Mercy!

The Year of Mercy/Jubilee of Mercy started on Tuesday, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.¹

In my home parish, it's also when we started receiving the Eucharist under both forms: our Lord's body and blood.

If you think that's sounds gory and repulsive, you're not alone. Following our Lord has involved public relations issues from day one:

"Whoever eats ¹⁹ my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.

"Jesus then said to the Twelve, 'Do you also want to leave?'

"Simon Peter answered him, 'Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

"We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.' "
(John 6:54, John 6:67-69)

Receiving under both kinds is a big deal for this parish, since our bishop had to sign off on the procedure, and we needed more servers. It'll continue for the duration of the Year of Mercy. After that, we'll see what happens.

Particularly since receiving our Lord under both forms is closer to what happened at the Last Supper, I like what we're doing now.

But I know "...that ... the true Sacrament, is received even under only one species, and ... those who receive under only one species are not deprived of any of the grace that is necessary for salvation...."²

We'll be using Latin for parts of Mass during Advent, too: which is fine with me. I like Latin. I can even understand a little of the language. Mercifully, though, most of the Mass is in my native tongue.³ — Which brings me back to the Year of Mercy, Pope Francis, and getting a grip.

Catholic, καθολικός, Universal: Really!

(From Calendar of Major Events, Jubilee of Mercy. (im.va))
(A few of the world's Catholics in St. Peter's Square, Vatican City.)

I'm not sure why some loudly-Catholic folks cannot abide much of anything that's happened since Feast of the Immaculate Conception in 1965. That's when Pope Blessed Paul VI closed the Second Vatican Council.

I could get snarky about the universal call to holiness being unpalatable to folks with excessive self-esteem. Whoops: too late, I just did.

More seriously, I can't know what's going on in another person's mind. Some were probably upset about what they heard on the news about the "spirit of Vatican II," which didn't have much to do with the actual documents:

• Documents of the Second Vatican Council
  Archive, The Holy See

"Documents of the Second Vatican Council" is a link list for the documents' English translation. They're available in Byelorussian, Chinese, Czech, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Latin, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swahili, too.

As I keep saying the Catholic Church really is catholic: καθολικός, universal: a united and diverse people, embracing all cultures and all times.

We are not an exclusive club of folks who yearn for a bygone era, or perfect people whose chief concern is remaining aloof from the rabble. Good grief, the Church let me join.

"Merciful Like the Father"

(From Pilgrim Registration, Jubilee of Mercy. (im.va))

Those folks were waiting to register as pilgrims at St. Peter's in Rome.

The Jubilee of Mercy Pilgrim Registration page's Registration link takes you to the Italian-language registration form. You can stick with Italiano, or use the language option menu to pick Polski, Español, Français, Deutsch, Portuguese; or my native language, English.

Wouldn't you know it, the Church has rules about registering:

"To participate in the Major Events of the Jubilee in Rome and to pass through the Holy Door of Saint Peter's Basilica, it is necessary to register. You can register through the page 'Pilgrim Registration' on the web site www.im.va.

"You can register as an individual pilgrim or as the leader of a group (even families or small groups of friends should register as groups, regardless of how many people they include)...."
(Pilgrim Registration)

The Jubilee of Mercy's logo comes with the motto in several languages. I picked the English one for obvious reasons. The motto, "Merciful Like the Father," is a close paraphrase of Luke 6:36. There's pretty good advice right after that:

"¹³ 'Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven.

"Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.' "
(Luke 6:37-38)

Getting back to the Jubilee logo:

"The logo and the motto together provide a fitting summary of what the Jubilee Year is all about. ... The logo - the work of Jesuit Father Marko I. Rupnik - represents an image quite important to the early Church: that of the Son having taken upon his shoulders the lost soul demonstrating that it is the love of Christ that brings to completion the mystery of his incarnation culminating in redemption. ...

"The scene is captured within the so called mandorla (the shape of an almond), a figure quite important in early and medieval iconography, for it calls to mind the two natures of Christ, divine and human. The three concentric ovals, with colors progressively lighter as we move outward, suggest the movement of Christ who carries humanity out of the night of sin and death. Conversely, the depth of the darker color suggests the impenetrability of the love of the Father who forgives all."
(Description of the logo, from im.va.)

Mercy and Forgiveness

It's the best news humanity's ever had: God loves us, and wants to adopt us. All of us. (John 1:12-14, 3:17; Romans 8:14-17; Peter 1:3-4; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 27-30, 52, 1825, 1996)

Because I believe that, trying to act like a member of the family seems reasonable.

I should love God, love my neighbors, see everybody as my neighbor, and treat others as I want to be treated. (Matthew 5:43-44, 7:12, 22:36-40, Mark 12:28-31; Luke 6:31 10:25-27, 29-37)

I don't, putting it mildly, always live up to those standards. That's why we have the sacrament of penance and reconciliation: what my culture calls "confession." (Catechism, 1422-1470)

I've got the rest of my life for "working out my salvation," and that's another topic. Topics (April 12, 2015; November 23, 2014)

Where was I? Jubilee of Mercy, being Catholic, a motto, acting like God matters. Right.

Pope Francis said what the Jubilee of Mercy/Year of Mercy is about. Who it's about, more precisely:

"Jesus Christ is the face of the Father's mercy. These words might well sum up the mystery of the Christian faith...."
("Misericordiae Vultus,"⁴ Pope Francis)

It's been a few months since a few tightly-wound Catholics were going ballistic over the Pope's "changing stand" on abortion. What's changed are a few administrative details.

The Pope said sin can be forgiven. THIS IS NOT A NEW IDEA. (September 6, 2015)

John 8:3-11 ends with Jesus saying to the woman who would have been killed: "Neither do I condemn you. Go, (and) from now on do not sin any more." (John 8:11)

The example I used involved woman caught in adultery. Oddly enough, she was the one about to be stoned: not the man. Elsewhere our Lord points out that men are responsible, too, or should be:

"¹⁹ 'You have heard that it was said, "You shall not commit adultery."

"But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart."
(Matthew 5:27-28)

Relying on God's Mercy

Back in the 1960s, quite a few folks around my age decided that a life devoted to buying stuff we don't need, with money we didn't have, to impress folks we didn't like, didn't make sense.

I was one of 'those crazy kids' who thought there was more to life than slithering up the career ladder. I still do, and that's yet another topic.

Somewhere between "Blowin' in the Wind" and "Harper Valley PTA," I realized that what's legal and what's right can be two very different things.

I've discussed natural and positive law, ethics, and Chickenman, before. (August 30, 2015; September 7, 2014; August 31, 2014)

Some reforms my generation worked for were long overdue, and some didn't turn out as I had hoped, but I do not miss the 'good old days.' My memory's too good. (August 30, 2015; May 3, 2015)

Being a man who at least looks English is no longer required for folks looking for the better-paying jobs, happily. The underlying biases may linger for decades or centuries, and that's yet again another topic. (July 5, 2015; October 26, 2014)

Not-so-happily, killing innocent people is legal, or at least tolerated, in America: provided that the victim is below an arbitrary age, or very sick. I think human life is sacred, so I can't approve. (Catechism, 2258)

I think all human life is sacred, which puts me in the awkward position of seeing capital punishment, euthanasia, and abortion, as bad ideas. That puts me at odds with an assortment of folks, but it can't be helped. (September 6, 2015; August 30, 2015)

I can't reasonably heap abuse on 'those sinners over there,' however. I remember our Lord's story about a Pharisee who 'prayed to himself:'

" 'Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector.

