Radical Environmentalism – Abandoning the Scientific Process (Part 5)

Let’s talk about the scientific process. Wait, don’t click the back button! I’ll mention Al Gore to ensure that this stays interesting!

When I was in junior high and high school, we were taught the scientific process – repeatedly. You start with a hypothetical statement, such as “Do potato skins contain more vitamin C than potato flesh?” Under no circumstances are you able to draw any early conclusions without first proving your assumption. I would have been graded down severely if I had just assumed that potato skin contained more vitamin C and moved onto a follow-up question (I would have been wrong, too, as potato flesh actually has a higher concentration of the vitamin than the skin – I got to perform this experiment in Chemistry).

But science class back then never taught us that there will be times when science will mix with politics. This dangerous combination often throws aside the deductive process in favor of principles more akin to marketing (which some people will say is the same as lying). Making bold statements without the backing of facts becomes necessary in order to divert funds to pet political projects. It’s all about the money.

Nowhere is this more prevalent than in the world of environmental “science”. Environmental “experts” and prominent politicians make claims which go largely untested – all for the sake of scaring people into spending money on potentially useless programs. Here are a couple of examples.

Al Gore intimates in his film An Inconvenient Truth that we only have about ten years to act on global warming before it will be too late to make a reversal. This statement was so presumptuous that Rush Limbaugh started a ten-year clock on his website – counting down from ten years so that we will be prompted to evaluate just where things are at the end of that time period. Look at Gore’s statement in light of the same facts that he presented in the very same movie – that the average recorded temperature has risen less than one degree Celsius over the last 140 years (see his graph at the left)! It seems ludicrous to draw the conclusion that at this rate, we will be headed for an irreversible torching of the planet in just ten years time. But the statement was made by Mr. Gore, and he was lauded as a great environmentalist (and, incredibly, they gave him the Nobel prize).

Where was the scientific mistake made? There are two that I can see. First, Gore assumes that a 140-year trendline showing a rise of less than one degree Celsius will continue to trend in the same direction at the same rate, unless something is “done”. Now, 140 years may seem like a lot, but it is not nearly enough to build a case of irreversible global warming. For example, a trend chart of General Motors stock price value would show a healthy and fairly steady increase over time, from 1933 to 2006. A well-meaning investor might look at that chart and conclude that the trend must continue. They would be wrong. GM stock has dropped from a value of $40 per share in 2006 to just over a dollar today in 2009 (that was true when I originally wrote this entry, now it’s worth nothing). Did anyone see this coming before the shares started to dive? Few people had the foresight to avoid this loss. It was a wholly unexpected event, and there were factors involved which were much more complex than a simple algebraic linear rise.

Gore’s second mistake is assuming that we know the cause of global warming. He pins the warming trend as being relative to the carbon-dioxide levels in the atmosphere, and he assumes that carbon dioxide is primarily caused by human activity. Both assumptions are specious, and are not proven fact – not by a long shot. Do we claim to understand all of the factors that affect global temperatures? Here are a few – sunspot activity, ocean currents, El Niño, La Niña, the Atlantic Multi-Decadal Oscillation, and the Maunder Minimum. Now, please show me the study that proves that human activity swamps out these factors, and is the prime contributor to global warming. I would listen, truly I would, if the claim could be supported. The science simply isn’t there.

But lack of scientific evidence doesn’t stop people like Ted Danson from saying, in 1988, that “we have ten years to save the world's oceans”. Do the math – that was twenty-one years ago. So are we too late to do anything now? Or was Ted Danson wrong?

If you want to win me over to an idea or a cause, here is what you must do. To begin with, give me unimpeachable facts upon which to build a case – in the global warming debate, I need to see global temperatures from around the globe, not just in a few select locations, and preferably hard evidence over several hundred years. Next, from this data you must build models which duplicate the behavior seen in the data. For example, a good global warming model needs to be able to match the data obtained in the first step. To model the hype distributed by the environmental crowd, a good model would be able to relate the Industrial Revolution over the last hundred years to carbon dioxide levels during that period, and could correlate global temperature rises to the carbon dioxide level. If mankind is the greatest influence on warming, then I would expect to see a relatively flat global temp profile for the last several hundred years, followed by a sharp rise over the last hundred years. There should also be direct correlation to unusual events in history, such as volcanic eruptions which may cause temporary spikes in the data.

Finally, it is important to put the model to the test in the future. Does it accurately predict events over the next few years and on into decades? If not, then the model may be incorrect, and require revision. Some, like Ted Danson, will say that we have no time for this rigor, but it is equally irresponsible to radically alter public policy and business plans based on nothing more than rash statements and “feel-good” ethics.

For me, I personally believe that other factors, such as sunspot activity, overpower any changes that man makes to the climate. But I also am willing to concede that this is not yet proven. Will the other side make the same concession and work to follow the scientific process? Somehow, I think that is just a dream.
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Radical Environmentalism – The Words Change, the Game Remains the Same (Part 4)

Only a couple of years ago, nearly any “science” magazine which you might read, along with most news magazines, made reference to the (mythical) crisis of global warming. Elections of public officials have pivoted on the subject, and millions of dollars of our tax money have been spent to understand the topic.

But read almost any article or watch the news today and you will notice that the words have changed. Where the phrase “global warming” was used a short time ago, you can now replace it with the new phrase “climate change”. It actually escaped my notice for a while, until I wrote an article about National Geographic and its slant toward radical environmentalism. While I was looking for the “global warming” phrase, I actually had a hard time finding it. “Climate change” was the common reference, and since making note of the new phrase, I now tend to see it everywhere.

The substitution is almost laughable. When I was in high school, the accepted fear was that the earth may be entering another Ice Age period, and global cooling was being put forth as a very real and dangerous threat. Twenty years ago, the concept of greenhouse gases trapping heat in the atmosphere became popular (and made a convenient scapegoat out of heavy industry and manufacturing by those who wished to see its end) and global warming was suddenly seen as the problem. Check the science articles today, though, and the idea of potential global cooling (again) is becoming more popular. Since scientists can’t make up their mind what is happening, it’s easier just to change the problem statement to include “climate change”, and to also assume that any change from the current climate must be bad.

