#di worrell

[beardedmrbean]

A Florida man who died in a shootout with police over the weekend was out on bond after he allegedly raped a 14-year-old girl on her way to school last year, according to Orange County court records.

A SWAT team fatally shot Daton Viel, 28, on Friday after he shot and critically injured two Orlando police officers during a traffic stop around 11 p.m. Investigators believe Viel's vehicle may have been tied to a homicide in Miami.

Less than a year ago, on Dec. 1, 2022, Viel offered a ride to the 14-year-old girl walking to a local high school. She accepted, and when she got into his vehicle, he drove her to a park and allegedly raped her inside his vehicle before driving back to the school.

Once he dropped her off at the school, the victim told friends and school staff, who contacted law enforcement, Orange County records show.

SUSPECTED COP SHOOTER KILLED IN STANDOFF WITH SWAT TEAM NEAR UNIVERSAL ORLANDO: POLICE

Surveillance footage captured a red, four-door sedan entering the school's front office parking lot once at 10:14 a.m. and again at 10:46 a.m., when the victim can be seen exiting the vehicle.

Medical staff examined the victim and obtained a sexual assault kit. Detectives then conducted an analysis of male DNA found on the victim and linked it to Viel, who was charged with sexual battery of a person between the ages of 12 and 18, lewd or lascivious molestation and lewd or lascivious exhibition.

ORLANDO POLICE OFFICERS IN CRITICAL CONDITION FOLLOWING SHOOTING

He was released on $125,000 bond in that case, as FOX 35 Orlando first reported.

"The only individual who can be blamed for incidents like these is the individual who took those actions," Monique Worrell, U.S. State's Attorney for the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida, said during a Monday press conference. Worrell defended her office, repeating that bond is at the discretion of the court, not the U.S. Attorney's Office. "Whether or not someone gets released on bond is in the discretion of the court, and bond is a right. It is not something that the state gets to decide or not decide," Worrell said when asked whether the prosecutor's office could have argued for no bond. "We can certainly make arguments. Ultimately, it's the decision of the court, and in this case, the court decided that a $125,000 bond was appropriate."

At the time of his arrest in the rape case, Viel was on probation for burglary, trespassing on a construction site and criminal mischief charges stemming from a December 2019 incident. He had also violated probation for alleged crimes out of Georgia earlier this year.

TEMPLE POLICE SHOOTING SUSPECT SHOT OFFICER 3 MORE TIMES AS COP LAY ON GROUND WITH HEAD WOUND: OFFICIALS

Additionally, there was a warrant out for Viel's arrest in Orange County in July after he was caught driving a red Ford Fusion with a stolen license plate on June 30 near the University of Central Florida campus.

"The offender reported he'd come to the campus to see a girlfriend and he knew he shouldn't be driving because his license was suspended, and he did not have any insurance on the car," an amended complaint stated. "While Officer Smith was removing the stolen license plate from the vehicle, UCF Dispatch relayed the offender had an active warrant from Orange County for Trespassing."

When officers told Viel to put his hands behind his back, he fled the scene. Police yelled commands at the suspect to stop, but he ignored them and got away.

"There were three warrants, and we just could not get to him," Worrell said Monday. "…Until Saturday morning, he was never taken into custody."

On Friday, after Viel shot at two Orlando officers, he initially fled the scene and then carjacked another vehicle in an effort to get away, and a vehicle pursuit ensued, according to a statement released from the Orlando Police Department. 

Viel barricaded himself inside a room at a Holiday Inn and refused to surrender despite multiple attempts by police to persuade him to give up. At 8:58 a.m., the suspect opened fire on SWAT officers "multiple times," according to Orlando Police Chief Eric Smith. Police returned fire and hit the suspect, killing him.  

[thatrickmcginnis]

BERNIE WORRELL, Toronto, 1987

I became a Parliament-Funkadelic fan before I heard a note of their music. It was 1977, and I was reading my brother-in-law's copy of Rolling Stone, which contained a concert review of the P-Funk Earth Tour at the back of the magazine. I saw the costumes and the spaceship and despite Toronto radio being nearly completely P-Funk-free at the time, I thought this looked like it must sound amazing. When I finally found my way to hearing something by George Clinton and his band(s) - I think it might have been "Flash Light" but I'm not sure - I wasn't disappointed, and when I started taking photos I made it my mission to get a portrait of anyone who was involved in the P-Funk universe. First up, and quite without expecting it, was keyboardist Bernie Worrell.

I had, of course, seen Bernie Worrell as part of the extended Talking Heads filmed by Jonathan Demme for Stop Making Sense. P-Funk were on something of a hiatus in the '80s, so various members of the group were appearing in all kinds of situations, and Worrell showed up in Toronto as part of the Golden Palominos - drummer Anton Fier's art rock/indie supergroup. Worrell was born in New Jersey and was an accomplished musician, studying at Juilliard and the New England Conservatory of Music before a meeting with George Clinton inspired him to move to Detroit and become part of the collective of musicians recording and touring as either Parliament or Funkadelic or both.

I shot precisely four frames of Bernie Worrell, who I nervously approached during soundcheck at the El Mocambo, a Toronto club, knowing that I only had a third of a roll of 120 film left in my Mamiya C330. The stew of influences I was processing as a young photographer included Francis Wolff's work on the covers of Blue Note albums, and while I might not have been able to explain it at the time, I was definitely paying homage to (or ripping off, depending on how you look at it) Wolff's work on records by John Coltrane, Bud Powell and "Baby Face" Willette. I'm not sure these photos - the whole of the shoot, as of this post - have ever been published outside my old blog. Bernie Worrell died of cancer in 2016.

[nicklloydnow]

“I wasn’t a fan of the music so much. I was just a fan of Axl and his vibe. I remember seeing him on MTV in that feather boa. Melissa always tells me it wasn’t a feather boa, though. But I saw him wearing one of those things Dave Navarro aways wears with his shirt off. Axl is wearing it with this spandex.

I saw this video where Axl was yelling at the audience, “Hey, can someone get that guy? Fix that!? No? Fuck it! I’ll fix it!” And he dives into the audience. I was like, “Holy shit, this guy is rad. What the hell?”

(…)

Like I said, I joined the band because of that attitude and because of the aura that was like Led Zeppelin. I loved it. Everyone else was sitting there, freaking out, like, “Oh my God. Axl is two hours late!” I was sitting there eating an ice cream like, “Who cares? Maybe we won’t even play! That’s even better! As long as the money comes, who gives a shit?” I totally felt like the chaos never died. I was so into the vibe of that. He might have been brilliant. He might have freaked out onstage. I was into it.

I totally remember the Philadelphia one. I was in the hotel. I kept calling the tour manager. I was like, “Hey dude. Do I need to come down yet? Do I need to play this show? What’s going on?” He was like, “Just stay there.” I was like, “Something’s weird.”

We had just played Madison Square Garden the night before and killed. I look over and there’s Beyonce and Jay-Z and Chris Rock, and they’ve loving it. We did a great show. Here we are now in Philly and we don’t know where Axl is or what’s happening.

I’m loving it. I’m literally eating pasta like, “This is cool.” I get a text from Mix Master Mike’s wife. She’s like, “Brain, are you guys showing up? They’re throwing things and yelling at Mix Master Mike. He’s been playing the same DJ set for about an hour and a half.” I’m like, “Dude, I don’t actually know.” We finally get the call that he’s not coming. They went, “Everyone go home. This is the last show.” I was like, “Oh, shit…”

If he didn’t feel like playing, for whatever reason, he just wouldn’t show up. He knew it would likely invite a consequence like a riot or a cancelled tour, but he didn’t seem to care back then.

That’s on the biggest level. And I’m not saying it’s right, but that’s kind of like the stories I’d hear about Bernie Worrell and George Clinton getting into their shit. He’s willing to throw it away. In the end, I don’t know. I saw Bernie towards the end when I heard he was sick. I went to one of his last shows. In the end, I don’t know if it’s worth it.

But now Guns N’ Roses show up on time, Melissa tells me. They play for four hours and it’s the most amazing show. So go figure. But I kind of dug it. I have the stories. I have the experiences. I can play the fuckin’ drums — that’s boring.

(…)

When I got in, it was just a lot of trial and error regarding what we were going to make, what style of music. It was a new band. Also, Axl takes his time anyway. And now because it’s this whole new thing, it will be twice as long. Then it became almost like a folklore. It was like, “Now it’s gone this far, it might as well just be $12 million, $13 million. Ten years. Let’s go for the record.” I don’t know. [Laughs.]

(…)

I just loved the fact that I was in Guns, but I was doing other things, like taking golf lessons every day and learning computers and programming and orchestration and music theory. And then you get a call like, “Hey, Axl needs you.” I was like, “This is the closest I’m going to get to the Zeppelin thing. Who gives a fuck? Make it go forever. This is the coolest thing, that it took 10 years.”

(…)

I had the joke in the studio one day when they were playing the playback. I said, “Dude, I think the zeroes and ones are getting worn out.” It was played so many times and there’s ten different hard drives and “that’s in the vault somewhere, we have to go get it.” There was just so much labor.

I agree with a little bit of that. When I listen to it, it has its thing. Is it how I feel when I hear Appetite? No. Is it how I feel when I listen to Use Your Illusion or The Spaghetti Incident? No. But it has its own thing. It’s very dense and very electronic-y and very metronomic. It’s got that.

(…)

Bucket just struggled with the politics behind it. Bucket was a true musician in that he just wanted to play. He’d be like, “Why does it have to be so hard? Why can’t the album just come out?” I was basking in it: “That’s part of the gig, dude.” He wasn’t feeling it. We had a little bit of a falling-out. He was like, “It seems like they’re just getting off on this.” I was like, “It’s not that I’m getting off on it. I’m just trying to let it be what it is. I’m not going to be able to change it, obviously. So I might as well get what I can get out of it.”

