An article entitled “Science Increasingly Makes The Case For God” was published in the Wall Street Journal on Christmas Day. The key point of the article is several (quietly published) revisions to the list of criteria that define a planet capable of sustaining human life, which together make the probability of such a planet appearing by chance vanishingly small. One of the new criteria is that there must be a gravitationally massive planet like Jupiter nearby to prevent large numbers of asteroids hitting the life-sustaining planet – and there are nearly 200 other newly established criteria. The article also points to the failure of the SETI program to find any evidence of life that has evolved on other planets. The article concludes by quoting a collection of high profile scientists saying that the new evidence strongly supports “intelligent design” i.e. the existence of a Creator.
The UK Government is close to passing a Modern Slavery Bill that aims to criminalise human trafficking in England and Wales and provide support for victims. However, Christians are being asked to lobby the Home Secretary to amend the Bill because, unlike the equivalent bills in Northern Ireland and Scotland, it does not guarantee support and assistance for victims, nor do victims have as many legal rights.
The UK Government has offered its support to a private member’s Bill to ensure local councils have the freedom to include prayer in their meetings, if they choose to. The Labour party has also said it will back the Bill.
The Christmas season often produces some confusion in children’s minds between Santa Claus and the (adult) Jesus Christ. However, in Nimule, Sudan, in an orphanage run by the “Machine Gun Preacher” Sam Childers, a number of children met Santa Claus for the first time ever – and kept confusing him with Moses, because of his long white beard.
Elsewhere in the world, persecution of Christians has continued unabated over the Christmas period. A Mexican priest who was kidnapped in the state of Guerrero has been found dead – the fourth to die this year; a suicide bomber attempted to enter an evangelical church in Nigeria, and blew himself up after he was restrained from entering, injuring several people; Pope Francis visited Sri Lanka and used the occasion to highlight persecution of Christians by Buddhists; and a missionary from Northern Ireland is recovering after being shot and wounded in Mulita in the Democratic Republic of Congo. However, there has been at least one item of better news; a senior commander from the Lord’s Resistance Army, a rebel group in Uganda which is Christian in name only, has been captured.
In technology news, recently released documents claim to show that the Russian government has funded a group of hackers/Internet trolls to make positive comments about Russia’s military activities in Ukraine on American social media. The employees were expected to post up to 50 times per day; to maintain six Facebook accounts, publishing at least three posts per day in each; and/or to tweet 50 times per day. However, a foreign-based Russian campaigner for net freedom said that the articles posted were “sketchy, done fast, including copy-pastes … it’s the standard of a regular student’s work from a Russian university.”
And finally, a judge in the state of Massachusetts accepted an unusual bail bond – a pair of trainers. The accused claimed his finances were in a terrible state following a divorce, and that he could not pay $450 to see the case dropped. The judge refused to release him without bail, but told the accused that he could “be creative”, whereupon the accused offered the $85 Nike trainers which he said were a Christmas gift. He can reclaim his shoes by paying $100 or doing 10 hours of community service.
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