To help prove the point that modern science does not possess a reliable climate model, only one month after I posted my article about National Geographic, they posted their own article with the title, “Sun Oddly Quiet -- Hints at Next "Little Ice Age"? (thanks to Darren Duvall for pointing me to this). The text of the article makes the observation that sunspot activity is at a low point, with some scientists pointing to very chilly temperatures as a possibility. Lower temperatures such as this were seen back in the years 1300 – 1850, when Iceland spent some time completely locked in by ice. Scientists are clearly swinging wildly back and forth in their predictions of the future – precisely because they do not understand all of the climatic elements that make up long-term weather patterns.

In one place, the article attempts to negate the conclusion that sunspot activity is relevant to global temperature. It quotes a solar terrestrial physicist by the name of Mike Lockwood, who tries to downplay the sun’s effects in comparison to man’s footprint on climate change. He says, “I think you have to bear in mind that the CO2 is a good 50 to 60 percent higher than normal, whereas the decline in solar output is a few hundredths of one percent down. I think that helps keep it in perspective.” This is an exceptionally misleading statement. Lockwood initially attempts to compare the effect of man’s carbon dioxide output as if it were comparable – percent to percent – to that of solar output. He is attempting to imply that the greenhouse global warming effect of carbon dioxide far exceeds the negative effect of reduced sunspot activity. But the author of the article later added a correction by Lockwood, pointing out that while a 50% increase in carbon dioxide output has had a small effect on global temperature, a 50% change in solar output would kill all life on earth. Clearly, the two cannot be compared, though the only scientist in the article attempted to do just that in his initial statements.

To make a good prediction about something such as weather or global temperatures, you need a good model – typically an extrapolation of past temperatures combined with some assumptions and calculations. Then, you test the usefulness of the model by using it to predict future events – then stand back and see if you are right about what is going to happen. And even then, it’s only a prediction based on the limited data that you have and the assumption that your model has not missed any critical long-term variables – see the previous Black Swan article. Again – predict, model, test. Any science teacher will tell you this.

There are so many elements that contribute to the weather and temperature of our planet – solar activity, heat load on the Southern Hemisphere versus the Northern Hemisphere, the Maunder Minimum, El Niño, and the latent heat content of the ocean. It’s a model of such complexity that it is very likely that we will never grasp it completely, even given hundreds of years of research grants and tax dollars. Modern science (and modern news media) abhor the possibility that they might not understand something, and so they cast aside good scientific method in favor of spouting things that bring them self-glorification…and research dollars.

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Songs I Can’t Sing Anymore – Part 4

I grew up listening to rock and roll from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. I have always maintained that there is no era of music that I prefer to listen to more, and I listened to a lot of it in college and during the years before my wife and I had children. I amassed over two-hundred albums on vinyl over the years, before compact discs took over. I have spent a great deal of time over the last couple of years transferring this music to my iPod. As I’ve recently begun listening to this music again, I have been struck by the lyrics of many of the songs – seen anew from a refreshed Christian perspective. I believe that I listened only to the music back in my younger days, but today I actually pay attention to the lyrics. This is a continuation of a series of articles discussing the possible hidden (or overt) meaning in many songs I used to sing out loud -- without actually listening to what the words were saying.

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It might surprise those of you who know me well that I like listening to the music of The Doors. As I have explained before, when I listen only to the music, I really like this band. But when I sort out the meaning of the words that they wrote, I fear that I am no longer a fan.

Like so many bands of this era, The Doors quite often wrote lyrics that make no sense. Oh, they want you to believe that they make sense, and books have been written purporting the genius of the lyrics – but the fact is that most of these words likely came out of a drunken haze, written by someone who was very likely demon-possessed. One look at lead singer Jim Morrison’s life is enough to convince me that his tirades, depression, drug use, and bitterness were the result of much more than a heavy tour schedule. Morrison was known for his extremely heavy alcohol abuse, and he eventually died of a likely heroin overdose in Paris. If you read the history of this man, there is a sense of lurking evil about him.

A good example of nonsense lyrics is from the song Stoned Immaculate. Here you go:

I'll tell you this...

No eternal reward will forgive us now

For wasting the dawn.

Back in those days everything was simpler and more confused
One summer night, going to the pierI ran into two young girls
The blonde one was called Freedom
The dark one, Enterprise

We talked and they told me this story

Now listen to this...

I'll tell you about Texas radio and the big beat

Soft driven, slow and mad

Like some new language

Reaching your head with the cold, sudden fury of a divine messenger

Let me tell you about heartache and the loss of god

Wandering, wandering in hopeless night

Out here in the perimeter there are no stars

Out here we is stoned

Immaculate.

Okay – can you tell me what it means? I mean what it really means – not just trying to fit your ideas to lyrics that are almost forty years old. Even the very title of the song is just two words smashed together that don’t belong. On reflection, these words echo as if from a soul bound for eternity in hell. “Heartache and the loss of god” is a perfect description of how I picture hell to be – a never-ending state for those who find their way there.

My wife and I had the good fortune to visit Paris on vacation twice in the last ten years. On one of those trips, we visited Père Lachaise Cemetery, where Morrison is buried. Many famous people are buried in this 118-acre cemetery, including Oscar Wilde and Frederic Chopin. The place is absolutely packed with tombs and graves and is really a wonder to behold. While I was there, I was determined to find the burial place of Jim Morrison.

It was not easy to find – walking this cemetery with the goal of finding a particular name is a lot like walking through the world’s largest junkyard in search of a specific radio knob – it’s that imposing. After a couple of hours, we finally found the spot. Imagine my surprise to find that it was a simple, unattractive plot crammed behind a much larger tomb. There was nothing special about it. See our photo of Morrison’s burial place at the right.

My greater surprise was to find so many others – mostly young people – gathered around the gravesite, mourning their loss. Most of them were not even alive at the time of Morrison’s death. And most of them were consuming alcohol. Jars of various alcoholic beverages had been left at his tomb as a sort of token or gift. My wife and I looked at each other in confusion – was this the legacy that Jim Morrison intended to leave? If he could look over the site today, would he be pleased, or would he beg these people to see something greater in life?

Like many of the lyrics of The Doors, this scene left me confused. These young people were worshiping a dead, drunken rock star. And these words fill my head - “wandering, wandering in hopeless night”.

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Next in the series - The Beatles

Back to the first entry in the "Songs I Can't Sing Anymore" series...

Communion Meditation – The Secret Stash

Two years ago, our family nearly moved to Kansas City. My wife and I spent the better part of three days scoping out houses all over town. It was a painful process in many ways, as we really didn’t want to leave the house that we already owned in Colorado. Fortunately, we ended up staying put and we haven’t regretted it for a single moment.

