To be fair to the secular progressives at USA Today, they did try to separate the advent of oral contraceptives from sexual license, but fell short as they described all of the benefits that derived from, in the words of the Magisterium, the separating of the unitive from the procreative.  Here is the link to a prophetic document warning the world of the harms that can arise out of the post-modern lust for sexual license.

Here is the abbreviated take on the USA Today celebration:  Our cultural overlords led us into a Brave New World where Mother’s Day becomes cause to celebrate intentional sterility – what some would dub a very unmotherly status. 

Beyond a sociological disconnect is this glaring error:   USA Today’s article failed to mention some of the most seriously disturbing social and environmental affects of the pill.

Last Fall I was invited to speak at Right to Life Kanasas’ state convention, thanks to my old friends Elmer and Audrey Feldkamp.   Elmer has been in pro-life leadership in Kansas since Roe v. Wade came down, plowing on, through thick and thin, victories and losses, ever since.  He and Audrey are good people.

They asked me to address the downside of oral contraceptives.  The result is a powerpoint presentation entitled “The Four Horsemen of a Chemical Apocalypse.”  (Presentation available upon request.)

Note:  Right to Life Kansas is not affiliated with the National Right to Life Committee.  The NRLC has no position on contraception or the pill. 

Like USA  Today, I found the advent of the pill quite profound.  Unlike USA Today, I found this advent profoundly disturbing.  Both my research and the USA Today article argree that the introduction of the pill marked the ascendancy of the Culture of Death over Christian history. 

Unlike USA Today, I find no cause to celebrate.

This is because the pill has disturbed male-female dynamics.  The pill has disturbed women’s mental health.  The pill has disturbed women’s physical health.  And the pill has disturbed – and this may be the most disturbing of all – the environment.

I am no chicken little — the sky really does appear to be falling.

  On this 50^th anniversary I will focus the remainder of my Mother’s Day post on the final of these four — the great “unmothering” of our fresh water supplies.

Consider …

… that the pill is, in reality, an anabolic steriod.  While we decry the use of such substances by body builders, we have had no problem at all with our girlfriends, wives, sisters and mothers ingesting them for fifty years now.  This is because the separation of the unitive f rom the procreative is a first order goal of postmodernity.  This is why Humanae Vitae is the watershed for postmodernity.  If you have not yet read it then you have missed one of the best examples of the prophetic office in our age.  Click here to be enlightened.

Why have you never thought of the pill as a steroid before?  Because it is not that bad, artificial testosterone, oh no, that is the nasty stuff used by bodybuilders, you know, the illegal carcinogen that lodges in their livers and causes cancer.

No, the pill is a “good” anabolic steroid, very legal — even protected — that helped build the playboy culture and merely lodges in breast tissue causing … well we don’t talk about that in polite society.  (See She Raced for the Cure, down the page)

This has widespread implications on women’s health (see She Raced for the Cure), but even more disturbing on a macro level, it has widespread implications on our international ecosystem.

Why?

Because anabolic steroids are not water soluble.  That is huge.   That is not to say that they do not, in the main, escape the female body.  The kidneys and bladder play their roles well.  Most of the tens of thousands of daily doses of the pill taken by millions of modernized women across the northern hemisphere do leave the bodies of the women ingesting them … and end up in the local sewage treatment plants – the ones conveniently located on our rivers and waterways.

Most human waste, including the attending paperwork, is water soluble.   We, like our ancient Roman cousins, have designed waste water treatment facilities based upon the assumption that earth and water can dissolve and filter out anything bad in our effluence.

But then slouches in this rough beast to be born in treatment facilities:  the estrogen pill.  What does 50 years of urine containing intentional sterility do to an ecosystem? 

A great question!  Merely google “estrogen, rivers, fish, sex change” to do your own research on this very relevant question.  You will find articles as recent as last month and as ancient as 1994 raising a politically incorrect alarm.  So politically incorrect, in fact, that few are willing to ring it.

But of late this problem is becoming so glaring that persons of good will simply cannot ignore it.  Consider this from an ecology website two years ago:

After an exhaustive seven-year research effort, Canadian biologists found that miniscule amounts of estrogen present in municipal wastewater discharges can decimate wild fish populations living downstream.

