.
I really love Möbius strips. I need to find my Möbius triangle necklace soon.
Likewise this day also began with keynotes. I have to admit I couldn’t help but cringe at all the times ‘cyber’ was mentioned. Simply because a word is being used so much now does not give it legitimacy. It is a buzzword that is hollow of meaning. Can we please let the word die now? I refuse to use it in a way that gives it legitimacy.
Mike Walker of DARPA’s keynote about AI and the CGC was fascinating. It felt a bit chilling at times hearing several of his points, many of which were inspirations for my short story this past year. I’m not quite sure on my opinion of AI right now.
About two weeks prior I saw Jack Daniel (@jack_daniel) at BSidesDC (@BsidesDC) while volunteering and running around everywhere. Watching him receive the O’Reilly Defender Award for Shoulders of InfoSec was sweet to see. I really wish I knew how long his beard was but that would be too invasive to ask I think. I’m not sure actually, maybe I should ask.
Then of course the final keynote happened with Cory Doctorow (@doctorow). The first time I read his book was 7 years ago when I was sitting at the Governor’s mansion in my former ‘home’ state relaxing flipping through it. I had been a part of the state’s youth literacy committee for years helping choose books with a few other select students and teachers for the next year’s worth of books to read and feature. Growing up not owning a lot of things this was a treat to get so many free books each year (Mrs. Doyle was and is still one of the most wonderful human beings out there I’m sure).
That copy of “Little Brother” has been with me through everything since that summer before I began high school. I hate to idolise the book or Doctorow but it gave me a glimmer of hope (more on that in a minute) in the years to follow where I did not know or think I could ever make it into adulthood.
That said his keynote really tied and helped close the cover to the last 7 years of my life. In a very personal way to me one of his strongest points repeated my dead name over and over and over. I was 5 years of age, long before fully recognising I am trans, when I decided I was going to change it because it didn’t fit. I refused to believe it was possible to believe in my birth name when it seemingly felt that there was no such thing. The future did not exist which landed into an culminating, “What now?” when I did make it to 18 years.
The world can be so beautiful, darling, and exciting, and I’m grateful to know this now. I will never return to my birth name. It still isn’t me. I’m finally at peace though.
For a few hours I wasn’t quite sure what to do. I went to Building effective security alerting, had lovely conversations and engaging talks with folks across the conference. By saying ‘porcupine’ I even got a free book!
The two talks I waited to go see were Alex Rice’s Hacker quantified security and Dan Kaminsky’s (@dakami) A technical dive into defensive trickery.
I wear a few HackerOne t-shirts as they have sponsored Queercon for the last few years. Going from hearing about HackerOne from a hacker perspective at Defcon and Queercon to hearing the more business end of things at the conference was a nice way to fully understand it. It also reminded me that this is a more corporate conference again.
Kaminsky was everything I always thought he’d be and more. He was really darling when he accepted my (odd? I’ve been told it’s really odd and to stop before I actually look like I’m older than a middle school kid) request to stand next to him to see how tall he was and give him a hug. He was taller than I thought he’d be. I missed the last 10 or so minutes of his talk but to end the conference on such a fiery happy note was a great way to sum up how much I’ve accepted the future that awaits me.
With that here I am now 21 years and 1 month of age. Happy 5th of November!
The conference really showed a lot of my weak points that I need to work on. Networking I knew from the start I’d struggle with but hopefully folks I talked with will remain in my life as mentors or friends. Working on bridging gaps in my brain on certain topics is another area I’ll be targeting alongside with working on pushing my projects out into the open.
A lot of the advice given to me was meant to be helpful I realise. On the other hand to tell me to not speak publicly on being trans, nonbinary, queer, or other social and political opinions is something I cannot stop. These are all things intersectional to me and impact every aspect of my life. To not say something in these times is to be part of the larger collective issue. You cannot complain about a system if you refuse to challenge it.
For an industry that talks quite a bit on looking ‘outside of the box’ (another phrase I really don’t like) people are surprisingly very traditional. There were a lot more folks who work in the government than I expected. A lot of folks kept saying that the only way I could work in security was through the government. Which with how I am going about life now is not likely unless I am less ‘out’ of myself.
I am more than happy to intern or work for a smaller team or company. I am not in love with the things I am for the monetary value of it. I’m in love because it matters to me and impacts my life in some shape or another.
My eventual goal is someday be on a red team. How I am going to showcase these skills is going to be a challenge. It seems like going for various contests will be the best way (and also as a way to actually see how I do with other folks).
I know the next few months are going to be rough without knowing where I’m going yet or what I’ll be doing work wise. Once my work and projects are out there and accessible I simply can only keep doing more things while I wait and see if taking a chance was worth it. If it wasn’t for someone else I’ll find my own path regardless.
This ended up being a lot longer than I thought it’d be, thank you for reading it to the end if you did!


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In the Life's A Beach mini-game, you have to aim an orange foam jet at the Rabbids using one hand while pumping up the pressure with your other hand. During the game, a stereo marked with a yellow cross-hairs target will occasionally appear in the top centre area of the screen. Aim the orange foam at the target and the stereo will start to play. Once the music starts, all of the Rabbids stop advancing and dance on the spot. The achievement will pop as soon as they start dancing.
There are currently no gaming sessions for the Ibiza achievements that you can join - why not register and make a new session?

industry_corpus2: Gaming


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Just $24 and you will get an AUKEY USB C 56.5W Wall Charger that can charge your MacBook and your iPhone at the same time. It has a USB C port and also a USB A port so basically, it can charge all your Apple device including MacBook, iPad Pro, AirPods, Apple Watch and also an iPhone.
Regularly this wall charger costs $44 but grab it for just $24 when you use a coupon code IX4QKCI2 at checkout.

industry_corpus2: Computing & Telecommunications


text: Supporting organizational and financial development of sacred art in Poland. Maintenance and development of heritage and cultural traditions of sacred art. Ongoing efforts Organizing exhibitions in Switzerland (art exhibition of young artists from Gdansk 'Be Real'). 'Feast of St. Bartholomew ',' Holy Name. Bartholomew '- a feast of folk art. The organization of the international symposium on 'Religion - Science - Arts / St. Wojciech - Menling Heveliusz 'associated with the 1000 - anniversary of Gdansk and OH Hajek exhibition in Stuttgart, a series of' Per Cameran ad Ecclesiam '. Cooperation with the House Social Care (exhibition of the residents).

industry_corpus2: Others


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Athens Flying Week 2015 officially kicks off today! The air show and aviation event is now in its fourth year.
Athens Flying Week (AFW) starts off with a conference then ends with a weekend air show that lasts for two days at the Tatoi Airport on September 12 and 13. Athens Flying Week is the major event for #avgeeks in Greece and has successfully opened up the world of aviation to the Greek public. It’s also an annual meeting point for professional aviators.
One of the professional aviators behind AFW is Captain George M. Hiotakis, Team Manager Wizard Heli Solo Display. Hiotakis earned a private airplane licence and a commercial helicopter licence. He has flown VIP clients for over a decade on AugustaA109 helicopters. He is one of the few pilots that have been trained and rated at the AgustaWestland Training Center in Milan. Before his career began in the aviation industry, Hiotakis graduated from Webster University in Missouri with three degrees in management marketing, computer science and psychology.
He sat down with All About Aviation.gr recently to tell us about what’s new at AFW this year and what it really takes to be the team manager for one of the most impressive Greek aviation aerobatic pilot shows to date!
All About Aviation.gr: This will be the Fourth Annual Athens Flying Week! Congratulations! Tell us what is new.
This year, I decided to change camp. I have been a member of the organizing committee and head of the VIP section of Athens Flying Week for 2013 and 2014. Since January 2015, I have had the pleasure to assume the position of Team Manager of Wizard Heli Solo Display.
Our pilot Dimitris Ververelis is the first civil Greek helicopter aerobatic pilot. The team is there to give him all the support and assistance he might need in order to always perform his stunts with precision and maximum safety. I have the feeling that, despite the difficult economic situation, Athens Flying Week 2015 will be as good as the previous ones because I know that the people organizing it are very dedicated to this cause.
All About Aviation.gr: What exactly is your role as team manager ?
Much of my duties revolve around our pilot Dimitris. If you ask me to count how many times we communicate during the day, I will have a hard time answering you. We talk constantly and exchange ideas and information about everything that may be relative and irrelative to the team but always relative to aviation and aviation safety.
We spend hours planning and putting on paper his aerobatic maneuvers. Then comes performing them, timing them, judging them and back to square one again. We do this over and over again until the outcome is breathtaking to the public and 100 percent safe for the pilot. Only then we will consider ourselves happy. It is a painstaking process and I need to stress here the important input of our chief mechanic Elias Koudounakos. Elias is always fine tuning the machine, and he is the one who gives the last “go” before Dimitris and I go out on the field. At times I feel like I am managing a Formula-1 team, and it feels amazing!
My job also requires human resource management and paperwork. Someone has to do the dirty work of the team … and that is the team manager. LOL. The spirit of the team must always be up and positive, so I encourage and welcome new ideas, brainstorming and creativity. Perfection, in my opinion, can be achieved only by team effort, and our kind sponsors want perfection as much as we do.
All About Aviation.gr: You hold a commercial helicopter pilot license and a private airplane license. Has this helped you with your job?
I have graduated with university majors: marketing management, computer science and psychology and two pilot licenses indeed. I know now that there is no way I could have carried out this job without them.
Also, our pilot Dimitris and I speak the same language and see the same things while planning and training. It would be practically impossible to communicate without the prerequisite of a helicopter flying background.
All About Aviation.gr: Thanks for this great interview, Captain Hiotakis! We’ll see you there.
Head to the airshow this weekend!
Check out All About Aviation.gr’s interview with Dimitris Ververelis also known as “The Wizard” here. Then, check out the great show this weekend!

