10 Commandments of Ethical Witness are peace-loving but controversial
The Christian Muslim Forum, an interfaith group, has released what it calls Ethical Guidelines for Christian and Muslim Witness in Britain (PDF). Interestingly, some more conservative Christians don't like a couple of the provisions because they fear that it could be used to stifle criticism or even moral condemnation of spirituality that contradicts what some would call basic human rights.
If you'd like to hear a spirited debate about the guidelines between a moderate Christian, a moderate Muslim, a Hindu, a Buddhist, and a conservative Christian, check out the excellent debate at Muslim, Christian, Hindu debate on evangelism.
What some are calling Ten Commandments of Mission? are after the jump, with my highlights and brief commentary.
Guide: Conservative Social Action Blogs
I subsribe to way more blogs than I read. I wanted to pare down my political blogs to just the few that would help me take action against the alarming initiatives of the Obama administration. Here's my latest list.
Last Update: 11/20/09
Oregonians chant: “Al Gore’s a liar!”
Perhaps the argument is over, the science is in – global warming is a hoax? Not yet, but here's some footage you won't see on MSNBC – Oregonians unwelcoming Al Gore to Portland. I hope people are waking up the the climate change hoax.
Oh, and don't miss Al Gore is a big fat lying weenie and wrong about climate change.
Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience
Today, a coalition of leaders from the three major branches of Christianity – Evangelical (Protestant), Catholic, and Orthodox, approved and released The Manhattan Declaration. This is an important statement for conservative Christians about what we hold as important and worth working towards in life and society. It also will serve as one of the rallying points around which we will take back society from the socialist boobs running the show. However, I'm, though I think the Declaration is well done, I am not sure the origianal signers are a broad enough representation of even conservative Christianity. I mean, I know that liberal Christians won't sign on (though I see Ron Sider there), but even the Declaration of Independence had more signers than 10!
It defends three central truths:
- the sanctity of human life
- the dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife
- the rights of conscience and religious liberty.
Read the Preamble after the jump…
Al Gore is a big fat lying weenie and wrong about climate change
I couldn't think of a good title for this great illustration, found on iMaksim's blog. So I went obnoxious – but also, it turns out that the infamous and debunked CO2/temperature graph from Al's movie was not only wrong, it may have been done ON PURPOSE (i.e. 'they lied.'). Happy Holidays. I hope the health care bill fails. Really, it's bad on so many levels, it will doom our economy and our healthcare. It's lunacy. Moonbattery. Stupidity in hope's clothing.
The Age of Reason = The Age of Infidelity
Atheists and secularists are fond of quoting the articulate Thomas Paine, author of the free-thinkers creed Age of Reason. Few know, however, that a founding father wrote a rebuttal in 1801, which American Vision has reprinted. Elias Boudinot's book The Age of Revelation was seen as a powerful rebuttal. And now you can read it too. Below is the blurb about the book from American Vision.
How many times have you
heard some skeptic claim that this or that non-Christian was a Founding
Father of America? Thomas Jefferson is one of their patron saints, and
yet he wasn’t even present during the drafting of the Constitution. Of
course, Jefferson was the primary author of the Declaration of
Independence which states emphatically that God is the Creator and the
Judge of the world. The ACLU plays down these words. Benjamin Franklin
is another one skeptics love to trot out as an anti-religious Founding
Father. But it was Franklin who stood up at the Constitutional
Convention and quoted Psalm 127:1 as a warning to the delegates:
“Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it.”
Not much is said about these remarks by Franklin.
The reality of abortion
A video describing a first-trimester abortion — produced by Priests for Life and published on YouTube, is getting a lot of deserved attention. They show how such an abortion is done with a model. I pray that more people will have their consciences awakened.
The Darwin Myth: The Life and Lies of Charles Darwin
What is it in us that likes to poke at the monkey in the cage? Insecurity, playfulness, original sin? The monkey I love to torment is the evolutionary believer – why? Because I once was one. As a trained Biochemist, I found creationists maddeningly ignorant – until I started reading up on the facts (or lack thereof) and realized that it was *I* who had been brainwashed (See On Leaving Evolution and Conned by Evolution or even Mass Delusion)
Books like this new one, The Darwin Myth: The Life and Lies of Charles Darwin, are aimed squarely at uncritical believers, evaluating Darwinism not only from the scientific perspective, but the sociological and historical as well. Here's a little of the description from the publishers, American Vision:
In The Darwin Myth, Wiker reveals:
- Why Darwin didn't "discover" evolution
- How Darwin set out to create a godless version of evolution
- Why many of his best friends and allies criticized Darwin's theory, and how he never refuted their objections
- How "social Darwinism" is not a misapplication of Darwinism, but is Darwinism
- Why Darwin's theory supported natural slavery, an institution he abhorred
- How much of what we know about Darwin comes from his Autobiography–which at key points is downright misleading
- How Darwin helped make ideological atheism the battle cry of science
Instructive and illuminating, The Darwin Myth casts aside
Darwinism's politically correct veneer and offers a critical,
scientific analysis of Darwin's life and his history-changing theory.
