A blog by Tom Sheepandgoats (aka Tom Harley)
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Getting in the Last Word
How many arguments would choke off were it not for people who must get the last word? David the King was the target of hurtful talk over a long time. But he held his tongue and endured. But those seeking my soul …….deceptions they keep muttering all day long. As for me, like someone deaf, I would not listen; And like someone speechless, I would…
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Danes insult the Prophet
A pure delight was to watch Danish reaction when one of their newspapers slandered the Prophet and the Islamic world went ballistic. Not delight at the mayhem, of course, in which some people even died. Not even delight, because, for a rare change, the target of fury was someone other than the United States. But mostly delight at watching the Dane’s genuine astonishment. How could…
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The Flag: Salute/Respect
Driving home one night, I saw a flag flying upside down. I did a double-take. Maybe the wind had caught it some odd way and wrapped it around the pole. But no, here was another one! And I’ve seen a few since. Turns out it represents some protest, if not about Iraq, then about Patriot Act restrictions of rights we’ve grown accustomed to. Still, it’s…
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New Year, New Goal, Same as Last Year
Once a year, we’re all encouraged to set goals. Goals are good, and we may languish without them. A fine goal might be to read the entire Bible through in a year. Or to study this or that theocratic publication. Or to improve the quality, or quantity, of our ministry. Or to conduct a Bible study with someone. Or to improve in commenting at meetings.…
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Charles Darwin and Annie
Two spiritual events can be traced in the life of Charles Darwin, originator of the natural selection evolution theory. Had those events turned out differently, one wonders what effect it might have had on science interpretation. The first…..the second will be dealt with in another post…..came with the death of Darwin’s favorite child, his daughter Annie. At age 10, the child contracted scarlet fever, and…
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Telomeres and Old Folks
Every decade or so, Awake! magazine looks at the research of aging scientists, that is, scientists who investigate aging, gerontologists. The picture changes dramatically. Twenty years ago, they hadn’t a clue about aging. But with success in mapping the genome, some began to think aging itself could be halted, or at least slowed. They got downright cocky, some of them, and there is still much…
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Farewell to Mickey Spillane
Here’s a bit of writing to brighten your day! Caution: graphic (not sexual) stuff ahead. Feel free to skip the next paragraph. You can always come back to it if you want. I snapped the side of the rod across his jaw and laid the flesh open to the bone. I pounded his teeth back into his mouth with the end of the barrel ……
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A Fraud that Has to Go
So we have answers to two of the most pressing questions ever raised. Why is there suffering? and Why do people die? The answers are complete, straightforward, concise… yet not difficult to understand. The only objection one might have is that they are somehow too simple, that we have become too sophisticated, that science has pegged such accounts as stories, not facts. This is why…
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The First and the Last Adam
Adam was the biggest letdown, and his rebellion doomed all of us to imperfection and death. Jesus was as good as Adam was bad, and then some. How is it, then, that he can be called the last Adam? And so it is written; the first Adam was made a living soul; The last Adam was made a quickening spirit. 1 Cor 15:45 If…
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Acts of the Pioneers: an Important New Find
When the National Geographic Society announced the discovery of the Book of Judas, folks at the Whitepebble Research Institute were not happy. Religious studies, along with government studies, constitute their bread and butter, and they get nervous when someone else makes a big splash in the pool they would like to own. Thus, the Whitepebble outfit put its own manuscript sniffing operation in high gear, and shortly…