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2002 Summer Seminar Click here for details.

Figures Lie For Feminists Too. There is an old saying that says "figures don't lie, but liars figure." Some of our feminist friends have maintained over the years that studies show that women only earn 77% of what men make. This statement is a misrepresentation of 1999 Bureau of Labor statistics. What was compared was the median (middle number) of income of all men and all women. That means that all male workers and all female workers were listed in order from largest to smallest, and the 50% person was said to be average. Everyone was included--from hamburger flippers to movie stars. What this shows is that men generally hold jobs that pay more, not that women are paid less than men for the same work. Our point is not that there are not needs to be addressed, but people use statistics to prove their point, and statistics can be made to give a conclusion that is not what the numbers actually show. We would suggest that most figures dealing with religion and faith have similar problems.

Hypnosis Misconceptions. There are a lot of silly ideas out there about hypnosis. Scientific American , July, 2001, page 47, ran an excellent article which discusses hypnosis. Some of the interesting points are these: (1) Hypnotized subjects are fully awake--not in a sleep-like state. (2) Hypnotized subjects are not out of control--they are perfectly capable of saying no or terminating hypnosis. They do not do anything that violates their moral convictions. (3) Hypnosis does not improve memory. (4) Amnesia is not a normal consequence of hypnosis (5) No superior feats can be done under hypnosis that could not be done while not under hypnosis. God has created us so we are never unaccountable for our actions. Justifying sin because we were hypnotized not only will not impress God, it is not supported by the evidence.

British Flying Saucer Bureau Closes. We live in an age in which people are willing to accept almost anything as long as it is weird enough. Going to the grocery store is always humorous if for no other reason than to read the incredible headlines in the tabloids. It might be somewhat encouraging to know that Britain's main flying saucer center is closing its doors because of a huge drop in sightings according to its founder Denise Plunkett. This agency was opened in 1953 and had a thousand members and claimed dozens of UFO sightings every week. Plunkett's explanation is that aliens have lost interest in human beings, but perhaps a more reasonable explanation is that the British public at least is getting better informed about natural objects in the sky and understands that there have been inconsistent reports in the past. For many people aliens offer the only hope of eternal life because they have been turned off on God. We suggest that the existence of life in space is not the issue, for God may have created life in many places, but putting one's hopes for immortality in aliens requires a greater leap of faith by far than accepting the evidence that God does exist.

STD Numbers. The surgeon general has released a report on sexually transmitted diseases (STD) that shows that unprotected sex is on the rise--apparently because people are less afraid of AIDS. There are 15 million new cases of STDs every year, with 25% of these being among teenagers. The human papilloma virus is now the major problem with 5,500,000 new cases followed by trichomoniasis with 5,000,000 new cases These two diseases usually produce no symptoms for years and can cause cervical cancer and other complications. Chlamydia is at 3,000,000 and Herpes at 1,000,000. Gonorrhea cases were 650,000 followed by Hepatitis B at 120,000 and Syphilis at 70,000 new cases. The most disturbing part of the report is that David Satcher, the Surgeon General, has suggested there should be less emphasis on abstinence to meet the growing challenges. We would suggest that morality teaching based on biblical principles is the only real way to impact the ravages of STDs, both health wise and in terms of mental, psychological, and spiritual problems.

Stem Cell Predictions Turn Out to be True. We have pointed out in this journal in past issues that arguments supporting the use of fetal stem cells to treat disease are weak simply in terms of the fact that there are not enough aborted babies to begin to meet the demand if a cure was found using these cells. Now it turns out that many of the 64 lines of stem cells that President George W. Bush approved are not useable. A characteristic called pluripotency is what stem cells are supposed to have--the ability to morphogenesis into many different kinds of human cells. It turns out that many of the stem cells in laboratories do not have this capacity, and thus are useless for research. Many problems are showing up that are making the whole subject much less idealistic than the press has led people to believe.

We would like to repeat that stem cells are found in adults, and may be actually more useful than fetal cells because a person's own stem cells can be used to treat whatever their disease is without fear of rejection of any kind. This new information just emphasized the point that this is the most productive way to go.

Copies of our 2001 Index and/or Year-End Report are available upon request. We plan to send our Year-End Report to those who donate to the program or to those who request them.

Back to Contents Does God Exist?, JanFeb02.