(…)

Each tour had their own little thing. They all had chaos. Every three days, you never know what was going to happen. We had some of the best shows, some of the worst shows. It was all kind of this rollercoaster. That kept it interesting to me.

(…)

But in the end, if we started at 1:00, the show would finish at 4:00. And Axl would give everything into that show. I’ve never seen that fuckin’ dude wimp out ever. If it starts at 1:00 am, that show is going to finish at 4:30. And even if you’re asleep, he’s still screaming.

(…)

It really was, for me … The fun of Axl and the attitude kind of went away. I found myself like, “Here I am playing ‘Nightrain,’ doing the cowbell part. There’s something else left for me in music, and it’s not this.” Everyone is always like, “What happened? Were they jerks?” No. Mainly for me, it was that I wanted to do something else with my life.

(…)

That’s the beauty of what I love about Axl. He let us go in there and reconstruct and fuck with the files, and even his voice, and play with them. We put some crazy techno beats and electro beats and Wu-Tang beats and all this kind of stuff, and allowing us to do those halftime shows with the remixes. It’s why I still work with them. It’s moving forward for me, musically, in that sense.

Will it ever come out? That’s when it hits the corporate side of stuff. Now Slash and Duff are back. Are they into it?”

“5. "Scraped" (from 2008's Chinese Democracy)

Even on an album that serves up industrial metal, trip-hop and glam rock in equal measure, "Scraped" is a doozy. Nothing can fully prepare your body for the blunt-force impact of a half-dozen Auto-Tuned Axls roaring out of your speakers in the song's acapella intro. From there, "Scraped" settles into a pummeling funk-metal groove, with Rose delivering self-empowerment mantras (a rarity for the frequently dour or introspective frontman) in a pinched, heavily processed mid-range voice. There's also some bizarre vocal clipping at the 1:19 mark — God only knows if it was an egregious editing mistake or a bold artistic statement on Rose's part.

4. "If the World" (from 2008's Chinese Democracy)

Guns N' Roses previously covered Wings' "Live and Let Die," the title song to the 1973 James Bond film. So, it makes perfect sense that Axl Rose would release his own fictional Bond theme 17 years later. What makes less sense is its wild amalgamation of trip-hop beats, flamenco guitar, synthetic strings, electro-funk pulses and bluesy piano tickles. "If the World" is one of the most out-of-character songs Guns N' Roses ever released, but Rose's 150-percent vocal conviction and lush, atmospheric production make it endlessly fascinating nonetheless.

3. "Oh My God" (from 1999's End of Days soundtrack)

Any lingering doubts about Axl Rose's evolving musical interests were promptly squashed when he emerged from his half-decade seclusion with "Oh My God," which evokes Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson, and appeared on the End of Days soundtrack alongside the likes of Korn, Limp Bizkit and Rob Zombie. Squalls of guitar feedback, cavernous drums and Rose's hyper-distorted wail dominate the blistering industrial-metal track, punctuated by a catchy dance-beat bridge and a few snatches of playful clean singing. Taken at face value, "Oh My God" is a fun, pulverizing oddity, but it was a disappointing and underperforming comeback. Slash even said in 2000 that the track "convinced me that my departure had been a wise decision, and that Axl and I were definitely no longer on the same wavelength musically."

(…)

1. "Absurd" (2021 single)

Say what you want about the first original Guns N' Roses song in 30 years to feature Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan, but it's certainly not a misnomer. Originally written during the Chinese Democracy sessions and performed in 2001 under the name "Silkworms," "Absurd" is a clobbering punk-metal maelstrom full of pulverizing drums, choppy riffs and some of the filthiest, most repellent lyrics of Rose's career. Oh, and then there's the mind-boggling ambient interlude breaking up the tumult, because why not? "Absurd" is brash, distasteful and a laughably illogical choice as a comeback single from the semi-reunited GNR lineup. In other words, it's classic Guns N' Roses.”

[husnaot]

Mental Health is the Cinderella of Healthcare, yes or no?

Growing up, I used to binge Disney movies. Every day after preschool I used to alternate between watching Barney episodes and choosing a Disney princess to watch. I learned all the songs off by heart and still know them to this day and I valued the lessons taught by each princess and the adventure she has to go on. 

Now in 2023, the media reduces princesses like Cinderella to just “needing to be saved by the prince”. I disagree with that statement and I’d like to expand on that with regards to this topic. 

Ella, her birth name, was a girl given a rough life. Her mother died when she was young and her father remarried a terrible, cruel woman who came with two equally cruel, naive daughters. They would go on to treat her as a servant and inferior to them when her father passes away. She is often thrown to the side, left for the dust and given the scraps of every meal rather than getting her own dish. 

Despite receiving this cruel treatment, she persists in making the best of her life. Although she is thrown to the side, she makes friends with the animals that live in her garden. She shares her food with them, an act of selflessness that indicates her good character. She is kicked out of her room, yet she throws no fuss and gains warmth sleeping next to the fire. Every scrap she gets as a meal she shares with her little friends. Her only relief comes through one person (the fairy godmother) who gives her a chance of a lifetime by letting everyone see her true value. 

Mental health is similar. There is not enough emphasis put on mental health as healthcare workers but also by the government as well. Like Cinderella, there are not enough healthcare workers who focus on mental health, leaving this whole aspect of treatment to be left to rot in the dark. Often times, we treat the physical body with such care and focus, yet leave the client’s mental state to feed on the scraps of treatment, for example writing their feelings in a little notebook. How can we expect our clients to abide by treatment if their mind is not well? (2018)

And what about the scrap leftovers? The Government does not budget enough money into the improvement of mental health facilities through the country. While physical treatment receives funding for equipment, materials and tools, as well as having fun days, mental health is left to receive the scrap of the budget. (Worrell, 2020)

One can argue that people are now growing more aware of mental health, even putting an emphasis on it as times grow tougher in society, but it is an uphill climb that is taking too much time and not happening fast enough. (Cohen, 2023)

We need to recognise that Cinderella did not need to be “saved by the prince”. It was her good character, her patience, strength and courage to be kind that led the fairy godmother to recognising a beautiful soul trapped in a bad situation.

In conclusion, yes, I do agree with the statement and I feel that it is our responsibility to become the fairy godmothers of healthcare. Occupational therapists should grab their wands and bibbity bobbity boo their clients to recognise the true value of their mental health. We need to be holistic in our treatment of clients and value both their mind and body so that they can reach their Prince Charming (goals of treatment). 

References:

Cohen, G. M. and S. (2023, April 7). Cinderella no more: Mental health matters. Social Europe. https://www.socialeurope.eu/cinderella-no-more-mental-health-matters 

Splisbury, P. (2018, July 4). Mental Health and integration: Cinderella or the Ugly Sisters?. NHS choices. https://www.strategyunitwm.nhs.uk/news/mental-health-and-integration-cinderella-or-ugly-sisters 

Worrell, C. (2020, July 23). Mental health funding: A Cinderella story. Medium. https://medium.com/inspire-the-mind/mental-health-funding-a-cinderella-story-19ce6a21eb2c 

’mental health the Cinderella of health care’- president of the South African Federation for Mental Health. The Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation. (2018, February 20). https://traumaclinicblog.wordpress.com/2018/02/20/mental-health-the-cinderella-of-health-care-president-of-the-south-african-federation-for-mental-health/ 

[sunflowersareonfire]

I had a dream that ghosts were contracted. Like a virus. But, basically anywhere you go, you could contract one. (So much for safe travels?) In this particular dream I got lost in the middle of the night and went down a dirt road with a dead end which resulted in me catching the ghost of Jim Varney, but as Ernest Worrell (the character that real life Varney played before he died), and the only way to cure myself of this haunting was to find his baseball hat named Barnacle.

[thechasefiles]

Different man WITNESS: PHOTO ALLEGED VICTIM SHOWED HIM OF THE MAN WHO RAPED HER WAS NOT THE ACCUSED Stefon Alleyne today recalled how a female confided in him that she had been raped by a man she knew as ‘Fire Chief’ and ‘Tune’. That was the testimony Alleyne gave in the No. 2 Supreme Court today as the rape case against Mario Rommel Neptune of Cutting Road, Haggatt Hall, St Michael continued. Neptune, is accused of raping the 18-year-old female on April 15, 2017. Under questioning by Senior State Counsel Olivia Davis, Alleyne told the court he knew the female because they grew up in the same neighbourhood where they would “lime” and played dominoes together. He said in April 2017, he was in Payne’s Bay, St James, when the alleged victim told him she had been raped. “She was a little ‘offset’ when she came and she told us if we knew an assailant by the name of Tune. We said yes and then she said that this assailant by the name of ‘Tune’ raped her and then she proceeded to tell us that she wanted this man set up,” Alleyne said. The witness said he knew a person who went by the aliases ‘Fire Chief’ and ‘Tune’ and he was shocked by her claims that he had raped her. However, he said when the victim showed him a picture of the man she claimed had raped her, it was not that person. “From what we understood the assailant ‘Fire Chief’ is not Mario Neptune. The assailant was a totally different person when she showed us a picture of this ‘Tune’ in her phone,” Alleyne said. Also giving evidence was Sergeant O’Brien Speedwell, who testified that Catherine Roach, a former police officer who had taken photos in relation to the investigation had died. Acting Station Sergeant Wayne Griffith told the court that he had looked for images taken by Roach but could not find them. Under cross-examination from defense counsel Justin Leacock, Griffith said the photos had been taken and downloaded onto a disc. He said when he tried to access the photos he realized they were corrupted. Griffith admitted that those photos were “important” to the case. The case is being heard by Justice Randall Worrell and will continue on Monday. Source: BARBADOS today https://www.instagram.com/p/Ck-wF5LgjBL0_mEcdJKMz87jr7BaGXUHfltdTE0/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[ancestral-anecdotes]

This day in family history (November 13, 1892)...William Madison Lanham, age 56, married Sallie Mae Campbell, age 26. This photo shows William and Sallie with their two children, Robert and Lucy (Debbie's grandmother), standing next to them in the front row. The women in the back row, Nellie and Artie, are Sallie's children from her first marriage to John Jones, who died in 1889. The gentleman in the back row is Charles Worrell, who married Nellie.

