Category: In The News!

An intellectual bombshell dropped last week when British professor Antony Flew, for decades one of the world’s leading philosophers of atheism, publicly announced that he now affirms the existence of a deity.

To be sure, Mr. Flew has not become an adherent of any creed. He simply believes that science points to the existence of some sort of intelligent designer of the universe. He says evidence from DNA research convinces him that the genetic structure of biological life is too complex to have evolved entirely on its own. Though the 81-year-old philosopher believes Darwinian theory explains a lot, he contends that it cannot account for how life initially began.

We (the Editorial Board of the Dallas Morning News) found this conversion interesting in light of last year’s controversy regarding proposed revisions to the state’s (Texas) high school biology textbooks. Our view then was that while religion must be kept out of science classes, intellectual honesty demands that when science produces reliable data challenging the prevailing orthodoxies, students should be taught them.

We were bothered by Harvard geneticist Richard Lewontin’s statement that for scientists, materialism must be “absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.” That’s called stacking the deck.

Mr. Flew may be dead wrong, but it’s refreshing to see that an academic of his stature is unafraid to let new facts change his mind. The philosopher told The Associated Press that if admirers are upset with his about-face, then “that’s too bad. My whole life has been guided by the principle of Plato’s Socrates: Follow the evidence, wherever it leads.”

If the scientific data are compelling enough to cause an atheist academic of Antony Flew’s reputation to recant much of his life’s work, why shouldn’t Texas schoolchildren be taught the controversy?

Editorial Board
Dallas Morning News
December 15, 2004

Analysis:

I came across this four month old admission by Antony Flew just this past week. The web site where I found it had an accompanying article with the following statement concerning Jonathan Witt of the Discovery Institute: “Witt noted that Darwin and his contemporaries thought a single cell was a simple blob of protoplasm and that it wouldn’t have been difficult for nature to randomly produce something so simple. ‘In those days the cell was a black box, a mystery. But in the 20th century, scientists were able to open that black box and peek inside,’ he notes. ‘There they found not a simple blob, but a world of complex circuits, miniaturized motors and digital code. We now know that even the simplest functional cell is almost unfathomably complex, containing at least 250 genes and their corresponding proteins.'”

While we appreciate the fact that some evolutionists are beginning to recognize that complexity indicates intelligent design, it is a contention creationists have made from the very beginning of the controversy. As the Psalmist wrote, “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well” (Psalm 139:14).

GENEVA (Reuters) – North Korea represses religion and has an official ideology that is a form of secular humanism, a U.S. government agency said on Thursday.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said interviews with North Korean refugees showed a pattern of arrest, imprisonment, torture and execution for public expressions of religion.

“Any reappearance of Christianity, possibly permeating from northern China to where many thousands of North Koreans fled from famine in the 1990s, is rigorously repressed,” USCIRF North Korean researcher David Hawk told a news conference.

Only two active churches, with one more to be built, and one Buddhist temple were known to exist – all in the capital, Pyongyang, and apparently serving the foreign diplomatic and business community there.

USIRC vice-chair Felice D. Gaer said a full report on the findings from interviews with some 30 ordinary North Koreans among some 6,000 who have escaped to South Korea since 2000 would be published later this year.

Analysis:

With all the attacks that are made against religion in general, and Christianity in particular, it is interesting to note that the country which is considered the most antagonistic to human rights claims to be a humanistic in philosophy.

Continue reading “U.S. Team Says N. Korea Suppresses Religion” →

A MINISTER from Belsize Park has put together the stories of women of all faiths who chose to take up the cloth.

Uta Blohm has compiled testimonies from rabbis, ministers and priests for her book Religious Traditions and Personal Stories which is published this week.

The Lutheran minister (Uta Blohm), who lives in Belsize Park Gardens, spent six years researching the paths that different women across London and the southeast have taken to become ordained….

…”My advice to any woman who is considering a career as a rabbi, a priest or a minister would be to follow your dreams,” she said. “But be prepared for the road ahead, be prepared to dedicate your life and be ready for those surprised faces and the looks of shock.”

Her research revealed there were as many advantages as problems encountered by the women members of the clergy.

“Some people actually go out of their way to make sure that they get a man to conduct their service. But on the flip side, some people specifically ask for a woman to do the service. There are many advantages for lady rabbis and priests, for a start many women feel more comfortable discussing certain matters with another woman.”

