Issue 018

Easter 4: Angels vs. Aliens

Because Why Not?

"I will fear no evil, for you are with me." Psalm  23

This last week, buried beneath #coronawhitenoise, the US government declassified several videos of footage from American Airmen experiencing close encounters with unidentifiable and super-tech-capable aircraft. 

You know. Aliens. 

Wonder what they think about our sheltering in place?

Wonder if the whole thing is their scam to infiltrate our planet (because if everyone wears face masks then we can’t tell who the aliens are!)?

I also had this thought last week: perhaps Karl Marx never believed any of his writings, but converted to a persuasive eastern religion whereafter he set upon intentionally developing a theorem for destroying the great western Satan from within, which he then began to market as “socialism.”

I decided after two seconds that it wasn’t true even in the DC universe, but that it’d still make a pretty stellar alt-historical who-dunnit.

On the other hand, the alien videos didn’t interest or even really surprise me much. That’s because I’m one of those tedious souls who has listened to enough hours of every Malepretrenuer of Malemanness podcast out there, to have heard a three hour interview of one of the pilots last year.

After three hours, the facts sounded legit: newly developed (top secret) American equipment for years has been revealing a series of not-exactly-dogfight-but-almost encounters with aircraft capable of breaking the laws of physics as we know them. 

Is it China? 

Not likely. 

Russia? 

Not possible. 

Why? 

This kind of stuff can’t be built or done by us. It’s impossible. 

To which Joe Rogan, (it was his show,) who is usually pretty astute, made a real tomfool comment to the effect of, “What’s your answer to that, religious people!?!”

I’m not even gonna try to woo you.

Angels. 

That’s my answer. 

Mankind has finally developed technology capable of seeing enough of the unseen (and fallen) world to pick up on the amazing news that “we are not alone.” 

"In the beginning…."

I wonder, further on, if God grants us the ability to determine by scientific instrument that we are surrounded by unseen-but-ever-active new-dimensional beings, whether or not “modern” man will be able to give up his dogmatic mythologies and call a spirit what it is. 

--

Wait for the Lord,
Rev. Fisk

Quick Hits for the Eyebuds

• ICYMI: Things that sound like Chewbacca
• The accident puzzle: this one looks difficult!
• Does the world need a Seinfeld point and click game?
  
• Inspiration to raise your toast game. 
• Cups that grow on trees. 
• The Hubble telescope turns 30. 
• Record-breaking "gargantuan” hail in Argentina. 
• Inside a Monarch butterfly swarm.
• One space or two? The great punctuation debate.

Lightly sprinkled with some Star Wars for extra May the 4th flavor

Clickbait Paradise

I find your lack of faith disturbing

A new Barna survey has continued to confirm what most of us know: Americans don’t believe the Bible. The survey found that 44% of Americans believe Jesus sinned while he was on earth, but in the end, most said that you couldn’t be sure that God was real anyway. The prevailing religion of America has been dubbed Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (i.e. God is waiting to help good people with their lives) but as bad as MTD is, it would seem it's now in the rearview mirror of the new doctrine: “You do you.”

It’s true. All of it.

Gene Veith recently wrote on his blog regarding early evidence for Christianity, a testimony within five years of Jesus' resurrection. It’s not “new" evidence as such, but a textual study of St Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, showing that the apostle quotes from a very early creed. For the skeptics who commented on Dr. Veith’s piece, there is nothing new to see here, only the usual charge that proving the veracity of the Gospel from the biblical accounts themselves is unacceptable. 

But for us Mad Christians, it’s always a joy to hear how the evidence keeps revealing the trustworthiness of the Word. And, it’s not a surprise.

I’ve got a bad feeling about this

It is probably evident to anyone who hasn’t been in a box for the last few weeks, that everything about this pandemic has been confusing (or maybe that’s just us…) But apart from conflicting and ever-changing advice on what we should do, an article at The Federalist suggests that there is a problem with coronavirus models themselves.

A successful model needs reams of data to be helpful and the conclusion is that we just don’t know enough about this virus yet to make definite pronouncements.