The research, led by Dr. Karen Kidd, an NSERC-funded biology professor at the University of New Brunswick (Saint John) and the Canadian Rivers Institute, confirms that synthetic estrogen used in birth control pills can wreak havoc on the sex lives of fish. Small amounts of estrogen are excreted naturally by women whether or not they are taking birth control pills.

Note the above in blue – a politically correct fig leaf.  They do not note that natural estogen is water soluble.  Artificial estrogen is not.  These Canadians continue …

Male fish exposed to estrogen become feminized, producing egg protein normally synthesized by females. In female fish, estrogen often retards normal sexual maturation, including egg production.

“We’ve known for some time that estrogen can adversely affect the reproductive health of fish, but ours was the first study to show the long-term impact on the sustainability of wild fish populations,” explains Kidd. “What we demonstrated is that estrogen can wipe out entire populations of small fish — a key food source for larger fish whose survival could in turn be threatened over the longer term.” Read more: http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/fish-sex-change-47021801#ixzz0nRJ3EiED

Now, just in case you have pictured Canadian Mounties eyedropping estrogen onto waterways, think again.  Consider this more recent alarm from a technological website tracking this environmental threat:

Water Treatment Systems Unable to Remove Estrogen from Drinking Water

Estrogen and estrogen-like compounds enter water rivers, steams and reservoirs from many sources and remain there even after passing through water treatment plants. About 80% of 139 U.S. rivers are contaminated with trace [estrogen] compounds.  …  Existing water treatment processes, which often involve naturally occurring bacteria in sewage sludge, can only remove as much as 94% of estrogen from untreated water, but what remains is still potent enough to cause  [harm]. Although harmful estrogens often remain in water after treatment, this performance is not surprising, says Texas A&M Zachery Department of Civil Engineering Assistant Professor Kung-Hui (Bella) Chu, because conventional water treatment processes weren’t designed to deal with estrogens.

So it is a problem.  How big?  Very big.  Here is a recent academic paper on the subject, complete with molecular explanations.  One sentence, following the most recent (and alarming) fish sex studies in Europe, leaps off the page: “In fish, the observed effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals clearly have high ecological relevance as impairment of reproductive system have consequences at all ecological levels.”

This same alarming phenonemon has been documented all over the United States. Catfish, Bass, Trout — all feminized, all filled to the brim with synthetic estrogen. 

How alarming is this?  Not very if you merely listen to the mainstream media.  Even most Christian media are ignoring this story.  Powerful social forces demand that it be ignored.  Big pharma, big feminists, big one worlders (Fabian socialists like Planned Parenthood and their useful idiots in elected office and the media). 

Thanks  be to God for the Catholic media, for they have at least given it some columns -  although few inches in the past years. 

Consider this from Catholic Register a few years back:

Contracepting the Environment: Environmentalists Mum on Poisoned Streams 

 BY WAYNE LAUGESENREGISTER CORRESPONDENT •July 15-21, 2007 Issue | Posted 7/10/07 at 1:25 PM •BOULDER, Colo. — When EPA-funded scientists at the University of Colorado studied fish in a pristine mountain stream known as Boulder Creek two years ago, they were shocked. Randomly netting 123 trout and other fish downstream from the city’s sewer plant, they found that 101 were female, 12 were male, and 10 were strange “intersex” fish with male and female features. •It’s “the first thing that I’ve seen as a scientist that really scared me,” said then 59-year-old University of Colorado biologist John Woodling, speaking to the Denver Post in 2005.

So a biologist was really scared five years ago.  Nothing has been done since then except denial.

Five years ago, when the sex bending was found throughout the United States,  University of Colorado physiology professor David Norris scratched his head and said:    “Nobody is getting passionately concerned about it.   It makes no sense to me at all that people aren’t more concerned.”

Norris has probably since learned that this particular steroid is the Holy Grail of the culture of death.  Contraception and abortion are sacraments in their system.  They played the flute, we danced to their tune.  We then opened Pandora’s Box 50 years ago.   We have now sowed to the wind for half a century.

Will we soon reap the whirlwind?

The scientists say yes.  (But only in hushed tones,  since it is politically incorrect to so speak.)

p.s.  The above is available as a presentation upon request.

The once doubting Thomas fell to his knees in worship and later was martyred in India for refusing to deny his Risen Lord.

He died to save us and was raised to Rule over us.  Lord and savior cannot be separated.  As Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “Only he who believes is obedient and only he who is obedient believes.” 

