Is there a Message from God?

Glenn Beck on his radio show recently said that Japan's earthquake might be a "message" from God.

"We can't see the connections here. I'm not saying God is causing earthquakes - well I'm not not saying that either! What God does is God's business. I'll tell you this...there's a message being sent. And that is, 'Hey you know that stuff we're doing? Not really working out real well. Maybe we should stop doing some of it.' I'm just saying. The answer is, buckle up! Because it's going to be a bumpy ride."

Glenn also stressed people should follow the biblical Ten Commandments, or what he referred to as "10 rules of thumb." LISTEN:

It is not only Glenn Beck.

Rev. Jerry Falwell with Pat Robertson in agreement, blamed the pagans, the ACLU, abortionists, feminists, gays, lesbians and the People For the American for bringing on the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on 9/11. WATCH:

Then in April of 2010, Rush Limbaugh suggested President Obama's health care bill had launched the volcanic ash explosion that crippled Europe.

"You know, a couple of days after the health care bill had been signed into law Obama ran around all over the country saying, 'Hey, you know, I'm looking around. The earth hadn't opened up. There's no Armageddon out there. The birds are still chirping,'" Limbaugh said on his show. "I think the earth has opened up. God may have replied."

A few years ago Rush Limbaugh suffered a hearing loss. Last year Glenn Beck announced that he could lose his vision. I think there might be a message there.

A Brain in God's Neck?

Copyright 2010, Congress of Neurological Surgeons

Via NPR: Michelangelo's The Separation of Light From Darkness was one of the last Sistine Chapel frescoes painted by Michelangelo. Two neurosurgery researchers at Johns Hopkins University say they've found something unique in the lines of the character's neck.

Two neurosurgery researchers at Johns Hopkins University say Michelangelo hid something within one of his Sistine Chapel frescoes: an anatomically accurate painting of the human brain.

And they found it in God's neck in the fresco, The Separation of Light from Darkness. That's the painting immediately above the chapel's altar, says Dr. Rafael Tamargo, a neurosurgery professor and co-author of an article in the journal Neurosurgery.

"As we studied the lines that Michelangelo had included in the neck, we were surprised to find that if you follow these lines, you can actually draw an anatomically correct view of the brainstem," Tamargo tells NPR's Robert Siegel.

He says Michelangelo started dissecting cadavers when he was 17 years old.

"So he probably had the ability and the material to carry on multiple dissections and eventually sort out the gross anatomy of the brain," he says.

But what was Michelangelo's motive for drawing a brain in God's neck?

Copyright 2010, Congress of Neurological Surgeons

The researchers matched the the neck of God in Michelangelo's fresco (left) with a similar area in the brainstem of a cadaver (right).

"I think that Michelangelo might have been somewhat reluctant to advertise his anatomical dissections. At the time, cadaver dissections were viewed with ambivalence by the population and the Vatican. I think he had a lot of anatomical knowledge that he wanted to express, but didn't have a venue in which to do so. And by incorporating this image of the brain first, he was able to display his knowledge of anatomy and also sign the fresco, so to speak, in a unique way," Tamargo says.

Tamargo says he's convinced that this was Michelangelo's intention.

"Prior to the article, my colleague and I, Ian Suk, showed it to other neurosurgeons, neuroanatomists," he says. "And without saying much, they spontaneously recognized the brainstem. So I think it's real."

Images from "Concealed Neuroanatomy in Michelangelo's Separation of Light From Darkness in the Sistine Chapel" by Ian Suk and Rafael J. Tamargo (Neurosurgery 66(5):851-861, May 2010). Copyright 2010, Congress of Neurological Surgeons

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God Business is a Big Business

AlterNet's Anneli Rufus has the scoop on The Newest Diet Trend; What Would Jesus Eat?

Whether you call it the Hallelujah Diet, the Maker's Diet or the Lord's Diet, the holy spirit is driving one of America's biggest weight-loss fads.

Christians are fatter than other Americans. One of several studies revealing this, published by a Purdue University team in 2006, found that 30 percent of Baptists are obese, followed by 22 percent of Pentecostals and 17 percent of Catholics, compared to only 1 percent of Jews and 0.7 percent of Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists. According to the Journal of the Southern Baptist Convention, health screenings were given at the SBC's 2005 annual meeting: Over 75 percent of its 1,472 participants were found to be significantly overweight.

It makes sense that some within the movement would want to restore health to the flock. Gluttony, after all, is a sin. But how do you persuade religious Christians to adopt a dietary regimen that has been beloved by hippies for 30-plus years and by polytheists for thousands? The very fact that "health food" is an alt-culture staple is enough to taint it in the eyes of some. How do you convince them to switch their Sunday hams for lettuce-lentil roll-ups? By telling them the Bible says they must.

Because God has the answer!

"Your Heavenly Father, in His infinite wisdom, knows which foods are not fit for you to eat," we read at Hem-of-His-Garment-Bible-Study.org, which offers a "Jesus Saves" lesson in its "What's Hot!" box. "And, in His infinite love for you, He shared that wisdom. ... God really does care what you put in your mouth." Urging readers to follow the clean animals/dirty animals rules of kashrut, as outlined in Leviticus, the site's author also endorses Jordan S. Rubin, a Christian motivational speaker and self-described "Biblical Health Coach" whose book The Maker's DietNew York Times bestseller. (Siloam, 2005) was a

Jordan S. Rubin knows that through God he can make lots of money!

