Insight on the News

Marijuana and Male Potency

● Frequent smoking of marijuana can have a depressing effect on the body’s production of male sex hormones and sperm, according to recent medical reports. Research data published in the “New England Journal of Medicine” cited cases where heavy smokers of marijuana were rendered impotent and regained potency only some weeks after giving up the practice. One of the authors of the report, Dr. William H. Masters, said: “It now appears possible that there may be severe consequences of frequent intensive use of the drug.”

Two potential dangers cited were: One, that a preadolescent boy frequently using the drug might not have normal development into puberty. And, second, that the male fetus of a pregnant woman regularly smoking marijuana could thereafter be born defective in its sex organs.

So, evidence continues to mount against so-called “soft” drugs like marijuana that are used to escape from reality.

The Bible truth is also emphasized that one “sowing” to wrong fleshly desires “will reap corruption from his flesh.” (Gal. 6:8) By contrast, Bible guidelines for conduct mean “life to those finding them and health to all their flesh.”​—Prov. 4:22.

Quiché? Cakchiquel? Kekchí?

● Does Quiché mean anything to you? Perhaps Cakchiquel rings a bell? Or what about Kekchí Tzutuhil, Mam, Kanhobal or Pokomam? These are all languages or dialects derived from the ancient Mayan language, and they are spoken today by the people in Guatemala. A recent news report from there states that it is hoped that some 60 percent of the twenty-four native tongues spoken in Guatemala will soon be cared for with Bible translations.

Many people today are unaware of the fact that the Bible​—in whole or in part—​has already been translated into 1,526 languages and dialects. In fact, the number of persons speaking languages not yet served with Bible translations now amounts to only about 3 percent of earth’s inhabitants. No other book in history has even come close to such widespread availability. But, then, no other book is the source of a message as vital as that which the Bible has for all mankind.

Stay Alive​—At Any Cost?

● Cannibalism is generally thought of as something of the uncivilized past. In October 1972, however, following a plane crash high in the Andes mountains of Chile, some of the survivors stayed alive during the next ten weeks by eating parts of their dead companions’ bodies. Now books have been published giving graphic accounts of their ordeal. Though several preferred to die rather than eat human flesh, sixteen chose this as an acceptable way to keep alive. How did they reason?

One argument was that to refuse to eat the dead would mean certain death and that since ‘suicide was forbidden by the church,’ this would make the eating of human flesh allowable in their case. Another claimed to see a parallel between eating the flesh of dear friends and the ‘holy communion,’ maintaining that ‘God had provided us with food.’

The survivors were not alone in their reasoning. A “National Catholic Reporter” review of one of the recent books said: “Church officials later defended the actions of the survivors on the grounds that they had a right to survive and that their treatment of the dead was, considering the circumstances, respectful.” The reviewer then went on to say: “It is good to know, at least, that a church which has in the past so often rationalized wars which created dead bodies can also rationalize the eating of the remains of the dead as a matter of survival.”

The Bible shows that God granted men the right to eat animal flesh​—not that of fellow humans. (Gen. 9:3; compare Leviticus 26:27-29.) There is no doubt that the survivors experienced a trying, harrowing ordeal. But the idea that ‘the end justifies the means’ does not harmonize with the Bible. On that reasoning, men in dictatorial lands followed orders that caused them to commit atrocities. To disobey, they reasoned, would have been “suicidal.” But Christ Jesus showed that attempts to save one’s life in ways out of harmony with God’s will can only lead to loss of God’s favor. Death in integrity, however, assures a resurrection to life in a righteous new order.​—Mark 8:35; John 6:39, 40.