industry_corpus2: Aerospace


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In 2015 Mary and I began turning our attention to some alternative health care options. At that time my left ankle had become so unstable that I could not walk on the beach or transfer my weight to it at the end of my golf swing. Earlier I had tried to repair some damage to it, but the results were short lived. Since I did not want to explore another surgery we started looking into other options and one of those was PEMF therapy.
In September of 2015, we traveled to Florida to investigate this further and the results were very encouraging. On the morning of the first day, I received 2 - 10 minute PEMF sessions. That afternoon, while Mary was in class, I left to go to the beach to see if I could notice a difference. After walking for 2 hours on the sand I was surprised that I had no pain. When I returned that afternoon I requested another session because tomorrow I would test out the golf swing.
The next morning I got up early at the resort where we were staying and went down to the clubhouse. I requested a bag of clubs and one bucket of balls. After my 4th bucket of balls, with not even a hint of pain in my ankle, I returned the clubs and went back to meet Mary in class. To say the least we were both very excited about the possibilities.
In January of 2016, we purchased our first PEMF system and our whole family has been benefiting from it ever since. For example, my mother recently has been suffering from fatigue due to a blood disorder and she has not only felt like she has had more energy by using PEMF but she has noticed that she is finally pain free from the broken hip she suffered in 2011. Hopefully you stop in to see us and benefit from it as much as we have!
and is continuing to learn more every day about alternative health care options, including pH and bio-energetic testing.
In 2017 Jordin added a second machine, which she uses to focus on her animal kingdom including the equine world. PEMF was a big hit with some of the Professional Bull Riders in October when Mary and Jordin visited them at their PBR event in Raleigh at the PNC arena.
competing in the 2018 Retired Racehorse Project.
We hope you come see us and check it out - "because everyone should feel good!"

industry_corpus2: Health & Medicine


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Turn any window into a room with a view by adding a bird feeder outside of it. These DIY bird feeders are simple, but will have the birds begging for more.
• You might remember this easy, popular pine cone bird feeder from your summer camp days. Anyone can create one of these from a pine cone, peanut butter, string and seeds. Though this can cause some mess, this is a perfect introduction to making your own bird feeder. Changing the bird seed will affect which type of birds will flock to your yard.
• This colorful, creative bird feeder idea helps you recycle your old empty paint or coffee cans. Choose colors that complement your home’s exterior or outdoor furniture.
• Who knew that PVC pipes can be used to help attract hummingbirds? Paint the pipes as you please, but make sure that the paint is durable as the outdoors can affect the color more rapidly than an indoor project. Then, add wire and glass beads for a whimsical, decorative touch to any yard or garden.
• If you’re itching to break out woodworking tools, this DIY bird feeder will make for a great weekend project. Kids can help out with measuring and filling the feeder, so you can focus on making the proper wood and wire cuts. This feeder makes use of household items, but some items like wire and wood pieces will need to be purchased from your local home store.
• If you’re interested in using all natural ingredients for your feeder, most of this simple project is perishable. After the bids have had their fill, you can use the orange rind in a compost to keep this feeder even more environmentally friendly. If you plan on composting, be sure to rid the rind of all peanut butter first.
• Here’s a homemade bird feeder that provides a perch or two for the birds to stand on while they eat. You can build this one easily using repurposed kitchen materials and bird seed. To add some bright color, paint the spoons to accent your feeder and backyard.


