Wired 11.09: The New Diamond Age
It had to happen sooner or later. Two companies are now running off gem-quality diamonds--by machine. This could destroy many careers and lifestyles that have their basis on the "rarity" and "preciousness" of diamonds.

I guess diamonds aren't forever. Or rather, charge a high enough price for something, and someone, somewhere, will eventually knock it off for less. More to the point, nothing is "precious" when it is super-abundant. And that is about to happen to diamonds.

I remember an episode of the classic Star Trek TV show, titled "Catspaw." In one memorable and relevant scene, Captain James T. Kirk and his senior officers, having been captured by the natives of a really weird planet, were sitting at a table. The natives set soup bowls full of precious gems before them--and Captain Kirk said, "But we run these things off by the ton!" Their host was shocked--could ne no longer tempt human beings with precious material objects? Guess not.

Well, we don't have faster-than-light travel (and, I imagine, never will). But the day when precious stones are not so precious anymore has finally arrived. Not only can these lab processes fool even a diamond expert, but DeBeers has long been rumored to have a lot more diamonds in its vaults than have ever hit the market, and this discovery just might smoke 'em out.

What would King Solomon think? And what should we all think? Did not Paul tell us not to fill our heads with material things? In Romans, Paul tells us that "the carnal way of thinking is death, and the spiritual way of thinking is life and peace." [Romans 8:6] To the Ephesians Paul said, "Don't get drunk on wine, wherein is excess, but fill yourselves up in spirit." [Ephesians 5:18]. And as the Rapture comes closer, we should all remember that God will someday destroy all the elements and reshape them. (Oh, yeah--this laboratory process ought to make it a little more difficult to assert that the earth is all that old. Evolutionists always thought that diamonds took millions of years to form. Not true!)::Submitted for your Vanity of vanities [Ecclesiastes] files.