There's a word for that

Once again, the NY Times, followed by several other papers, has revealed information that has damaged our war on terror. They've claimed that the public's right to know outweighs the administrations desire to keep such programs secret. Never mind that this conveniently malleable "the public" or "the people" actually seem rather ineffective at the polling booths and a President who has vowed to go after terrorism was reelected. Never mind that the programs are legal and effective. The editors have decided, and justify their action with completed disregard for such facts. 

The NY Post says it well with Aid and Comfort

June 27, 2006 -- 'The disclosure of this program is disgraceful," says President Bush.

That's one word.

Here's another: Dangerous.

The New York Times has again put its institutional arrogance and contempt for the duly elected current administration ahead of the security of the nation.

[...]

So let's be clear: Such stories give aid and comfort to the enemy in time of war.

There is a word for that.

[...]

Yes and the word is:

 TREASON!

The article concludes:

No more so than willfully destroying the utility of initiatives that might prevent another 9/11.

Or something even worse.

There are many ways to abuse the First Amendment. Using it as a machete to undercut secret presidential policies opposed by newspaper executives is bad enough.

To do so in time of war is despicable

I'm not going to bother with linking to the rationalizations that these despicable creatures are flinging around like druken chimpanzees suffering from diaherria. You can find them yourself easily enough, I don't care to improve their site visit stats. It's as if they're spoiled children, knowing they can just about commit murder, and hardly have to worry about getting even a time out.

Just listening to the NY Times and others make excuses for the latest act is worse than fingernails on a chalk board. Their justification for revealing these legal programs would have us lose the beach at Normandy and the Battle at Midway if they had applied such criteria back then. Hopefully, their self-serving grasp for a Pulitzer prize will not result in more American deaths, as it so obviously would have during previous wars. Not that they would care if it did.

---

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OTA - Open Trackback Post 06.26.06

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ADVICE: Trackback main blog page articles to showcase your work (and it will help to attract readers).

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G-d vs Free will - Cage match! v.3

And the series continues. In v.1 I briefly addressed some of the logical arguments and directed the reader to resources that can provide further study beyond my abilities and what I can present directly here. With v.2 I began addressing passages that are claimed to support the view that man does not have free-will. In that particular case it was in response to an individual referring to the matter of Pharoah. The matter has come up again and some additional verses have been referenced by another indvidual.

This began with Alex responding to someone else. I've included his original remarks as he formatted them, so the reader can see one of the things I was criticizing with my reply. Having seen it again, I have to wonder if an obsessive compulsive disorder of sorts is at work.

AlexWrote:

Jesus tells us: "You have NOT CHOSEN ME, but I have CHOSEN YOU" (John 15:16).

He also tells us: "NO MAN CAN COME TO ME [by his own free will choice] except the Father which has sent me DRAW HIM [Greek: DRAG HIM] and I WILL raise him up at the last day" (John 6:44).

The disciples make it clear ""There is NONE that seeks after God" (Rom. 3:11b).

and

"For by grace are ye saved through FAITH; and that [that FAITH] is NOT OF YOURSELVES [well where does it come from then, if not from US?] ; it is the GIFT OF GOD" (Eph. 2:8).

The point of this hole post is to show you, we do not choose Jesus, we don't even believe on our own, it is GOd who calls us, and God who believes in and Lives in Us. So those who do not believe is because Jesus has not chosen them. Simple really.

**** lets be honost here, do you really think God didn't know adam and eve were gonna do what they did? Do you really think God was asking them were they were in the garden because He didn't know? No, God knew well before, He asked for there sakes, and He knew they would take the bite from the Apple because God has declared the End before the begining. It is all done for a reason. That reason is:

"For the creature [and/or creation itself] was MADE subject to VANITY NOT WILLINGLY, but by reason of Him [thats God] Who HATH SUBJECTED the same in hope. Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the BONDAGE OF CORRUPTION into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the WHOLE CREATION groans and travails IN PAIN until NOW" (Rom. 8:20-22)!

---

My first reply:

Some people need to think about the implications of what they present :(

Besides being wrong about the matter.

----

Alex again:

Yea.... so what you gonna sit here and tell me those scriptures are lieng to us?

