Some American research suggests that having married parents is a key factor in one’s chances of succeeding in advanced education.
Dr Molly A. Martin, Sociology Professor at Penn State University, has analysed data from the US National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS, 1988-2002), which followed children from the eighth grade until age 26.
Despite the single mothers in the sample having higher average education levels than the married parents, their children scored significantly less — lower grades in year 8 and less likely to end up with college degrees.
* * *
Somebody else may come up with evidence “proving” the opposite or questioning the study’s statistical methods.
The fact that the Martin results are based on a longitudinal study is in its favour.
Never take any notice of the “latest” research in sociology. The latest research, by definition, cannot have followed those sampled long enough to know how they coped with life 10, 20 or more years on.
* * *
All sociological statistics are a worry. Statistics can be found or invented to prove/disprove anything.
Must we keep trotting out percentages to determine the difference between right and wrong?
Better, perhaps, to consider the ideas of the best thinkers of the past.
Best of all, obviously, to consider what God thinks.
But who believes, today, in an interventionist God who reveals himself?
I do.

The conduct of Australia’s politicians is in the news.
The Prime Minister says she is “very open to a code of conduct”.
But the Opposition Leader says “no Member of Parliament should need to be told that fraud, theft and sexual harassment are wrong.”
He’s right. We’ve already got a code of conduct already — the Ten Commandments.
* * *
I am the Lord your God; you shall not have no other gods before me.
You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
Remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day.
Honour your father and your mother.
You shall not kill.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.
You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife.
You shall not covet you neighbour’s goods.
* * *
These Commandments have been around a long time (e.g. in the Bible, Exodus, chapter 20).
The first three Commandments are about loyalty to God — without which nothing good happens.
The Commandments are listed in decreasing order of importance.
The remaining seven refer to loyalties to other people – most importantly, to father and mother, without which society falls apart.

Last week’s media reported “new hope” for infertile couples troubled about possible genetic disease problems.

Researchers at Melbourne’s Monash University have managed a “breakthrough” in embryo screening techniques.

The new methods will detect chromosomally abnormal embryos with “99 percent accuracy”.

Screening for Down Syndrome etc. is to be done “before pregnancy” — using cells from 5-day old embryos.

* * *

It sounds fairly ethical if you read it quickly

Slow down a bit and you’ll notice that young human beings are to be discarded if considered not up to standard.

The idea of destroying human lives which fail to meet somebody’s requirements has turned up repeatedly through human history.

The sacredness of human life is only sometimes taken seriously.

The real issue here is not a matter of science, but of religion.

If we don’t respect all human life as a gift from God, we risk behaving very badly when faced with inconveniences.

There was a state memorial service for Jimmy Little yesterday at the Sydney Opera House.

I never heard a bad word said about him.

Jimmy became famous in the 1960s – especially for his song “Royal Telephone”.

Not the kind of song that could become a number one in modern times?

Or is that wrong?

Many people today, as in the past, might tell you how its words are true in their experience.

The words were straightforward enough:

* * *

Telephone to glory, oh, what joy divine!
I can feel the current moving on the line,
Built by God the Father for His loved and own,
We may talk to Jesus through this royal telephone.

Central’s never “busy,” always on the line;
You may hear from heaven almost any time;
It’s a royal service, free for one and all;
When you get in trouble, give this royal line a call.

There will be no charges, telephone is free,
It was built for service, just for you and me;
There will be no waiting on this royal line,
Telephone to glory always answers just in time.

* * *

If God answers prayer, it’s probably important that we don’t try to do all the talking.

A big part of prayer is simply spending time in silence . . . .

and letting the thought of God . . . .

and the thoughts of God . . . .

take over your mind.

Cardinal Pell, debating atheist Richard Dawkins, insisted that hell does exist.

Then added that he hopes hell is empty.

Contradicting himself.

Jesus Christ taught that there is a hell, and that it is not empty:

“At the end of the age; the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 13)

Best ignore modernists, no matter how high they rank in the Church, whose teaching is anti-Catholic.

If you believe in hell, the struggle to avoid it is worth any sacrifice — denying yourself seemingly pleasant disobediences to God’s laws.

If you don’t believe in hell, then whatever you do makes no difference to anything . . . .

You don’t really exist except as some kind of a robot.

* * *

Many so-called religious people think that everybody will go to the same place — namely heaven.

Atheists believe that everybody will go to the same place – namely non-existence.

Both groups are on the same side of the argument.

Both are wrong.

So believe in God. And believe in hell.

Pray that you will escape hell.

Pray for the souls of your friends and for all sinners everywhere.

If you were thinking of popping along to this weekend’s Melbourne Global Atheist Conference , be warned . . . .

It will cost you $440 for a “3-day Gold Pass”.

Cheapest is $155 for a “Sunday Balcony Pass”.

Even that seems a lot to spend to be told that your existence is meaningless.

A celebrity visitor is anti-religion book-writer, Richard Dawkins.

His outlook  is typified by a 1995 comment in Scientific American:

“What worries me about religion is that it teaches people to be satisfied with not understanding.”

* * *

A greater worry would be if somebody spent his adult life kidding people that the only way to “understand” is what he calls science.

Science investigates how things happen.

But not why things happen.

* * *

Yet all persons who are sober and basically honest ask themselves the following questions:

Why isn’t there nothing?

Why is there beauty and goodness?

What is the point of my being alive?