Brian Zhand breaks down Rhonda Byrne's "Secret"

"The Secret" movie was loaned to me by some enthusiastic friends. I made it about halfway through and then I had an important appointment to keep. I just never got around to finishing it. But what I did see was an idea that glorified idolatry. An instruction that used the bible "out of context" to legitimize itself. Its attractive because you want it to be real, sort of like the Smurfs or Care-a-lot, but deep down, especially if you have spent time in God's word, you know there's just no way.

But enough of my opinion, Brian Zhand absolutely devastates this whole business on his most recent blog post, simply entitled, "The Secret."

The Secret
Monday, June 04, 2007 - 3:54 PM

It's a beautiful day.I'm sitting on my deck reading Ephesians in the New Living Translation.

My eye fall upon these words: "God's secret plan has now been revealed to us; it is a plan centered on Christ." (Eph. 1:9)

I pause for just a moment with this thought floating in my head: God's secret plan.

Just that moment Peri comes out on the deck and hands me an article in Newsweek. "Decoding The Secret"

Spooky. The Newsweek article was about the mega-bestseller book, The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne.

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Can you taste caffeine in pop? The New Jerusalem News Exclusive Study answers the question!

It was a day like any other. The sun had once again risen on God's green creation. There were ants in my living room. Friends were over.

The question arose, through random conversation. Can you taste caffeine in pop? If so, is there a preference?

It was then that New Jerusalem News decided to take the challenge! With the help of Chad Waldron, a first-year Psychology Student at Kalamazoo Valley Community College, the experiement shaped up mighty nice. For those of you who care about such things, here are the details.

Soda Used: Pepsi, Caffeine Free Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Diet Caffeine Free Pepsi, Diet Coke, Diet Caffeine Free Coke

Test Subjects: Robin (28), Mikayla (9), Corina (7) , Billy (29), Chad (29), Kristen (28)

Itinerary: Subjects are given two cups, one containing a caffeinated pop, one uncaffeinated. They are then asked one of two questions; "Which do you prefer?" and "Which of these is caffeine free?" They do not know what is contained in the cups.

Intention: The intent is to discover not only if a subject can actually taste caffeine, but if the subject would prefer a caffeinated beverage to an uncaffeinated one, without knowing which is which.

Results for each subject were as follows:

Kristin preferred the taste of Caffeine Free Pepsi over regular Pepsi, She guessed wrong about which contained caffeine. She did not prefer the taste of either diet sodas, and could not tell the difference between the diet sodas, caffeine or not.

Robin Preferred the taste of Caffeine Free Pepsi and Diet Caffeine Free Coke. She guessed correctly which regular sodas contained caffeine and which diet sodas contained caffeine.

Mikayla preferred the taste of Caffeine Free Pepsi and Diet Caffeine Free Coke. She guessed wrong about which sodas contained caffeine both times, diet or not.

Corina preferred the taste of Regular Pepsi and Diet Caffeine Free Coke. She guessed correctly which regular and diet sodas contained caffeine.

Billy was given three seperate tests and asked which contained caffeine. He guessed right on all three. He was not asked which he preferred.

Chad was given three seperate tests and asked which contained caffeine. He guessed right on two and wrong on one.

Conclusion: A total of 22 tests were given. Subjects preferred the taste of uncaffeinated soda over caffeinated 2.5 to one. Subjects were able to guess which soda contained caffeine with a ratio of 3 to one. Based on that data, New Jerusalem News must conclude that subjects prefer uncaffeinated soda and can taste the difference.