[pubart]

Campagna anti Covid del MCPU, ovvero del Ministero della Cultura dell'Ucraina, dove celebri capolavori vengono rivisitati per lanciare il messaggio #FlattenTheCurve (appiattire la curva dei contagi)

Leonardo Da Vinci - Dama con l’ermellino - 1490

René Magritte - Il figlio dell'uomo - 1964

Michelangelo Buonarroti - Creazione di Adamo - 1512

Raffaello Sanzio - Ritratto di un giovane uomo in rosso - 1505

Jacques-Louis David - Il Primo Console supera le Alpi al Gran San Bernardo - 1801

Frederic Leighton - Orfeo ed Euridice - 1864

Giovanni Battista Salvi - Madonna in preghiera - 1642

Leonardo Da Vinci - L'ultima cena - 1498

Benjamin West - La signora Worrell come Hebe - 1770

[viralnews-1]

Bruce Pairaudeau, the former West Indies and Northern Districts batter, dies aged 91

Bruce Pairaudeau, the former West Indies and Northern Districts batter, dies aged 91

Bruce Pairaudeau, the former West Indies and Northern Districts batter, has died aged 91. Pairaudeau, who was born in British Guiana in 1931, played 13 Tests for West Indies between 1953 and 1957 alongside Frank Worrell, Everton Weekes and Alf Valentine. He fell in love with New Zealand on a tour to the country in 1956. After emigrating to New Zealand, he captained Northern Districts to their…

[unknown-songs]

BLACK LIVES MATTER

A list with black artists who have a song in the Unknown Songs That Should Be Known-playlist (Can be a black artist in a band or just solo-artist) (no specific genre)

Bull’s Eye - Blacknuss, Prince Prime - Funk Aftershow - Joe Fox - Alternative Hip-hop Strangers in the Night - Ben L’Oncle Soul - Soul Explore - Mack Wilds - R&B Something To Do - IGBO - Funk

Down With The Trumpets - Rizzle Kicks - Pop Dans ta ville - Dub Inc. - Reggae Dance or Die - Brooklyn Funk Essentials - Funk FACELESS - The PLAYlist, Glenn Lewis - R&B Tell Me Father - Jeangu Macrooy - Soul

Southern Boy - John The Conquerer - Blues Hard Rock Savannah Grass - Kes - Dancehall Dr. Funk - The Main Squeeze - Funk Seems I’m Never Tired of Loving You - Lizz Wright - Jazz Out of My Hands - TheColorGrey, Oddisee - Hip-Hop/Pop

Raised Up in Arkansas - Michael Burks - Blues Black Times - Sean Kuti, Egypt 80, Carlos Santana - Afrobeat Cornerstone - Benjamin Clementine - Indie Shine On - R.I.O., Madcon - Electronic Pop Bass On The Line - Bernie Worrell - Funk

When We Love - Jhené Aiko - R&B Need Your Love - Curtis Harding - Soul Too Dry to Cry - Willis Earl Beal - Folk Your House - Steel Pulse - Reggae Power - Moon Boots, Black Gatsby - Deep House

Vinyl Is My Bible - Brother Strut - Funk Diamond - Izzy Biu - R&B Elusive - blackwave., David Ngyah - Hip-hop Don’t Ever Let Nobody Drag Your Spirit Down - Heritage Blues Orchestra - Blues Sastanàqqàm - Tinariwen - Psychedelic Rock

Disco To Go - Brides of Funkenstein - Funk/Soul Circles - Durand Jones & The Indications - Retro Pop Cheesin’ - Cautious Clay, Remi Wolf, sophie meiers - R&B Changes - Charles Bradley - Soul The Sweetest Sin - RAEVE - House

Gyae Su - Pat Thomas, Kwashibu Area Band - Funk What Am I to Do - Ezra Collective, Loyle Carner - Hip-hop Get Your Groove On - Cedric Burnside - Blues Old Enough To Know Better - Steffen Morrisson - Soul Wassiye - Habib Koité - Khassonke musique

Dance Floor - Zapp - Funk Wake Up - Brass Against, Sophia Urista - Brass Hard-Rock BIG LOVE - Black Eyed Peas - Pop The Greatest - Raleigh Ritchie - R&B DYSFUNCTIONAL - KAYTRANADA, VanJess - Soul

See You Leave - RJD2, STS, Khari Mateen - Hip-hop Sing A Simple Song - Maceo Parker - Jazz/Funk Have Mercy - Eryn Allen Kane - Soul Homenage - Brownout - Latin Funk Can’t Sleep - Gary Clark Jr. - Blues Rock

Toast - Koffee - Dancehall Freedom - Ester Dean - R&B Iskaba - Wande Coal, DJ Tunez - Afropop High Road - Anthony Riley - Alternative Christian Sunny Days - Sabrina Starke - Soul

The Talking Fish - Ibibio Sound Machine - Funk Paralyzed - KWAYE - Indie Purple Heart Blvd - Sebastian Kole - Pop WORSHIP - The Knocks, MNEK - Deep House BMO - Ari Lennox - R&B

Promises - Myles Sanko - Soul .img - Brother Theodore - Funk Singing the Blues - Ruthie Foster, Meshell Ndegeocello - Blues Nobody Like You - Amartey, SBMG, The Livingtons - Hip-hop Starship - Afriquoi, Shabaka Hutchings, Moussa Dembele - Deep House

Lay My Troubles Down - Aaron Taylor - Funk  Bloodstream - Tokio Myers - Classic Sticky - Ravyn Lenae - R&B Why I Try - Jalen N’Gonda - Soul Motivation - Benjamin Booker - Folk

quand c’est - Stromae - Pop Let Me Down (Shy FX Remix) - Jorja Smith, Stormzy, SHY FX - Reggae Funny - Gerald Levert - R&B Salt in my Wounds - Shemekia Copeland - Blues Our Love - Samm Henshaw - Soul

Make You Feel That Way - Blackalicious - Jazz Hip-hop Knock Me Out - Vintage Trouble - Funk Take the Time - Ronald Bruner, Jr., Thundercat - Alternative Thru The Night - Phonte, Eric Roberson - R&B Keep Marchin’ - Raphael Saadiq - Soul

Shake Me In Your Arms - Taj Mahal, Keb’ Mo’ - Blues Meet Me In The Middle - Jodie Abascus - Pop Raise Hell - Sir the Baptist, ChurchPpl - Gospel Pop Mogoya - Oumou Sangaré - Wassoulou Where’s Yesterday - Slakah The Beatchild - Hip-hop

Lose My Cool - Amber Mark - R&B New Funk - Big Sam’s Funky Nation - Funk I Got Love - Nate Dogg - Hip-hop Nothing’s Real But Love - Rebecca Ferguson - Soul Crazy Race - The RH Factor - Jazz

Spies Are Watching Me - Voilaaa, Sir Jean - Funk The Leaders - Boka de Banjul - Afrobeat Fast Lane - Rationale - House Conundrum - Hak Baker - Folk Don’t Make It Harder On Me - Chloe x Halle - R&B

Plastic Hamburgers - Fantastic Negrito - Hardrock Beyond - Leon Bridges - Pop God Knows - Dornik - Soul Soleil de volt - Baloji - Afrofunk Do You Remember - Darryl Williams, Michael Lington - Jazz Get Back - McClenney - Alternative Three Words - Aaron Marcellus - Soul

Spotify playlist 

In memory of:

Aaron Bailey Adam Addie Mae Collins Ahmaud Arbery Aiyana Stanley Jones Akai Gurley Alberta Odell Jones Alexia Christian Alfonso Ferguson Alteria Woods Alton Sterling Amadou Diallo Amos Miller Anarcha Westcott Anton de Kom Anthony Hill Antonio Martin Antronie Scott Antwon Rose Jr. Arthur St. Clair Atatiana Jefferson Aubrey Pollard Aura Rosser Bennie Simons Berry Washington Bert Dennis Bettie Jones Betsey Billy Ray Davis Bobby Russ Botham Jean Brandon Jones Breffu Brendon Glenn Breonna Taylor Bud Johnson Bussa

Calin Roquemore Calvin McDowell Calvin Mike and his family Carl Cooper Carlos Carson Carlotta Lucumi Carol Denise McNair Carol Jenkins Carole Robertson Charles Curry Charles Ferguson Charles Lewis Charles Wright Charly Leundeu Keunang Chime Riley Christian Taylor Christopher Sheels Claude Neal Clementa Pickney Clifford Glover Clifton Walker Clinton Briggs Clinton R. Allen Cordella Stevenson Corey Carter Corey Jones Cynthia Marie Graham Hurd Cynthia Wesley

Daniel L. Simmons Danny Bryant Darius Randell Robinson Darius Tarver Darrien Hunt Darrius Stewart David Felix David Joseph David McAtee David Walker and his family Deandre Brunston Deborah Danner Delano Herman Middleton Demarcus Semer Demetrius DuBose Depayne Middleton-Doctor Dion Johnson Dominique Clayton Dontre Hamilton Dred Scott

Edmund Scott Ejaz Choudry Elbert Williams Eleanor Bumpurs Elias Clayton Elijah McClain Eliza Woods Elizabeth Lawrence Elliot Brooks Ellis Hudson Elmer Jackson Elmore Bolling Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr. Emmett Till Eric Garner Eric Harris Eric Reason Ernest Lacy Ernest Thomas Ervin Jones Eugene Rice Eugene Williams Ethel Lee Lance Ezell Ford

Felix Kumi Frank Livingston Frank Morris Frank Smart Frazier B. Baker Fred Hampton Fred Rochelle Fred Temple Freddie Carlos Gray Jr.