Rene Butler
via Ham&High 24, UK

Analysis:

There is a reason why women who seek to become “church leaders” are received with “surprised faces and looks of shock.”

Continue reading “Women Who Fought to Become Faith Leaders” →

He’s set 62 world records, doing such things as flying around the world in a hot air balloon and transatlantic sailing. But becoming the first person to fly solo around the world without refueling is Steve Fossett’s favourite accomplishment yet.

“I worked on it for such a long time, and it involved a lot of people. It’s an airplane flight, and I want to be an accomplished pilot. So this is right up at the top as far as an achievement for me,” Fossett told CTV’s Canada AM Friday from Salina, Kansas.

It took the millionaire adventurer 67 hours to make the 37,000-kilometre trip around the world. He did it in the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, a single-engine jet that’s been called “a fuel tank with room for one.” Its cockpit is two metres long and is equipped with 13 tanks that can carry nearly 2,500 kilograms of fuel.

CTV.ca News Staff

Analysis:

Fossett’s successful attempt to circumnavigate the world in 67 hours reminds me of another aviator who is at the forefront of many people’s mind due to the success of a recent Hollywood movie called The Aviator.

Continue reading “Fossett Delighted with World Record Flight” →

Friday afternoon Debbie, me, Kendra, Jeremiah and one of Kendra’s friends jumped into the car for a last minute trip to Austin. My niece was playing in the high school basketball playoffs, and Kendra’s softball game had been cancelled. A mad dash when school let out got us to the game just at tip off. On the way home everyone, (except for yours truly), slept. (By the way, Heather’s team won, and made it to the state quarterfinals before losing yesterday).

The trip to Austin seemed much quicker than the long road home that night. Partly because we were fresh, but mostly because a good portion of the journey was taken up with a rather challenging conversation we had.

Continue reading “Christian Ethics” →

“Atlanta – A federal judge on Thursday ordered a suburban Atlanta school system to remove stickers from its high school biology textbooks that call evolution ‘theory, not a fact,’ saying the disclaimers are an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.

“‘By denigrating evolution, the School Board appears to be endorsing the well-known prevailing alternative theory, creationism or variations thereof, even though the sticker does not specifically reference any alternative theories,’ U.S. District Judge Clarence Cooper said.

“The stickers were put inside the books’ front covers by Cobb County public school officials in 2002. They state: ‘This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered.'”

The Indianapolis Star [January 14, 2005]

Analysis:

The preceding article is yet another indication of the active antagonism modern culture expresses toward the faith the Christian holds dear.

Continue reading “Evolution Stickers Must Go” →

“The scientist who attracted the world’s attention by cloning Dolly the sheep is taking another major step for medical research: cloning human embryos and extracting stem cells to try to unravel the mysteries of muscle-wasting illnesses such as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

“Ian Wilmut, who led the team that created Dolly at Scotland’s Roslin Institute in 1996, was granted a cloning license Tuesday by British regulators to study how nerve cells go awry to cause motor-neuron diseases.

“The experiments do not involve creating cloned babies, but the license has nonetheless stirred fresh controversy over the issue and prompted abortion foes and other biological conservatives to condemn the decision.”

Thomas Wagner
The Associated Press
Fort Worth Star Telegram, Wednesday, February 9, 2005

Analysis:

Embryo: 1. a. An organism in its early stages of development, especially before it has reached a distinctively recognizable form. b. An organism at any time before full development, birth, or hatching. 2. a. The fertilized egg of a vertebrate animal following cleavage. b. In humans, the prefetal product of conception from implantation through the eighth week of development. (Dictionary.com)

Continue reading “License to Clone Human Granted” →

Artifacts from Iron Age fortress confirmOld Testament dates of Edomite kingdom

“Canadian archeologist Russell Adams’s interest is in Bronze Age and Iron Age copper production. He never intended to walk into archeology’s vicious debate over the historical accuracy of the Old Testament — a conflict likened by one historian to a pack of feral canines at each other’s throats.

“Yet by coincidence, Prof. Adams of Hamilton’s McMaster University says, he and an international team of colleagues fit into place a significant piece of the puzzle of human history in the Middle East — unearthing information that points to the existence of the Bible’s vilified Kingdom of Edom at precisely the time the Bible says it existed, and contradicting widespread academic belief that it did not come into being until 200 years later.