The Messiah sternly warned us not to deny Him among men.  If we do, He warned, He will deny us before the Heavenly Father.  In other words, we will miss the blessings of Heaven.  (And the alternative is not good … it was said of Judas that it would have been better if he had never been born.) 

Thus what must a Christian say when a government interrogator or “examiner”  (be they Nazi, Soviet, Star Chamber or Hoosier High Court affiliated) puts them under oath and then demands that they respond, with only ”yes?” or “no,” to this question:   

“MY QUESTION’S DIRECT … DO YOU FIRMLY BELIEVE YOU’RE OBLIGATED AS A CHRISTIAN TO PUT OBEDIENCE TO GOD’S LAW ABOVE HUMAN LAW?”

Note that when a government interrogator (or Examiner) demands this of a Christian he (she in my instance) is grabbing the Christian by the metaphysic and forcing them on the horns of a dilemna:  Either deny Christ and suffer damnation as a Judas or affirm Christ and suffer negative consequences in this world.

My choice (Bryan J. Brown’s) in the face of such an (I argue unconstitutional) demand is recorded here.  I could have been more artistic, but that is not my style.  I am honest and blunt by character.   So I just put it out for the Indiana Board of Law Examiner Charlotte Westerhaus to use against me.  And, as she foreplanned it, she did.  To great effect and harm to me, my career, my wife and my five children (all under 13).   

Most Christians would have responded as I did.  Regardless of style, a Christian can reply only one way, and tell any anti-Christian inquisition of only the one thing when so demanded …. see the video at the end of this post for a fine artistic reply. 

Regardless of the art work, the reply must be something along these lines …

JESUS CHRIST IS RISEN FROM THE DEAD!!!!  Risen to rule over you — Risen to be your King.  Risen to be the King of kings.  Risen to be obeyed over the claims of mere human government.

I merely affirmed this central tenet of our Christian Faith and for that reason was denied a license to be an Indiana attorney and ordered to not even apply again for five years. 

 (Stay tuned to this website for more evidence of blatant religious discrimination by the Supreme Court of Indiana though its agents and assigns.) 

IS THE BELIEF THAT THE CHRIST IS RISEN FROM THE DEAD REASONABLE? 

Very much so.  Follow this link for last year’s Easter post on that question: http://www.archangelinstitute.org/he-is-risen-indeed/

He did not die for nothing — He died to be your King, King over all other kings.  Are you bowed before Him or standing against Him?

Click here and here  and here to read about your amazing future.  Note it on your calendar — it will happen.

Bow or be broken.  Confess Him as Lord of all — even the Indiana Supreme Court — or be found on the side of the cosmic rebellion on the great Day of the Lord.  Click here

Here is a more artistic reply than mine.

Saturday is when it all had to set in.  Saturday had to be so very hard.  The first day, they must have thought, for the rest of their lives.

Injustice had triumphed over justice.  The Roman government had put Him to death for daring to put Himself above their law and the Jewish government had manipulated Pilate to that conclusion after rejecting Jesus for rejecting their law.  It was the government execution of a treasonous criminal, one who put His understanding of God’s laws above the laws of the Sanhedrin and Imperial Rome.

Jesus was a martyr to the Greatest Cause.  He was, in the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., an extremist:  “In that dramatic scene on Calvary’s hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime–the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment.”

On Holy Saturday His extremism had reaped its full reward — from a purely human perspective.  Jesus  confronted mere human law and the law won — on Saturday.  Injustice triumphed over justice — on Saturday.  Hate and religious intolerance carried the day — on that unholy, Holy Saturday. 

The disciples lost both Jesus and Judas on the same day.  Their world was shattered, turned upside down.  Nothing was right in their world on Holy Saturday.

Was that Holy Saturday the first day for the rest of mankind’s existence?  Atheists say yes.  Buddhists and Hindus say yes.  Materialists say yes.  Those who deny Christ any authority in this world say yes.   They all say that He failed to leave the tomb that He was laid on on Holy Saturday — at least failed to leave it alive.

Christians cannot believe or accept this naturalism.  Those who claim to be “of Christ” but teach that the story ends with Christ’s flesh rotting into dust are not Christians, by definition.

The Paul the Apostle made this very clear:

¹² Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³ But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. ¹⁴ And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. ¹⁵ Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise. ¹⁶ For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. ¹⁷ And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! ¹⁸ Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. ¹⁹ If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.

