Tales of the Heliosphere

Newsweek's Evan Thomas stirred controversy and debate after he said about President Barack Obama's Cairo speech, "In a way, Obama’s standing above the country, above-above the world, a sort of god." Thomas sort of complains that he is being taken out of context, which prompted Peter Wehner to write on Commentary magazine's Contentions blog: "So I would ask: Mr. Thomas, in what context can you call Barack Obama a 'sort of God'?" (Here.)

The correct context would be when Mr. Thomas is describing how President Obama's followers view his place in the world.

The apotheosis of Barack Obama to god-President begins with his name. Obama: the name's first letter is an "O," a circle, the perfect shape in nature, symbolic of unity. O-ba-ma is three syllables long, a magical and divine number, powerful in rhetoric. (See "the rule of three" here.) Say his name: Obama. To Western ears his name is exotic. A magic word, chantable: Obama, Obama, Obama. Don't think for a moment his marketers don't know it.

The apotheosis continued with his campaign. There were the creepy YouTube videos by will.i.am and others, the iconic posters, the proliferation of news photos with strange halo effects around Obama’s head, the Obama speeches attended by swooning and crying listeners, the campaign's instructions to volunteers to steer away from policy talk and testify about their own "come to Obama" moments, the thrill running up Chris Matthews’s leg, the cable news hype leading up to the inauguration. Need we go on?

An aspect of Barack Obama’s appeal is that he seems a sort of god or prophet. He has been sent to America to redeem its past sins and transform the country into something better than it’s ever been. He isn't just a messenger of hope and change, he is the very personification of hope and change. A man of humble means born from the union of an American white woman and an immigrant black African man who grows up to become President. In crisis he is calm, unflappable, cool. He stands above it all. He is a font of wisdom who sees the flaws in both sides of any issue or dispute and is able to show us the perfect middle way. His mere words are believed to have the power to effect miraculous change: Obama speaks in Cairo; an electoral miracle happens in Lebanon.

There is rhetorical exaggeration in all this, of course. But not much. There is no god but Obama, and Obama is his prophet. Peace be upon his name.

-tdr

First published in slightly different form as a comment to the Contentions blog on Commentary.org.

Labels: America, Politics, Religion

The universe is a large place full of really big objects. Some people like to see some significance in humanity's small size in comparison. Whoever posted the really cool video showing the sizes of planets and stars on Youtube seems to think so. (Here.) After showing larger and larger images of planets and stars and then comparing them to the enormously larger size of the universe, the video ends with the statement, "No, you are not the center of the universe."

Well, yes. But does the universe even have a center?

I have to say, I don't quite understand the need of some people to diminish the significance of humanity. The fact that we're small and not located in the center of the universe means nothing really. Stars might be big but they're just giant flaming balls of gas. Big deal. The universe might be enormous but it's mostly large expanses of space. Again, big deal.

It is cool to think about how truly large the universe is and how truly beautiful it can be. Does the universe know how big it is or how beautiful? Do stars? It's doubtful. But we know. And that makes all the difference.

-tdr

Labels: Aesthetics, Astronomy, Humanism, Planets, Religion

Duty called for work today. But thanks to a 20th Century VCR, I'm able to watch the 43d peaceful transfer of power in the United States tonight. Here's what struck me.

Barack Obama walking the hallway to the stage is a supremely self-confident man. It's still more than a bit off putting to hear Obama's supporters chanting his last name, but seeing them wave the American flags was a beautiful sight. I didn't vote for the new President, but if electing him is what it takes to get liberals to start waving the flag, well, maybe his election is a good thing.

Dianne Feinstein of California, my Senator, is a great master of ceremonies. Why can't she be majority leader of the Senate instead of that worm from Nevada? Her remarks put today's exciting event into a nice historical context of the civil rights struggle. It would have been even nicer if she had hearkened back to the Civil War when hundreds of thousands of Americans died to remove the blight of slavery from this country and from our constitution.

Pastor Rick Warren's prayer stumbled in the beginning but ended powerfully. His unapologetic Christianity, and the subtle ecumenical references in the speech, were refreshing to hear. A people committed to true diversity doesn't need to steer expression to the least offensive denominator. A people committed to true diversity listens silently and respectfully to a prayer that expresses a faith not shared by all. A people committed to true diversity understands that diversity of thought is the hallmark of freedom.

