How are two famous Viking battles in 1066 related to the very first Christmas?

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
(John 3:16)

It may be a curious reflection on our Western culture, but the “thank you”of normal social interchange does not have a counterpart in the Bible. The declining custom of writing thank you notes has some implied connection to the biblical emphasis, but those social manners are more related to our sense of reciprocity than is reflected in Scripture.

Last month we showed preliminary evidence suggesting that the molecular patterns we see in animal species may be due to different rates of mutation in each “kind.”¹ Further investigation of the match between mutation rates and genetic differences among species suggests that this initial hypothesis was incorrect.