Sunspots 896

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

Christianity: Ken Schenck writes about what the Bible says about gender and sex.

Education: A Conversation post on why there is a teacher shortage.

Food: (and Science) Gizmodo reports on developments in lab-grown fish sticks.

Health: (or something) Gizmodo reports that a surgery-performing robot is about to be tested in the International Space Station.

Gizmodo reports that UPS drivers are enduring dangerous heat. There's no A/C  in the trucks, and the rear part of the trucks (where most of the packages are) can get really hot.

Science: A Conversation writer tells us about coyotes in urban environments.

SciTechDaily reports that human genes have been transferred to yeast cells, and apparently work just fine.

Sports: C. Vivian Stringer, first African-American college coach to win 1000 games, has retired.

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

Thanks for reading.

Sunspots 738

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

Christianity: Christianity Today interviews Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The State Department is hosting a major event, focusing on religious freedom all over the world.

More from Speculative Faith on engaging (or not) with the culture.

Computing: Gizmodo reports that almost all activity of users on pornography web sites is tracked by Google and other companies, including Facebook. The study did not answer the question as to what, if anything, that data is used for. The study looked at over 22,000 pornography web sites.

Health: NPR reports on a study, indicating that, world-wide, we don't grow enough fruits and vegetables for everyone to have recommended amounts of them.

An NPR writer tells us how to know if we really need surgery, and how to find the right surgeon, if we do.

NPR also reports on a study of teeth, around the world. We are eating way too much sugar, and not doing preventive practices.

Humor: (or something) Listverse tells us about some elaborate and amazing things made with Legos.


Politics: An NPR person thinks that President Trump's statements about certain House members should have been reported, but that calling them "racist" was opinion, not reporting. Not everyone at NPR agrees.

Catherine Rampell summarizes several recent actions, by the Trump administration, to make immigration from the South even more difficult. Most of these actions violate US and international law, she says.

Science: Gizmodo reports that the temperature at the northernmost settlement on earth reached 70 degrees Fahrenheit, for the first time ever, recently.

An environmental success story. Thanks to heroic efforts (and funding) from many people, the California condor population has grown from 20 or so to 300 wild birds.

Gizmodo reports on studies of the frequent volcanic activity on Io, a moon of Jupiter.

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

Thanks for looking!

Does the Bible say that sex change is sinful?

National Public Radio recently posted a story on a disagreement over sex education in a public school. NPR quoted one person involved in this struggle: "When you fundamentally discredit the very nature of God's creation of our youth as male and female, you are seeking to discredit God."

There are a lot of people who believe that God's living creation is either male or female. Why? One reason is this verse: Genesis 1:27 "God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them." Claiming that there is legitimacy in changing gender, however it is proposed to be accomplished, is taken to violate this verse, and, therefore, to "discredit God."

Gender variations in non-humans
This verse does not seem to apply to non-humans, as it is in the section of Genesis 1 which speaks of the creation of human beings. Many non-human organisms are not either male or female. Many plants and invertebrate animals are both male and female. Especially in plants, and in some animals, sex simply has to  do with who produces sperm and who produces eggs. There is no courtship in plants, and there are no obvious sex role differences in them, or in some animals. In some animals, sex roles are not what you might expect. For example, there are amphibians in which the sperm-producing male takes care of the young. See here and here for videos. Many kinds of birds share care of the young. Some birds, especially pigeons and doves, produce crop milk, which serves some of the same functions as the milk of mammals. Crop milk is produced by both male and female birds.

There are vertebrate animals (fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals and birds) that can change sex. For example, chickens (and some other birds) can change sexes. Clown (Nemo) fish can change sex. Wrasse fish can change sex. The Wikipedia says this "Some species exhibit sequential hermaphroditism. In these species, such as many species of coral reef fishes, sex change is a normal anatomical process." There are not many examples of sex change in non-human mammals, and even in fish, birds and reptiles, as groups, sex change is the exception, not the rule.

