Tough words or patience?
When George W. Bush won a disputed and controversial election in 2000, many on the left were quick to throw around words like "stolen," "rigged," and "illegitimate." Despite the fact that a media recount showed Bush widening his vote lead in Florida, to this day liberals feel no qualms about claiming that Bush stole the election and shredded the Constitution.
Contrast that with the hesitance of many of those same individuals to refer to the election in Iran with the same terminology. They caution that we should not jump to conclusions or make hasty statements. We should refrain from rhetoric that would make the situation worse. Why does this situation call for patience and understanding, while the other demanded the toughest of words?
How can you refuse to accept an election in one of the freest nations in the history of civilization, yet be somewhat trusting a murderous, racist, terror-supporting, theocratic dictator would participate in a fair election. It strikes me as odd, and a bit troubling, that so many in our country are more accepting of votes in states with dictators (Iran, Venezuela, Saddam's Iraq, etc.) than they are of America's elections.
Another tragic murder, another political football
Yesterday, a right-wing veteran and white supremacist who hated President Obama, pushed the conspiracy theory that his birth certificate was forged, criticized the media for their attacks on George W. Bush and Sarah Palin, was influenced by Fox News and conservative talk radio, had ties to anti-government groups like all those at the tea parties and had a screed republished at right-wing message board Free Republic murdered an African American union security guard, which should cause us all to accept the recent DHS memo warning of an uptick in domestic terrorism from anti-government veterans as well as encourage us to support tighter gun laws and union legislation.
Which is strange because on Wednesday an anti-semitic, Christian-hating, supporter of 9/11 conspiracy theories, registered Democrat, who has written about the evils of "neo-cons" like Bill O'Reilly, Rupert Murdoch, George W. Bush and John McCain, while blaming Christianity for the demise of the Roman Empire and Western Civilization also killed a guard at the Holocaust Museum and may have had plans for other targets including offices for the conservative magazine Weekly Standard and a Fox News studio.
My Two Cents #122 – Atheism: Unpopular, FSM, Dawkins, Violence & Christianity
Here’s some recent stuff:
- Why atheism is politically unpopular in the US (Economist) – “One problem is that they are hardly a cohesive group. Another issue is simply branding. ‘Atheist’ has an ugly ring in American ears and it merely defines what people are not. ‘Godless’ is worse, its derogatory attachment to ‘communist’ may never be broken. ‘Humanist’ sounds too hippyish. A few have taken to calling themselves ‘Brights’ for no good reason and to widespread mirth. And ‘secular’ isn’t quite the word either; one can be a Christian secularist. But another failing of the irreligious movement has been its tendency, frequently, to pick the wrong fights.”
My Two Cents: RSS Overload addition
As I said yesterday, too many good stories and posts, too little time. So you get the sheer joy of sneaking a peak at the type of stories that catch my attention in my RSS feeder. As I said yesterday, comment on anything you see that grabs your attention.
No mere two cents, this, my friend, is a whole dollar
What happens when I get sick for a few days, get bogged down with loads of work, have a huge lock-in at church to plan for, preach a few sermons, try to apply for some seminary scholarships, and find my RSS feed has way too many blog posts and news articles saved just waiting for me to expand on them with my *expert* opinion? You get this fantastic group of links. There’s something for everybody here, more than likely a couple of somethings for everybody.
My Two Cents #119 – Global Warming – or not
- Warmer planet can support glacial ice (UCSD) – New research challenges the generally accepted belief that substantial
ice sheets could not have existed on Earth during past super-warm
climate events. The study by researchers at Scripps Institution of
Oceanography at UC San Diego provides strong evidence that a glacial
ice cap, about half the size of the modern day glacial ice sheet,
existed 91 million years ago during a period of intense global warming. - Global temperatures have plateaued (the Australian) – "Actually, there has been cooling, if you take 1998 as your point of
reference. If you take 2002 as your point of reference, then
temperatures have plateaued. This is certainly not what you’d expect if
carbon dioxide is driving temperature because carbon dioxide levels
have been increasing but temperatures have actually been coming down
over the last 10 years….The head of the IPCC has
actually acknowledged it. He talks about the apparent plateau in
temperatures so far this century. So he recognizes that in this
century, over the past eight years, temperatures have plateaued …
This is not what you’d expect."
My Two Cents #117 – Marriage and Family
Why wives should submit
- Tim Challies has a nice list of "ten proofs that submission precedes
the Fall and is part of God’s natural order", taken from Wayne Grudem’s
Evangelical Feminism and Biblical Truth.- Temporary Divorce for the children
- couples in Spain are gaming the educational system by divorcing so
that their children can get to the top of the list for entry into good
schools. - Japan’s population problem caused by pornography – A new study shows that the declining population in Japan is due in large part to men abandoning sex with women for masturbation and sex toys. "Pornography, masturbation aids, Internet porn sites and social networks that lead to "virtual relationships", soaplands and Japan’s widespread prostitution industry all allow men outlets for sexual fulfillment while not fulfilling other needs, such as procreation. The alarming trend has led medical experts in Japan to coin a new term for a condition they call "vaginal ejaculation dysfunctional disorder." Perhaps Planned Parenthood can add this to their family planning regimen – might be cheaper than condoms.
A little something for everyone
Most of these I wanted to write full posts on, but work is crazy so I haven’t had the chance. I don’t want to wait too long to get these up and out there, so here you go.
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 ;)
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.
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.
My Two Cents #111 – Creationism
Some great stuff from AIG:
- Ken Miller and 48 to 46 chromosome fusion – AIG attempts to rebut Ken Miller’s interesting, challenging, obnoxious and superficial claim that the chimp chromosomes obviously fused to create to create the 46 chromosomes we see in man. Peppered with weak appeals to biblical authority and Miller’s "blindness," the article nevertheless does a decent job of pointing out the superficiality of Miller’s claims, and the difficulties with his assumption when looking at the gene level.
