Beautiful Burkini

Burkini Bathing  (Photo by Giorgio Montersino)

While others were prancing around half-naked, Halima Aden showcased her modest burkini at a Miss Minnesota

USA beauty pageant.

Such attire made her not only a fashion standout, but also a religious one.  Hoping that this courageous choice would help to “combat misconceptions about Islam,” Aden “became the first fully-covered Muslim woman in the contest.”

Celebrating diversity, Aden now asks:  How boring would this world be if everyone was the same?  Bigots might wish to come up for fresh air and ask themselves the very same question.

Resources

http://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/style/this-teen-made-history-by-wearing-a-burkini-at-the-miss-minnesota-usa-pageant/ar-AAkQZzK?ocid=B

Copyright November 30, 2016 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved

Fishy ethics at Japan's Space World

Space World    (Public Domain)

It's one thing to kill fish for food (debatable, but understandable).  It’s quite another to display their corpses for crass commercialism.

At Japan's Space World amusement park, “fish, crabs and other shellfish were embedded in the ice as part of a special winter attraction.”  As part of a vulgar attempt to attract customers, the park’s Facebook page flaunted images of the doomed fish with captions that joked:  I am d… d… drowning, s… s… suffocating.

Had this venture been met with praise, who knows what might have been next…  Fortunately, many were ethically moved to protest.  Space World manager Toshimi Takeda called their heartfelt responses “brutal.”  He nevertheless decided to unfreeze the fish and hold an “appropriate religious service” before reusing “them as fertilizer.”

Wonder what Takeda means by an “appropriate religious service.”  Would that be for him or the fish?  Seems that he’s the one in dire need of some spiritual uplift.

Resources

http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/28/asia/japan-frozen-fish-rink-trnd/

Copyright November 29, 2016 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved

Speed of light not on autopilot?

Lotsa light!     (Photo by Rhlius)

Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity proposes that the speed of light is, always was, and always will be a constant.  In religious terms, this could mean that God said, “Let there be light, and let it forever travel at 299,792,458 meters per second.”

Not so fast (or perhaps even faster)!  Scientists are now wondering whether Einstein might have been human, after all.  It seems that the Universe originally had a rather “lumpy density.”  If this were the case, then why does it now seem to be fairly homogenous?

Scientists have harbored an “inflation theory” for years, which states that the Universe may have “evened out when it was very small and then suddenly expanded.”  This leads right to another question:  What “special set of conditions” created an “inflation field” in the first place?

Professor Joao Magueijo from England and Dr. Niayesh Afshordi from Canada suggest that “there may have been a time after the Big Bang when the speed of light was much faster than it is now.”  So much for constancy.  God remains unpredictable, even to geniuses.

Resources

http://www.forbes.com/sites/bridaineparnell/2016/11/28/could-einstein-have-been-wrong-about-the-speed-of-light/#9fcf5c211090

Copyright November 28, 2016 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved