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***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n New today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Book of Moses Essays #49: Let Us Make Man in Our Image, After Our Likeness (Moses 2-26)<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n If you love music and you haven\u2019t seen Lamb of God<\/em>, please try to attend a screening of it:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHow the movie \u2018Lamb of God\u2019 went from an idea to theaters in 3 months: Such hastiness could\u2019ve led to poor quality, but the film has a 100% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n You can certainly consider horrors like Lamb of God<\/em> (along with Handel\u2019s Messiah<\/em> and Bach\u2019s St. Matthew Passion<\/em>) illustrations of the baneful effects of theism in our otherwise wonderful world.\u00a0 But it\u2019s Easter weekend, and so there are many who are feeling especially needy right now, desperate for strengthening examples of the evils of religion.\u00a0 I feel their need.\u00a0 I feel their pain.\u00a0 And, so, I offer two or three additional items from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything\u201d File<\/em>\u00a9 that, I hope, will help some folks to get through this difficult weekend:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAs the world shut down, the church\u2019s relief efforts ramped up: A deeper look inside the story of the church\u2019s effort to help people around the world survive the pandemic\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Latter-day Saint Charities<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And there is some excellent<\/em> material \u2014 that is, of course, some truly appalling<\/em> material \u2014 regarding the evils of faith and religion in this video presentation from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n April 2021 Edition of The World Report<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Can you help?\u00a0 Yes, you can:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n LDS Philanthropies<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I see no particularly good reason for us to avoid the cross as a symbol of Christian faith.\u00a0 It seems a case of overreaction:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cQ&A: Why Latter-day Saints seem to avoid the symbol of the cross\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cElder Spencer J. Condie: How many times does it take to embrace change? \u2018The third time they did understand\u2019\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And, now, I offer some science news, beginning with astronomy and then coming down to earth:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cNASA Confirmation: Earth is Safe From Asteroid for 100 Years\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I hope they\u2019re right.\u00a0 I have restaurant reservations for the evening of 30 March 2121.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf Planet Nine exists, why has no one seen it?\u00a0\u00a0Strange things are happening at the outer edges of our solar system. An object up to ten times the mass of Earth is pulling others towards it. Is it a planet, or something else?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Indeed, if it\u2019s there, why has<\/em> nobody seen it?\u00a0 Isn\u2019t science a matter of tangible evidence and certainties?\u00a0 If Planet Nine hasn\u2019t been seen, the rational response (at least, according to one of my readers, an ardent atheist) is to deny<\/em> that it exists.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPhosphorus for Earth\u2019s earliest life may have been forged by lightning: Long thought to have been delivered by meteorites, the element is crucial for DNA and RNA\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFlamboyant fishes evolved an explosion of color as seas rose and fell: The feisty fairy wrasses became a neon kaleidoscope thanks to a coral reef \u201cspecies pump\u201d\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe dinosaur-killing asteroid impact radically altered Earth\u2019s tropical forests: Sun-laden, open-canopied forests were transformed into the dark, dense ones seen today\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAstraZeneca\u2019s COVID-19 vaccine holds up in an updated analysis of trial data: The redo came after a safety committee raised concerns over the data used in earlier results\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAstraZeneca says its COVID-19 vaccine is 79 percent effective in a U.S. trial: The data affirm an independent safety review, showing no increased risk of blood clots\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n