"The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, 'O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity - greedy, dishonest, adulterous - or even like this tax collector.

"I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.'

"But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, 'O God, be merciful to me a sinner.'

"I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.' "
(Luke 18:10-14)

I'm like the Pharisee, sort of. I pray regularly, and have not committed any socially-unacceptable sins. But I have other items on my rap sheet, so relying on God's mercy makes sense. Besides, there's that pesky "stop judging" thing in Matthew 7:1-5. (March 15, 2015)

"...The Forgiveness of God Cannot be Denied...."

Having a conscience, learning to notice whether something I'm about to do will help or hurt another, is vital. (Catechism, 1776-1794)

We're social creatures, so I must think about the common good: which also involves using my conscience. (Catechism, 1905-1912, 1928-1942)

That can include situations like the old "friends don't let friends drive drunk" public service ads. It's a matter of showing love and respect for another person. (Catechism, 1929-1933, 2284-2301)

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 sets a high standard for that sort of love: and I'm drifting off-topic.

In the end, I must trust God's justice and mercy. (Catechism, 1861)

Bottom line? Forgiving others is vital.

"¹¹ If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you.

"But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions."
(Matthew 6:14-15)

"^{1 2} 'Stop judging, that you may not be judged.

"For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you."
(Matthew 7:1-2)

"Father, forgive them, they know not what they do."
(Luke 23:34)

"¹ Therefore, you are without excuse, every one of you who passes judgment. ² For by the standard by which you judge another you condemn yourself, since you, the judge, do the very same things. ... There is no partiality with God."
(Romans 2:1-11)

Here's part of what Pope Francis wrote about forgiveness:

"...I have met so many women who bear in their heart the scar of this agonizing and painful decision.What has happened is profoundly unjust; yet only understanding the truth of it can enable one not to lose hope. The forgiveness of God cannot be denied to one who has repented, especially when that person approaches the Sacrament of Confession with a sincere heart in order to obtain reconciliation with the Father. For this reason too, I have decided, notwithstanding anything to the contrary, to concede to all priests for the Jubilee Year the discretion to absolve of the sin of abortion those who have procured it and who, with contrite heart, seek forgiveness for it. May priests fulfil this great task by expressing words of genuine welcome combined with a reflection that explains the gravity of the sin committed, besides indicating a path of authentic conversion by which to obtain the true and generous forgiveness of the Father who renews all with his presence...."
("Letter of the Holy Father according to which an Indulgence is granted to the faithful on the occasion of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy," Pope Francis (September 1, 2015) [emphasis mine])

That seems reasonable to me. So does this:

"Lord, hear my cry! May your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.

"If you, LORD, mark our sins, Lord, who can stand?

"³ But with you is forgiveness and so you are revered."
(Psalms 130:2-4)

More of my take on following our Lord:

• " 'Have No Anxiety At All' "
  (October 18, 2015)
  Particularly
  • Why Take Jesus Seriously?
  • Rejoice!
• "Hate People? Not an Option"
  (September 6, 2015)
  Particularly
  • Love: NO EXCEPTIONS
  • Sin and Forgiveness
  • Human Life
  • Recap
• "(Not) 'Going Native' "
  (August 30, 2015)
  Particularly
  • Love and the Status Quo
  • Crime and/or Evil
  • Faith that's "Two Coats of Paint" Deep
  • Moving Forward
• "Fire, Brimstone, and Lollipop Faith"
  (March 15, 2015)
  Particularly
  • God Doesn't Hate You: But He's No Patsy
  • Hellfire and Lollipops
  • Living the Truth
• "Morality isn't Just About 'Morality' "
  (September 7, 2014)
  Particularly
  • New Rules, Unchanging Principles, and Twitter
  • Diversity, Dance, and a Distant Dream

---

¹ It's Mary's immaculate conception, not our Lord's. (December 9, 2011)

The Immaculate Conception is when Mary was conceived. She's as human as I am, with an extremely important distinction:

"Through the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary, 'full of grace' through God,¹³⁴ was redeemed from the moment of her conception. That is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception confesses, as Pope Pius IX proclaimed in 1854:

"The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin.¹³⁵"

(Catechism of the Catholic Church, 491)

² More about Mass:

• "General Instruction of the Roman Missal"
  Including Adaptations for the Dioceses of the United States of America, IV - Some General Norms for All Forms of Mass (273 - 287))
  (2003)

³ I can, with effort, translate Latin into my native language, so "Misericordiae Vultus..." wouldn't be completely inaccessible:

• "Misericordiae Vultus - Bulla de Iubilaeo Extraordinario indicendo (die undecimo mensis Aprilis, anno Domini bis millesimo quinto decimo)"
  Franciscus Pontifex (Aprilis XI, MMXV)

⁴ Mercifully the Church provides English translations for many of documents we've accumulated over the last two millennia; including these:

• "Prayer of Pope Francis for the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy" [8 December 2015 - 20 November 2016]
  Pope Francis
  (From w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/prayers/documents/papa-francesco_preghiere_20151208_giubileo-straordinario-misericordia.html (December 11, 2015))
• "Letter of the Holy Father according to which an Indulgence is granted to the faithful on the occasion of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy"
  Pope Francis (September 1, 2015)
  (From w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/letters/2015/documents/papa-francesco_20150901_lettera-indulgenza-giubileo-misericordia.html December 11, 2015))
• "Misericordiae Vultus - Bull of indiction of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy"
  Pope Francis (April 11, 2015)
  (From w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_letters/documents/papa-francesco_bolla_20150411_misericordiae-vultus.html (December 11, 2015))

A Place for Art in Churches

Why do Catholics pray "unto an idol of wood, metal, stone, and the like?"

I'm pretty sure that was what a chap meant by "is this stones and wood true?"

"is this stones and wood true ?

"... #TheTruthCaster: ... praying, gazing unto an idol of wood, metal, stone, and the like."
(Response to a Twitter post)

As a convert to Catholicism, I can see why some non-Catholics sincerely believe that we're idol-worshipers.

We're not idolaters, but I've long since stopped trying to convince zealots that their preferred reality isn't entirely accurate.

On the other hand, those comments started me thinking about Catholic churches and art, and reminded me that I haven't talked about art and idolatry for a while.

Using Our Brains and Hands

(From Sjcantius, via Wikimedia commons, used w/o permission.)
(Photo of St. John Cantius church, Chicago: March 23, 2015.)

The inside of a Catholic Church generally is not the sensory deprivation chamber some folks seem to think is required for Christian worship.

The parish church down the street from my house is nowhere near as opulent as Chicago's St. John Cantius. But we've got the basics: an altar; a crucifix, sometimes two or three, depending on the season and whether Mass is in progress; Stations of the Cross; and assorted statues of Saints and angels.

Since it's Our Lady of Angels church, we've also got a painting by Tom Kane. He used Tiepolo's Immaculate Conception as a model, adapting it to the curved half-dome over our altar area. (August 18, 2013)

We worship God, not the statues, paintings, or anything else. I'll get back to that. The art isn't a distraction, though: and that may take a bit of explaining.

