The importance of the Resurrection

 It is impossible to over-emphasize the importance of the Resurrection!

Women in ministry

See this post on the appropriateness (or not) of women in ministry. The search bar in that post also leads to several essays on particular women of the Bible.

Thankis for reading!

Lichens are formed from more than one organism, and they are important

lichens, Blowing Rock, North Carolina, USA

Lichens are inconspicuous entities, usually. They don't stand up high. Most of them aren't colorful. They are interesting, and important.

One interesting aspect of lichens is that they are made up of two or more types of organism, I was taught, and taught, that these were a fungus and an alga. The fungus provided structure and protection for the alga, and the alga provided food, from photosynthesis. That's true, but not true of all lichens. Some of them are a combination of an alga, and a yeast and/or a bacterium. 

Since they are more than one type, they can't reproduce as most organisms do -- by producing a copy of themselves. Lichens increase in numbers when a piece of a lichen breaks off.

Lichens are able to grow where other organisms, or groups of organisms, can't. They are capable of growing on bare rock or concrete, perhaps even on metal. For more about that, see here.

Although lichens are small, there are so many of them in some Arctic regions that they furnish much of the food for reindeer populations.

Thanks for reading!

 

dementia isn't just forgetting

Dementia is a heartbreaking phenomenon. People forget things you'd never suppose that they would, such as old friends, or where to look for things in the kitchen drawers, or what they had for a recent meal.

But, it seems, people with dementia can "remember" things that didn't happen. In some ways, that's more upsetting to the caregiver than forgetting. A dementia patient may emphatically say that they've been somewhere that you know that they haven't, for example.

God help caregivers! (and people with dementia)

Science as part of humanity's responsibility

What is science? The Project Gutenberg dictionary says: Accumulated and established knowledge, which has been systematized and formulated with reference to the discovery of general truths or the operation of general laws; knowledge classified and made available in work, life, or the search for truth; comprehensive, profound, or philosophical knowledge.

Knowledge, generally, is commended in the life of Solomon: 1 Kings 4:31 For he was wiser than all men—wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was in all the nations all around. 32 He spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs numbered one thousand five. 33 He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even to the hyssop that grows out of the wall; he also spoke of animals, of birds, of creeping things, and of fish. 

Solomon's works specifically included many kinds of living things. 

Here are some more passages that indicate that scientific study of the natural world is a good thing:

Studying astronomy helps us to praise God more fully. Psalm 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God. The expanse shows his handiwork. 2 Day after day they pour out speech, and night after night they display knowledge. 3 There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard.

According to Job 12:7 “But ask the animals now, and they will teach you; the birds of the sky, and they will tell you. 8 Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you. The fish of the sea will declare to you. 9 Who doesn’t know that in all these, Yahweh’s hand has done this, 10 in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind? 

This passage seems to encourage the study of the natural world.

Proverbs 25:2 "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings." This verse encourages the pursuit of knowledge and understanding, which aligns with scientific inquiry.

Genesis 1 says that humans were to have dominion over other living beings. This implies that the lives of non-human organisms should be studied and the studies should be applied. Dominion requires knowledge.

Here's another passages that indicate that scientific study of the natural world is a good thing:

Colossians 1:16 For by him all things were created in the heavens and on the earth, visible things and invisible things, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things are held together.

If all things were created for him, shouldn't we honor Christ by learning about them?

Thanks for reading.

 

I want to thank myself

19-year-old Mirra Andreeva won the French Open women's tennis tournament, a major competition, on June 6, 2026. Tennis tournament winners (and often losers) are expected to make a speech, acknowledging the skill of their opponent, thanking their trainers and coaches, and saying other appropriate things.

Andreeva wore a jacket with the words “I want to thank myself” during the trophy presentation and explained that she was pleased with her own reaction to adversity. Andreeva played well, and, no doubt, is to be applauded for this accomplishment. But her slogan reminds me of one of humanity's most common flaws -- pride. We often praise ourselves, or think that we deserve praise that we didn't get.

