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After Life #1 Trailer

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After Life 2 Trailer

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On Saturday April 18, 2020 at 6pm in London and noon in Arkansas, I had a chance to ask Ricky Gervais a question on his Twitter Live broadcast which was “Is Tony a Nihilist?” At the 20:51 mark Ricky answers my question. Below is the video:

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May 3, 2020
Ricky Gervais

Dear Ricky,

This is the 16th day in a row that I have written another open letter to you to comment on some of your episodes of AFTER LIFE, and then I wanted to pass along some evidence that indicates the Bible is historically accurate.

Robert Foley quote

In the You Tube video “A Further 50 Renowned Academics Speaking About God (Part 1),” Dr. Foley asserted:

As a high Anglican school, everybody was expected to be confirmed; I did lessons with the chaplain and at the end he told us to go away and think deeply about why we were being confirmed; I did so and told him that I was only doing it because if I did so I would get an extra Sunday out; as this was the only reason I did not feel I should be confirmed; I was about fourteen at the time and I did not give much thought to religion after that time; I love going to church, and my wife, who was brought up a Catholic, is horrified by my aesthetic enjoyment of it; like many English people I like the sounds, the familiarity, the rhythms, and music; I go to Chapel but technically I am an agnostic in the Huxley sense, that one cannot be absolutely certain, but for all practical purposes I am an atheist; I don’t remember ever having a great deal of anxiety about that; religion for me is a nice social backdrop; obviously, being interested in human evolution I have then thought much about the nature of religion; I am fairly convinced that religion plays a major role in human evolution, which has nothing to do with whether it is true or not; Pascal Boyer’s ideas are very sensible, that religion plays an important role in forming communities, forming largely antagonistic relationships between groups, in providing mechanisms for coercion or conformism – all those things work better with religion; there is a tendency to believe, and to believe what others believe – very few of us think in ways different to those immediately around us – suggest there are strong conformism genes; this is also true of politics and other things, not just religion; on the actual content of religion, I would say that most religions allow you to increase your self belief; I think that Darwinism is one of the least adaptive beliefs in the world as it is basically saying that we are not important in the big scheme of things.

I agree with Dr. Foley that evolution puts people in their current mindset and that is we are not special in the big scheme of things in life UNDER THE SUNas Solomon puts it in ECCLESIASTES.

Ecclesiastes 3: 18-21

¹⁸I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts. ¹⁹For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity.^[n] ²⁰All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return.²¹Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth?

If looking at things with the limited perspective of LIFE UNDER THE SUN then it appears that life will end for good and we will return to the dirt. This is also pictured vividly in the 5th episode of the second season of AFTER LIFE:

Tony: How long have you been posting your mail in a dog waste bin?

Older Gentleman: About a year I would say.

Tony: It says “Dog waste” on it.
Older Gentleman: yeah but my eyes are shot.
Tony: What did you think the smell was? Wasn’t that a clue?

Older Gentleman: Yeah. I thought it was me. I have no one to be hygienic for. No point is there. No one to wash for.
Tony: Yourself maybe?

Older Gentleman: No point is there. No point to anything is there really? Where do they take dog crap? They probably bury it don’t they? That’s where we all are going to end up. We are all just future [dog crap]. I have no self esteem.

Edward O. Wilson takes a look at the nihilism of Paul Gauguin

Here is a portion of a letter I wrote to Dr. Wilson:

I know that I just wrote you recently but I have read your book THE MEANING OF HUMAN EXISTENCE 4 times now and it keeps bringing me back to the Book of Ecclesiastes. Today is February 2nd, GROUNDHOG DAY and I am reminded of the Bill Murray movie GROUNDHOG DAY. In that movie he can’t get out of Groundhog Day until he gets it all figured out and that is how I feel about your book THE MEANING OF HUMAN EXISTENCE. In both that book and THE SOCIAL CONQUEST OF EARTH you discuss Paul Gauguin.