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So Christianity is full of miracles. The gospels say that Jesus performed many miracles, like healing people of their diseases and walking on water. Christians today believe that God can work miracles in response to their prayers. And, of course, the central event in Christianity – the resurrection of Jesus – is a miracle. So if miracles can’t happen then Christianity is in trouble.
But why think that miracles can’t happen? After all, if there is a God then surely miracles are the sort of thing you’d expect him to be able to do. (What sort of god would he be, if he couldn’t perform miracles?) And yet many people, even those who believe in God, struggle with the idea that miracles can happen.
One worry that people can have about miracles is the vague sense that this is too mythological, too supernatural, for rational, scientific, modern people to believe in. Turning water into wine might seem like magic trick, or else hocus-pocus, and we’re smart enough to know that magicians deal in illusions, not realities. But this kind of objection is rather vague and its not immediately clear what the problem is. Of course, if someone comes to you and says “I can make a rabbit appear in my hat”, you have every right to suspect that the rabbit is just hidden away somewhere and isn’t going to appear from nothing. But that doesn’t mean miracles are impossible, it just means we’re rightly suspicious of those trading in illusions. And there is a danger that simply dismissing miracles as myth or magic: we’re simply engaged in snobbery not proper rational enquiry.
Perhaps a more sophisticated objection is that miracles break the laws of nature. From our repeated experience, and from scientific investigation, we know that the universe behaves in ordered and regular ways. The sun rises every day, things fall down (not up), and dead people don’t come back to life. These are laws of nature – exceptions do not occur, else they wouldn’t be laws.
And that is all well and good but it suggests that the laws of nature have priority over everything else – that the laws of nature were before everything and overrule everything. Now even for the atheist, this is not the case. Because if you believe that the universe came into being from nothing, then it is not the laws of nature that were before everything else but nothing – if this were true, the laws of nature would be as arbitrary as the rest of existence. So the atheist has no particular reason for suspecting that the laws of nature will continue to operate, except that they have so far. But for the believer, the laws of nature do not have priority either. Because if there is a God, who created the universe, then he is responsible for the laws of nature. Now he is God such a sloppy creator that he made rules and laws that even he couldn’t change? Is it credible to think that God could create gravity and yet be unable to change it when necessary? If that idea just seems too silly to be true, then the objection to miracles evaporates.
the atheists assumes the high ground and asks Christians to prove the creation of the universe, but the atheist has no more ability to explain the beginning of the universe than the Christian. The atheist accuses the Christian of something he is guilty of himself, namely belief without empirical evidence. The atheist berates the Christian for something which he has no better answer. In fact, the atheist answer would seem to ultimately assume that the effect of the universe resulted without a cause, an absurdity.
A pseudoscience is a set of beliefs or practices that pretends at being science—that puts forth evidence and arguments which it says are scientifically sound, but in fact are not. Pseudoscientists argue in support of new fundamental forces (e.g., Rupert Sheldrake’s morphic resonance) and even entities (e.g., ancient aliens). The TV show Ghost Hunters is a prime example; they even have instruments—like voice recorders, EM meters, laser thermometers (and deluxe carrying cases)—which seem scientific, but of course do nothing to detect ghosts. But all pseudosciences have one thing in common: The arguments and reasoning they put forth violate basic rules of scientific reasoning.
Whether it be Gnostic mysticism, or German Liberal Rationalism, throughout Christian history there have been numerous attempts to separate the effects, or “inner truth” Christianity from it’s concrete grounding in the narrative of God’s interaction with Israel and the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. In other words, we want the value of “loving your enemies” and “forgiveness” without grounding it in the Cross where the Godman concretely loved his enemies and forgave them with his own blood. We want the sense of gratitude and joy on a sunny day without grounding it in the Creator God who gives it to us and currently sustains all things in things in being.
idea that science is logical, purely rational, that it is detached and value-free, and that it is, for all these reasons, morally superior.
The Gospels on which Christianity relies were written hundreds of years after the fact and are mostly reinventions of other pagan traditions?
Each of these propositions is not only false but easily proven to be so, as even the most minimal exertions show. Yet believing any, and many more like them, are touted by “New Atheists” as marks of superior intelligence, as enlightened thinking, even as commonsense reasonableness. To these infinitely self-assured folks, disbelief is a synonym of rational. It’s just a guess, but perhaps this irrational belief is why it is so hard to persuade New Atheists of their errors?
The presence within us of an objective moral law ‘written on our hearts’ points instead to the existence of an eternal Goodness and Intelligence which created us and our universe, enables us to think, and is the eternal source of our best and deepest values. In other words, Lewis argues, atheism cuts its own throat philosophically, because it discredits all human reasoning, including the arguments for atheism. “If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be a word without meaning.” (Mere Christianity). Only by acknowledging that there is a God, he concludes, can we hope to make sense of human existence, the world we inhabit, and, paradoxically, the problem of evil.
Am I arguing that “miracles happen too often?” Yes, but Gilson misses my point. It had nothing to do with science, it had everything to do with god. Gilson argued in True Reason that god wants his creationsto be “responsible moral agents;” and god also wants his creations to learn from experience. All of these things would not be possible if we lived in a world “of constant supernatural intervention” because “if there isto much chaos (“noise”) in a transmission, the message (signal) can’t get throughto be clearly understood.” (130)I argued that, at least according tonumerous Christians around the world, their god intervenes in the affairs of the worldon a daily basis and I provided one, among other examples, of a Christian friend who thanked god for coming across a set of chairs in someone’s yard.I also argued that far from being opposed to constant supernatural intervention the entire basis of Christianity is built upon supernatural intervention, including god coming down in human form as Jesus to the creation of the world out of absolutely nothing, which are in fact acts of the supernatural, unlike what Gilson stated in his reply (“it’s more than slightly difficult to see how God violated natural law by creating natural law (as creation ex nihilo indicates).”). Gilson’s argument makes no logical sense. Christians argue all the time that “something cannot come from nothing” but for Christians apparently it’s OK. And I suppose a man rising from the dead or a god-man coming down from heaven isn’t a supernatural event? Gilson says nothing about these core beliefs of Christianity.
The embrace of a specific belief has rather a lot of do with your geographical location, and nothing at all to do with what is and is not actually true. It is those around you that draw you in.
Derren Brown, the illusionist, did a series on Channel 4 in the UK called Fear and Faith. During this at one point he gave somebody a camera to record a video diary and told her that for the next two weeks they would be manipulating events in her life so that she could learn life lessons, and that she was to record those lessons on her video diary. Darren Brown is well-known for doing the hidden camera thing and so this idea, once planted, was embraced as factual. One week later she had a video crammed full of the lessons she had learned during the events that they had staged. The reveal was that they had done nothing at all except give her the idea and a camera – everything that happened was her reading meaning into random events. – This is exactly the same psychology at play in the “born again” experience where Jesus is with you and helps you out each day.
Me neither. I certainly wouldn’t want anyone to go to suffer everlasting torment, however bad they were in life, and I don’t like the idea of a god would want that either. The idea of unending pain is not only intolerably cruel but to pretend that in any sense someone could deserve that fate so unjust as to be positively wicked. Regardless of how bad someone behaved, regardless of how many crimes they committed, no-one could do enough evil to justify an infinite punishment. Even worse is the suggestion that anyone who misses out on salvation will end up with the same punishment; petty crook and genocidal dictator alike, they all must endure an eternity of pain and suffering. A god who behaved in this way could not be described as “merciful“, could not even be described as “just”. Such a god could only be described as wicked. But the God I believe in is both merciful and just, so I can’t believe that He would send anyone to hell.
Leave aside for a moment what Jesus meant by “soul” and “hell”, it is clear that Jesus did not think of hell as many Christians do. For Jesus, hell is not a place where the soul suffers eternal conscious torment. Instead hell is a place where the soul is killed, destroyed, finished, done.
Jesus promises eternal life. The opposite of eternal life is not eternal conscious torment but eternal death. Jesus makes this clear in the words considered above. Whoever rejects the offer will “not see life”. They don’t go on living in torment and agony for all eternity. They just stay dead. That’s the fate of the wicked, that’s the fate of those who reject Jesus’ offer of life, they stay dead.
The question then is why do so many Christians believe in hell, given that is a horrible idea and not what Jesus taught? For some people, though they call themselves “Christian”, just use the doctrine of hell as a stick to beat their neighbours. There also probably some truth in the claim that the historic church used the threat of hell as a way of controlling its followers. But there are also many sincere and well-intentioned Christians who still believe in hell. This is because they are used to reading the Bible a certain way and have never been shown that it was written differently.
Many Christians believe that the soul is immortal, that it not only survives death but can never die. This is not what Jesus or the early Christians taught, but if you believe that the soul cannot die then you must believe it goes somewhere after death. You wouldn’t want to belief that wicked people end up in a good place (a lot of Christians believe they go to heaven when they die), so there must be a bad place for the bad people to go to. Once you’ve got this idea in your mind then you read the Bible to fit that idea. For example, whilst Jesus never talks about eternal conscious torment, he does talk about “eternal punishment” (Matthew 25:46). If you already believe that bad souls go to a bad place when they die, it is convenient to read “eternal punishment” as though it said “eternal conscious torment”. That’s not what Jesus said, but that’s what many Christians think.
It also does not help that Christians today have forgotten what Jesus meant when he used the word “hell”. When Jesus talks about hell he is usually using the word gehenna, which literally means “Valley of Hinnom“. This was a place in ancient Israel where the worshippers of the pagan god Molech would perform human sacrifices, including burning children (e.g. 2 Kings 23:10). This practice is condemned by God through the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 32:35). Jeremiah uses the imagery of being burnt in the Valley of Hinnom to portray the fitting punishment for those who practiced such evil (Jeremiah 7:31-32). This is the background to the word gehenna in the New Testament where it represents the fate of the wicked. When Jesus talks about the ‘fire of hell‘ (Matthew 5:22) he is using the word gehenna, using this imagery for the destruction of death. The other word used by Jesus for hell is hades. Though in greek mythology hades was both the abode of the dead and the god of the dead, in the New Testament hades simply refers to the grave. In either case Jesus was not referring to a place of eternal conscious torment for the wicked, as many people now think about hell.
As you can see from this overview I do not think that Christians should believe in hell and as such I do not think that hell provides any obstacle to believing in God. Jesus does not teach that the wicked go to hell and I do not know of any other part of the bible that teaches this idea. Wherever people got the notion of hell from it was not from God and not part of his message to mankind. I can understand that you would not want to believe in a god that condemned people to hell, though your personal dislike would not determine whether or not such a god existed. But the notion of hell is inconsistent with everything we know about the God who does exist; inconsistent with his goodness and inconsistent with his message to mankind.
Because of the symbolic nature of the language, some people question whether hell consists of actual fire. Such reasoning should bring no comfort to the lost. The reality is greater than the symbol. The Bible exhausts human language in describing heaven and hell. The former is more glorious, and the latter more terrible, than language can express.
In Christian tradition it is usually associated with the notion of eternal punishment, especially by fire. This idea appears in Isaiah. 66:24, but it is not clearly associated with a place. Jewish writings from the third century B.C. onward, speak of places of punishment by fire for evil spirits and the wicked dead (1 Enoch 18:11-16; 108:3-7, 15; 2 Esdras 7:36-38). The book of Revelation describes a lake that burns with fire and brimstone in which the wicked will be eternally punished (Revelation 19:20; 20:14-15; 21:8).
One aspect of the great controversy about hell, and about Bell’s thesis, is the meaning of the word Gehenna in the New Testament. Most English translations contribute to the confusion by replacing the word Gehenna with hell, instead of leaving it untranslated, as it should be, since it is the name of a specific geographical place on earth.
The scriptures indicate that hell is nothing more than mankind’s common grave. Proof of this is provided by a verse of scripture in the Bible, which no hellfire-believing Christian can explain away. I’m referring to the scripture that says Jesus Christ–the epitome of a perfect, sinless, and obedient man–died and went to hell.
When most people think of hell, they think of Satan in that red suit with two horns and a pitchfork somewhere in the depths of the Earth where souls are tormented day and night on some kind of giant char broiler. Do something wrong in life and you’re condemned to an eternal damnation of flames. None of this could be further from the truth, and we should know better, “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices” (II Corinthians 2:11).The English word hell comes from the Anglo-Saxon hel, or in the genitive case helle, which means a “hidden place”, from the Anglo-Saxon word helan, meaning “to hide”.
Whether it’s the word sheol in the Old Testament, or gehenna or hades in the New Testament, they all mean either the grave or the state of death.
In their disputes about the meaning of Gehenna, both men overlooked the significance of Gehenna as a topographical feature in the land of promise, and one of the valleys which Isaiah said will be filled, as John the Baptist proclaimed. [Luke 3:5]From Gehenna, one views Jerusalem as an outsider; the teachings of Jesus encourage us to get into the kingdom of God, and obtain life.
+The sayings of Jesus about Gehenna also apply to the present age. Gehenna is a judgment. [Mat. 5:22, 23:33] Jesus referred to it as something we should avoid at any cost, even if it means loss of our right eye, or our right hand, or our right foot. [Mat. 5:29, 30] Jesus said God is able to destroy “both soul and body” in Gehenna, and that we should fear him. [Mat. 10:28, Luke 12:5] This suggests that the warnings about Gehenna apply to our present lives; being cast into it represents the spiritual condition, of being outside the holy city.Being cast into Gehenna contrasts with entering into life. [Mat. 18:9] Scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites are called “children of Gehenna.” [Mat. 23:15] Balfour correctly pointed out “no Gentile is ever threatened with Gehenna punishment,” as that threat applies especially to those in Jerusalem. One must be in the holy city, in order to be cast out of it. While the threat of “the damnation of Gehenna” applies only to Jews, the heirs of salvation, who are “in Christ,” are called Jews, and “the circumcision,” in a spiritual sense; Jesus used the threat of Gehenna figuratively and metaphorically to warn the saints who dwell in the heavenly Jerusalem.
Thus, sheol and hades were the same place and must have been occupied by the redeemed since the Messiah was there while His body lay in the grave. That the lost were also there, but in a separate area, is clear from Christ’s statement that when the rich man died, “in hades he lift up his eyes, being in torment….” That in his torment he could see Lazarus and Abraham in comfort (Luke 16:19-31) further indicates that the redeemed were also in hades yet distinct from the damned. That part of hades, which Christ referred to as “Abraham’s bosom,” must have been the “paradise” in which Jesus promised to meet the believing thief on the cross that very day (Luke 23:43).
