"Of all the theologies or anti-theologies, I think atheism is the least plausible of them all. It's not only the irrationality, but it's the coldness, the soullessness of atheism that strikes me. But as to what lies on the other side, I'm the snail on the side of the ocean. I don't even presume to even be able to begin to understand it. All I know is that it's far beyond me, and it deserves reverence and awe."

He is the independent-minded neo-conservative commentator with an authoritative manner that may appear brusque to lesser mortals. His trenchant analysis of America's place in the world has won him numerous awards including the Pulitzer Prize.

A tragic diving accident as a first year medical student left him with an injury that altered the course of Krauthammer's life, but never impeded his accomplishments.

"I had a diving accident actually in a swimming pool right on the grounds of Harvard Medical School, off the diving board, my third dive of the day and hit the bottom with my head," he told radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt in a wide-ranging interview conducted November 19th probing the depths of all-things Krauthammer.

"And my head wasn't hurt at all. I didn't even have a scratch. But it severed my spinal cord, and I was hospitalized for 14 months," he recounted.

Krauthammer refused to give in to a depressed outlook after the accident.

"You can be hopeless and despairing, or you can live your life. And to me, there was basically no option," he told Hewitt.

Shortly after the accident, the dean of the medical school came to his beside, and said he would be happy to give him a leave of absence for a year or two.

"If I take a leave of absence, I'm never coming back. And I will be lost," he told the dean. "This will turn disaster to ruin. So give me a shot. I want to stay with my class."

Administrators acceded to his request and let him study at night for 14 months while he convalesced. He took his exams orally, "because it took me a couple of years to relearn how to write."

His religious views

Krauthammer has Jewish roots, went through a bar mitzvah as a young man, but maintains a mostly secular outlook that caused him to critique intelligent design theory as "tarted-up creationism."

"I'm not the first to say it. I don't believe in God, but I fear Him greatly," he says. At the same time he admitted to Hewitt a "complicated view of deity."

When it comes to theology, Krauthammer's unlikely muse is Einstein. "And not to in any way compare myself to Him, but if I had to, I'd have to say to compare to whose theology do I have the most affinity? I would say probably Einstein," he noted.

"Einstein had this sense of this fantastic mystery lying behind ordering and creating beauty in nature. I mean, he was so struck by the elegance of nature, his ability to put the ultimate mysteries of science into a single line, E=MC2, indicates a kind of harmony in the cosmos which cannot be accidental, or cannot be sort of unwilled in some sense."

Then does the critic of intelligent design allow room for the ultimate designer? "He (Einstein) said things, for example, in his rejection of quantum mechanics, he said God does not play dice with the universe, meaning he refuses to accept the physics that depends on probability. That's not how God works. And he had this sort of reverence and awe," Krauthammer observed.

"The other analogy I would use is what Newton used to describe the capacity of the human mind," he continued. "He said our ability to understand is about akin to that of a snail on the shore of an ocean trying to work out the tides through physics. And that, to me, is our position vis-à-vis understanding the workings of the universe, and the wonderful mysteries, awesome, I mean, literally awesome mysteries…that lie behind it."

Krauthammer finds it difficult to embrace traditional religion. "I have enormous respect for it, and in some sense, I'm not a terribly religious Jew, but I follow some of the rituals, and I do attend on the important days. But when it comes to the relationship to what is out there, to me, it is rather complicated and mysterious," he noted.

A worldview with no God leaves Krauthammer cold. "Of all the theologies or anti-theologies, I think atheism is the least plausible of them all. It's not only the irrationality, but it's the coldness, the soullessness of atheism that strikes me. But as to what lies on the other side, I'm the snail on the side of the ocean. I don't even presume to even be able to begin to understand it. All I know is that it's far beyond me, and it deserves reverence and awe."

Read More of this article on Krauthammer Here.

This important scientific breakthrough, developed by the University of Granada, will aid the immediate use of artificially-grown skin for major burn patients, since the skin could be stored in tissue banks and made available when needed.

One of the problems major burn victims have is that, using the current protocols for artificial skin, they need to wait various weeks in order for it to be grown, using healthy skin from the own patient.

Spanish scientists, from the Tissue Engineering Research Group, from the Dept. of Histology at the University of Granada, have managed, for the first time, to grow artificial skin from stem cells of umbilical cord. Their study, published in the prestigious journalStem Cells Translational Medicine, shows the ability of Wharton jelly mesenschymal stem cells to turn to oral-mucosa or skin-regeneration epithelia.

