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WITandWISDOM(tm) - February 1, 2001 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will never sit. - D. Elton Trueblood Source: Inspire, subscribe@inspirelist.com ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: Several years ago Jim Bishop wrote in the Miami Herald an article entitled, "There Is No God?" There is no God. All of the wonders around us are accidental. No almighty hand made a thousand-billion stars. They made themselves. No power keeps them on their steady course. The earth spins itself to keep the oceans from falling off toward the sun. Infants teach themselves to cry when they are hungry or hurt. A small flower invented itself so that we could extract digitalis for sick hearts. The earth gave itself day and night, tilted itself so that we get seasons. Without the magnetic poles, man would be unable to navigate the trackless oceans of water and air, but they just grew there. How about the sugar thermostat in the pancreas? It maintains a level of sugar in the blood sufficient for energy. Without it, all of us would fall into a coma and die. Why does snow sit on mountain tops waiting for the warm spring sun to melt it at just the right time for the young crops in farms below to drink? A very lovely accident? The human heart will beat for 70 or 80 years without faltering. How does it get sufficient rest between beats? A kidney will filter poison from the blood, and leave good things alone. How does it know one from another? Who gave the human tongue flexibility to form words and a brain to understand them, but denied it to all other animals? Who showed a womb how to take the love of two persons and keep splitting a tiny ovum until, in time, a baby would have the proper number of fingers, eyes, ears and hair in the right places, and come into the world when it is strong enough to sustain life? There is no God -- or is there? By Jim Bishop, Cited in the "Pastor's Story File." Source: Weekend Encounter, by Dick Innes, Copyright 2000, www.actsweb.org/subscribe.htm ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: A college student writes to his parents... Dear Mom and Dad, I feel miserable because I have to keep writing for money. I feel ashamed and unhappy. I have to ask for another hundred, but every cell in my body rebels. I beg on bended knee that you forgive me. Your son, Marvin. P.S. I felt so terrible, I ran after the mailman who picked this up in the box at the corner. I wanted to take this letter and burn it. I hoped earnestly that I could get it back. But it was too late." ~~~~~ A few days later he received a letter from his father. It said, "Your hopes were answered. Your letter never arrived!" Source: Good Clean Fun good-clean-fun-subscribe@egroups.com ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: An insurance agent was teaching his wife to drive when the brakes suddenly failed on a steep, downhill grade. "I can't stop!" she shrilled. "What should I do?" "Brace yourself," advised her husband, "and try to hit something cheap." Source: Just for Grins www.coolnewsletters.com ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: How fast do nerve impulses travel? Your nervous system carries many different kinds of information and there are different kinds of nerve cells to carry these messages. Some messages zip around very quickly, while others take their time. Some kinds of signals, like the ones for muscle position, travel on extra-fast nerve fibers at speeds of up to 390 feet per second (119 meters/second). Close your eyes and wave your arms around: you can tell where they are at every moment because the muscle-position nerves are very fast. But other messages, like some kinds of pain signals, travel much more slowly. If you stub your toe, you feel the pressure right away because touch signals travel at 250 feet per second. But you won't feel the pain for another two or three seconds, because pain signals generally travel at only two feet per second. Source: Cool Fact of the Day lists.LearningKingdom.com/join/ |