If God is so loving why doesn’t He universally forgive everyone? Love is only part of God’s character. He is also infinitely and perfectly just. How can God forgive someone who admits no guilt? How can He forgive those who insist that there is nothing for which He needs to forgive them? And would it not be the utmost folly to do so? If in His mercy and grace God simply passed over human rebellion, would that not be condoning evil and even encouraging it? Would that not in itself undermine God’s control of His universe?
Philosophy – What Is Hell?
To Hell with HellIs Punishment Eternal?
Imagine there was a man who went around claiming that he had a special message from God and that part of this man’s message was that he would be killed and come back to life. And then imagine that this man did indeed come back to life. Surely that is the sort of person you’d want to pay attention to. We have seen that there is good historical evidence that Jesus is that sort of person – that he claimed to have a special message from God and that he died and came back to life. So we would want to pay attention to what Jesus said about the Bible.
Now for the purposes of this essay we are using the gospels as historical sources, not yet as scripture (otherwise our argument would be circular). But this does not prevent us drawing some conclusions about Jesus’ view of the Bible. For instance, as a first century Jew it would expect Jesus to believe that the Old Testament was inspired by God (just as Jews do today). And the gospels corroborate this. For example, when Jesus says “everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled” (Luke 24:44), he is referring to the three sections into which the Jews divided their scriptures. It is also clear that Jesus regarded the Old Testament books as messages from God. For example, he refers to the Psalms being written by the Holy Spirit (Mark 12:36).
But what about the New Testament? None of the books of the New Testament were written during Jesus’ lifetime on the Earth. Most written between twenty and forty years after his crucifixion. This being said, there are indications that Jesus expected there to be these books. We know that Jesus was a teacher, that he appointed disciples and that after his resurrection it was these disciples that started telling everyone about Jesus. The gospels say that Jesus selected the disciples for this role; for example, “you are witnesses of these things” (Luke 24:48). And those who wrote the NT recognised that they were specially selected as witnesses (e.g. 1 Pet 1:12; Heb 2:3-4). In effect, Jesus says “there are going be witnesses” and the NT writers claim to be those witnesses.
So Jesus accepted the Old Testament as scripture, and it seems likely that the New Testament was written to fulfil Jesus’ instructions. Therefore the testimony of Jesus is gives us good reason for thinking the Bible is a special book and should encourage us to look for further evidence.
Obviously not all predictions are going to be as convincing as others. There seem to be three criteria: (1) that prediction is made before the event it predicts (otherwise its not a prediction), (2) that predicted event can be verified with reasonable certainty (otherwise how would you know if the prediction was successful), and (3) that the predicted events is sufficiently unlikely to make the prediction significant (predicting rain in England is hardly surprising).
The Bible contains numerous prophecies. Some are short term prophecies so aren’t easy to verify historically, but there are plenty of long term prophecies to look at it. Here we’ll just look at one group of prophesies to make the point. These are the Old Testament prophecies about Jesus, which accurately predict many of the events of Jesus’ life. These include being a descendant of King David (2 Sam 7:12-13), being born in Bethlehem (Mic 5:2), being betrayed by a friend (Ps 41:9), being valued at thirty pieces of silver (Zech 11:13), having no bones broken in his execution (Ex 12:46), having hands and feet pierced (Ps 22:16; Zech 12:10), having his clothing divided by lot (Ps 22:18), being buried in the grave of a rich man (Isa 53:9) and being raised from the dead (Ps 16:9-11). What is interesting about these prophecies is these predictions al converge on the person of Jesus.
There is one further prophecy worth mentioning. In Daniel 9:24-27 a prophecy is made about set period of time in the history of the Jewish people. It is described in terms of weeks but all scholars agree that these weeks are periods of seven years. The interpretation of the prophecy can be technical because of some unusual Hebrew words and the fact that Daniel was using 360 day years (as opposed to the 365 ¼ day years that we use). But in essence what the prophecy says is that from command to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem to the coming of the Messiah would be 69 “weeks”. And if you do that maths, the time between the Persian command that the wall of Jerusalem should be rebuilt to the time of Jesus is exactly the period specified by Daniel 9. Even if you wanted to quibble about the exact year of the command or the exact year of Jesus’ ministry, the timing is still so accurate that it cannot be ignored.
Most antiquities scholars think that the New Testament gospels are “mythologized history.” In other words, they think that around the start of the first century a controversial Jewish rabbi named Yeshua ben Yosef gathered a following and his life and teachings provided the seed that grew into Christianity.At the same time, these scholars acknowledge that many Bible stories like the virgin birth, miracles, resurrection, and women at the tomb borrow and rework mythic themes that were common in the Ancient Near East, much the way that screenwriters base new movies on old familiar tropes or plot elements. In this view, a “historical Jesus” became mythologized.
While much of the New Testament prophecy points to a distant future, many of the claims of Jesus can be assessed now. Jesus’ accuracy is so compelling, many skeptics have altered their dating of the New Testament in response. Acknowledging the accuracy of the prophecy related to the Temple destruction, skeptics typically date Luke and Matthew after 70AD to account for the inclusion of this statement. In doing so, these skeptics recognize the power of Jesus’ prophetic ability. They would rather deny the evidence for early dating than accept Jesus’ accuracy. Critics and skeptics of the New Testament recognize the power accurate prophecy has to demonstrate the Divinity of the New Testament.
The only religion in the whole world, that believes in Jesus [ʿĪsā] (Upon Whom Be Peace) and testifies to Christianity is Islām. Muslims believe, that Jesus (Upon Whom Be Peace) was one of the mightiest Messengers of Allāh; that he was born miraculously ― without any male intervention; that he gave life to the dead by Allāh’s permission, and that he healed the born blind and the lepers by Allāh’s permission. A person is not considered a Muslim, unless, he or she believes in Jesus (Upon Whom Be Peace). Muslims believe, that Allāh delivered the Gospel ― Injeel to Jesus (Upon Whom Be Peace), just as He did Torah ― Taurāt to Moses [Mūsā] (Upon Whom Be Peace), the Old Testament ― Zabūr to David [Dāwūd] (Upon Whom Be Peace) and The Mighty Qur’ān to Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him).
During the years of Christ and His death and resurrection a great transition was made between the Old and New Covenants. The Holy Scriptures at that time were Old Testament records and were used as a basis for Israel’s faith. During the first century the Four Gospel’s and the New Testament Epistles were being written and were not published until the 3rd century and after. The Old Testament records (the Holy Scriptures) were Israel’s primary written words of God.
Both the Old Testament and New Testament books were immediately recognized and treated as scripture, though we have no formal statement about the New Testament until the fourth century.
How did the early church judge which books were scripture and which were not?
The test of authority: Who penned the book?
The test of internal evidence: Does the book penned or authorized by a genuine prophet or apostle bear the internal evidence of being God breathed?
The test of God’s people: Did genuine believers from the penning of these books to the present recognize them as scripture?
Oftentimes when we study end times bible prophecy, we tend to focus on the Old Testament prophets like Joel, Isaiah, Zechariah, and on our apostle Paul in the New Testament. But Peter has a treasure trove of scripture for us to consider as well.
The more frequently you read and study the Bible, more of it will get into your mind and you won’t have to memorize it. It will just be there waiting to be used. It will also give you a greater understanding of God and His ways to “search the scriptures” because in doing so, you will be learning about God more and more.
With one-fourth of the Bible prophetically future when it was written, the interpretation of prophecy is one of the most challenging areas of biblical study. Too often preconceptions have led interpreters to draw from the biblical text doctrines that were quite removed from what the text actually states. Because prophecy is scattered from the early chapters of Genesis to the last chapter of Revelation and deals with so many different situations and subjects, interpreters of prophecy have too often abandoned any detailed interpretation and reached only general conclusions.
The central event of the Christian faith is the resurrection of Jesus. If Jesus stayed dead then his own predictions proved false – he was nothing more than a good man with some interesting teaching. But if Jesus rose from the dead then he is someone really special – someone worth believing. What’s more if Jesus rose from the dead then perhaps death isn’t the end – perhaps there is a way for others to overcome death too.
Firstly, Jesus died on the cross. This is not particularly controversial. It was accepted by non-Christians like Josephus, Tacitus, Lucian and the writers of the Talmud. It is, of course, also the unanimous testimony of Christian sources, like the gospels and the letters. Modern medical appraisals of crucifixion have concluded that Jesus could not have survived what he suffered and, in any case, the Romans had ways of ensuring their victims died.
14th century Byzantine Icon of the Descent from the Cross from the Church of Saint Marina in Kalopanagiotis, Cyprus. St. Joseph of Arimathea is the figure standing in the center, in blue-green robes holding the Body of Christ.Secondly, Jesus was buried in a tomb. This is also not particularly controversial. The earliest Christian preachers described Jesus being laid in a tomb (Acts 13:28-29). The gospels record how Joseph of Arimathea took the body of Jesus and laid it in his tomb (Mark 15:46; Matt 27:59-60; Luke 23:53; John 19:41-42). The early reverence of a tomb in Jerusalem (whether or not this is actually the tomb of Jesus) is another witness of the type of burial given to Jesus. And no ancient critic of Christianity – whether Jewish or pagan – ever suggested that Jesus was buried somewhere else.
Thirdly, three days later the tomb of Jesus was empty. This is important because for both Jews and pagans “resurrection” (anastasis) meant bodily resurrection – if Jesus was alive again, his tomb must be empty. Again this is a feature of the earliest Christian preaching (cf. Acts 2:29-32) and the gospel records (Mark 16:1-8; Matt 28:1-10; Luke 24:1-12; John 20:1-10). But it is also a feature of the early Jewish accounts of Jesus – from the first century onwards they claimed that the disciple stole the body (Matt 28:11-15; Justin, Dialogue 108; Tertullian, De Spectaculis 30; Toledoth Yeshu 9-10). This story presupposes that they thought the tomb was empty (they would hardly tell such a story if Jesus was still in the tomb). The fact that Caesar issued a decree against moving bodies from sealed tombs and had it inscribed on a stone in Nazareth probably indicates that he too had heard the story that the tomb of Jesus was empty (this decree is known as The Nazareth Inscription).
Fourthly, the early Christians claimed to have seen the risen Jesus. When writing a letter to the church at Corinth in the mid-50s, Paul lists those who saw Jesus after his resurrection, including the twelve disciples and Jesus’ brother James. He even says there are over five hundred other witnesses, many of whom were still alive when he wrote (1 Cor 15:5-8). These claims are also a feature of the earliest Christian preaching (Acts 2:32, 3:15, 10:39-40), the gospels (John 20:11-18; Luke 24:34; Matt 28:15-17, etc.), other New Testament texts (e.g. 1 Pet 1:3; Rom 1:4; Phil 3:10; Heb 13:20; Rev 1:18) and other first century Christian texts (Didache 10:2; 1 Clement 24:1; Barnabas 5:7).
This evidence is early, based upon eyewitness testimony and has a consistent core – that Jesus died, was buried and rose again. The resurrection of Jesus is, by far, the simplest explanation of the historical evidence.
What about the alternatives? Well, a number of alternative theories have been suggested to explain the evidence but none has managed to convince the majority of scholars. Those scholars who deny the resurrection generally tend to not give a verdict on the evidence. But, for completeness, let us consider briefly just one oft-repeated alternative. It goes something like this: the disciples stole the body and then pretended Jesus was alive again to promote their new religion. After all, the first century Jews claimed that the disciples stole the body.
However, this alternative theory just does not work for a number of reasons. Firstly, if this was a conspiracy then it was a huge conspiracy (over 500 witnesses). Secondly, the disciples had no motivation for the deception – when other Jewish cult leaders and “messiahs” had met gruesome ends their followers had just disbanded. The early disciples gained neither money, status or fame from their preaching. Thirdly, the disciples had everything to lose from such a deception. They were persecuted, imprisoned and executed by both Jewish and Roman authorities. Early witnesses, like Peter and Paul, met their deaths refusing to renounce their faith. Would you die for a lie?
The simple fact is that the historical evidence is clear and consistent. And if the event in question wasn’t so controversial then I don’t think anybody would doubt it. Unfortunately it is controversial. Because if the resurrection is false then Christianity is false. And if the resurrection is true then Christianity (or at least its core claims) are also true. So a lot hangs on this question. And at the end of the day you’re going to have to make up your own mind for yourself. But if you think that resurrection is possible and if, like me, you think the historical evidence is strong, then you have good reason for thinking that Jesus rose from the dead.
Moving from historical data to the best explanation of that data Crossan and Ehrman robustly rejects resurrections hypothesis. Their rejection is not based on historical data, but on what best explain these data. It is not a historical based rejection but a philosophical one, the impossibility of miracles.
Gerd Ludemann is actually an atheist new Testament historian, and he has even debated Dr. Craig on the resurrection – not once, but twice. That’s the kind of evidence Dr. Craig uses in his case. Not just what your pastor will give you, but what atheists will give you. We need to learn to debate like that.
The religious leaders would certainly have had enough reason for doing so. They had heard that Jesus had talked of resurrection, and were afraid of hanky-panky. So the argument runs, in order to forestall trickery, they took the precaution of confiscating the corpse. But when this is put into scrutiny, this conjecture also falls into pieces.Having placed the guards at the tomb, what would be their reason for moving the body of Jesus? If the authorities moved the body of Jesus, why didn’t they bring it when the apostles were boldly preaching about the resurrection in Jerusalem? The religious leaders did everything in their power to suppress the preaching on the resurrection. They even arrested Peter and John (Acts 4) and beat them, and threatened them in an effort to silence them.A few weeks of Jesus’ death, the disciples were boldly proclaiming the resurrection. The news spread rapidly. The new Christian movement threatened to undermine the stronghold of Judaism and disturb the peace of Jerusalem. The Jews feared conversion and the Romans detested riots. The authorities had before them one course of action. The Religious leaders could have produced the remains of the corpse of Jesus and published a statement of what they had done. They could have paraded the body of Jesus through the streets of Jerusalem, if indeed, they had it, and that would have smothered Christianity in its cradle.
Why would Matthew fabricate a Jewish cover-story and falsely suggest that it “has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day” (Matt 28:15 NIV)? He wouldn’t. Clearly his Jewish audience would have already heard the cover-story. This is probably why Matthew seeks to rebut it.
It is wholly implausible that Jesus’ disciples stole his body. They were broken and confused. Their Messiah was dead and they had nothing to gain from stealing his body and then claiming he rose from the dead. Indeed, they suffered greatly for this claim.No amount of cognitive dissonance could possibly motivate every disciple to claim their Messiah was alive when they knew he wasn’t. We might at most expect them to find a new Messiah, but they didn’t.The second suspects are grave robbers hoping to make a profit. However, the Gospels of Luke and John record that Jesus’ grave clothes remaining in the tomb. Why would any grave robbers leave the clothes behind? Moving a body by itself would be incredibly messy. Those looking for burial spices would almost certainly simply have carried off the wrapped body and removed the spices in a safe place. Even the clothes themselves could have been sold later on.Perhaps instead the robbers wanted body parts for magic practices. This is unlikely since there is no evidence that stealing bodies for magical purposes was much of a problem in first-century Palestine.