To grow the artificial skin, the researchers have used, in addition this new type of epithelia covering, a biomaterial made of fibrin and agarose, already designed and developed by the University of Granada research team. The work has been carried out in the laboratories of the Faculty of Medicine, alongside the Experimental Unit of the Granada "Virgen de las Nieves" University Hospital Complex.

A Science Daily report notes that"stem cells from umbilical cords do not pose an ethical dilemma because the cells come from a source that would otherwise be discarded. Another major benefit is that umbilical cells generally have not been found to cause immune reactions, which would simplify their potential use in medical treatments."

Prior studies from this same research team, which received recognition in the World Congress on Tissue Engineering, held a few months ago in Seoul (S. Korea), already pointed to the possibility that Wharton stem cells could be turned into epithelia cells. This current work is the confirmation of those initial studies and its application to two regeneration structures: skin and oral mucosa, increasingly needed in injuries in these parts of the body.

Instant Use
One of the problems major-burn victims currently have is that, in order to apply the current techniques of artificial skin, a number of weeks are needed. That is because the skin needs to be grown from parts of the patient's healthy sin. "Creating this new type of skin using stem cells, which can be stored in tissue banks, means that it can be used instantly when injuries are caused, and which would bring the application of artificial skin forward many weeks", as explained by Antonio Campos, Professor of Histology at the University of Granada and one of the authors of this study.

"…mainstream Israeli society has actually become far more accepting [of Messianic Jews]."

Editor's Note: Former President Bush's attendance and keynote address at a recent Messianic Jewish event seemed to raise the ire of many traditional and orthodox Jewish leaders and commentators. However, if the result has been a questioning of the animosity toward Messianic Jews by the general Jewish population, then perhaps a thaw in this icy relationship may be beginning.

Not being a scholar of Judaism—just your average devoted, Born-Again Christian—I can only speak of what I know: of the heart of those who love Jesus and know Him as Savior (or Messiah), and the love that somehow brings for Israel and the Jewish people. I chalk it up to the work of the Holy Spirit, and I have no doubt that it was with that same heart for Israel that President Bush accepted that speech request.

If true Christian Believers care about Israel and the Jewish community, how much more so someone who IS Jewish and then comes to know Yeshua (Jesus) as their Messiah? I truly hope (and pray) that people who are of traditional and orthodox Jewish faith will come to see that the only "conspiracy" toward them by those who truly know Yeshua as Messiah, is a conspiracy of love and nothing else. –Aimee Herd, BCN.

At least two Israeli news agencies on Thursday ran the same story wondering whether it was time for the mainstream Jewish community to finally accept Messianic Jews as a legitimate and vital part of the tribe.

The article by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) highlighted former US President George W. Bush's recent keynote address at the annual conference of the Messianic Jewish Bible Institute in Dallas.

Mainstream American Jewish groups were incredulous that Bush would provide such legitimacy to a movement they view as a deceitful ploy to convert Jews away from Judaism.

But Messianic Jewish leaders told the JTA that while the "gatekeepers" of mainstream Judaism are often "overzealous" in their approach to Jewish Believers in Yeshua (Jesus), most average Jews are welcoming.

Indeed, Israel Today has noticed much the same in our reporting from the Jewish state over the past decade. As mainstream Orthodox Jewish leaders become more vocal in their opposition to the Messianic community, mainstream Israeli society has actually become far more accepting.

Two years ago, Israel's government-controlled Channel One Newsbroadcast a special segment that harshly criticized anti-missionary Orthodox groups for harassing Messianic Jews.

"It actually was a great day because that money was recovered. The thought of taking that money, or doing anything with the money besides turning it in and calling the sheriff's office, was not on my mind at all."

(Jefferson Parish, Louisiana)—The honesty of probation officer Jessica Luebke caught the eye of the media recently, when upon leaving her office, she stumbled upon a plastic bag containing nearly a quarter of a million dollars—and she turned it in.

The money was actually from a casino, and was dropped by the armored car service which was taking it to the bank.

Luebke noticed the "huge ziplock bag" with "bundles of hundreds and twenties in it" sitting next to the curb as she drove by. Realizing what it was, she turned around and checked it out, then called the sheriff and waited for them to arrive.

How the money got there was a mystery to Jessica and the police, until an armored car showed up asking if they'd seen a bag with money, as one had "fallen out of the vehicle" upon transport.

