Day Bidet #85

Did you get enough love, my little dove:

1. “This is prayer.” This is winning. This is—or was—common sense. This is my ideology. This is fun. This is love.
2. Read this. Then this. Teach the controversy! (Related—a July 3 throwback: “It’s all now, you see.” And a July 4 throwback—one of the greatest speeches of all time. Happy Fourth! There is much to celebrate—and much to mourn and restore.)
3. “The book of Judges describes a unique Philistine temple design with two central pillars supporting the structure. Excavations have unearthed four Philistine temples to date that match the biblical description with two central pillars.”
4. “Accounting for infant mortality, life expectancy for mid-Victorian Britons at age five was 75 for men and 73 for women, not too different from what is enjoyed today in the U.K.” (Related. Related.)
5. “[F]or every convert to Christianity, there are four deconverts from Christianity who identify as religious nones.”
6. “[T]he Romans were able to find a successful balance between openness and exclusivity.”
7. A quick, simple, and effective argument for the Resurrection. (Related: “Matthew, Mark, Luke and John had imitators for a reason.”)

More:

“[I]ntelligence of males and females were underpinned by different neurobiological correlates, which are consistent with their respective superiority in cognitive domains (visuospatial vs verbal ability).” (Related.)

“Though the majority of Jesus’ ministry was performed within predominantly Jewish areas of Palestine, the Gospels also record several occasions when Jesus traveled beyond Israel and ministered to Gentiles.”