On “The Lesser Light to Rule the Night” (Artemis II Splashdown around 8pm EST/6pm MST)

In only a few hours, around 8pm EST (6pm MST) the Artemis II astronauts will return to Earth. To be clear, they journeyed around the moon.

Christians in America and the other countries to whom American missionaries have fervently spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ have long associated the moon with Genesis 1:16’s “lesser light to rule the night”. This appears reasonable in the immediate context of, “So God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night, and also the stars.” But when we expand out to the entire creation account, say, Genesis 1:1–2:3, the moon that Artemis II just traveled to cannot be the “lesser light to rule the night”.

This is not because there is some other “lesser light” which the Genesis writer had in mind or had in view back then. Nor is it because the Genesis writer invented the concept that his god placed two lights in the sky.

The reason we know that the moon that Artemis II traveled to is not the “lesser light” is because the Genesis author demonstrably had no awareness of the moon’s physical reality.

To start, and this is softball or elementary level knowledge, the moon isn’t a light anymore than a mirror is a light. The moon and mirror are reflections of the light emanating from a proper light source.

Secondly, the moon (even from what Moses and peers could see) was present in what we call phases, to include “new moon” (or no visible moon at night) and full moons during the day.

Any child can be shown these two facts on any day and demonstrate that they understand, no different than they can name and meaningfully distinguish trees from driveways. (To be sure, a child can understand the moon is a mirror—has a dark side—and that the moon is visible when it is not night and not visible when it is night.)

Assuming that you, faithful reader, understand these two facts about the moon, the one that Artemis II just traveled to, then you now have a sure foundation from which to understand, as early generations of Jews/Israelites did, the creation account recorded in Genesis and referenced elsewhere in the library that we call the Bible.

This is not about creationists vs evolutionists or any iteration of that debate. It isn’t about 6-day creation or intelligent design.

I am sharing a simple, incontrovertible set of facts from which any Artemis II watching American can undergird their interpretation of scripture.

Moses didn’t understand what we call physics. It is untenable, baseless, and rigid stubbornness to suggest Yahweh inspired him to write words which would so easily prove laughably inaccurate. Instead, the divinely inspired words of Moses recorded in Genesis (and elsewhere) infallibly inform us who (the real) god is and what he is like.

The answer to any question your mind develops is “read more”, not “become inflexible”.


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The Astronaut is just as Wrong as the Politician

Deuteronomy 6:5 says “You shall love Yahweh (the LORD) your god…”

In Mark 12:30 after Jesus is asked a question, he says, “You shall love the lord your god…”

Talerico and Glover, to the undulating praise of their respective bases, both drop the specificity of the commands. Why? Do they not know their bible?

Obviously Talerico is out for destruction and will misuse and abuse any words from any writer as he goes about accomplishing his quest. Despite his claims to the contrary, the Bible books and their authors are not sacred or special to Talerico.

Glover is a different story.

For my part, I imagine that he feels some sense of “people are actually listening to me!” and for some reason, this translates to “…so I better not push them away!” (as it does to so many pastors who have 15-min of fame).

But (according to the library that we call “the Bible”) the blood of Jesus matters, which means the time he spent on earth matters, which means the other people alive with him mattered, which means the previous people who lived matter, which means that Moses’ words matter in their totality.

Moses was preaching Yahweh, not god. It would have been confusing (it still is confusing) if Moses told a bunch of prone-to-idolatry people, “Love god”. The response to this exhortation, back then and today, should always be, “Which god?”

For his part, Jesus was talking to a scribe, which we can reasonably presume means literate man, and Jesus includes the full phrase from Moses, “the lord your god.”

It is not Biblical Christianity to read scripture and assume that because of the new and singular demonstration of Yahweh’s all-powerful status in the resurrection of his son Jesus the competition for “who is god” is over in the lives of us mortals.

Does Grover not know this? I don’t know. What I do know is it is obviously distasteful to push people away. And yet, the core and empowering belief and living hope of Christianity is the resurrected Christ Jesus (son of Yahweh). However, the fact that there is a specific and easily namable hope and belief of a religion does not prevent their from being many, many anti-Christ’s who disagree and don’t care about the belief.

The question for you is, “If you don’t quote scripture accurately, what are you even quoting?”

Quote it accurately, I say. Because, in a world of confusion and sin, using accurate quotations indirectly (indirect because you’re honoring the precise words of another instead of thinking their words don’t matter—as if all we care about is some ethereal, abstract concept) it indirectly conveys to the audience that you matter. And if you matter, they matter.

Life isn’t a simulation. Life isn’t a game. And more life is the goal. And as Paul wrote, “…if you confess with your mouth Jesus as lord (Yahweh/trinity talk) and believe in your heart that god (Yahweh) raised him from the dead you will be saved (Romans 10:9),” is the only way to get eternal life.

Did the “God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ” Tell Me to Calm Down After My Car Broke Down on the Side of the Road?

As an EMS Helicoper Pilot, I absolutely refuse to sit in a car parked on the side of a highway. State Highway or otherwise, no way. Emergency blinkers on or not, you couldn’t pay me to sit inside the parked car and await my fate.

So I walked away from the car through some desert grass to a flat spot which, coming back in the morning, proved to be the access road to the parallel running railroad just a little farther away.

My main thought was, “Why would this happen? Have I been too unhinged in my thought life recently as my wife made terrible decisions about contagious kids? Maybe. But, no. I don’t really believe in such cause and effect. So why? Why can’t I just get home?”

