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Thomas Salerno's avatar

Thanks for the shoutout! I was a dinosaur kid growing up! Writing "The Riddle of the Tongue-Stones" helped me rediscover some of that childhood passion for the prehistoric.

I started reading Michael Crichton's books when I was probably way too young for them. Still, he was probably the first author i was really admired. His books inspired me to want to become an author myself when I grew up. I wrote a lot of stories when I was a kid about dinosaurs chasing and eating people!

Even "Field Station Delta", my paranormal sci-fi novella that I've been posting to Substack, is drenched in Crichton's influence. The misuse of technology by the powerful is a major theme of that story.

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The Contemplative Christian's avatar

Fun and insightful read! I enjoyed Timeline…it was my first introduction to quantum physics years ago. I appreciate your theological insights as well and the peace that God already is aware of our potential/(inevitable?) missteps

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Frank Sterle Jr's avatar

Most of the immense violence committed by humankind is against animals — their blood literally shed and bodies eaten in mind-boggling quantity by us omnivores.

It even leaves me [as a big fan of Christ's unmistakable message and miracles] wondering whether the metaphorical forbidden fruit of Eden eaten by Adam and Eve was actually God’s four-legged creation. I'm not vegetarian, but I can still see that really angering the Almighty — a lot more than the couple’s eating non-sentient, non-living, non-bloodied fruit.

And maybe animal slaughtering and eating is as bad for one's spirit as it can be for one's body, not to mention the natural environment (e.g. large-scale beef-cattle farming requiring massive deforestation).

Meantime, as strange as it sounds, when I eat meat (however relatively little) I distract my thoughts from what I’m actually eating — once bloody animal flesh — which is one small step below cannibalism.

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