Sunspots 890

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to others*:

Christianity: (And politics) CNN talks with an author who argues that white evangelicals honor supposed masculinity, regardless of what various sins that these male figures have committed, and that speaking out against this hypocrisy often leads to consequences for those who speak out.

Education: (and politics) Slate, and other outlets, report on Carson v. Makin, which Supreme Court ruling requires state funding instruction based on the beliefs of  conservative Christians.

Food: Gizmodo reports that Texas has the worst corn in the US.

Health: A report says that, if you can't stand on one leg for 10 seconds, you are twice as likely to die within 10 years as if you can.

Science: Gizmodo tells us more than we want to know about the tiny mites that live in the pores of your facial skin.

Terry Gross, of NPR, interviews a scientist who describes sensory experiences in some animals that are quite different from those of humans.

Gizmodo reports that wild bats can remember a phone-made sound for at least four years.

Gizmodo has posted some fine photos of several of the moons in the solar system.

*I try not to include items that require a password or fee to view.

Thanks for reading.

With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray, excerpt 132

This post continues a series of excerpts from With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray. I thank the Christian Classics Ethereal Library for making this public domain work available. To see their post of the book, go here.  His book is based on Mark 11:22-24. The previous post in this series is here. As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color. Murray's book is based on Mark 11:22-24.

‘That the Father may be glorified;’ Or, The Chief End of Prayer.
I go unto the Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my Name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.’—John xiv. 13.
THAT the Father may be glorified in the Son: it is to this end that Jesus on His throne in glory will do all we ask in His Name. Every answer to prayer He gives will have this as its object: when there is no prospect of this object being obtained, He will not answer. It follows as a matter of course that this must be with us, as with Jesus, the essential element in our petitions: the glory of the Father must be the aim and end, the very soul and life of our prayer.
It was so with Jesus when He was on earth. ‘I seek not mine own honour: I seek the honour of Him that sent me;’ in such words we have the keynote of His life. In the first words of the high-priestly prayer He gives utterance to it: Father! Glorify Thy son, that Thy Son may glorify Thee. ‘I have glorified Thee on earth; glorify me with Thyself.’ The ground on which He asks to be taken up into the glory He had with the Father, is the twofold one: He has glorified Him on earth; He will still glorify Him in heaven. What He asks is only to enable Him to glorify the Father more. It is as we enter into sympathy with Jesus on this point, and gratify Him by making the Father’s glory our chief object in prayer too, that our prayer cannot fail of an answer. There is nothing of which the Beloved Son has said more distinctly that it will glorify the Father than this, His doing what we ask; He will not, therefore, let any opportunity slip of securing this object. Let us make His aim ours: let the glory of the Father be the link between our asking and His doing: such prayer must prevail. 

Sunspots 889

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to others*:

Politics: The Conversation writes that school hardening isn't very effective.

Science: CNN reports on a male mastodon, who was killed by another one, and also reports that study of the killed mastodon has enabled scientists to study migration patterns in these extinct animals.

The Scientist reports that scientists have been able to find Arthropod (insects, spiders, etc.) DNA in tea bags. Much of this probably was left on the tea leaves when insects bit into the leaves.

Nature discusses the Long-Term Evolution Experiment, which has tracked about 40,000 generations of bacteria (so far), and has found some interesting things, most prominently that mutation has led to a new ability to get energy from citrate.

Gizmodo reports that isolated populations of polar bears have been identified in Greenland.

*I try not to include items that require a password or fee to view.

Thanks for reading.

With Christ in the School of Prayer,, by Andrew Murray, excerpt 131

This post continues a series of excerpts from With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray. I thank the Christian Classics Ethereal Library for making this public domain work available. To see their post of the book, go here.  His book is based on Mark 11:22-24. The previous post in this series is here. As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color. Murray's book is based on Mark 11:22-24.