I was intrigued as we went through the house-hunting process. We lined up as many as ten homes in a single day and our realtor navigated us through them as efficiently as possible. We saw homes of various ages, and with many different styles and layouts. Some homes were dismissed by us immediately, for one reason or another. A few homes made the short list, and we visited a couple of them more than once.

But what really struck me was the overall sense of neatness and order in nearly every house that we entered. I often spend time in other people’s houses that are not for sale, and it seems to me that the average American does not live the way these show homes would have me believe. Rooms were devoid of toys or papers, beds were neatly made there were no clothes lying around in children’s rooms, and every home seemed as if it were just recently built and furnished. I found out later – as we went to put our own home up for sale – that this practice is called staging. Some people even rent special furniture to put in the home for sale to make it appear more opulent.

One house caught our eye. Here is one picture of the inside. This is a sitting room in the house that we nearly bought. You will note that there are several flat surfaces in the picture, but for the most part, there is very little to be seen on top of them. They hold a single plant, a couple of carefully angled magazines, and absolutely nothing on the fireplace mantle. There are no Legos on the couch cushions! And the blanket that is draped on the chair in the center of the picture looked almost like art the way it had been placed.

At right is a view of the kitchen. If you look carefully, you will see that there is no food visible anywhere – there wasn’t even a hint of crumbs to be found anywhere. The sink was empty and clean, and the gas stove burners looked like they were brand new. Finally, the little desk nook at the right was completely devoid of any paper at all – it only held a candle and a knick-knack or two. It made me wonder if they have mail service in Kansas City!

We continued exploring the house, with every room looking perfect. I was ready to move in right away! In the basement we found a room that had three built-in desks – seemingly made for our three homeschoolers to set up shop. Things were looking very, very nice.

And then, we opened the final door in the basement, and saw this.

It was a far cry from what we had observed in the rest of the house, but not totally unexpected. These people had kids and pets, and it only made sense that we would eventually find an area that testified to that fact. While the rest of the house had been “staged”, we eventually found “the secret stash” that gave witness to the fact that somewhere, there had to be an “overflow of junk”.

Sin is like that. We may spend a great deal of time convincing others that we have our life in order – we may even have to spend time convincing ourselves of it! But for many of us, there is a secret room where we keep our mess hidden from prying eyes. We work hard to keep it locked up and out of view, but sometimes we simply can’t hide it. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to live a life that has no secrets and where everything is open and known by others? Be assured – everything is open before God. Psalm 90:8 says, “You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.” And likewise, Jeremiah 23:24 tells us of God’s all-knowing qualities – ‘“Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?” declares the Lord.’

Our weekly time of communion is a time to reflect on the sacrifice that Christ made for us. And while nothing we can do will ever pay for our sins, we can glory in the fact that Christ’s sacrifice took the burden of our sin. Are we not sometimes motivated to make his burden lighter? Confessing our secret sin is one way to make our lives more pure – not to make them appear “staged”. Finally, 2 Corinthians 4:2 reminds us that “…we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.”

Taking Back The Culture – Part 2

My kids were playing with some other children the other day, when in the midst of playing a game, one of the other kids let out a bad word. The child’s sister looked over at him and said, “Hey, don’t you remember? Mom told us not to talk that way around the Metzger kids!” Before any of you wonder if it was your kids – please believe me, it wasn’t. I’m pretty certain that this family doesn’t read my blog.

I’ll admit that it makes me happy that our kids have this reputation with others. Without making it a source of pride, I feel gratified that my own children get that level of respect.

Bad language among children is nothing new. I have to admit that I participated in it when I was very young – my parents never knew (I think - right, Mom?). But other aspects of our culture have definitely changed since I was a kid. This erosion of the culture has been executed in steps, gradually overtaking the godly principles that used to be evident in families in this country. We now look back at television examples such as the Cleavers on Leave It To Beaver or the Bradys on The Brady Bunch with ridicule – as if no family could be so goody-goody and naïve. You know what? Our family is actually like that in many ways – and I love it.

There is constant pressure from all sides to “adjust” to the new culture – as if our society is constantly maturing and has become superior to anything that came before. Think on this - would the culture of today have been possible fifty years ago? Not a chance. For example, we now see some parents buying games for their children which reward players for killing innocent bystanders, police, and prostitutes, while using a wide range of weapons, including baseball bats. Would that product have sold at the same time as when I Love Lucy was being aired on television? I simply can’t believe that there was a market for it back then. But there certainly is today. That is culture shift.

What’s the difference between 1959 and 2009? It’s not just technology or the availability of video gaming systems. I believe it is the parents. As I pointed out back in Part 1 of this series, many parents have suddenly accepted the belief that their children have the right to make their own decisions about nearly anything. I’ve had parents tell me, “I want my children to learn about life on their own. That’s how they will prepare for being independent.” I cannot subscribe to this philosophy. I firmly believe that my children must be led and directed by godly principles – which come from God and the family, not from the culture.

This may offend some people. No one wants to be told that their parenting technique is not the best one. But consider this – there is no parent-designed technique that is right or perfect, because there is a bigger concept in play here. And it gets back, once again, to the culture.

No matter how hard we try, we cannot create a proper man-made culture. Though our society tries over and over to remake our way of life, we must realize this – our culture will always be broken if we have a hand in it. The only culture that survives is a God-made culture. Thankfully, that is exactly what we are awaiting – a day when all things will be made new.

Taking Back The Culture – Part 1

I took my oldest daughter across town to buy a used iPod yesterday. The iPod had belonged to a 13-year-old girl, who had thought she lost it, bought another, and then found the original one. As we discussed the sale with the girl and her mother, the mother leaned over to us and said, “You’ll probably want to wipe the songs off of that before you use it, as I’m sure there is a lot of inappropriate music loaded onto it.” I started to smile, but then thought better of it.

What struck me about her statement is not so much that the mother did not have control over her daughter, but more importantly, she didn’t seem to think she should exercise that control. It seemed strange to us, since her daughter was right there listening to the conversation, that she could tell us that the inappropriate content should be erased, but she couldn’t turn and tell her own daughter that same thing.