George Floyd George Grant George Junius Stinney Jr. George Meadows George Waddell George Washington Lee Gregory Gunn

Harriette Vyda Simms Moore Harry Tyson Moore Hazel “Hayes” Turner Henry Ezekial Smith Henry Lowery Henry Ruffin Henry Scott Hosea W. Allen

India Kager Isaac McGhie Isadore Banks Italia Marie Kelly

Jack Turner Jamar Clark Jamel Floyd James Byrd Jr. James Craig Anderson James Earl Chaney James Powell James Ramseur James Tolliver James T. Scott Janet Wilson Jason Harrison Javier Ambler J.C. Farmer Jemel Roberson Jerame Reid Jesse Thornton Jessie Jefferson Jim Eastman Joe Nathan Roberts John Cecil Jones John Crawford III John J. Gilbert John Ruffin John Taylor Johnny Robinson Jonathan Ferrell Jonathan Sanders Jordan Edwards Joseph Mann Julia Baker Julius Jones July Perry Junior Prosper

Kalief Browder Karvas Gamble Jr. Keith Childress, Jr. Kelly Gist Kelso Benjamin Cochrane Kendrick Johnson Kenneth Chamberlain Sr. Kenny Long Kevin Hicks Kevin Matthews Kiwane Albert Carrington

Lacy Mitchell Lamar Smith Laquan McDonald Laura Nelson Laura Wood L.B. Reed L.D. Nelson Lemuel Penn Lemuel Walters Leonard Deadwyler Leroy Foley Levi Harrington Lila Bella Carter Lloyd Clay Louis Allen Lucy

M.A. Santa Cruz Maceo Snipes Malcom X Malice Green Malissa Williams Manuel Ellis Marcus Deon Smith Marcus Foster Marielle Franco Mark Clark Maria Martin Lee Anderson Martin Luther King Jr. Matthew Avery Mary Dennis Mary Turner Matthew Ajibade May Noyes Mckenzie Adams Medgar Wiley Evers Michael Brown Michael Donald Michael Griffith Michael Lee Marshall Michael Lorenzo Dean Michael Noel Michael Sabbie Michael Stewart Michelle Cusseaux Miles Hall Moses Green Mya Hall Myra Thompson

Nathaniel Harris Pickett Jr. Natasha McKenna Nicey Brown Nicholas Heyward Jr.

O’Day Short family Orion Anderson Oscar Grant III Otis Newsom

Pamela Turner Paterson Brown Jr. Patrick Dorismond Philando Castile Phillip Pannell Phillip White Phinizee Summerour

Quaco

Ramarley Graham Randy Nelson Raymond Couser Raymond Gunn Regis Korchinski-Paquet Rekia Boyd Renisha McBride Riah Milton Robert Hicks Robert Mallard Robert Truett Rodney King Roe Nathan Roberts Roger Malcolm and his wife Roger Owensby Jr. Ronell Foster Roy Cyril Brooks Rumain Brisbon Ryan Matthew Smith

Sam Carter Sam McFadden Samuel DuBose Samuel Ephesians Hammond Jr. Samuel Hammond Jr. Samuel Leamon Younge Jr. Sandra Bland Sean Bell Shali Tilson Sharonda Coleman-Singleton Shukri Abdi Simon Schuman Slab Pitts Stella Young Stephon Clark Susie Jackson

T.A. Allen Tamir Rice Tamla Horsford Tanisha Anderson Timothy Caughman Timothy Hood Timothy Russell Timothy Stansbury Jr. Timothy Thomas Terrence Crutcher Terrill Thomas Tom Jones Tom Moss Tony McDade Tony Terrell Robinson Jr. Trayvon Martin Troy Hodge Troy Robinson Tula Tyler Gerth Tyre King Tywanza Sanders

Victor Duffy Jr. Victor White III

Walter Lamar Scott Wayne Arnold Jones Wesley Thomas Wilbert Cohen Wilbur Bundley Will Brown Will Head Will Stanley Will Stewart Will Thompson Willie James Howard Willie Johnson Willie McCoy Willie Palmer Willie Turks William Brooks William Butler William Daniels William Fambro William Green William L. Chapman II William Miller William Pittman Wyatt Outlaw

Yusef Kirriem Hawkins

The victims of LaLaurie (1830s) The black victims of the Opelousas massacre (1868) The black victims of the Thibodaux massacre (1887) The black victims of the Wilmington insurrection (1898) The black victims of the Johnson-Jeffries riots (1910) The black victims of the Red summer (1919) The black victims of the Elaine massacre (1919) The black victims of the Ocoee massacre (1920) The victims of the MOVE bombing (1985)

All the people who died during the Atlantic slave trade, be it due to abuse or disease.

All the unnamed victims of mass-incarceration, who were put into jail without the committing of a crime and died while in jail or died after due to mental illness. 

All the unnamed victims of racial violence and discrimination. 

...

My apologies for all the people missing on this list. Feel free to add more names and stories. 

Listen, learn and read about discrimination, racism and black history: (feel free to add more)  Documentaries: 13th (Netflix) The Innocence Files (Netflix) Who Killed Malcolm X? (Netflix) Time: The Kalief Browder Story (Netflix) I Am Not Your Negro

YouTube videos: We Cannot Stay Silent about George Floyd Waarom ook Nederlanders de straat op gaan tegen racisme (Dutch) Wit is ook een kleur (Dutch) (documentaire)

Books: Biased by Jennifer Eberhardt Don’t Touch My Hair by Emma Dabiri Freedom Is A Constant Struggle by Angela Davis How To Be An Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad So You Want To Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo They Can’t Kill Us All by Wesley Lowery White Fragility by Robin Deangelo Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge Woman, Race and Class by Angela Davis

Websites: https://lynchinginamerica.eji.org/report/ https://museumandmemorial.eji.org/ https://archive.org/details/thirtyyearsoflyn00nati/page/n11/mode/2up https://lab.nos.nl/projects/slavernij/index-english.html https://blacklivesmatter.com/ https://www.zinnedproject.org/

[widthofmytongue]

I need more cowbell!

Suggest a musical instrument and I will offer an exhaustive, in-depth analysis of the kind of person who takes it up.

I’ve been having this conversation a lot lately, discussing the psycho-social tendencies of various instrumentalists. A friend of mine, a vocalist, heard me describe what kind of person it takes to become a guitarist, and burst into laughter, exclaiming ‘everyone I’ve ever dated has been a guitarist!’ My description was not especially favourable; she hastily clarified that her current boyfriend’s primary instrument is banjo(!), and we agreed that it’s totally different. In the interest of transparency, I will start the ball rolling by describing the kind of person that chooses the instruments that I did myself. Keyboardist: Someone with strong, complex, independent ideas, but who can’t really be arsed to bother developing anything of their own volition. Rather, a keyboardist tends to await someone else’s initiative (id est, that of a guitarist, vocalist, or composer), but consistently suggests ‘better’ ‘alternatives’. Strictly speaking, a keyboardist don’t need nobody else, but good luck seeing one motivated to pursue their own interests (unless they got something to prove), we can’t even focus on a single instrument, man. Examples include: John Cale, Rick Wakeman, Herbie Hancock, Jimmy Destri.

Pianist: As above, but more traditionalist and disciplined. A pianist has an appreciation for simplicity, as well as the power of long-established ideas. Few pianists have any great desire to break new ground, unless they reach a level of virtuosity in which the hefty instrument itself is too small for their freakishly large cocks hands egos ideas. Examples include: Franz Liszt, Claude Debussy, Elton John, Duke Ellington.

Organist: As above, but a hardcore nerd. Whether square AF or too stoned to function. Examples include: Ray Manzarek, Bernie Worrel, Steve Winwood, Johann Sebastian Bachhh.

Synth player: Likes twiddling knobs to elicit high-pitched squeals and deep rumblings. Zing! Examples include: Brian Eno, Sun Ra, Giorgio Moroder, dis guy *Fonzie thumbs* ehhh.

Fill my inbox, anonymous or not.

[kingofthewilderwest]

peachdoxie replied to your post “Starting Amphibia!”

What vibe does it give off?

I’m about a third the way through Amphibia’s first (and currently only) season. So take what I’m saying with a grain of salt because I’m not “too” far. But I’m still as in love with Amphibia’s vibe as when I watched the first two episodes.

Amphibia has a charming, lighthearted, magical, somewhat whimsical personality. The story follows Anne Boonchuy, a human girl, who finds herself in a world of talking frogs, and is “adopted” by a farmer family which consists of a tadpole, a young frog, and an old man.

I particularly love the world this story takes place in - it’s cute, creative, and distinct. Giant insects are the primary wild animals - or domesticated animals, as we’ve got everything down to cowterpillars (you read that right). The creatures are my favorite part of the world, since they are imaginatively designed, based on puns, and can be anything from scary to sweet. I about died in squees with the caterpillar that acted and looked like a CAT. CATerpillar!!! BABY!!!

While the episodes I’ve seen are mostly standalone pieces, there are hints of a long-term plot arc that’s going to be developed. I’ll leave you to discover that long-term arc yourself, if you get into the show.

Amphibia has similar vibes to Gravity Falls. Dialogue choices like family potshots or characters chanting have a GF-esque spin. Humor and art style also feel evocative of the earlier Disney show to me. I’ve chatted with friends about how Amphibia, Gravity Falls, and The Owl House all come with a similar set-up. Similar premise, similar family cast dynamic, similar enchanting setting, etc. Multiple key creators who got their start in Disney through GF... are part of Amphibia. Ian Worrel was the art director of Gravity Falls and has made his appearance in Amphibia. And another important name from the GF art department, Matt Braly (storyboard artist and director), is Amphibia’s show creator/showrunner.