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Ever eaten what you thought was a pretty hefty and filling lunch only to feel the need to snack shortly after? These snacks do add up over time, contributing to a few extra kilos. If this sounds familiar, perhaps the lack of fibre-rich foods is to blame.
But how does fibre actually help you lose weight or keep heart attacks at bay? And how can you easily eat more fibre without overhauling your diet?
Dietary fibre consists of plant material that cannot be digested and absorbed by the body. This means that the fibre portion of foods merely passes through your digestive tract without contributing calories.
Foods that contain fibre – such as fruits and vegetables – take up more space in the stomach than foods that don’t, helping you feel full and satisfied.
In addition, these fibre-rich foods move slowly from your stomach to your small intestine, which also helps you feel satisfied for longer periods of time. Feeling full makes it easier to decrease your caloric intake and lose weight.
Soluble fibre is water-soluble, which means it dissolves in water. Soluble fibre dissolves into a gel-like substance in your stomach. The gel helps bind fat (from a meatball you eat, for instance), keeping some of it from being absorbed and it also keeps sugar from being absorbed too quickly, thus helping to reduce cholesterol and maintain steady blood sugar levels.
Examples of soluble fibre foods include oat-meal, nuts and seeds, beans, apples, and berries.
Insolule fibre is not water-soluble and acts as a bulking agent to your stool. Found in foods such as carrots, green leafy vegetables, whole wheat bread, and brown rice, it absorbs water as it moves through the digestive tract and is then excreted, helping to prevent constipation.
Instead of tediously calculating grammes of fibre before each meal, look for ways to incorporate fibre into breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks.
Below are some recommendations of small changes and simple swaps that will increase your fibre intake. Eating fresh fruits and vegetables have the benefits of both micronutrients and fibre, acting as a nutrient powerhouse.
– Eat fresh fruits and vegetables instead of drinking fruit or vegetable juices.
Fibre is an important part of a healthy diet with a multitude of health benefits. These simple tips help you add more dietary fibre to your diet and may even help add years to your life.