“Their findings mean that those scholars convinced that the Hebrew Old Testament is at best a compendium of revisionist, fragmented history, mixed with folklore and theology, and at worst a piece of outright propaganda, likely will have to apply the brakes to their thinking.

“Because, if the little bit of the Old Testament’s narrative that Prof. Adams and his colleagues have looked at is true, other bits could be true as well…”

By MICHAEL VALPY
Tuesday, January 25, 2005 – Page A3

globeandmail.com

Analysis:

It is not uncommon to hear of modernists who deny the inspiration of scripture. What is interesting is the basis of most claims that the Bible is inaccurate, and thus uninspired.

Continue reading “Archeologist Unearths Biblical Controversy” →

Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) — Two U.S. Supreme Court justices rejected a California atheist’s bid to block clergy-led prayer at tomorrow’s inauguration ceremony for President George W. Bush.

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justice John Paul Stevens, in separate orders, today denied an emergency-injunction request filed in Washington by Michael Newdow.

Two Christian ministers — Episcopal Rev. Luis Leon of Washington and Methodist Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell of Houston — are slated to say prayers at the inauguration.

Newdow said in court papers that the past 17 public inaugurations, dating back to 1937, have all included “blatantly Christian prayer.” He said he has tickets to the event, yet “cannot in good conscience attend an exercise where his government forces him to endure religious dogma he finds highly disagreeable.”

Newdow last year unsuccessfully urged the Supreme Court to bar public school teachers from leading recitations of the Pledge of Allegiance with the phrase “under God.”

Greg Stohr
Bloomberg.com

Analysis:

The preceding column contains information regarding a typical attack from secularists upon the Christian faith. It has long been held by a segment of our society that “freedom of religion” should be understood as “freedom from religion.”

Continue reading “Inauguration Prayers” →

BANDA ACEH, JANUARY 5: US Secretary of State Colin Powell flew over the worst scenes of devastation from Asia’s tsunami on Wednesday and said it was more horrifying than wars he had witnessed during decades as a soldier…

…”I have been in war and I have been through a number of hurricanes, tornados and other relief operations, but I have never seen anything like this,” said America’s former top soldier.

Continue reading “Tsunami Worse Than War” →

Sarah Thompson, 32, of Port Dickinson, a lecturer in health and physical education at Binghamton University, noted that she has “goals for the year, but most of them are quite mundane, actually — projects such as things I want to do around the house or a tangible change I can make to one of my classes.”

She said she views a New Year’s resolution as “setting a person up for behavioral change.”

Continue reading “Resolution Realities” →

For Catholics to take a “pro-choice” view toward abortion contradicts our identity and makes us complicit in how the choice plays out. The “choice” in abortion always involves the choice to end the life of an unborn human being. For anyone who sees this fact clearly, neutrality, silence or private disapproval are not options. They are evils almost as grave as abortion itself. If religious believers do not advance their convictions about public morality in public debate, they are demonstrating not tolerance but cowardice.

The civil order has its own sphere of responsibility, and its own proper autonomy, apart from the church or any other religious community. But civil authorities are never exempt from moral engagement and criticism, either from the church or its members. The founders themselves realized this.

Continue reading “No Such Thing as Separation of Church and Politics” →

Below is an exchange from last Friday night’s presidential debate between Senator John Kerry and President George Bush. In the exchange we have a statement from the moderator, a question from a citizen, and the beginning portion of Kerry’s response to the question:

GIBSON: Going to go to the final two questions now, and the first one will be for Senator Kerry. And this comes from Sarah Degenhart.

DEGENHART: Senator Kerry, suppose you are speaking with a voter who believed abortion is murder and the voter asked for reassurance that his or her tax dollars would not go to support abortion, what would you say to that person?

KERRY: I would say to that person exactly what I will say to you right now.

First of all, I cannot tell you how deeply I respect the belief about life and when it begins. I’m a Catholic, raised a Catholic. I was an altar boy. Religion has been a huge part of my life. It helped lead me through a war, leads me today.

But I can’t take what is an article of faith for me and legislate it for someone who doesn’t share that article of faith, whether they be agnostic, atheist, Jew, Protestant, whatever. I can’t do that.