Intersex humans
Many humans are born without being unambiguously male or female. Such intersex individuals are that way for several reasons, such as not having a normal complement of chromosomes, not having the normal anatomical apparatus for sex and reproduction, or having some of the anatomical apparatus of both sexes. See the Wikipedia article on "Intersex."

Genesis 1:27 is not the only passage with a statement that God created male and female. Genesis 5:2, Matthew 19:4 and Mark 10:6 also make this statement, and the latter two quote Genesis 1:27. Please remember that some people believe that Genesis 1 and 2 were meant to be taken literally, and some other Bible-believing people believe, with good reason, that it wasn't so meant. I suppose that the two quotes of 1:27, by Jesus, strengthen the literalness of that verse's interpretation.

The purpose of Genesis 1:27 probably was not to declare that a desire for gender change treatments or surgery is sinful. Even so, it's not necessarily wrong to conclude that from the verse. Intersex humans, and those desiring a gender change, may be a result of the Fall.

OK. Even If intersex people are a result of the Fall, shouldn't we do something about this? Weeds, malaria mosquitoes, AIDS, earthquakes, and many other entities may not be part of God's original plan for the earth, but are the result of a Creation that is not the way God wanted it. We typically do whatever we can to alleviate these, and other conditions. Adam was told, according to Genesis 3:17-19, that he would have to till the ground, in order to obtain food from it. Some of this tilling was pulling weeds, no doubt. 

There are more results of the Fall. Babies are born with cleft palates, for example. I doubt if God's original plan for humans included that, and believe that such a condition, insofar as we can, should be treated, as should leprosy, diabetes, poor eyesight, heart conditions, and many more things. Why not, then, perform surgery, or otherwise treat, babies born as intersex? (In cleft palate surgery, and intersex surgery, the best interest of the patient, so far as it can be determined, should be a guiding principle.) Usually, such surgery is performed. Genesis 1:27 doesn't preclude occurrences of intersex babies. Some of them aren't unambiguously either male or female.

I have argued, so far, that it is right to try to correct various ills in the world, insofar as we are able to, and are correcting for unselfish reasons.

Now we come to people who desire transgender treatment. Do we owe them, like an intersex or cleft palate baby, such treatment? Clearly, some people do not believe so, and, in fact wish to deny anyone transgender treatment, because changing sex is wrong in principle. I have cited a Biblical basis for such belief above. But, my experience tells me that some of the objection to transgender has nothing to do with the Bible, but, instead, is based on an intuition that such treatment is wrong -- unnatural, not the sort of thing we want to have anything to do with.

I cannot judge anyone's reason for desiring transgender treatment. Some people's desires for that may be no more wrong that my desire to get glasses so I can see well enough to read and drive. If that is true, I would argue that such a person should get transgender treatment. But it is also possible that some, or all, people who want transgender treatment are twisted souls whose desires and motives are evil, and going against what God planned. If I knew that that was true, I would be against any such treatment. But I don't know, and I'm glad that it's not up to me to judge. It seems to me that desiring sex change treatment is not necessarily a violation of God's will, whatever Genesis 1:27 may say.

He Lives has a good post on Gender Dysphoria (thinking you are a male in a female body, or the reverse, as I understand it), and argues that saying that that condition is always due solely to the wrong desire of the person affected comes close to being heresy.

Thanks for reading. Feel free to comment.

* * * * *
Added May 13, 2019: There is an article referred to in the first comment, below, which is highly critical of the ideas behind a lot of gender dysphoria and trans-sexualism.

Sunspots 658

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

Christianity: Relevant lists five things we shouldn't say to our pastors.

Relevant also offers, and rebuts, several reasons why we don't volunteer.

Christianity Today reports that the government of Egypt is claiming that, for a Muslim, dying to protect a Christian church is worthy of martyrdom.


Computing: Wired has listed, with explanation, the most dangerous people (or groups) on the internet.

Health: (sort of) Listverse describes strange objects that have been removed from people's bodies. Very strange objects.

Humor: (or something) National Public Radio reports on Vanna White's 35th anniversary on Wheel of Fortune.


Politics: National Public Radio analyzes the number, and significance, of the laws signed by President Donald Trump, and compares them to laws signed by previous Presidents in a comparable period.

Science: Undark has posted an annotated list of misleading claims about science, by various politicians, during 2016,

Listverse gives summaries of the histories of 10 interesting numbers. I learned a number of things while reading this one.

I thank one of my brothers for suggesting some of these items!

Thanks for looking!

Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 572

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



Christianity: Christianity Today reports that only about one-third of Protestant pastors in the US believe in a literal rapture before a literal tribulation.

Cal Thomas, conservative, Christian, and syndicated columnist, on why Christians should not depend on politics to fix our problems.

Computing: Gizmo's Freeware reports, briefly, on a free substitute for Office.

The Environment: From Wired: “Trying to solve congestion by making roadways wider is like trying to solve obesity by buying bigger pants.” But, in a special case, widening highways seems to have helped traffic flow.

Food: Relevant reports that someone has invented a pizza box made out of pizza.

Health: National Public Radio and other sources report that you can get the same surgery for considerably different prices in different places in the US.

History: A viking longship, powered by sail and oars, has set sail from Norway to North America, according to the History Blog.

An airconditioning system has been found in a tower in Kuwait, dating to about the 7th century, according to the History Blog.

Listverse discusses 10 cases where Muslims, Jews, and Christians protected each other.

Science: Listverse describes 10 bizarre insect predators. The post includes videos of some of these creatures.

 
Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 527

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


Christianity: Relevant asks why so many Christians are afraid of dating.
 
Education: FiveThirtyEight questions some proposed limits on the time children spend watching screens of various kinds. The article claims that watching a TV program is of much less value than playing an interactive learning game on a tablet, for example.


Health: An article by a hospital psychiatrist, in First Things, on evidence that doing sex-change surgery doesn't really help those who have had the surgery. (Thanks to a reader for mentioning this to me.)


Humor: (Sort of) Relevant reports that Samsung has developed a transfer truck that you can "see through." That is, monitors on the back of the truck show drivers following it what is ahead of the truck.
 
Science: A video of a bird using bait to catch fish.
 
National Public Radio reports that the American Chestnut tree may be coming back, courtesy of some genetic engineering.


Wired reports on the difficulties of breeding better strawberries (and says that, yes, most strawberries could taste better.)


And Wired asks "Can my brain get too full?"


Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 373

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

 

Science: (or medicine) Some surgeons in training are using clementines (the fruit -- a relative of oranges and tangerines) to practice surgery on, says National Public Radio. It's not as crazy as it sounds.

The Arts: Wired reports that you can have your DNA, or the results of testing on your DNA, turned into a work of art.

Computing: Google is offering a free power searching short course, with six fifty minute classes, beginning in a few days. If you (or I) complete the course, we get a certificate.

National Public Radio reports that Orbitz, the hotel room web site, shows Apple users more expensive options than those logging on with other devices. Other reports document the same phenomenon, from other on-line retailers.

Christianity: Ken Schenck has written a fine article on the four fold sense of scripture.

Image source (public domain)

Why face lifts don't work very well

A recent report from National Public Radio tells us what many, especially some of us who are older, already know, mostly from watching aging celebrities, namely that face lifts don't work really well.

The reason, according to the report, is that the skin isn't the only part that ages. The underlying bones also change as we age, gradually withering away.

Oh, well. I wasn't going to get one anyway.

Medical report

Thank you for your prayers, and concern, expressed or not.

My surgery seems to have been successful, thank God. I remain on limited blogging for now.

My wife has an extra burden. I'm not to lift anything "heavier than a teacup" for four weeks, and can't drive for over a week yet. So she's even more of a servant than usual. God bless her.

Thanks again.