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Description :I am a distributor of cosmetics in Panchkula from last 5 years. I want to become C and F agent of cosmetics. Having commercial showroom as infrastructure in Panchkula. Prepared to invest Rs.10 lakhs. Kindly send list of your products.
We want to be distributor for pharmaceutical products. Ready to invest Rs.2 lakhs. Please mail us your product list with price quotation.

industry_corpus2: Biopharmaceuticals


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doTERRA essential oils + chocolate = delicious!
And Christmas time is perfect for making some oil flavoured chocolate treats. My favourite doTERRA oils for pairing with chocolate are: Peppermint • Wild Orange • Ginger • Lime.
PEPPERMINT CHOCOLATE BARK is really, really simple to make and perfect for having on hand for holiday guests who drop by unexpectedly. Or wrap some chocolate bark in cellophane bags for a sweet gift for neighbours or friends.
THE HOW TO .. is pretty much melt your chocolate, add your bits and freeze until set. Snap into pieces and you're good to go! For those who like a bit more detail, here's how I made this batch!
Usually I just use white and dark chocolate + hopped pistachios and dried cranberries but this one is a nit of a fun festive twist!
Use the double boiler saucepan method to gently melt your chopped dark chocolate on the cook top. Set aside and melt your white chocolate using the same process (or melt your chopped chocolate in a microwave using a microwave safe bowl or jug if you prefer).
Allow your melted dark chocolate to cool for a few minutes. Stir in 2-3 drops of doTERRA Peppermint essential oil.
Spread the melted dark chocolate onto a sheet of baking paper. Add drops of white chocolate and using a sharp knife point, swirl the white chocolate through the dark for a marble look.
Sprinkle on chopped cranberries, chopped nuts and smashed candy cane lollies.
Allow to set in the fridge or freezer for a quicker result (if you are impatient like me!!) and once set, snap into bark pieces.
Store in the fridge. Package in cellophane bags for gift giving or a baking paper lined gift tin.


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The benefits of getting featured in the iTunes “New & Noteworthy” section are hard to overstate. You get some of the best positioning throughout the iTunes podcast directory, browsed by millions each day. That type of exposure is rare, but you only have one shot to capitalize on it.
The good news is that it’s not too hard to get into the New & Noteworthy section. It just takes a little planning and some good friends.
New podcasts listed in iTunes are only eligible for New & Noteworthy for 8 weeks from their initial listing. It’s tempting to record your first episode and rush to get listed in iTunes. Don’t do it. This makes it harder to get featured and will reduce your total time in the New & Noteworthy section should you end up making it.
Great podcast artwork is a must. Follow these instructions to create the best artwork for your podcast, or have a designer help you produce something professional. The biggest thing here is that it needs to scale well. Featured podcast listings (and search results) display artwork at 125x125 pixels. If your artwork has any text it must be legible at small sizes.
You’re also going to want to make sure your episodes sound as good as possible. There is a lot that can go into this from recording quality, to podcast intros and post production. Check out our blog post on how to get the best sounding audio for your podcast for more info.
iTunes doesn’t publish the exact requirements for getting featured, but total episode downloads do seem to be a part of the formula. People who have made it into New & Noteworthy report launching their podcast with multiple episodes. We recommend at least 3 full episodes published to your feed before submitting to iTunes—the more the better. You don’t have to wait too long, but if you do a weekly show, putting off your initial listing by a month could serve you well.
In this episode you’re going to start encourage your listeners to rate and review your show on iTunes. Going forward you will want to do this every couple of episodes, but your first 3+ episodes were published before you were listed. If you don’t expect listeners while building out your backlog then you can start the encouragement in episode 1.
Once you get the approval email from iTunes it’s time to start the flurry of activity. Have an email ready to go out to your friends and family. Include a link to your iTunes podcast listing. Ask them to check it out, subscribe, rate and review your show. Next hit up your Facebook and Twitter followers. Ratings and subscriptions are quick wins, but written reviews seem to provide the most benefit.
Don’t hit everyone at once; try to spread the activity over a week or two. Follow up with people and remind them again after a few days if you’re not seeing any activity. Remember you’re now within that 8 week window so keep moving.
Shoot for at least 10 written reviews and 30 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ratings within the first 2 weeks.
Follow the steps above and you’ll have a good chance making the New & Noteworthy feature. Some categories are more competitive than others so do some research and adjust the numbers as necessary.
Above all, please don’t get discouraged if you don’t make it. This is a bit of a black box and while the strategy outlined above has been effective for others it may not work for everyone. Not getting featured is in no way a reflection on you or the quality of your podcast. Have fun and keep up the chatter!

industry_corpus2: Film & Entertainment


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The perfect graduation gift! This baseball is painted on one side with graduation hats and popping champagne bottles, on the other side is a scrolled diploma with place to write year of graduate! Personalize with a permanent marker to make your graduation baseball one-of-a-kind!
You can personalize this ball yourself!


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This week, the international scene was a battle of ice and fire, ‘Frozen (2013)‘ (BV) freezing over the European countries and southern Asian countries, as ‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire‘ (LG) burned up the last few days of the week, melting down Monday and Tuesday, before Smaug lent his fire in ‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug‘ (WB) that opened on Friday.
Making a major leap up the charts, ‘Out of the Furnace‘ (Rela.) landed on #3, ‘Frozen (2013)‘ in at #1 with ‘Catching Fire‘ close behind. ‘Thor: The Dark World‘ (BV) stormed into #4, ‘Delivery Man‘ (BV) at #5, ‘Homefront‘ (ORF) at #6, and ‘The Book Thief‘ (Fox) held on tight to #7. Going with the holiday spirit, ‘The Best Man Holiday‘ (Uni.) took #8, ‘Philomena‘ (Wein.) at #9, and Golden Globe nominee ‘Dallas Buyers Club‘ (Focus) landed in at #10. New release, ‘Inside Llewyn Davis‘ (CBS) moved in to #19, following a rise in popularity due to the Golden Globe nominations.
This weekend, Smaug chased Bilbo in to #1, blowing all others out of the competition with more than a $50 million cushiony lead. The chilly tale drops to #2, with ‘Tyler Perry’s A Madea Christmas‘ (LGF) rode a sleigh in to #3, ‘Catching Fire‘ close behind, as ‘Thor 2‘ battled into #5. ‘Out of the Furnace’ burned away #6, ‘Delivery Man‘ at #7, ‘Philomena‘ at #8, ‘The Book Thief‘ at #9, and ‘Homefront‘ dropped to #10. New release ‘American Hustle‘ (Sony) conned its way into #15 as ‘Saving Mr. Banks‘ (BV) danced into #18.
This week, ‘Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues‘ opens on the 17th, ‘Her‘ in limited release on the 18th, and ‘Walking With Dinosaurs‘ will be available in 3D and 2D on the 19th. The big opening will be on Christmas day, a slew of Golden Globe features with the Bieber documentary, and a few more that many have been looking forward to seeing. Looking forward to seeing how the holidays impact the box office next week!


