Eye on Faith

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Hair today, donated tomorrow

Chemotherapy Drip (PD)

An 8-year-old boy named Christian McPhilamy is living up to the very best of what his first name implies.

After viewing a commercial for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, Christian learned that young cancer patients often lose their hair during treatments. He became determined to donate his own blonde locks for this worthy cause.

After putting up with teasing and taunting by peers for the next two years, Christian was finally ready for a haircut. Good Housekeeping reports that his dedication produced four long ponytails for the children at St. Jude’s.

Christian's mom, Deeana Thomas, stated: Christian has such a huge heart. I don’t even know if there are words to describe…

There are: faith, hope, charity.

Resources

http://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/mind-and-soul/this-8-year-old-boy-grew-out-his-hair-for-the-best-reason/ar-BBkFkiO

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Robots and software and jobs, oh my

You rang, Sir? (Photo by Gnsin)

Although researchers are predicting that 47 percent of current U. S. jobs might be automated within the next two decades,

this doesn’t necessarily mean that the unemployment rate will skyrocket.

Nor does it necessarily indicate that meaningful work is a thing of the past. Jeff Ward-Bailey of Christian Science Monitor points out that “new jobs will arise as others are ceded to machines.”

For example, even food servers are subject to this change. Restaurant chains such as Applebee’s are already utilizing tablets for customers to place orders on and make payments with. Legal secretaries and telemarketers are also being phased out.

However, new industries such as “software development, big data analysis, and renewable energy” are providing jobs that never used to exist. Industries “that haven’t even been dreamed up yet” will also help to fill some employment gaps.

Ward-Bailey explains that America is no stranger to vocational transitions. Whereas approximately 40 percent of the U. S. labor force was agriculturally based a mere century ago, “today only about 2 percent” still is.

Resources

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/if-robots-replace-half-of-us-workers-what-role-will-humans-play/ar-BBklEL6?li=AA54ur

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

The killer in painkiller

(Photo by James Heilman, MD)

“No pain, no gain” might soon be revised to read: No pain, ill gain.

Rebekah Marcarelli of HNGN reports on a study which shows that “certain drugs bring out homicidal behavior” by weakening impulse control and interfering with emotional processing.

These drugs include commonly-prescribed painkillers, antidepressants and “tranquillizing benzodiazepines.” The elevated risk of homicide in some of these cases has been deemed significant.

This study from the University of Eastern Finland “looked at the prescription drug use of 959 individuals convicted of a homicide.” Results were uncomfortably startling.

After other factors were controlled, “antidepressants were linked to a 31 percent increased risk of homicide,” benzodiazepines to a 45 percent, opiate painkillers to a 92 percent, and anti-inflammatory painkillers to a 206 percent.

Pain, of course, is a part of life that we all must struggle with. Researching safe, and even beneficial, ways of processing such pain can be an important part of the spiritual journey.

Resources

http://www.hngn.com/articles/97616/20150602/painkillers-could-lead-to-murder-study-shows-certain-drugs-bring-out-homicidal-behaviour.htm

Monday, June 1, 2015

Eris: What's in a name?

Eris, circa 550 BC (Public Domain)

Eris, that hotly-debated “celestial body” within our solar system which is rightfully named after “the Greek goddess of strife and discord,” is an Eris by many other names.

It is also dubbed “Planet X” (by astronomer Percival Lowell), a “dwarf planet” (by the International Astronomical Union), “Lila” (by Mike Brown of Cal Tech, who referenced a namesake Hindu belief that the cosmos is “the outcome of a game played by Brahma”), and “Xena” (by the 2003 discovery team, that referenced both the “Warrior Princess” and the

previous “Planet X”).

If all this weren’t confusing enough, Eris’ “dwarf planet” categorization has also been a source of contention. Eris’ discovery forced the IAU in 2006 to hone their definition of just what a planet is.

This IAU definition of a planet now includes the following: “…an object that orbits the Sun, which is large enough to make itself roughly spherical… [and] has enough gravity to force any objects of similar size or that are not under its gravitational control out of its orbit.”

