Memoir of How the Universe Was Created

by S.V. Farnsworth

            OK, so I did not create the universe, but I did create something by accident that looked and behaved just like the universe. One lazy summer afternoon when I was a teenager, my family went fishing. We spread out along Cedar Creek, not far from our Missourihome. I climbed out on an overhanging tree and cast out into the current. I watched my bobber drift downstream toward the placid water along the shoreline.

            Since no fish were biting, I relaxed and pulled a sleeve of saltines from my backpack. I cast and recast, munching more and more crackers until my mouth became dry. Since my cheeks were packed with crackers and I hadn’t remembered to bring a drink, well, I let the crumbs fall on the still water below.

            I had thought perhaps to attract fish, but instead I witnessed something remarkable. The crumbs did not immediately sink, but instead expanded in a circular pattern of swirling systems that imitated the universe. I marveled at the tiny crumb solar systems rotating in their orbits until they completely dispersed and sank.

            I crumbled crackers in my hand and let them fall. Again, the universe unfolded before my eyes. Matter fell due to gravity and dispersed along the water’s surface due to surface tension, causing the phenomenon. I abandoned my fishing pole and leaned back against the tree to gaze up at the sky and ponder what I had observed. It was a spiritual experience and as simple as Newton’s apple.

            If I were less satisfied with the answer that the breath of God created the universe, then I would have become a physicist and sorted it all out on paper. I am satisfied that God obeys natural laws, all of which were spiritual first. One day scientists will explain the formation of the universe in such easy to understand terms that we will be forced say to ourselves, “Why didn’t I think of that?”

Is the EPA Your Tower of Babel?

by S.V. Farnsworth

            Do you think the EPA can save us from climate change? If so, then how far are you willing to go to compel those who disagree with you to contribute to your cause? How much will you tax them? How much will you regulate them? How sharply will you ridicule and publicly deride them? When the stakes are this high, what won’t you do?

            Perhaps they are dead wrong and still correct. What if everything you believe will make a difference doesn’t work? What if global cataclysm happens anyway? Will knowing this change the way you act? Will your enmity still seem justified? If your actions, words, and feelings compromise your principles, then haven’t you failed?

            We can’t save ourselves. We should do everything we can and have faith. If anyone believes the only power higher than themselves is government, then God help them.