Six evidences for the Noahic flood
AIG has a nice, simple article entitled Geologic Evidences for the Genesis flood. Here are the six, visit the link if you want to read more, and check out the entire table of contents from the latest edition of Answers Magazine – lots of cool YEC stuff:
- Fossils of sea creatures high above sea level due to the ocean waters having flooded over the continents.
- Rapid burial of plants and animals.
- Rapidly deposited sediment layers spread across vast areas.
- Sediment transported long distances.
- Rapid or no erosion between strata.
- Many strata laid down in rapid succession.
A German’s view of Islam
My uncle sends me conservative spam, and every tenth one is worth republishing. Here you go. I would alternately call this post "Why moderate Muslims can’t keep Islam from killing millions and threatening humanity as a modern-day, religious Nazism."
The Star of Bethlehem – the astronomical explanation
I was watching the Christmas special Miracles: Fact, Fictions and Faith (a Fox News special, check your local listing, it will repeat tomorrow, Christmas day), and as part of it, they interviewed Michael Molnar, astronomer and author of The Star of Bethlehem : The Legacy of the Magi. He had long accepted the astronomical explanations of others who had addressed this subject, until he came upon a coin from the Roman empire.
Molnar believes that the star was actually Jupiter, which was involved in an eclipse with the moon in 6 B.C. While the eclipse, or "occultation," would not have amplified Jupiter’s brightness, it would have indicated to astrologers that a king was coming.
My Two Cents #115 – Church Life
- Church builds outdoor sanctuary
- A Simi Valley church has decided to build their main sanctuary
outdoors, in order to allow people to enjoy God’s creation, and to make
it more like a 140 acre park that is open to the world, instead of a
closed compound. Nice. - How to Criticize – 9 Marks, the church development organization, has published 5 points on how to criticize others.
- Demon Deacons? (apologies to Duke U.) – Deacons in a 400 member Florida church are unhappy that they are being asked to fulfill the biblical role of deacon, since they are now having to give up control of the church and start serving widows and orphans. "We were running things just fine around here. I’m not about to start serving food, or fixing someone’s porch, I’ll tell you that right now." Maybe they should learn the difference between Deacon and Elder.
- Successful Diverse Communities seen – A recent Harvard study reveals that communities with increased ethnic and racial diversity actual suffer a worse sense of community, and worse community ties. The reason? Because diversity and shared humanity are not enough to produce a tight community – you need a better common thread than being human – you need common values and ideals. And where, according to the report, is the only place in American culture that diverse communities seem to work? Survey says – Evangelical megachurches. Liberals, eat your heart out.
My Two Cents #114 – Creationism
- Did Jesus Say He Created in Six Literal Days? – AIG argues from scripture that Jesus understood the Genesis story as literal, and in a young-earth sense. "’But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female.’
From this passage, we see that Jesus clearly taught that the creation
was young, for Adam and Eve existed “from the beginning,” not billions
of years after the universe and earth came into existence." - Abolition of Man? How Politics and Culture Have Been Dehumanized in the Name of Science – very good Heritage Foundation lecture on science and human value.
- Does Distant Starlight Prove the Universe Is Old? – AIG argues "no." "When big bang supporters use distant starlight to argue against
biblical [YE] creation, they are using a self-refuting argument since the
big bang has a light travel-time problem of its own." - OEC v. YEC – An OEC takes on the YEC stances. Very complete – but probably wrong ;)
Homeschoolers Help Huckabee In Iowa
Homeschoolers in Iowa are one of the reasons Mike Huckabee is doing so well according to a front page story in today’s Washington Post:
ELDORA, Iowa — Julie Roe, an early believer in Mike Huckabee, worked with what she had. With no buttons, no yard signs and no glossy literature from his nearly invisible Iowa campaign, she took a pair of scissors and cut out a photograph of the former Arkansas governor. She pasted it on a piece of paper, scribbled down some of his positions, made copies and launched the Huckabee for President campaign in rural Hardin County. Roe contacted friends in her home-schooling network and bought a newspaper advertisement for $38. She spread the word in the grocery store and the church foyer: "I would tell them about Mike Huckabee and they would say, ‘Who’s Mike Huckleberry?’ I’d say, ‘No, no, no, it’s Huckabee.’ "
Atheist Sunday School
Atheists in Palo Alto realize that their kids need regular instruction in morals and ethics – so they’ve started a nice secular humanist class, held, ironically, by a man with last name of "Bishop." They are mimicking similar programs in other cities, and sending their kids to secularist summer camps like Camp Quest. I have some observations.
My Two Cents #113 – Year-End Blowout
I have several stories in my blog feed that I didn’t get a chance to talk about, but I found interesting. I’m not sure how much more blogging I will be doing between now and 2008, so here are some stories to tide you over until then. Religion, politics, pop culture and the odd all rolled into one.
Good point on Huckabee
I enjoy Jim Geraghty’s coverage over at The Campaign Spot for National Review Online. He’s not shilling for any candidate. I don’t think he has made any endorsements. He just blogs what he sees and what he is sees out of Mike Huckabee is complicated.
