stronomer Carl Sagan was recently quoted in
U.S. News and World Report as saying: "The idea that God is an oversized white male with a flowing beard who sits in the sky and tallies the fall of every
sparrow is ludicrous. But if by "God" one means the set of physical laws that govern the universe, then clearly there is such a God. This God is emotionally unsatisfying . . . it does not make much sense to pray to
the law of gravity."
There is obviously more to this man's telescope than meets the eye.
The Southern Partisan reports a death in Tennessee as a result of religious snake handling. Jimmy Ray Williams, Jr. was bitten by a 3-foot black timber rattler during a service at the House of Prayer in
Jesus Name. His father had died after drinking strychnine in 1973.
The problem is not how they handle snakes. The problem is how they handle Mark 16:18.
The recent passing of World AIDS Day was marked by sexual busybodies giving away large numbers of condoms all over the world.
World magazine noted that this libertine distribution took place in
Red Square and Times Square, in Thailand and Portugal.
As the fellow said, trying to stop the AIDS virus with a condom is like trying to stop a mosquito with a chain-link fence.
Speaking of AIDS, the University of Washington wants to force the Campus Crusade for Christ chapter there to allow practicing homosexuals to lead campus Bible studies. This policy of
"non-discrimination" is being pushed for the sake of keeping state and federal funding intact for the UW.
If there is one thing we cannot tolerate, it is intolerance of the intolerant in the name of tolerance.
Some scientists are now suggesting that all human beings alive today are descended from a single woman who lived in Africa 200,000 years ago. This claim is based on analysis of a particular type of
genetic material — mitochondrial DNA — which shows that humans today shared a common ancestor in the relatively recent past. This "Eve" hypothesis has been put forward by Mark Stoneking of Penn State
and the late Allan Wilson of Berkeley.
The dates and location are a little off, but at least they got her name right. Keep working at it, boys!
The American Spectator reports on a burgeoning movement among men — excuse us, males — in which hundreds of grown males gather together at seminars, pound on drums together, cry, mew, keen,
and yowl together, get in touch with the primal level of their bodies together, and abuse their fathers.
With regard to anything like this, the motto of the evangelical world seems to have been, "Anything the world can do, we can do five years later." It is therefore with some anticipation that we look forward to the formation of co-dependency groups for evangelical tubthumpers.
Recent figures show that 2,300 of the nation's 12,000 banks are losing money. At least two hundred banks are expected to fail next year. The Feds have "advanced" 70 billion dollars of your tax dollars to
the FDIC, to be paid back by the banks. But the higher premiums have pushed more banks into insolvency.
National Review notes the obvious; the banking industry is in real
trouble.
Who was it that said, "Nulla mensa sine impensa"? Cicero? Horace? Anyway, translated it means, "There ain't
no such thing as a free lunch."
A recent cover story of
Time magazine notes the emergence of Marian feminism — a number of feminists in the
Catholic church are arguing out loud that the Virgin Mary was the first feminist. For example, a Fordham University professor
of theology, Sister Elizabeth Johnson, objects to the traditionalist view of Mary, which makes "her appear above the earth,
remote and passive," with "no sex and no sass."
How can the devotees of Venus be so definitely from Mars?
Of course their traditionalists opponents are little better. One of them, Father Robert Fox of the Fatima Family Shrine
in Alexandria, South Dakota, wants us to recognize that "the defeat of communism came at the intercession of the mother
of Jesus." In 1984, John Paul consecrated Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in order to bring communism to an end.
The next year Gorbachev came to power.
Wow.
