Sunspots 872

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

The Arts: The Federalist claims, with evidence, that Amazon's production of early times, in Tolkien's vision, will be a disaster, at least in the sense of adhering to Tolkien's ideas.

Food: Senegalese farmers are learning to encourage growth of a plant formerly treated as a weed.

Health: The Scientist says that COVID is transmitted by tiny particles in the air, not by large drops.

NPR says that Neil Cavuto, a Fox News host, thanks vaccination, without which he says that he wouldn't be alive. Cavuto earlier received some death threats for advocating vaccination.

Science: Gizmodo reports on a study of DNA found in ocean depths. Most of it is from previously unknown species. Such organisms play an important part in the Carbon cycle of the earth.

Gizmodo also reports that the Webb telescope is working perfectly, so far.

NPR reports on a pack of killer whales who successfully (for them) killed a blue whale.

Gizmodo reports that we may not be prepared for accidental contamination of earth, or some other planet.

The Scientist reports that mosquitoes can remember the smells of insecticides.

Sports: FiveThirtyEight gives us an in-depth look at NBA refereeing.

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.

Sunspots 792

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

The Arts: Speculative Faith has a discussion of how adapting a book to a movie can go bad, using The Voyage of the Dawn Treader as the main example.

Christianity: A Christianity Today article points out the importance of churches gathering together. (The article does not advocate unbounded opening under today's circumstances.)

A Relevant writer says that God isn't particularly interested in blessing America.

Computing: WindowSwap lets you look out someone else's window, and lets others look out of yours.

Gizmo's Freeware reports on Converter 365, which will convert many file formats to others. There's no need to sign up, and no charge. It works!

Environment: (and Ethics) Christianity Today has an article about the rights and wrongs of exploring other planets. Can we do so without altering any life that is already present there?

Gizmodo reports that places that were most polluted, 35 years ago, are still polluted badly.

All time heat records have recently been set in several locations in the Middle East, according to Gizmodo.

Gizmodo also reports that two long-standing ice formations, in Canada, have disappeared.

Health: USA Today reports that fly-by-night brokers are profiting massively from government purchases of anti-COVID supplies.

Relevant (and other outlets) report that a doctor from Houston, who recently was part of a presentation supporting President Trump's debunked views on COVID therapy, and other aspects of the Trump administration's handling of the pandemic, has some really strange views. (Demons can attack you through sex; reptiles are part of the government.)

Gizmodo has published some reflections on the idea of dying of old age (or at an old age).

History:

Humor: Gizmodo reports on an exploration of what would happen if a rifle barrel were bent back toward the stock, as in Bugs Bunny cartoons.

(Or not) Jalopnik reports that way too many pleasure boats showed up when the recent space vessel landed in the ocean.

Philosophy:

Politics: FiveThirtyEight on how Republicans have an advantage in the Senate, despite Democrats representing more people.

FiveThirtyEight also discusses our perceptions on crime. We think we are much more likely to be robbed than we actually are, and the crime rate (although it's hard to pin that down) has been going down, not up, for many years.

FiveThirtyEight also reports on three dozen recent state elections. Many of them were all mail-in, and voter turnout (or turn-in) was up significantly.

Science: Gizmodo reports that the source of most of the boulders at Stonehenge has been found, and it is 20 or so miles from the site.

Gizmodo also reports on a recurring cloud on Mars, large enough to be seen by ordinary telescopes on earth.

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

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 615

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

Christianity: A Relevant writer says that we're called to serve immigrants, legal or illegal.


Health: (Sort of) Listverse has 10 descriptions, from people who died, or thought they would, on what it's like to die.

History: A report on the report of the finding and salvaging of the Hunley, the first submarine to bring down an enemy ship in war. The Hunley sunk in the Charleston, SC, harbor.

Listverse on why the Germans voted the Nazis into power.

Politics: Authorities in so-called Red States are working to eliminate the effects of climate change, but they don't call it that, according to Scientific American.

Science: Scientific American reports on the discovery of 7 planets, around a star that's "only" 40 light-years away, which planets may be suitable for life.

Scientific American also explains the mechanism of the poison that apparently was used to assassinate the half-brother of the North Korean leader.

Bees (not honeybees) have been shown to learn how to do a task by watching another bee do it, according to Nature.

Sports: (Not really) A Relevant writer says it's time for Sports Illustrated to stop publishing the annual swimsuit issue.

(And history) Listverse on 10 sporting events that influenced subsequent events strongly.

Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 511

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to

someone else:
Christianity: Todd Wood considers the question of whether it would matter if we discovered intelligent life on other planets, somewhere.
A Lenten meditation on dust (i.e. ashes) in the BioLogos forum.
Computing: Gizmo's Freeware tells about alternativeTo. The idea is that you type in the name of a software application, and the web site can respond with a list of alternatives that do more or less the same thing, and indicates whether they are free or not, and what platforms they work on.
Gizmo's Freeware also recommends Print My Fonts! Our computer has over 300 of them, which I didn't know until I ran the program. We don't need them all. (Actually, our computer says that some of the ones I thought I didn't need are protected system fonts.)
Health: National Public Radio reports that there are bacteria in your soap.
(or cooking) I'm not a "foodie," but you may be. Wired has reviewed 5 meat thermometers.
Humor: (or something) Wired reports that a beehive that is made so that honey will flow from it, without the necessity of removing the combs, has been developed.
Science: FiveThirtyEight Science considers the question of whether or not we can taste fat.
Wired reports that the Amazon basin depends on the Sahara desert for it's continued existence as a diverse ecosystem. Who knew?
Relevant reports that NASA has found two lights on Ceres, a large asteroid. (There's a photo.)

Image source (public domain)

Life on Mars? So what?

Congratulations to NASA on landing the Curiosity on Mars.

Suppose life is discovered on Mars? I see nothing in the Bible that would rule out that possibility, or that predicts it, and no threat to my faith, whether life is discovered on Mars (or anywhere else but Earth) or not.

Some additional musings:

It is impossible to absolutely prove that there has never been (or, for that matter is not now) life on Mars. It can always be argued that the Curiosity, and any additional exploratory apparatuses or people, have not looked everywhere, under every circumstance. There could be life deep within Mars, or only under rocks in a few places that have been overlooked, or the life might not have been Carbon-based, so the wrong procedure was used to find it. However, I think that we may decide that there is reasonable doubt that life now exists, or ever has existed, on Mars, at some point, if there is no evidence for it.

Who cares if there is life on Mars? Well, curious people ought to care, just to find out. Also, it is possible that, if Martian life forms are found, we might be able to study them, and learn something of value, such as a cure for cancer, or how to establish life on the moon. The discovery of the Americas by Europeans is not an exact parallel, of course, but that discovery certainly changed life in Europe (and the Americas!), in ways that would have been impossible to predict. Do I anticipate important benefits to humans, if life is discovered on Mars? No, but it can't be ruled out.

If there is reasonable doubt that life has ever existed on Mars, then we will probably be more inclined to go there ourselves. The argument that we have messed up the biology of earth, and, therefore, shouldn't be allowed to mess up the biology of Mars, will be weak, or non-existent. Why should we go to Mars? Because it is there, as someone said about why we should climb Mt. Everest, however strong or weak that argument is. It is possible that there may be commercial and scientific value from various phenomena, geological, meteorological, or astronomical, discovered going to Mars.

We certainly have enough to do on earth. Poverty, disease and sin are a long way from being eliminated. But perhaps, as the pictures of the earth from the moon changed our way of thinking about ourselves, probably for the good, looking at earth from another planet, with an atmosphere, might also change our way of thinking about ourselves, for the good, enough and more to offset the expense and effort of going to Mars. But don't hold your breath.

Thanks for reading. I have previously mused about the possibility of religious activity among living things on other planets.

After Long Silence, by Sheri S. Tepper

I recently re-read After Long Silence, by Sheri S. Tepper. (Bantam: New York, 1987) I have previously posted on another of her works, Grass. After Long Silence has no Wikipedia article, so far. It deserves one. This won't substitute for a formal article. There are brief reviews here and here.

The basic plot is one that has been used before. An evil company controls the exports from the planet Jubal. The company, and its evil local representative, will do almost anything to keep this state of affairs as it is. This includes suppressing any evidence of native sentient beings.

The main character, Tasmin Ferrence, is a Tripsinger. The land on the planet is functionally divided into areas where the soil is deep, and areas where it is not deep, or is nonexistent. In such areas, there are giant crystals, hundreds of meters/yards in height, and with circumferences to match. It is dangerous to go into, or through, such areas. In fact, the only way to do so safely is to make music which keeps the crystals from shooting off parts of themselves and killing anyone near. The Tripsingers have learned how to traverse some areas where the crystals exist. The music is complex enough that untrained persons cannot survive such trips without a Tripsinger. The Tripsingers, who haven't discussed their beliefs on the subject explicitly, believe that the crystals are sentient.

