France Suffering From Islam’s Fear and Intimidation
Robert Redeker, a 52 year-old French philosophy teacher in Tolouse, is now in hiding. Why? Because after publishing an article describing the Koran as a "book of extraordinary violence" and Islam as "a religion which … exalts violence and hate", he and his family have recieved death threats, and his family is now under police protection.
In an interview with i-TV he said that he had received several e-mail threats targeting himself and his wife and three children and that his photograph and address were available on several Islamist internet sites.
"There is a very clear map of how to get to my home, with the words: ’This pig must have his head cut off’," he said.
Another e-mail says: "You will never again be safe on this earth. One billion, 300 million Muslims are ready to kill you."
Evil Overlord Rule for the week
I have a nice widget on my Mac that gives me a Evil Overlord Rule. I always enjoy reading these, so I thought I would share some example of how us Christian theocrats will rule once we are in power:
Rule #25: No matter how well it would perform, I will never construct any sort of machinery which is completely indestructible except for one small and virtually inaccessible vulnerable spot.
These come from Peter’s Evil Overlord List.
To waterboard or not?
World Magazine Blog has a post about waterboarding, including a link to an article written by a former Communist defector who defends the practice.
My Two Cents (09/28)
- Politics and Fertility: Al Mohler discusses a recent report that indicates you can tell how Congressional districts will vote based on marriage rates and children. As you might expect, liberal voters are more often single, unmarried, and without children.
- Naturalism as Religion: Challies argues that "Naturalism is a full-blown worldview, and in reality, is a religious system that stands in direct opposition to Christianity.
- Puritan Library: The Shepherd’s Scrapbook has a nice 11 part series on learning from the Puritans, and how to develop a Puritan library. Excellent.
- Sola Fide: At Pulpit Magazine, John MacArthur discusses the controversy of "lordship salvation", and why real salvation involves not only justification, but sanctification and regeneration also. "But, as the Reformers said, while faith alone justifies, the faith that justifies is never alone."
The Bible influencing politics
I hate that I am posting about politics again today, but a recent story plays into the recent debate here on torture, the Christian response to it and what role faith should play in politics.
Nancy Pelosi misquotes the Bible in her objections to detainee treatment.
The humanity of the enemy
The Evangelical Outpost has a nice post on the balanced, Christian perspective regarding the enemy we face in the War on Terror.
Jesus is a girl?
One of the most thought provoking writers today is Ted Dekker. If you have never heard of him – you should.
When C.S. Lewis said we didn’t need more Christian writers, we need more writers who are Christians, I think he had someone like Dekker in mind. His adrenaline-laced novels can be enjoyed by anyone regardless of their faith background.
He has a blog post up about Jesus in art that I think is worth some attention. If nothing else the title should grab you – Jesus is a girl.
Humanity’s Enemies
You may not have noticed, but I put some widgets in the left margin which document what I consider to be three of humanity’s biggest killers. The first two are counters, while the last allows you to measure your own BMI and see how fat you are. I’m a 31, which is Obese I. Ouch. I’m 225, supposed to be 180. Again, the main enemies of humanity are:
- Islam – More people are killed by Islamists each year than in all 350 years of the Spanish Inquisition combined.
- Abortion – has killed almost 50 times more people than Hitler (over 250 million babies)
- Obesity – kills 300,000 people annually in the US
I would have included preventable diseases, but couldn’t get a good counter for it.
The God Delusion
UPDATE: Today (09/28), Al Mohler wrote a review of the book, and dedicated his daily radio show to the topic.
Richard Dawkins, evolutionary apologist, has a new book out entitled The God Delusion. Though I have not read it yet, one of our commenters provided a link to an interview with Dawkins on News Night Book Club. The interviewer asked some great questions that we should demand answers to from both ourselves and our ideological opponents, and Dawkins’ answers were equally interesting. I’ve listed the questions below.
However, one of my favorite reviews of his book (Dawkins the Dogmatist) makes the polemicist in me happy:
Incurious and rambling, Richard Dawkins’s diatribe against religion doesn’t come close to explaining how faith has survived the assault of Darwinism
Politics as usual, unfortunately
I am making a determined effort to not post about politics as much. It consumes so much of my blogging, but so little of my actual life. It was given a skewed picture of who I am and what I value, but a recent political ad will help me illustrate things I value.
What no hidden Holy Grail messages!
It appears the only thing the Mona Lisa was hiding was a pregnant belly.