Here are your conclusions on Gauguin’s journey:

AND AS FOR YOU, PAUL GAUGUIN, why did you write those lines on your painting? Of course, the ready answer I suppose is that you wanted to be very clear about the symbolization of the great range of human activity depicted in your Tahitian panorama, just in case someone might miss the point. But I sense there was something more. Perhaps you asked the three questions in such a way to imply that no answers exist, either in the civilized world you rejected and left behind or in the primitive world you adopted in order to find peace. Or again, perhaps you meant that art can go no further than what you have done; and all that was left for you to do personally was express the troubling questions in script. Let me suggest yet another reason for the mystery you left us, one not necessarily in conflict with these other conjectures. I think what you wrote is an exclamation of triumph. You had lived out your passion to travel far, to discover and embrace novel styles of visual art, to ask the questions in a new way, and from all that createan authentically original work. In this sense your career is one for the ages; it was not paid out in vain. In our own time, by bringing rational analysis and art together and joining science and humanities in partnership, we have drawn closer to the answers you sought.

I have to accept your first conclusion concerning Gauguin and that is the pessimistic and nihilistic one. The speculation that possibly Gauguin wrote an “exclamation of triumph” is not realistic at all because he was looking UNDER THE SUN for answers to these 3 big questions and they must be given spiritual answers. The ironic thing is that if the spiritual quest finds fulfilling answers then a more abundant life can be lived on this earth.

Gauguin’s conclusion is logical, and Francis Schaeffer says that Woody Allen has come to this same nihilistic conclusion.

Schaeffer noted:
One of the most striking developments in the last half-century is the growth of a profound pessimism among both the well-educated and less-educated people. The thinkers in our society have been admitting for a long time that they have no final answers at all. Take Woody Allen, for example. Most people know his as a comedian, but he has thought through where mankind stands after the “religious answers” have been abandoned. In an article in Esquire (May 1977), he says that man is left with:
… alienation, loneliness [and] emptiness verging on madness…. The fundamental thing behind all motivation and all activity is the constant struggle against annihilation and against death. It’s absolutely stupefying in its terror, and it renders anyone’s accomplishments meaningless. As Camus wrote, it’s not only that he (the individual) dies, or that man (as a whole) dies, but that you struggle to do a work of art that will last and then you realize that the universe itself is not going to exist after a period of time. Until those issues are resolved within each person – religiously or psychologically or existentially – the social and political issues will never be resolved, except in a slapdash way.
Allen sums up his view in his film Annie Hall with these words: “Life is divided into the horrible and the miserable.”
Many would like to dismiss this sort of statement as coming from one who is merely a pessimist by temperament, one who sees life without the benefit of a sense of humor. Woody Allen does not allow us that luxury. He speaks as a human being who has simply looked life in the face and has the courage to say what he sees. If there is no personal God, nothing beyond what our eyes can see and our hands can touch, then Woody Allen is right: life is both meaningless and terrifying. As the famous artist Paul Gauguin wrote on his last painting shortly before he tried to commit suicide: “Whence come we? What are we? Whither do we go?” The answers are nowhere, nothing, and nowhere.

(END OF LETTER TO DR. Wilson)

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We have a similar situation in Tony Johnson’s life in AFTERLIFE because Paul Gauguin’s three questions are constantly contemplated by Tony:

“Whence come we?

What are we?

Whither do we go?”

Sadly in a atheist point of view the answers are NOWHERE, NOTHING and NOWHERE.

In the last years of his life King Solomon took time to look back and then he wrote the BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES. Solomon did believe in God but in this book he took a look at life “UNDER THE SUN.” Christian scholar Ravi Zacharias has noted, “The key to understanding the Book of Ecclesiastes is the term ‘UNDER THE SUN.’ What that literally means is you lock God out of a closed system, and you are left with only this world of time plus chance plus matter.”

Francis Schaeffer comments on the Book of Ecclesiastes and the subject of death:

Ecclesiastes 9:11

¹¹Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all.

Chance rules. If a man starts out only from himself and works outward it must eventually if he is consistent seem so that only chance rules and naturally in such a setting you can not expect him to have anything else but finally a hate of life.

Ecclesiastes 2:17-18a

¹⁷So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind. ¹⁸I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun…

That first great cry “So I hated life.” Naturally if you hate life you long for death and you find him saying this in Ecclesiastes 4:2-3:

²And I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive. ³But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are doneunder the sun.

He lays down an order. It is best never have to been. It is better to be dead, and worse to be alive. But like all men and one could think of the face of Vincent Van Gogh in his final paintings as he came to hate life and you watch something die in his self portraits, the dilemma is double because as one is consistent and one sees life as a game of chance, one must come in a way to hate life. Yet at the same time men never get beyond the fear to die. Solomon didn’t either. So you find him in saying this.