God's creation of the universe isn't an hideous mistake. The world we see is basically good; and so are we, basically. Good, but not perfect, and that's another topic. Topics. (Genesis 1:31; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 302, 337-339, 341, 396-409)

We're made in the image of God, so it's no surprise that we like using our brains and hands: observing this world, and making some of our own stuff. It's part of being human, and one way we learn more about God. (Genesis 1:27; Catechism, 31-35, 355-361, 2293)

Art and Faith

Many folks probably think of "technology" as one thing, and "art" as something entirely different.

There's something to that, although I've seen tastefully-arranged arrays of tools on workshop wall racks. Pablo Picasso included a printed image in his "Still Life with Chair Caning," Marcel Duchamp's readymades encouraged folks to take the aesthetics of bicycle wheels seriously, and I'm drifting off-topic.

I haven't made my mind up about Andy Warhol's pop art, although I can't argue with its success: a remarkable number of folks bought the stuff.

Wrenching myself back to faith, worship, and being human, "art is a form of practical wisdom:"

"...Arising from talent given by the Creator and from man's own effort, art is a form of practical wisdom, uniting knowledge and skill,²⁹⁵ to give form to the truth of reality in a language accessible to sight or hearing...."
(Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2501)

One of these days I may trace multimedia's development from the Cave of Altamira through the Basilica of Saint Denis to podcasting software: but not today.

A few centuries after those 'barbaric' gothic cathedrals gave traditionalists fits, we've gotten used to seeing walls covered mostly with glowing pictures.

Some of the stained glass is simply decoration. But many of the windows in those cathedrals and churches are covered with pictures illustrating Bible stories, events from lives of the Saints, our encounters with angels, God's attributes, and other details of our faith.

Besides, light is a good metaphor for truth, and I've been over this before. (January 19, 2014; July 9, 2011)

From a Catholic viewpoint, art can be a good thing: when we keep our priorities straight.

"...To the extent that it is inspired by truth and love of beings, art bears a certain likeness to God's activity in what he has created. Like any other human activity, art is not an absolute end in itself, but is ordered to and ennobled by the ultimate end of man.²⁹⁶"
(Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2501)

I'll get back to "art is not an absolute end in itself," too.

Sacred Art in the Universal Church

Some illustrations in the Book of Kells are more obviously Christian than that Chi Rho monogram. Some of my ancestors came from that part of the world, which helps explain why I like the style and understand some of the symbols. (August 3, 2014)

I also like art that wasn't made a dozen centuries back. My personal preferences matter to me, but what's important is what the Church says about sacred art:

"Sacred art is true and beautiful when its form corresponds to its particular vocation: evoking and glorifying, in faith and adoration, the transcendent mystery of God - the surpassing invisible beauty of truth and love visible in Christ, who 'reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature,' in whom 'the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.'²⁹⁷ This spiritual beauty of God is reflected in the most holy Virgin Mother of God, the angels, and saints. Genuine sacred art draws man to adoration, to prayer, and to the love of God, Creator and Savior, the Holy One and Sanctifier."
(Catechism, 2502)

What's "true and beautiful" and what's not is debatable — and debated, sometimes with more emotion than sense.

I hope the artist who repainted statuary in St. Paul's church, the other parish church in town, thought the new color scheme was "true and beautiful." Decades later, I still think it's garish. Bear in mind that I like baroque, rococo, and Frank R. Paul magazine covers.

But I won't rant about St. Paul's statues being 'un-Christian' just because I hope I'm still around when they're repainted: and that the next artist chooses a more subdued color scheme. My preferences are my preferences. At least this way it's hard to not notice the church's sacred art.

The Catholic Church is literally καθολικός, universal: not tied to one culture or one era. (Catechism, 854, 1200-1206, 1668, 2441)

"The diverse liturgical traditions have arisen by very reason of the Church's mission. ... The Church is catholic, capable of integrating into her unity, while purifying them, all the authentic riches of cultures.⁶⁸"
(Catechism, 1202)

Some Catholics lived in mid-20th-century America: but most have not. I have some sympathy for folks who sincerely miss the 'good old days' as they remember them: but restoring the world of "Leave It to Beaver" isn't a reasonable goal. (May 3, 2015; December 28, 2014)

Idolatry

Idolatry isn't just worshiping a statue or symbol.

Putting anything — art, money, physical fitness, fame, family, a career, or anything else — at the top of my priority list would be idolatry: and strictly against the rules. (Catechism, 2097, 2112-2114, 2534)

I don't worship anyone or anything other than God. But I've found that pictures of Saints, and other symbols of our faith, can help me remember their service and love for our Lord: which reminds me of our Lord, which gets me back to the proper focus of worship. (Catechism, 1159-1162)

That reminds me of a quirk of language and culture, in the upper Midwest at least. Someone who deals with religious art told me that when he was talking with a non-Catholic American about three-dimensional representations of a person, he used the word "carving."

Apparently "statues" with a religious subject were supposed to be a sort of idolatry: but if he called the statue a "carving," it was okay. (July 15, 2012)

Wisdom

Footnote 295 in Catechism, 2501, right after "art is a form of practical wisdom, uniting knowledge and skill," refers to Wisdom 7:15-17. I think those verses do a nice job of discussing knowledge, crafts, the universe, and getting a grip:

"Now God grant I speak suitably and value these endowments at their worth: For he is the guide of Wisdom and the director of the wise.

"For both we and our words are in his hand, as well as all prudence and knowledge of crafts.

"For he gave me sound knowledge of existing things, that I might know the organization of the universe and the force of its elements,"
(Wisdom 7:15-17)

Finally, here's a closer look at that page from the Book of Kells, and the usual link list to other posts:

• "2 + 2 = 4, Therefore … : Getting a Grip about Faith and Science"
  (February 5, 2014)
  Particularly
  • Heathen Numerals and 'End Times Bible Prophecies'
  • Newfangled Ideas and the Papist Peril
  • "The Religion of the Antichrist"
• "Cockroaches, Spiders, and — Things"
  (January 10, 2014)
  Particularly
  • Accepting Reality
• "Statues, Magic, and Juggling Plutonium"
  (May 17, 2013)
• "Designed as Stewards"
  (March 17, 2013)
  Particularly
  • Nature, Humans, and God
• "Art and Being Catholic"
  (July 15, 2012)
  Particularly
  • "...A Distinctly Human Form of Expression"
  • The Other Side of the Store
  • Statues, Carvings, and Assumptions

Homo Erectus Engraving, Long-Lost Relatives

A researcher with a digital camera noticed faint marks on a half-million-old shell. It's the earliest known abstract mark: made by Homo erectus.

Scientists discovered genetic traces of a previously-unknown group of people, Denisovans, in a Neanderthal's DNA a year ago.

Detailed analysis of the Neanderthal DNA reveals details of that Neanderthal family's history: and a few genes from another previously-unknown group.

1. An Engraved Shell: Half a Million Years Old
   • "We Simply Don't Know"
2. Modern Humans, Neanderthals, Denisovans: and — Someone Else
   • The Hapsburgs, Options - - -
   • - - - and Being Human

The woman we know as KNM ER 3733 lived about 1,700,000 years ago: 1,659,000 years before a Neanderthal family used Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains. That facial reconstruction of her may not be entirely accurate, but it's pretty close.

She's not directly connected to either of this week's news items: but she could be one of my very, very, distant great-to-the-nth grandmothers, and an ancestor of Denisovans, Neanderthals, and us.

