Every time I read Mr Mathew Farley’s articles, I have to shake my head in total amazement and bewilderment.
To Mr Farley, I do not have much time today to fully deal with your tripe, but I have to make a couple of comments.
I am sure Peter Wickham will deal with you in time as he usually defends his positions with statistics and evidence. As a hint I suggest you get your hands on the most recent census data. But that is not what I wish to write about today.
I take serious issue with your sarcastic remark: “We wait with bated breath and excitement to see how this development will impact the price of bread.”
Over the years the space programme has been responsible for many inventions that impact the “price of bread” such as CAT scanners, the computer microchip, cordless tools, ear thermometers, LED lights, smoke detectors, solar energy, water filters, long distant communications, and so on.
Blinded
You are so blinded by faith that you do not have an appreciation of what was accomplished by the Rosetta Probe and how it will “impact the price of bread”. The ability to shoot a probe into space ten years ago and land it on a comet somewhere between Mars and Jupiter that is travelling at bout 50 000 kilometres per hour is simply amazing.
First, and most importantly, we know that comets, and there are billions of them in the outer regions of our solar system, are debris left over from the formation of that solar system, between four and five billion years ago. They are frozen relics from a bygone age.
Furthermore, there is evidence that millions of impacts by comets, composed of rock and ice, delivered enormous quantities of additional water to the inner planets. Only the earth retained large amounts of water, of course. So studying the composition of comets significantly increases our understanding of the origins of our planet and our solar system.
Second, comets are known to include organic molecules, and meteorites have been known to contain amino acids, the building blocks of life. More detailed analysis of comets will help answer questions about the origins of life on earth.
Third, and most importantly, another reassuring aspect of this mission that has succeeded in finding a needle in an interplanetary “haystack”, is that it increases our confidence in being able to meet and divert any asteroid or comet that might collide with Earth and wipe us all out. Something we might one day have cause to be grateful for and will definitely have an impact on the price of bread.
On the issue of homosexuality, this is what I have to say to people like you that pick and choose passages in the Bible to justify your ideas.
If you were to read all four gospels thoroughly in search of Jesus’ teachings on homosexuality, it would be a futile endeavour. Not only would you come to the end of the gospels without finding anything attributed to Jesus on the subject, you wouldn’t even find a single reference to the issue in any context.
Perspective
In fact, there are only a handful of references to homosexuality in the entire Bible, but they are found in the Old Testament and Paul’s writings. To put it in perspective, while there are only seven references to homosexuality, there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of references to economic justice and the laws governing the accumulation and distribution of wealth.
Jesus’ silence on the subject suggests that an issue which can be controversial and/or fraught with emotion these days was simply not a central issue in his lifetime 2 000 years ago in the land of Palestine. The fact that he didn’t address this issue leaves us all to ponder what He might say were He here today. Then again, someone who never existed could not be here today, but just suppose He was.
Leviticus says not to eat shellfish (Lev 11:
9-12), use mixed seed or fabrics (Lev 19:19), harvest the corners of fields (Lev 19:9), and that homosexuality is wrong (Lev 18:22; 20:13). If homosexuality is wrong because Leviticus says so, then shouldn’t we also obey the other laws about shellfish, seed, fabrics, and fields because that is in Leviticus as well? If not, then why not? Why do Christians pick and choose what parts of the Bible to follow?
Leviticus 20:13 says: “If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their heads.”
Morality
This is the verse Christians point to as proof that homosexuality is immoral. What I find interesting is how passionate they are about the first sentence, but just ignore the second sentence as if it isn’t there. However, the second sentence is quite clear. “They must be put to death . . .” Must. There is no room for equivocation or ambiguity here. However, do Christians follow this?
No, because our morality evolves, grows and changes. It gets better with time. In other parts of the world, some cultures are continuing to take the second sentence quite literally.
I feel safe saying that our present day morality in Barbados is far better than the morality of the God in the Bible, who seems to possess an unquenchable thirst for human blood, from what is written in the rest of Leviticus and the rest of the Bible.
Mr Farley, you need to not only read your Bible, you need to understand what is written in your Bible. I therefore expect in your next newspaper article to retract your statement on tolerance and advocate death to all homosexuals because after all, that is what God commands.
Damn foolishness.