Watching the GOP debate
As I watch the GOP debate online, it becomes very clear who is and who isn’t a top tier candidate.
If you ever want to figure that out, all you have to do is listen to their answers to the opening question. The moderator asked about national debt, the front-runners answered the question while promoting their policies. The lower level candidates used the question as a platform to talk about their issue: no taxes, trade with China, illegal immigration, being a crazy conspiracy loon, etc.
The Kosification of the GOP primaries
This is not my favorite post to write, as I find myself in disagreement with a number of bloggers that I respect and enjoy reading, but it seems the Republican primary is taking an ugly turn with the aid of many on my side of the political aisle. (I’m not voting for the Democrat, so I don’t really care how Obama and Hillary go at it.)
Mike Huckabee has surged to the top tier, even into a semi-front runner status. His acendency has brought out the long knives from many conservatives. The latest attack is one that goes against Huckabee’s history as a Baptist pastor and vilifies him for holding a Baptist doctrine. What makes the attack worse is that conservatives have stooped to getting “dirt” from The Daily Kos and using arguments proposed by radical feminist against Christianity and Huckabee.
All you need to know about the Colorado shootings
If you trying to track down information on the continually evolving story from Colorado about the shootings that took place at the missionary training facility and the church, look no further than Christianity Today’s Liveblog. Scroll through their recent stories for links and commentary pertaining to the killings.
Ignorance waits beyond your screen
As you read this, you are one of the more educated members of American society. You are also one of the most politically informed and active, maybe some would say obsessed.
I don’t say that as a compliment, I say that as a reminder. As we are looking at all the political news that comes across the blogs, most of America is watching the latest reality show or the newest doctor drama. They don’t really care about politics right now.
An Open Letter to Richard Dawkins
Father Jonathan Morris has an open letter to Richard Dawkins, whom he recently debated over the role of religion and atheism in society.
The stars of Narnia
When the children visit Narnia, much is made of the stars. Lucy remarks at how different they are than those of England. Caspian makes secretive roof-top trips with his old tutor Dr. Cornelius to “study the stars” while actually discussing the true history of Narnia.
Could C.S. Lewis have been drawing our attention heavenward for a deeper meaning to explain his hodge podge of mythological creatures and characters in his Chronicles of Narnia? Lewis’ scholar Michael Ward believes each book in the series can be explained through the planets of Narnia.
My Two Cents #112 – Atheism
Some news from around the web:
- The New Atheism – Excerpts from Marshall’s book The Truth Behind the New Atheism, and discussion of how atheism is built on the "Enlightenment myth" (also debunked in Stark’s book on the Biblical origins of Modern science)
- An atheist’s unexpected journey to faith – Relevant magazine, one of the most useful and thoughtful Christian ezines (and podcasts), has a nice story about one atheist’s path to faith.
- The Atheist’s Riddle – one armchair philosopher’s ongoing challenge to atheists – "the laws of physics and chemistry do not explain the existence of information."
- Atheism and human extermination – Creation Ministries International discusses neuroscientist Dr John Reid’s chilling speech on why the logical outcome of evolutionary thinking MUST be a reduction of the human population, and specific parts of humanity at that. Once again, when evolution and its bed-buddy atheism are applied logically, without Christian and human ethical restraints, they lead to where all such lies have always led in history – to atrocity.
- Top 15 Quotes By Famous Atheists – one of my favorite sites, The List Universe, published this controversial set of quotes – too bad most of the quotes didn’t come from actual atheists, and the atheists and religious people pointed this out.
Keeping Marriage Public
In a nice article in First Things, Michael Fragoso responds to a NYT article which attacked the idea of public marriage by taking on these common anti-marriage claims:
- Why do people–gay or straight–need the state’s permission to marry? For
most of Western history, they didn’t, because marriage was a private
contract between two families. - The parents’ agreement to the match, not the approval of church or state, was what confirmed its validity.
- For 16 centuries, Christianity also defined the validity of a marriage on the basis of a couple’s wishes.
- If two people claimed they had exchanged marital vows–even out alone by
the haystack–the Catholic Church accepted that they were validly
married. - In 1215, the Church decreed that a ‘licit’ marriage must take place in church.
- But people who married illicitly had the same rights and obligations as
a couple married in church: their children were legitimate; the wife
had the same inheritance rights; the couple was subject to the same
prohibitions against. - Not until the 16th century did European states begin to require that marriages be performed under legal auspices.
- In part, this was an attempt to prevent unions between young adults whose parents opposed their match.
How much faith is too much?
Being an evangelical Christian, I’m all for issues of faith being discussed in the public arena. However that does not mean that my vote for president will be determined by what a candidate believes about women pastors or their interpretation of the book of Genesis.
I didn’t want to say this..
but, yeah, Hugh Hewitt is getting pretty bad lately in his pro-Romney spin.
I’m not going to call him a sychophant, but to paraphrase Hugh himself in his review of Romney’s speech: “anyone who denies he can see sychophantism from where he’s standing is not to be trusted as an analyst.”
Romney’s speech
Just in case your curious and have some time (I don’t), here’s the full text of his speech this morning.