Analysis:

Actually, there is more reason to respect those who take the position that a fetus is not human, than the position stated by Senator Kerry and his ilk, as related in the quote.

Continue reading “Senator Kerry on Abortion” →

An archaeological discovery in 1979 revealed that the Priestly Benediction, as the verse from Numbers 6:24-26 is called, appeared to be the earliest biblical passage ever found in ancient artifacts. Two tiny strips of silver, each wound tightly like a miniature scroll and bearing the inscribed words, were uncovered in a tomb outside Jerusalem and initially dated from the late seventh or early sixth century B.C. — some 400 years before the famous Dead Sea Scrolls.

But doubts persisted. The silver was cracked and corroded, and many words and not a few whole lines in the faintly scratched inscriptions were unreadable. Some critics contended that the artifacts were from the third or second century B.C., and thus of less importance in establishing the antiquity of religious concepts and language that became part of the Hebrew Bible.

So researchers at the University of Southern California have now re-examined the inscriptions using Space Age photographic and computer imaging techniques. The words still do not exactly leap off the silver. But the researchers said they could finally be “read fully and analyzed with far greater precision” and that they were indeed the earliest.

In a scholarly report published last month, the research team concluded that the improved reading of the inscriptions confirmed their greater antiquity. The script, the team wrote, is from the period just before the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. by Nebuchadnezzar and the subsequent exile of Israelites in Babylonia.

Ft. Worth Star Telegram, October 2, 2004

Analysis:

Some modernists believe that the Old Testament is fiction, written in the 4th century B.C. by the inhabitants of Canaan who rose to power at that time. The claim is that the intent of those individuals was to give the new rulers a place in the history of that land, and thus give credence to their claims for power.

This inscription serves to illustrate the bias of these claims. The text is written in the ancient form of the Hebrew language, and as one expert noted, “‘The new research on the inscriptions suggests that that’s not true,’ (the claims of these modernists), Pitard said. In fact, the research team noted in its journal report that the improved images showed the seventh-century lines of the benediction to be ‘actually closer to the biblical parallels than previously recognized.'”

Note: The following article originally appeared in the Miami Herald on September 7th, before Ivan hit the coast of Alabama, and caused several deaths in the Florida Panhandle)

MIAMI – (KRT) – Charley, Frances and Ivan. Three major hurricanes. Two assaults on Florida already and possibly a third by next week. Get used to it. This is the new normal.

Scientists say we are in a period of enhanced hurricane activity that could last for decades, ending a 24-year period of below average activity. They also say the law of averages has caught up with Florida, with a change in atmospheric steering currents turning the state into a hurricane magnet…

…A sobering thought: Between 1941 and 1950, seven major hurricanes – with winds higher than 110 mph – attacked Florida. “And that doesn’t include the other less powerful hurricanes,” Goldenberg said. That 10-year period fell in the middle of a cycle of heightened activity that began in 1926 and persisted until 1970.

Now, the combination of complacency bred during a long lull between 1971 and 1994, the new hyperactivity since 1995 and the ongoing mega-development of Florida’s coasts frightens emergency managers and scientists…

…All the other numbers tell the same tale: total storms, total strength, total duration, Caribbean hurricanes, October and November hurricanes, each at least 100 percent – in some cases 500 or 1,000 percent – higher since the lull.

“That’s a humongous increase,” Goldenberg said. “This is striking. This is not a little signal. It would be like saying the average temperature is 15 degrees warmer than last summer. It’s huge. It’s huge.”

Worse, atmospheric steering currents have changed to our disadvantage.

During the beginning of this active period, a persistent and beneficial bend in the jetstream carried hurricanes away from Florida. Now, that phenomenon had disappeared, replaced by a persistent ridge of high pressure over the Atlantic that is pushing them toward Florida.

What can you do?

Only one thing: Prepare.

Mary Ellen KlasMiami Herald

Analysis:

The brethren in Florida have been hammered in recent weeks by the hurricanes mentioned in the article above. As forecasters indicate that September and October are the peak seasons for hurricane activity, it is possible for several more storms to hit the coast this year.

We need to keep all in the path of such storms in our prayers, but especially our brethren. As Paul exhorted the Ephesians to pray “always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints” (Ephesians 2:18).