Sunspots 703

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

The Arts: Christianity: He Lives considers the image of God, and humanity's relationship to non-human creatures.


Health: Relevant reports on a study that shows we are having less sex than in the recent past.

Humor: The President of Finland says that he has never talked to President Trump about raking the forests of Finland. But the Finns (and others) are hilariously demonstrating how raking Finnish forests might look.


Politics: Two Senators, one from each party, are pushing legislation that would seriously slow down robocalling, according to Gizmodo.

Science: Earther points out that air conditioners contribute significantly to global warming.

Gizmodo has another report on what is probably the world's largest organism, a fungus in Michigan that weighs 440 tons. Scientific American has another candidate for the world's largest organism, which is a grove of connected aspen trees in Utah.

Gizmodo also reports on the effects of rain in Chile's Atacama Desert, which, until recently, hadn't had a rain in 500 years. Microbes adapted to such dry conditions were devastated.

Gizmodo also reports on the discovery of millions of termite mounds, approximately 4,000 years old, in Brazil. They are large enough that they can be seen from space.

Scientific American reports that city buildings can make hurricanes striking cities more serious.

Scientific American also tells us why we don't forget how to ride a bicycle.

FiveThirtyEight explains the abundance of fires in California.


The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, I believe, it is public domain.

Thanks for looking!

Why did Jesus use "dry places" when He was speaking of an evil spirit?

The World English Bible renders Luke 11:24 thus: The unclean spirit, when he has gone out of the man, passes through dry places, seeking rest, and finding none, he says, ‘I will turn back to my house from which I came out.’ (All Bible quotations are from the World English Bible, which is public domain. Matthew 12:43 is similar.)

Why did Jesus use the word "dry" there? The simple answer is that I don't know. However, I'll guess.

Here's Psalm 63:1 God, you are my God.

    I will earnestly seek you.

My soul thirsts for you.

    My flesh longs for you,

    in a dry and weary land, where there is no water.

We may see here the idea that a person who does not have God's presence is like one in a dry area. It should be remembered, though, that the text also has a heading for this Psalm: "A Psalm by David, when he was in the desert of Judah." David may have literally been in the desert when he wrote this.

There's Psalm 68:6 God sets the lonely in families.

He brings out the prisoners with singing,

    but the rebellious dwell in a sun-scorched land. (Some versions use "dry," rather than "sun-scorched.")

Isaiah 44:3 says: For I will pour water on him who is thirsty,

    and streams on the dry ground.

I will pour my Spirit on your seed,

    and my blessing on your offspring:

Ezekiel 30:12 and Hosea 2:3 speak about God abandoning Israel to the desert.

The Greek word translated as "wilderness" in some versions of Matthew 4 (and Mark 1 and Luke 4) is also translated as "desert" in other places. Probably Jesus met Satan in a dry place. The Blueletter Bible gives all of these occurrences, here.

So there are positive associations, related to God's presence, with being watered, in the Bible. And there are negative associations connected with being in a dry land. Probably that's why Jesus used the words He did in this case. But that's just a maybe.

Thanks for reading!