Badger's Law
“In the beginning God created.”
Moses, Genesis 1:1
Happy Friday,
We can re-arrange – i.e., start with eggs and make an omelet, or start with a tree and make a chair. But we cannot start with nothing and make something. Creation ex nihilo is limited to God. And as stunning as it is, it’s just a sliver of his power. He can also: provide hope, forgive sin, move mountains, invent Lady Bugs, execute justice, feed sparrows, wipe tears, calm storms, be everywhere and know everything. Lord, may this day be shaped by an awareness that you are our awesome, all powerful, patient and loving Creator.
Speaking of Creation
I’ve got some issues with Answers in Genesis, no experience with Grok 4 (Elon’s AI entry) and I’m sure this 18-minute video of an interview with Grok 4 about biogenesis and undirected evolution will be summarily attacked. But I found it fun and oddly funny. (Don’t miss the end.)
IS2M
1) Many of today’s cultural, political, demographic and economic problems are essentially spiritual.
2) Real community is only available to those who are willing to own their weakness.
3) People’s belief that anyone who disagrees with their opinions is disrespecting them is fueling a lot of division. We need to understand that while every person has value, not every opinion does.
Overheard
1) The goal is not to dress up the Gospel to make it cool. It’s to break it apart to make it clear.
2) Gentle parenting is starting to lose market share.
3) When someone says, “we’re living in unprecedented times,” it's the job of the historian to say, “Not actually. What’s happening now is similar to what happened in Florence in 1325, in Persia in the 1650s and in Berlin in 1953.”
4) Social media is no more social than gentleman’s clubs are gentlemanly.
5) Governments are more effective at curbing family formation than at promoting it.
6) It’s OK to be disillusioned, but it’s not OK to be despairing or cynical.
7) Given the choice between a big head and small heart, or a small head and big heart, the latter is better. But that is not the choice.
8) History is less a story of peace interrupted by war than a story of war interrupted by peace.
Without Comment
1) 5.7B people – i.e., 72% of the world’s population – live under authoritarian rule.
2) YouTube is now the most-watched video provider on U.S. TV.
3) While America’s TFR (Total Fertility Rate) is low (and dropping) it remains higher than most other countries in the Western Hemisphere.
4) It’s no longer true that 50% of marriages end in divorce. Marital stability now tracks closer to the pre-1960s than the post.
5) The population of South Korea is on track to fall from 50M to 25M over the next 50 years.
6) In the US, men are more likely than women to: be homeless, wind up in prison, die by suicide, be murdered or be addicted to drugs or alcohol.
WOTW
Honorable mention goes to Frasiercore (the embrace of 90s-era turtlenecks, leather-bound books, classical music and intellectual pretension associated with the TV show Frasier) and thermal shock (the European claim that entering a room air-conditioned to 15° below the outside temperature puts you at risk of nausea, vomiting and respiratory arrest). Full honors go to speed-dumping (the anti-ghosting act of quickly and definitively letting your first date know that you’re not interested in a second.) (BTW, someone needs to tell Europeans that more of them die from excessive heat than Americans die from guns.)
Virtue or Vice
As noted weeks ago, empathy is to ‘25 what “the dress” was to ‘15. The question then was, “Is it black and blue or gold and white?” The question now is, “Is empathy a moral imperative or an excuse to elevate feelings over truth?” The debate is now everywhere – from Freakonomics Radio and The Guardian to podcasters of all types. Methinks: 1) both sides have points to make; 2) what you decide says as much about you as it does about empathy; 3) generalities are the refuge of a weak mind; and 4) you’d think those debating empathy would display a bit more of it.
Quotes Worth Requoting
“In football, as in life, the hits you don’t see coming are the ones that do the most damage." — Stuart Scott
TWHM
Badger’s Law holds that any website with the word ‘Truth’ in the URL is unlikely to have much in its posted content.
The Organizing Value
I recently asked, “If the organizing value of the 20th century was freedom, what is it today?” You suggested safety, being right, identity, control, speed, authenticity and — my favorite — escape. We do seem to be seeking distance from death, work, pain, judgment, responsibilities and even our bodies.
Resources
Click here to hear my interview with Professor Nancy Pearcey – the cofounder of Break Point (with Chuck Colson). It about her latest book, The Toxic War on Masculinity.
Closing Prayer
“Almighty God, give us wisdom to perceive you, intellect to understand you, diligence to seek you, patience to wait for you, eyes to behold you, a heart to meditate upon you and life to proclaim you, through the power of the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.” (Benedict - 480-543)
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