John Roberts screw up of the oath of office did not look so bad on TV. When I heard it on radio this morning, it sounded catastrophic. Even so, you've got to wonder why he didn't just read the oath from a card like the one John Paul Stevens used for Joe Biden's oath.

The President's speech comes off better on TV than it did on radio. On radio, it sounded pedestrian and banal. On TV his presence infuses the speech with a power beyond its words. President Obama's speech was at its weakest when he argued against straw men, attacked his predecessor, and asserted that his own plans are something new beyond today's partisan divide. But his speech was most powerful when it reached into history to put our task today into the context of America's work over time to make a better world for succeeding generations. Our generations alive today are links in a chain of progress. It also had power when he assertively defended the greatness that is America, told the world that we will not apologize for who we are, that we will fight to defend ourselves against those who would destroy us, and that our enemies will be judged by their people for what they build not what they destroy. Finally, his concluding analysis of the American character and his call to service showed a powerful understanding and appreciation of this country's people.

The new President clearly loves his daughters. That big smile cracking his stern visage when he greeted them after his speech spoke volumes.

Elizabeth Alexander is reciting her poem. Sorry, but here's a thought, how about we have no more inaugural poems, okay?

Reverend Joseph Lowery's benediction is a poem. That old guy at 87 years old still has what it takes. What a beautiful prayer with coy and delightful final lines. Lowery's prayer was a fitting conclusion to the inauguration's speeches.

The final ritual of the inaugural ceremony is the most practical one and the least public. After the speeches, and as everybody is leaving the inaugural site, the President walks the former President to a helicopter waiting to take the former President out of the capital city. There's a powerful symbolism to that. The new President essentially shows the former President the door as if to say, "there's only room in this town for one President. That's me, not you." It's all very polite and friendly but it is firm, final, and humbling. The formerly most powerful man in the world is now a private citizen with no authority and no place in the capital.

And so now our country moves forward with a new leader freely chosen by us, toward a destiny uncertain, but one we still have the power to shape. May we choose our path wisely.

-tdr

Labels: America, Politics, Religion

Today is Christmas and you'll be giving to the people you care about. Tomorrow, it'll be all about you. Don't forget to hit the day after Christmas sales. The economy needs a stimulus package. My to-buy list includes a macro lens (here) to put on my Canon Rebel for extreme close-ups, binoculars for birdwatching (here), and a 9 mm handgun, probably a Sig Sauer (here), either the P220 or P226. Peace on Earth, people!

-tdr

Labels: Birds, Guns, Photography, Religion

Sarah Palin's faith and her expressions of it have rankled the Christophobes in this country. This quote from her about a possible future run for higher office will no doubt push more buttons among them:

"'I'm like, OK, God, if there is an open door for me somewhere, this is what I always pray, I'm like, don't let me miss the open door,' Palin said in an interview with Fox News on Monday. 'And if there is an open door in '12 or four years later, and if it is something that is going to be good for my family, for my state, for my nation, an opportunity for me, then I'll plow through that door.'" (Here.)

The AP story interprets Palin's quote this way:

"Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says she wouldn't hesitate to run for the presidency in four years if it's God's will ..."

That's not exactly what she's saying. What she's actually saying is that she'll run for higher office again if she concludes that it's good for herself, her family, her state, and her country. When she talks about God, she's talking about God showing her the right path. She's talking about enlightenment.

Palin's prayers are for enlightenment so that she can make a decision that will do the most good. She's praying that God shows her when an opportunity arises so that she can seize it, if it's the right thing to do. She's not saying that she'll run for President if God wills it, nor is she saying that if she does run for President it will be because God wills it.

-tdr

Republished once to fix egregious grammatical error.

Labels: America, Elections, Politics, Religion

If you're like most people you don't have a problem with alcohol. You drink moderately and socially for pleasure. Well, science has advice for you.

DON'T STOP DRINKING!

"Scientific evidence has long suggested that moderate drinking offers some protection against heart disease, certain types of stroke and some forms of cancer.

