God. Real. Right.

Can a woman have surgery so that she appears to be a man? Yes. Can she take hormones and suppressants so that she appears even more to be a man? Yes. Can a culture decide it wants to use the word “man” to describe people who work really hard at appearing to be a man? Unfortunately, yes.
But can a man stop taking hormone therapy and then naturally produce an egg to combine with another man’s gametes and end up with an embryo? No. Only a woman who has worked really hard at appearing to be a man to the point where her culture was willing to call her a man can do so.
The New York Times (click here for the article) thinks the “pregnant man–’Mr.’ Beatie”–described in their story has “powered past traditional definitions of gender.” But notice that the entire Read the rest of this entry »

KJV:
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Comments:
This phrase leaves no room for a deistic view of the world. Deism claims that God started the world, but is no longer involved in it, either normally or at all–depending on how developed the form of deism is. But here Moses uses a word implying that God settles, hovers, or flutters over His new creation. In fact, he uses the same word again in Deuteronomy 32:11. There it is translated as “flutters” and describes how God stayed with and led His people through the wilderness. The importance of God’s constant and total involvement in the world is also made clear in passages like Colossians 1:16-18: “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.” And when Peter speaks of skeptics who deny that God will ever judge the world, he reminds them that before God judged the world in Noah’s day, He was already maintaining that world (at creation, in the water and out of the water) with the power of his word. That’s the point in 2 Peter 3:5: “For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water.” Peter goes on to speak of Noah’s judgment, making the point that God was involved in the world immediately after its creation, and when it was time for that first cataclysmic judgment.

Expanded Paraphrase:
But after God created the cosmos with His word, He did not leave it alone. Instead, His Spirit settled down over it to remain involved in what is not Him, but is most definitely His.

Several researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University recently succeeded at producing prosthetic arm control using a direct interface with cortical signals–according to an article they jointly published in Nature. In other words, scientists connected sensors to some monkeys’ brains and the monkeys learned to control a machine-arm in just about exactly the way they would control their own arms. Yes, it sounds creepy. But that success has huge practical implications for amputees in the near future, and for everyone–endless anticipated conveniences for optimists, endless anticipated conspiracies for everyone else. The synopsis of the article in Nature is carefully worded to avoid Read the rest of this entry »