Of course it has its own personality and is its own show, but GF is the first show I’d compare it to. In fact, the reason I got into the show was because one of my friends kept telling me about how it gave her GF nostalgia, and her passion talking about the show made me think, “I better check this out.” I don’t think Amphibia has gotten much talk on social media sites - at least not the circles I’ve been in - but I say its simple, cute world is worth a watch, for anyone who wants to check it out. It’s been renewed for a Season 2, and I’ll definitely be watching!

[koholint]

i’ve been listening to a lot of p-funk side projects lately, they never really measure up to the main band(s)’s material but there’s still some great tracks scattered throughout. this one’s co-written by david byrne which kinda surprised me at first, i forgot how much bernie worrell worked with talking heads. worrell and michael hampton are also credited for writing but the lyrics are also just... so david byrne lol. you can hear him in the background vocals too

also i swear i had no idea bernie worrell died? wtf! a lot of celebrities died in 2016 so maybe he just kinda got lost in it all but he really should’ve gotten more attention, like listen to flashlight and tell me the man wasn’t a genius

[tatecollective]

'Police Constable Di Worrell (Jane Wall)' is a painting in oil on canvas by the British artist Dawn Mellor. It is one of twenty works in Mellor’s Sirens series, all completed in 2016. The paintings depict female police officers from popular and long-running British television dramas that focus on crime and police work. They have been defaced with additional elements, such as netting, lollipops or water with bubbles, overpainted on their figures, or with disembodied fingers falling out of their mouths.

Mellor’s paintings act as a rebellion against the media industry’s colonisation of public consciousness in relation to attitudes towards women and towards celebrity.

[sirtravisjacksonoftexas]

Does the Bible Teach That Aliens Do or Do Not Exist? Um, None of the Above, and Moses Will Show you why:

 The 1980’s was a great decade to grow up in. Even today, I’m still in love with the rock, pop and country music that came out of it. MTV got its start in the 80’s (and to anyone who was born afterwards; yes, Music Television DID have music during the 80’s). This was the decade of Atari and Nintendo, of games like “Asteroids” and “Super Mario Brothers”. This was the decade that saw Ernest P. Worrell become a house-hold name, the decade that saw children collect Garbage Pail Kids trading cards (I miss those things). Arguably the best science fiction and fantasy movies were made in the 80’s (“Star Wars: Return of the Jedi”, “Dune”, “Labyrinth”, “Dark Crystal”, “The NeverEnding Story” etc). Kids had cartoons like “Thundercats”, “He-Man”. There were also great TV shows like “FraggleRock” and “Punkie Brewster”.

And, of course, who could forget Alf? 

For those of you who are 80’s challenged, “Alf” was a TV show about an alien named Gordon Shumway (aka Alf) who crashes into the garage of a human family called the Tanners. They take Alf in and keep him hidden from the US government. Though he gets into mischief and occasionally tries to eat cats, he nevertheless becomes a member of the family. I’m still a fan, having all the Alf episodes on DVD. From childhood to now, I often imagine what it would be like if Alf and other aliens like him truly existed, roaming across the universe in search of adventure and discovery.

But do aliens exist?

This has been the subject of intense study by scientists for decades now. Indeed, there is a scientific field dedicated to the study of extraterrestrial life forms (called “Astrobiology”). Though we have not yet found life beyond earth, scientists expect to eventually do so, and soon.

But does this subject belong to science alone? Can other fields of study answer the question about whether there is life on other planets?

Surprisingly, many a Christian theologian and apologist has considered the possibility.

And what did they say about it?

Aliens don’t exist.

Some will dismiss the scientific case for the possibility extra-terrestrial life as pure bogus. Others will tackle the subject of UFOs, saying that they’re either natural phenomena, misidentified secret aircraft or both. Some will even go so far as to say that both UFOs and supposed alien abductions are actually demonic instead of alien in origin. There are books, documentaries and even movies that support this latter idea. Some theologians say that when the rapture occurs, people might invoke aliens as an explanation for it; people will say that the earth has had a mass alien abduction. We’ve had decades of supposed alien abductions, as well as Star Trek shows where people are beamed up from a planet to a space ship, both of which could lead people to mistake the rapture for alien activity. Many see this as evidence that aliens therefore don’t exist (which is a complete non-Sequitur, but more on that later). Some will even say that if aliens exist, then there is a conundrum; how can they accept Christ as Lord and Savior? Christ died for fallen humanity, for humans who suffer from a sinful nature, due to Adam and Eve’s sin. How could aliens be saved, since Christ didn’t die for them as well? How could their sins be forgiven? Should we believe that Jesus was incarnated on countless worlds and died for them too? This would seem highly unlikely, and this is supposed to make us conclude that aliens therefore don’t exist. Some will also bring up the many requirements for life to exist on earth, and say that all of these factors would be highly unlikely to exist on other worlds. The chances of that happening, according to some Christian theologians and apologists, would be astronomical.

So, are they right? Can one make a Biblical or theological case that ETs don’t exist?

Um, NO, and here is why:

 1. ARGUMENT FROM SILENCE. 

Does the Bible say that Extra-terrestrials exist?

No.

Does the Bible say that they don’t exist?

No.

Does them Bible mention them at all?

No.

This should make one logically conclude that the Bible is silent on the issue, and nothing more. One could speculate on why God would be silent about the idea, but one couldn’t go from speculation to fact when it comes to this question, especially considering that the Bible is not a total revelation of all facts. Instead, it is God’s love letter to humanity, Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth (B.I.B.L.E.). However, many will use this silence as an argument that aliens don’t exist, because if they did, then surely God would have told us in his word, right?

Wrong.

To argue such a position would be to commit an “Argument from Silence” logical fallacy. It’s basically arguing that absence of evidence is evidence of absence, and it’s an error of reasoning that people often make. For example, let’s say that a “historian” (we’ll call him “Richard”) says that no one mentioned Jesus Christ during the time when Jesus lived on earth. If nobody mentioned Jesus at that time, then therefore, according to Richard, Jesus never existed. However, this kind of argument is unbelievably faulty; The vast majority of written documents from the ancient world didn’t survive to the modern era, many historical figures have no contemporary writings about them (Thales of Miletus, Boudicca, Zoroaster the Prophet, Buddha, etc), some historical events have no contemporary written accounts about them (the Pompeii disaster), most people who lived in Galilee at the time of Christ were illiterate (most people in the ancient world were), and historians do not discard a person as a historical figure because they have no contemporaneous accounts about them. No, to be fair, there are some circumstances where you can get away with using an argument from silence (though even then, the argument would be circumstantial), but you have to meet several criteria in order to use is properly. Would God have a good reason to mention aliens in the Bible (If you say yes, then why? What would be the good reason? Are you simply assuming? Remember, assumption is the mother of all screw ups)? Is the subject relevant to God’s purposes in scripture? These are but a few questions one would need to ask themselves before trying to make an Argument from Silence about the question of ETs and the Bible, and just getting one wrong could lead to a fallacious argument.

And guess what the answer is to the questions I just asked?

NO!

Like I said, God doesn’t reveal everything in his word. Not every scientific fact is found in the Bible. Indeed, there are numerous things that we know exist (including on other planets) that the Bible never mentions:

1. Black Holes

2. Volcanoes on other planets (like Olympus Mons, a 16-mile-high Martian Volcano)

3. Mountains on other planets

4. Canyons on other planets (Mars has one that dwarfs the Grand Canyon).

5. Moons orbiting other planets (Jupiter alone is now known to have 79 moons).

6. Water on other planets and moons (Mercury, Uranus, Neptune, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn have water ice. Jupiter, Saturn and Mars all have water vapor. Mars may have liquid water underground, and used to have oceans. Pluto, a dwarf planet, has water ice. Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon, has an underground ocean that may have more water than all of Earth’s oceans combined. Europa, another moon of Jupiter, is covered in ice, and may have either an ocean or slushy ice beneath it. There is water ice on our own moon. Such moons are far from unique in our solar system when it comes to water ice. K2-18 b, a planet in another solar system, has water vapor in its atmosphere).

7. Dust devils on other worlds (Mars has dust devils that can reach 5 miles high, dwarfing those of earth)

8. Skies on other planets (the only planet in our solar system without an atmosphere is Mercury.)

9. Weather on other worlds (Jupiter's Great Red Spot is a giant storm that has lasted for at least 150 years)

10. Saturn’s rings (which are made of particles that are more than 90% water ice. These rings were discovered in 1610 AD)

11. Gamma Ray Bursts

12. Coronal Mass Ejections (when the sun spews both plasma and a magnetic field. It’s basically a solar burp).

13. Radiation

If the Bible doesn’t mention any of these things, and yet they have nevertheless been proven to exist…then why would we say that there is no life on other planets because the bible doesn’t mention them? Can you imagine a theologian saying in the 19th century that “The Bible doesn’t mention other planets having mountains, volcanoes, canyons, water, atmospheres, dust devils, weather, and so on, and thus they don’t exist! If they did, God would have told us!”. What if one said “The Bible doesn’t say that Black Holes exist, or that Gamma Ray Bursts or Mass Coronal Ejections exist, therefore they do not exist! Otherwise, God would have surely told us!”? That would be an absurd line of argument, an argument that would have a very poor track record, considering all the things that the Bible doesn’t mention that turned out to actually exist.

But notice, in particular, how many things are found in and around other planets…that the Bible never mentioned. Water, mountains, canyons, volcanoes (including the largest in the solar system), skies, weather, and giant dust devils. They all exist…and yet the Bible never mentions them. Moons exist around most of the planets in our solar system alone (let alone ones in other solar systems), and yet out of all of them…only one moon-ours-is mentioned in the Bible. All of these marvels of God’s creation…and not one of them is mentioned in the Bible.