Interviewing Luebke, FOX's Shepard Smith seemed incredulous, suggesting that since the money was originally that of the casino, Luebke could have taken it and done a lot of good things with the money, and that it "could've been a great day."

Jessica told Shepard, "It actually was a great day because that money was recovered. The thought of taking that money, or doing anything with the money besides turning it in and calling the sheriff's office, was not on my mind at all."

When asked if she might get a finder's fee, Jessica replied that she hadn't thought of it at first and that that was "really not why I did it," but she added that many people had asked her the same question.

Shepard Smith noted that the casino where the recovered money was from, owed Jessica a "steak dinner or at least a pat on the back."

Said Jessica, laughing, "I'll take the pat on the back!"

Sixty-nine years ago…President Roosevelt went to the airwaves and prayed with our nation for God's blessing and protection upon our brave fighting men.

On Thursday, S-1044, the D-Day Landing Prayer Act, legislation that will include FDR's D-Day Landing Prayer in its entirety at the WWII Memorial in Washington, DC, passed the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Ohio Christian Alliance President Chris Long stated, "We would like to commend Senator Portman, Senator Landrieau, and members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee for today's referral of S 1044 to the full Senate. President Roosevelt's prayer articulated the great crusade that was underway to liberate millions suffering under tyranny. He honored the war effort and paid tribute to the fallen and those veterans who fought courageously in the conflict. It is only fitting that succeeding generations learn of this prayer that was offered at that most poignant moment in our nation's history. We are encouraged by the support that this legislation is receiving and we urge the U.S. Senate to pass it quickly."

Sixty-nine years ago, on the morning of June 6, 1944, as Allied forces were landing on the beaches in Normandy, President Roosevelt went to the airwaves and prayed with our nation for God's blessing and protection upon our brave fighting men. He prayed, "Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity...."

This prayer when it is inscribed in stone at the WWII Memorial in Washington, DC will stand as a living testament to generations to come of the sacrifice of brave Americans who when faced with tyranny and threat to liberty met that challenge with faith and courage. As the 70th anniversary of the D-Day Landings is approaching, we urge the U.S. Senate to pass S1044, the D-Day Landing Prayer Act quickly, in time to honor those heroes of the D-Day Landings.

"The great thing about Bless Friday is that you don't need to participate in these planned activities. Any individual, family or group can identify a need and begin their Christmas season with service."

(Houston, TX)—Since 2010, Houston area churches have provided an alternative to frenzied Christmas shopping on the day after Thanksgiving. Continuing this tradition, Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church, Beacon of Light Christian Center, St. John the Divine Episcopal Church, St. Francis Episcopal Church, and The Woodlands Community Presbyterian Church, are each scheduling community service projects on Friday, November 29. These churches ask families and individuals to celebrate Bless Friday® as an alternative to Black Friday.

Chuck Fox, founder of Bless Friday, states, "I am excited that The Woodlands Community Presbyterian Church and St. Francis Episcopal Church are joining Bless Friday this year. People get our message that when we focus too much on buying things, we lose sight of the real reason for Christmas—remembering and honoring Christ. We want to begin our Christmas celebration by serving others just as Jesus did." 

Bless Friday will be more visible to the public this year with a post located at City Centre, a mixed use development in west Houston. While City Centre patrons are shopping on Black Friday, Bless Friday will have a station in the plaza where shoppers can stop and assemble bags designed to bless the homeless. Passersby are invited to take one of the bags to keep in their cars and hand out to the homeless. Pastor Brandon Gaide states, "On the most consumer-oriented day of the year, we want to offer a way of being constructively countercultural." 

Also this year, Beacon of Light Christian Center plans to invite the surrounding community to its church, located at 6655 London St. in south Houston for a day of fellowship and caring. The church plans to serve the community the entire day by offering food to the hungry, clothing to those in need, and activities for people of all ages. Pastor Anthony Gasery states, "Our community is filled with people who financially overextend themselves at Christmas. We want to show them a more positive and more spiritual way to celebrate."

Some of the other activities planned around the city include: prepping food, cleaning the facility and welcoming clients at The Beacon, a homeless shelter established by Christ Church Cathedral; performing light maintenance and preparing the Gracewood Women's Home for Christmas; holding an ice cream sundae party for the residents of Omega House, a hospice home for patients with HIV/AIDS; preparing shoeboxes filled with Christmas gifts to be distributed by the International Seafarer's Mission; bagging rice and beans for food pantries; improving the physical condition surrounding several churches; and picking up trash at Memorial Park and Memorial High School. 

