NewsWatch

United Methodist Drag Queen Candidate

ReligionNews.com, 4/15/21, “First drag queen certified as a candidate for United Methodist ministry ‘speaking in a new way to new people’” [Excerpts]: A few things were different about Sunday’s virtual service at Hope United Methodist Church in Bloomington, Illinois.

For one, there were a few more wigs on screen. There also was “a little bit more makeup,” said Ms. Penny Cost, that Sunday’s preacher.”

Hope Church celebrated Drag Sunday on Sunday (April 11) with a message by Ms. Penny Cost and music, readings and prayer by other drag artists…

“It is our way of celebrating and uplifting the voices of drag artistry within the church,” Ms. Penny Cost said during the service.

The service also came in response to pushback and questions the church has received over the past few weeks.

The Illinois Great Rivers Conference’s Vermillion River District Committee on Ordained Ministry recently unanimously certified Hope Church’s director of operations, Isaac Simmons—who goes by Ms. Penny Cost in drag—as a candidate for ministry in the United Methodist Church.

(https://bit.ly/3g8eM6f)

Catholic Conference: ET, A.I., Nonhuman Life

TheBrief.org, 4/19/21, “Catholic Conference to Discuss ET, A.I., and Other Life ‘Beyond Human’” [Excerpts]: The Society of Catholic Scientists has scheduled their 2021 SCS conference, and this year’s topic is literally out of this world. Titled “E.T., A.I., and Minds Beyond the Human,” the conference will be held at the Hilton Hotel in Washington D.C. from June 4th thru 6th. It will feature a full range of education and theology experts covering topics related to the theme.

“There’ll be 13 talks,” said Dr. Stephen Barr, president of the Society of Catholic Scientists, in an interview with the Catholic News Agency (CNA). Half of the talks are going to be about extraterrestrial life, and there’s going to be talks by some big experts on that subject.”

“There’s a lot of excitement because in recent years, astronomers have discovered large numbers of planets orbiting other nearby stars,” said Barr.... Also, according to Barr, the conference’s goal is to address the perceived stigma that science and religion don’t mix.

“I think if people see that there’s a large organization of a large number of scientists [who are] devout, practicing Catholics, I think it has a witness value and is stronger evidence for people in the science department.”

(https://bit.ly/356wCAi)

[TBC: As Dave Hunt wrote in the April 1995 TBC newsletter, “Couldn’t God have created intelligent life on other planets? Yes, but the Bible declares that this earth alone has intelligent physical life. It is to this earth that Satan came to spread his rebellion; and to this earth Christ came to die for man’s sin. The battle between God and Satan for the universe is centered here. Christ’s sacrifice on the cross purified the entire universe and heaven itself of sin.”]

Bacterial Proteins Use Quantum Mechanics

ICR.org, 4/8/21, “Bacterial Proteins Use Quantum Mechanics [Excerpts]: Researchers have found a dimmer switch inside a protein. It tunes the protein’s configuration to take advantage of quantum mechanics during photosynthesis. Two parallels with human engineering leave no doubts about the engineered origins of this light collector.

University of Chicago scientists found an elegant sensor connected to the dimmer switch. Two critical chemical parts of the protein together act “as a trigger,” according to University of Chicago news.

Gregory Engel is a chemist at the University of Chicago and senior author of results published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). His group described when the trigger senses oxygen. Too much oxygen would damage the light-harvesting machines faster than the bacteria could rebuild them. The trigger acts as a failsafe. High oxygen levels trip the trigger, which then uses quantum mechanics to redirect light energy away from the most sensitive energy transfer equipment.

Today’s triggers don’t happen by chance, they happen on purpose. Could these bacteria come with purpose baked into the protein?

It looks like these bacteria were crafted from the top-down instead of bottom-up.

(https://bit.ly/3x41htM)