That seems wrong to me. I was raised in such a way that I did not have free reign over what I did, what I viewed, or how I behaved. Similarly, I control what my own children are exposed to – movies, music, television shows (what little we watch), and books. My kids know, without having to wonder, that everything they do is subject to the approval of me and my wife. Curiously, it has rarely caused any arguments in our family. In many areas, my kids are even more conservative that I am (see “We Moo At Bad Words” for a funny application that our family shares). They have even been known to politely refuse to watch an inappropriate movie at a friend’s sleepover – based on principle, not because they fear that they will get into trouble.

Our family was privileged to attend two different high school graduations this past weekend. My wife and son traveled to Indianapolis for the homeschool graduation of our lovely niece, Abby Richardson. And the rest of us were here in Fort Collins attending the homeschool graduation of our friend, Ally Chase. Both of these girls are beautiful examples of godly teenagers and they have a bright future. And what they both have in common is that their parents taught them well – by first teaching them to love the Lord. This love is evident in their lives to everyone who knows them. Their parents were not afraid to pass on this devotion, and they are being rewarded for it. Both of these girls have the desire to change the world for Christ.

Here are some truths I’m learning as I watch the world around me, and work to raise my own children in the same way as the Richardsons and Chases:

1) Children do not have the right to listen to or watch whatever they want,

2) Our culture is constantly moving farther from God’s principles,

3) Parents are the ones who should direct their children’s cultural involvement until such an age where the child can make good decisions – left to their own judgment at too early an age, the impression of the world’s culture may leave a permanent mark.

This has truly shaped up to be a spiritual battle – for the very souls of our children. We should never forget that Satan is using the constantly-shifting culture to facilitate an increasing departure from God. As the culture erodes, we are tempted to erode with it. If we erode God’s principles, even at a slower pace than the culture, we are still moving away from God. He does not change (Hebrews 6:17), even though the world around us does. We have to pick a path – the unchanging one of God, or the ever-changing one of the world - down which to steer our children.

And that requires parents to stay anchored to the unchanging principles of God.

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Jump to Part 2.

Religious Persecution – It’s Not Just For Third-World Countries Anymore

In San Diego county this week, there is news of a pastor and his wife being threatened by county authorities for holding a 15-member Bible study at their home each week. It appears that the authorities got wind of the Bible study and approached the pastor’s wife with some specific questions.

"The county asked, 'Do you have a regular meeting in your home?' She said, 'Yes.' 'Do you say amen?' 'Yes.' 'Do you pray?' ' Yes.' 'Do you say praise the Lord?' ' Yes.'"

As a result, the couple was told that they were in violation of land-use regulations, and that they should "stop religious assembly or apply for a major use permit". I am not making this up – click the link above to see the San Diego news article.

Now, it’s my prediction that this event will go away quietly. There is certainly a lot of blog traffic on this article, and some higher-up at City Hall will see that the best thing for everyone is to write a note of apology to the couple and move on. They certainly will not pursue this any further, for fear of the firestorm that it would bring down.

But here’s what bothers me. It’s the first step toward a future where this kind of religious persecution could happen in our country. The fact that this event got as far as it did is just one more hammer blow for state-mandated control of individual rights. This incident may go away for a year or two, but then another will occur. And then another. And each one may go a little further down the path, until one day, it will be illegal to hold a Bible study in your own home. You think it can’t happen in this country? That may be what the Russian people thought at the beginning of the twentieth century – when they were a Christian nation. But look what happened when the likes of Lenin, Stalin, and Khrushchev came to power. People began dying for their faith, and the Russian nation became known as a godless people.

What should we do? Well, it might be nice to say we should put more Christian leaders into politics and combat the anti-Christian culture. And that may be what God has in mind for some people. But I’m coming to see that God can use evil events for His good purposes. I have no doubt that my own faith would become much stronger if I were told to cease preaching Christ. Indeed, that may be the very thing required to break the mold of mediocrity that I glimpse in our nation. God has used religious persecution to do great things for His kingdom in the past.

And so I choose not to go into politics – but to pray for God’s will to be done in whatever happens in this country over the next few years. In a brilliant article last November, Cal Thomas wrote about this very thing. He advised, rather than continue to pound our heads against the moral corruption that exists in our political system, that we should try something fresh and transformational. We should emulate Christ and “’love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit those in prison and care for widows and orphans,’ not as ends, as so many liberals do by using government, but as a means of demonstrating God’s love for the whole person in order that people might seek Him.” I encourage you to read the article.

I like that. It is the very thing that Christ did when he was here on earth. He didn’t seek power, or election to public office in order to change the culture. Instead, he went about displaying God’s love and truth amongst the world of everyday people.

Homeschool Lesson – Economics and the Stock Market

One of the many joys of homeschooling is that my wife and I can get very creative when teaching a lesson. I designed a course on Economics for the last half of this year, relying heavily on the book Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? It’s a good read, and engenders many of the conservative qualities that we are instilling in our children. We have had a great year learning about inflation, the money supply, why to avoid debt, the reason that coins are no longer made from precious metal, etc. I’m thinking about putting the course outline and weekly homework questions into a product that I can make available to the homeschooling community at large.

For the last four weeks of the year, I decided to add to the curriculum and design a “contest” to teach some principles of investing in the stock market. I invited all three children to participate, and even provided some incentive for them to do well (if there’s not a feeling of true loss or gain involved, the lesson could seem a little less exciting…and less real, as well). The rules that I laid out to them were these:

· You will start with $10,000 of cyber-money to invest (no real money changes hands at this point!)
· You may own as few as zero or as many as five different stocks at a time
· Money not held in stocks will be kept in a Money Market account earning zero interest
· For a $10 cyber-fee per trade, stocks may be purchased at the end of any given day - the student may use day-trade or buy-and-hold strategies
· An e-mail summary, with tables and charts of the account value will be e-mailed to the student each day
· At the end of four weeks, I will pay 1%, in real money, of any account value over the initial $10,000
· Any student with an account falling below the initial $10,000 at the end of the four week period will be evaluated for special chores

The contest was pretty popular when it started – I know that the kids were thinking of their own little get-rich-quick scenarios. Just buy low and sell high – nothing to it. And the timing was in their favor. The contest started about the time that the stock market was at a seven-year low. The Dow Industrial average actually rose from 7841 to 8331 during this period, as it rebounded a bit after the housing and credit crisis. That’s a 6.2% increase in just four weeks.