Blessed Lord! Forgive us all that we have so little believed Thee and Thy promise, and so little proved Thy faithfulness in fulfilling it. O forgive us that we have so little honoured Thy all-prevailing Name in heaven or upon earth.
Lord! Teach me to pray so that I may prove that Thy Name is indeed all-prevailing with God and men and devils. Yea, teach me so to work and so to pray that Thou canst glorify Thyself in me as the Omnipotent One, and do Thy great work through me too.
Amen.

Water, Hydrogen, and Oxygen, and where we get our energy

 

The above equation is a simple way of showing what happens during photosynthesis. There are more detailed ways to show it. Photosynthesis is a complicated process, or processes. But, at its heart, it may be summarized simply.

As you know, there's a lot of water on the earth. As you also know, water consists of two elements, Hydrogen and Oxygen. As you may not know, the energy you need is intimately connected to water. I'm using energy to type this, and you are using energy to move your eyes as you read it. What's that got to do with water?

Our food comes from photosynthesis. Green plants absorb light, and produce various molecules that we use as food, such as starches, sugars, several vitamins, and proteins.

 Light energy is used to split water, and the Hydrogen split off is then available for the manufacture of Carbon-containing molecules, like glucose, food molecules, which can be stored, broken down to release energy, or moved to parts of the organism where they are needed. Some of the need is to release energy. Most foods you buy at a grocery store, or a restaurant, come with a calorie number. That number indicates the amount of energy you would expect to get if you ate and digested that food. The energy comes from energy-storing molecules, like glucose. The Carbon-containing molecules, which have Hydrogen added to the Carbon, may also be used to produce important molecules like enzymes, vitamins, hormones and proteins. (Oxygen, Nitrogen, Sulfur and other elements may be added to a Carbon-based structure.)

Organic molecules, like glucose, will burn. Burning uses Oxygen to carry on combustion. There is a process, used by nearly all organisms, called cellular respiration. That process also uses Oxygen to create water, and, in the process, releases energy for use in our cells. So, putting it very simply, photosynthesis uses light energy to break water, and cellular respiration puts water back together, and releases energy.

I'm bald-headed. So lots of light hits my head. My cells, like yours, have lots of water. So why doesn't that light, on my scalp cells, split water and make glucose? The answer is that various helping molecules, molecular tools, as it were, are necessary for photosynthesis to occur. These include chlorophyll and several enzymes, which I don't have in my scalp cells.

Isn't God great? Thanks for reading.

Answers in Genesis on the vapor-canopy hypothesis (aka the firmament)

The King James version uses the term "firmament" in Genesis 1. Other versions of the Bible use other terms, such as canopy or expanse.

It doesn't matter much. Many Young-Earth Creationists (YEC), especially Answers in Genesis (AiG), the most prominent YEC organization, have stopped pushing the existence of a firmament. Here are some links to AiG articles:

"Running out of Puff."

"What is the State of the Water Vapor Canopy Model?"

"The Collapse of the Canopy Model"

There may well be more such.

All of these articles were published in the AiG official web site, and deny the necessity of a vapor canopy. Rejection of the firmament/vapor canopy is for several reasons, such as one would make stars very difficult to see (and apparently people in Bible times were familiar with the appearance of the stars.) Another reason is that a firmament would increase global warming, probably making life impossible.

I appreciate the abandonment of the vapor-canopy model by AiG. (Not all Christians, probably even not all Christians trained in science, have rejected it, unfortunately.)

Sunspots 888

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to others*:

Environment: Gizmodo reports that a power company knew about the effects of climate change for decades, but kept promoting (including building new plants) that used fossil fuels.

Gizmodo also reports that microplastics have been found in newly deposited Arctic snow.

NPR reports that the Biden administration plans to designate an area of the Atlantic, off of New York, as a marine sanctuary.

Gizmodo reports that car tires also contribute a lot of pollution.

Food: NPR reports on beefalo, bison-cattle hybrids, as a meat source.

Politics: NPR reports on a group that is working to cut off Fox News' advertising revenue. More, from Gizmodo.

*I try not to include items that require a password or fee to view.

Thanks for reading.

