YouTube - Christmas With a Capital "C"

 

YouTube - Christmas With a Capital "C"

This song which has had millions of viewers by now has registered on the net. It has real cultural appeal.

Third World Skilled Workers Needed in EUROPE

The European Union is proposing a blue card to attract skilled workers to Europe in the face of an aging population and a declining birth rate. From London, Tendai Maphosa reports for VOA, the 27-nation bloc is trying to compete with the U.S. "green card" system and programs in other Western countries to get the best-qualified migrant labor
The European Union says it will need 20 million skilled migrant workers during the next 20 years to plug labor gaps in the developed world.

Immigration is a great part of the cultural change occuring today.  Both in those countries loosing skilled workers and in those receiving them.  The result of this movement and of other modern forms of communication and travel will be a new, common culture.  Getting there will be no small task and there will be many intermediate stops.  Each of these snapshots in time could be a proper topic for a history study. I wonder if they will pass by so fast that there is no capturing them, comprehending what is going on or making conscious plans for the next step.

Link

Tags: blue card, EU, green card, labor shortage

Powered by Qumana

Atlantica

The Great Plains International Trade Corridor

The Great Plains International Trade Corridor is strategically located
to increase economic efficiency by connecting regional trade centers
through the Great Plains from Canada to Mexico.
Ports-to-Plains, Heartland Expressway and Theodore Roosevelt
Expressway, designated United States High Priority Transportation
Corridors, form the infrastructure of growing domestic and international
trade, energy and travel opportunities.
These connections are taking advantage of new opportunities created
by the expanding significance of north/south trade in relation to the
historical east/west patterns. The Great Plains International Conference
is bringing together both the business and government sectors to
increase awareness of the corridor and increase economic activity

The Ports to Plains Trade Corridor reflects the growing need for a north-south axes of communication and commerce for the North American Continent.  Planning for this conduit says a great deal about what some of the movers and shakers of the continent believe will be the future of our culture. 
Tags: The Great Plains International Trade Corridor

Powered by Qumana

The Creation Museum

Tara Smith, who writes the Aetiology Blog reports on her trip to the Creation Museum.  She has so photos that add to the piece.  The anti-science view of this place depresses most scientists.  Tara was no exception.  Her point about there being very little science in the presentation is not surprising.  Can you imagine trying to fill a museum with convincing arguments about literal creation.  Creationists can raise plenty of money.  They can hire the best audio visual people and make world class exhibits but they need something to show.  A museum full of 'God did It'  would be a professional presention of a long family vacation at best and at worst it would be complete drivel.  There could be no logical argument.  There could be so steps to explain the design.  It would be just 'God did It'  don't ask questions.

Tags: creationist, creation museum

Powered by Qumana

Overpopulation and Poverty

<embed src="http://www.metacafe.com/fplayer/826361/train_drives_through_a_bangkok_market.swf" width="400" height="345" wmode="transparent" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"> </embed><br><font size = 1><a href="http://www.metacafe.com/watch/826361/train_drives_through_a_bangkok_market/">Train Drives Through A Bangkok Market</a> - <a href="http://www.metacafe.com/">Funny home videos are a click away</a></font>

I'm afraid that this video shows too much of the future of our race.  Can you imagine what it is like to live in such a world? Can you imaging what it is like to fight for every little bit of space.  These people must do that every day.

Tags: population, family planning, trains, thailand, bangkok

Powered by Qumana

Pangeaday - the Website

Pangeaday has a counter to the day of the event.  It also has several good videos to demonstrate what is desired.  I have a suspicion that a certain mindset might be overly represented but we will see.

Tags: pangeaday, video

Powered by Qumana

Pangeaday - somethin new under the Sun

Powered by Qumana

The power of non-professional video to speak to each of us about what is important in our lives is riveting. Suddenly we can see someones point of view from behind their eyeballs. The result is very powerful. This effort should be very interesting. I wonder how many people will produce a video as a result of this opportunity and how much of it will be a real history resource?

verily prosaic: Imposing Our Beliefs on Others

verily prosaic: Imposing Our Beliefs on Others

The question is instead whether whatever is going to be imposed by the force of law is reasonable, just, and good for society and its members.

In response to 'verilyProsaic' , I must agree that the embryonic stem cell debate is about what is reasonable, just and good. In fact, I would say that the issue is really about with is reasonable. You see, the Church and more traditional members of society believes that human life begins at conception. Those who hold that view believe it to be reasonable. Many of us, who have studied modern biology, do not believe that conclusion is reasonable. We believe that it is false. The more biologists look the more the traditional view fails to hold. Twins pose a great problem for me. You see all identical twins start as one egg and one sperm. The combination looks just like the beginning of an individual then after a few days voila we have two or more. When did each twin emerge? The environment in the womb that fertilized eggs live in affects everything about what that person will be. How does that work with the idea that a fertilized egg is a human being? I think a fertilized egg is no more a human being than a pumpkin seed is a pumpkin.

Pumpkin seeds are required to grow pumpkins however and eagle eggs are required to grow eagles so we husband them if we wish to grow the things that emerge from them.

What is important is not whether a proposed law happens to be taught by religion, but whether that proposal is just, right, and good for society and its members.

Verily may be appealing to some simple idea of fairness here but he surely hasn't thought of the political problem for the Church. You bet it's a problem when the Church teaches that a fertilized egg is a human and someone kills the egg. That is murder. So, by the way is abortion murder. Any honest churchman can see that. If killing a fertilized egg is not killing a human, than the Church finds itself blocking research that may lead to great benefit for society and its members. That is exactly what I believe it is doing.

