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Insight on the News

‘World Is Dancing Energy’

● Of what is our universe made? Attempts to answer this question have produced the science of particle physics, which studies the ultimate “particles” that form atoms. Some conclusions of this science were recently summarized in a “Science Digest Special” magazine issue. “If there is any ultimate stuff of the universe, it is pure energy,” says the article, “but subatomic particles are not ‘made of’ energy, they ARE energy. . . . According to particle physics, the world is fundamentally dancing energy.” Governing this energy, and “limiting the forms that it can take,” explains the magazine, “are a set of conservation laws.”

This agrees nicely with the Bible’s description of God as the Source of all energy. He may well have used his energy in creating the stuff of the universe, evidently by ordaining “conservation laws” to govern the energy.​—Isa. 40:26.

Biblical ‘70 Years’ Reaffirmed

● Great strides in lengthening the human life-span do not mean that such improvements will continue, according to an official of America’s national Center for Disease Control. He pointed out that, although the average life-span since 1900 has increased by 25 years, life expectancy for middle-aged adults increased only about four years during the same period, rising from 69 to 73 years in all. The 25-year increase in the average for all ages “was achieved by reducing the risk of dying during infancy and childhood through environmental sanitation, immunization and improved nutrition,” he said. “The highly touted lengthening of life span for Americans is largely due to prevention, not cure.” He indicated that any future increases in the life-span would be slow in coming and would require public habit changes, such as elimination of smoking, overdrinking, stress and hard living.

Thus, human age limitations stated by the inspired psalmist over 3,000 years ago remain accurate: “Seventy years is the span of our life, eighty if our strength holds.” The only Source of any meaningful extension of life is the Author of life, Jehovah God, who will grant, not just a few years, but “eternal life” to those who truly know and serve him.​—Ps. 90:10; John 17:3, “New English Bible.”

“Strange Irony”

● Connecticut’s “Hartford Courant,” America’s oldest continuously published newspaper, recently commented editorially on a Supreme Court appeal involving one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, noting that the Court has a “tradition” of protecting the Witnesses “from arbitrary actions directed at them.”

“With that tradition a part of American legal history,” comments the editorial, “we are disappointed that the justices refused to hear the appeal of a Chicago kindergarten teacher who was fired for refusing to teach certain patriotic symbolism . . . the firing of a teacher for adherence to an honestly held religious conviction​—a conviction that is not dangerous or bizarre—​deserves high court scrutiny.”

The “Courant” also observed: “The civil liberties question to be resolved involves more than religious freedom. What a strange irony it would be for schoolchildren to learn that Old Glory can be used to force the performance of repugnant acts on any American citizen, whatever the benign intent.”

“Their First Allegiance”

● News columnist Steve Mitchell of “The Post” in Palm Beach, Florida, recently observed that Jehovah’s Witnesses are “one of the most persecuted religious sects in the world” because, for example, they do not salute the flag of any nation. “This is not a popular stand,” he said, “but at least this nation was founded on religious freedom. Or that was the way it was supposed to be, remember?”

Mitchell also observed: “They pay their taxes. They are some of the most honest citizens in the Republic. But their first allegiance is to God, not country. While I do not agree with their beliefs, I strongly feel that their right to exercise them is a big part of what this country is all about.”