I received my earliest religious instruction from my Grandfather, who rather cheerfully explained the coming Apocalypse to me on our way to Kingdom Hall. A few years later I did a little research on my own by reading The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsay. This may help you understand why the title of this post is for me no minor question.
The California Literary Review has a great interview with Philip Plait, author of Death From the Skies! and the blog Bad Astronomy. Wouldn’t you know, Bruce, Ben and Billy Bob got most of the science wrong in Armageddon; the good news is that real scientists like Professor Plait are taking the threat seriously.
Would this asteroid threat compare to the threat of some slut causing you to cheat on your wife?
This is unpleasant language from anyone, and especially from a Catholic.
If you yourself have ever been tempted, it is as much your own fault as the unfortunate girl’s.
Welcome back, Henri! We missed you!
Anonymous: I think Henri is making a provocative point worth considering–in his own inimitable style. The point is: which is worse, the physical destruction of humanity by a natural disaster or the spiritual and moral destruction of one particular man.
Henri: what are you doing, in terms of research, to deal with the possibility of some slut heading your way?
Still waiting on “stimulus” money to finance the research.
Yep, Henri, it’s good to hear from you.
I’ve found that by contemplating the destruction of all life on the planet I am able to avert this sort of temptation. I say “this sort”, because I’m not married.
Memories of my grandfather (“Flee from the wrath to come!”); lakes of fire all over the world; me, mummified in concretized ash like the citizens of Pompeii – possibly with my arms wrapped around one such slut: images like these tend to keep me on the straight and narrow.
On the other hand, too much contemplation of the destruction of all life on the planet can lead to a sort of despair, which isn’t helpful: “Ehh – the world’s going to end any day now, and there’s really not much I can do about it. In the time that is left, I want something really real. And what’s more real than a bottle of Jim Beam and a willing partner at the Nites Inn out on Highway 99?”
In other words, the two threats are related: some times working in tandem for the salvation of my soul, at other times plotting against me.