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Civil rights refer to a body of personal freedoms or liberties that are nonnegotiable and will not infringed upon by the issuing government agency. In accordance, civil rights are those that all human beings are entitled to, regardless of codification.
Civil rights are a series of liberties that are primarily comprised of matters that will affect an individual’s ability to lead a happy life as part of a functioning community; civil rights encompass such freedoms that will free an individual from the constraints of discrimination, intrusions imposed by other individuals, organizations or government agencies and unwarranted persecutions.
In a general sense, civil rights will protect the ability of an individual to live a free, yet lawful lifestyle, shaped by choices and individual expression. That being said, identifying such rights may be complex, for the delivery of civil rights will vary from country to country and jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
At its core; however, the most basic of civil rights maintain a uniformity that is recognized throughout the developed world. For example, the freedom to identify with a religious group of choice, protection from discrimination based on gender, religious belief, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or political ideology and the freedom of speech are examples of common iterations of civil rights.
As stated before, civil rights will vary based on country; some nations will place a higher value on certain rights and not every country will possess a formal lawful description of civil rights and to whom they are awarded to. That being said, there is a widely accepted standard for civil rights, which is expressed in the Universal Declaration of human rights. This formal document, which was adopted by the United Nations, states that all individuals are recipients of such undeniable liberties.
By acknowledging and delivering civil rights, individuals within a society maintain freedom from persecution by their governing bodies and peers; such a characteristic protects individuals from unreasonable government infringement on personal decisions that mold individuality. For example, the right to freedom of speech enables an individual or group of individuals to hold protests against decisions made by their underlying governments.
In these instances, if the protests are non-violent, the government body does not possess the ability to threaten such a formation or to persecute any individual for speaking his or her mind in regards to the issues at hand.
Although legislation mandates that civil rights may not be infringed, throughout history, there have been multiple cases were civil rights have been impeded based on discriminatory practices. In an effort to dissuade such heinous acts, many developed nations have adopted such rights into their body of laws. For example, in the United States, the Bill of Rights was included in the country’s constitution to formally express the natural rights, which are fortified and unwavering, for every citizen of the country to utilize.

industry_corpus2: Law & Justice


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ENCINITAS — Anywhere there is a worthwhile local project that needs a helping hand, from the Holiday Parade to the Sister City program to building new parks, playgrounds and Little League fields, you can count on Doug Long to pitch in.
Long, the upcoming recipient of the San Dieguito Heritage Museum’s Living Heritage Award, moved to North County in 1952, attending local schools until graduation in 1968. After Palomar College, he joined the Marines Corps Reserves and was on active and reserve duty for seven years. Be a part of honoring Long at the San Dieguito Heritage’s Deep Pit Barbecue May 17 at 450 Quail Gardens Drive. The museum will present the Encinitas native with its Living Heritage Award, honoring this exceptional man who has given with uncommon generosity of his time and talents.
Long has been married to married to his wife, Karen for 41 years. They have two children, Brian and Christi. Since 1974, he has owned and operated Bert’s Plumbing, a local plumbing repair business.
Whenever he has some free time, he is enjoys golf, basketball, softball. He has a real interest in organic gardening, including vegetables, fruits and flowers.
As a longtime believer in the value of youth sports activities, he has given his time and construction knowledge to many of the sports activity fields that are now permanent fixtures in the Encinitas community, including the San Dieguito Boys and Girls Club and the original YMCA. In 1972, Long and other members of the Encinitas Optimist Club, helped build the first Girls’ Softball Field on Lake Dr. in Cardiff. He also organized and built a temporary site on Saxony Road for the Boys’ Pony/Colt Baseball Field. He donated the plumbing materials and labor for the new snack bar, and coached and managed his son’s little league teams, T-ball through senior league. He also umpired boys’ baseball and girls’ softball.
older, Long volunteered at La Costa Canyon High School for the boys’ varsity baseball team, constructing restrooms and dugouts. He was awarded the La Costa Canyon Everyday Hero Award in 1998.
Long seems to be everywhere as a volunteer when needed, and appreciative awards have followed. In 2012, he was awarded the Volunteer of the Year Award from the Encinitas Chamber of Commerce. In the preceding years, he also received a Proclamation from Mayor Maggie Houlihan, a Resolution from Congressman Brian P. Bilbray, a Proclamation from the County Of San Diego, and the Ida Lou Coley Award from Downtown Encinitas Main Street 101, culminating with the 2012 Volunteer of the Decade Award from the Downtown Encinitas Main Street 101 Association.
During his life in Encinitas, he has given his time to numerous civic committees. He continues to serve on the Encinitas Sister City Program, the Encinitas Preservation Association, the Encinitas Holiday/Christmas Parade Committee, the Encinitas Heritage Museum Site Committee, and as the chairperson for Encinitas Community Service for the local Rotary Club.
He has served on the city of Encinitas Parks and Recreation Committee for many years and was recently elected chairman of that vital committee. He was also recently installed as vice president for the Encinitas Community Garden and selected as the project manager for the gardens. And, of course, he and Karen are continuing their sponsorship through Bert’s Plumbing for Girls’ Softball for the 39th year.


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Take the long-term view: why have equity markets been weak?
Equity markets have re-traced and become more volatile over the second half of 2018.
History reminds us that those investors who take a long-term view and invest when equity markets become overly negative are generally well-rewarded when overall market risk tolerance stabilises.
While the RBNZ expects to keep the OCR on hold through 2019 and into 2020, in their past two Monetary Policy Statements they have outlined two alternative scenarios: one with stronger inflation pressures; and another with softer economic growth. In our view, the market is currently underestimating the chances of a third scenario, which is a combination of both stronger inflation pressures and softer economic growth.

industry_corpus2: Finance & Economics


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SHANGHAI Greenland Shenhua named Uruguayan Gustavo Poyet its new head coach on Tuesday, who will lead the Chinese Super League side in the new season, as well as in the Asian Champions League next year.
The 48-year-old had coaching experiences in Brighton & Hove Albion, Sunderland and AEK Athens. He signed a two-year deal with La Liga side Real Betis last May, but was replaced by Victor Sanchez earlier this month. As a player, he also had remarkable performances in clubs like Real Zaragoza, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur.
Just 18 days after his dismissal, the former Uruguay national team midfielder is starting a new career in the big-spending CSL. He brought a four-member assisting team with him – Italian assistant coach Mauricio Tarico, Greece fitness coach Panagiotis Voulgaris, British technical analyst Charlie Oatway and goalie coach Andy Beasley.
They arrived in Shanghai on Tuesday morning and toured around his new club’s training camp in Pudong’s Kangqiao. The team is heading to Haikou, Hainan Province, on Friday for pre-season trainings.
Greenland Shenhua had been searching for a “suitable but not necessarily famous” manager since it ended the contract with Spaniard Gregorio Manzano after a fourth-place finish in the 2016 CSL season. It had earlier contacted other candidates including Western Sydney Wanderers coach Tony Popovic before making the new appointment.