So how did they do? The trend chart for the biggest stock loser is shown at the right. This child (we’ll call them Child “A”) started out with a pretty risky portfolio, buying a lot of General Motors (GM) when it fell below the $2 mark. After it continued to fall further, there was a hasty action to dump the stock and buy Apple Computers (AAPL) instead. While starting the contest with several risky and hurried trades, this child ate up quite a bit of money just in the overhead $10-per trade fees. In the end, the reported loss was $317. Chore time!

The second child (Child “B”) decided to buy what they knew – a good strategy – and purchased McDonald’s (MCD), Build-a-Bear (BBW) and Disney Studios (DIS). The trend started remarkably well, and this child’s account was in significantly positive territory right up until the last week of the contest. But consumers must have stopped building their own bears, because the stock suddenly took a sharp downturn. The end result – a loss of $99. Not devastating, but Child “B” was a little disappointed, nonetheless. More chores!

The third child – and the winner of the overall contest – has always been the conservative one of the bunch. I wonder if those of you who know our family will be able to guess who it is? This child (Child “C”) chose never to purchase any stocks, claiming that they didn’t like to spend money on “anything that they couldn’t wear!” Even after repeated invitations on my part, and the offer of a couple of free trades, I couldn’t get this one to budge. And in the end, this child had the best short-term stock trading strategy.

What a great learning opportunity for all of us! It is certainly not my intent to recommend explicitly against buying stocks. As this was a short-term contest, it’s probably not a completely fair assessment of trading in the market. But all three of my kids learned some important lessons, namely: 1) there is no get-rich-quick guarantee in the market, 2) at its core, stock trading is really not much different from gambling in Las Vegas, and 3) the person making the trades for a paltry $10 each is the one who really makes the money.

And that would be me. My next task is to create a fabulous summer chore chart.

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If anyone would like to guess who Child A, B, and C are, feel free to leave a comment. I’ll post the answer in a week.

Also, if you are reading this and are interested in having your children participate in just such an exercise (without the real monetary reward!), I am considering offering a five-week, home-school Economics course – daily e-mail stock account updates, along with conservative economics and investing principles will be taught. It will be enough for a quarter’s credit in Economics. Please contact me at alan@banyanconcepts.com if you are interested.

Today, I Remember…

My wife and I had the privilege of visiting Paris twice over the last six years. For me, the first trip was the most memorable, as it was my first time in that city. We immersed ourselves in everything that we could for seven straight days. If you’ve ever been to Paris, you know that this is not nearly enough to see all that the city has to offer.

One of the most memorable days of our trip was a day spent driving back and forth from a little town called Colleville-sur-Mer, on the northwest coast of France. The area is more commonly known as Normandy, and it contains the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. You may remember seeing it at the beginning and end of the movie Saving Private Ryan.

Visiting the cemetery was a sobering experience for me. Overlooking Omaha Beach, it is now a perfectly manicured resting place for 9,387 American soldiers who died in World War II. The majority of the men buried there were killed during the D-Day invasion of June 6, 1944.

Today is Memorial Day, when we take time to recall the military men and women who gave their lives to ensure the ongoing freedoms in our country. I’m continually amazed at the stories of sacrifice that came from the various conflicts in which our nation has been involved. And nothing has moved me more than walking through that pristine cemetery in France. Today, I remember:

· The perfect alignment of every headstone – some represented by crosses, some by the Star of David. These men’s graves are being properly attended to.
· The sheer number of graves and the size of the cemetery is staggering
· Omaha Beach, which lies directly between the cemetery and the ocean, is very steep. It must have been a challenge for men to get across the beach, up that hill, and to the Germans who were posted at the top of the rise in machine-gun bunkers.
· Unlike most cemeteries, where people are buried facing east (presumably to face Jesus when he “splits the eastern sky”), these men are all buried facing west, toward their homeland of the United States
· There is a memorial and statue at one end of the cemetery. On the walls of the memorial are over 1500 names – men who were lost in the conflict, but were never found.

Lastly, I think of the determination of these men, as portrayed in the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan, when their troop landing craft were approaching the beach. Moments away, the door at the front of the craft would be lowered, and there would likely be an enemy machine gun pointed at the men as they ran for the beach. They went anyway.

Thank you.

Is It Possible To Be Fair-Minded About Abortion?

President Obama gave the graduation commencement speech last weekend at Notre Dame. The bitter irony is that Notre Dame professes to be a Catholic university and the Catholic faith is staunchly opposed to abortion - a procedure to which our President is clearly not opposed. While there were many protests over him being allowed to speak and to receive an honorary degree from the institution, the university officials decided to proceed with the address.

The president made a remarkable statement during his speech regarding the abortion issue. He encouraged both sides of the issue to have a “fair-minded” discussion about the issue. He wants them to “work together to reduce the number of women seeking abortions”. I must ask this question – has the president heeded his own words? Has he done anything but work to increase the availability and public funding of abortions? Tragically, with heart breaking and tears flowing, I must say that he has not (see “Weep With Me” for specifics).

How does one go about being fair-minded about abortion? For people like me, abortion is as evil and reprehensible as is murder or rape (I believe it is murder). So what would happen if I substituted these equivalent words into his statement? “Let’s work together to reduce the number of parents committing murder”, or “Let’s work together to reduce the number of women being raped. Let’s have everyone be fair-minded about the issue and not resort to caricature.” Such words would be offensive to nearly everyone. And as such, when the president uses these same words in an attempt to straddle the proverbial abortion issue fence, I am deeply offended. I cannot help how strongly I feel about a procedure which destroys life made by God and which further promotes the removal of God’s blessing from our nation. The president has the power within his hands to do the right thing…and he has wasted it.

It’s not a politically correct thing to be so intently one-sided on an issue. Influences from all around, and even from friends and family, can make us soft on a topic which has enormous importance to God. Several years ago, I participated in a pro-life rally and was given a sign reading “Abortion Kills”. I was instructed to hold it high and wave it at passing cars on the street. I admit that I felt guilty waving the sign, because part of me didn’t want to offend, part of me didn’t want to be the one to remind women driving down the street of their role in a past abortion, and part of me wanted to find a way to be more “fair-minded” about the issue. I’m still not convinced that holding a sign up on the street corner is the correct or best way to make my statement. But I know that Jesus Christ would not shun the chance to boldly proclaim God’s truth when necessary. Neither would other great men of faith – Noah, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, and Paul. There may be a more ethical and caring way to get out the message – but the fact remains that I need to work to ensure that God’s side of the story is fearlessly preached. This is a hard thing sometimes.