The human family has changed a bit since her time: most of us have shorter arms and legs now; our foreheads are smoother and more nearly vertical; and we're probably better at singing opera. I'll get back to that.

---

"Little Less than a God"

Thinking is not a sin.

I've been over that before. (November 21, 2014; March 28, 2014)

It isn't faith or reason: it's faith and reason. ("Fides et Ratio," John Paul II (September 14, 1998); Catechism of the Catholic Church, 35)

God created a good, beautiful, and ordered world: and gave us brains. We are rational creatures, and expected to use our brains. (Catechism, 32, 154-159, 299)

Humanity is made in the image of God: matter and spirit; the stuff of this world and the breath of God. We're stewards of this world, with the power and responsibility that goes with the job. (Genesis 1:26-27, 2:7; Catechism, 355-373)

As it says in Psalms, we're "little less than a god:"

"⁴ What are humans that you are mindful of them, mere mortals that you care for them?

"⁵ Yet you have made them little less than a god, crowned them with glory and honor."
(Psalms 8:6)

Trouble starts, though, when someone forgets that "little less than a god" doesn't make us God.

Friedrich Nietzsche's the one who wrote "Beyond Good and Evil," by the way. He wasn't a scientist, had an impressive mustache, and a talent for making pithy one-liners. I don't agree entirely with his view of Christianity: but experiences in his youth, and living during the late 19th century, helped shape his philosophy.

From what I've read, Nietzsche thought that Jesus didn't judge people, but Christians constantly did. He's got a point. The malignant virtue of radio preachers helped me love rock 'n roll, indirectly led to my becoming a Catholic, and that's another topic.

"Love the sinner, hate the sin" may sound corny: but that's how it works.

"...judging others leads us to hypocrisy ... a person who judges gets it wrong...because he takes the place of God, who is the only judge: taking that place is taking the wrong place!..."
(Francis I)

---

"...although we can judge that an act is in itself a grave offense, we must entrust judgment of persons to the justice and mercy of God."
(Catechism, 1861)

---

"Stop judging, that you may not be judged."
(Jesus, in Matthew 7:1)

Mad Scientists, Imagined and Real

Hubris, self-confidence above and beyond the call of reason, makes dialog like this possible:

"Dr. James Xavier: I'm blind to all but a tenth of the universe.

"Dr. Sam Brant: My dear friend, only the gods see everything.

"Dr. James Xavier: My dear doctor, I'm closing in on the gods."
("X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes" (1963), via IMDB.com)

"X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes" is fiction: but now and then, some scientists have acted as if they were "beyond good and evil." Some even come close to the Hollywood 'mad scientist' profile.

Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov tried to breed a human-ape hybrid in the 1920s, and Johann Conrad Dippel wrote that he'd invented an elixir that'd keep him alive until he was 135 years old. Dippel died a few months short of this 61st birthday, and Ivanov's plans were foiled when his orangutang died.

The lesson of Auschwitz, Dachau, Tuskegee, and Willowbrook isn't that science is Satanic. It's that ethics apply to science, just like anything else we do. (Catechism, 2292-2295, 2415-2418)

As I said last week, learning about the universe and using that knowledge to develop new tools, is part of being human. (Wisdom 7:17; Catechism, 307, 1730)

Facing Our Desires and Responsibilities

Science won't solve all our problems: but I don't yearn for the 'good old days.'

I remember the days when polio vaccine was new. The way I walk led someone to think I'd had polio before vaccination programs reached my area, and that's yet another topic.

Science won't answer all our questions, but fearing science makes no sense.

"...The history of science in the twentieth century is one of undoubted achievement and major advances. Unfortunately, the popular image of twentieth-century science is sometimes characterized otherwise, in two extreme ways. On the one hand, science is posited by some as a panacea, proven by its notable achievements in the last century. Its innumerable advances were in fact so encompassing and so rapid that they seemed to confirm the point of view that science might answer all the questions of man's existence, and even of his highest aspirations. On the other hand, there are those who fear science and who distance themselves from it, because of sobering developments such as the construction and terrifying use of nuclear weapons...."
("Plenary Session of the Pontifical Council of Sciences, Benedict XVI, 28 October 2010," Benedict XVI (October 28, 2010)) [emphasis mine]

I remember when many Americans stopped thinking that "science might answer all the questions of man's existence, and even of his highest aspirations."

I think the currently-fashionable notion that science will kill us all is as silly as expecting science to give all the answers: or assuming that it is a Satanic snare. I'll get back to that.

Then there's nostalgic yearning for a 'simpler time,' an imagined golden age, before we didn't have tech like the McCormick Reaper and general anesthesia. Me? I don't mind being deprived of experiences like gathering crops by hand — and staying awake through surgical procedures.

As St. John Paul II said, science and technology show "the human capacity for understanding and perseverance:" and prod us into facing our desires and responsibilities.

"...The development of science and technology, this splendid testimony of the human capacity for understanding and for perseverance, does not free humanity from the obligation to ask the ultimate religious questions. Rather, it spurs us on to face the most painful and decisive of struggles, those of the heart and of the moral conscience...."
("Veritatis splendor," John Paul II (August 6, 1993))

Despite what some loudly-pious folks seem to believe, science does not force Christians into choosing between objective reality or faith.  (November 21, 2014)

However, as scientists learn more about the universe — we've had to rearrange our assumptions, or cling to increasingly outdated notions. That's been happening a lot in recent generations

Homo Erectus, and Not Missing the 'Good Old Days'

The woman we know as KNM ER 3733 may not have looked exactly like John Gurche's reconstruction. He used another individual's jaw, KNM ER 992, to complete the model.

She lived in what we call Kenya, about 1,700,000 years ago.

Scientists call this early version of human Homo erectus. These folks lived from about 1,900,000 to 143,000 years ago.

There's evidence that their social structures were like ours. That doesn't mean they had parliaments and chat rooms: just that they probably lived in band societies: extended families or clans, one step down from tribes.

In the course of 1,757,000 years, they got as far as Georgia, India, Sri Lanka, China and Java.

That's something else they have in common with today's humans: we travel, a lot.

Every so often, part of a community gets fed up, driven out, or simply curious: and heads for the horizon. Over the last couple million years we've settled on every continent except Antarctica: and now we've got permanent bases there, plus one in low Earth orbit.

I'm willing to think of KNM ER 3733 and KNM ER 992 as people: partly because of the way folks like them acted, partly because I know my family history and my faith.

One of my ancestors, describing another ancestor, said "he doesn't have family, he's Irish." The daughter of a decent family married the Irishman, anyway.

"Irish Iberians" were among the folks regarded as inferior to "Anglo-Teutonic" people, as that Harpers (1899) illustration shows.

That was then, this is now. Most Americans got used to having Irish neighbors, an Irishman was elected president, and scientists are getting over the assumption that looking European and being intelligent are pretty much the same thing. (September 5, 2014)

As a Catholic, I must believe that we're all part of a huge — and sadly dysfunctional — family. New discoveries about our remote ancestors should invite "even greater admiration for the greatness of the Creator." (Catechism, 282-289, 360; 404, 781-791, 2568)

Today's world isn't perfect, I don't yearn for the 'good old days,' and that's yet again another topic.

'The Kids are Okay'

(From Steward Finlayson, via BBC News; used w/o permission.)
("Our cave," "turn right," or something else.)