If Holy Saturday is the end of Christ’s story then Christians are to be pitied as gullible and deceived masses who are, in reality, without hope.  This is what Karl Marx taught, what the Humanist Manifesto teaches, what is taught at most Universities in America and Europe.  It is what “liberal churches” teach.  They are dead and deadly wrong.

If Holy Saturday is the end of the Easter narative then He died for nothing.  For nothing.  For no thing, for no person, for no reason. 

What say ye — Did He die for nothing?

We are finishing up with a more recent movie.  The Messiah: Prophecy Fulfilled (2002) is a bit stiff in the acting (so far) but pretty great on the storyline.  It is a family meal — The Passover meal — in a Jewish home in the Holy Land the year following the Passover in which Jesus was crucified. 

If you have not heard about the fantastic parallels to the Passover and the death of Jesus the Christ then consider buying this movie:    http://www.amazon.com/Messiah-Prophecy-Fulfilled-Nick-Mancuso/dp/B00009W0UV

Or, in the alternative, you could attend Mass tonight.  Here are the readings.  Note that the Old Testament and New Testament meet in the Upper Room.  The “Last Supper” was  the last Passover Seder in the Old Covenant.  In that Upper Room our Lord instituted a brand new program — one in which the Lamb is yet eaten, as before, only that new Lamb is the one identified by John the Baptist as the Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world.

That Passover Lamb said this:  ” Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.”  John 6:53

The Catholic Church, like the Orthodox Church, has well preserved the teaching of the Apostles as to the fact that “Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.”  (Paul the Apostle, I Cor. 5:17)

Are you dining on God’s appointed sacrifice this Pascha (Passover) season?

Fulfilled prophecy should convince anyone who approaches the historical record without guile that Jesus of Nazareth is the  Risen Lord.

Zechariah 11 Fulfilled prophecy should convince anyone who approaches the historical record without guile that Jesus of Nazareth is the  Risen Lord.
(written prior to 250 bc)

10 Then I took my staff called Favor and broke it, revoking the covenant I had made with all the nations. 11 It was revoked on that day, and so the afflicted of the flock who were watching me knew it was the word of the LORD.
12 I told them, “If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.” So they paid me thirty pieces of silver.
13 And the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter“-the handsome price at which they priced me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD to the potter.

Matthew 26
(written within 30 years of the events described)

The Plot Against Jesus
1When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, 2″As you know, the Passover is two days away—and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”
3Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, 4and they plotted to arrest Jesus in some sly way and kill him. 5″But not during the Feast,” they said, “or there may be a riot among the people.”
*snip*
Judas Agrees to Betray Jesus
14Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests 15and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?” So they counted out for him thirty silver coins. 16From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over.
*snip*
Jesus Arrested
47While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived. With him was a large crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and the elders of the people. 48Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: “The one I kiss is the man; arrest him.” 49Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed him.
50Jesus replied, “Friend, do what you came for.”[d]

Matthew 27
Judas Hangs Himself
1Early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people came to the decision to put Jesus to death. 2They bound him, led him away and handed him over to Pilate, the governor.
3When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders. 4″I have sinned,” he said, “for I have betrayed innocent blood.” “What is that to us?” they replied. “That’s your responsibility.”
5So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.
6The chief priests picked up the coins and said, “It is against the law to put this into the treasury, since it is blood money.” 7So they decided to use the money to buy the potter’s field as a burial place for foreigners. 8That is why it has been called the Field of Blood to this day. 9Then what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: “They took the thirty silver coins, the price set on him by the people of Israel, 10and they used them to buy the potter’s field, as the Lord commanded me.”[a]

FRIEND, WHAT ROLE ARE YOU PLAYING IN THE PASSION PLAY THAT IS LIFE? ARE YOU FALLING BEFORE THE CREATOR’S ANNOINTED ONE AND SERVING HIM OR TURNING JUDAS ON HIM AND SELLING HIM OUT FOR SILVER?  (Silver =  A career, prestige, denying him when asked directly by a government agent just to be approved by the government, etc.)  Click here for an example as to the latter.

Update:  The interview aired January  9 at 9 am.  Redeemer radio can be heard on the Net at this site:  http://www.redeemerradio.com/.

Working on a way to post a link to the interview, stay tuned.

I am pleased to note that Evangelical Protestantism is working to correct this oversite. 