John Piper (desiringGod.org), author of countless books about the joyous relationship with God and a bold preacher of God’s truth, has recently posted a chilling and inspirational video of words he preached on the topic of abortion. The name of the sermon was “The Baby in My Womb Leaped for Joy”. Mitch Majeski, who I am proud to call a good friend and who is a bold preacher of God’s Word as well, tipped me to this this video on his blog recently. After watching it, I was moved beyond anything I have ever felt about the abortion issue – and am motivated more by this video clip than any other I have ever viewed. These words are powerful. Piper leads up to a crescendo of reason and truth, and then humbly vows to…pray for our president. It’s a remarkable conclusion for such a powerful three minutes of build-up. It has inspired me to spend time each week praying specifically for all those families considering an abortion, and for all the doctors who will pick up the knife tomorrow to perform the procedure. Please watch….and join me in praying for God’s divine will to be done.

The Black Swan – Inferring the Existence of God

My wife claims that I read some very strange books. Recently, I came home from the library with Nassim Taleb’s The Black Swan – The Impact of the Highly Improbable. She picked it up and read the inside liner – “A Black Swan is a highly improbable event with three principle characteristics: It is unpredictable; it carries a massive impact; and, after the fact, we concoct an explanation that makes it appear less random, and more predictable than it was. The astonishing success of Google was a Black Swan; so was 9/11. For Nassim Nicholas Taleb, black swans underlie almost everything about our world…” Wendy just shook her head.

I’ve probably already lost some readers by writing that opening paragraph, but if you are still reading this and if you believe that you have a something of a mathematical mind, I highly recommend this book. It opened my eyes to see that events much larger than we can typically imagine are the events that truly shape our world. And the author makes a clear point – anyone who tries to create models that predict the stock market, weather, or the course of history are simply armed with too little information to be accurate in the long run. There are no known models to correctly predict things of this nature. My apologies to the global warming…er, I mean, climate change, crowd.

The story of the black swan analogy goes like this. Before the discovery of Australia, all swans that had ever been seen in the world were white. It was a reasonable conclusion to say that “all swans are white”. After all, no other color had ever been observed by humans. But when mankind “discovered” Australia, lo and behold, they sighted a species of jet black swans. Given the information that they had before these swans were sighted, was there any way to predict the existence of a black swan? No, there was not, and so it was bad science to simply assume that all swans are white. The point is this – we don’t know what we don’t know. Even at this very moment, we dismiss the idea that a green swan could exist – simply because we have never seen one. But does that actually prove the point?

Similarly, Taleb notes, “We are not naïve enough to believe that someone will be immortal because we have never seen him die, or that someone is innocent of murder because we have never seen him kill.” And yet, we often draw conclusions of the same nature – that the stock market is now crash-proof, or that there is no longer any way to hijack a plane.

Philosopher David Hume made the point in the mid-18th century that we cannot reasonably draw valid conclusions simply based on inductive reasoning – that is, just because we have observed something happen repeatedly does not guarantee that it will continue to happen in the future. Taleb makes this point using the excellent analogy of the life of a turkey.

Suppose you are a turkey (I have to smile at that opening). Your every waking moment for the four months of your life to adulthood consists of roaming the barnyard, basking in the sun, and watching the kind farmer turn out to feed you twice a day. For your entire turkey life, there is no departure from this routine – and there is no reason to believe that things will be otherwise.

But the farmer knows more than the turkey does, and on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, he changes his routine. Unaware of the holiday tradition, the turkey makes his contribution to the Thanksgiving dinner. He never knew that this was part of the overall plan - but for the farmer, it was always known. For the turkey, the final day of his life was a Black Swan event. Nothing in his “turkey model” predicted the change, but it happened anyway.

Reading Taleb’s book, I can’t help but think that the analogy applies equally as well to our relationship with God. From our standpoint, like that of the turkey, we cannot conceive of the full course of history, especially the future. But for God, this is easy. Our limited viewpoint may cause us to doubt the existence of God for a time, and some will draw the incorrect conclusion that there simply is no God. But we must realize that in this life, we will always be the turkey. God understands much more than we can conceive or imagine. And thankfully for us, 1 Corinthians 2:9 proves this point – “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”. The Second Coming of Jesus will be a Black Swan event – unless you’re expecting him.

The Polarizing Principle

If you own a pair of polarized sunglasses, try this experiment. Hold them up and look through them at an item that contains an LCD display – maybe your car stereo or a digital watch. The LCD-type is the kind that has black numerals that seem to float - the earliest digital watches were LCD-type displays. Rotate the sunglasses by ninety-degrees while watching the LCD through them. If they are polarized, the numbers will gradually disappear and only black will show through. Or take two pair of polarized sunglasses and look through both of them while rotating them different ways. You will notice that nothing can be seen through them if you hold them at right angles to each other. The point of the exercise is to demonstrate this – when looking at two items that are polarized in different directions, no light gets through.

Personalities can be polarizing, too. Many politicians can be said to have a polarizing effect on people - none more so than Hillary Clinton. People either adore her or have a strong aversion to her. I’ve never met anyone that felt ambivalent about Mrs. Clinton, or who had not yet formed an opinion of her. She elicits a strong reaction, whether it be good or bad, from nearly everyone.

Becoming a polarizing person requires that one have a strong opinion on nearly every subject, and that one does not waver from their position in an effort to just “get along” with everyone. A forceful belief that you are right usually accompanies this personality. So it may come as a surprise to many that one of the most polarizing figures in history was Jesus Christ.

We live in an age where Jesus is often presented as a multi-cultural, infinitely-open-minded philosopher who went around spreading peace and goodwill to mankind. However, while Jesus wanted what was best and right for mankind, he did not compromise in his presentation of right and wrong. In his book The Truth War, John Macarthur exposes the new “emerging church” as a place where open-mindedness and uncertainty about what is right is actually treasured. He points out that “the idea that the Christian message should be kept pliable and ambiguous seems especially attractive to young people who are in tune with the culture and in love with the spirit of the age.” Indeed, it almost seems fashionable in some circles to deny that a single truth really exists.

But make no mistake about it, Jesus Christ was a tipping point for everyone who came in contact with him. Unlike the portrayals of him by some people today, Jesus insisted on pointing out his Father’s absolute truth to people. And his boldness in doing this caused people to either embrace him wholeheartedly…..or to walk away from him. In John 6:53-66, Jesus tells his disciples exactly what they must do to gain eternal life. Their response was to reply, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” Instead of backpedaling in order to please his followers, Jesus says, "Does this offend you? What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe." And the reaction to this was that “many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him”.