"But new research shows that stopping drinking -- including at moderate levels -- may lead to health problems including depression and a reduced capacity of the brain to produce new neurons, a process called neurogenesis." (Here.)

What does this have to do with the existence of a loving God, you might ask?

Well, God made us into creatures that benefit from drinking moderate amounts of alcohol. A habit that is not only good for us but one that brings joy. And when Jesus walked the Earth he traveled from town to town attending weddings and performing miracles, among many other good things. He didn't turn wine into water, he turned water into wine. The Biblical lesson is clear: Jesus wants us to drink alcohol. Who are we to defy God?

-tdr

Labels: Alcohol, Good News, Health, Religion

So about a month ago I was a panelist at a local science fiction convention. Our panel’s topic was the ethics of killing. I guess they figured a lawyer would have something to say about that. I was the moderator so we did not discuss the ethics of killing lawyers. Which reminds me, did you hear the one about the difference between a dead skunk in the road and a dead lawyer? There are skid marks in front of the skunk. Ba da boom.*

One topic that day was genocide. A vegan panelist proposed --- “in jest,” so he said, "truth in humor," I said --- that it would be ethical to kill off all of humanity in order to save the planet. Surprisingly most objections to this plan from the other panelists and the audience were practical ones: "Who decides, how do we decide it's necessary, and who gets killed" not "it's wrong to kill most or all of humanity to save the planet." People accepted the premise that the rest of life on Earth had greater moral worth than humans.

I’m in the "it's just wrong" camp. First, because it's anti-humanist to elevate the environment to a level superior to humanity, and, second, because there's no way to know with sufficient certainty that such genocide would be necessary to save the planet. Anyway, I was struck at the willingness of people to be utilitarian about it and accept that it would be okay to do it.

Some will say that it's speciesist to give humans privileged moral status. So be it. The vegan panelist used the term when he explained why he believed it would be acceptable to kill off all humanity to save the planet. The irony is that humans are the least speciesist beings on this planet. There is no animal that even tries to look out for other animals or plant life in the way that humans do.

With some insignificant exceptions, animals look out for their own and that's it. Humans on the other hand often look out for nonhuman lifeforms. So why should humans step aside through an act of genocide or mass suicide to make way for creatures who don't look out for species other than their own? We don't deserve that fate and the rest of the biosphere doesn't deserve the benefit of that kind of sacrifice by us.

I suppose killing off humanity would save the planet. I'm sure the Earth would get along very well without us. But I don't think science can tell us it's necessary to kill off humanity to save the planet. Besides showing that the only future scenario is the worst case scenario, science would have to show there are no alternatives to human self-extinction in order to save the planet. If other options could save the planet then self-extinction is not necessary.

But I admit my main objection to the idea is the humanist one.

The fact that the idea of humans having less moral worth than the rest of nature seems so non-controversial to people surprises me. I've heard of the humans as virus notion before but I always figured it was a fringe view. Apparently, it's not.

I found a statement recently by ethicist Peter Singer, who refused to sign one of the versions of The Humanist Manifesto because he said the manifesto suffered from speciesism. He objected to the manifesto's language making the welfare of humanity the purpose of humanist ethics. He called this speciesism and said it was a remnant of Christian thinking because in his view, “[t]here is no nonreligious reason why the pains and pleasures of nonhuman animals should not be given equal weight with the similar pains and pleasures of human beings.” (Here.)

I wonder if the belief, espoused by people like Singer, that maintains it's morally wrong to privilege humans over animals is a greater threat to humanism than Christianity. Christians and humanists may agree on the primacy of human beings but their fundamental disagreement over the supernatural makes them more rivals than allies. People like Singer may fundamentally disagree with humanists over the primacy of human beings but they share humanism's rejection of the supernatural. Humanism is therefore more likely to be influenced by people like Singer than it is by religious people. I wonder if that's likely to cause humanism eventually to reject the moral primacy of human beings.

-tdr

* Lawyer jokes are the price we pay for running the world. It's a small price to pay.

Labels: Animals, Environment, Ethics, Humanism, Nature, Religion

For a guy who's presented himself as the candidate of a new kind of politics that transcends the usual categories, Barack Obama keeps painting himself into the liberal box. First, there was the right Reverend Jeremiah Wright's hate speech and Obama's moral equivocating about it. Now there's this statement by Obama:

"You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them," Obama, an Illinois senator, said.

