This Will Not Look Good on a Résumé
Being an Air Force veteran, I just found this story amusing/amazing. A Belgian mechanic accidentally fired the Vulcan cannon on the F-16 he was working on, sending a hail of armor-piercing rounds into another F-16 down range. That one, just fueled for a training mission, blew up, damaging the other F-16 next to it. "That $24 million isn't coming out of my check, right?" No one was seriously injured, but this will not go well for his next review.
Alienable Rights
You've heard the phrase, "inalienable rights," right? The word is actually connected to the idea of "alien," where "inalienable" means "it can't become alien to you" so to speak. Well, now there are "alienable" rights, or, perhaps, more at "alien" rights. Apparently we have a constitutional right to the end of global climate change. At least that's what the lawyer for 21 children and young adults is claiming. The suit brought by kids from 8 to 19 years old (first in 2015) argues that we (our government, not just "mankind") are responsible for the extreme weather events that traumatize and endangers them. Figuring out how the U.S. government is responsible for this given the claim by science that every world nation is to blame seems problematic, but, hey, you never know what our courts will decide. I was just unaware of the "end to global climate change" right in our constitution. Learn something new every day.
When News Stuns
I don't even know what to do with this. The report is that a biological male has won the world chamlpionship in women's cycling. Rachel McKinnon, a professor at the College of Charleston, won in the 35-39 age bracket in Los Angeles. He identifies as a she and protested being required to take testosterone suppression. He can't figure out why people are miffed, arguing that it's just haters, bigots, and transphobic people. "Focusing on performance advantage is largely irrelevant because this is a rights issue. We shouldn't be worried about trans people taking over the Olympics." Um, okay, except for the fact that men and women are different.
Another Pleasant Surprise
Last week I told you about the Christian bakers in the U.K. who were exonerated for refusing to make a cake for a wedding they did not support. Now we hear of another pleasant surprise here in America where a former Atlanta fire chief, Kelvin Cochran, had reached a $1.2 million settlement in his case brought against the city for firing him because he wrote a book that was an orthodox Christian view of sex and marriage. These surprise rulings seem to be on the increase.
On Good Authority
Well, there you have it. We can now say definitively -- from the lips of Stephen Hawking, no less -- that there is no God. So says the scientist in his last book published by his family after his death. What is his reasoning? The complexity of the universe. "If there were such a God," Hawking wrote, "I would like to ask, however did he think of anything as complicated as M-theory in eleven dimensions." Because clearly no Supreme Being could be that smart, right?
I don't know. I don't get it. It is precisely the vast intricacy and complexity of the universe that convinces me (apart from Scripture) that there is a God. Further, if no such God exists, there is no real purpose, no real morality, no real hope. But, hey, at least we can rest in the certainty that, even though there's no God, no purpose, no morality, and no hope, there is intelligent life in the universe. Hawking says so. I wonder if Stephen Hawking has changed his position after death.
Filed Under the "Duh" Heading
This comes as a shock, apparently. New reports link legalized recreational marijuana use with increased auto accidents. In the four states that have legalized it, accidents are up 6%. In 14% of those accidents involving marijuana use, they had children in the car. Surely we cannot believe that people seeking solely to get high (Note: This isn't strictly true of all alcohol use.) could possibly be less concerned about their kids or their ability to control their vehicle, could we? To which I say, "Duh!" Did they really not see that coming?
From the "Easily Offended" Crowd
Kleenex had to re-brand their "Mansize" tissues because the public was complaining that the terms, "mansize", "confidently strong", and "comfortingly soft," were endorsing gender inequality. Of course, I think of "mansize" as "large" and not as "gender specific" (let alone "gender inequality"), but, I suppose, that's because I'm not generally one of our ever-growing "easily offended" crowd. Oh, my! I hope that doesn't offend someone!
Sad State of Affairs
According to the United Nations Population Fund, 40% of all births in the United States occur outside of marriage. That's up from the approximately 10% in 1970. (Note that in Spain it is closer to 45%, in Sweden closer to 55%, and in France it is more like 60%. Stunning numbers.)
So, what can we conclude? Marriage is on the decline. But, what would you expect, since the Supreme Court ordered the decline of marriage? And Scripture considers marriage the defining image of Christ's relationship with the Church, so, of course, those hostile to God would want that. What else? Sexual morality is not what it used to be. I mean, it's never been quite biblical, but today's version is no longer quite ... moral. Just about anything goes. And God's dire warnings against sexual immorality are being tossed overboard wholesale. And, of course, as a matter of course, our rejection of marriage and males makes biblical families no longer the normal or necessarily desirable family. The biblical responsibility of husbands and fathers (mirroring the responsibility of God) is right out. And who will pay for that particular sin? The children ... and the generations that follow. None of this is good news.
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