“Saudi Arabia’s King Salman promised on Sunday to punish those responsible for the recent suicide attack at a Shiite mosque in the country’s east—a rare occurrence in the kingdom. Salman decried the ‘heinous terrorist attack’ that runs counter to Islamic and human values” (Deutsche Welle, May 24, 2015).

“Britain Resigns as a World Power” was the sobering title of a recent article in the Washington Post (May 21, 2015). Author Fareed Zakaria observed, “After an extraordinary 300-year run, Britain has essentially resigned as a global power” (ibid.). “Over the next few years, Britain’s army will shrink to about 80,000.

Periodically, we need to discard things. Deciding what to throw away and what to keep can be a hard thing to do. What should we throw away? And what should we keep?

Some say there are seven stages of life, while others say eight or twelve. Regardless of the number of stages, we all go through infancy, childhood, adulthood and old age. At each stage, we discard things no longer important to us.

Cosmologist Stephen Hawking believes “the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.” Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and product engineer of Tesla Motors, warns that AI might be one of the greatest threats facing our civilization. Bill Gates, the former CEO and founder of Microsoft Corporation even considers the danger of machines that could out-think humanity. Are these fears justified? Will AI be the doom of the human race?

Alex Malarkey is the co-author and subject of the book titled: The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven. Published in 2010, it was a New York Times best seller. Now he has written an open letter admitting he lied and did not die or go to heaven. Do people go to heaven when they die?