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MYS437: If a priest blesses water and it evaporates, is the rain that falls later still holy? That question opens a two-hour run of listener questions that Jimmy Akin answered on Catholic Answers Live with host Cy Kellett, and it only gets stranger from there.

Could angels be the saints of an earlier universe, or of alien worlds? Jimmy looks at what the word “angel” means in theology today and what it meant in early Christian writing. If science could give an animal human-level reason, would God have to create a soul for it? Jimmy weighs traducianism against creationism and names the one animal he’d trust with it.

Then: why do we laugh when tickled, and why do rats come back for more? Why do so many atheists insist on alien life while many believers insist we’re alone? Could a time traveler talk Hitler’s parents into contraception, and what would the Church say? Where does “there’s more than one way to skin a cat” come from, and did people really skin cats?

Cy slips in a question of his own: why did humans lose their body hair? The answer runs from exhaustion hunting to lifelong marriage to the history of human skin tone. Jimmy also takes on why a demon would choose damnation knowing what it meant, what the scorpion-tailed locusts of Revelation 9 are (and why they aren’t attack helicopters or the Beatles), what God might do if nuclear war wiped out humanity, whether excommunication for abortion reaches politicians, why a time machine would also need to be a spaceship, and whether future medicine could allow baptism in the womb.

Dom Bettinelli opens with a scheduling note from Jimmy Akin: October 2026 is Weird Questions Month, so the show keeps its unbroken weekly run. Then stay for Mysterious Feedback on episode 426, Mark Twain Super-Psychic, including a listener’s drawing of a vision and a sharp question about Huck Finn’s conscience.

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Chapters:

• 0:00:00 – Intro
• 0:00:41 – October is Weird Questions Month
• 0:03:26 – The topics Jimmy will cover
• 0:04:23 – Catholic Answers Live: Weird Questions
• 0:05:50 – Jimmy’s Mysterious World plug on Catholic Answers Live
• 0:06:48 – …Arkansan or Arkansawyer?
• 0:07:37 – Does holy water stop being holy? (Justin)
• 0:09:23 – …Water means liquid water
• 0:11:03 – …Blessed steam and blessed ice
• 0:11:30 – Could angels be saints from other universes? (Megan)
• 0:12:16 – …What an angel is
• 0:15:04 – …Angelomorphic Christology
• 0:17:30 – Would uplifted animals need God to give them souls? (Xevoz Fighter)
• 0:19:45 – …Traducianism and creationism
• 0:24:13 – …Which animal Jimmy would uplift
• 0:28:17 – Why do people laugh when tickled? (Bruce)
• 0:28:29 – …Knismesis and gargalesis
• 0:31:14 – …Rats love to be tickled
• 0:35:19 – …Grooming, play and social bonds
• 0:36:03 – Why atheists expect aliens and believers don’t (G Readings)
• 0:41:35 – …Both arguments fail
• 0:43:05 – Could contraception have prevented Hitler? (Gabriel)
• 0:44:10 – …What the Church means by contraception
• 0:47:00 – …Why history is so fragile
• 0:48:52 – …The Boys from Brazil
• 0:49:20 – More than one way to skin a cat (Amanda)
• 0:51:07 – …Did people really skin cats?
• 0:52:38 – Thank you to Patrons
• 0:53:12 – Sponsor: Miss D’s Honeybees
• 0:53:54 – Sponsor: Fr. Dwight Longenecker
• 0:55:02 – Why did humans lose their hair? (Cy Kellett)
• 0:58:07 – …Exhaustion hunting and sweat
• 1:00:25 – …Bipedalism and lifelong marriage
• 1:01:28 – …Skin tone, sunlight and vitamin D
• 1:05:29 – The Jimmy Akin Podcast: anointing and messiahs
• 1:06:41 – …The number of Jesus
• 1:08:08 – Why would a demon choose damnation? (S. Medrano)
• 1:09:28 – …Sin makes you stupid
• 1:11:31 – The scorpion-tailed locusts of Revelation 9 (Titus Constantine)
• 1:12:38 – …Newspaper exegesis
• 1:13:40 – …Hal Lindsey’s attack helicopters
• 1:15:04 – …Charles Manson and the Beatles
• 1:16:22 – …Demons from the abyss
• 1:20:11 – If nuclear war wiped out humanity, what would God do? (Rebecca Lynne)
• 1:23:21 – …Starting over, as after the dinosaurs
• 1:25:41 – Abortion and excommunication (The Gutsy Grape)
• 1:27:14 – …Why politicians aren’t excommunicated
• 1:29:38 – …Who can lift the excommunication
• 1:31:45 – Time travel and a moving Earth (AJ)
• 1:34:04 – …No ultimate frame of reference
• 1:35:51 – …Why the aliens speak English
• 1:39:05 – Baptism before birth? (Dr. Tafazzi)
• 1:40:04 – …The Holy Office on disinfectant in baptismal water
• 1:41:28 – …The amniotic sac and the placenta
• 1:44:07 – Mysterious Feedback: #426 Mark Twain Super-Psychic
• 1:44:22 – …Ashley’s drawing of a vision
• 1:45:37 – …Huck Finn’s moral conflict
• 1:50:08 – …Data’s head and the club dues
• 1:50:55 – Your mysterious feedback
• 1:51:29 – Thank you to Oasis Studio 7
• 1:51:40 – Jimmy’s YouTube channel
• 1:52:08 – Mysterious World Bookstore
• 1:52:16 – Get your Mysterious merch
• 1:52:23 – Show notes
• 1:52:30 – Become a Patron
• 1:52:39 – Sponsor: The Grady Group (Peter’s Barque)
• 1:53:25 – Sponsor: Rosary Army and School of Mary
• 1:53:47 – Outro

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