Leprosy in the Bible: spiritual and physical

Leprosy is mentioned in the Bible, about 30 times, about as frequently as murder, adultery and coveting. Leper is found about 20 times (with some overlap with leprosy). There are people living today with the disease of leprosy.

I found some sources dealing with the topic of leprosy in the Bible. These include Matthew Henry's commentary on Leviticus 13, which is public domain, Robert Jamieson's commentary on the same chapter, also public domain, and John Calvin's commentary on that chapter, also public domain. See also the Wikipedia article on leprosy. The disease is carried by bacteria. Jamieson and Calvin didn't know that, and supposed that it was caused by other means. Henry believed that leprosy was not an infectious disease, but solely the result of sin. "That it was a plague inflicted immediately by the hand of God, and came not from natural causes, as other diseases; and therefore must be managed according to a divine law."

Calvin wrote that "I confess that I am not a physician, so as to discuss [leprous diseases] accurately, and I purposely abstain from close inquiry about them, because I am persuaded that the disease here treated of affected the Israelites in an extraordinary manner, which we are now unacquainted with; for what do we now know of a leprous house?"

There seem to have been two different types, or causes, of leprosy. One of these was miraculous affliction. Miriam (Numbers 12) was miraculously stricken with a skin disorder by God when she and Aaron rebelled against Moses. This didn't last more than a few days. Gehazi persuaded Naaman to give him some gifts, ostensibly for Elisha, who didn't want them, but Gehazi took them for himself, and Elisha called for God to make Gehazi a leper. (2 Kings 5).  Miriam was healed with no mention of prayer or other intervention by Moses. King Uzziah was stricken when he took the priest's duties upon himself (2 Chronicles 26). Uzziah was isolated as a leper for the rest of his life. Gehazi was apparently cured somehow, as 2 Kings 8 mentions him as talking to the king, with no mention of his having leprosy. 

All three of these cases seem to have appeared instantaneously.

This source states that Biblical leprosy was not the same thing as leprosy that exists today. The three cases mentioned above do not seem to have been the same as other cases of leprosy mentioned in the Bible, for example in Leviticus 13.

Some writers have claimed that the Israelites weren't victims of leprosy until they contacted it in Egypt.

The other type of leprosy would have been by an infection. 

Can God strike someone with a disease (say, cancer, or some sort of heart disease) instantaneously, by a miraculous decree? Yes, certainly. Does He do so now? Perhaps. If God did this in 2022, most likely it would be as a punishment. (However, Job's disease, which God allowed, was not a punishment.) It could be a sudden, God-induced bacterial infection, or some other condition which resembles leprosy.

Do we abhor people who are "not normal," and avoid interactions with them? (Such as Down's syndrome people, muscular dystrophy people, those with Tourette's syndrome, people with diminished mental capacity and others, even the aged?) Unfortunately, most of us, including me, tend to act that way. Jesus didn't act that way, and we shouldn't.

What about a leprous house? (Leviticus 13:34-35.) It's in the Bible. It's my guess that God spoke in a manner understood by the people of Bible times, without putting what He said in 22nd century terms. Genesis 1 speaks of a firmament. People of Bible times seem to have believed that there was a solid, transparent sphere somewhere above the solid earth. There wasn't. But God accommodated their beliefs. See here for my post on this. A house could have been infested with mildew or some other fungus, but the ancient Israelites might well have believed that this was a case of leprosy, and God accommodated their beliefs, in the presentation of Leviticus.

As far as I know, God doesn't send leprosy, cancer, or psoriasis to people as punishment today. (Although bad habits, such as smoking, over-eating, and not getting enough exercise bring about punishment, of a sort.) But this doesn't mean that God condones sin. Sin is terrible. It is a form of rebellion against God, which God doesn't tolerate, so He paid the penalty for sin Himself.

Thanks for reading!

With Christ in the School of Prayer, excerpt 130

This post continues a series of excerpts from With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray. I thank the Christian Classics Ethereal Library for making this public domain work available. To see their post of the book, go here.  His book is based on Mark 11:22-24. The previous post in this series is here. As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color. Murray's book is based on Mark 11:22-24.

