Studies on the Fringe of Christianity
I had an interesting journey, recently. Because of an illness, I had EMTs1 visit my home three times, had three total visits to the emergency rooms of two different hospitals, and was finally admitted for a hospital stay in another city. Now, a couple of weeks later, I’m on the mend, but still have a …
In ancient cultures, most practitioners of supernatural skills were men. They were the religious officials of various pagan cults, who were considered ritual specialists in the magical arts. It wasn’t until later, during medieval times, that a witch was considered a person who performed harmful supernatural acts against others. And, the introduction of demonic forces …
We have all been profoundly affected by the current coronavirus pandemic. Psychological surveys indicate one result of this global crisis is a growing mental health emergency, the consequences of which may be felt for years to come.1 And new medical problems, resulting from the untested, experimental, and sometimes forced mass vaccination of the population, compound …
We talk about blood a lot. “We are related by blood.” “Blood is thicker than water.” “I gave you my blood, sweat, and tears.” “That makes my blood boil.” You can probably think of more such sayings. These statements are rather common and, as one author said, “It seems we humans are hard-wired to ‘know’ …
Lately, research shows that drawing a line between where being human ends and being a machine begins is becoming harder to establish. It seems that fictional characters like ‘Data’ (Day-ta) or the ‘Borg’, of Star Trek, may not be fictional in the future. A couple of years ago, I wrote an article about Artificial Intelligence …
Fruit of the Spirit Series: Galatians 5:22-23 One day, long ago, someone approached me after a sermon and said, “We humans are nothing other than just one of many animals on earth. We were just lucky that our brain evolved higher and, therefore, set us apart from every other creature on the planet.” To that …
I’ve been around a while on this planet; I was born in the early 1940s and I’ve seen a lot of changes since then. In childhood, I remember phones that had no dial and we told the operator what number we wanted to call. We had no refrigerator, but only an ‘icebox’ for which we …
When we come face-to-face with a moral decision, we sometimes make the wrong judgement call and compound a problem, rather than solve it. Many then just chalk it up to human nature and move on. Others, however, will feel some guilt, at least for a while. If you include yourself in this latter group (guilt), …
In a prior article, I wrote about a time when someone asked me, “Do you believe in aliens?” I answered, “Yes, I believe that.” Then he asked another question, “Do you think they are here now?” Once again, I answered, “Yes.” He was, of course, not talking about legal or illegal migrants from other countries …
I was once asked by an atheist, “Why do Christians talk about blood so much?” I guess some people think we have a strange and unhealthy relationship or interest in blood. But to Christians, blood is more than just delivering nutrients and oxygen to the cells in our body and removing their waste products. Having …