All the same, Oxford University says it will have a vaccine ready by September, so here’s hoping.

The New York Times has reported that parents are ‘breaking' under the stress of having to teach their kids at home and reopening schools seems to be a sensible next step. An article out of the UK expresses the hope that these crazy times will bring about a different perspective on children's education, with leisure at the heart of it. Perhaps, something less like a factory and more like a ...workshop?

The writer argues that kids need to take time to explore the world and that hanging out with their parents is a valuable way to pass on knowledge and skills. We suspect most homeschoolers knew that already…

BTW, a cool site from Google came across our path this week. If you have a budding composer bored at home, Chrome Music Lab is awesome fun.

Begun, the reopening has

Pockets of protest have broken out around the US, with people wanting to return to their work and lives, many ready to defy stay-at-home orders. Some good news for Rev. Fisk’s ‘hood, with Illinois governor ruling that church services are now allowed - for 10 people at a time. Hey, it’s a start. 

Help me BBQ Bacon Whopper, you’re my only hope

The heroic act of staying at home has been the way to save the world in recent weeks and TV advertisements have become accordingly strange as a result. No one wants to be reminded of the carefree outdoorsy social life they used to have and yet, laughing off the threat of coronavirus probably won’t go over well either. Burger King has walked the line with its “disaster-tising” making lying on the couch a patriotic act. Well played, BK.

The sentiment doesn’t seem that ridiculous in Coronaland with surpluses of produce in many places. Belgium last week called for its citizens to do their duty and eat more fries and food banks in San Francisco have taken donations of $2M of wagyu beef steaks. The postponing of the Kentucky Derby has left mint farmers with tons of the stuff - that’s a lot of juleps...

(The ‘fastest two minutes’ was replaced with a much slower race - turtles might just give horses a run for their money!)

Speaking of fancy fare, an auction of rare whiskies has had to be postponed because of a cyber attack. 

This isn't the normal you’re looking for

There is much talk of what the 'new normal’ will be and lots of predictions about how our society will look when the pandemic threat recedes. We suspect a lot of things will go back to how they were, but some changes might stick around. In England, an ancient flour mill has been fired up to meet the demand for all the corona-baking and the current appetite for books has seen websites for used tomes take some of Amazon’s business.

While parking spaces are the prayer requests of many-a-harried shopper, those places designated for our cars actually make up a $10.6B industry. The pandemic may mark the beginning of a shake up, as The Hustle reports, with entrepreneurially-minded people thinking of ways to maximize the use of every parking space.

Times of plague throughout history have changed the literal landscape, with cities responding to cholera and other diseases by increasing green spaces, sidewalks and outdoor areas.

Although not pandemic-related, Rev. Fisk pointed out that a recent SCOTUS verdict about public domain publishing and charging for access to court records has set an important precedent.

Do or do not. There is no try.

We’re sure you’ve been told (alright, already!) that lockdown is a great time to work on diversifying your skill set or completing your creative masterpiece and historically, times of quarantine have been quite fruitful for some. (Shakespeare wrote King Lear during a time of plague, don’t ya know? Actually, it was more likely Macbeth). 

While most of us at MM are happy just keeping our households from self-destructing, some overachievers still walk amongst us. Here’s a little roundup of awesome things folks are up to…

• A Mad Max style Tesla roadster is being developed and it looks apocalypse-ready. 
• A Zurich based brick laying company has used A.I. and a special guidance system to make wavy brick walls.
• Space X pulled off an escape mid-flight.
• Scientists have used nanobionics to create glowing plants. 
• A brain implant has given movement back to a paralyzed man’s arm.
  

What have you done with your time in quarantine?  Reply to this newsletter to let us know (bonus points for pictures).

Why did the Star Wars movies come out in the order 4 5 6 1 2 3 7 8 9?

In charge of the schedule, Yoda was.

Only Illuminati Need Apply
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Balance by Madison T.

Let us pray: Almighty God, merciful Father, since You have wakened from death the Shepherd of Your sheep, grant us Your Holy Spirit that when we hear the voice of our Shepherd we may know Him who calls us each by name and follow where He leads; through the same Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.