industry_corpus2: Sports


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GoDaddy helps keep employees fit and healthy with generous health benefits.
Enroll in Single coverage for medical and dental plans with No Premiums!
GoDaddy wants every employee to feel financially stable and amply rewarded for their work.
GoDaddy offers unique programs to reward and inspire employees.
GoDaddy strives to offer world-class benefits outside the USA too. We customize our benefit offerings by country while taking great care of our Expats.
Our diverse employee population reflects the customers we serve. We support and celebrate everyone on our team through our Employee Resource Groups. Open and inclusive to all employees, these groups are led by an employee president and guided by a member of the leadership team. Check them out.
GoDaddy Women in Technology (GDWIT) serves to create an ongoing conversation among employees regarding issues of interest to women in the workplace and to provide new opportunities to create impact for women and girls in our local communities. In addition to a robust speaker series, who have included BlogHer founders, Lisa Stone and Elisa Camahort to Anita Borg President Telle Whitney, we also host networking events and community activism.
GoDaddy Veterans (GDVET) creates a welcoming and vibrant community of GoGetters with shared experience and values of military service, either directly or through family members. Placing emphasis on promoting career development and continued skill development of Veterans at GoDaddy, particularly in technology, engineering and general business disciplines. We are proud to bring mentorship programs, buddy systems and a quarterly speaker series to support those who have served and their allies.
GoDaddy Latinos in Technology (GDLIT) is a community of employees who share the goal of seeing the Latino community have a greater impact and presence at GoDaddy. Promoting GoDaddy as a multicultural organization and further attracting Latinos to work in a culturally diverse environment. We strive to provide personal and professional development through peer mentoring, volunteerism and community involvement.
GoDaddy Fitness in Technology (GDFIT) electrifies our culture through energizing movement, motivational wisdom, teamwork and determination. By creating opportunities to connect, get active and get informed, we will foster a supportive, health inspired work-life culture. And we like to MOVE IT, MOVE IT!
GoDaddy Black in Technology (GDBIT) aims to bring awareness of the many opportunities and possibilities of a career within GoDaddy to the African American Community. Our goal is to assist in recruiting, hiring and advancement by preparing the community, both internal and external, young and experienced, with additional knowledge and skills needed for a successful career. GDBIT provides employees with continued career development through a diverse speaker series, ever increasing network of employees and a shared desire for inclusion.
GoDaddy UNITED is designed to ensure within the walls of our company, EVERYONE is able to be themselves, feels safe and informed with regards to issues relating to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community. With a mission that all individuals feel comfortable from a 360 degree perspective when it comes to all things relating to the LGBT community we identify opportunities for GoDaddy to engage LGBT consumers and recruit LGBT employees. We work towards our goal and mission by providing internal education, community partnership, rainbow roadshows and guest speakers.


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To report a trouble for your Local Telephone, Long Distance, or Cable Television service, please cal 518.827.5211.
For support of your Internet Service, please contact our Internet Help Desk at 518.296.HELP (4357). Open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.


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Is made from solid brass?
Features simultaneous latch & deadbolt retraction?
Has an all-steel precision machined mechanism?
Comes with matching brass hardware?
Has a bright polished & lacquered finish?
This Door Lever Lock Set Features simultaneous retraction of latch and deadbolt at the turn of a lever. Faceplate is 7 3/4" high x 1" wide. Overall length is 17 1/2". Backset measures 2 3/4". Latch throw 1/2", deadbolt throw 1". Item is field reversible. Brass is polished and lacquered.
17-1/2 in. x 2-7/8 in.
11-1/2 in. x 2-7/8 in.
7-3/4 in. x 1-3/4 in.
7-3/4 in. x 1-1/8 in.

industry_corpus2: Manufacturing


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Orientation Meeting about the confirmation program takes place on the Wednesday, August 30, 6:00pm. In cases where children have been unable to start the program in the 6th grade or to participate in classes as scheduled, parents are encouraged to speak with a pastor about alternative arrangements for instruction.
For more information, contact Pastor Kurt Ziemann or Pastor Jimmy Riley at the Church Office 440-357-5174.

industry_corpus2: Subject Education


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An Open Letter to my Earlier Self about #Book #Reviews and #Reviewers Guest Post on The Book Cove goes LIVE today | Sally Ember, Ed.D.
An Open Letter to my Earlier Self about #Book #Reviews and #Reviewers Guest Post on The Book Cove goes LIVE today, 12/1/14, and is part of a series.
This entry was posted in Indie or Self-Publishing, Life lessons, Marketing, Reviews, This Changes Everything, This Changes My Family and My Life Forever, Volume I of The Spanners, Volume II of The Spanners, Writing and tagged Book Cove Reviews, Book Reviews, guest blogger, indie author, Indie Publishing, reviewers, Sally Ember, The Book Cove. Bookmark the permalink.
Some excellent points in there, Sally. Particularly No7!
Thanks for reading and appreciating, Sue! Best to you!

industry_corpus2: Literature & Emotions


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The results of recent drilling have highlighted the potential of the Gimlet Gold Project (“Gimlet”), located just 15km from Kalgoorlie, to host appreciable gold mineralisation.
Gimlet is one of three projects held by the recently re-listed First Au Limited (ASX: FAU, “First Au” or “the Company”, previously Public Holdings (Australia) Ltd), with the others being highly prospective precious and base metals tenements in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, with all being vended in by well known and respected prospectors Denis and Damon O’Meara.
Drilling at Gimlet, which is adjacent to and along strike from Intermin Resources’ (ASX: IRC, “Intermin”) 289 koz Teal Gold Camp, commenced immediately after the re-listing in June 2018, and has shown that the mineralisation recently mined in an open cut by Intermin continues into the Company’s property. The work by First Au has delineated ~500 m strike of both a supergene blanket and underlying steeply dipping shear hosted gold mineralisation, with these open along strike to the north and to the south into Intermin’s tenement. The drilling has also intersected some bonanza grades, including 4 m @ 393 g/t Au in fresh vein mineralisation. Further drilling is planned at Gimlet in early 2019, with ongoing results then to be used in an initial Mineral Resource Estimate (“MRE”).

industry_corpus2: Mining


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Mentorship, compensation and transparency are some of the strategy items you'll need to stock in your pantry.
Talent retention is difficult for most employers; in fact, a lot of them don’t even have a retention plan. Marlin Hawk’s Talent Retention and Poaching study from October 2016 found that fully 41 percent of the 400 HR professionals surveyed didn't have formal retention strategies in place.
To create one, your best approach will be to consider the employee experience. In the same way that everyone has a favorite dish to look forward to over the upcoming holidays, each employee has his or her specific, professional palette that employers should cater to, when that's reasonable.
The resulting "recipe for talent retention" doesn’t have to be complicated. All it takes is a handful of simple, but impactful, ingredients.
Onboarding is essential to starting off on the right foot. Employees want to develop a trusting, respectful relationship with their new employer. Unfortunately, most companies struggle to develop an engaging, meaningful onboarding experience.
ADP’s Evolution of Work study of 2,000 participants from December 2015 found that 91 percent of managers, 81 percent of HR administrators and 75 percent of employers surveyed said they believed their organizations did not do onboarding well. So, how can employers make the transition easier for new hires?
One answer is that employees need a friend to help them when they start. Day one often causes stress and pressure on new hires. So, offer mentorships to them give them support. A one-on-one relationship is helpful because it builds a special rapport between peers.
Also, look for where to make improvements. Measure the quality of your company's onboarding to get an accurate understanding of how well it helps assimilate a person into the culture and his or her new role.
One of the best ways to learn about the quality of onboarding is to conduct a 90-day evaluation and ask for feedback from both the new hire and the mentor. Get an idea of how well these individuals are fitting into the office community and understanding their goals; determine whether or not they've been equipped with the resources they need for success.
For most people, a new job is not all about the money, but that's certainly important. Employees have the tools they need to understand their value, and they want to be compensated fairly for their work.
Research salaries in the area and industry to see how well your company’s offer stacks up against that of other employers. Offer competitive benefits like flexible work options and unlimited PTO, not to just attract the right talent, but to retain them.
For positions that demand commission or quarterly bonuses, it’s best to keep these details plain and simple. Employers should be able to lay out their incentives in a few sentences. Don’t overcomplicate it. Make each position's details consistent and easy to understand.
Also, reward top performers with merit increases so they stay motivated to maintain strong performance. When employees see this, they will push themselves harder to improve their productivity.
It’s crucial to show appreciation and recognize employees. Implement an employee-recognition program that uses non-financial rewards to build morale and teamwork. Step into the shoes of the staff. What makes them feel recognized and valued? Use that as a point of reference when considering alternative compensation.
Employees hate feeling stuck. When they stagnate, they start looking for better opportunities. Unfortunately, this feeling is all too common. TINYpulse’s The Era of Personal & Peer Accountability report from 2015 found that over 70 percent of 400,000 employees surveyed didn't see themselves meeting their full potential.
Employees need to speak up when they feel that they’re being underutilized. Create a transparent culture so they can offer feedback and feel comfortable expressing their ambitions to leaders. Otherwise, if they can’t voice their opinion and share their vision, they won’t feel welcome to grow.
Employees want a voice. For example, if they feel that they aren’t reaching their potential, they should be able to speak up and ask for learning opportunities. Leaders should proactively address growth opportunities with the best of the best on a regular basis.
Employees without direction and development are more likely to jump ship. Some of them want to venture out of their comfort zones. Others are scared to.
Management needs to step in and encourage employees to set goals and build their strengths. Collaborate with them to set goals and guide them with professional development opportunities.
Help them define goals that are SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, timely). Emphasize your company's large-scale organizational goals, then cascade those down each level of the employee ladder to demonstrate how these individuals' success contributes to company growth.
Related: Is Employee Feedback Missing at Your Company? Here's Why and How to Fix It.
Align employee goals with the big picture. This way, employees can see their role in the big picture and be more engaged and motivated in their day-to-day.