Want some privacy this morning? Need to get away from the omnipresent marketing onslaught of our culture? Consider a vacation in Brazil's Amazon rain forest. According to today's New York Times, experts now believe that 67 Indian groups live there in complete isolation. The rate of destruction in the Amazon threatens their existence, but the area still contains the largest number of uncontacted tribes in the world.

They live as they would have when Europeans first landed in 1500. Most hunt with blow guns or bows and arrows. One man in Rondonia, a state in the southwestern Amazon forest, is believed to be the last survivor of his tribe. Envoys from the National Indian Foundation tried to introduce the man to an Indian woman to procreate, but he shot arrows at them, sending the potential bride running. A man needs his privacy.

Meanwhile, the Times tells us that a Taliban spokesman has been detained by the Afghan Intelligence Service. The man claims that Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban leader, is hiding in Pakistan. But authorities don't know where. And today's Times is reporting that President Bush has urged Congress to pass long-stalled legislation which would safeguard genetic privacy. Many are unwilling to submit to genetic tests which could lead to the prevention and treatment of cancer and other diseases, fearing that employers and insurance companies could discriminate against them based on the results. A genetic discrimination bill passed the Senate unanimously in 2003 but died in the House; supporters are encouraged this time around.

What do stories about uncontacted tribes, an unlocated Taliban leader, and undisclosed genetics have in common? They each point to the limits of human omniscience. The more we learn about the world, the more we realize we don't know. In comparison to what remains to be learned about the universe, we're all a little like an Indian living by his blowgun in the Computer Age. The man in Rondonia has no idea I'm writing about him today. But I had no idea he existed until this morning.

There's only one Person who knows what that man is doing right now, and where the Taliban leader is hiding, and the complete genetic composition of your body. David spoke for us all: "O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways" (Psalm 139:1-3). God is reading your heart as you read these words. Does he like what he finds? Or do you have business with your Father as you start this Thursday together?

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