"And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations," he said. (Here.)

The best thing about this statement is where he said it. He's talking about the plight of oppressed working folk at a fund raiser in Marin County, an exclusive and wealthy San Francisco Bay Area county.

No doubt the statement went over well there and nobody gave it a second thought. It reflects the view of wealthy liberals that the rubes don't know what's good for them. If only the rubes knew better they'd vote their economic interests and vote Democratic. It also reflects the liberal view that social issues that matter to conservatives are not legitimate issues. Gun rights, pro-life, and preserving the traditional definition of marriage? Just wedge issues!

Here's Obama developing the point today in Indiana:

"People don't vote on economic issues because they don't expect anybody is going to help them," Obama told a crowd at a Terre Haute, Ind., high school Friday evening. "So people end up voting on issues like guns and are they going to have the right to bear arms. They vote on issues like gay marriage. They take refuge in their faith and their community, and their family, and the things they can count on. But they don't believe they can count on Washington." (Here.)

Actually, people who vote on issues like guns and gay marriage instead of on economic issues, do so because they believe the former issues are important. Money isn't everything. And don't think for a minute that this election will put the conflicts over cultural issues, such as guns and gay marriage, behind us. California's Supreme Court will issue a ruling sometime this summer on whether gay marriage is a constitutional right. And the United States Supreme Court will issue another ruling sometime before the election on the meaning of the Second Amendment.

-tdr

Republished once because of editing.

Labels: America, Elections, Guns, Politics, Religion

We've heard it before that red wine has health benefits. Now Canadian scientists have learned that any old alcohol is just as beneficial as red wine for improving circulation. Test subjects were required to drink red wine and spirits.

"After one drink of either red wine or alcohol, blood vessels were more 'relaxed' or dilated, which reduced the amount of work the heart had to do." (Here.)

Once again drinking turns out to have health benefits.

"Alcohol or substances in alcohol such as resveratrol may improve blood vessel function and also prevent platelets in the blood from sticking together, which may reduce clot formation and the risk of heart attack or stroke."

God wants us to be healthy and happy. Not too happy, though.

"But, after two drinks, the heart rate, amount of blood pumped out of the heart, and action of the sympathetic nervous system all increased. At the same time, the ability of the blood vessels to expand in response to an increase in blood flow diminished. This counteracted the beneficial effect of one drink of red wine or alcohol."

So here's to your health, one drink at a time. Make mine a bourbon.

-tdr

Labels: Health, Religion

With America's war against violent jihad entering its 7th year, Christmas just passing, and the political primary season heating up, religion is a significant issue today. Right on time, Gallup recently published a poll on American religiosity and found a lot of it. (Here.)

My own religious views are wildly ambivalent. I was raised Catholic but the allure of science and a Religious Studies degree from a Catholic University helped to drive me into atheism. (Talk about your unintended consequences.) I climbed out of the angry hate pit of atheism some time ago and have since lapsed into a kind of agnostic deism. Science sufficiently answers my nuts and bolts questions about the universe but provides no answers at all to moral questions. Religion provides those answers.

So put me down as a religious doubter who is unable to believe but who sees moral value in certain religious beliefs. Dennis Prager would say that I'm living off the moral capital provided by the religious upbringing foisted on me by my parents. In any event, I never attend religious services. That puts me in a distinct minority in the United States, whose citizens are much more certain about their religious beliefs than I. But enough about me.

The unsurprising results from Gallup's poll show that 82 percent of Americans identify with a Christian religion. That 82 percent includes Mormons, who may or may not be Christian, depending on your theological point of view. 11 percent identify with no religion and 2 percent didn't answer, which, using simple math, leaves 5 percent professing other religious beliefs.

About 40 to 45 percent report having attended a religious service in the past 7 days. (The precise number is not given in the linked story.) That low 40s percentage is described in the linked story as being "remarkably stable" over the years. The current percentage is down from a high of 49 percent in the 1950s but higher than the lowest point of 37 percent at the end of the Depression.

