Light-Years from the Vatican

Just in time for his feast day, Julie and I read a book about St. Thomas Aquinas. St. Thomas Aquinas: The Dumb Ox by G. K. Chesterton. The book was mostly about philosophy, and what Aquinas brought back to the table. Thoughts like this:

Thus, even those who appreciate the metaphysical depth of Thomism in other matters have expressed surprise that he does not deal at all with what many now think the main metaphysical question; whether we can prove that the primary act of recognition of any reality is real. The answer is that St. Thomas recognised instantly, what so many modern sceptics have begun to suspect rather laboriously; that a man must either answer that question in the affirmative, or else never answer any question, never ask any question, never even exist intellectually, to answer or to ask.

You can listen on the Good Story website or subscribe at most of the places folks listen to podcasts; just search your favorite podcast app for A Good Story is Hard to Find.

Some awe for a Thursday:

That nifty graph shows light from a star being blocked (so very slightly) by a planet crossing in front of it. These measurements were taken by NASA’s Webb Telescope, which is possibly the niftiest thing ever. The star is 41 light years away and is in the constellation “Octans”, which can be seen from Earth only while standing in the southern hemisphere. The planet is called LHS 457 b (was “Planet Karl Urban” already taken?), is Earth-sized, and rocky.

It wasn’t that long ago that we could only assume the existence of planets outside of our solar system but now, as of this writing, we’ve found 5,241 of them.

These two episodes of the A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast were very interesting to me. Julie selected two movies to compare and contrast: Thelma and Louise (1991) and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1955). They are both considered (by some) to be “feminist movies”, yet they are so different.

You can listen on the Good Story website or subscribe at most of the places folks listen to podcasts; just search your favorite podcast app for A Good Story is Hard to Find.