#Power and Humility

[thechurchoftheatom]

A Sermon for May 28th: The Atom in Our Hands

Brothers and Sisters in the Atom, there are few forces more powerful than the atom—and none so intimate. We have split the building blocks of the universe and captured the power of stars in our laboratories, our power plants, and—tragically—our weapons.

This is not myth. This is history. It is science. It is us.

The atom is not evil. The atom is not good. But it is powerful—and it is in our hands.

Prometheus, Oppenheimer, and the Burden of Fire

In ancient myth, Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to humanity. For this, he was punished—not because fire was evil, but because it was divine. Dangerous. Transformative. He gave humanity the means to cook, to forge, to warm themselves—and also, to burn.

We often look to J. Robert Oppenheimer as a modern Prometheus. He led the Manhattan Project, and witnessed the world’s first nuclear explosion in the desert at Trinity.

Most people know his famous quote from the Bhagavad Gita:

“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”

But his brother, Frank Oppenheimer, recalled that his actual first words were far more human, far more grounded:

“I guess it worked.”

And isn't that the real story? The terrible, humble truth of science and power? That sometimes the people who change the world do so with awe in their hearts—and sometimes, with uncertainty. With relief. With resignation. With fear.

The test was not the moment of danger. The moment of danger came the moment we knew it was possible. From that moment on, the question was no longer can we—but should we, how will we, what now?

That is the question we still face.

The Power We Hold

The atom does not ask to be feared. It asks to be understood.

We hold in our hands:

The ability to treat cancer with precision radiation

The capacity to light cities with minimal carbon emissions

The knowledge to design long-term nuclear warnings

The history of accidents, breakthroughs, devastation, and salvation

This is not a sermon of doom. It is a sermon of conscious inheritance.

Because every Atomite knows: power without reflection leads to ruin. But power combined with care, education, and restraint can become protection.

On Stewardship, Not Control

We are not masters of the atom. We are its students, its archivists, its stewards.

Our role is not to dominate, but to:

Preserve the story

Pass on the science

Guard the knowledge

Teach it with humility

Like a sacred manuscript passed down through centuries, the knowledge of the atom must be copied faithfully, deliberately, and with reverence.

It must never become a tool of pride. It must never become a secret buried in shame. It must remain open, clear, and ready for those who will need it most.

Call to Reflect

This week, reflect on your relationship with knowledge:

What truths have you inherited?

Are you protecting them, or letting them fade?

Are you using them with wisdom, or wielding them without thought?

What might future generations lose if you remain silent?

The atom is not only in our science—it is in our stories. In our moral choices. In the way we treat the power we hold, and the people we hold it with.

Closing Words

Brothers and Sisters, we live in a world shaped by choices made before we were born. But we also shape the world for those yet to come.

Let us carry our knowledge with reverence. Let us teach it with care. Let us never forget that the atom does not belong to us—we belong to the future it touches.

Go forth and be radiant.

[wellhealthhub]

What If you had to give up one word that you use regularly what would it be?: What Would You Give Up?

If you had to give up one word that you use regularly, what would it be? Discover the power and peril of one word as we delve into the influence of language on personal identity and societal dynamics. Introduction Language is not just a tool for communication; it’s a lens through which we see the world. It shapes our thoughts, influences our identity, and even dictates our actions to a…

[theweeklydiscourse]

Alina’s reluctance to power didn’t make her humble or virtuous, it just made her cowardly. For Alina, rejecting power doesn’t mean rejecting corruption, it means rejecting a fundamental part of herself. It would have been good for Alina to accept responsibility and rise to the occasion as a hero and leader instead of remaining passive. Trying to generalize all forms of power as inherently corrupting ignores the context of Alina’s reluctance and frames her meekness and passivity as a good thing.

[mohntilyet]

they hated illario because he was a d1 yapper who was bad at assassinating people and was so annoyingly drunk and grief stricken at his cousin’s wake that viago had to drug him to shut him up (so what if he was also the guy who set his cousin up to die/disappear) . and also for working with the venatori and selling out the antivan crows i guess.