How about using scripture to prove what you are trying to say? There is no scripture that proves we choose God,   there is no scripture that shows we have free will. Its an idle of the heart,   and most people hold on to it for dear life.

God knew full well adam and eve flaws,   and what they were gonna do long before they did them,   He knew long before He created them,   after all He did declare the END before the BEGINING.

Understand GOd is all knowing,   ever present,   ever lasting,   ALL MIGHTY in EVERY aspect,   and maybe you will start to see this little myth of Free will. You can make choices yes,   but you cannot make a FREE CHOICE,   an UNCAUSED CHOICE.

God bless, 

----

And now as per my usual method, the original comments are in bold, with my replies in regular font. I've provided concluding comments at the end of the original exchange.

How about using scripture to prove what you are trying to say? There is no scripture that proves we choose God, there is no scripture that shows we have free will. Its an idle of the heart,   and most people hold on to it for dear life.

Simmer down boy. I don't have to respond by your schedule. If you haven't noticed, this isn't a real time chat room. There are many passages where we are warned to not fall away, where people are called to believe, quit acting less than Christ like, to put on the mind of Christ. Calls to action, making no sense whatsoever if we are not supposed to make choices that are real and meaningful. What you have presented does nothing to take away from the clear meaning of those passages.

God knew full well adam and eve flaws, and what they were gonna do long before they did them,   He knew long before He created them, after all He did declare the END before the BEGINING.

Understand GOd is all knowing,  ever present, ever lasting,  ALL MIGHTY in EVERY aspect,   and maybe you will start to see this little myth of Free will. You can make choices yes,   but you cannot make a FREE CHOICE, an UNCAUSED CHOICE.

Cap locks do not an argument make. BTW neither do basic html tags. Furthermore, knowledge is not causation. God can have knowledge of what people will do and most certainly incorporate that within his plan.

I've dealt with this in more detail at my blog:

G-d vs Free will - Cage match! v.1

And before you jump on Pharaoh as support for your position, I've dealt with it already:

G-d vs Free will - Cage match! v.2

Now, let's look at the passages you've referenced. However, I'm not going to insert words in the middle, breaking them up and trying to spin them as you have.

Joh 15:16  Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you

One must not read more into a passage than it contains, nor apply it beyond what is reasonable. This is to the disciples and is speaking of service in history. The Bible also speaks of God's actions being preceded by his foreknowledge in Romans 8. Certainly, God, transcending time, knows who will respond to him, in any and all circumstances and times and who would serve best as disciples and accordingly, within history, chooses those very same people.

Joh 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Free will proponents do not need to deny this verse. However, your position requires reading much into it that is simply not there and to ignore what the Bible says elsewhere. The passage does not say that God refuses to draw those who desire him or that he makes people for hell or heaven with their having no choice in the matter and in essence, making them merely puppets of God's will. All that is said is that God must draw men. Inserting your spin, or the copy/paste of someone else's hack job on the verse, doesn't change anything at all.

Speaking of Christ:

Joh 1:9  That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

Regarding the Pauline passage in Romans chpt 3. Let's look at a bit more of what is being said.

Rom 3:10-17  As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11)  There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12)  They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 13)  Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: 14)  Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 15)  Their feet are swift to shed blood: 16)  Destruction and misery are in their ways: 17)  And the way of peace have they not known:

Paul is referring to a Psalm, a genre of literature that most certainly contains hyperbole and figurative language.

Psa 14:1-7  To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. 2)  The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. 3)  They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 4)  Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the LORD. 5)  There were they in great fear: for God is in the generation of the righteous. 6)  Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the LORD is his refuge. 7)  Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! when the LORD bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.

Considering the genre of literature Paul is referencing and his language in the Romans passage, it is clear that he's using rhetorical hyperbole in his argument. This can be confirmed by noting what is clearly said elsewhere in scripture.

Mat 7:8  For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

Regarding Ephesians.

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

You should let the passage speak for itself, rather than insert your spin and distort the flow of the passage. What is not of ourselves is the grace by which we are saved. We can place loyalty in many people, yet that is not how we receive grace unto salvation. It is only by trust and loyalty to God through His Son. There is nothing to brag about and free will does not give one opportunity to do so.