Ecclesiastes 2:14-15

¹⁴The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the same event happens to all of them. ¹⁵Then I said in my heart, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?” And I said in my heart that this also is vanity.

The Hebrew is stronger than this and it says “it happens EVEN TO ME,” Solomon on the throne, Solomon the universal man. EVEN TO ME, even to Solomon.

Ecclesiastes 3:18-21

¹⁸I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts. ¹⁹For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity.^[n] ²⁰All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return.²¹Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth?

What he is saying is as far as the eyes are concerned everything grinds to a stop at death.

Ecclesiastes 4:16

¹⁶There was no end of all the people, all of whom he led. Yet those who come later will not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and a striving after wind.

That is true. There is no place better to feel this than here in Switzerland. You can walk over these hills and men have walked over these hills for at least 4000 years and when do you know when you have passed their graves or who cares? It doesn’t have to be 4000 years ago. Visit a cemetery and look at the tombstones from 40 years ago. Just feel it. IS THIS ALL THERE IS? You can almost see Solomon shrugging his shoulders.

Ecclesiastes 8:8

⁸There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it. (King James Version)

A remarkable two phrase. THERE IS NO DISCHARGE IN THAT WAR or you can translate it “no casting of weapons in that war.” Some wars they come to the end. Even the THIRTY YEARS WAR (1618-1648) finally finished, but this is a war where there is no casting of weapons and putting down the shield because all men fight this battle and one day lose. But more than this he adds, WICKEDNESS WON’T DELIVER YOU FROM THAT FIGHT. Wickedness delivers men from many things, from tedium in a strange city for example. But wickedness won’t deliver you from this war. It isn’t that kind of war. More than this he finally casts death in the world of chance.

Ecclesiastes 9:12

¹²For man does not know his time. Like fish that are taken in an evil net, and like birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are snared at an evil time, when it suddenly falls upon them.

Death can come at anytime. Death seen merely by the eye of man between birth and death and UNDER THE SUN. Death too is a thing of chance. Albert Camus speeding in a car with a pretty girl at his side and then Camus dead. Lawrence of Arabiacoming up over a crest of a hill 100 miles per hour on his motorcycle and some boys are standing in the road and Lawrence turns aside and dies.

Surely between birth and death these things are chance. Modern man adds something on top of this and that is the understanding that as the individual man will dies by chance so one day the human race will die by chance!!! It is the death of the human race that lands in the hand of chance and that is why men grew sad when they read Nevil Shute’s book ON THE BEACH.

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By the way, the final chapter of Ecclesiastes finishes with Solomon emphasizing that serving God is the only proper response of man. Solomon looks above the sun and brings God back into the picture. I am hoping that your good friend Woody Allen will also come to that same conclusion that Solomon came to concerning the meaning of life and man’s proper place in the universe in Ecclesiastes 12:13-14:
13 Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man.

14 For God will bring every deed into judgment,
including every hidden thing,
whether it is good or evil

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Arif Ahmed comments:

: There are other examples in life where committing oneself means staking your life like flying on a plane to France tomorrow. That is committing your life to something or taking a drug which is comitting your life to something. These are precisely not cases where you should make a leap in the absence of evidence. These are the cases we demand evidence the most strongly and it seems to me that religious belief if it is genuine is the case then that demand is the same and even raised to higher degree.

Top Ten Biblical Discoveries in Archaeology – #8 Caiaphas Ossuary

JULY 14, 2010

This post is a continuation of our Top Ten Biblical Discoveries in Archaeology series. To see the complete series please click here.

1967

1967 was an active year. The Doors kicked off the year releasing their self-entitled debut album. The United States was fully involved in the Vietnam War. The Green Bay Packers won their third consecutive championship against the Dallas Cowboys in the frozen “Ice Bowl.” In 1967 NASA had a lunar orbiter circling the moon taking photos of the surface looking for the best place to take that famous, “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

In the Middle East, June 5th through the 10th of 1967 has become known as the Six Day War. It was a war between Israel and the neighboring countries of Egypt, Jordan and Syria. The Arab countries of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria additionally sent troops to the war. At the war’s end, Israel had gained control of the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. The results of the war affect the geopolitics of the region to this day.

