Watching the World
Adventist Visions Rocked?
◆ At a conference of the American Academy of Neurology held in Toronto, Canada, two doctors reported that “a rock that hit the forehead of a founder of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, Ellen Gould White, when she was 9, almost certainly accounts for her visions, which are the basis of the church’s doctrine,” says the Toronto Star. The doctors, Delbert Hodder, an Adventist, and Gregory Holmes, based their diagnosis on eyewitness accounts of Mrs. White’s behavior after the accident. About 25 percent of this type of injury to the brain is said to result in a form of epilepsy that typically “causes a person to become religious, have a sense of destiny, be highly moralistic, write extensively and keep detailed diaries,” says the report. Doctors back then did not recognize this type of epilepsy, according to Hodder, and only within the last five years have doctors documented such personality changes.
Recognizing that church authorities may view his research as more fuel for the controversy over the authenticity of Mrs. White’s writings that has been raging among Adventists in recent months, Hodder says: “I see it as a unifying concept. It explains everything about her. It’s the answer.”—See Awake!, April 22, 1981, p. 29.
Poor Babies!
◆ Worldwide, in 1979, 21 million babies, or 17 percent of the total, were born underweight—each being less than 5.5 pounds (2.5 kg). The World Health Organization, which published the figures, points out that an infant’s birth weight is “the single most important determinant of the chances of the newborn to survive.” Among the more serious ill effects of low birth weight are spastic cerebral palsy, hearing and visual defects and mental retardation.
The mother’s malnutrition, hypertension, smoking, number of previous pregnancies, ill health and infections are all factors that affect an infant’s birth weight. The report states that to help underweight babies grow up normally “often requires methods which are beyond the economic and technological resources of most developing countries,” in which 90 percent of the world’s underweight babies are born. It appears to be a hopeless situation.
Baptist Power Play
◆ “In an atmosphere reminiscent of a political convention,” says Time magazine, 13,000 delegates conducted an election at the recent 136th annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). The central issue was how the Bible should be taught, although the immediate objective was to elect a new president of the SBC. Since the president can influence appointments to the seminaries and the control of them, the election was viewed as a power struggle between the fundamentalists, who favor a literal interpretation of the Bible, and the moderates.
Charges and countercharges came from both sides. Moderates were accused of offering a “Dalmatian theology”—“the Bible is inspired only in spots.” And the fundamentalists were assailed for making “a naked, ruthless reach for personal power” in the name of “Bible inerrancy.” Though incumbent fundamentalist Bailey Smith won the election by receiving 61 percent of the votes, moderates warned that “if Smith continues to appoint fundamentalists as trustees of SBC’s major institutions, the result might well be a witch hunt that could destroy any hopes of Baptist unity,” reports Newsweek.
New Debate Among Evolutionists
◆ For decades, evolutionists have been explaining their theory by the process of natural selection. Now a new breed of evolutionists says that this is all wrong. Natural selection can only account for changes within a single species, they concede, and to use this process to explain the formation of new species “is an imaginative leap that cannot be tested by experiment,” reports the Sunday Times of London.
The new theorists favor evolutionary “jumps” as the explanation. However, they “have not explained how they [the jumps] occur—although there is no shortage of speculation,” says the report. Regarding the debate, the report adds: “There is vast scope for argument and little hope of agreement in the foreseeable future.” Sounds familiar, does it not?
Egypt’s New Plague
◆ “‘Super rats’ weighing as much as two kg [4.5 pounds] each, have stripped grain warehouses and eaten entire fields of tomatoes and other vegetables. Waves of tree-climbing rats have stormed orange groves and devoured the fruit. Roof rats . . . have descended after dark to nip at sleeping children.”
That is not the scenario of a horror movie but a report on a rat invasion that is ravaging Egypt. The cause? “After the 1967 war [with Israel],” says Agriculture Ministry official Mohammed Helmi, “the farms and towns along the Suez Canal were abandoned and the rats bred in the ruins. When we regained the canal in the 1973 war, the people moved back and the rats were displaced, so they migrated to the delta and up the Nile Valley.”
The rat population is estimated at 200 million to 400 million and is still growing. In some areas, up to 80 percent of the crop had been devastated, and a “rat emergency” has been declared in about half of Egypt’s farmland.
