Several interesting things have been going on. Troubling environmental news on several fronts. The Amazon rain forest is burning at the worst rate in years, and driest of the dry season has not even arrived. When Notre Dame Cathedral burned there was a hue and cry from all corners. That structure can be re-built.
The rain forest cannot be replaced. It produces about 20% of the oxygen in, and removes a significant amount of carbon dioxide from, our atmosphere. Who's even trying to address that issue? Certainly not the current White House occupant. The fires have been raging for over 3weeks now. I recently read that Brazil (maybe) was going to send some army troops to fight the fires. Are military personnel trained to fight wild fires? It is something, at least.
A while back I received my DNA results from Ancestry. I've been working on my "tree" there for about 3-4 years or so. I'm running my parents, my deceased first husband's parents, and my current husband's parents. My only living sister is also an Ancestry member. She is running her deceased husband's tree and our parents. We each have a daughter with our first husbands, hence the former husbands' trees. She had taken her DNA test a year or so back. Ancestry identified us as 100% siblings, even though it seems to me to be a lot of difference in our DNA results.
She carries much more Scandinavian than I, and I carry a touch of spice with Benin/Togo(!) and Sardinia(!) where she shows none. She carries the Irish and Scottish where I show none, even though I and my daughter are the redheads, LOL. Family lore has us being English, Irish, German and birth records in the ancestry trees back that up, although light on the Irish. Some of the German and surrounds is noted as European Jewish. I don't know exactly what that means since the area delineated as 'European Jewish' covers a huge swath from southern Sweden through most of Italy and from Spain through the eastern part of what it calls 'Eastern Europe'. This area includes the southern 2/3 of England too. It is a huge swath of land. But anyway, what struck me most was what seemed to be a large difference between the two of us, but apparently not large at all in the overall scheme of things. It did identify us as full siblings. Ain't science wonderful!
I little while ago, I found a former Christian blogger site who discusses how he sees things now, without his 'god-glasses', as Ken Ham says. From a rational point of view, the blogger recalls how he, when Christian, could go through the mental gymnastics required to accept the stories as told by church leaders without question. I've found his posts to be interesting reads. This one acknowledges the more recent archaeological findings and postulates that 'believers' will refuse to acknowledge new evidence (the past 20 or so years) in favor of pre- WWII writings that have been previously debunked. For instance, none of this happened. I thought this very well explained the religious phenomenon I have witnessed in others. Never having experienced refusal to accept facts myself, I've always found it inconceivable that believers are deliberately sticking their fingers in their ears and singing "la-la-la" so they don't hear, don't learn new information as it's uncovered. Why would you want to fool yourself?! Why cheat yourself of knowledge, of facts? I cannot relate.
How about the Washington State politician who wanted to teach children to be trained and ready for a Holy War? Or the State of Kentucky wanting the new national motto on the walls of public schools (not the original e pluribus unum motto; the red-scare commie hating hysteria of the 1950s, in God we trust motto). If fires in the Amazon forest aren't bad enough, illegal gold mining operations are destroying habitat and polluting rivers there too. How about illegal forest destruction in Cambodia? What is wrong with people??!! We must elect worthy, informed leaders. We must help poorer countries save their precious lands, not plunder them. We can do this. It just takes much more effort than "thoughts and prayers".
Remember, much of my writings are at NaturalWonderFellowship DOT Org where you may join and contribute to the discussions beyond simply commenting on what I've written. There is occasionally a public view-able piece there, but I usually put those here on blogspot. (I call this my baby-blog. It was so helpful in getting up and running, but so limited in user interactive features.)
Thanks for reading. Hope to hear from you here or NWF.org. Best wishes, blessed be.
A while back I received my DNA results from Ancestry. I've been working on my "tree" there for about 3-4 years or so. I'm running my parents, my deceased first husband's parents, and my current husband's parents. My only living sister is also an Ancestry member. She is running her deceased husband's tree and our parents. We each have a daughter with our first husbands, hence the former husbands' trees. She had taken her DNA test a year or so back. Ancestry identified us as 100% siblings, even though it seems to me to be a lot of difference in our DNA results.
I little while ago, I found a former Christian blogger site who discusses how he sees things now, without his 'god-glasses', as Ken Ham says. From a rational point of view, the blogger recalls how he, when Christian, could go through the mental gymnastics required to accept the stories as told by church leaders without question. I've found his posts to be interesting reads. This one acknowledges the more recent archaeological findings and postulates that 'believers' will refuse to acknowledge new evidence (the past 20 or so years) in favor of pre- WWII writings that have been previously debunked. For instance, none of this happened. I thought this very well explained the religious phenomenon I have witnessed in others. Never having experienced refusal to accept facts myself, I've always found it inconceivable that believers are deliberately sticking their fingers in their ears and singing "la-la-la" so they don't hear, don't learn new information as it's uncovered. Why would you want to fool yourself?! Why cheat yourself of knowledge, of facts? I cannot relate.
How about the Washington State politician who wanted to teach children to be trained and ready for a Holy War? Or the State of Kentucky wanting the new national motto on the walls of public schools (not the original e pluribus unum motto; the red-scare commie hating hysteria of the 1950s, in God we trust motto). If fires in the Amazon forest aren't bad enough, illegal gold mining operations are destroying habitat and polluting rivers there too. How about illegal forest destruction in Cambodia? What is wrong with people??!! We must elect worthy, informed leaders. We must help poorer countries save their precious lands, not plunder them. We can do this. It just takes much more effort than "thoughts and prayers".
Thanks for reading. Hope to hear from you here or NWF.org. Best wishes, blessed be.
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