Eph 1:13-16  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, 14)  Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. 15)  Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, 16)  Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, 

Paul is thanking them for the trust they placed in God when they believed. Don't waste your time trying to gain support for your position from the preceding verses. Paul is clearly speaking to those who have already chosen to believe. Christians are predestined to good works and the complete fulfilment of salvation. That does not mean we do not choose to believe and belief is merely imposed on us willy nilly.

Romans 8:20-22 doesn't say anything against our ability to choose God regarding salvation. The passage is led into by referring to Christians and the current travails are compared to expectation of the glory that is to come. Notice the futility or vanity that is imposed leads certainly to glory. Those who have believed, can be certain of the glory that is to come including even creation itself. The current travails they were experiencing were poetically compared to longing for that eventuality.

But thanks, I now have most of v.3 for my series.

---

Addendum/concluding remarks:

In my first reply I had stated "Some people need to think about the implications of what they present". I've noticed that some Christians will argue that God doesn't give us a choice. They seem to think that if He did, we have reason to brag and therby diminsh God's glory and salvation by grace. I don't find the position very well supported as I've shown. What they also need to realize is that they diminsh God's glory to the point of skeptics justifying disbelief in the God of Christianity with these arguments. In the more extreme versions, we cannot be held responsible for our actions because God determines them, we do not. Unsurprisingly, this is used by skeptics to claim that such a God is not worthy of worship.

But as I believe I have shown in this series, such a position is not well supported and justifying one's disbelief on such a view, is to base it on error that can easily be corrected. That people choose to build to their rejection of God on such shallow foundations, is sad but hardly surprising. However, we as Christians need to make sure we don't unwittingly offer support to such arguments.

2Ti 2:15 Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

As other verses are presented in discussions or I have time to address them myself, I will add to the series.

---

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OTA - Open Trackback Post 06.19.06

As the lovely Samantha Burns says:

Please use this space to trackback your best, main page articles (I just require a link to this article, as always). Also, if you have something to discuss, it is welcomed here as well.

ADVICE: Trackback main blog page articles to showcase your work (and it will help to attract readers).

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Father's day

I was able to call my dad today and catch up on things, as well as wish him a happy Father's day and say I love him. One thing that surprised me some years ago is that he was doing most of his bill payment online. I know he has a rather ancient computer and dial up internet connection and yet he was ahead of me on that count.

For getting up in years he has quite a good memory. Last  year he was online when I called so I had to leave a message and send him an email. This year he intentionally stayed offline in case I called and of course I did. I made his day again and though we've had our difficulties when I was much younger, I enjoyed talking to him and look forward to seeing him at some family picnics this year.

I know some day people will ask if he was a good father. My answer, to paraphrase a scene from a favorite movie:

I don't think any man is as good a father as he intends to be. But this man tried hard, very hard.

Many families today have fathers that don't even try. I was blessed with one who did and despite the flaws, which we all have, I was instilled with values that make me a better person. However, I still don't care for baseball so much, or the Chicago cubs. Sorry dad, you can't win them all, just like the cubbies ;-)

---

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G-d vs Free will - Cage match! v.2

Another in what is a series regarding God and man's free-will. In v.1 the logical arguments were addressed. I'll now deal with some of the Bible passages that are claimed to teach that God overrides man's will. Since the account of Pharaoh is brought up so often, and I've recently had a debate regarding the matter, I'll recount that here and add several points at the end of the exchange. As per my usual methods, the original comments are in bold, with my replies in regular font interspersed throughout. Other passages will be dealt with in the future.

(ASV used throughout)

Origen IIWrote:
 
 So because you've seen some Calvinist arguments you automatically are the authority on the 'fact' that Calvinistic thinking by Biblical interpretation is wrong. I call Ad Vericundium on you.
 
If your going to call me on a fallacy and use the Latin; one, spell it right and two, make sure I've actually committed that fallacy.
 
I don't claim to be an authority on all of Calvinist thought, just that I've seen an extreme Calvinist defend this particular view and the responses to them. I've also looked at the typical claims on this matter and appeals to various verses and those passages are invariably taken out of context.
 