Laser Surgery
◆ “The medical department of Tohoku University has succeeded in crushing bladder stones in five patients by using laser rays and removing the broken stones without causing pain or producing adverse effects,” reports Japan’s Daily Yomiuri. The bladder stones treated were about two centimeters (3/4 inch) in diameter, but, according to the department, stones two to three times as large can also be eliminated by this new technique. After the stones are crushed by the laser beams, a pump is used to suck up and remove the fragments. All of this is done without conventional surgery. The report calls the new method “a boon to patients.”
If You Can Read This . . .
◆ Being able to read and write is taken for granted in most Western countries. But almost 30 percent of the world’s adults are still illiterate, according to a United Nations report that does not include figures for mainland China, North Korea and Vietnam. The rate has dropped slightly since 1970, when it was about 32 percent, and projections are that by 1990 it will be about 25 percent. In most industrialized countries, such as Australia, Britain, Canada, France, the Soviet Union, the United States and others, the rate is less than a half percent. But 21 nations have illiteracy rates of over 50 percent. Among them are: Ethiopia, 95 percent; Afghanistan, 89 percent; Saudi Arabia, 84 percent.
Pink Treatment
◆ Rather than putting a violent mental patient in a straitjacket, some institutions are experimenting with pink rooms. “It is amazing,” says the director of clinical services at the San Bernardino Probation Department, California. “We simply put a violent person in the pink room and after three minutes the screaming and pounding on the walls stops. Three minutes later he is sitting quietly and then curls up and starts sobbing.” When kept in the pink room for about 15 minutes, the patient begins to suffer from dizziness and headaches and starts to experience difficulty in moving.
The reason for all of this is not fully understood. But the director believes that the color may cause the body’s endocrine glands to produce less hormones, such as adrenaline. This, in turn, slows down the person. “Once the initial danger to staff and patient is got rid of we can then get down to the real work of analysing what’s going on in his head,” adds the director. However, he cautions that much more research and observation are needed before the pink room can be recommended for safe use.
World’s Busiest Airport
◆ Chicago’s O’Hare International airport continues to be the world’s busiest after over a decade in the lead. It handled nearly 44 million passengers during 1980, followed by Atlanta’s Hartsfield International airport with some 40 million travelers. According to the Airport Operators Council International, Los Angeles International, London’s Heathrow and New York’s Kennedy rated third, fourth and fifth in passenger volume. The council also reported that a total of 890 million passengers passed through the world’s airports during 1980, with about two thirds of that total using U.S. airports. Some 5 percent fewer people were handled by the world’s airports than the previous year.
Computers in Classrooms
◆ According to the National Center for Education Statistics, there are now more than 50,000 computers being used as educational tools in American schools. The development of microcomputers in 1975 is said to have sparked a trend toward more educational computers by bringing the unit prices down to less than $2,500 each. Children as young as four are said to be operating the machines, and one study reportedly revealed that computers could teach mathematics as much as twice as fast as the blackboard system.
‘Confused Values and Anxiety’
◆ According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, as oil money pours into Saudi Arabia, the effect on people, especially in the cities, is becoming more and more apparent. Greed and fear are said to be replacing traditional hospitality and generosity. The Journal adds: “Crime and corruption are growing. Ulcers, unheard of here 10 years ago, are second only to car-accident injuries as a major health problem. . . . In short, money has produced confused values, hypocrisy and anxiety. . . . The money goes for ordinary things like roads, schools and hospitals. And it goes for some of the most extravagant construction in the world: lavish government offices, huge industrial complexes, the world’s biggest airport (in Jeddah) and elegant, high-rise apartment towers that still stand empty two years after construction because no one wants to live in them.” Reflecting concern for the future, one Saudi woman is quoted as saying: “Everyone is working night and day to get his hands on as much money as possible and get some of it out of the country.” The people, said the Journal, seem “hooked on getting richer and richer.”
Shortage of Church Helpers
◆ “Even the sacristans are suffering from a vocation crisis,” reports Italy’s magazine Oggi, “and both bishops and parish priests are worried about it. How will we manage, they say, without these deserving helpers, who will fulfill those services in the church, services perhaps humble but necessary?” As for the prospects of young persons helping out with church duties, the magazine adds: “Very few youths are willing even to play the organ.”