And in the Big News today from a Faith Perspective, robot vacuum cleaners and AI chatbots. Many of us attribute personalities to these devices. We give them moods and goals to explain their behavior. Just like we do with the natural world when we invoke our Invisible Magic Friend.
If machines can do everything we do, what do we do instead? Well, we can be creative. Have you tried going on Thought for the Day for example? That’s very creative.
As India and Pakistan once again exchange bullets, missiles and threats, we reflect on how “the power of Faith to heal divisions and bring people together becomes all the more important.”
It’s been a busy time for star gazing this week. So much so that I found myself thankful of a cloudy night last night. I went to bed at 7.30 pm and slept for 13 hours! Got some nice pics though.
The bright orange star in the middle here is UX Draconis, a star in Draco the dragon. Not a constellation that seems to get talked about much, but it’s circumpolar, visible all year. UX Draconis owes its deep red colour to its age and high carbon composition. It’s an ancient star that has swollen to become a red giant, probably swallowing any inner planets. It lies about 1200 light years away.
The constellation of Cygnus the swan is now becoming prominent in the eastern sky. It’s absolutely packed full of interesting stars and nebulae. The reason being that when we look in that direction we’re looking directly into the heart of the our own galaxy. Here is the Crescent nebula. Just look at the density of stars compared to UX Draconis above.
The nebula is created by the stellar wind from a red giant star colliding with and illuminating the atmosphere from the same star that was blown off when it expanded to become a red giant.
People rushed to help the man who had shot the two Israeli embassy workers in Washington, unaware of who he was. He had successfully dehumanized the two unfortunate embassy staff, just as so many have dehumanized the inhabitants of Gaza.
The solution to all this dehumanizing is more religion. Specifically a religion with lots of Jesus in it. Christians never dehumanize anyone. It’s the only way to bring peace to the Middle East.
Our prisons are full. What to do? I recommend “confession”. Criminals can confess their sins to someone suitable, a priest like me for instance. They can then be forgiven and set free. Simples.
Platitude of the Day 