Besides Romans,   there are several other simply readable passages that explore this issue and show that God is in TOTAL control of every person's destiny.
 
I don't doubt that God is in total control. But accomplishing his will does not require micro managing us so that we are not free to make our choices. Every verse I have seen from others reads that micro manage view into the passages or misapplies the passage to one's moral choice concerning salvation when the verses are actually about something else.
 
 If God chooses people for the sake of revealing His glory,   then man hasn't chosen to do otherwise based on their "free will". God "allowing" is no different than God purposing something to happen. If He didn't want it to happen I think God could very well stop it from happening,   unless of course you believe God is incapable of doing so.
 
God is fully capable of choosing people he knows will reveal his glory because he transcends time and his knowledge is not limited to only the past and present as ours. You keep ignoring that fundamental matter.
 
You aren't wrong about Pharaoh? Even though Pharaoh's heart was hardened before Moses and Aaron went to speak with him? You think Pharaoh would have said "yes" if God hadn't hardened his heart? You think Pharaoh's will was 'free' from the influence of God and his decision wasn't tampered with?

Before they spoke to him, Pharaoh had already decided to treat the Hebrews harshly. There is no mention of God causing this in the first few chapters in Exodus. Clearly his will wasn't favorable to God's people by his own choice.
 
This is the first mention of Pharaoh resisting God in relation to letting the people go. Before this, God predicted He would harden Pharaoh's heart but that prophecy does not exclude that Pharaoh would do so first or continue to be an active agent even after God's judgment.

Exo 5:2  And Pharaoh said, Who is Jehovah, that I should hearken unto his voice to let Israel go? I know not Jehovah, and moreover I will not let Israel go.

Only after it is stated that Pharaoh hardens his heart do we have verses late in the hardening clearly state that Jehovah acted. But in context, it can be seen this simply was not going against the will of Pharaoh but giving Pharaoh over to his own will as judgment.

Exo 7:13  And Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them; as Jehovah had spoken.
 
 Exo 7:22  And the magicians of Egypt did in like manner with their enchantments: and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them; as Jehovah had spoken.
 
 Exo 8:15  But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them, as Jehovah had spoken.
 
 Exo 8:19  Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, This is the finger of God: and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them; as Jehovah had spoken.
 
 Exo 8:32  And Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and he did not let the people go.
 
 Exo 9:12  And Jehovah hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them, as Jehovah had spoken unto Moses.
 
 Exo 9:34  And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants.
 
 Exo 9:35  And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the children of Israel go, as Jehovah had spoken by Moses.
 
 Exo 10:1  And Jehovah said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh: for I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his servants, that I may show these my signs in the midst of them,
 
 Exo 10:20  But Jehovah hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the children of Israel go.
 
 also Exo 10:27, 11:10, 14:8

To claim that as Jehovah had spoken means Jehovah did the hardening is to ignore that when God did such, it is clearly stated. Also, Jehovah had also stated that Pharaoh would harden his heart, without reference to Jehovah acting to do so.

 Exo 3:19  And I know that the king of Egypt will not give you leave to go, no, not by a mighty hand.
 
 Exo 3:20  And I will put forth my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst thereof: and after that he will let you go.

And if Pharaoh truly had this "free will",  would he have not tampered with Gods plan if he had chosen otherwise? Would Gods efforts of hardening his heart have failed and God been overpowered by the will of this mere human?

And again, you ignore the transcendent means by which God acquires knowledge and that Pharaoh rejected God first. God responded to that by giving Pharaoh over to his own will for punishment.
 
Besides ignoring that Pharaoh's will was turned against God by his own decisions first, your position also requires that this hardened condition was permanent and also affected his eternal condition. There is no indication in the passage that Pharaoh could not later repent. Jewish tradition actually holds that he did. Also, this action within history, does not relate to one's eternal destiny. You simply do not have data that shows Pharaoh was not allowed to repent later of this action or that he was not allowed to turn to God regarding salvation.

I think it is you who is ignoring some fundamental truths here.

