I came across an interesting factoid the other day which challenged on of my assumptions about space-time. Although I knew that the rotational velocity of the earth is slowing, I didn’t consider how that may have had an impact on the creation story. Genesis 1:5 says: “And God called the light Day and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.” The Hebrew word used here is yom (ש”ע) יום .
According to the article on Wikipedia; The length of one day about 4.5 billion years ago was about six hours. It was 21.9 hours 620 million years ago as recorded by rhythmites (alternating layers in sandstone). Because of the way the second is defined, the length of a day is increasing by about 1.7 milliseconds per century.
Depending on how literal you want to be about the creation story, this would have the effect of speeding up the “daily” rate of progress on the infant earth by about 400%, since a day is the time interval between light and darkness.
I heard a rumor today that Friday’s episode of Law and Order featured garments, but from the blog traffic on this it would appear that the context was a story about some “fundamentalist” teenage boys from a polygamous faith who are involved in a murder investigation and have drawn on their personal underwear. I haven’t seen the episode and probably won’t go out of my way to, but it seems to me that LDS reaction to this can make a big difference in avoiding amplifying any sense of persecution in the wake of Prop 8.
Latter Day Saints aren’t the only group that has distinguishing clothing. Policemen, Firemen, Soldiers, Sailors and able bodied Seamen all wear special clothing. So do Catholic, Lutheran and Presbyterian ministers, and Buddhist, Taoist and Shinto monks. The big difference is that they all wear their vestments on the outside while Latter-day Saints wear them under their clothes.
In both cases, the clothing is a reminder of the commitment and dedication the wearer has to their faith or their job. The big difference between LDS deacons, teachers. priests and high priests is that there are many times more of them in a typical congregation than in a protestant or catholic congregation. A Christian minister, someone who has totally committed themself to Christ, wears special clothing to manifest and remind that they are different, set apart from the rest of the congregation. In the LDS Church, there may be dozens of men who have made that same commitment and they will be wearing a symbol of that just like the others do. What is so surprising about Mormons being embarrassed to have their underwear exposed in public? Try going up to someone at work and saying; “Hey! Show me those Victoria’s Secrets!” and see what happens.
For some comparisons here are some links to sites that explain Catholic , Syriac and other vestments. Legal justices wear them too. We even wear robes when we get our diplomas in High School. What’s all the fuss?
It’s hard not to think that this isn’t the result of the BLTG agenda in LA taking another swipe at Mormons for Prop 8. As for me, I’m neither ashamed of my underwear or my commitment to my faith, just modest about them.
The daily news is full of commentary and observations about the current financial crisis. Today’s hot button is the proposal to give new (first time?) homebuyers a break by offering them loans at 4.5% interest. That’s not a bad place to start, but it doesn’t go far enough IMHO. The problem is that it doesn’t really solve the real problem, which is that with $10.5 Trillion in mortgage debt, assuming 4.5 percent interest and a term of 30 years the interest alone totals 30 trillion dollars. That’s got to come from somewhere and the where is *you* working for the next 30 years to pay off the principle and twice that in interest.
It amazes me to hear people talk about “the government” giving money to business to help them survive. Where do people think that money is coming from when the National Debt is already 10.6 Trillion dollars? It’s another loan ie; more debt. A more effective solution would be to cut interest rates to zero and let *everyone* refinance for a limited time, say, 7 years. That way we all don’t end up paying three times more for our houses than they are actually worth. Once you’ve done that, the payments can be reduced to a reasonable level. The result; *everyone* gets out of debt sooner. This would dramatically change banks’ business model for a while, but it lets everyone openly share the burden - which we’re all going to have to do anyway. It beats the alternative; bankruptsy.