Chuck Fox adds, "The great thing about Bless Friday is that you don't need to participate in these planned activities. Any individual, family or group can identify a need and begin their Christmas season with service."

Bless Friday® was founded in 2010 to change the way Americans celebrate Christmas.

Randal Wallace, director of the movies "Braveheart" and "Secretariat" and now the upcoming "Heaven is for Real", says he was amazed at how the story of little Colton Burpo got to him, especially when he [Wallace] had been around churches all his life and had been exposed to lots of materials categorized as inspirational.

Sony/Tristar Pictures and director Randal Wallace (of the award winning films Braveheart and Secretariat) are hoping that their new film "Heaven is for Real" will do the book justice by letting viewers visually experience the impact little Colton Burpo's amazing encounter with Heaven has already had on millions around the world.

The New York Times best-selling book(available here in print, audio, and children's format), details Colton's life-threatening illness in 2003 when he was just four-years-old, and his subsequent account of Heaven as he saw it when he "died" and returned to earth.

Award-winning veteran actor Greg Kinnear plays Colton's father, Pastor Todd Burpo. Wallace was said to have cast Kinnear in the role because he believed he was "the perfect blend of strength and charisma and sensitivity."

The director also was quoted in an Entertainment Weekly report as being "amazed" at how the Burpo story "had got to him—especially when he's been around churches all his life and had been exposed to lots of materials that are categorized as inspirational."

"It speaks to the cynic in most of us," he said.

Not only was the film's director touched, but Kinnear himself reportedly may have "found faith through the film." 

Whether he has, or hasn't, most Christians will agree that finding Jesus through the art of cinema is a challenging, yet potentially powerful, endeavor—which is why films like this one are often bathed in prayer.

Click Here to watch the newly released trailer for the film.

"My failure in God's hands turned into a miracle. And it was God that cured the baby and I just happened to be standing close by at the time." -Dr. Hannah Gay

(Jackson, MS)—She served for six years as a medical missionary in the Horn of Africa, and credits God for the first case of HIV remission in a child, as documented by The New England Journal of Medicine.

"When I treated this baby I was not even thinking of curing the baby," Dr. Hannah Gay told Baptist Press. "That was the furthest thing from my mind. I was simply trying to prevent infection and I failed at what I was trying to do."

Dr. Gay, now an associate professor of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, treated the child with a hard-hitting regimen of three anti-viral medications in the first 30 hours after the child's birth.

At first, she thought she failed when the baby was born HIV-positive. "However, my failure in God's hands turned into a miracle," Dr. Gay says. "And it was God that cured the baby and I just happened to be standing close by at the time."

Tests performed on the baby at 23-months-old revealed the virus has not been replicating itself, which raises hopes the child is permanently cured. The viral presence was so minimal it could not be detected by standard tests.

Dr. Gay has received significant media attention due to the unique case, which allows her to share her faith in God. "I still have no idea why He picked the shiest pediatrician in America to do this, but I suppose I'll find out in Heaven," she told Baptist Press. "I am by basic nature very shy."

She and her husband teach Bible drill at Trace Ridge Baptist Church in Ridgeland, Miss. She relates to the Biblical account of Moses' bashfulness as a speaker.

"God proved to Moses that He can use a stick to get water from a rock, or to part the Red Sea, or whatever. So with Moses protesting all along the way, 'God I can't talk,' God sent him anyway."

"I can't talk (either) but God is providing words."

She continues to follow the child's progress, whose identity is anonymous. "I see the child on a regular basis, but several times a year I will be continuing to send samples of her blood to their research labs so that they can do these ultrasensitive tests," she says.

Hamas leader Amal Haniyeh's one-year-old granddaughter was sent to receive care in Israel after being diagnosed with a critical digestive tract condition.

(Israel)—Israel Today has reported that on Sunday, November 17, Israel provided medical treatment to Amal Haniyeh, granddaughter of Gaza-based Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh.

The one-year-old girl had reportedly deteriorated to critical condition after contracting an acute infection of her digestive tract and Israeli doctors, reportedly without hesitation, opened their arms to help the child.

Amal is not the first member of the Haniyeh family to receive medical care from Israel, the report notes. In the summer of 2012, Haniyeh's brother-in-law was rushed across the border to receive urgent heart treatment at a hospital near Tel Aviv.

Hundreds of Palestinians from Gaza are said to enter Israel every month for medical treatment, some of it life-saving.