Maybe a 'would you want one marrying your daughter' attitude explains durable assumptions about "primitive" people and evolution. (October 31, 2014)

I suspect it's connected to the reticence some folks have about learning their family's history: the real history, not carefully-maintained facades they've been living behind.

Bad enough, from that viewpoint, that a great-grandfather embezzled, or whatever the family skeletons are. Now scientists are saying that KNM ER 3733 and KNM ER 992 might be our distant ancestors.

What we're learning about humanity's story doesn't bother me: I've seen old family photos, and families change.

I'm descended, partly, from the clan Campbell. The wry mouth, Caimbeul, that gave our clan its name faded a few generations back.

Two of my kids have a close approximation of the 'Hovde forehead' I inherited from my Norwegian ancestors: but that feature seems to be on the way out, too.

That's okay: change happens. It's how this world works. As I've said before, the universe is in a "state of journeying" toward perfection. (Catechism, 302)

---

1. An Engraved Shell: Half a Million Years Old

(From Stephen Munro, via BBC News, used w/o permission.)
("The markings were more clear in the digital photos than they had been to the naked eye"
(BBC News))

"Indonesian shell has 'earliest human engraving' "
BBC News (December 4, 2014)

"Zig-zag patterns found on a fossilised shell in Indonesia may be the earliest engraving by a human ancestor, a study has claimed.

"The engraving is at least 430,000 years old, meaning it was done by the long-extinct Homo erectus, said the study.

"The oldest man-made markings previously found were about 130,000 years old.

"If confirmed, experts say the findings published in the journal Nature may force a rethink of how human culture developed.

"One of the report's authors, Stephen Munro, told the BBC it could 'rewrite human history'.

" 'This is the first time we have found evidence for Homo erectus behaving this way,' said the researcher, from Australian National University...."

The pattern could be someone's checkoff list, not decoration: but it's more than 430,000 years too late to ask whoever made the marks.

Either way: it looks like abstract thought, reducing some aspect of reality to a simpler pattern, happened really early. So, apparently, did the human habit of recording our thoughts in somewhat permanent form.

The last I heard, scientists are still unsure whether Homo erectus could speak. Their brains were big enough, and apparently had the Broca's area we use to handle speech.

On the other hand, their thoracic vertebrae, the backbone supporting our ribs, were narrower than ours. That'd give then less control over breathing, so some scientists say they couldn't speak.

I think it's likely that someone from a Homo erectus family could probably learn enough of a current language to get by. Singing opera, though: that might not be an option.

"We Simply Don't Know"

(From Wim Lustenhouwer/VU University Amsterdam, via Nature, used w/o permission.)
("A shell found on Java in the late 1800s was recently found to bear markings that seem to have been carved intentionally half a million years ago. The photograph is about 15 millimetres wide."
(Nature))

"Homo erectus made world's oldest doodle 500,000 years ago"
"Shell markings are the oldest abstract signs ever discovered."
Ewen Callaway, Nature (December 3, 2014)

"A zigzag engraving on a shell from Indonesia is the oldest abstract marking ever found. But what is most surprising about the half-a-million-year-old doodle is its likely creator — the human ancestor Homo erectus.

" 'This is a truly spectacular find and has the potential to overturn the way we look at early Homo,' says Nick Barton, an archaeologist at the University of Oxford, UK, who was not involved in the discovery, which is described in a paper published online in Nature on 3 December.

"By 40,000 years ago, and probably much earlier, anatomically modern humans — Homo sapiens — were painting on cave walls in places as far apart as Europe and Indonesia. Simpler ochre engravings found in South Africa date to 100,000 years ago. Earlier this year, researchers reported a 'hashtag' engraving in a Gibraltar cave once inhabited by Neanderthals. That was the first evidence for drawing in any extinct species...."

Maybe modern humans, Neanderthals, and Homo Erectus, really are different "species" in the old Linnaean sense. My guess is that Neanderthals, Denisovans, Germans, Polynesians, and all the rest of us are a single species: and that ethnicity has been sifting over the generations. (July 11, 2014; December 13, 2013)

Getting back to that engraved shell — In the 1890s, Dutch palaeontologist Eugène Dubois collected it in eastern Java: along with dozens of other shells. He also found "Java Man" there: the first Homo erectus fossil discovered.

The shells were examined in the 1930s: then packed and stored in a Leiden, Netherlands, museum.

Leiden University biologist Josephine Joordens had been studying how Homo erectus used marine resources: 80 kilometers inland. The shells were all from freshwater species: but some had small holes, a few millimeters wide, made with a sharp object. A college of Joordens photographed the shells: and noticed a faint zigzag pattern on one.

Sand grains embedded in the shell gave its age: about 500,000 years. The shell, and engraved marks, "show signs of significant ageing," as Ewen Callaway's article put it. But when it was fresh, the pattern would have been white lines on the dark shell.

A half-million years later, we're still able to engrave shells: but it's not easy. The pattern is definitely artificial, carefully made, and meant — something.

"...'We've looked at all possibilities, but in the end we are really certain that this must have been made by an agent who did a very deliberate action with a very sharp implement,' says Joordens. Her team tried replicating the pattern on fresh and fossilized shells, 'and that made us realize how difficult it really was', she says.

"Saying much more about the engraving is tricky. 'If you don't know the intention of the person who made it, it's impossible to call it art,' says Joordens.

" 'But on the other hand, it is an ancient drawing. It is a way of expressing yourself. What was meant by the person who did this, we simply don't know,' she adds. 'It could have been to impress his girlfriend, or to doodle a bit, or to mark the shell as his own property.'..."
(Ewen Callaway, Nature)

A half-million years from now, someone may discover a brass disk, about as big as the palm of my hand, buried in North America.

Eventually, folks might notice markings on the now-corroded metal disk.

It's possible that whoever found the disk would know about the Latin alphabet. But I'd be astounded if folks bothered to keep records describing survey markers all that time.

From today's discussions of Indus script and Vinča symbols, my guess is that some would say the symbols were part of a ritual offering to the sun — or earth. Others would realize that "we simply don't know."

The more we learn, the more we find that we have to learn. I like living in a world where we're not likely to run out of surprises.

---

2. Modern Humans, Neanderthals, Denisovans: and — Someone Else

(From Kay Prüfer et al., via Sci-News.com, used w/o permission.)
("Family tree of the four groups of early humans living in Eurasia 50,000 years ago and the gene flow between the groups due to interbreeding.")

"Neanderthal Genome Reveals Fourth, Mysterious Human Lineage"
Sci-News.com ( December 18, 2013)

"A comparison of the high-quality genome sequence of a 50,000-year-old Neanderthal woman with those of modern humans and Denisovans reveals a long history of interbreeding among at least 4 species of early humans.

"The comparison, conducted by a large group of genetic scientists, shows that Neanderthals and Denisovans are very closely related, and that their common ancestor split off from the ancestors of modern humans about 400,000 years ago.

"Neanderthals and Denisovans split about 300,000 years ago.

"Though Denisovans and Neanderthals eventually died out, they left behind bits of their genetic heritage because they occasionally interbred with modern humans.

"The authors estimated that between 1.5 and 2.1 percent of the genomes of modern non-Africans can be traced to Neanderthals.

"Denisovans also left genetic traces in modern humans, though only in some Oceanic and Asian populations....."

I'll grant that 'interbreeding' probably isn't as pejorative as 'miscegenation:' but the term still bothers me a little, when applied to people.