Friends came to my immediate rescue, but not before one “Maryland Man”-type character pulled to a stop to see if I needed help. The passenger’s inability to look anywhere but forward was silly and unnerving. But, on the whole, the driver slowly developed a demeanor of, “I have more to lose than this gringo off duty cop,” and so he was happy for me to thank him and send him on his way.

Another vehicle, this time a sedan, came to a stop alongside my parked car—on an active lane of highway—and expected to see someone in the seat. Upon discovering my car was empty, or perhaps seeing the traffic behind him wasn’t necessarily going to stop, he pulled forward, and then got out and approached the car. I yelled from the side road area and he got back in his car. Unlike the MS-13 wannabe who definitely would have taken advantage of someone, this guy seemed “merely high” and in need of a loving act to square him with god.

As my pal finally approached, I still felt terror that some drunk was gonna take us all out as I quickly moved gear from my car to my rescuers.

Fast forward to this morning.

I was now, while standing a ways off the road again, on the phone discovering that the insurance-directed tow company had no idea I exist. The wind was blowing much colder than anticipated. The sun, while near constant in its role, was behind clouds. And I still had only one thing on my mind. “I will never sit in a car parked off the road on a highway. No, sir. Not me. I’m not going out like that. I’d rather freeze.”

Another rando pulls off (smartly) onto a driveway-esque point where the road would allow easy crossing of the railroad. I think, “Yup, I should’ve pulled off there too.” I walk over and say, “Thank you, but I already have help on the way.”

A 60ish year old local woman rolls down her window and replies, “What? Okay. I thought you were Jeremy.”

What a world we live in. I thought for a minute about whether Jeremy has my body type and Carhartt hoodie jacket, or my car. Or maybe both? That would be weird.

Finally, my wife, in a move totally unexpected for a million reasons, most especially the fact that I told her to go all the way to the next light just a few miles down for the required U-Turn, caught my attention by rushing to a stop and swinging the U-Turn at some random access point in the median which I honestly had not even noticed until just then.

Here’s where things get spiritual.

As this maneuver is being completed, I noticed two snow-plow-type city trucks slowly coming toward us. They were driving on the shoulder, spraying whatever they were spraying on the side of the road.

With me, faithful reader?

I tell my wife, “Please move to in front of my car so that you don’t get hit. I need to grab stuff from my car and I don’t want you guys (J- is in the car too) to get hit while waiting and trying to help me.

She did.

Slowly the trucks approached, turned their spigots down to a trickle, and gave way to pass by before resuming.

Another minute of moving gear—unprotected by those two trucks—and we were off. Success.

I am not one to find God, especially the actual, factual Biblical Father/Son/Holy Spirit, in every waking and coincidental moment.

But, right or wrong, when I saw those “blockers” slow rolling up to my family and I, and at the precise time that we were all there, I felt like maybe He was telling me, “Dude—too tight. You’re holding on too tight. It’s not your day.”

One Thought on Mathematicians

As I keep working through James Newman’s four volume The World of Mathematics, I cannot help but conclude that my previously held notion “nurture matters (in “nature vs nurture” sense) in the development of mathematical ability” is entirely mistaken.

New question: In what other corners of the mind might nurture not matter?

Launch Window Opens at 4:24pm Mountain Time. (5:24 Central, 6:24 New York, 3:24 West Coast)

Every headline about the launch should read similarly. Why they don’t is beyond me.

https://www.youtube.com/live/Tf_UjBMIzNo?si=AXWTenlbe36P1fpe

That’s the official NASA link.

Here’s some fun broadcasters I found.

https://www.youtube.com/live/Jm8wRjD3xVA?si=ARNLEuSsio3GoBKE

Beneta, A Review of The Accountant by Gavin O’Conner

Which is it? Do people with “autism” save the day Greta-style? Or do people with “autism” save the day, Ben Affleck style?

A co-worker recommended the film, casually, saying, “He plays someone with autism well.”

I will say this about the film. It held my attention. And it tied a nice bow, leaving very few, if any, plot points unresolved.

And yet. Who cares if someone, for tons of money, can convincingly not make eye-contact and recite lines methodically?

The real question for those in the “autism-as-superpower” camp, is can an “autistic” person act like a normal person? IE, Greta cannot be a Hollywood A-Lister. Shouldn’t that mean something?

(To be clear: No, my child, autism is not cool or a superpower or a much needed solution to the human’s dilemma on earth.)

Words Are Not the Issue

When Jesus resurrected, many things changed. One such change is this: Words stopped being the issue.

Turn with me to Matthew 21:15 and notice how the adults are described as indignant about what essentially mindless children are uttering or repeating.

Have you ever heard a child say a bad word in innocence?

The other day, before I knew what happened, five year old A- started running through the consonants matched to “-ucky”.

“Bucky”

“Ducky”

“Mucky”

“Sucky”

“Tucky”

Wait for it…

“Fucky”

Now when this happened, redeemed by the blood sinner that I am, I did not worry that my child just communicated with darkness or the nether realms or evil spirits. I did not worry that her soul somehow switched from innocent to ruined. No. And why not?

Because Christians do not believe that words actually matter. Is this stance of us Christian’s supernatural? I think so. But I am not certain. It seems to me that anyone can understand my point, and yet very few do.

We live in a world where all sides seem to want to dictate specific phrasing and word use. The examples are too numerous to state.

The point is: you’re all wrong.

You’re all like the adults in Matthew who were indignant that some children joined in the shouting as Jesus road into town. Get some self control, I say! It isn’t the words, like, it isn’t the actual English (or any language) utterance that matters. It is the meaning and understanding that matters.

A quantifiable moron saying, “Make America Great Again” or “Black Lives Matter” does not somehow raise their intelligence or wisdom level as a result of joining a chorus. Give me a break!