See also John 7:12 – “Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, "He [Jesus] is a good man." Others replied, "No, he deceives the people."” Clearly, Jesus had a decision-making effect upon people. It had to be hard for him to be so blunt, knowing that some would forever forfeit their future in heaven because they simply could not accept this teaching. They were not willing to give their lives into whatever service that God called them to, but were more interested in pursuing their own path. But when two different viewpoints meet which have polarizing points of view, the light of truth does not get through.

In my own life, I am growing more convinced that I must adopt a more polarizing approach to proclaiming God’s truth. It may cost me opportunities in a worldly sense, and it may be done at the expense of a friendship or two. People walked away from Jesus because he could not waver from the truth. And while it will never be my goal to purposely drive anyone away from what is right, it should not surprise me when it happens – if I truly teach as Jesus taught.

Songs I Can’t Sing Anymore – Part 3

I grew up listening to rock and roll from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. I have always maintained that there is no era of music that I prefer to listen to more, and I listened to a lot of it in college and during the years before my wife and I had children. I amassed over two-hundred albums on vinyl over the years, before compact discs took over. I have spent a great deal of time over the last couple of years transferring this music to my iPod. As I’ve recently begun listening to this music again, I have been struck by the lyrics of many of the songs – seen anew from a refreshed Christian perspective. I believe that I listened only to the music back in my younger days, but today I actually pay attention to the lyrics. This is the first in a series of articles discussing the possible hidden (or overt) meaning in many songs I used to sing out loud -- without actually listening to what the words were saying.

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Nearly everyone loves Fleetwood Mac. For many of the people in my generation, they were more than just a pop band with several number one hits. During their popular period, they had a following that approached cult status. And watching their occasional concerts on PBS, it seems to me that the people in the audience look far older than I do – but that might just be denial on my part…

The reason for Fleetwood Mac’s popularity goes beyond the singability and beauty of the music. The members of the band are surrounded by mystery and personal stories that would easily make tabloid headlines. Drug addiction, broken personal relationships within the band, on-stage abuse, and rumors of involvement with the Wicca religion swirl around this talented group of musicians, and these items have almost certainly added to their popularity. The on-again, off-again relationship between guitar-player/singer Lindsey Buckingham and singer Stevie Nicks has dominated much of the intrigue that makes up their image.

Stevie Nicks has furthered Fleetwood Mac’s air of mystery more than any other member of the band, capitalizing on her own “style” of clothing and lyrics. Early in her career with the band, she adopted billowing skirts, boots and jewelry designed to give her a hint of witchcraft. She played on this further by writing the song Rhiannon, and opening the song when performed live by saying, “This is a song about a Welsh witch”. She did little to dispel the rumor that she herself might be the witch in question until many years later. Without a doubt, this only increased the band’s popularity. Many people are drawn to mysterious religions – anything that might be a slap to the Christian religion, that is.

I love listening to the opening electric guitar licks to Rhiannon. They aren’t too hard to play, and they sound great once you learn them. The sound that Buckingham chose for the guitar is memorable. When the bass walk starts, and the drums begin, it’s an almost perfect song intro – at least in my mind. And that’s what I remember when I was growing up. The song would play over the tinny schoolbus speakers, and would still sound…..great. I purchased the album (vinyl back then) in college, and probably played it well over a hundred times. As I’ve stated before, I listened very little to the lyrics of songs back then, and focused mostly on trying to duplicate the music only. But if one listens to the song hard enough, you’ll hear:

She is like a cat in the dark

And then she is the darknesss

She rules her life like a fine skylark

And when the sky is starless

All your life you've never seen a woman

Taken by the wind

Would you stay if she promised you Heaven?

Will you ever win? Will you ever win?

I’m honestly not sure I can describe what the song is trying to get across. It’s enough to note that the lyrics leave a mysterious feeling that adds to the rumors that Stevie Nicks propagated. Is she a witch? Did she and the band practice secret Wiccan rituals after they finished a concert? Do the lyrics contain some hidden meaning that we should be concerned about?

Well, in this case, the answer might be “No”. Nicks has gone on record as saying that she is not a witch, and has never practiced witchcraft. In a 1998 interview, when asked about the Wiccan connection, she said, "I have no idea what precipitated those rumors...I am not a witch. Get a life!" She credits “a God looking out” for her to get her through her earlier drug addiction. And when Lindsay Lohan mentioned that she would like to play Nicks in a movie about her life, Nicks responded by saying, “She needs to stop doing drugs and get a grip. Then maybe we'll talk.” Maybe Stevie Nicks is not at all the big, bad witch that we’ve been led to believe.

But I have a point to make about the music of this genre. What do Christians raised on rock music (like me) fill our minds with? Do we continue to live in two worlds – one where we proclaim Christlikeness on Sunday, and one where we listen to New Age lyrics on weekdays? Does this have an effect on the quality of our service to God? Does it honor God to mimic these lyrics in the car while driving to work? As I grow older (and hopefully a little wiser), it seems to me that I need to focus every waking moment on glorifying God – not just because it is the right thing to do, but because any other act starts to seem cheap and selfish. Is this radical? Yes. Am I capable of spending every waking moment honoring God? Right now, the answer is “No”. Do I want to do better in the future, and concentrate only on things that glorify Him? Absolutely.

This is a hard lesson for me. Music is beautiful, and words are powerful. This music seems to lift me up to a different place. But the lyrics are often empty. Does anyone else experience this struggle?

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Songs I Can’t Sing Anymore – Part 2

I grew up listening to rock and roll from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. I have always maintained that there is no era of music that I prefer to listen to more, and I listened to a lot of it in college and during the years before my wife and I had children. I amassed over two-hundred albums on vinyl over the years, before compact discs took over. I have spent a great deal of time over the last couple of years transferring this music to my iPod. As I’ve recently begun listening to this music again, I have been struck by the lyrics of many of the songs – seen anew from a refreshed Christian perspective. I believe that I listened only to the music back in my younger days, but today I actually pay attention to the lyrics. This is the second in a series of articles discussing the possible hidden (or overt) meaning in many songs I used to sing out loud -- without actually listening to what the words were saying.

