Weekend Reads 10/15/16

Those Martian settlements sound great, but something important is missing

We need awesome rockets to get to Mars, but we need environmental science if we're going to stay there. Colonization requires us to settle—actually settle, like my ancestors did in the 19th century wilds of Texas—in an alien ecosystem. For all we know, that ecosystem might be teeming with life. Unfortunately, colonization also requires us to destroy that alien ecosystem and replace it with one we prefer.

Donald Trump, the herald of evangelicals’ end times

Amedia, who publicly prayed with Trump recently, believes along with many of his fellow evangelicals that a secret, spiritual battle is under way of good against evil, light against darkness, Christ against Antichrist.

Fighting Cancer

In my body right now there is a holy war going on, and has been raging for years. My immune system has been doing its damned best to kill these rogue cells. And the rogue cells, unaware that they're destroying their own host, have been fighting back. It's no small fight. I've lost 15 kilograms in the last few months.

Dispensationalism: A Doctrine More Dangerous Than Hell Itself

Sadly, this understanding creates not only complete and utter apathy, but something far worse. Sure, there is apathy for the environment, and apathy for humanity, but, like a double-edged sword, also a promulgation of the very things dispensationalists believe must take place before the end can come, before they can go to their party in the sky. This results in attitudes like this one, from conservative commentator Ann Coulter: "God gave us the earth. We have dominion over the plants, the animals, the trees. God said, 'Earth is yours. Take it. Rape it. It’s yours.'"