[gumy-shark]

kageyama parents they could never make me hate you

[thatscarletflycatcher]

"Everything went wrong after David Bowie died" "everything went wrong after the Reformation"

Me, whose Metaphysics studies and medievalist interests have been heavily shaped by Dominicans: everything went wrong after Ockham et al. sustained the primacy of Will before Good in the nature of God.

[dramoor]

"Though a man may be found in a weak state, that does not at all mean that he has been abandoned by God. On the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ was in trouble, as the world sees things. But when the sinful world considered Him to be completely destroyed, in fact He was victorious over death and hades.

The Lord did not promise us positions as victors as a reward for righteousness, but told us, 'In the world you will have tribulation — but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world' (John 16:33). The power of God is effective when a person asks for the help from God, acknowledging his own weakness and sinfulness. This is why humility and the striving towards God are the fundamental virtues of a Christian."

~St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco

(Image via Freepik.com)

[arthur-lesters-pinky-finger]

AHHHHHH I LOVE OUTSIDE PERSPECTIVES John sounds so much more strange when you try to explain who he is.... like yeah I'm half a god shoved into this guy who's actually from a continent you haven't discovered yet, and also from like 500 years from now teehee now PLEASE DONT KILL THIS GUY

[i-belong-only-to-her]

She doesn’t ask, she commands:"You’ll clean the flat tomorrow." When you suggest she might help, she laughs.

"What do I have a slave for?!"

There’s no room for argument, no option to refuse. This isn’t about what you want, it’s about her authority, her pleasure, and the undeniable truth: you are entirely hers, and she can do with you as she pleases.

[mai-komagata]

ok it isn't that i don't want to redeem sauron. in real life i hope if there is a god the apokatastasis is real. but like if we are making a ranked list of people who who should be redeemed in the rings of power show, i see scenes like halbrand stealing that sigil from that old man and leaving him to die or stabbing his orc children adar loves so much and worked so hard to make good again, or throwing mirdania over the railing, and im like, well, we can put sauron last on the list. he clearly doesn't want it. liking one powerful blonde woman gives you zero redemption points -- that doesnt even count as *trying*, that is just having eyes. its like you guys don't know how the ancient magic works at all.

[littlecockboyy]

Are there any dominant, smart, sadistic, feminist women out there who want to humiliate men??

Can’t stop thinking about a Goddess (or Goddesses) sitting on my face, edging my worthless penis, and punching my vulnerable balls all while reading me stories, facts, and statistics about how women are vastly superior to men. Matriarchy/Gynarchy type shit while my weak, pathetic, exposed male genitals are being destroyed for women’s pleasure and enjoyment. Torture me for hours, make me cum dozens of times, and absolutely humiliate me as a man.

Anyone???

Huge shoutout to @womenwilldominate for the inspiration for this fantasy. I edge to this blog endlessly

[gizkalord]

thinking about how ed's arrogance/hubris is what ultimately cost al's body—and at the end of the series he trades away his alchemy and by extension his arrogance to get al's body back. like yes he beats truth's game but in a way that's still equivalent exchange!!!!!!!!

it's a classic "power of friendship conquers all" trope, but it's sooo thematically on point because of what that alchemy represented to ed and how the symbolic meaning of his powers ends up fulfilling the conditions of the original exchange!!! obsessed

[quotelr]

Simplicity and humility, not power or status, will bring you joy and happiness.

Debasish Mridha

[elohim-israel]

Christianity is attempting to teach humans oneness and unity. People caught up in skin complexions and nationalism can not comprehend that.

Yes I. That’s a deep and true word.

Christianity, at its core, is about the oneness of humanity in Christ—“There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). The Gospel calls us beyond divisions of tribe, race, and nation into a higher unity, rooted in the Spirit of God.

Tewahedo (ተዋሕዶ, täwaḥədo) is a Ge’ez word that means “being made one” or “unity.”