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As a guitar player, I have always admired the music of Dan Fogelberg. He was a multi-talented musician, reportedly able to pick up almost any new instrument and immediately begin playing it as if he had invested years of practice. His voice was unique, and he often recorded all of the vocal and instrumental tracks on his records by himself (though he usually liked to turn over the drums to someone more accomplished). His words had an appeal to many, because they often had a searching and philosophical overtone that satisfied people’s need for more than just pop lyrics. I’ve sung many of his songs, either at talent shows or while wooing my wife-to-be during my college years. Those songs include the one I mention here – a fact which I now find almost unbelievable, given that I’ve been a Christian since the age of twelve.

Part of the Plan was released by Fogelberg in 1975, as the opening song on the Souvenirs album. It’s catchy, singable, and pretty easy to play on the guitar. The lyrics start out in a searching fashion, making you wonder if there’s more to life than what we’re experiencing:

I have these moments
All steady and strong
I'm feeling so holy and humble
The next thing I know
I'm all worried and weak
And I feel myself starting to crumble.

The meanings get lost
And the teachings get tossed
And you don't know what you're
Going to do next.
You wait for the sun
But it never quite comes
Some kind of message comes
Through to you.
Some kind of message comes through.

This is a good start, seen from a Christian perspective. There is certainly a longing in life for more than what this world has to offer, if we choose to grasp only the things of this world. So what is the message that “came through” to Fogelberg? The chorus of the song tells us:

And it says to you...
Love when you can
Cry when you have to...
Be who you must
That's a part of the plan
Await your arrival
With simple survival
And one day we'll all understand...

Oops…problem. From a biblical perspective, “being who I must” is a recipe for disaster. The New Age worldview tells us to do this very thing – by following what our heart tells us. Even Christians make this slip quite often, saying “I followed my heart’s leading…” about some matter or another. But Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” We are called to follow God’s example, left to us in the Holy Scriptures and the example of His Son, Jesus Christ. That is not necessarily “what I am” – in fact, it rarely is. Being like Christ takes a determination and perseverance that is not easy for me. The very thing that requires the least effort for me is to lapse into what I believe to be my true nature.

If this was not enough to ruin the song for me, the third verse clinches it:

There is no Eden or Heavenly gates
That you're gonna make it to one day
But all of the answers you seek can be found
In the dreams that you dream
On the way.

This verse saddens me. I’ve written before about Dan’s life, death, and his belief in between. His philosophy that “dreams” can take the place of a loving Father waiting for us in eternity leaves me cold and empty. While it sounds pretty to follow your dreams or to dream of a better world, the simple truth is that God offers an eternal, precious existence in His kingdom of heaven. But we must embrace and accept His offering as the free gift of grace that it is. Only He can save us, and this can be achieved only through His wondrous plan. This is more than the “simple survival” offered up by Fogelberg. It’s a lasting gift of eternity, as we live humbly before Him.

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Next in the series... or

Go back to the beginning of this series…

Songs I Can’t Sing Anymore – Part 1

I grew up listening to rock and roll from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. I have always maintained that there is no era of music that I prefer to listen to more, and I listened to a lot of it in college and during the years before my wife and I had children. I amassed over two-hundred albums on vinyl over the years, before compact discs took over. I have spent a great deal of time over the last couple of years transferring this music to my iPod. As I’ve recently begun listening to this music again, I have been struck by the lyrics of many of the songs – seen anew from a refreshed Christian perspective. I believe that I listened only to the music back in my younger days, but today I actually pay attention to the lyrics. This is the first in a series of articles discussing the possible hidden (or overt) meaning in many songs I used to sing out loud -- without actually listening to what the words were saying.

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The 1960’s were dominated by bands with an underlying New Age philosophy. Peace, free love, and rock and roll were all blended together in words that welcomed the dawning of the “the age of Aquarius”. One of my very favorite bands from this time frame is Crosby, Stills and Nash (and sometimes Young). I enjoy their music, if a bit rough and unpolished, and am mostly attracted to their incredible harmonies. I still try to mirror some of the high notes sung by Graham Nash in my own backup singing. Some of their vocal blending still gives me chills.

Recently, I was playing the So Far album from 1974, and came across the song Woodstock. Written by Joni Mitchell in 1969, it details elements of the famed Woodstock concert in a farmer’s field in Bethel, New York. While I used to mouth the words to the opening lines, it struck me for the very first time what the lyrics were actually saying. Give a listen:

Well, I came upon a child of God

He was walking along the road

And I asked him, Tell me, where are you going?

This he told me

Said, I'm going down to Yasgur's Farm,

Gonna join in a rock and roll band.

Got to get back to the land and set my soul free.

We are stardust, we are golden,

We are billion year old carbon,

And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.

Huh? Did I really used to sing “We are billion year old carbon” without blinking an eye? Sadly, the answer is “Yes”. Did I think about what I was singing at the time? Sadly, the answer is “No”.

These lyrics display a clear New Age influence. The 1969 idea of setting your soul free and getting back to the land sounds a lot like bumper stickers that we see on cars forty years later (“The Earth Is Your Mother”). These are not new New Age ideas. The desire for a return to something more than we are may be an inherent feeling in all of us. What it is, and how it got there is the topic for debate.

Carl Sagan is famous for his Cosmos television series, where he stated the words, “We are all star stuff”. This also is not a new concept, as Joni Mitchell penned similar words many years before Sagan reintroduced the idea. I have always found Sagan’s words somewhat ridiculous. Is it a scientific statement? What hard evidence does he have? Does anyone really believe that “star-stuff” or stardust can somehow “evolve” into a sentient race of people? It is not a factual conclusion, but rather a philosophical musing, rooted in nothing more than flawed humanist thinking. I don’t want to think of myself, or my lovely wife, or my precious children as “billion-year-old carbon”. The idea takes away from the wonder and miracle of life, which is far better explained by God’s hand.

I am beginning to see many examples such as these lyrics which attempt to combine the humanist way of thinking with religious expressions. Given that the author assumes we are simply a collection of carbon molecules, what place do the phrases “child of God” and “back to the garden” have in their argument? They don’t – they are merely an attempt to add to the mysticism of their lyrics in order to appear “artsy” or “enlightened”. This song -- one I used to sing out loud -- now takes on an anti-God aspect that I never saw before. It’s ruined for me.

One final point – has anyone taken note that the “billion-year-old carbon” line was replaced with a different line in the last chorus – a line that is much more true? Write me back with a comment if you discover what it is.

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