by Colin Hyde
Those of us who think God only cares about people might say of those animals with mouths, noses, and ears like ours, that they have no consequence, and that vegetables, fruits, and corals are blind, deaf and dumb to the world. The atheists say that when human life is discovered on another planet, it will be the end of the God story. They might be right, but only for those of us who are so deep into the superiority business that we can’t appreciate that if God makes, God appreciates. He made the hairy lion and the hippopotamus. Of course He didn’t make them all. Mosquitoes are straight from the one that rules hell.
You might have heard about the girl in the banana hierarchy who brought a friend to Belize who was deep into playing music for plants. I think it was a Japanese guy who said that if you cut a cabbage it screams; and to prove it he connected to the guinea pig repollo a little device which showed the decibels as plain as the high striker machines at the fair.
I bet if one was asked what sound they’d like to hear when they want to sleep, if they thought on it they would choose the sound of the sea rolling up on the shore. But if you told me corals were deep into sea sounds too, I’d say, get away.
All the excitement is about corals in the larval stage, when they’re moving about. Julia Jacobo, in a story on ABC News, said that in the face of coral decline researchers had discovered that the sounds of a healthy reef encourage vigorous growth in failing areas. Yep, underwater speakers pumping out “the sounds of a healthy reef, such as fish calls … help coral larvae settle at rates up to seven times higher.” The Bible told us about our response to sad songs and marching songs. For corals, play di andawaata music and they will dance!
The paper from which Jacobo drew the information in her report, titled “Scientists are using underwater speakers to help restore degraded coral reefs: Study” said, “In their first days of life, coral larvae make a permanent decision of where they will settle and metamorphose into adults — swimming or drifting with the currents in an effort to seek the right conditions to settle. The sounds of the reef are important settlement cues, the paper found. Corals are immobile as adults, so the larval stage is their only opportunity to select a good habitat.”
It’s absolutely fantastic that Lisa Carne of Fragments of Hope has another resource to draw on. Lisa’s organization grows coral to restock the reef, which is declining because of our warming waters. Somebody please give Fragments of Hope a boom box and a recording of some natural sea sounds from Turneffe so we can get those larvae in the groove.
Staying on sea topics, that clip on fb of a massive bull shark biting a friendly manatee somewhere in the vicinity of San Pedro, if it was real I say San Pedranos — every man, woman, and child – should be out on the reef searching for that bohga. The Town Council should immediately declare Mission Panades. Get out those harpoons! Leave that beast to its wicked designs and it will be after playful nurse sharks next, and who knows who or what after that. But John Briceño said the tourists are safe.
Jesus’s perfect years, and things religion
If we live long enough … if we live 700 years, we are bound to encounter a famine, and to survive we might become cannibals. A lot of things we could end up doing if we live long enough. I don’t know who these people are who want to freeze their bodies, so they can pop out back when a longevity pill is developed. They must be crazy. Really, they want to be born again, to fall into sin. It is inevitable if you live long enough.
Jesus’s perfection was “only” for three years. Ouch, some say He did a lot of bad things in that period. Alcohol haters recall that He turned a barrel of water into the best wine. The gambling Jews have never forgiven Him for the spanking in the temple. What about the owners of the hogs who saw their pork chops, baby back ribs, and bacon sales driven over a cliff? A big reason why some people tear at Him has to do with how some people have used the religion that formed around Him.
Jesus also maintained perfection up to the age of 12. He gets no special points for the first 7 years, because the Catholic Church says one can do no wrong before that age. There can be no claims of ignorance after 7. But before, remember the Apostle Paul said you can’t sin if you don’t know what sin is. There’s no escaping after 7. Immediately the little ones blow out 7 candles, they are brought in for the sacrament, so dehn get di sense. I think the Catholics are right to be so alert. Put the pressure on the little bohgaz from early. That’s the best time to train a tree.
God was never an animal, but all the evidence is that He fully grasps what is going on with us. He knew what animals are like, and hence, okay, maybe why, the relatively short ministry for Jesus. God knowing everything there is to know about animals, I bet if He had needed Jesus to live in perfection for a few more years He would have put Him in a monastery. But there would have been no good in that. You know it’s largely because Jesus wasn’t about living with the saved, why so many of us are drawn to Him.
Bah, the Jews weren’t – drawn to Him. They had an agent named Paul, and before his Damascus moment he was a terror for the state, a stoner, a persecutor of Jesus’s followers. Paul was Tonton Macoute, ahm, overzealous Special Branch, and Jesus and His crowd were branded as outlaws by the Gestapo Jewish leaders. Bully for Paul when the great day came and he saw the light.
Jesus is fantastic, an Abou ben Adhem whom God tapped for greater glory. Hey, I like Bahá’u’lláh too. He had three wives while he was a Muslim, none after, and he lived 74 years. History Today says “The founder of the Baha’i religious movement proclaimed his vision on April 21, 1863.” He was born in 1817, so he was 46 when he began teaching radical things, such as the importance of educating women.
Muhammad was another big hero who wasn’t tested the way Jesus was. One source said he lived to the age of 62, and he had 11 wives. Britannica said his “prophetic initiation occurs at the age of 40.” I’ve never looked closely at the teachings of the Muslims. For starters, that crowd looks too pious for me—big men going around with little caps on their heads. They are big on missing breakfast. And they spurn alcohol. But they are not alone. There are some Christians, and Jews too, who are very like them.
There are Rosary Catholics, a kind of junior clergy. I’m on the page with the earthy Catholics. In the rank and file, one hour of formal devotion for the week and you’re good to go. Hmm, some years ago I was feeling real ashamed about one of my character flaws, specifically cussing and loud talking when I get to drinking with friends, and one of my church sisters told me I shouldn’t stay away from church for any failure, because our church is for sinners. My church sister, she was one of the most selfless, Christian people I’ve ever known.
About praying, I should clarify that Christians of every stripe pray as often as Muslims and Jews do. But formally, for salvation it’s an hour per week for regular folk. It is humbling to be a Jesus follower. Hmm, I’d better stop here, before I sink into any deep depression. Hey, the census takers say we are not that religious anymore. Who are these people who are having problems with “the Supremacy of God” in our Constitution? Worse than that, who are these people who don’t believe in God?