The idea of folks who don't look like clones of each other having kids doesn't bother me, it's the veterinary associations I have with the word 'interbreed.'

I probably don't have Denisovan DNA in my genes, but it's nearly certain that I've got Neanderthals in my family tree. My ancestors are the folks who chased receding glaciers into northwestern Europe.

Scientists studying this woman's DNA learned that she had something in common with a European royal family: the Hapsburgs.

The Hapsburgs, Options - - -

"...The study also indicates that the Neanderthal woman was highly inbred. She was the daughter of a very closely related mother and father who either were half-siblings who shared the same mother, an uncle and niece or aunt and nephew, a grandparent and grandchild, or double first-cousins...."
(Sci-News.com)

The Hapsburgs' habit of marrying cousins — and, two times, an uncle and niece — kept political power in the family. But it also led to Charles II of Spain: who, mercifully, died childless. (December 13, 2013; Apathetic Lemming of the North (April 19, 2009))

The Hapsburg family chose to marry family members. It looks like there weren't many folks living in the Altai Mountains 50,000 years back. Those families may have had few options other than having children with close relatives.

Small wonder, perhaps, that they welcomed 'fresh blood' into the family: even if the newcomer's appearance was odd.

- - - and Being Human

A few sequences in this woman's DNA weren't from Neanderthal, Denisovan, or our version of humanity.

Maybe the 'none of the above' DNA is from previously-unknown descendants of Homo erectus: or from folks we didn't know about before this.

One article I saw called what we're learning about humanity's family history "confusing." I think "complicated" is more accurate.

It's becoming obvious that when people who looked like us left Africa, between 125,000 and 60,000 years ago, they met folks who had emigrated earlier: much earlier in some cases.

Then, we did what people have been doing for millions of years: horrifying a few in the older generation by settling down with someone who's "Irish."

More of my take on:

• "Dinosaur Arms, and Ust'-Ishim Man's DNA"
  (October 31, 2014)
  Particularly
  • "The Man Who Evolved"
  • Faith, Reason, and the Ardent Mr. Squibbs
  • In a "State of Journeying"
  • "Interbreeding:" and Loving It
• "Scientific Discoveries: an Invitation to 'Even Greater Admiration' "
  (September 21, 2014)
  Particularly
  • Truth Cannot Contradict Truth
  • Living With Change
  • Psalms 115 and the Universe
• "Neanderthal Art, DNA MREs, and Sliding Rocks"
  (September 5, 2014)
  Particularly
  • "His gaze spans all the ages...."
  • Neanderthals, Art, and Assumptions
  • "Flickerings of Abstract Thought" — and More Assumptions
• "Coping With Change for Millions of Years; Chatty Chimps"
  (July 11, 2014)
  Particularly
  • Neanderthals, Denisovans, and Us
  • People Acting Like Humans
  • Human Ancestry: It's Complicated
• "Truth, Toothpicks, Beaks, and God"
  (December 13, 2013)
  Particularly
  • There's Much More to Learn
  • Species and Attitudes
  • Neanderthal Features, Tolerance, and the Hapsburg Disaster

About Neanderthals, Denisovans, and an "unknown human lineage:"

• "The complete genome sequence of a Neanderthal from the Altai Mountains"
  Kay Prüfer, Fernando Racimo, Nick Patterson, Flora Jay, Sriram Sankararaman, Susanna Sawyer, Anja Heinze, Gabriel Renaud, Peter H. Sudmant, Cesare de Filippo, Heng Li, Swapan Mallick, Michael Dannemann, Qiaomei Fu, Martin Kircher, Martin Kuhlwilm, Michael Lachmann, Matthias Meyer, Matthias Ongyerth, Michael Siebauer, Christoph Theunert, Arti Tandon, Priya Moorjani, Joseph Pickrell, James C. Mullikin, et al.; abstract; Nature (January 2, 2014)
• " Neanderthal genome shows evidence of early human interbreeding, inbreeding"
  Robert Sanders, Media Relations, UC Berkeley News Center (December 18, 2013)
• "Neanderthal Woman's Genome Reveals Unknown Human Lineage"
  Charles Q. Choi, LiveScience (December 18, 2013)

Neanderthal Art, DNA MREs, and Sliding Rocks

About 39,000 years back, maybe more, Neanderthals made a mark that looks like a hashtag. Maybe it was a 'you are here' sign, the first tic-tac-toe game, or something completely different.

I think humanity's back-story, implications of DNA's high phosphate levels, and why rocks (occasionally) move in Death Valley, are fascinating. Your experience may vary.

1. Neanderthals, Art, and Assumptions
   • Deliberately Made: But Why?
   • "Flickerings of Abstract Thought" — and More Assumptions
2. DNA: Archean MREs?
   • The Purple Hills of Earth?
   • Getting a Grip About Hammers, Architects, and All That
3. Death Valley's Moving Rocks: Ice and Wind

---

"His gaze spans all the ages...."

If you're waiting for a rant in this blog against the evils of science, you'll have a long wait.

Folks have known that God's creation is vast and ancient for thousands of years: and seemed confident that God wasn't overextended.

"When I see your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and stars that you set in place -"

"⁴ What are humans that you are mindful of them, mere mortals that you care for them?"

"⁵ Yet you have made them little less than a god, crowned them with glory and honor."
(Psalms 8:4-6)

---

"How precious to me are your designs, O God; how vast the sum of them!

"Were I to count, they would outnumber the sands; to finish, I would need eternity."
(Psalms 139:17-18)

---

"The works of God are all of them good; in its own time every need is supplied."

"He has but to command and his will is done; nothing can limit his achievement."

"The works of all mankind are present to him; not a thing escapes his eye."

"His gaze spans all the ages; to him there is nothing unexpected."
(Sirach 39:16, 18-20)

Turns out, the universe is a whole lot bigger and older than we thought. I don't have a problem with that.

I figure that part of my job is appreciating God's creation: not telling the Almighty how it should have been designed.

Besides, faith and reason, religion and science, get along fine.  God made a universe that is "very good." Honest study of this creation cannot interfere with faith: because the things of faith and the things of this world were both created by God. (Genesis 1:31; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 35, 50, 159)

Not Perfect: Yet

We're created by God: made from the stuff of this world and "in the image of God," matter and spirit, designed with a thirst for truth and for God. Using our senses and reason, we can observe the world's order and beauty: learning something of God in the process. (Genesis 1:26, 2:7; Catechism, 27, 31-35, 282-289, 355-361)

God could have created a universe that was static: but that's not how it works. Change happens. The universe is in a "state of journeying" toward an ultimate perfection. (Catechism, 302)

We're changing, too: which is just as well, since I'm convinced that humanity is not perfect. Learning about the universe, including how we've changed — I don't have a problem with that, either.

All natural processes involve secondary causes: creatures changing in knowable ways, following laws woven into this creation. I believe that God creates everything, and that God is not a liar: so nothing we learn about this universe can threaten an informed faith. (July 15, 2014)

Fearing knowledge is irrational. As Leo XIII wrote, "truth cannot contradict truth." (Catechism, 159, 214-217, 301-308; "Providentissimus Deus")

---

1. Neanderthals, Art, and Assumptions

(From Steward Finlayson, via BBC News; used w/o permission.)
("Our cave," "turn right," or something else.)