It turns out, in the end, that there are two intelligent species on Jubal. One is the crystals, and the other is the viggies, a creature appearing somewhat like squirrels or rabbits.

How Tepper gets us to this conclusion is the plot, and it uses her characters. One thing that annoys me about Tepper is that her bad characters get peculiar names -- Chantiford, Aphrodite, whereas her good, or ordinary characters, get more ordinary, if non-common, names. Tasmin, and his assistants, Reb Jamieson and Clarin, are well-drawn. The evil characters, reprehensible as they are -- several of them have no apparent redeeming character traits -- are reasonably well-drawn, too.

This is a solid example of humans-meet-aliens science fiction. There is a fair amount, but not too much, of explicit translation, which helps to see how hard it is to understand beings who don't think like us. There is plenty of music, and it is evident that the music of both non-human intelligent beings is beautiful. There is an appendix, apparently written by a real-life expert on such things, explaining how a crystalline life form could have high intelligence. I'm sorry that I can't be a tourist to Jubal, and see the beautiful crystals, and hear the beautiful music.

One of the evil things that the local company boss does is to hire three other villains to create a religion, for the purpose of attracting tourists, and money, to Jubal. The doctrines of this religion are not well fleshed out, so I can't comment intelligently on it.

There are various kinds of love relationships in the book, including the admiration of Reb Jamieson for his master, Tasmin, and his willingness to sacrifice for Tasmin. Tepper does a good job of explaining the motives of the characters in these relationships.

The last feature I will mention is that Tasmin seeks vengeance on the local company boss. Another character talks him out of it. It isn't easy for her to do so.

Thanks for reading.

Extraterrestrial Religion

Are there planets where there is life? Is such life self-aware, and/or able to communicate ideas to others? Are there religions on other planets? I wish to muse about these things. (I recently mused about a similar topic, namely the religion of robots.)

Some authors have supposed that there is such life on planets in our own solar system.

C. S. Lewis, in Out of the Silent Planet, the first novel of his space trilogy, described Mars (Malacandra) as a planet with water, and life, in canals on the planet's surface. There were three intelligent species living there, all three worshiping the Oyarsa of Mars, approximately an archangel. They had some knowledge of Maleldil, Christ, and his redeeming sacrifice. Lewis also supposed that Venus (Perelandra) was inhabited by an intelligent race, human in appearance, who were subjected to a temptation similar to that described of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

At least one author, Zenna Henderson (see also the Wikipedia page on her) had her aliens, who were indistinguishable from humans in appearance, living on earth, among us, but with a religion that was central to their culture. This religion seemed to be compatible with Christianity.

Harold Myra supposed that the Fall had made our part of the universe into antimatter. He had several unfallen worlds in his galaxy.

Dolphins, chimpanzees, and perhaps other terrestrial species may be self-aware, and have some power of communication, enough to develop a religion, perhaps. So far as I know, there is no evidence that they have such. There are a number of works that suppose dolphins or whales to have such capacity. I am not aware that any of them propose that these creatures have any religion.

Other authors have also considered these themes.

Does the Bible say anything that would preclude intelligent life elsewhere? I don't know of any such thing. Conversely, it doesn't say anything that proves that there is such life.

If there is intelligent life elsewhere, is it necessary that it have a religion? I suppose not, but would be surprised if there were no such, if other species with intelligence exist.

Did the Fall affect other planets? Did Christ die for other planets? Probably, as I read the scripture, although I don't think the Bible is absolutely conclusive on these matters. Romans 8:18-25 may mean that when it says that the "whole creation" has suffered until the time of Paul's writing.

Thanks for reading these musings.

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Note added June 23, 2011: A recent post by a Christian author of fantastic literature claims that there can be no non-human intelligent life in the universe. Some other Christian authors disagree, in the comments.

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Added November 11, 2012: Ken Ham, of Answers in Genesis, claims that, if there is intelligent life on other planets, "any aliens would also be affected by Adam’s sin, but they can’t have salvation." Ham is responding to statements by a Vatican astronomer, to the contrary. That is, the astronomer claimed that intelligent extraterrestrials could be redeemed.

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Added July 27, 2015: A planet with physical characteristics similar to ours has recently been discovered. In response, apparently an atheist wrote that this discovery made belief in God (or in Judaism or Islam) impossible. Benjamin L. Corey begs to differ.