Motorola DROID Pros and Cons
Here's my review of the phone so far. For CONS that have a workaround, I inserted a *. I'll cover them in a future post on software for the DROID. Potential deal-breakers in red.
PROS:
- Beautiful high resolution screen
- Smooth scrolling
- Good implementation of virtual keyboard
- Browser does zoom well (though no pinch)
- Good selection of free apps
- Good video recorder w/ easy upload to YouTube
- Vibrating feedback works well
- Free Google turn by turn Navigation
- Fast processor, very responsive
- Bigger screen, small form factor – same width as iPhone, not much longer, same thickness.
Analyzing the 6 C’s of Atheism – Part III: The 7 C’s of Christianity
The Seven C’s of the Christian WorldView of History
These Seven C’s are nicely described at The Seven C’s.
I won’t go into detail, and you can purchase the book at right, but here they are:
- Creation - the creation of the universe by God
- Corruption - the sin of Adam and Eve
- Catastrophe - the flood of Noah
- Confusion - the confusion of languages at Babel
- Christ - the birth of Christ
- Crucifixion - the substitutionary death of Christ
- Consummation - the return of Christ
This doesn’t really contrast with the 6 C’s of Atheism, since this is a historical outline, not a list of the virtues of the Christian world view. But I thought that another list of C’s was interesting.
Some Obama Jokes
Q: What’s the main problem with Barack Obama jokes?
A: His followers don’t think they’re funny, and everyone else knows they’re not jokes.
Q: What’s the difference between Obama’s cabinet and a penitentiary?
A: One’s full of tax evaders, blackmailers, liars and threats to society. The other is for the ones that got caught.
Q: What’s the difference between Rahm Emanuel and a carp?
A: One is a scum sucking bottom feeder and the other is a fish.
Q: What’s the difference between Greta Van Susteren and Barack Obama?
A: Greta only talks out of one side of her mouth.
Q: What does Barack Obama call lunch with a convicted felon?
A: A fund raiser.
Q: What’s the difference between a large pizza and the typical Obama backer?
A: The pizza can feed a family of four.
Q: What’s the difference between a zoo and the White House?
A: A zoo has an African lion and the White House has a lyin’ African.
Q: If Pelosi and Obama were in a boat and it started to sink, who would be saved?
A: America!
Q: What’s the difference between Obama and Hitler?
A: Hitler wrote his own book.
Q: What’s another difference between Obama and Hitler?
A: Hitler got the Olympics to come to his country.
Q: Why doesn’t Obama pray?
A: It’s impossible to read the teleprompter with your eyes closed.
Why do some Christians become atheists?
I am exploring the mystery of why people leave faith for my upcoming book, and am also doing some great research by reading the following:
- Walking Away from Faith: Unraveling the Mystery of Belief and Unbelief
- Quitting Church: Why the Faithful are Fleeing and What to Do about It
- unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity… and Why It Matters
- They Like Jesus but Not the Church: Insights from Emerging Generations
However, in response to a pretty good atheist podcast at Reasonable Doubts (Explicit), I was asked to consider this question:Â “When a Christian becomes an ‘apostate,’ (unbeliever), how do Christians explain it?”
Quote of the Day – Revival and anguish
The video below is interesting, though a little hard core for me – it both appeals and repulses. But I like this quote:
All true passion comes out of anguish.
Analyzing the 6 C’s of Atheism – Part II
In Part I, I linked to August Berkshire’s Six C’s of Atheism interview, and discussed points 1-3. Here’s the audio again, with my commentary on parts 4-6.
Pascal’s Wager Part IV – debunking minor objections
In Part I,I discussed Pascal’s Wager as a risk calculation, similar to how we estimate risk in project management. In Part II, I attempted to debunk the anti-intellectual and narrow view that all religions are essentially equally improbable and ridiculous. In Part III, I used the criteria that I suggested for evaluating faith systems to show that there is a difference between the faith claims of Chrisitainity, Islam, Zeus, and the FSM.
In this last part, I address some remaining objections, and recommend to you Christian Philosopher Peter Kreeft’s book Christianity for Modern Pagans: Pascal’s Pensees.
Analyzing the 6 C’s of Atheism – Part I
Many of us Christians may be familiar with the “Seven C’s” overview of the Christian World View, but it seems that there is a Six C’s of Atheism, as August Berkshire, . Berkshire also calls his list the ‘virtues’ of atheism. After the jump, listen to him talk through the points.
Obama and unemployment – “Mission accomplished”
Here's a nice cartoon that expresses how we see Obama's claims at saving jobs. Reminds me of the picture below it.