“In the mystic tradition of the Church, there is a unity of faith and doctrine. The unity of the Church, however, must be manifested in the unity of its members. Unity implies the kind of love that Christ showed to us on the Cross. Unity implies that all Christians are one in the spirit of humility and forgiveness.” — H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, Address to the World Council of Churches, Addis Ababa, 1971

💚💛❤️

[cto10121]

Finally bought a copy of Midnight Sun!!! Or as I like to call it, Twilight’s subtext as actual text because people suck at reading comprehension. Honestly, with every reread the book gets better and better. And of course, I have des notes (Part 1, since this tome is long):

I love how Edward is so obviously interested in her even before he smells her scent. That ~strange urge to step between her and Jessica’s vicious thoughts…buddy

Also love me some Arrogant!Edward, especially at the beginning—the Mr. Darcy vibes truly are impeccable, and it makes total sense for this narrative. The stupid clowns and anti fans hate it, but it is absolutely essential to his character arc towards humility/self-acceptance. It’s called character development, bitch

Edward: “She is an ordinary human girl, nothing special, she isn’t even pretty” Also Edward literally the second time he sees her: “She has oddly deep brown eyes, the color of milk chocolate, but with the clarity of strong tea, with flecks of caramel and agate green and now she is tossing her luscious mahogany hair at me and now her delicious scent is wafting like delicate perfume—” 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Clowns: “Edward doesn’t like Bella for herself, he just likes her scent!!!1!” Edward: *absolutely REFUSES to go into detail about her scent, just its effect on him* Yeah. Strange, but revealing. In Twilight he does say it’s like freesia, and Laurent says it’s “floral, somehow.” The metaphor for sexual desire and even predation is there, suggested by Edward’s obvious romantic interest, but narrative-wise Meyer firmly separates the two and even has Edward conquer his own selfish instincts in order to be together with Bella. In that framing, Bella’s scent becomes another obstacle to overcome to reach true romance, and that fact alone makes Twilight better than 90% of romances lol

I don’t think I mentioned this before, but Meyer’s Spanish is surprisingly legit so far. I’ve literally read worse Spanish by Chicano and Latino writers, without accent marks and everything. Although I must say, they always have these Spanish high school teachers insist on having the whole class speak Spanish. It’s such a cliché, but a charming one, I guess

Edward hearing about Emmett’s cantante encounter and thinking, “Yeah, no, this is worse” is such an unintended flex, imo. Homeboy really was dealing with the worst vampire thirst ever and he actually succeeded in overcoming that enough to dick her down. Kudos

Edward thinking about Bella on her wedding day to some stranger and feeling pained—boy, it’s been three days!!!!! Birds of a feather flocking together

“A word I’d never said before in the presence of a lady—” This is the line that made the antis go crazy????? That a vampire from 1901 and frozen in that state would speak and act like he was from 1901????? Antis are so damn stupid

“I liked that I’d finally guessed right. That I was beginning to understand her.” Honestly? So far Edward has been very good at reading her body language and her feelings, almost from the get-go. Some specifics and quirks elude him, and he almost completely misses her attraction to him, but almost everything Bella is feeling from Twilight he also picks up on. So the Team Jacob fans that insist that Jacob is better because he is a better reader of Bella may not have that much of an argument after all

“Like a stalker. An obsessed stalker. Like an obsessed vampire stalker.” And like Bella, Edward is iconically hilarious in the best way possible. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Aaaaaand Alice has her Vampire!Bella vision and everyone is 😮 at Edward falling for Bella. Still wish that Edward would be in denial of his obvious feelings for a while longer, since it’s so much fun

Not antis complaining about how Midnight Sun’s added scenes on Bella’s selflessness and her friends being awful were ~retcons by Meyer…bitch, in Twilight it was clear as day her friends were fake. Normal, but fake. Angela excepted. And Bella’s kindness/self-abnegation was more than established, although there it was focused mostly on Bella’s shielding Angela from Jessica’s prying and setting up Mike/Jessica.

“Obviously the meteorite was just a metaphor for all the unlikely things that could go wrong.” Obviously, but your antis have never been the sharpest tools in the shed in terms of reading comprehension, Edward, so don’t even bother—oh, you meant yourself. Meyer definitely is doing some meta here.