For the first time in centuries Jerusalem was again a unified city. To commemorate the new unification of Jerusalem a forest was planted. The Jerusalem Peace Forest links the city’s eastern and western parts. The forest’s name symbolizes the hope for peace and brotherhood among the united city’s residents.

The Jerusalem Peace Forest, which was planted at the edge of the desert, offers its visitors a unique spectacle created by the natural contrast of green trees surrounded by a barren landscape. Unknown to those in 1967 a marvelous archaeological discovery just happened to lay underneath the Jerusalem Peace Forest. The discovery we will focus on today would never have happened without the six day war in 1967. The discovery would have never happened without the creation of the Peace Forest.

Uneventful Construction Project Turned Eventful

Many archaeological discoveries in Israel come from pure chance. The discovery we are focusing on today is no exception. In December, 1990, a new park was being constructed within the Peace Forest. As the workers, using modern construction equipment, dug down they soon picked up their telephones. A long forgotten ceiling collapsed revealing a room deep in the earth.

The construction superintendent knew he had stumbled upon something ancient. The construction workers suspected they may have found an ancient burial tomb. The park project would be put on hold until the ancient room could be inspected. Israelis, like most cultures, put a priority on honoring the graves of their ancestors. It would be dishonoring for a large modern-day excavator to press on and brashly dig up human bones.

The construction superintendent contacted the Israeli Antiquities Authority. Zvi Greenhut arrived on the scene to see what the construction workers stumbled upon.

Burial Chamber Discovered

Greenhut writes, “When I arrived at the site, I found a rock-hewn loculi burial cave, the type of tomb that is typical of the Second Temple period in Jerusalem. The cave is located in an area in which scores of other such tombs have been discovered, all part of the Jerusalem necropolis which stretches southward as far as the vicinity of the Arab village of Sur Bahir.

The limestone bedrock into which the cave is hewn is soft and crumbly and full of cracks, very characteristic of the area. The cave has an irregular floor plan, and its entrance is on the east side. We reached the entrance from within the burial chamber, entering the tomb through what had been the roof.”

What a great sight. They get into the hole dug by the construction equipment. Then they see the secondary hole from the collapsed ceiling. They lower themselves through the ancient ceiling and quickly recognize they’re in a burial tomb from the period of the Second Temple.

The Ossuary

The archaeologists have just stepped back in time more than 2,000 years. As the flashlights sweep the tomb several ossuaries are found. An ossuary is a surprisingly small burial box. When looking at an ossuary you think there’s no chance a body could fit inside the box. That’s not the point. The ossuary is only used to store the bones after the body has decomposed.

An ancient burial chamber would include an area where the most recent death in the family lies on a chiseled-out rock bench. A family member would come into the chamber about a year after their death, take the bones, and place them in an ossuary in order to make room on the bench for the next deceased family member.

Zvi Greenhut discovers an exceptionally fancy ossuary. The ossuary is dated to the first century. It measures 37 centimeters high (14.6 inches) and 75 centimeters long (29.6 inches). The ossuary is covered with an ornate design which would seem to point toward an important person. The contents of the ossuary are studied and found to contain the remains of several people. This is not unusual. A family would place as many deceased relatives as possible into one ossuary.

Inside this ornate ossuary are found the bones of two babies, an adolescent child, a teenage boy, an adult woman, and a man about 60 years of age. The ossuary is an interesting chance discovery but not something to rock the archaeological world.

On the outside of the ossuary is found an inscription in Aramaic dramatically increasing the value of the ossuary and importance of this piece to the world of archaeology. In Aramaic the inscription reads, “Joseph son of Caiaphas.” Another ossuary, additionally, is found in the tomb containing an inscription reading simply, “Caiaphas.” The first ossuary draws the most attention.

The name Caiaphas is found in the New Testament. Cool, we found someone sharing the same name as someone from the Bible. The excitement from this discovery came from the big question, “Is this ‘the’ Caiaphas from the Bible?”