"Neanderthal 'artwork' found in Gibraltar cave"
Paul Rincon, BBC News (September 1, 2014)

"An engraving found at a cave in Gibraltar may be the most compelling evidence yet for Neanderthal art.

"The pattern, which bears a passing resemblance to the grid for a game of noughts and crosses, was inscribed on a rock at the back of Gorham's Cave.

"Mounting evidence suggests Neanderthals were not the brutes they were characterised as decades ago.

"But art, a high expression of abstract thought, was long considered to be the exclusive preserve of our own species.

"The scattered candidates for artistic expression by Neanderthals have not met with universal acceptance.

"However, the geometric pattern identified in Gibraltar, on the southern tip of Europe, was uncovered beneath undisturbed sediments that have also yielded Neanderthal tools...."

The good news is that scientists seem to have gotten over the idea that looking like today's Europeans is essential for intelligence.

Maybe Neanderthals didn't create "art."

The feathers, pigments, and what might be a flute, we've found with Neanderthal tools and skeletons could be colossal coincidence. I think Occam's razor suggests otherwise.

My guess is that Neanderthals weren't nearly as different from folks who look like me as Marcellin Boule and others thought. Not in what makes us "people," anyway.

Deliberately Made: But Why?

(From Stewart & Clive Finlayson, Gilbrater Museum; via BBC News, used w/o permission.)
("The geometric pattern was discovered during excavation work by an international team in July 2012"
(BBC News))

"...Previous candidates for Neanderthal cave art exist, including motifs from caves in northern and southern Spain. Possible jewellery has been found at a site in central France, and there are even claims Neanderthals were responsible for an early musical instrument - a bone 'flute' found at Divje Babe in Slovenia.

"These proposed flickerings of abstract thought among our ancient relatives have all proven controversial. But the authors of the PNAS study went to great lengths to demonstrate the intentional nature of the Gorham's Cave design.

"In order to understand how the markings were made, experimental grooves were made using different tools and cutting actions on blocks of dolomite rock similar to the one at Gorham's cave.

"The method that best matched the engraving was one in which a pointed tool or cutting edge was carefully and repeatedly inserted into an existing groove and passed along in the same direction. This, the authors argue, would appear to rule out an accidental origin for the design, such as cutting meat or fur on top of the rock...."
(Paul Rincon, BBC News)

Dolomite is a very hard rock: so making that 'hashtag' symbol would take "200-300 strokes with a stone cutting tool, taking at least an hour to create." (Paul Rincon, BBC News)

At least, that's how long it would take one of us. From a Neanderthal point of view, we're pointy-chinned, pencil-necked wimps. However, I think the archeologists made a good point: making that mark was almost certainly a deliberate act.

Why someone put it there is anyone's guess at this point. The BBC News article mentions a few possibilities. It might have been a mark of ownership, or the Neanderthal equivalent of those "you are here" maps you see in malls.

Or it might have been something completely different.

Maybe we're looking at an early version of tic-tac-toe/noughts and crosses. Maybe the archeologists should be looking for traces of chalk or limestone where we'd put x or o marks.

"Flickerings of Abstract Thought" — and More Assumptions

I'm not quite as inclined to see Neanderthal mental processes as as "flickerings of abstract thought:" partly because many of my recent ancestors were considered 'primitive' by folks who don't look quite like me.

I'm about half Irish, and although I have the Hovde forehead of my Norwegian forebears — from the nose down, I look a bit like the 'inferior' "Irish Iberian" in this Harpers Weekly illustration.

It's possible that Neanderthals didn't think exactly the way we do. There's a lot more room at the back of their heads, where we have our visual cortex, and not as much space devoted to the frontal lobe, where we handle planning, reasoning, impulse control, and memory: among other things.

But quite a few Neanderthals had brains that were bigger than today's average. The odds are that they were doing something with all that neural circuitry.

They were much stronger than we are, and don't look British: but that doesn't necessarily mean that they were stupid. Then there's Homo floresiensis, who had remarkably small brains: but used fire for cooking, and that's another topic.

The Neanderthal who made that 'hashtag' mark might have copied something done by our version of humanity: except that folks like us probably hadn't gotten to where these Neanderthals lived:

"...Another possibility is that Neanderthals were imitating the behaviour of modern humans they'd come into contact with. While Homo sapiens was in Europe by around 45,000 years ago, Prof Finlayson says the moderns reached southern Iberia later than some other regions, casting doubt on the copycat idea...."
(Paul Rincon, BBC News)

I wouldn't be surprised if we eventually discover that we learned about art from Neanderthals. If they had an oversize visual cortex, they may have been a lot 'smarter' than most of us where visual imagery is involved.

We had plenty of time to learn from each other. Neanderthals and folks who looked like today's model shared Europe for about 5,000 years.

Since about 20% of the Neanderthal genome shows up in today's model, particularly Europeans and East Asians, it's obvious that our paths crossed, at least occasionally.

One more thing, before getting to what may have been DNA's original function: I think it's important to remember that Neanderthals prevailed for a quarter-million years of Earth's current glacial epoch. That's doing pretty well. (December 20, 2013)

More:

• "A rock engraving made by Neanderthals in Gibraltar"
  Joaquín Rodríguez-Vidal, Francesco d’Errico, Francisco Giles Pacheco, Ruth Blasco, Jordi Rosell, Richard P. Jennings, Alain Queffelec, Geraldine Finlayson, Darren A. Fa, José María Gutiérrez López, José S. Carrión, Juan José Negro, Stewart Finlayson, Luís M. Cáceres, Marco A. Bernal, Santiago Fernández Jiménez, Clive Finlayson; Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (received for review June 19, 2014; edited and approved August 12, 2014)
• "Scientists Identify Neanderthal Genes in Modern Human DNA"
  Sci-News.com (January 30, 2014)
• Archaic human admixture with modern humans
  • Neanderthals
  • Denisovans
  Wikipedia
• Gorham's Cave
  • Neanderthal engraving
  Wikipedia

---

2. DNA, Archean MREs?

"DNA May Have Had Humble Beginnings As Nutrient Carrier"
Adam Hadhazy, Astrobiology Magazine (September 1, 2014)

"New research intriguingly suggests that DNA, the genetic information carrier for humans and other complex life, might have had a rather humbler origin. In some microbes, a study shows, DNA pulls double duty as a storage site for phosphate. This all-important biomolecule contains phosphorus, a sometimes hard-to-get nutrient.

"Maintaining an in-house source of phosphate is a newfound tactic for enabling microorganisms to eke out a living in harsh environments, according to a new study published in the open-access, peer reviewed scientific journal PLOS ONE. The finding bodes well for life finding a way, as it were, in extreme conditions on worlds less hospitable than Earth.

"The results also support a second insight: DNA might have come onto the biological scene merely as a means of keeping phosphate handy. Only later on in evolutionary history did the mighty molecule perhaps take on the more advanced role of genetic carrier....

Cells use Phosphate for building ATP, a chemical energy carrier. It's in molecular structures like fatty membrane molecules, too. The problem is that nutrient-poor, salty habitats like the Dead Sea don't have much phosphate.

Adam Hadhazy's article mentions Haloferax volcanii, a microbe of the Archaea variety: very old-school single-cell critters with no nucleus or any other membrane-bound organelles. As an article in Frontiers in Microbiology points out, this microbe 'eats' DNA it find floating around it.