“Edward…Stay.” God, I do want to see this scene dramatized in the TV show in an Edward POV flashback episode. Imagine Edward wrestling silently with his self-loathing, about to leave her room and possibly Bella for good, and then Bella speaks his name. He whirls around, shocked, and the way it’s framed the viewer almost believes she has woken up, but Bella is obviously sleeping. And telling him to stay. And Edward being all 😮 🥺 💗Beautiful…except the TV show would absolutely ruin it somehow

Edward not realizing that Bella is (obviously) turned on by him is just perfection. He is as oblivious to his own beauty as Bella is to hers and it makes for a great parallel. Only difference is he does contemplate whether Bella is attracted to him a little

“Staring at her mouth made me feel strange.” I swear, Edward is so much more naïve than Bella about anything romance. Homegirl owned her crush and acquitted herself very well all things considered. Meanwhile Edward is emotionally flailing like an angsty Kermit every single page, doing a “I wonder why?” every few seconds

“Sometimes, when he stares at me, I’d swear he’s thinking of killing me. Freak. Mike wasn’t entirely unperceptive.” 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

“She wore a deep blue blouse today” It has begun

“Bella winked?” Yes, Edward, and so did you, you fucking V tease. Both of you wink at people because you two are birds of a feather, flocking together. Two dorks, both alike in love clownery

Edward 🤝 Juliet —> “Soft perfection” & “Dear perfection” Don’t think I didn’t notice, Meyer!!!

The flirtatious waitress!!! Am enjoying her so much more this time around. Usually I like Bella’s Port Angeles chapter than Edward’s, but this shit reads great in both POVs

“Aside from my worries about her sanity, I began to feel a swelling of hope” 10/10 sentence, no notes

“She dreamed of me. I wanted to dream of her.”🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹 “I could not dream of her. She should not dream of me.” 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

Edward empathizing with Angela and wanting to pair her up with Ben (and succeeding!) warms the cockles of my cold, dead heart. It’s so great that his 100-year-old cold haughty shell is finally melting and giving way to the 17-year-old simp he is

“Running a house is time-consuming, and I usually had a part-time job, too, not to mention school—” Fuck anyone who hates Bella because she is ~boring, fuck them to hell and back. Homegirl was run so ragged she didn’t have time for herself, much less date. It’s a wonder she had hobbies to begin with (Edit: Aaaaaand the reason Bella hates birthdays is because her mother was shitty at giving her what she wanted and she had to pretend to like them. The fuck)

But on that note, I’m really loving all of Bella’s answers to Edward’s questions, almost easily the best part of the book, and canon-compliant with Twilight. Bella herself comes out as much more winsome, bright, and quirky through Edward’s perspective, traits that were less emphasized in her POV for obvious reasons. Even the stupid antis acknowledge that

Clown Antis: “Edward ~forced her to leave everything she wanted!1!1!!1” Literally Edward: “I realized how important it was for me to know her plans for the future. So I didn’t derail them. So I could shape this unlikely future into the best version to suit her.”

Bella being initially alarmed at Edward in the sun is possibly a retcon. In Twilight she did say the sight was “shocking,” but I thought it was mostly in a romantic way. But it does make sense lore-wise that she would think of him on fire at first. This is Edward’s POV, so he could just be assuming that is Bella’s alarm. Still, I wonder why Bella would skip over the extended “You aren’t repulsed by my flagrant lack of humanity?” exchange. I guess she took it for granted she wasn’t afraid????

Edward counting insects in the meadow etc. is just so…not really hilarious in context. The parodies made it seem like he was some neurodivergent nerd. In actual context he was just trying to distract himself from Bella’s scent.

“Better to see myself as the whole, bad and good, and work with the reality of it.” So mature and much better than anything else in this genre. Edward is growing and learning

“Regardless, I have better reflexes.” You’re (still) a whore, Edward. Nice to know that hasn’t changed.

[angelindisguise111]

Be the light they never thought you could be & blind them with your brightness ✨️