A recent episode of “The Daily” podcast from The New York Times ominously warned, “The Mosquitoes Are Winning.” Mosquitoes, believe it or not, are mankind’s deadliest predators, carrying disease that result in over 219 million infections and over 400,000 deaths every year. Even that number is dramatically reduced from previous highs. Highly effective efforts to combat malaria through bed nets, vaccines and insecticides have reduced global deaths by more than a third.
Today, however, the world’s deadliest insect is making a comeback. A new breed of mosquito, Anopheles stephensi known to researchers as “Steve,” has adapted to evade old methods of pest control. Not only does it reproduce year-round and in water as shallow as a bottle cap, but it also lives primarily in cities rather than more rural areas. Between 2019 and 2021, global malaria deaths rose by 8%, primarily because “Steve’s” range expanded from Asia into Africa.
“Pensées” is a collection of writings from Blaise Pascal that were found and compiled after his death. It contains Pascal’s astute observations about the human condition.
For example: “What a chimera then is man! What a novelty! What a monster, what a chaos, what a contradiction, what a prodigy! Judge of all things, imbecile worm of the earth; depository of truth, a sink of uncertainty and error; the pride and refuse of the universe! Who will unravel this tangle?”
Pascal was a brilliant mathematician who converted to Christ late in his life, a life that ended with his untimely death at just 39 years old. Many of his writings that can be found in “Pensées” are responses to the skeptics of his day. He especially wrote about the failure of these skeptics to grasp the human person.