Thinking that microbes could have started carrying DNA as an internal supply of MREs isn't a particularly big leap. Demonstrating that Earth's early organisms worked that way will take a lot more effort.

Figuring out how life worked in Earth's Archean eon, some 2,500,000,000 to 4,000,000,000 years back, is important for folks looking for life on other planets: which is what the Astrobiology Magazine article focuses on. It's also important for paleobiologists trying to learn how life began here, some 3,500,000,000 years ago.

If DNA started out as a phosphate carrier, we're still left with the puzzle of why it's now used to store genetic information for Earth's complex life. RNA carries genetic information, too: and doesn't need as many enzymes to work as DNA.

The Purple Hills of Earth?

(From Peter Sawyer / Smithsonian Institution, via Astrobiology Magazine; used w/o permission.)
("Early Earth, in an artist's impression, where somehow complex, self-replicating chemistry (in other words, life) emerged."
(Astrobiology Magazine))

"...Scientists continue to investigate the development of self-replicating, intricate sets of chemistry — in other words, life — from the chemical compounds thought available on early Earth. Out of this mixture of prebiotic chemicals, two nucleic acids — RNA and DNA — emerged as champions.

"Today, these two types of biomolecules serve as the genetic information carriers for all Earthly biota. RNA on its own suffices for the business of life for simpler creatures, such as some viruses. Complex life, like humans, however, relies on DNA as its genetic carrier.

"Astrobiologists want to understand the origin of DNA and its genetic cousin, RNA, because figuring out how life got started here on Earth is key for gauging if it might ever develop on alien planets.

"Many researchers think RNA must have preceded DNA as the genetic molecule of choice. RNA is more versatile, acting as both genetic code and a catalyst for chemical reactions. Explicating the rise of DNA as a genetic material directly from RNA, however, is tricky. Compared to RNA, DNA needs significantly more supporting players for it to work well in a biological setting.

" 'The switch from RNA to DNA is not easy because many additional enzymes are required for DNA genomes,' said Soppa...."
(Adam Hadhazy, Astrobiology Magazine)

Nearly everything organic on Earth is promptly eaten, absorbed, and recycled by critters — with rare exceptions. (December 6, 2013)

That means that scientists generally try reverse-engineering today's critters to find out how things worked when life was new here.

The vibrant colors in that illustration are speculative: but not as crazy as it might seem.

I'm not convinced that microbes were ever the vivid fuchsia we see in that artist's impression, not in general anyway. But there's pretty good reason to think that Earth's first photosynthetic critters worked like today's purple bacteria.

Proteins in our mitochondria are a bit like those in purple bacteria, so those subcellular structures may be what's left of symbiotic bacteria: and that's yet another topic.

The photosynthetic organisms we're used to seeing these days are, for the most part, green. It's the chlorophyll that does it: a porphyrin related to heme, which are words you probably don't hear every day.

Anyway, chlorophyll is what makes green plants green, and works very well in Earth's atmosphere, now that it's saturated with that highly toxic element, oxygen — and that's still more topics. (August 30, 2013; October 18, 2013)

More:

• " DNA as a Phosphate Storage Polymer and the Alternative Advantages of Polyploidy for Growth or Survival"
  Karolin Zerulla, Scott Chimileski, Daniela Näther, Uri Gophna, R. Thane Papke, Jörg Soppa; PLOS ONE (April 14, 2014)
• "Extracellular DNA metabolism in Haloferax volcanii"
  Scott Chimileski, Kunal Dolas, Adit Naor, Uri Gophna, R. Thane Papke; Frontiers in Microbiology, National Center for Biotechnology Information (February 20, 2014)
• Wikipedia
  • DNA
  • Purple bacteria
  • RNA
  • RNA world hypothesis

Getting a Grip About Hammers, Architects, and All That

As I said earlier in this post, I don't have a problem with studying this creation: or "...the development of self-replicating, intricate sets of chemistry — in other words, life...."

I acknowledge that secondary causes exist, so learning what process brought life to Earth couldn't interfere with my faith in God: any knowing about hammers would interfere with believing that there's an architect. (September 7, 2010)

My faith doesn't depend on knowing how this wonder-filled universe works: but it doesn't depend on ignorance, either. Thinking is not a sin, and that's yet again another topic. (July 4, 2014)

Science and technology, learning about this universe and developing new tools, are part of being human. It's what we're supposed to do. (Catechism, 2293)

---

3. Death Valley's Moving Rocks: Ice and Wind

(From Scripps Institution of Oceanography, San Diego; via Reuters; used w/o permission.)
("A trail left by a rock implanted with a motion-activated Global Positioning System (GPS) unit is seen in the so-called Racetrack Playa of California's Death Valley...."
(Reuters))

"Scientists solve mystery of moving Death Valley rocks"
Alex Dobuzinskis, Reuters (August 28, 2014)

"A solution to the longstanding mystery of why rocks move erratically across an isolated patch of California's Death Valley finally emerged on Thursday, when researchers published a study showing the driving force was sheets of wind-driven ice.

"Trails from the movement of the rocks, which show them changing direction suddenly in their movement across the so-called Racetrack Playa, have long befuddled scientists and the general public. People wondered: How were the rocks moved?

"Paleobiologist Richard Norris of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, who led the study, saw the rare phenomenon first-hand last December while standing with his cousin, engineer James Norris, at the spot...."

Turns out, even a thin layer of ice can — under ideal conditions — catch a light wind, break apart, and push rocks at up to a few yards per minute.

A large, but thin, sheet of ice lying on a bit of water can push rocks weighing up to 700 pounds/318 Kg:

"...the process of rock movement that we have observed occurs when the thin, 3 to 6 mm, 'windowpane' ice sheet covering the playa pool begins to melt in late morning sun and breaks up under light winds of ~4–5 m/s...."
("Sliding Rocks on Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park: First Observation of Rocks in Motion," Richard D. Norris, et al.)

The Reuters article says that folks have come up with explanations involving giant subterranean magnets, or earth acting like a ball-in-a-maze puzzle. I'm a bit surprised that space aliens didn't make the list, but Alex Dobuzinskis probably had the good sense to focus on what scientists had suggested.

I'm inclined to think that R. D. Norris' team got it right: particularly since they observed the rocks moving — recorded with cameras and rocks carrying motion-activated GPS units.

More:

• "Sliding Rocks on Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park: First Observation of Rocks in Motion"
  Richard D. Norris, James M. Norris, Ralph D. Lorenz, Jib Ray, Brian Jackson; PLOS ONE (August 27, 2014)

In case you still haven't had enough of my take on life, science, and humanity's story — here's more:

• "Coping With Change for Millions of Years; Chatty Chimps"
  (July 11, 2014)
  Particularly
  • Human Ancestry: It's Complicated
  • Denisovan Descendants
• "Cloudinids and a Big Fish: Learning More of Earth's Story"
  (July 4, 2014)
  Particularly
  • Thinking about God's Design Decisions
  • Accepting Reality
  • Seeking Truth
• "Will the Real Neanderthals Please Stand Up?"
  (December 20, 2013)
  Particularly
  • Intentional Burial, Neanderthals, and Safety Coffins
  • Art and Assumptions
  • Getting a Grip About Neanderthals
• "Oxygen, Life, and Autocells"
  (October 18, 2013)
• "Recovering from a Hurricane; Defending Freedom; Studying the Cosmos"
  (November 22, 2012)
  Particularly
  • People, Propriety, and Paleontology