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Russian satellite menaces US craft in orbit · The Daily Article

• 0:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Good morning and welcome to the daily article podcast from Denison Forum.
• 0:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's Wednesday, October 21st, 2026.
• 0:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is an automated reading of today's daily article authored by Dr. Jim Denison.
• 0:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Today's article is titled, Russian Satellite Menaces U.S.
• 0:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: Craft in orbit.
• 0:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Russian state media is reporting this morning that U.S. citizens Stephen Hubbard held in Russia since 2022 has been released.
• 0:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now to some bad news, according to the New York Times, a mysterious Russian satellite moved threateningly close to a U.S. commercial radar satellite that provides imagery to the Ukrainian military.
• 0:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: Over the weekend, a satellite called Cosmos 2612 came within an estimated 85 feet of ISI X36, a satellite that produces three-dimensional images of Earth's surface under contract with Ukraine.
• 0:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: analysts say the Russian satellite likely intended to attack the U.S. radar satellite, and what would have been the first instance of warfare in orbit.
• 1:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: But the Kremlin may have called off the operation at the 11th hour.
• 1:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Cosmos 26-12 could close in on ICIX 36 again, and five other Cosmos satellites also in orbit could join in nefarious actions overhead as well.
• 1:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: The incident illustrates new warnings that a space war could break out in the future.
• 1:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: The destruction of our satellites could cripple military operations and critical national infrastructure, leading to information blackouts and a financial sector collapse.
• 1:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Analysts warn that such a conflict would return modern life to the 19th century.
• 1:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: What is happening above us is happening below us, as well.
• 1:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: Foreign policy warns that an underwater shadow war is raging.
• 1:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: The article reviews under sea war.
• 1:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: The battle to control the cables and pipelines that connect our world.
• 1:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: A new book focusing on ocean floor cables that carry between 95 and 99% of global internet traffic.
• 2:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: According to its author, both Russia and China are now damaging and threatening these cables.
• 2:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: Are these acts of war?
• 2:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: When a reporter asked this question of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, he replied that the damage and destruction of submarine cables marks a completely different transition between peace and war.
• 2:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Both stories illustrate an article by Foreign Affairs journalist, Gideon Rackman, titled, Are We Sleep Walking Into World War Three?
• 2:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: His financial time subtitle states, as regional conflicts rage and revisionist powers challenged the established order, warnings of a new global conflagration are growing louder.
• 2:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: I saw his article just after reading The Coming Storm, Power, Conflict, and Warnings from History, by Aud Arna Westead.
• 2:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: The Yale historian argues that the world looks alarmingly similar to geopolitical circumstances, just prior to World War I, a global conflict that led to 40 million casualties.
• 2:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, I don't want to write about a possible World War in the future any more than you want to read about one.
• 3:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: We are both suffering from what British journalist Janan Ganesh calls pessimism fatigue.
• 3:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: The result of living through the threat of nuclear annihilation, followed by the successive threats of jihadist terrorism, the pandemic, and now AI and World War.
• 3:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: By now, you likely expect me to offer trust in God as the antidote to such fatigue.
• 3:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: Remembering that the Lord is still on His throne, and that He still rules the universe encourages us to choose faith over fear.
• 3:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: But there's a catch.
• 3:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: A group of sociologists recently studied what they call secular rationalism.
• 3:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: The belief that science is the only way to understand the world, and that morality should rest on reason rather than religious teachings.
• 3:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: There are three ways of responding to this worldview.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: You can be a secular rationalist while still believing in God or attending religious services.
• 3:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: You can be a secular rationalist while rejecting religion.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Which of the three groups is most likely to also believe in magic?
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  [SPEAKER_00]: The first, by far.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Here's why.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Secular rationalists who hold spiritual beliefs get to define such beliefs, however they wish.
• 4:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: They stand outside the orthodoxies of a particular religion and approach spirituality as a buffet from which they can choose what they want.
• 4:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: In essence, they believe about God whatever helps them be their own God.
• 4:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: I am reminded of C.S.
• 4:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Lewis's observation in mere Christianity regarding what he called the life force, and amorphous something behind the observable world.
• 4:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: Star Wars characters might call it the Force.
• 4:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: According to Lewis, quote, the life force, being only a blind force with no morals and no mind will never interfere with you like that troublesome God we learned about when we were children.
• 4:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: The life force is a sort of tame God.
• 5:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: You can switch it on when you want, but it will not bother you.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: All the thrills of religion and none of the cost is the life force, the greatest achievement of wishful thinking the world has yet seen and quote.
• 5:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: Believing in God in the face of global threats is not enough.
• 5:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Such faith empowers us to face our fears only if it leads us to submit our lives fully to the living Lord Jesus.
• 5:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: a shelter only helps those who stand within its protection.
• 5:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: An umbrella in the car is no good when you're caught outside in the rain.
• 5:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: Part of submitting ourselves to the spirit each day is being obedient to what he then calls us to do.
• 5:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: In this way, we are not only trusting our father with our greatest challenges, but we are helping to meet them as we fulfill our kingdom assignment.
• 5:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus testified, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.
• 6:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: He continues such obedience today in and through our lives as his body in the world.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: We can relate to him as our life force or as our Lord, but not both, which would Jesus say you have chosen today.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for listening to the Daily Article podcast.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: For links, scripture references, or to find out more about Denison Forum, visit us at DenisonForm.org or click the link in today's show notes.