Certain trend lines are down indicating some loss of intensity in religious faith over the years. For instance, 56 percent now say religion is "very important" in their lives compared to over 70 percent in the 1950s and 1960s.

Yet, overall, the percentage of those professing religious belief, specifically Christian, remains pretty high.

"To summarize, more than 8 in 10 Americans identify with a religion and 8 out of 10 say that religion is at least fairly important in their daily lives; more than 8 out of 10 say they attend church at least 'seldom'; and again more than 8 out of 10 identify with a Christian religion."

-tdr

Labels: America, Religion

-tdr

Labels: Personal, Religion

The controversial movie, The Golden Compass, opened this weekend and pulled in lots of money from audiences around the country despite calls for a boycott. No fan of boycotts but a fan of bargain matinees, five dollars of the gross, plus 50 cents, came from me.

The movie is controversial because Christian groups have advised parents not to let their kids see the movie due to its supposed anti-Christian message. The Catholic League called for the boycott, claiming the movie is anti-Catholic. The irony is that the movie appears to be developing a theme that rejects materialism and embraces a spiritual basis to human nature.

Perhaps the books on which the movie is based are worth all the fuss, but the movie seems pretty tame. Sure, the totalitarian organization that seeks to rule all the parallel worlds in the multiverse is named "the Magisterium," and Catholics will recognize the term because it is used to describe the teaching authority of the Catholic Church. But that's about as far as the supposed anti-Catholicism goes in the movie. By the way, a more daring choice, and more appropriate to our times, would have been to call the totalitarian organization "the Caliphate."

Certain themes in the movie do seem conventionally opposed to dogma and religious authority. There's a nascent theme developing that favors free inquiry into the truth and opposes authoritarian repression of knowledge. Another theme appears to involve suspicion of elites, who wish to live their lives as they please while telling others who don't know better how to live. These are hardly revolutionary or controversial ideas.

The most interesting idea in the movie involves the spiritual nature of humanity. The movie posits that souls are real and that only humans possess them. The twist is that in the parallel universe of The Golden Compass, a human's soul manifests itself in a spirit animal that accompanies its human everywhere. While a person is a child, the spirit animal changes shape, representing the unfinished nature of the child. Once a person becomes an adult, the spirit animal settles on a form that represents the soul of the person. (Wondering what one's own spirit animal would be if they existed in our universe is part of the fun of seeing this movie.)

These spirit animals are called "daemons," pronounced "demons." It's a bit cheeky to name human souls "demons," but that cheekiness amounts to little more than a finger in the eye to theological conventions and hardly worth the controversy.

What could be controversial is a developing theme that involves the spirit animals. The Magisterium is conducting experiments on children to cut the spiritual link between humans and their daemons. The Magisterium is conducting these experiments in the belief that it is for the children's own good to be freed from their daemons. For those of us who survived the 20th Century and its Communist totalitarian governments that sought to change human nature, destroy religion, and create a "New Soviet Man" this is a powerful theme.

It's ironic that Christian organizations oppose this movie and atheists have come to its defense. For it turns out that the good guys in the movie accept the spiritual nature of human beings and the necessity of humans remaining connected to their souls. The bad guys in the movie want to quarantine the soul and cut the connection between humans and their spiritual nature. If anything, this movie has an anti-secular theme. It will be interesting to see how this theme is developed in the sequels.

-tdr

Republished once to correct final line.

Labels: Movies, Religion, Science Fiction

My fascination with birds took me out on a guided bird walk today sponsored by the local Sierra Club. Our group took a 3 hour tour at the Tijuana River Estuary down by the border. (Here.) Real birders make lists of what they see, so let's get that formality out of the way.

Great Blue Heron
Snowy Egrets

American Coots
American Avocets
Bufflehead Ducks
Surf Scoters

White-crowned Sparrows
Bushtits

American Kestrel
Northern Harrier
Red Tailed Hawk

Osprey

(Here's a link to Cornell University's online bird identification site, if you want to see pictures of the birds on today's list. The oddest-looking little birds today were the Surf Scoters and American Avocets.)