Keep telling yourself that but self delusion is hardly impressive as an argument

---

I didn't mention in that exchange but it is recounted elsewhere in scripture that Pharaoh hardened his own heart.

I Sa 6:6 Wherefore then do ye harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When he had wrought wonderfully among them, did they not let the people go, and they departed?

This principle of God giving people over to their own will for judgment is recounted in scripture as well.

Lam 3:59 - O Jehovah, thou hast seen my wrong; judge thou my cause. 60) Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their devices against me. 61) Thou hast heard their reproach, O Jehovah, and all their devices against me, 62) The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day. 63) Behold thou their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their song. 64)Thou wilt render unto them a recompense, O Jehovah, according to the work of their hands. 65) Thou wilt give them hardness of heart, thy curse unto them.

The individual debating this matter, in addition to other errors is clearly overlooking the transcendent nature of God's knowledge. He's said he'll look over my previous post and comment but I'm not all that concerned considering his performance here.

---

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Karl Rove

Much has been said, hoped, dreamed and wished for by the rabid left regarding Karl Rove. None of it good. It would seem with each hope and then delay, their dream of his  inevitable indictment and arrest was only being postponed so as to result in maximum climax for their orgasmic fantasies.

No Indictment of Rove in CIA-Leak Case

    Ha

Ha!

Unfortunately balls of blue will be all they can experience.

Don Suber has an excellent post covering this and other matters and makes this comment:

The left owes him apologies. Big time.

No kidding. But I doubt anyone's going to hold their breath waiting for that.

---

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OTA - Open Trackback Post 06.12.06

As the lovely Samantha Burns says:

Please use this space to trackback your best, main page articles (I just require a link to this article, as always). Also, if you have something to discuss, it is welcomed here as well.

ADVICE: Trackback main blog page articles to showcase your work (and it will help to attract readers).

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G-d vs Free will - Cage match! v.1

Lately, I've managed to get into several discussions or debates about the matter of God vs the free-will of man. Some present that the only possibility is either God or man's free-will must suffer deadly defeat as if they're opponents in a professional wrestling cage match. Colorful imagery aside, the argument is that God's omnipotence and/or omniscience fatally contradicts with man's free will. As such, the God of Christianity is a nonsense concept. I'll deal first with the logical argument and eventually, in another post, show that there is no support in the Bible for the view that man does not have free will. I'll also refer to the reader to several resources that present the matter in detail beyond my abilities.

One of the problems with making such arguments is the complete lack of experience of being as an entity that transcends our temporal existence. This leads to arguing for an absolute negation or impossibility, from a position of no experience whatsoever for what such an existence would be or how it would interface with this world. Along with this weak foundation, elements of philosophy and physics are ignored that may allow for foreknowledge and free-will to both exist, in tension, but without unavoidable or fatal contradiction.

The disciplines of philosophy and physics speak of block time, imaginary time and quantum indeterminacy, which may offer possible means and positive explanations by which a transcendent being can interface with a temporal world without destroying free-will for those within the flow of time.
 
Yet one argument offered is that if God knows, then we cannot act differently. But knowledge is not a cause and simply saying it's God's knowledge does not change that knowledge is dependent on the choices we make. If we make different choices His knowledge is different. This doesn't destroy omniscience as there is no time, for God, when he does not know, as he transcends the moment by moment flow of time that we experience our choices within.

Looking more deeply into God's nature, we see the experience of the mystics. The "stillness" they speak of is vibrant and living, rather than slothful, dead inactivity. Such a state would be equivalent to movement at infinite speed as noted by C.S. Lewis.

We may find a violence in some of the traditional imagery which tends to obscure the changelessness of God, the peace, which nearly all who approach Him have reported - the "still, small voice."...The stillness in which the mystics approach Him is intent and alert - at the opposite pole from sleep or reverie. They are becoming like Him. Silences in the physical world occur in empty places: but the ultimate Peace is silent through the very density of life. Saying is swallowed up in being. There is no movement because His action (which is Himself) is timeless. You might, if you wished, call it movement at an infinite speed, which is the same thing as rest, but reached by a different - perhaps a less misleading - way of approach. (Miracles, chap. 11 para. 18, p. 93)

This means we can change our minds but due to the infinite speed of God's activity and because God transcends time, we can never change our minds faster than God can acquire the knowledge.

