Man dies after shark attack at Cape Cod

“Arthur was a very happy young man. He loved life, he was an active member of a Christian church, devoting his life to the Lord. . . . He was happily engaged to a smart, kind-hearted medical student with a bright future.” This is how the family and friends of Arthur Medici described the twenty-six-year-old after he was attacked by a shark on Saturday off the Cape Cod beach and later died at a hospital.

In other news, Typhoon Mangkhut, described as “the world’s strongest storm this year,” reached mainland China yesterday after pummeling Hong Kong and killing at least fifty-four people in the Philippines. More than 2.5 million people have been evacuated in southern China.

Meanwhile, Tropical Depression Florence has “slowly ravaged the South with rain and wind.” As of this morning, seventeen deaths have been confirmed as a result of the storm. Officials warn that flooding “is only going to get worse.”

Even after the storm is over, lingering floodwaters will be extremely dangerous. Chemical and biological contamination are a continuing threat, including bacteria that can pollute drinking water and cause life-threatening infections.

Eighteen quintillion grains of rice

One fact these stories have in common is that humans do not control nature. We face threats as frightening as sharks, as massive as typhoons and hurricanes, and as microscopic as bacteria.

I make this point today because you and I live in an age of such technological advancement that we can delude ourselves into thinking we’re more powerful than we really are. Consider some examples:

• Every minute on the internet, 2.78 million YouTube videos are downloaded; 2.4 million Google searches are initiated; 347,222 new tweets are sent; 527,760 photos are shared on Snapchat, 150 million emails are sent; and Amazon registers $203,596 in sales.
• An iPhone has more computing power than all of NASA had when it flew Neil Armstrong to the moon.
• Earbuds can now translate between fifteen…