He sells the oil -- for $15.95 per 16-ounce jar -- along with honey and supplements, through his Garden of Life brand. A $50 million company "with the goal of becoming a $100 million company," as Rubin puts it, Garden of Life offers dozens of products including the alleged fat-burner fücoThin® and Goatein®, a goat-milk powder that sells for $49.95 per 440-ounce jar.

Advising people on what to eat is all well and good, especially if you're advising them to go organic, shun processed foods, and increase their intake of fiber, protein, vitamins and minerals. But implying that God wants us to finish the job with a bunch of spendy, and to some extent untested, add-ons is entirely another.

Of Rubin's critics, Moss Greene calls the Maker's Diet the "Faker's Diet." Dr. Stephen Barrett states that Rubin's claims appear to be illegal.

Another vocal critic is Stephen Barrett, a doctor who has spent 20-plus years detailing health fraud through his nonprofit, Quackwatch. Barrett cites the Federal Trade Commission's 2006 complaint against Rubin and Garden of Life for what the FTC called "engaging in unfair acts or practices" in its claims about Primal Defense and other products. In 2004, the FDA made a similar complaint.

"He was making illegal claims," Barrett tells me. "I don't think his degree is worth the paper it's printed on."

Barrett notes that Rubin's naturopathic medical doctor degree (NMD) "is from the People's University of the Americas School of Natural Medicine, a non-accredited school with no campus. His Ph.D is from the Academy of Natural Therapies, a non-accredited correspondence school that the State of Hawaii ordered to close in 2003."

Jordan Rubin isn't the only businessman in the business of God's diet.

But another Christ-diet promoter is Don Colbert, a board-certified family-practice physician with a degree from Oral Roberts University Medical School. Colbert heads the Divine Wellness Center in Longwood, Florida (Rubin's Garden of Life is also Florida-based), and sparked a media storm with his book What Would Jesus Eat? The Ultimate Program for Eating Well, Feeling Great, and Living Longer (Thomas Nelson, 2002).

"We can follow His example by adding more fish to our diet," writes this author of The Bible Cure for Weight Loss and Muscle Gain, The Bible Cure for High Blood Pressure, The Bible Cure for Prostate Disorders, The Bible Cure for Depression and Anxiety, The Bible Cure for Irritable Bowel Syndrome, The Bible Cure for Allergies and The Bible Cure for Candida and Yeast Infections, "and by taking fish oil supplements."

And hark: He sells those supplements. Colbert's Divine Health brand offers 270 fish-oil capsules for $49.99. Other Divine Health products include a 300-capsule, $184.99 bottle of the soy extract polyenylphosphatidylcholine, which Quackwatch's Stephen Barrett declares has "no proven value." Examining the label of Divine Health's 60-capsule, $29.99 bottle of the hormone 7-Keto DHEA, Barrett remarks that the product is "said to enhance the immune system and memory. I don't believe that."

There are others who are also hearing the call of Jesus and diets.

And the Lord saith "Sell" as well at Hallelujah Acres, a North Carolina-based farm, ministry, supplement company, seminar center, office complex, restaurant, health-food emporium, "healthy-living housing development" and online empire founded in 1992 by the Rev. George Malkmus, who opened another center in Canada in 1998 and whose many programs include "60 Days to a Hallelujah Waistline."

Malkmus, who used to host the "America Needs Christ" radio show and claims that well over a million people have adopted the diet, "is a very eloquent speaker who is capable of inspiring people who trust what he says. ... I do not believe he is trustworthy," asserts Quackwatch's Barrett.

"You can find lots of words in religious writings that suggest a lot of things," Barrett tells me, "and I don't think any one of them is necessarily more determinant than others." Barrett has nothing against veganism, but companies such as Hallelujah Acres "are selling dietary supplements that may or may not be rational to use, and they encourage people to waste a lot of money on supplements they don't need."

The question is, what would God say to all of this happening in his name?

But what would God say about supplements? On a mountaintop yesterday, I think I heard Him proclaim: Save money!

In the Name of God

Here’s the most repugnant thing you’ll read...

A 9-year-old girl in Brazil was impregnated with twins after being repeatedly raped by her stepfather. Doctors decided the child’s uterus was too small to safely carry a baby, let alone two, and with the mother’s permission performed an abortion.

The Catholic Church not only tried to stop the procedure, but announced today that all the adults involved in terminating the pregnancy will be excommunicated from the Church -- including the doctors and the girl's mother.

So far Church officials have been silent on what judgment they plan to mete out to the man who impregnated a small child.

From the BBC:

A Brazilian archbishop says all those who helped a child rape victim secure an abortion are to be excommunicated from the Catholic Church.

Abortion is only permitted in Brazil in cases of rape and where the mother's life is at risk and doctors say the girl's case met both these conditions.

Police believe that the girl at the centre of the case had been sexually abused by her step-father since she was six years old.[...]

Her stepfather was arrested last week, allegedly as he tried to escape to another region of the country.

He is also suspected of abusing the girl's physically handicapped older sister who is now 14.

Intervention bid

The Catholic Church tried to intervene to prevent the abortion going ahead but the procedure was carried out on Wednesday.

The Archbishop of Olinda and Recife, Jose Cardoso Sobrinho, told Brazil's TV Globo that the law of God was above any human law.

He said the excommunication would not apply to the child because of her age, but would affect all those who ensured the abortion was carried out.

While the action of the Church in opposing an abortion for a young rape victim is not unprecedented, it has attracted criticism from woman's rights groups in Brazil.