If the Bible doesn’t mention mountains, volcanoes, water (including ice and oceans), skies and weather on other planets…why would it mention life on other planets?

Now, to be fair, some may object, saying that all of these other things were indeed mentioned in the Bible, albeit not specifically. Instead, they are mentioned in a general, collective sense in Genesis 2:1;

“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.”

This passage is a continuation of the creation account in Genesis 1. It indicates that God created the heavens, earth, and all the “host thereof”, which some would comfortably include planets and everything on them.

However, if some of my fellow believers do so, then they just shot themselves in the foot, for just as the passage indicates that the earth has “hosts” (including living things)…and since the heavens have hosts of their own…then one can conclude that living things on other planets (planets are in the heavens)could possibly be mentioned here in a general sense too! True, the “host of heaven” or “heavenly host” usually means the stars in the bible, nut the passage in question relates that earth also has hosts, which indicates that stars alone are not indicated here. One may try to say that angels are in view here, for they are at times referred to as the “host of Heaven” (1 Kings 22:19) or “heavenly host” (Luke 2:13), and angelic beings (as well as demons) can be found both on earth and in the heavens (Genesis 3:24, Ephesians 2:2, 6:12, Revelation 7:1, 19:14-15). However, there are several problems with this idea. You see, not only is the creation of angels never mentioned in Genesis 1 or 2 (Or anywhere in the Bible), the creation account of Job 38:4-11, when combined with the Genesis creation accounts, indicates that angels existed prior to the 6 days of creation, and thus could not be referenced here in Genesis 2:1 as products of the creation week. True, the creation of aliens is never mentioned in Genesis either, but neither is the creation of land, seas and skies on other worlds, and yet they can be placed within Genesis 2:1 in a general sense.

Why not aliens?

Also, as I’ve written in a previous article, the first creation account in Genesis was not meant to be taken as a literal scientific account of origins. Therefore, it should NEVER be used to dictate or argue scientific truths, including on cosmology and astrobiology. Thus, it doesn’t really answer our question about whether aliens exist or not. 

Plus, we need to keep in mind that the ancient Israelites didn’t know that other physical worlds truly existed, let alone had mountains, volcanoes, water, etc. Indeed, the planets in the night sky were thought to be wandering stars, and no one knew in the ancient world that stars were physical objects. None knew that other planets besides those in the night sky also existed, let alone those that orbit other stars (extrasolar planets are yet another thing not mentioned specifically in the Bible, yet are known to exist). Many ancient civilizations thought that planets were gods. Some ancient Jewish thinkers thought that stars were angels, and “morning stars” (usually planets) were personified as part of the angelic or heavenly host by ancient Israelites (special note: though angels were at times called “stars” (Job 38:7, Revelation 12:4), the Bible itself doesn’t teach that stars are angels. This was a non-biblical teaching, and Genesis 1 shows that stars were no personal beings, but simply parts of God’s perfect creation). Thus, while we can conclude from the creation account that God truly made all things, we cannot conclude that the ancient writers of scripture had modern scientific discoveries in mind when they wrote scripture, or that God likewise had them in mind when he was communicating through that very scripture. He was talking to ancient people in a way that they could understand, not in a way that modern people would desire him to.

 2. DEMON THEORIES AND THE RAPTURE 

Many of my fellow Christians accept the idea that some UFOS and most, if not all, alien abductions are demonic in nature. Many will bring up the fact that some UFOs seem to defy the laws of physics, pulling off maneuvers and speeds that would be supposedly impossible for even advanced alien technology to do…yet possible for supernatural beings to pull off. Many also cite similarities between alien abductions (along with several other kinds of supposed “close encounters”) and demonic activity. For example, both phenomena are at times associated with a sulfur smell (sulfur aka brimstone). This is a great way to scare some Christians away from the subject of life on other planets for sure. To be fair, I wouldn’t put it pass people to mistake demons and even angels as UFOs, nor would I put it past demons to masquerade as UFOS and or aliens in order to jack with people, pull pranks or even lead people away from Christianity (there are UFO cults). Indeed, there are many similarities between alien abduction and Fairy Abduction 

 (according to European folklore, if a person stepped inside a fairy ring (a natural occurring ring of mushrooms), then faeries would party with him or her, keeping the individual “prisoner” for a considerable time before letting him or her go free. Like flying saucers, fairy rings are circular. Like Greys (grey skinned, black eyed aliens), faeries were said to be smaller than human beings…).

Given these factors, should we conclude that aliens don’t exist, that only demons and angels are beyond the wild blue yonder?

Um…nope.

Remember, one can accept the existence of life on other worlds without accepting that UFOs or “Alien” Abductions are extraterrestrial activity. Indeed, most mainstream scientists disregard both UFOs and alien abductions as bonafide evidence of aliens, yet they accept that ETs are a possibility. But let’s dig deeper into these arguments, shall we?

To say that advanced alien technology cannot pull off the stunning feats of some UFOs is shortsighted, considering the many times in the history of science where the “impossible” was proven possible. People once thought that you couldn’t sail around the world because it was flat, yet long before Columbus people started to realize that that wasn’t the case. They said that we could never land people on the Moon, and that the sound barrier could never be broken. Indeed, while scientists accept that the speed of light will never be broken (and with FAR better reason than those who thought the sound barrier would never be broken), they accept that its possible to warp space so that two locations can temporarily come far closer together. You could potentially travel across an entire galaxy in mere moments instead of many, many years. This kind of tech would be a loophole around the light barrier.  Imagine what other loopholes technology could achieve if an alien race was centuries, millennia, even millions or billions of years ahead of our technology? Thus, this objection has no merit.

But what about alien abduction?

Sorry, folks, but alien abduction has less to do with demons and more to do with the waking mind. 

The symptoms of alien abduction are strikingly similar to sleep paralysis, a condition where a person awakes and is paralyzed. This occurs when the mind awakes before the body. Our bodies are designed to limit our physical movements when we sleep. This is why most of us don’t run in real life while we dream of running, or why we don’t punch our pillows when we dream of being in a fight or a boxing match. This is a safety mechanism, keeping us from harming ourselves and others while we sleep. However, some people have trouble with keeping their bodies in check while they slumber (sleepwalkers). Those who suffer from sleep paralysis have the opposite problem; they have trouble regaining their ability to move when they first awake. This symptom would be frightening enough on its own, but there is another eerie symptom that comes with it.

Dreaming while awake. 

People who suffer from sleep paralysis will at times hallucinate while paralyzed, and such hallucinations can be frightening. Indeed, what you end up seeing can be influenced by the culture you grew up in. Europeans in the Middle Ages would see incubus or succubus demons, while people in other ages might see djinns or old hags. 

In our culture, you’ll most likely see aliens. 

True, demons could potentially jack with our dreams, but why should we invoke demons in every case of sleep hallucination that involves aliens? You don’t have to invoke the supernatural when it comes to nightmares, let alone those that are caused by sleep paralysis. Thus, this objection has no merit.

Neither does the rapture-alien theory.

Just because people may blame aliens for the rapture after it occurs doesn’t mean that aliens therefore don’t exist. It’s a non-sequitur. Indeed, many have come up with other potential explanations for the rapture. I’ve heard laser beams being invoked before as a possible way to explain away the rapture. One can invoke a physics disaster at CERN or the cumulative effects of radiation from nuclear testing (the latter explanation was used in the Left Behind films). Nobody would thus argue that laser beams don’t exist, or that nuclear tests therefore don’t produce radiation.

Why then use such an argument against the existence of extraterrestrials?

  3. MISSIONARIES…IN SPACE!!!!!!

If aliens exist, how can they be saved? Surely if they do exist, they would need to be saved, for they’d be sinners like us, right (remember what I said earlier about assumptions?)? And what other beings apart from humans exist that don’t need Jesus’ gift of salvation?

Well, other than angels, animals, plants, fungi, microbes…

True, angels long to look into the subject of salvation (1 Peter 1:10-12), but they are nevertheless not covered by the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ. Indeed, angels did not descend from Adam and Eve, and thus didn’t inherit a sinful nature. They have the potential to sin (case in point: Satan), but they are nevertheless not burdened with a sinful nature that can only be overcome by the death and resurrection of Christ. Likewise, though animals have a spirit (Ecclesiasts 3:21), they likewise did not descend from Adam and Eve, and thus didn’t inherit their sinful nature. Indeed, they are incapable of sin (and please don’t bring up the Serpent in the Garden: even in ancient times, that was known to have been a supernatural being, not a legit snake).

If aliens exist, if other life forms were created by God on other worlds, then they likewise would not have descended from Adam and Eve and thus would not have inherited their sinful natures. Could they sin? Possibly, just like angels (who have no sinful nature) could potentially sin. This doesn’t mean that they would need Jesus to die and rise from the grave for them, just as angels don’t need Jesus to die and rise from the grave for them.

Indeed, who is to say that alien life would be able to understand right from wrong, let alone consciously chose to do evil? Who’s to say that there will be sentient life elsewhere? What if other worlds are only inhabited by animals, plants, fungi, microbes and perhaps other forms of life we haven’t even imagined yet, none of them intelligent? Indeed, some scientists, such as the paleontologist Peter Ward and the Astrobiologist Donald E. Brownlee, believe that the universe is populated with mostly microbes, and that multi-cellular life like our own is exceptionally rare. This view is called the Rare Earth Hypothesis (which both the above scientists wrote about in their book “Rare Earth”). I sincerely doubt that there are microbes that understand right from wrong, or that sin against God (more on the Rare Earth hypothesis later).  