One of the most dramatic stories in the Bible is the story of the fiery furnace, in Daniel 3. King Nebuchadnezzar produced an enormous statue of himself, or had others do this. It was about 90 feet tall. Self-promotion on a grand scale. The king had all of the important people in the kingdom brought together, and, at a signal from the band, they were supposed to worship the great statue.

But that self-promotion didn't amount to much. God sent an angel to rescue Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego from a fiery furnace, and Nebuchadnezzar realized that people should not be worshiping a statue of himself, or any other gods but the God of Israel.

I wish Andreeva the best. She has accomplished an important milestone in what may be a distinguished career. But she didn't do it by herself. God gave her strength and accuracy and endurance. God allowed her to have good coaching and training. Andreeva's opponent in the French Open finals had to play a few more games than Andreeva did, because she wasn't, it was thought, good enough to win an automatic berth in the tournament, and so she was fatigued for a reason that didn't affect Andreeva.

Pride goes before a fall. Politicians, entertainers, athletes, bloggers do not do things by themselves. May I honor God, not me.

Thanks for reading.

What we should/should not be thinking of

Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are honorable, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report: if there is any virtue and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. (World English Bible)

That passage indicates that we should think about, and consider, the good in God's world, and the good that other people do. And it also indicates that we should avoid thinking of thangs that aren't good, in the society we live in.

That's hard. I'm something of a news junkie. CBS has been featuring Steve Hartman, reporting on the good in people, every week, for years. The network also reports on the good, nearly every evening. NBC has done the same thing, weekly, even explicitly reminding us that they are telling us about the good that people do.  I don't watch ABC or Fox evening news. Perhaps they, too, are highlighting good things. I hope so. Local TV news seems to be a morass of shootings, politicians lying, and people being horribly mistreated. There's an old saying, I think about newspapers (whatever they were!) "If it bleeds, it leads." There is plenty of bleeding in the world, but we emphasize it way too much.

Thanks for reading. I hope this post has done you some good. 

The beauty of nature

I haven't been blogging much lately. Maybe I should start again. What topic should I choose? Here's one: the beauty of nature. 

Nature is beautiful, and we should thank God for it. 

Jesus told us to consider the lilies:  Luke 12:27 Consider the lilies, how they grow. They don’t toil, neither do they spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

He didn't say that Solomon was not gloriously arrayed. But He did say that lilies (and other flowers) were and are, and He implied that we humans are never going to surpass the beauty of nature.

I need to speak of God's work in nature more often.

Thanks for reading.

Sunspots 998

 

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Joel Duff examines the oft-repeated claim that the amount of salt in the earth's water was not deposited over a long period of time -- there's not enough salt, the argument says. Duff argues that the amount of salt is, in fact, an argument for an old earth.

Duff also shows that the Young-earth Creationist explanation of why about 140 types of marsupial mammals came to exist in Australia and nearby land areas, but only a handful of types of  placental mammals are found there.

Gizmodo reports that China is successfully transforming a desert into growth that acts to remove Carbon from the atmosphere.

Gizmodo also reports that the Vera Rubin observatory, in Chile, ia locating lots of asteroids, previously unknown. Like hundreds or thousands' of them.

Ken Schenck argues, from the Bible, that heaven will be on earth.

UTNews reports that a large group of chimpanzees has split into two groups, and they are engaging in violence toward between the two.

Thanks for reading!

Sunspots 997

 

Joel Duff has posted a thorough examination of the use of "design" by Christians, and argues, successfully, I believe, that there is a fundamental flaw in the Intelligent Design movement.

Duff has also posted a refutation of the frequent claim by young-earth creationists that evolution is not real science, because we can't observe it in action. He points out that baraminology can't be real science, either, if observing it unfold is necessary.

Neuroscience News reports on research showing that ability to sense and produce music is part of the nature of animals and humans.

Gizmodo reports that the use of artificial intelligence is adding to work loads, rather than cutting them.

Gizmodo also reports that Vice-President Vance believes that UFOs are demons.

NPR reports that some types of roaches form pair bonds. (These are not typical household roaches. There are many kinds of roach.)