The Great Blue Heron was our first sighting and a beautiful sight standing alone. But by far the best sighting was the Osprey. We first saw the large raptor about 100 yards away sitting on a dead tree trunk. It looked very ominous, almost like a cormorant. The bird was huge and distinctive looking with its white head. The Osprey then took off and began to circle high in the sky over the creek below. Then it dove and plunged into the water, feet and head first. Unfortunately, it came up empty. It circled and dove a few more times but didn't enter the water again.

Identifying birds does have its appeal. Our leader today was not an expert in identification but that made for a better experience for us because we were forced to consult our own books and make the identifications ourselves. There is a lot to be said for the excitement of making your own identifications without being spoon fed by an expert.

But the most interesting part of birding for me is observing bird behavior not so much the identification. That's why the Osprey was so exciting to see today.

When I arrived home my resident Coopers Hawk treated me to another show. It landed on the utility line above my neighbor's yard. It sat there looking around for a while and then flew directly toward me. It made a sharp turn and climb before diving down into the bottle brush tree that the little birds who come to my feeders use as a sanctuary. There was the sound of rustling leaves from inside the tree and then the hawk jumped out of the top and flew back to the utility line. No prey in his claws. It sat on the line and stared at me for a few minutes as if to say, "there's no way you can protect the birds you're feeding." Then it flew off.

If Eastern religions are correct about reincarnation, I sure don't want to come back as some hapless little seed-eating bird. Put me in the line for the raptors.

-tdr

Labels: Animals, Birds, Nature, Religion

Noble scientists studying diet and health have given us the good news before. Wine, moderate alcohol use, chocolate, red meat, and even nicotine, can be good for you.

Today comes more good news for those of us who want to enjoy the good things in life during our allotted time on this world. Those extra 15 pounds or so of fat that just won't go away could be a lifesaver, and not just the buoyant variety.

A new study of mortality statistics confirmed that there isn't much good that comes from being obese.

"But being overweight – having a BMI between 25 and 30 – did not increase the risk of dying from heart disease or any kind of cancer.

Also surprising was that overweight people were up to about 40 percent less likely than normal-weight people to die from several other causes including emphysema, pneumonia, injuries and various infections. The age group that seemed to benefit most from a little extra padding were people ages 25 to 59; older overweight people had reduced risks for these diseases, too." (Here.)

As with every study that reports counter intuitive health findings, there are the usual cautionary statements about not overdoing it, and, indeed, overweight people are at greater risk of dying from diabetes and kidney disease. But the good news remains.

Carrying around a little extra weight isn't going to kill you. As my college friend's Italian mama used to tell me when I'd take my then skinny body over on a visit 40 pounds ago: "Manjia."

-tdr

Labels: Health, Religion

A group of Boulder, Colorado, high school students is protesting against the Pledge of Allegiance. The specific gripe is with the words "under God." The Bad Astronomer agreed with the protest in a recent blog post.

"The truth is, no matter how you slice it, is that [sic] America is not 'one nation under God'. It just isn’t. We have a Mormon running for President, and we’ve had a Catholic and various other flavors of Christians as President. They would disagree quite strongly over the nature of God. Moreover, we have Muslims in this country, and Jews, and (gasp) non-believers too.

So, which God is it we’re united under?" (Here.)

The question doesn't really seek an answer because it's posed as a rhetorical device to illustrate the blogger's point that religion divides Americans. But here's the answer, anyway, direct from Thomas Jefferson and the Founders in the Declaration of Independence.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, ..." (Here.)

The truth is, the mainstream of American political thought from the Founders to the present has held that our political rights come from a divine Creator. The phrase "under God" in the Pledge is merely an expression of that mainstream American thought.

Deal with it.

-tdr

Technorati: religion, Pledge of Allegiance.

Labels: America, Politics, Religion

A tiny Chihuahua saved an infant boy from a rattlesnake attack. (Here.) I'm not one to anthropomorphize an animals behavior, so I'm not inclined to ascribe any heroism to the dog's actions. But I've been around enough dogs and cats to know those pets develop attachments to their human owners. Dogs, especially, pack animals that they are, often seem to view themselves as part of a pack led by their human owners and demonstrate behaviors that in humans would be called loyalty and friendship. Which is why what Michael Vick has done is inexcusable and unforgivable and the sooner he suffers real consequences the better. And it's also why Islam's view of dogs as unclean beasts strikes me as fundamentally wrong.