But let’s say that there are alien species out there who are sentient, and who are intelligent enough to chose to obey God or not. Once again, the angel example has to be considered in such cases, but we need to ask another question as well:

Who is to say that aliens likewise had a fall?

Who is to say that all sentient alien species chose to eat forbidden fruit?

Could there be intelligent alien species out there that never suffered the stain of sin? Could there be alien Adam and Eves living in other-worldly Edens? 

Also, what if God made at least some aliens species that already had the knowledge of Good and Evil from the beginning? Humans obviously weren’t ready for it in the Garden of Eden, and it led to a sinful nature that was passed on to Adam and Eve’s descendants, but who is to say that a sentient alien species wouldn’t have been initially made not only with that knowledge, but with the maturity to handle it?

And even if there are sentient alien species whose ancestors had a Fall, whose is to say that God would chose to save them in the exact same way he chose to save us? Whose to say that he wouldn’t cover them under a different kind of grace? Indeed, who is to say that the ultimate ancestors of sinful ETs would have passed on a sinful nature to their descendants like Adam and Eve did with theirs? Wouldn’t their “Falls” be different from that of Adam and Eve? Would it really have involved forbidden fruit as well?

At first, these ideas about Edens and Falls on other worlds seems impossible, considering that the Bible teaches that all creation suffers due to humanity’s sin (not alien’s sins) in Romans 8:18-22. However, this could be hyperbole, over-exaggeration used to prove a point. It seems hard to understand how galaxies countless lightyears from earth could be affected by human sin. Indeed, how could Pluto or Mars be affected by it? True, one could imagine that Adam and Eve’s sin may have spread physical death across the universe…but that’s where things get very, very complicated…

You see, some may bring up the supposed “fact” that Adam and Eve’s sin brought death into existence (1 Corinthians 15:20-21), and that death is only mentioned as being on earth (Romans 5:12). However, this is faulty for several reasons.

  1. Just because the bible mentions death only on earth doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist on other worlds. If I say that soccer is played in Brazil, does that mean that it is not played elsewhere? If I say that black bears inhabit Texas, does that mean that Texas is the only place were black bears can be found? If I say that monotheism, the belief that there is only one God, was a major tenet of ancient Israelite religion, does that mean that the concept was not known in other cultures (for a time, ancient Egypt worshipped Aten the Sun Disk, and no other God)? If I say that Pizza is Italian food, does that mean that pizza is only found in Italy?

2. Whenever we look at these passages more closely (as well as another connected passage (Romans 6:23), we can see that it is relating to humans, not other creatures. Now, animals, plants, microbes and fungi die as well as humans, and yet…humans are the subject of the context of the passages in question.

Why?

Because these passages are not talking about physical death, but spiritual death.

This is confirmed in Genesis 2:17 and 3:2-7. Let’s look at the first passage:

“but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (emphasis mine)

Now let’s look at the second passage:

“And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.” (Emphasis mine)

Now, compare this to the rest of Genesis chapter 3.

Um, notice that Adam and Eve are not killed?

Wow, was the Serpent right after all? Was God fibbing when he said that Adam and Eve would die if they ate the forbidden fruit? After all, their eyes were “opened” after they ate, just like the serpent said, and they lived over it. Was the Serpent actually telling the truth?

Only if God was referring to physical death.

God, however, was referring to spiritual death. He was referring to the separation that sin makes between God and man, a separation that can only be overcome by Jesus Christ and his gift of salvation.

That is the kind of death that these passages are talking about.

3. Death existed before the Fall.

As I’ve argued in an earlier article, death actually existed before Adam and Eve’s Fall. Not only were they not created immortal (they would have had to have eaten of the Tree of Life in order to live forever, and they never got the chance to do it (Genesis 3), the Bible never indicates that any animal ate of the Tree of Life and likewise became immortal. Indeed, the Bible indicates that the tree of life was not found anywhere else in the world (Genesis 3:22-24). If Adam, Eve and the animals were already immortal (they weren’t but indulge me)…then why would there be a tree of life, whose fruit offers immortality? It’s a tad redundant, don’t you think? Its on par with putting a tree whose fruit is designed to help people get thin at a supermodel convention, 

or trying to sell fertility drugs to pregnant women.

 In both cases, there is a product available to people who obviously don’t need it. Indeed, the fact that Adam and Eve had not eaten of the Tree of Life before or after the Fall, the fact that they were not immortal at the time means that, if they hadn’t sinned in the Garden yet still never ate of the Tree of Life…then they would eventually die. The potential for physical death was already there, implying that physical death was already in the world. Thus, physical death didn’t enter the universe because of the Fall. Spiritual death did. That spiritual death sentence didn’t spread to animals or angels, so why would it spread to aliens?

 Another thing we have to ask ourselves is what do we mean by intelligent life and sentient beings? Non-human apes are actually both, yet they are not sinners. They are still animals and not as intelligent as humans, they are nevertheless intelligent, in some cases enough so to learn sign language. Indeed, some have argued that many animals have a more code, knowing “right” from “wrong” (though not knowing it intimately as humans, which wouldn’t have been the case before the Fall. There was a primitive sense of right and wrong that Adam and Eve knew of before the Fall (God allowing them to eat of the garden, but not of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. There were right choices…and a wrong choice). Would aliens as intelligent and sentient as the great apes, and with a primitive sense of morality, need a savior?

No more than animals do.

But this brings up an important question: What makes man different from animals? The Bible indicates that, unlike animals, we are made in God’s image (Genesis 1:26-27). As I noted in another article, this does not mean that we are the only creatures with a soul. This is an eisegetical interpretation that has no basis in the historical and cultural background of the Bible, let alone merit. Indeed, ancient near eastern kings were often said to be in the image of a certain god. This reinforced their authority as kings over their people. It was a reason why they had dominion over them. Likewise, Adam and Eve are made in God’s image, and had dominion over their subjects, the animals. We are all in God’s image, and thus represent God to nature. We represent his authority to the earth. Hence, one major reason why God is ticked off when we sin; we violate the very image that we bear when we sin.

But what if aliens, even intelligence aliens, were not made in God’s image? What if they were never given a sacred dominion over their worlds? At first this seems impossible, for surely aliens with at least our level of intelligence would be the dominant life forms on their worlds as we are over earth, but then again…angels are likewise intelligent (FAR more so than human beings), and yet…where are they ever said to have been made in the image of God?

Name one Bible verse that says that angels are made in God’s image. 

Indeed, angels rule in Heaven under God, just as we rule on earth under God, and yet angels are still not said to be in the image of God.  

Also, the ancients already set down the basics for intelligent beings that weren’t made in the divine image; unlike the Israelites, many in the ancient near east thought that only their kings were made in a deity’s image. Everybody else, every other member of homo sapiens, the most intelligent life form on earth…was not. And yet they would have recognized humans as the dominant life form on the planet. We likewise might see intelligent ETs in a similar light. They can have dominion over their planets, but not one based on the divine image of God. Indeed, there would have been other ruling authorities in ancient near eastern kingdoms (such as queens, princes, etc), yet they neither had the power of a king nor were thought to be in the image of a deity. Aldo, dinosaurs practically ruled the earth for millions of years, and yet they were not made in the image of God (or for that matter remotely intelligent, save for a few species). Same goes for the Theraspids or mammal-like reptiles who were the dominant land animals before them, and other animals which dominated the earth before mankind was created.

Thus, if intelligent aliens sinned from the beginning, yet weren’t made in God’s image…would they still have passed on a sinful nature to their descendants? Would their sin be as grievous as ours? Would it necessitate the death and resurrection of Christ? These questions are even more interesting considering the fact that there is Biblical and other evidence to show that Adam and Eve were meant to not just be intelligent life forms in the Bible and have dominion over earth, but were also to be a priest and priestess of God, respectively (both a priestly and royal role, like Melchizedek and Christ himself). Would aliens have likewise has such a priestly role initially? What if they didn’t? What if they also weren’t made in the Image of God? Would they still need a death and resurrection of God the Son in order to enter Heaven…or would they be under a different kind of grace? Seems like the latter would be far more likely. If aliens didn’t have a priestly and kingly role, would humans actually have more authority than them, at least in some way? Not impossible. Though they weren’t the most powerful tribe (and unlike the others, had no land appointed to them), the Levites where in charge of religious matters and the Tabernacle (later Temple). Due to Adam and Eve’s priestly role, would we likewise have religious authority over aliens? Would we have even more authority? Were we meant to be a priestly race? It’s interesting to note that not only are Christians a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9), but one day, we as believers in Christ will judge even angels (1 Corinthians 6:3).

 4. MATH, CHANCE AND THE RARE EARTH

Some Christians have taken to the rare earth hypothesis, which as previously stated is the idea that complex life is exceptionally rare. The reason why some scientists believe this is because there are supposedly at least 152 parameters needed for life like our own to exist on earth, including having a moon of the right size, having only 1 moon, having a specific tilt and volcanic activity. Indeed, if we calculate the chances of another planet like ours having all of these parameters, it would be 1 in 19 with 193 zeros behind it. To put this into perspective, the estimated number of planets in the universe is 10 with 22 zeros behind it. In other words, the chances aren’t good for advanced life forms like ours to exist on other worlds. The chances that one world-ours-would have all these parameters would be astronomical, let along if there were at least one other which likewise beat the odds. Ours would be a universe filled with microbes, but not animals, fungi, plants or sentient beings. This is an intriguing possibility, but it has several fatal flaws.

1. If you are a Christian (Like I am), then you believe that all life, including human life, has something in common with every other aspect of creation; it was all created by God, not chance.