"There are no accidents." How I found Tolkien and C. S. Lewis

 Over six decades ago, I was a student worker in the library of Wisconsin State University at Superior. Student workers had access to the bookshelves (aka stacks), although other students generally did not. I was putting a shelf to order, or some such, when I saw Tolkien’s The Fellowship ot the Ring. I checked it out, and read it. I became so deeply involved with it that I took the book home to Birchwood, WI, for the weekend, and read the chapter on Gandalf’s battle with the Balrog to some or all of my three younger brothers. I eventually read the other two books of the trilogy. I don’t know what my brothers thought of this, or if all three of them heard it.

A few years later, while I was a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, I was exploring the children’s fantasy section of the library – they were less restrictive on access to the collection than Superior had been – I found The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis. I don’t remember the details of finding Lewis’s other works, including the other Narnia volumes, but I eventually read nearly all of his published books, both fiction and religion.

As a character from Lewis’s The Silver Chair put it, “There are no accidents.”

I thank God for the two encounters described above, and for the experiences that followed them. I learned something of honor, wisdom, self-sacrifice, worship, faith, loyalty and other virtues from Tolkien and Lewis.

Sunspots 996

 

Gizmodo reports on betting on Christ's return.

NPR points out two simple tests to tell us if food is ultra-processed,

The Naturalis Historia blog has a solid post on how Ken Ham and Answers in Genesis have dismissed the strong Christian faith of the founders of the science of geology.

NPR on why we say "um" so much.

Also from NPR, a report that the Food and Drug Administration has acted to make genetic therapy on patients with rare diseases more treatable.

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 995

 

Things I have spotted that may be of interest to others.

Discover Wildlife reports on a fish with a hole in its head, and what that hole probably does. Photos included.

National Public Radio reports that a Texas A&M professor has been told to not consider Plato in his philosophy class.

Gizmodo reports that rich people, world-wide, are responsible for a large portion of greenhouse gasses emitted.

A BigThink writer discusses the question "Why does something exist instead of nothing?" (The writer says that there is no possible scientific answer to this question.)

BisThink also discusses the state of particle physics, with discussion and diagrams.

ZDNet tested six chatbots, and found that all of them made a serious error on at least one of the tasks posed by the author.

Thanks for reading.

What did New Testament Christians pray for?

 I've been blogging for quite a while, perhaps too long.

This link leads to my most important post, which considers prayer in the New Testament church. It's a little long, but most of it is quoted scripture. To summarize, "each other" is the answer to the question of the title of this post.

Forgive me, Lord, for not being a better example of this kind of prayer. Thanks for reading!

The Magi disobeyed the government

The Bible indicates that we should generally respect and obey governmental authority: 

Romans 13:1 Let every soul be in subjection to the higher authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those who exist are ordained by God. 2 Therefore he who resists the authority withstands the ordinance of God; and those who withstand will receive to themselves judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to the good work, but to the evil. Do you desire to have no fear of the authority? Do that which is good, and you will have praise from the authority, 4 for he is a servant of God to you for good. But if you do that which is evil, be afraid, for he doesn’t bear the sword in vain; for he is a servant of God, an avenger for wrath to him who does evil. 5 Therefore you need to be in subjection, not only because of the wrath, but also for conscience’ sake. 6 For this reason you also pay taxes, for they are servants of God’s service, continually doing this very thing. 7 Therefore give everyone what you owe: if you owe taxes, pay taxes; if customs, then customs; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor. (World English Bible, public domain) 

The Magi, however, disobeyed: 

Matthew 2:7 Then Herod secretly called the wise men, and learned from them exactly what time the star appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem, and said, “Go and search diligently for the young child. When you have found him, bring me word, so that I also may come and worship him.”

9 They, having heard the king, went their way; and behold, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them until it came and stood over where the young child was. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. 11 They came into the house and saw the young child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Opening their treasures, they offered to him gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 Being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they went back to their own country another way. 

An exception to obedience to government.

Thanks for reading!

Added January 15, 2026: Colossians 2:9-10 points out that God is above all human governments:

Colossians 2:9 For in him all the fullness of the Deity dwells bodily, 10 and in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power. (World English Bible)