Still, some will object and say if free-will exists, then God is not omnipotent. Their first problem is not understanding the concept of omnipotence. It means that God can do all things possible, that do not conflict with his nature. As such, allowing free-will but then denying it so that those who reject God, are made to accept him anyway, is not possible. Claiming that omnipotence means God cannot even allow free-will, requires saying that God is not allowed to choose inaction. That would actually be a limit placed on His omnipotence. This also overlooks another property of God, agent-causation or free will. Certainly, such an omnipotent being also has the power to decide not to act.

Before I provide further resources for the reader I would like to touch on an additional point that tends to come up in these discussion. It has been said, that God allowing free-will, which creates the possibility of moral evil, means that God is not good. This requires disallowing that free-will itself is not a good thing. But we can see from even materialists, who hold to determinism and free-will not existing, that there is value in acting as if it does. Doing so, allows for personal responsibility and accountability and therefore civilized society. If the mere illusion of free-will is so valuable, the actual thing must be magnitudes greater in value.

The logical argument is based on a weak foundation and ignores or distorts attributes of God in attempting to present this as a fatal contradiction. Some may revel in playing such games, but it may be more an indication of their desire to imagine men in tights, pretending to wrestle, than in an actual search for truth regarding our relationship to God.

The following article was helpful in my study:

Why didn't God stop the process before it started, if He knew of the massive amounts of suffering that would befall many of His creatures??

Another good resource:

Christian Philosophy Professors On-line

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OTA - Open Trackback Post 06.05.06

As the lovely Samantha Burns says:

Please use this space to trackback your best, main page articles (I just require a link to this article, as always). Also, if you have something to discuss, it is welcomed here as well.

ADVICE: Trackback main blog page articles to showcase your work (and it will help to attract readers).

Yep, I was in a plagirizing mood ;-) Nevertheless, it's a good way to draw more attention to your blog, so trackback away :-) I'll have one of these each Monday, because, well, I hate Mondays ;-p

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Unexpected Inspiration

Sometimes, rememberance and contemplation are triggered in ways that we don't expect. I like to read about scientific matters and besides the books I've read recently, I have a small stack of magazines I need to work through a bit more. My favorite issues to keep up on are cosmology and quantum physics. Perhaps I'm just a geek, but the following may interest you as well. These are not presented as proof by any stretch of the imagination, but simply as unsought for moments of inspiration.

Scientists Serve Up 'Perfect' Liquid

"The finding of a nearly perfect liquid in a laboratory experiment recreating the conditions believed to have existed a few microseconds after the birth of the universe is truly astonishing, " said Praveen Chaudhari, Director of Brookhaven Lab. "The four RHIC collaborations are now collecting and analyzing very large new data sets from the fourth and fifth years of operation, and I expect more exciting and intriguing revelations in the near future."

Genesis 1

1) In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2) And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Generation (particle physics)

In particle physics, a generation is a division of the elementary particles. Between generations, particles differ only by their mass and flavor; all interactions and quantum numbers are identical. There are three generations according to the Standard Model of particle physics.

[...]

Nonetheless, searches at high-energy colliders for particles from a fourth generation continue, but as yet no evidence has been observed.

Matthew 3

16) And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:

17) And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

Is This What the Big Bang Sounded Like?

 The fluctuations revealed the peaks and troughs of sound waves moving through the hot gas of the young universe.

"We are actually seeing the sound waves," Whittle said. "There are little ones on top of bigger ones, all adding to give the appearance of random patchiness."

[...]

This sound spectrum spans about ten octaves. The top five octaves correspond to acoustic waves—the primordial sound of the universe, just 380,000 years into its existence.

Genesis 1

 3) And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

[...]

 6) And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

[...]

9) And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

[...]

The caveat being that science will probably change tomorrow if not having done so already yesterday. Yet, perhaps we should consider how even the most mundane or even apparently unrelated things in life can draw our minds to God, if only we would allow ourselves to be so led. We may be pleasantly surprised at how creative the Holy Spirit can be.

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