 Indeed, creationists will argue against the idea that life on earth came about by chance and certain circumstances (stating that it would be impossible for chance and circumstances alone to do it. You’d need a supernatural creator to explain how life began), and yet when it comes to life on other worlds…they will invoke chance and circumstances as an argument against it, without considering God. That would be the equivalent of an atheist saying that just because there is no contemporaneous accounts of Socrates or Thales of Miletus doesn’t mean that they therefore didn’t exist…and yet later say that there are no contemporaneous accounts of Jesus Christ, therefore he didn’t exist.

If God made us, why would aliens be made by chance and circumstances?

Is God incapable of overcoming the mathematical odds? Since when did he become weak? Since when did he become incapable of overcoming math?

You cannot use a Double Standard as a logical argument, and the chance argument is being used in such a way.

2. Most scientists do not hold to the rare Earth Hypothesis. Indeed, in science, the term “hypothesis” is used in the same way as we use the word “Theory”, while “Theory” in science is a scientific explanation that has withstood a lot of testing. This doesn’t make scientific theories absolute (some theories have been discarded), but it does mean that it has past enough tests to be considered a theory. Hypotheses, however, have not withstood a lot of testing yet. Thus, the Rare Earth Hypothesis, though interesting, is not as powerful an argument against advanced alien life as many believe it to be.

3. The parameters needed for our form of life (or even for planets like earth and solar systems like ours to form) are not as rigid as you think. For example, contrary to purveyors of the Rare Earth hypothesis, life on earth would actually be possible if earth was 2-5% further away from the Sun and tilted on its side like Uranus. Indeed, it could be 1.4 times further from the sun and tilted, and still have our kind of life if an intense greenhouse effect were present. Likewise, there is biological evidence to show that not having a big moon would not have made complex life impossible on earth. Indeed, the idea that complex life couldn’t be on earth if it rotated faster is bogus, considering that it rotated more than 10 percent faster during the Ordovician Period (490-443 million years ago). 

The days in the Ordovician were 21 hours long, not 24. Though there were few living things on land at the time (lichens), the seas were filled with animals like trilobites, sea scorpions, armor-plated fish and Cameraceras, the giant orthocone (see below).

 Indeed, the rotation of the earth has been constantly slowing since that period of time, until we attained a 24-hour day. This means that the rotation of the earth was faster in the Permian period (the time of Dimetrodon), the Mesozoic period (the time of the Dinosaurs), and through all the ice ages afterwards. 

Obviously, a faster rotation wasn’t a problem for complex life back then. Why would it be a problem for potential life on other planets with a faster rotation than earth? If modern living things couldn’t survive on an earth with a faster rotation (I don’t believe that, but let’s indulge the idea for a second), then obviously animals, plants, fungi and microbes that lived in eras where the earth had a faster rotation were obviously adapted to survive in an environment than living things in the modern world are not.

Just as alien life forms could be adapted to survive on planets with faster rotations.

4. What if, during ancient times, the Fijians of the Fiji Islands sailed down to Antarctica? What would they have thought about that vast region of ice and howling winds? Its obviously not suitable for the animals and plants that are native to Fiji, such as the Monkey Face Bat (aka the Fijian Monkey-Faced Flying Fox), Coconut Crab, Fiji Crested Iguana and Coconut palm. It’s too cold, has too great a wind chill, has no plant life, no true summer or spring, none of the marine species familiar to Fijians or their terrestrial wildlife, little if any fresh water (and what would be there would be too cold), etc. Antarctica doesn’t meet all of the parameters needed to sustain animal and plant life native to Fiji.

Would the Fijians conclude therefore that no life exists on Antarctica?

Perhaps they might…until they saw penguins there. 

Likewise, just because most, if not all worlds in the universe don’t meet the parameters to sustain our form of complex life doesn’t mean that they don’t have complex life on them. Remember, we didn’t come about by chance, but by God, and God is a master artist with an unlimited imagination. Want to see proof of God’s great imagination? Look at a Duck-Billed Platypus. Look at a Giraffe. Look at a Crown of Thorns Starfish or a giant tube worm. The latter alone lives on the Pacific sea floor, in an environment without plants. It never experiences sunlight, has no stomach or true mouth, and yet “feeds” off Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen Sulfide, poisons which would kill most other animals on earth. Once these gases are inside it, they are consumed by bacteria, which make up half of a giant tubeworm’s weight. Once these bacteria “poop”, the giant tube worm consumes their excrement. Oh, and by the way; they live near underwater volcanoes, withstanding temperatures that would make a Texas summer seem cold! Such an environment doesn’t meet the parameters needed for surface or even marine life that lives far above the habitat of the giant tubeworm, and yet…the giant tubeworm, along with other life forms at the bottom of the sea, survive and thrive.

And that, of course, is far from the limits of what God, the Artist of Artists, could come up with.

Indeed, at one time, it was thought by scientists that the deepest parts of the ocean could not support life. After all, it didn’t meet the parameters needed for life to be there; no sunlight (thus no plants), extreme cold and unearthly pressure should have made life (like ours) impossible, and it’s true, such an environment was not suitable for land animals or even animals that live in shallower waters. This concept was known as Azoic Theory, and it would be accepted by a scientific consensus for years.

And yet…it was overturned.

Several expeditions were finding evidence that the theory was wrong. The final nail in the coffin came in 1960, when the bathyscape Trieste reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the world’s oceans (11 kilometers). 

There, Jacques Piccard, the Trieste’s pilot, spotted both a shrimp and a flat fish.

In other words, God made what was thought to be impossible to exist.

Our God is a God of the impossible (Matthew 19:26)!

True, the parameters needed for our kind of life to exist on other worlds could potentially be staggering (though as seen above, not as staggering as you think), but that assumes that life on other world would have to be like our kind of life, that God wouldn’t design living things to exist on different planets with far different environments. Why would God limit himself? After all, he’s made purely supernatural life forms (angels), so why not make biological life forms on other worlds that differ from those of Earth?

By now, we can see that such arguments against the idea of ETs are flawed. Indeed, its quite interesting that a lot of my fellow Christians try to use science to debunk the concept, even though science supports the idea that life exists on other worlds, and that some alien life will be complex. One could understand if Evolution was the subject, but alien life is the subject, and the Biblical message isn’t harmed by either the existence or non-existence of ETs (though as I’ve mentioned in another article, even evolution fails as an argument against God, let alone Christianity).

Indeed, as I’ve mentioned, the Bible doesn’t say yeah or nay on the issue.

Why?

Well, once again, the Bible isn’t intended to give all knowledge; its intended for us to know that God loves us. As Galileo once said “The Bible tells us how to go to Heaven, not how the heavens go.” It’s also seems obvious that God didn’t consider life on other planets important enough to mention, just as he didn’t consider mountains on other planets, volcanoes on other planets and ice on other planets as important enough to mention. God’s word isn’t a science treatise, but his message of love and reconciliation with mankind.

So, since God doesn’t say yeah or nay on the subject, how can we use the Bible to figure out whether there is alien life or not?

We can’t.

Indeed, if you study what the Bible says about such unclear matters, you would not even make the attempt.  

Why?

Read on…

  5. THE SECRET THINGS…

Moses gave a lot of speeches to the Israelites. In one of these, recorded in Deuteronomy 29, he goes over some of the recent history of the Israelites, as well as warning them not to stray from God’s word, from his teaching.

At the end of his speech, he says something quite perplexing:

“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.”

Read that passage several times…then consider the fact that aliens are never mentioned in the Bible, that it never states whether aliens exist or not. Do this several times, then ask yourself…is the existence (or non-existence) of aliens a secret thing that belongs to the Lord? It obviously has to be, if God doesn’t say yea or nay on the issue. If God chose not to reveal the answer to this question, then it truly is a secret thing that belongs to him. This doesn’t mean that we can’t study this question scientifically (remember, the bible doesn’t mention ice, volcanoes, mountains and canyons on other worlds, yet we know they exist on them. We learned this because we studied this scientifically, not theologically). However, this does mean that God chose not to answer this question in his word. The Bible has FAR more important things to teach us, including Jesus and his gift of salvation. When it comes to aliens, we must never say that the Bible indicates that they exist or don’t exist. The Bible is unclear on this, which indicates that it is a secret thing that belongs to the Lord. We cannot therefore be dogmatic on the issue, saying that they exist or don’t exist for theological reasons. If we want to answer this question, we need to scientifically figure it out. God gave us the minds and the abilities to do this, and whether the ultimate answer to this question is yay or nay, either way we will learn more about God’s creation, and give further glory to God in the process.

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https://www.google.com/books/edition/Horizons_Exploring_the_Universe/cMfWYFSITOgC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Galileo+bible+tells+us+how+to+go+to+heaven+not+how+the+heavens+go&pg=PA57&printsec=frontcover

[myklcollins]

Day 15 - Feb Vinyl Challenge - "Keyboard" . Called "the Jimi Hendrix of the keyboards" by Bootsy Collins, this is funkmaster Bernie Worrell's 1978 debut solo album All the Woo in the World. You may have seen him in what I believe was his last performance in Rikki and the Flash, (he died in 2016) or in the film Stop Making Sense with the Talking Heads. But he is most known for his work with Parliament/Funkadelic! If you are looking for another P-Funk late 70s album, look for this one! Bootsy, Eddie Hazel and George Clinton himself all make appearances on this album. This is a Record Store Day reissue of 1500 copies. 😎👍🎶 . #vinyl #vinylcollection #vinylcollector #vinyligclub #vinylcommunity #vinylcommunitypost #vinylrecords #vinyljunkie #vinyladdict #vinylporn #vinylgram #vinyllover #vinyllove #vinyloftheday #vinylcollectionpost #33rpm #33rpmclub #nowspinning #nowplaying #cratedigging #records #recordcollection #instahifi @harma808 #febvinylchallenge #edgarandmalachisfebvinylchallenge #70smusic #bernieworrell #parliament #funkadelic https://www.instagram.com/p/B8mm8ocpFGQ/?igshid=9u6p8lrjzasn