Below are this week's Articles of Interest as compiled by Mr. Van Baker. This collection of articles is cultivated by Mr. Baker with the goal of highlighting some of the trends, upheavals, and things to watch for in our society. These articles are not necessarily the express views of the United Church of God, Mr. Baker, or me as the pastor, but they are informative of what is occurring in our nation and culture. In accordance with Christ's warning to correctly discern the times (Matthew 16:1-4), it is wise to be aware of what is going on around us. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

135 cardinals will elect the next pope: Francis picked 108 of them – As more than a billion Catholics mourn the death of Pope Francis, cardinals around the world are preparing to travel to Rome to begin the solemn tradition of choosing a new pontiff. And when the prelates gather at the Vatican in the coming weeks to elect a new Bishop of Rome, Francis, who died at age 88 on April 21, stands to have an outsize impact on the vote. That’s because, unlike some of his predecessors, Francis has appointed the overwhelming majority of clerics who can cast a ballot in the conclave — namely, members of the College of Cardinals who are under age 80.
https://religionnews.com/2025/04/21/the-coming-conclave-will-feature-a-voting-electorate-stacked-by-pope-francis/

Americans are swapping organized religion for "personal truth" – While respected Christian researchers like George Barna have been sounding the alarm on the dangers of syncretism [the amalgamation of different religions, cultures, or schools of thought] to a biblical worldview in recent years, a new study published Monday [4/17] suggests more Americans are leaving organized religion in search of personalized faith perspectives.
https://www.christianpost.com/news/americans-are-swapping-organized-religion-for-personal-truth.html

Vindicating John’s Gospel – The Fourth Gospel has been typically regarded by the biblical-scholarship establishment as a late-written and fanciful narrative whose contents are nearly entirely theological mythologizing. The Jesus Seminar of the 1980s and 1990s, which sought to recover what it deemed the true words and deeds of Jesus, determined that not a single word attributed to him in John’s Gospel is authentic. John’s geography [at least] has proved over time to be uncannily accurate.
https://firstthings.com/vindicating-johns-gospel/

Progressive Christianity Watch – [beware of 'Easter" references] Last Monday [4/14], Christianity Today published an article on its website entitled, “Was Jesus Crucified with Nails?” It should have been the shortest article in history with the body text simply reading, “Yes,” but the sub-headline gives away the game: “Why ONE evangelical Bible scholar thinks the answer might be 'no.'” [the "scholar"] claims that the Romans may have used ropes. No, seriously.
https://pjmedia.com/chris-queen/2025/04/21/progressive-christianity-watch-heretical-easter-edition-n4939084

UK High Court Issues Landmark Ruling Defining What a Woman Is – The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom handed down a landmark ruling Wednesday [4/16] when it decided that a woman is someone born biologically female. Five judges ruled unanimously that the term "woman" in the U.K. Equality Act refers to a biological woman, a person born with female DNA. The decision could limit access to women-only spaces for people who identify as transgender and set a new legal standard across the country. And while several women's groups that supported the appeal celebrated outside the court, activists on both sides say the fight is not over.
https://cbn.com/news/world/uk-high-court-issues-landmark-ruling-defining-what-woman-people-have-tried-deny-science

What Made Dagon Bow? – While the Israelite army was defeated in battle, their God with no army brought the enemy to its knees.
https://comment.org/what-made-dagon-bow/

Experiments to dim sunlight will soon be approved by UK government – Experiments aimed at dimming sunlight with the stated goal of reducing “global warming” will be approved by the U.K. government within weeks, according to The Telegraph. Professor Mark Symes, the program director for Aria (Advanced Research and Invention Agency), said the organization has planned “small controlled outdoor experiments on particular approaches” to sunlight dimming. Dimming the sunlight poses serious dangers, including by blocking vitamin D, potentially reducing rainfall, and releasing toxins into the environment.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/experiments-to-dim-sunlight-will-soon-be-approved-by-uk-government-report/

CT Scans Projected to Result in 100,000 New Cancers in the US – A team in the US and the UK now predicts that low levels of ionizing radiation from CT scans could theoretically account for 5 percent of all new cancer diagnoses in the US. CT scans conducted in 2023 could be responsible for an estimated 103,000 future cases of cancer.
https://www.sciencealert.com/ct-scans-projected-to-result-in-100000-new-cancers-in-the-us

Even vegans who get enough total protein may fall short for some essential amino acids, findings suggest – In a new study of people with long-term vegan diets, most ate an adequate amount of total daily protein, but a significant proportion did not meet required levels of the amino acids lysine and leucine... most prior research on protein in vegan diets has not considered specific amino acids nor the digestibility of different foods, which accounts for the fact that not all of what we eat, including amino acids, is fully utilized by the body.
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-04-vegans-total-protein-fall-short.html

A Chatbot Has Passed a Critical Test For Human-Like Intelligence- Now What? – The Turing test has been popularised as the ultimate indicator of machine intelligence. However, there is disagreement about the validity of this test. In fact, it has a contentious history which calls into question how effective it really is at measuring machine intelligence. So what does this mean for the significance of this new study? 
https://www.sciencealert.com/a-chatbot-has-passed-a-critical-test-for-human-like-intelligence-now-what