Touching Lives with James Merritt DAILY DEVOTIONAL EMAIL Subscribe to receive the daily devotional from Dr. James Merritt right into your inbox SUBSCRIBE Beyond Your Strength May 5, 2026 "Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him." Genesis 21:5 (NIV) I heard about an 85-year-old man who challenged the golf pro at his club. The pro bets $10,000 he can win and even offers a 12-stroke handicap; the old man declines the handicap. They play all the way to the 18th hole dead even. The old man's drive lands in a sand trap while the pro breathes easy. Then the old man steps in, knocks the ball straight into the hole, and wins. The pro walks over, stunned. "I thought you said you can't get out of sand traps." The old man grins. "I can't. Give me a hand." There is a lot you can still do when you get old. But having a baby is not on that list. Unless God decides otherwise. The Bible makes su...
Skip to content Nature vs nurture: How much of our personalities are determined at birth? 23 hours ago Share Save Add as preferred on Google Laurie Clarke Emmanuel Lafont (Credit: Emmanuel Lafont) Laurie Clarke delves into the devilishly complex forces that shape our personalities – and the new research revealing ever more about how our genes do, and don't, make us who we are. In 2009, Abdelmalek Bayout faced a nine-year prison sentence in Trieste, Italy, for stabbing and killing a man who had mocked him in the street. Aiming to reduce the sentence, his lawyer made an unusual legal argument. His client's DNA, he said, indicated the presence of the "warrior gene", a mutation that decades of scientific research had tied to aggressive behaviour. Because of this, the argument went, he couldn't be held fully accountable for his actions. The appeal was successful: a year was sheared off Bayout's sentence. From the 1990s, evidence had accumulated ...