John Keyes

Our human heaven is borne of our human arrogance. The egotistical notion that we are more important than every other creature. And we’re not.

—Travors.com - Human Beings and the arrogance of “heaven”.

“Extraordinary people are people who are just wiling to be extra ordinary.” They accept how incredibly ordinary they are and just do their best–warts and all. They don’t wait until they are something more than just ordinary.

—Julia Butterfly Hill via No Impact Man.

I am trying to open a new bank account (as a new customer) and I am required to submit some documents to prove my identity and address.

One of the documents required is a utility bill. I don’t have a landline telephone, gas or a television package. The only utility bills I can get my hands on are for my electricity and broadband.

I chose to eschew paper billing a long time ago, so the original copies of these bills are in a digital format (PDF). These are not accepted as an original copies by the bank.

What will happen when paper bills are extinct? How will we prove our identity to banks? Verified by Facebook?

Is not a miracle a violation of the laws of nature?
It is not strange that one should grant that man can interfere with the working of laws, v.g., overcome the law of gravitation by holding a stone in his hand, and yet deny that the infinitely free God can act above and beyond the laws of His own framing?

A counter argument which makes sense.

Is it not unjust to impose the obligations of a church on children without their consent , and before they begin to understand their import?
Christ’s baptism is not something to be accepted or rejected at will, but is an absolute necessity of salvation. No obligations, therefore, are imposed on the child, save those which he is bound accept when he reaches the age of reason. We acquire out civil citizenship by the fact of our natural birth, without being questioned on the matter. Why not our divine citizenship, an infinitely greater good, by the fact of our supernatural birth in baptism. If someone left your child a large inheritance, would you demand that it be left in abeyance until your child was old enough to accept or reject it. And behold baptism makes us heirs of the kingdom of God, our “eternal inheritance”.

One of those traditions that have gone by the wayside.

Why are women not allowed to be bareheaded in a Catholic Church as well as men?
Because an Apostolic tradition forbids it (I Cor. xi. 5-11). “Every woman praying, or prophesying with her head not covered, disgraceth her head……therefore ought the woman to a power (veil, or covering) over her head, because of the angels……You yourselves judge: doth it become a woman, to pray unto God uncovered?”

Hat Tip to Volcano Insurance

Given recent events I made a wee tribute to Family Guy’s Volcano Insurance episode.