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

.

.

STMcC’s Vote On '2017, February 15th:
Valentine's Day Battle Of The Bands, Vol. 2'
(Or, 'Marty Robbins Versus Marty Robbins')
And The Final Tally:
.
I thank you all for making this my favorite 'Battle Of The Bands' (BOTB) installment ever. The voter turnout wasn't great, but I think this is now the "new normal" for BOTB. However, most of you answered all or at least some of my questions. The questions obviously tied into the theme of "eternal love" and "life after death" as suggested by pairing Marty Robbins' songs EL PASO and EL PASO CITY. And it was the novelty of this concept combined with the interesting comments from voters that made this one so special to me.
.
So, again, I thank y'all for your participation!
.
And now to answer the questions myself, cast my own vote, and provide you with the results of the informal poll I was conducting...
.

Do you believe in love at first sight?
.
Just a couple years ago I would have said no. There can be a strong attraction, even infatuation at first sight, but it takes really getting to know a person before that can grow into love.
.
Today I say that yes, there is such a thing as love at first sight, but it's a rare occurrence and probably always related to a subconscious or soul recognition of the other person from a previous life experience (i.e., a genuine "soul mate"). In other words, the time needed for love to grow has already occurred in a previous life with that same person or same soul, and you are recognizing them at some level deeper than your conscious mind.
.
YES = 8
NO = 6
.

Do you think there is life after death?
.
Based on my answer above, you already know my answer to THIS question.
.
YES = 14
NO = 1
.

Do you believe a person's romantic love for another can be maintained even after the physical body has died and disappeared?
.
I certainly believe that love lives on, but not a "romantic" form of love. In Matthew 22, Jesus is asked about marriage in the afterlife and He responds: "You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven." In other words, in the Heavenly realm, we are pure Spiritual, asexual beings. It won't be a romantic love we experience, but a more Godly, and even more powerful Love, untainted by the physical.
.
YES = 7
NO = 6  
.

Do you think the souls of the deceased sometimes reincarnate and inhabit the earth in newly born bodies?
.
No, I don't think that. I KNOW that. This is actually a subject that I have spent many years studying in great depth. Believe it or not, it has been shown repeatedly, in no uncertain terms, that some people (and apparently a large number of folks) have reincarnated. I know that I have.
.
Although I know reincarnation can and does occur, I am NOT a believer in soul transmigration, which is often confused with reincarnation but is actually a different concept with no evidence to support it. Soul transmigration posits that a person might return as a dog, a cat, a raindrop, or even a "holy cow". Reincarnation implies that the soul returns (sometimes many times) solely in the human form.
.
YES = 8
NO = 4
MAYBE = 2
.
There are a lot of sensational (and sensationalistic) stories out there about reincarnation. Many of them are true. But me, I am a "Just the facts, Ma'am" kind of guy, which is why I prefer to keep my studies in the more scientific realm, even if that can be on the dry side. To any reincarnation doubters, I would recommend two books by Dr. Ian Stevenson: '20 Cases Suggestive Of Reincarnation' and 'Where Reincarnation And Biology Intersect'.
.

.

.
Because Dr. Stevenson had a scientific mind and took science very seriously, those two books read rather dry -- like the scientific studies they describe. However, if you're like me and just want to know the unadorned facts without spin or bias so you can make up your own mind, then you will value those two publications as I do.
.
Here's just one little fact as an example of what you might find in those books:
.
A boy named Indika was born in Weligama, Sri Lanka on October 24, 1972. At the age of 3, he began speaking of a life he had lived in another town. He gave many specific names of people and places he had known in his prior life. Eventually, it was determined that he was speaking facts about the life of a boy named Dharshana who had lived in Balapitiya, Sri Lanka and had died of an illness on January 24, 1968, having lived not quite up to eleven. (Sorry. I couldn't resist that.)
.
Indika was taken to Balapitiya to meet the family of the deceased Dharshana. At one point he began intently searching the compound area where the family home was located, while the adults followed him. Finally, he located what he'd been looking for. He pointed out where "Dharshana 1965" had been scratched into the concrete of a drain while the cement had still been wet. None of Dharshana's family had ever noticed his name in that concrete until Indika showed it to them. In other words, no one other than Indika, a boy born in another town of Sri Lanka, 5 years after Dharshana had passed away, knew about that personalized graffiti.
.
I don't believe that any intellectually honest skeptic could read the Dr. Stevenson books and remain unconvinced that reincarnation occurs.
.
Most Christians reject the idea of reincarnation because they mistakenly believe it contradicts The Holy Bible, the Word of God. I am a follower of Christ and a big league believer in The Bible, and I have rather extensively blogged about why reincarnation is not only compatible with the Word of God, but is repeatedly found in the Word of God. For anyone interested, I give you this...
.
REINCARNATION & THE HOLY BIBLE [Part 1 Of 4]
.
THE REINCARNATING JESUS: WILL IT BE HIS "2nd COMING" OR HIS 34th?
.
In this BOTB installment, I voted for EL PASO CITY. I love the cleverness of it, and the mystical element of reincarnation added as the denouement to the 'EL PASO Trilogy'. Also, from a musical standpoint, I prefer the nice but more subtle melody of EL PASO CITY. Although I like the original EL PASO well enough, the "sing song-y" melody of it isn't really my mug o' beer.
.
This was indeed a blowout, as I predicted, but not nearly as bad a blowout as I expected. Going up against the famous original, I figured my vote and maybe just one or two others is all that EL PASO CITY would get, but the final tally looks like this:
.
El Paso = 14 votes
El Paso City = 6 votes
.
Anyway, my thanks once again to all y'all for making this BOTB installment so fun and memorable for me. I hope to see ya here again for my March 1st Battle.
.
~ Stephen T. McCarthy
.