NewsWatch

Christ’s Creativity in Canyon Critters

ICR.org, 4/30/24, “Christ’s Creativity in Canyon Critters” [Excerpts]: Grand Canyon animals display many marvelous traits and behaviors as they live life in that harsh habitat. These canyon creatures succeed thanks to the Lord Jesus Christ’s providential provisioning and not due to impersonal “luck.”

It’s not by good luck that turkey vultures can find rotten carrion, gobble it down, and not die of food poisoning. Vultures have powerful senses of sight and smell; they detect dead animals from afar. Equipped by God for scavenging in this fallen world, they serve as garbage collectors/processors, picking apart and eating roadkill and other carcasses.

Why don’t they get sick or die of botulism? The acidity of vultures’ digestive tracts is astounding. The digestive juices in their stomachs can reach a pH between 1.5 and 1.0, more corrosive than car battery acid and caustic enough to instantly denature to death almost any bacterial or viral pathogen! If the vultures’ Creator had not constructed their stomachs with such germ-destroying acidity, the vultures themselves would quickly become dead meat.

https://bit.ly/3yTDdQH

Unapologetically Stand for Truth

TheCollegeFix.com, 5/6/24, “Riley Gaines grad speech: ‘I decided I would unapologetically stand for truth’” [Excerpts]: Female sports activist Riley Gaines urged Adrian College graduates to be courageous during a speech over the [first May] weekend.

Gaines, a former University of Kentucky swimmer, shared her story of taking on the transgender agenda after competing against [transgender] William “Lia” Thomas.

“I decided I would unapologetically stand for truth, both in a Biblical and objective sense,” Gaines said at the graduation ceremony, sharing that she was waiting for someone else to lead.

“I wanted to be liked. I thought twice before I spoke to an issue that was deemed controversial like I imagine many of you do or have done,” she said. “But I chose to be courageous.”

The college’s selection of Gaines drew some protest from a campus LGBT group, which demanded the school cancel her.

During her speech Gaines said, “Courage is contagious. It inspires and uplifts. May you embrace each new challenge as an opportunity, not shy away from risk and remain true to your conviction,” she said. “Forge your path with both humility and boldness.”

Gaines said her Christian faith has kept her going. “My faith is central in all that I do.”

“Faith isn’t just a set of beliefs, but the transformative principle that influences our actions, shapes our worldview, and leads us in times of both uncertainty and triumph,” she said shortly after.

She told the graduates to remember the “lessons” of “faith” when facing challenges in the secular world.

“In those moments, remember that faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,” she said, quoting the Bible [Hebrews:11:1Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
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https://bit.ly/45dioLW

Extraterrestrials as Spirit Guides

TandFonline.com, 6/25/08, “Spiritualists, Aliens and UFOs: Extraterrestrials as spirit guides” [Excerpts]:One of the most striking innovations within contemporary North American Spiritualism is the adoption of extraterrestrials as spirit guides by some contemporary Spiritualists. It is here that the New Age fascination with extraterrestrials and UFOs has taken on a uniquely Spiritualist form.

Extraterrestrials have come to represent for many Spiritualists the successful achievement of the ultimate Spiritualist goal: the union between spirituality and science. Extraterrestrials are seen as spiritually superior to us because their science exceeds our own; their ‘science’ is perceived superior because it incorporates recognition of spiritual ‘truth’.

Consequently, within the North American Spiritualist context, the adoption of extraterrestrials as spirit guides can be seen both as a ‘rationalisation’ of Spiritualist belief through a strong idealisation of ‘science’, and as a critique of orthodox science for ignoring the ‘spiritual’ realm. For several of the Spiritualists with whom I worked, extraterrestrials have consequently become excellent choices for spirit guides.

https://bit.ly/4aVlJkf