-tdr

Technorati: dogs, Michael Vick, Islam.

Labels: Animals, Religion

The Pope has ruffled feathers among Protestants for reiterating Catholic doctrine about the nature of Protestantism.

"'Christ 'established here on earth' only one church,' said the document, released as the pope vacations at a villa in Lorenzago di Cadore in Italy's Dolomite mountains.

The other [Protestant] communities 'cannot be called 'churches' in the proper sense' because they do not have apostolic succession – the ability to trace their bishops back to Christ's original apostles – and therefore their priestly ordinations are not valid, it said.'" (Here.)

Well, yeah.

This was too much for one online commentator, who happens to belong to one of Christianity's splinter churches, The Episcopal Church USA, although he boycotts his own church because of its heretical teachings. His column criticized the Vatican statement and characterized it as divisive. He concluded with the following:

"In the current Protestant and Reformed theological vernacular, 'catholic' with a lower-case 'c' connotes oneness—the 'full Body of Christ' —all believers united as one church—as it was used in the early church. 'Catholic' with a capital 'C' refers to the institution of the Roman Church.

The question remains, 'Is the Pope, first and foremost, a Catholic or a catholic?' A more essential question might be, 'Which would Jesus be?'" (Here.)

Actually, Jesus would be neither. He was born a Jew, he lived a Jew, and he died a Jew. So, if he ever decides to come back, he'd be a Jew. A Jew for Jesus, probably, but a Jew, nevertheless.

-tdr

Technorati: christianity, catholic church, jew, jesus.

Labels: Religion

Today's good news is for people who have trouble keeping up with flossing. Try some vino instead. A Chianti perhaps? A recent Italian study "showed that red and white wine were effective in controlling the growth of several strains of streptococci bacteria that are involved in tooth decay, and some cases of sore throat." (Here.)

Okay, in my wine-besotted joy, I may have jumped the gun on this one. The story at ScienceDaily.com isn't quite clear on the process but the initial testing apparently was conducted in laboratory conditions. Wine bottles dripping into petri dishes filled with streptococci? At any rate, testing on humans goes on. So don't throw away your floss and toothbrushes yet.

Still, it wouldn't hurt to hedge your bets and drink some wine regardless. I wager Blaise Pascal would. (Here.) What have you got to lose? If you live your life drinking wine as if it helps fight tooth decay, and it does, your health will benefit. If it doesn't, you'll have lost nothing and enjoyed some good wine in the process. But if you live your life a teetotaler as if drinking wine doesn't help fight tooth decay, and it does, your teeth may fall out and you'll be condemned to a life of eternal tapioca. If it doesn't, you'll have missed out on the joys of drinking wine. Either way, you win if you drink wine and you lose if you don't. Wouldn't you rather be a winner?

-tdr

Technorati: health, dentistry, wine, religion, atheism, science.

Labels: Health, Religion

Just in time for the weekend barbecues comes this bit of good health news. Red meat does not increase the risk of colorectal cancer. Praise the Lord and shout it from the rooftops! RED MEAT DOES NOT INCREASE THE RISK OF COLORECTAL CANCER!!

"The Fukuoka Colorectal Cancer Study – using a newly developed personal-computer software for registering semi quantitative food frequencies – found that intake of beef/pork, processed meat, total fat, saturated fat or n-6 PUFA showed no clear association with the overall or subsite-specific risk of colorectal cancer." (Here.)

That's good enough for me.

There are more quotes in the story about eating lots of fish or something from a University doctor, and not some mere professor doctor like those who teach 19th Century literature, either, but a real white-coat wearing, Dr. M.D. Will do, doc. But don't mind me if I have a steak first.

Gentlemen: start your grills!

-tdr

Technorati: health, religion, atheism.

Labels: Health, Religion

One of today's red-hot debates is whether God exists. The fact that dark chocolate (here) and alcohol (here, here) are good for you proves that God exists and wants us to be happy.

And more good news came out just the other day. Four cups or more of coffee each day benefits health, too. (Here.) Thank you, Lord! Thank you.

-tdr

Technorati: health, religion, atheism.

Labels: Health, Religion