Besides discovering that Lisa Gherandini, the subject of Mona Lisa, was either pregnant or had just given birth, researchers unveiled another huge fact after years of analysis and study – Leonardo was a “genius.”
Lucy’s Child May Make a Monkey Out of Evolutionists
A consistent pattern in hominid fossils is that evolutionists are constantly trying to fit them into their timeline, and are regularly discovering hominids that "must be" the oldest living humans. However, they often turn out to be just apes (see, for example, the Toumai skull), and creationists like Marvin Lubenow argue well that these are mostly extinct apes, and not really related to humans at all.
Case in point – the famous "lucy" discovered by the Leakeys is probably an ape, but just recently, "lucy’s child" has been discovered (see discussion on Nature’s website). All the data is not in, but this well preserved specimen (unlike the fragmentary Lucy) may very well dethrone yet another "ancient human fossil." So much faith in evolution, and so much speculation and incomplete and contradictory evidence.
Advice to the Christian Right
Joe at EO has some nice advice to us in the Christian Right. Here’s some good ones:
- I can’t make excuses for us on this one anymore: We have to take a firm stand against torture.
- Whenever you hear someone say that the religious right is attempting to install a theocracy, simply say “You’re an idiot” and move on.
My Two Cents (09/25)
- Crikey! Today’s wootcast has a funny tribute song to the Steve the Crocodile guy (the one that died recently). Click the grey daily wootcast bar.
- Evolution of Religion: Get ready for a conference that is a naturalistic evaluation of religion. Wait – is this the evolution of religion or the religion of evolution? Sounds like both.
My Two Cents (09/24)
Humor: Where You WON’T See Stephen Colbert Speaking Truthiness To Power- Humor: When jihadists use the wrong car.
- Humor: Islamic Extremist rage meter at Wuzzadem – no change.
Podcast: Play in new window
How to identify bad preaching
The Reformed Baptist has a decent post on idendifying bad preaching, though it shows signs of neo-fundamentalism. Here’s my summary list.
- The preacher fails to read or refer to scripture during the sermon.
- The preacher bases his points around some non-biblical metaphor or story, using scriptures to support the points of the story
- The preacher uses a scripture as a springboard, but then assembles his points from various other scriptures
- The preacher focuses on "how to" messages
- The preacher focuses only on felt needs, and not on sin
- The preacher fails to communicate any specific doctrine
- The preacher preaches moralism and God, but not Jesus (litmus test: Could the sermon be easily preached in a Synagogue?)
Their Two Cents v.3
Who wrote the following:
To take a line of fossils and claim that they represent a lineage is not a scientific hypothesis that can be tested, but an assertion that carries the same validity as a bedtime story – amusing, perhaps even instructive, but not scientific.
Their Two Cents v.2
Who said the following about the fossil record:
The history of most fossil species includes two features particularly inconsistent with gradualism: 1) Stasis. Most species exhibit no directional change during their tenure on earth. They appear in the fossil record looking much the same as when they disappear; Morphological change is usually limited and directionless. 2) Sudden Appearance. In any local area, a species does not arise gradually by the steady transformation of its ancestors; it appears all at once and “fully formed.”
I will post the answer tomorrow and bump this back to the top of the page. I will give you a hint: This one is a shocker. Would anyone care to take a guess?
Their Two Cents v. 1
Who said the following:
Now we see how the astronomical evidence leads to a biblical view of the origin of the world. The details differ, but the essential elements in the astronomical and biblical accounts of Genesis are the same: the chain of events leading to man commenced suddenly and sharply at a definite moment in time, in a flash of light and energy.
Answer after the jump. Hint – the person is not a Christian.
My Two Cents (09/20)
- Theocracy: EO recycles a great 2004 post on the liberal "theocracy" fear-mongering canard
- Theocons: A Catholic and former editor of First Things has a new book out about the Republican leanings towards "theocracy" (equal time ;), titled The Theocons.
- Gender Dysphoria: Gender identity confusion is either (a) on the rise due to increased emotional and developmental dysfunction, or (b) all of these previously "healthy" gay children now have a chance to outwardly abandon their gender ("Elementary schools face a difficult task when confronted by parents who want to enroll their young boy as a girl, or vice versa.")
- Global Warming: AIG has a nice post on why we need more research into global warming – "Manmade versus natural climatic warming is discussed. Evidence that the climate models are too sensitive to a doubling of carbon dioxide is given. The question of whether global warming will have a net harm is briefly touched upon. The conclusion is that more unbiased research is needed."