- Neanderthals and Language – more evidence that neanderthals were merely human, as creationists have long claimed (read "a testable creationist claim supported by science"). Interesting that papers in Nature and Science disagree, but because the Nature data disagrees with evolutionary assumptions, scientists are claiming that the DNA was contaminated in that study, but not the other.
- Science confused about ice ages – this article is a nice overview of the current disagreements and confusion over the ice ages, and how the YEC view makes for a much cleaner and sensical explanation – Occam’s razor applies, and the YEC biblical view of a single, short (<1000 year) post-flood ice age, comes out as simplest. I read this and was very convinced by the YEC explanation.
My Two Cents #110 – Darwinism
- Nazi/Christian claims shame atheists – Discovery blog argues that we should encourage the debate with atheists like Christopher Hitchens who like to claim that Christianity was behind the Nazi ideology, because even a superficial look at history shows clearly Hitler’s anti-Christian sentiments, and the link between Nazi eugenics and Darwinism’s "scientific" support for such practices.
What’s so great about Christianity? Dinesh D’Souza has written a nice book in response to the frontal assault of atheist loudmouths like Hitchens, Dawkins and Harris, who make such vapid and ignorant historical assertions as Nazism’s Christian foundations. Al Mohler says that D’Souza’s best argument against atheism is this:
"D’Souza’s strongest analysis comes when he considers the true
character of the new atheism. It is, he suggests, a ‘pelvic revolt
against God.’ In other words, it is a revolt against Christian
morality–especially sexual morality."
- Darwinism and Imperialism – Ben Stein has a nice post on the cultural times in which Darwin formed his theory, and how it fit perfectly with the white euro-imperialism of the time, helping them to justify their takeover of "less developed" races and cultures.
My Two Cents #109 – Creationism
- Noah and the Ark
- AIG has a nice, definitive discussion of the feasibility of Noah’s Ark, and why belief in such a historical event is not impossible, and may even be probable. Answers many objections, though probably won’t satisfy hardcore skeptics. - YEC Radio Dating – Here’s a nice complete Young Earth Creationist overview of why C14 and other radio dating methods do not necessarily indicate that the world is old – it all depends on your assumptions. Many scientists neglect the real big counter-indications with radio dating, including the problems of conflicting results between methods, and the dating of known modern items that dating says are ancient. Evidence for a young universe does exist and is thought provoking.
- Creationism and Human Rights – It seems that the Council of Europe, Europe’s central human rights body, has declared creationism to be a threat to human rights. Al Mohler covers this absurdity nicely.
My Two Cents #108 – GLBT
Some recent articles on gay/lesbian issues:
- Gay by choice - Mother Jones had a nice long article discussing the politics and science around homosexuality, including insight into the workings of NARTH, and a short interview with an ex-gay man who has gone through reparative therapy, and describes his journey. Controversial, but interesting.
He also didn’t know that his same-sex attraction, far from being inborn
and inescapable, was a thirst for the love that he had not received
from his father, a cold and distant man prone to angry outbursts,
coupled with a fear of women kindled by his intrusive and overbearing
mother, all of which added up to a man who wanted to have sex with
other men just so he could get some male attention. He didn’t
understand any of this, he tells me, until he found a reparative
therapist whom he consulted by phone for nearly 10 years, attended
weekend workshops, and learned how to "be a man."
My Two Cents #107 – Entertainment
Cruel Logic – A short film and soon to come feature film based on this idea – a serial killer takes the argument for subjective morality to the test – kidnapping liberal subjectivist moralist professors, he asks each one to give him a good reason why he should not dismember and kill them.Since a subjective moralist can’t really argue for any sure morality, each is killed. It’s a little simplistic, but a nice idea, and certainly something that sends home the message that ideas have consequences, and those passing around dangerous ideas should face the consequences themselves, rather than pushing them out onto society and victimizing it.
All the stories, none of the fluff
Well not much fluff, but maybe just a little.
I have about a dozen or so articles on my blog feed that are interesting to me and I want to blog about them and point them out, but I don’t have the time to develop too much around them. With that being said, here is a lovely link dump on various topics.
My Two Cents #105 – Science and Environment
Ive been down with the flu for the last five days, so haven’t posted, and still too tired to think much. So here’s a link dump on some recent science and tech stuff.
- Why MOST modern published scientific studies are wrong – Robert Hotz of the Wall Street Journal’s Science Journal discusses why most scientific studies are tainted by sloppy analysis and wrong conclusions (now you can see why Why I Trust Science in Principle, but not in Practice)
These flawed findings, for the most part, stem not from fraud or formal
misconduct, but from more mundane misbehavior: miscalculation, poor
study design or self-serving data analysis. "There is an increasing
concern that in modern research, false findings may be the majority or
even the vast majority of published research claims," Dr. Ioannidis
said. "A new claim about a research finding is more likely to be false
than true."The hotter the field of research the more likely its published findings should be viewed skeptically, he determined. [good advice].
My Two Cents #104 – Atheism
Here are some recent headlines regarding atheism:
- The Unenlightened Atheist
- EO takes issue with the atheist claim that atheism is linked with the
Enlightenment, when it is clear that Enlightenment thinkers were
absolutely NOT anti-faith.
Many atheists who make this mistake are simply unaware of Western
intellectual history. For the rationalists of the Enlightenment era
were able to trust in reason precisely because they were
theists or deists and believed in a transcendent, rational God. To
think otherwise was considered, as the philosophers often noted, the
height of absurdity.