The New Testament describes Caiaphas as one of the primary individuals involved in the crucifixion of Jesus. Matthew, Luke and John each identify Caiaphas as the high priest that presided over the arrest and trial of Jesus. Being the high priest made him second in power only to the Roman governor. Jewish law did not allow the high priest to sentence people to death. The Bible explains Caiaphas worked with the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, to carry out a death sentence on Jesus. You may be thinking, “Wait a second. The inscription says Joseph son of Caiaphas. Not just Caiaphas.” That’s what I originally thought too. The way the inscription is written is actually why it drew so much attention.

The first-century historian Josephus helps piece together the significance of the discovery. He identifies the high priest at the time of Jesus as not only Caiaphas but “Joseph Caiaphas.” Josephus tells us additionally Caiaphas was the Jewish high priest from 18 to 36 AD (Jewish Antiquities 18:35). A source outside the Bible helps us to establish the right name at the right time. Josephus later refers to him as “Joseph who was called Caiaphas of the high priesthood” (Jewish Antiquities 18:95).

Significance of the Ossuary

The discovery in 1990 brought excitement to the world of archaeology. The 60 year old man found in the ossuary is determined by Greenhut and others to be the high priest involved in the crucifixion of Jesus. The discovery is significant for really only one reason.

For the past 2,000 years Christians have viewed the crucifixion of Jesus (and subsequent resurrection) as the most important event of all human history. My objective in this series is not to make a reasoned case for the importance of the crucifixion. If you do not hold to the belief that Jesus, the Son of God and Son of Man, paid for the sins of humankind on the cross then you will not find any significant value in the Caiaphas Ossuary. If you do believe in the crucifixion as the most important event of human history then the Caiaphas Ossuary holds substantial significance. The Caiaphas Ossuary shows to us the bones of a 60 year old man who 2,000 years ago led the charge to put Jesus on the cross. The ossuary strengthens the historical reliability of the cross by supporting the existence of one of its central characters.

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John 11:49-52

Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”

He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one.

The Four Spiritual Laws

by Matt Slick

They are:

God loves you:
1. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life,” (John 3:16).
Man is sinful and separated from God.
1. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” (Rom. 3:23). “For the wages of sin is death,” (Rom. 6:23). “But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God,” (Isaiah 59:2).
Jesus Christ is God’s only provision for man’s sin.
1. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me,” (John 14:6). “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,” (Rom. 5:8).
We must individually receive Jesus as Savior and Lord.
1. “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,” (John 1:12). “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved,” (Rom. 10:9). “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God,” (Eph. 2:8).

The answer to find meaning in life is found in putting your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. The Bible is true from cover to cover and can be trusted.

Thank you again for your time and I know how busy you are.

Sincerely,

Everette Hatcher, everettehatcher@gmail.com, http://www.thedailyhatch.org, cell ph 501-920-5733, 13900 Cottontail Lane, Alexander, AR 72002

PS: What is the meaning of life? Find it in the end of the open letter I wrote to you on April 23, 2020.

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Below is the workforce of THE TAMBURY GAZETTE

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Seen below is the third episode of AFTERLIFE (season 1) when Matt takes Tony to a comedy club with front row seats to cheer him up but it turns into disaster!!!

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Part 1 “Why have integrity in Godless Darwinian Universe where Might makes Right?”

Part 2 “My April 14, 2016 Letter to Ricky mentioned Book of Ecclesiastes and the Meaninglessness of Life”

Part 3 Letter about Brandon Burlsworth concerning suffering and pain and evil in the world. “Why didn’t Jesus save her [from cancer]?” (Tony’s 10 year old nephew George in episode 2)

Part 4 Letter on Solomon on Death Tony in episode one, “It should be everyone’s moral duty to kill themselves.”

Part 5 Letter on subject of Learning in Ecclesiastes “I don’t read books of fiction but mainly science and philosophy”

Part 6 Letter on Luxuries in Ecclesiastes Part 6, The Music of AFTERLIFE (Part A)

Part 7 Letter on Labor in Ecclesiastes My Letter to Ricky on Easter in 2017 concerning Book of Ecclesiastes and the legacy of a person’s life work

Part 8 Letter on Liquor in Ecclesiastes Tony’s late wife Lisa told him, “Don’t get drunk all the time alright? It will only make you feel worse in the log run!”

Part 9 Letter on Laughter in Ecclesiastes , I said of laughter, “It is foolishness;” and of mirth, “What does it accomplish?” Ecclesiastes 2:2