O my Lord! I have this day again heard words from Thee which pass my comprehension. And yet I cannot do aught but in simple childlike faith take and keep them as Thy gift to me too. Thou hast said that in virtue of Thy going to the Father, he that believeth on Thee will do the works which Thou hast done, and greater works. Lord! I worship Thee as the Glorified One, and look for the fulfilment of Thy promise. May my whole life just be one of continued believing in Thee. So purify and sanctify my heart, make it so tenderly susceptible of Thyself and Thy love, that believing on Thee may be the very life it breathes. And Thou hast said that in virtue of Thy going to the Father, whatsoever we ask, Thou wilt do. From Thy throne of power Thou wouldest make Thy people share the power given Thee, and work through them as the members of Thy body, in response to their believing prayers in Thy Name. Power in prayer with Thee, and power in work with men, is what Thou has promised Thy people and me too.

Sunspots 887

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to others*:

Computing: This blog linked to a report, last week, that simulated rape and other crimes are happening in the Metaverse, the supposed eventual successor to Facebook. Here's another report on the same incidents.

Education: Grammarphobia tells us why a coward is referred to as a "chicken."

Environment: Gizmodo reports that water use restrictions have appeared in southern California, and that more stringent ones may be needed. Other states are affected, too.

Finances: (or something) Gizmodo and  Electrek report that Elon Musk is requiring all employees to work 40 hours or more per week at their offices.

Health: CNN reports that scientists are close to more widespread use of successful replacement of "bad" genes in people.

Science: The Scientist discusses monogamy in animals. It is rather wide-spread, although social monogamy (staying together) is more common than sexual monogamy.

The Scientist reports on the largest organism ever found -- a seagrass clone off the coast of Australia.

Sports: (and finance) ESPN reports that LeBron James is now worth over a billion dollars.

The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, it is free to use like this.

*I try not to include items that require a password or fee to view.

Thanks for reading.

With Christ in the School of Prayer, excerpt 129

This post continues a series of excerpts from With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray. I thank the Christian Classics Ethereal Library for making this public domain work available. To see their post of the book, go here.  His book is based on Mark 11:22-24. The previous post in this series is here. As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color. In this excerpt, Murray continues a discussion about prayer. His book is based on Mark 11:22-24.

Whosoever hath, to him shall be given; or, He that is faithful in a little, is faithful also in much. Let us with the small measure of grace already received, give ourselves to the Master for His work: work will be to us a real school of prayer. It was when Moses had to take full charge of a rebellious people that he felt the need, but also the courage, to speak boldly to God and to ask great things of Him (Ex. xxxiii. 12, 15, 18). As you give yourself entirely to God for His work, you will feel that nothing less than these great promises are what you need, that nothing less is what you may most confidently expect.
 

Believer in Jesus! You are called, you are appointed, to do the works of Jesus, and even greater works, because He has gone to the Father to receive the power to do them in and through you.

Whatsoever ye shall ask in my Name, that will I do. Give yourself, and live, to do the works of Christ and you will learn to pray so as to obtain wonderful answers to prayer. Give yourself, and live, to pray and you will learn to do the works He did, and greater works. With disciples full of faith in Himself, and bold in prayer to ask great things, Christ can conquer the world.

Sunspots 886

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to others*:

Christianity:  A document, "The Faith Once Delivered," developed by a group of Methodist (including several denominations and institutions, among them my own, The Wesleyan Church) theologians, which aims to say what Methodists, no matter their denomination, believe, about the essentials of the faith.

Computing: Business Insider reports on virtual rapes in the Metaverse.

Environment: Gizmodo reports that the US Supreme Court has upheld a ruling that holds back greenhouse gas release.

NPR reports that some states are taking steps to charge manufacturers for the use of plastics in packaging.

Politics: Gizmodo reports that several politicians have put out basically the same statement about the shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, it is free to use like this.

*I try not to include items that require a password or fee to view.

Thanks for reading.