Blubber Rain: Lessons from an Exploding Whale Carcass

Bone fragments, chunks of rotting whale meat, slabs of stinking blubber, droplets of liquids, and a fine mist of various carcass fluids all rained down from a clear sky. Over the ocean? On a deserted beach? No. On a crowd of 75 fleeing spectators and their cars filling makeshift parking lots outside of Florence, Oregon, in 1970.

Read more

Some TW Goodness: “Should We Kiss Dating Hello?”

It was published back in the middle of 2020 in Tomorrow’s World magazine, but if you didn’t read it then, here’s your chance!

Read more

The first (and second) thing(s) I ever wrote in church services…

Today is the 33rd anniversary of the first time I ever attended Sabbath services in the Church. But rather than wax poetic about it, I just want to share a quick observation.

Read more

What the first MCU Spider-Man soundtrack taught me about the nature of evil

[Note, 2/17/22: A link in this post was messed up. It’s been fixed!] A month or so ago, Spider-Man: No Way Home conquered the box office, and it seems the right time to unleash this observation I’ve been holding on to since Tom Holland’s first time headlining as the webslinger. (Not counting Captain America: Civil War. That’s why I said “headlining.” Details are important!) I wish I could take full credit for it, and I’d give full credit for the notice if I could, but it apparently began with some Reddit post back in 2017 or so and I’ve since lost any link to the original post.

Read more

“They are fighting over the deck chairs on the Titanic…”

The Church published a fantastic sermon by Mr. Rod McNair that he gave a couple of years ago here in Charlotte titled “What Cause Are You Fighting For?” that is really helpful in helping us find perspective. He emphasized that we live in a world in which people are not only rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic while the ship is going down—they are fighting over who owns the chairs.

Read more

God’s Complicated Book

Every once in a while, when I asked my mom a question about the Bible, she would think for a minute, and give me an answer that sort of made sense to me, but not really. I would respond with another question, and she would go “Hmmmm” for a second, before saying, “I’m not sure, honestly. We might have to ask a minister about that one.”

That used to startle me—and frustrate me a little, too. “What?! Mom doesn’t even know?! But she’s supposed to be the Bible genius! She went to Ambassador College! They were supposed to teach her everything! What madness is this?!”

Read more

Great animated video: Is the origin of life already solved?

Credit to Mr. Weston, who pointed me to this video. I love this channel and its videos, but I did not know this one was out.

When you hear people spin tales of how life began as a mix of chemicals somewhere a long time ago and how that is totally, totally, totally believable and that it has even been shown scientifically how it is possible, you can discard such smoke and mirrors. This well-done little video demonstrates why you should ignore them because the science does not say what too many claim it says…

Read more