hughbiquitous

I used to joke around that if scientists published a report saying that oxygen causes cancer, millions of people would advocate against breathing.

The comedy team Penn & Teller once perpetrated a delightful hoax in which they collected signatures to ban dihydrogen monoxide (DHMO), for the following reasons:

• DHMO is a major component of acid rain.
• DHMO contributes to soil erosion.
• DHMO causes corrosion and breakdown of metals and electrical equipment.
• Excessive ingestion of DHMO may cause various unpleasant, though generally not life-threatening, effects.
• Prolonged contact with DHMO in its solid form results in severe tissue damage.
• Inhalation of DHMO, even in small quantities, may cause death.
• DHMO in its gaseous form may cause severe burns.
• DHMO has been found in the tumors of terminal cancer patients.
• Nevertheless, the government and corporations continue using DHMO widely, heedless of its grave dangers.

DHMO also goes by the more common name, “water.”

This, unfortunately, is not intended as a joke: (more…)

College Faculties A Most Liberal Lot, Study Finds (washingtonpost.com)

The most left-leaning departments are English literature, philosophy, political science and religious studies, where at least 80 percent of the faculty say they are liberal and no more than 5 percent call themselves conservative, the study says.

“In general, even broad-minded people gravitate toward other people like themselves. That’s why you need diversity, not just of race and gender but also, maybe especially, of ideas and perspective.”

In other words, the most left-leaning departments are those most amenable to a postmodern drift away from any notion of definite reality.

There is no shortage of jokes about the kid who goes to college to “find himself.” Perhaps these are the same people, now grown up… perhaps they only found themselves when they lost everyone and everything else. Or as one article I read recently put it, it’s “nihilism with a smile.”

Your college tuition hard at work, folks…

God is looking for people through whom he can do the impossible. What a pity that we plan only the things we can do ourselves.

A.W. Tozer

I have indeed inveighed sharply against impious doctrines, and I have not been slack to censure my adversaries on account, not of their bad morals, but of their impiety. And for this I am so far from being sorry, that I have brought my mind to despise the judgments of men, and to persevere in this vehement zeal, according to the example of Christ, who, in his zeal, calls his adversaries a generation of vipers, blind, hypocrites, and children of the devil. Paul too charges the sorcerer with being a child of the devil, full of all subtlety and all malice; and defames certain persons as evil workers, dogs, and deceivers. In the opinion of those delicate-eared persons, nothing could be more bitter or intemperate than Paul’s language. What can be more bitter than the words of the prophets? The ears of our generation have been made so delicate by the senseless multitude of flatterers, that, as soon as we perceive that anything of ours is not approved of, we cry out that we are being bitterly assailed; and when we can repel the truth by no other pretence, we escape by attributing bitterness, impatience, intemperance, to our adversaries. What would be the use of salt, if it were not pungent? or of the edge of the sword, if it did not slay? Accursed is the man, who does the work of the Lord deceitfully.

Martin Luther, Concerning Christian Liberty: Letter of Martin Luther to Pope Leo X

Isaiah 53 foretells the work of Christ’s death and resurrection. This was inspired by that chapter…

The Anguish of His Soul (2.2 MB)

A memorable story arose from putting this together. My daughter saw me editing this and asked what it was. She was pretty affected by it, even at her young age of four. It was really gratifying to see her go off and start drawing a picture of Jesus on the cross.

I asked her to tell me about it. She gave me the whole rundown - you can picture how I was beaming inside as a parent.

Then she explained that Jesus was saying, “Hey, you guys! Get me down!”