The fool has said in his heart, 'there is no God.'
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Monday, November 28, 2005
Former FEMA Director Michael Brown starts a business teaching people not to be like Michael Brown! Why would anyone want to hire this guy as a consultant? I wouldn’t hire Brown as a security guard let alone a disaster consultant.
Labels: Humor, Miscellaneous
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Tuesday, November 22, 2005
"…After severing the teenager's head with a tomahawk, Mr Roughan wrapped the torso in a carpet, dragged it under the house and stabbed it repeatedly with the knife... "
Labels: Morality
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Saturday, November 19, 2005
But, to speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at one no government, but at once a better government. Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it.Being a voice is decisive to civil stewardship, justice, and liberty. Thoreau's unwillingness to compromise was not a sign of perversity and anarchy—but of principle. However, this principal has faded away and unfortunately, the contemporary Church as a whole has apparently ignored our stewardship to this country and the protection and preservation of our principles. As the Church grows in numbers and power, our moral grounding and cultural values slowly decay. Why is it that “mega-churches” are uprising throughout America; yet pro-choice and homosexual advocates prevail in legislative battles?
We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us, then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.*
Labels: Miscellaneous
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Friday, November 11, 2005
Greg Koukl has written a noteworthy argument for the existence of God through the reality of evil. The existence of evil has probably been the most difficult obstacle in my personal belief. However, the existence of evil is not a good argument against the existence of God. I hear this argument by atheists frequently.
The argument against God based on the problem of evil can only be raised if some form of moral objectivism is true. Morals, therefore, exist. I need not give a complete taxonomy of ethical guidelines to make my case. If there is even one moral absolute, it invites the question, "What kind of world view explains the existence of this moral rule?"I think this brings challenges to not just atheists but to theists. If evil exists—God exits. However, which world view has the best explanation for this? I side with Christianity, but Christians have a lot “splannen” to do with some of the things in the OT and historical events in the world. Nevertheless, I think it can be done, but there is no “silver bullet” for the problem of evil (though I wish there was).
Labels: Morality, Philosophy
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Monday, November 07, 2005
There has been a lot of confusion about Intelligent Design going around the blogsphere. Personally, I support ID; but I wouldn’t be dogmatic about the whole subject. Apologia Christi has already posted a question and answer blog for the top questions about ID, and they are short and to the point. Perhaps if proponents and opponents just quickly reviewed them, they can take a more effectual approach on the subject. For the most part, all I have heard against ID is name calling—this is just a trick and accomplishes nothing.
It would appear that atheism dogmatically opposes ID for philosophical reasons. I think atheists should not fear ID. If there is no God (personal or not), experiments for ID should come up with a big fat zero. If ID does come up with a zero, then I guess all its proponents look foolish. Either way, this has turned into a philosophical debate, rather than a scientifically debate."Very simply, science employs induction to develop theories about how the natural world works. We make observations and draw conclusions. Darwin did this on his trip to the Galapagos Islands and his conclusion was the theory of evolution that has since become the reigning paradigm in science. In the very same way, intelligent design employs inductive reasoning. Observing cases in the natural world that appear irreducibly complex and designed, some scientists conclude that there is a designer. It’s the same method used in science every day. Based on that, I think ID should be taught as a rival explanatory theory in public schools."
"Now, religion only comes in when we try to determine the nature of the designer. That extends beyond the evidence science provides. We might get some clues, but who the designer is belongs in the realm of religion. But this isn’t what proponents of ID want to teach. We only want the science to be taught."
"As it stands now with no rival theories in public schools, a philosophical or pseudo-religious point of view is implicitly part of the curriculum because evolution as a random, purposeless process is explicitly naturalistic or, we might even say, atheistic."If the same process of induction can lead to a rival theory that isn’t allowed to be taught in public schools, the exclusion is a result of religion or philosophy, not science."
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Friday, November 04, 2005
[O]n the cut-flowers thesis, those who believe morality is a valuable human institution, and those who wish to avoid moral disaster, will make every effort to preserve its connection with religion and the religious belief which forms its roots. The apologetic force of the cut-flowers thesis becomes even stronger if the religionist makes the additional claim that morality is presently in a withering stage. This claim takes on a sense of urgency when the decline in morality is identified with the muddle in which civilization now finds itself.
The Liberal views that took root in the 60’s have begun coming to full fruition. The Sexual Revolution as the Women’s Movement called it took hold. How they ever figured it would benefit women is beyond me, but they pushed it. Then the Gay movements arrived, and took hold in a militant form that has an agenda to have our children taught that their lifestyle is just fine, and should be explored. Reading some of those ads, it also became evident that roots had strongly taken in our society. It is quite evident that having “fun” is more important than traditional; values such as hard work and fidelity.Then the massive thrust of television and theaters that taught these same people that sex, and alternative lifestyles, marital infidelity, and divorce are all to be accepted as normal.
The violence from Hollywood has also inundated the minds of our society, and has taken root as well. And even further, is the Liberal PC movement that takes into regard many of these lifestyles and embraces them as acceptable, all the while bashing Christianity and its value system. We have allowed in this nation to have the Bible, and mention of Christian values taken from society and have allowed all these other immoral and destructive behaviors and lifestyles to become seen as normal.
Every advancement we have made, and every accouterment we now enjoy has come about through the use of our reason. Faith has never moved a mountain, but human brain power and technology can. We advance through a process of intellectual accretion. Reason is, in fact, the faculty that defines us as being human. To insist that reason is 'limited' and that there are other methods (meaning faith) of acquiring knowledge is to reject the efficacy of reason simply because it does not allow us to treat flights of the imagination as tangible realities. The person advancing such a notion is not a person comfortable with reality and seeks an escape from it. In order to escape the sometimes discomforting facts of reality and contemporary living, such people must circumvent reason and introduce a non-life value in its place
For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:
Which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;
Labels: Apologetics, Knowledge, Morality