Two out of three ain’t bad, but are nevertheless not enough to call Eris a full-fledged planet by IAU standards. Since Eris doesn’t have the gravitational clout to qualify, it has been relegated to “dwarf planet” status.

And Pluto? Don't even ask what a shake-up that’s been…

Resources

http://io9.com/meet-eris-the-solar-systems-largest-dwarf-planet-1707948972

Sunday, May 31, 2015

'Onward, Christian Soldiers': To what avail?

(Public Domain)

The use of military imagery in Scripture and song is nothing new. Nevertheless, it must be asked: Does violence, even in the name of self-defense, have any rightful place within Christianity?

Spurred on by recent headlines regarding the beheading of an ISIS jihadist by a Christian, Inquisitr wrestles with this very question. In an article which asks whether Jesus’ teachings allow for this, no definitive answer is offered.

This conclusion is instead given: It is difficult to say whether the beheading was an act of justice or an act of spite against an enemy who shows little mercy.

Affording this Christian soldier the benefit of the doubt, let’s say that the beheading was “an act of justice.” Since many a Christian has been beheaded by ISIS, justice might call for such retaliation.

However, is justice (which is often interpreted as “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”) truly compatible with Jesus’ teachings? Although Martin Luther claimed that soldiering is a “legitimate and godly calling and occupation,” could there have been a more merciful way of soldiering on in this particular instance?

Is mimicking an enemy’s brutality considered rightful? Would more restorative means of justice have been both possible and preferable?

Resources

http://www.inquisitr.com/2130898/christian-beheads-jihadist-does-jesus-teachings-allow-for-the-christian-soldier/

Saturday, May 30, 2015

Introvert No-Nos

'I'm Nobody! Who are you?' (Public Domain)

Those who are not the life of the party are often tempted to skip it altogether.

That’s because they might be accosted with comments such as these:

Cat got your tongue?

Why so glum, chum?

You anti-social or something?

It doesn’t cost anything to smile.

Is something the matter?

Amy Odell of Cosmopolitan describes what goes through the minds of many when they hear comments like this:

I wasn’t feeling glum until you flung these assumptions at me. It’s not that I don’t like people, it merely takes me some time to cozy up with folks. ‘I just like to take in what’s going on around me before I react to it.’

These introvert thoughts sound perfectly reasonable when viewed objectively. However, we live in a society that is dominated by extraversion. Introverts, therefore, tend to be misunderstood and often shunned.

Resources

http://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/smart-living/15-things-you-should-never-say-to-an-introvert/ar-BBjQ254

Friday, May 29, 2015

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini: Whose church is it?

Vatican City (Photo by Diliff)

According to the Boston Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini closed 11 years ago.

However, its congregants see things quite differently. For these past 11 years, they have been holding “vigils in shifts, 24 hours a day, seven days a week – sleeping on the floor and in pews and holding Sunday service…”

Jon Rogers, founder of The Friends of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, explained to Fox News that this church was “thriving” when the decision was made to close it.

Some congregants are therefore claiming that the archdiocese is eyeing the prime real estate that the church sits upon in order to “pay off clergy sex abuse cases.”

Rogers stated: You don’t get to hurt children and then steal our church to pay off your crimes. He feels that St. Frances Xavier Cabrini belongs to the parishioners who have “maintained the 55-year-old building over the years, spending thousands of dollars on repairs and renovations…”

Archdiocese spokesman Terry Donilon emphatically denies the accusations about paying off sex-abuse cases. He claims that St Frances Xavier Cabrini had experienced “a decline in Mass attendance.”

The archdiocese is meanwhile still paying “for the electricity and heat, as well as the occasional landscaping and snow plowing.”

So whose church is it? Does it belong to those “rebel occupants” who are willing to be “arrested as trespassers, if necessary,” or is it instead the Vatican’s?

Perhaps the One to whom the Church actually belongs will help them all to settle this dispute peacefully…

Resources

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/05/29/occupiers-church-closed-by-boston-archdiocese-years-ago-fight-orders-to-vacate/

http://stfrancesxcabriniscituate.org/