Click here for Amy Grant’s You Tube causing us to reflect on the Faith and fears of this great woman of God.

The Mother of Jesus.   Think of the ramifications … for they are almost endless.

Here are the lyrics …

I have traveled
Many moonless night
Cold and Weary
With a babe inside
And I wonder
What I’ve done
Holy Father
You have come
Chosen me now
To carry your son

I am waiting
in a silent prayer
I am frightened
by the load I bear
In a world as cold as stone
Must I walk this path alone
Be with me now
Be with me now

[chorus:]
———————————–
Breath of Heaven
Hold me together
Be forever near me
Breath of Heaven

Breath of Heaven
Lighten my darkness
Pour over me, your holiness
For your holy Breath of Heaven
———————————–

Do you wonder
As you watch my face
If a wiser one, should of had my place
But I offer-all I am
For the mercy-of your plan
Help me be strong
Help me be
Help me

On the 25th day of the same month, the Nativity according to the flesh of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Verses.
God the one born, the Mother too a Virgin:
What greater wonder had creation seen?
Mary the Virgin bore God on the twenty fifth day of December.

God, who loves mankind, seeing the human race under the tyranny of the devil,

took compassion on it, and sending his Archangel Gabriel, he said to the Mother of God:

‘Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you’.

And at once our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son and Word of God, was conceived in her immaculate womb.

And when the nine months were completed from her conceiving, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus for the whole inhabited world to be enrolled; and Kyrinios was sent to Jerusalem to make the enrolment in Bethlehem.

Joseph the guardian of the Mother of God went up with her to be enrolled in Bethlehem.

And when the Virgin was about to give birth, not having found lodging due to the great number of people, she entered a poor cave, and there, without corruption, she gave birth to our Lord Jesus Christ, and she wrapped him like a babe in swaddling clothes, and laid down and put in the manger of the irrational beasts the Creator of all things, as he was about to deliver us from our unreason.

On the same day, the worship by the Magi.

Verses.
Men from the nations worshipped you, O Word,
Showing your future honour from the Nations.

In those days there was a Seer called Balaam in the country of the Persians who prophesied many things, among which he said: ‘A star will dawn out of Jacob, and will crush the princes of Moab’. The other Seers then, holding this prophecy in succession, taught it to the kings of the Persians. And it came to these men, three in number, and they were keeping watch for when they might see such a star. But being astronomers, when they saw that Christ’s star did not follow a course like the other stars, from east to west, but from north to south, knew that it showed the birth of a great king; and having followed the star, they found Christ the Lord, and falling down they worshipped him and offered him gold, incense and myrrh. And so, on the orders of an Angel, they returned to their country.

Herod, the prince of the Jews, having learned from the Magi that a great king had been born, who was going to subdue the whole world, summoned the Magi secretly and said, ‘Go, inquire diligently about the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may go and worship him’. He said this to learn where he was and that he might send and kill him. Then, having summoned the Scribes, he asked, ‘Where does Scripture say that the Christ will be born?’ They said, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea’. Then he sent his troops to slaughter the boys in Bethlehem of two years and under. Because of this an Angel was sent from God who said to Joseph, ‘Rise, take the Child and his Mother, and flee into Egypt’. Joseph did so, and taking the Child and his Mother he went away into Egypt.

On the same day, Commemoration of the Shepherds who saw the Lord.

Verses.
The Shepherds, leaving their own flock behind,
To see Christ the Good Shepherd went with haste.

To him be glory to the ages of ages. Amen.

Picture above:
2nd century fresco of Mary and the Child Jesus, said to be the oldest Christian image of the Madonna.
Catacomb of St Priscilla, Rome:  Source: http://www.bible-archaeology.info/tombs_catacombs.htm

WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THIS KING OF THE UNIVERSE WHOSE BIRTH WE CELEBRATE THIS WEEK?

Then click here

The ArchAngel Institute celebrated this special day in all three divisions.

The Raphael Division, with very much help from Mike and Cathy Butler at Diskey Sign, lit up the southern wall of the Institute with nine beautiful classic Christian art representations.  Drive by the Institute after dark to see this fine work of public art that is our response to Pope Benedict XVI’s call here.  More details to follow.  This post shows one of the works of art now gracing the building.

The Gabriel Division communicated our Executive Director’s long climb toward the Indiana bar and thanked so many who have meant so much to us at our first ever banquet tonight.  Terry Clancy and the crew helped us put on a first rate first effort.  Many, many thanks to those who braved the weather to attend — you are special friends, one and all!

The Michael Division entered federal court at 2:00 pm today and filed a lawsuit against the Judges and Lawyers Assistance Program, Dr. Elizabeth Bowman, Dr. Steven Ross and Chief Judge of the Indiana Supreme Court Randall Shepard seeking to have three laws enjoined for due process reasons and documenting a psychological waterboarding that is alleged to have violated both the federal and state constitutions in many, many ways.

The federal lawsuit brings 27 separate legal claims, most of them sounding in constitutional law.  More on it later.

Tonight we close with these fine quotes from President Harry S. Truman that seem to sum up today’s filing …

Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.

“When even one American — who has done nothing wrong — is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth, then all Americans are in peril.”  Harry S. Truman.

THE ARCHANGEL INSTITUTE : BUILDING THE CULTURE OF LIFE ON THE RUINS OF THE CULTURE OF DEATH –  AND NOT WITH OUR MINDS SHUT OR MOUTHS CLOSED!

Yet when the sun is eclipsed by the moon you (in yesterday’s case Asia) see only the corona of the sun, the heavenly body is completely blocked by that pesky moon.

It fits like a key into a lock.

Why?

According to this website, here is the mathmatical  reason:

The Sun happens to be 400 times the Moon’s diameter, and 400 times as far away. That coincidence means the Sun and Moon appear to be the same size when viewed from Earth. A total solar eclipse, in which the Moon is between the Earth and Sun, blocks the bright light from the Sun’s photosphere, allowing us to see the faint glow from the corona, the Sun’s outer atmosphere.

Ah, what a coincidence it is.

What are the odds that happened by mere chance?

Is it easiler to believe that a Creator hung the moon in its place?

And that was not the only coincidence in the heavens this week.

Think about this one and imagine the luck needed to have picked this at random.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2009-112
 
July 20, 1969  USA on the moon
25 years later
July 20, 1994  Comet strikes Jupiter
15 years later
July 20, 2009 A large black cloud appears on Jupiter

Here is what one scientist said (quote from above article) “

“We were extremely lucky to be seeing Jupiter at exactly the right time, the right hour, the right side of Jupiter to witness the event. We couldn’t have planned it better,” said Glenn Orton, a scientist at JPL.  “It could be the impact of a comet, but we don’t know for sure yet,” said Orton. “It’s been a whirlwind of a day, and this on the anniversary of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 and Apollo anniversaries is amazing.”

So the scientists are amazed by the orderliness of the seemingly random events.  That is something that scientists should be quite immune to by now, given that order is found everywhere in the allegedly “by chance” universe.

Back to Jupiter, aka Zeus, the symbol in ancient religions for the King of the Gods, the ultimate authority.  (Hmmm, how did the ancients know Jupiter was the largest planet?)   Something supposedly really did ”strike” Jupiter on July 20.  It must have been something really large  –  The scar on Jupiter’s face is the  size of the Pacific Ocean!

And we did not see it on the way there? 

Is someone asleep at the Hubble?

Or could it be that something is happening on the surface of Jupiter, that there was no strike at all, but instead, perhaps, an eruption from inside of Jupiter?  Just wondering – nothing as serious as the 400 times 400 above  – this is just speculation. 

But if it was a strike, as NASA claims (without explaining how they missed it on the way) that made a scar larger than our moon, then imagine if that blow had hit us, or our moon, or even a near neighbor?

Could really ruin one’s day.  Would your life have meaning if ended by such a ”coincidence?”  Now think a moment — If all  is mere coincidence, then does your life have meaning even before such a strike?  If all is mere chance, does your life have meaning in this moment?

Only the meaning found in random paint splatterings, much like a Jackson Pollack painting.   This is in reality the absence of meaning, and is the spiritual plague that calls itself modernity.  A finite point (you), said the postmodern philosopher Sartre, without an infinite reference point (the Creator) is absurd. 

But I have great news, your life is not absurd!!!

The universe is a mystery — and not mere coincidence and heat death, friends.   It has great meaning.  It has an infinite reference point.

It is designed and operated by a Designer.  Click here for more on that idea.

The same Designer who designed your body and who created your soul.

The same Designer that you will one day, probably not too far into the future, meet face to Face.  How is that for ultimate meaning?

Ready or not?  Click here for musings if not.