Charlie Rose and the Explaination of Culture

Charlie Rose is remarkable in his span and in his interviewing skills.  Anyone can benefit from looking at either.  Today, I discovered that he has a website that catagorises his programs and gives a small video window where these programs can be seen.  Just to look at the guests on this show will give many of us a glance at the the width and depth of our culture. 

Tags: Charlie Rose, Harold Bloom, culture

Powered by Qumana

NAU

The North American Union

Have you heard of the North American Union? How about the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America or SPP? If you have not, you are like me. Even though I read newspapers all the time and follow the national news, I hadn't heard of our federal government's work to combine this country with Canada and Mexico in several key areas. Border security would concentrate on Mexico's southern boundary and the coast line frontiers of the USA and Canada. Trade and executive orders on product safety and transportation would be subject to review by officials of the new union. There would be a new court that would be superior to the Supreme Court of the United States when dealing with decisions on matters of this type.

The SPP ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_and_Prosperity_Partnership_of_North_America )was set up after the meeting in Waco in 2005 where President Bush, President Fox of Mexico and Prime Minister Martin of Canada decided to pursue this idea.

Robert Pastor, one of SPP's vice-chairmen, has advocated a monetary union and has suggested that North America's common currency might be called the "amero", which would be similar in concept to the EU's euro.

All this is to take place before 2010 with no discussion by Congress so far. American citizens generally have no knowledge of this program and have been given no chance to form an opinion of it. What do you think.

The North American Union or NAU

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/T74VA3xU0EA"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/T74VA3xU0EA" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>

This video demonstrates the federal government's disconnection from the common citizen of America.  The common man is not being informed about this program of combining the US, Canada and Mexico so that we have common and coordinated borders, standards and goals.  This would be the biggest change in this country since the American Revolution.  It needs to be discussed.  The common citizen of all three nations need to be very aware of it.

Tags: North American Union, NAU, trade, Amero, Lou Dobbs, President Bush, Vincente Fox

Powered by Qumana

The Problem with Literal Bibical Intrepation

Literal Biblical interpretation requires a perpetual habit of blindness to the facts Martin Scheen brings up in this video. Literal interpretation weakens the impact of the great truths in the Bible and leaves its defenders with the task of explaining just how some of these statements make sense. That is an almost impossible task.

Community informatics

Community informatics, also known as community networking, electronic community networking, community-based technologies or community technology refers to an emerging set of principles and practices concerned with the use of information and communication technology (ICT) as understood in the information systems discipline, in conjunction with community development and other social academic and practice areas, for the personal, social, cultural or economic development of and within communities. It can be considered as a cross or interdisciplinary approach utilising ICTs for different forms of community action in the real or virtual spheres.

Link

Community informatics looks like a confused, beginning discussion about ways to use old and new communications technology to make changes and discusses programs.  The confusion would not be allowed if the methods and goals of ICT were understood.  The wikopedia article the link references is a good starting point for joining the discussion.

Tags: ICT, community informatics, CI, information and communication technology

Powered by Qumana

Deepak Chopra

Deepak Chopra Has it about Right:

Deepak Chopra clearly states what I have believed for many years. Death is the lose of personal consciousness. Good cannot exist without evil. Sin is its own punishment.
Link

Tags: Deepak Chopra, Organized Religion, Consciousness

Powered by Qumana

StumbleVideo: BBC-Horizon-The Six Billion Dollar Experiment

VIDEO

This video reviews the hopes for the large hadron collider.  It's done by the BBC.  It's very well done and goes a long way to ask fundamental questions in the few minutes it runs.

Tags: Large Hadron Collider, Geneva, Atomic Physics

Powered by Qumana

Bionic Arm

Powered by Qumana

Bionic Arms Approach the Real Thing

Bionic muscles have been a long standing goal. This movie shows the state of the art. The device seems to be able to move in all the ranges a human arm can. 

It seems that when all these pieces are put together and decent AI is present we are ready for a truly capable robot companion.

Link

Tags: Robots, Artifical Arms, prosthetics, muscles

The Noosphere

This approach by defenders of religious positions is much more effective than the name calling that is normally done.

The North American Union

Online Videos by Veoh.com

This video lays out the goals of the North American Union. The time frame is boggling for the size of this task.

Opus Dei and the Modern Media World

ROME — In what is being touted as Opus Dei's answer to "The Da Vinci Code" Italy's Lux Vide and Opus Dei are developing a theatrical biopic about Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer, the onetime secretive Catholic organization's founder.

Project was unveiled by Opus Dei in Rome in an office packed with publications about Escriva de Balaguer, who founded Opus Dei in Madrid in 1928. The organization, whose name means "The Work of God," has about 85,000 members, most of whom are laymen.

Screenplay is being penned by "Pope John Paul II" scribe Francesco Arlanch, and by Armando Fumagalli, an academic at Milan's Catholic University.

The Opus Dei founder, whose credo was that everyone is called to become a saint, died in 1975 and was canonized a saint in 2002, the fastest canonization in Catholic Church history.

Ah, the power of the pen...or in the case the video camera.  What does Opus Dei want to tell us?  What does the Pope want to tell us since his scribe, Francesco Arlanch, is writing the screen play.  I wonder if I will be able to see this video thanks to the internet..  Fifteen years ago, in my small town in Michigan,  something like this would have only been shown in the basement of a Catholic Church at the discretion of the local priest.  Since, I am Protestant,  I am only guessing, but I'll bet that is true.  Now, well I will just have to wait and see.

Tags: Opus Dei, Lux, Francesco Arlanch, Armando Fumagalli, Escriva de Balaguer

Link

Powered by Qumana

New Energy Source Found

Powered by Qumana

Engineers perfecting hydrogen-generating technology from PhysOrg.com
Researchers at Purdue University have further developed a technology that could represent a pollution-free energy source for a range of potential applications, from golf carts to submarines and cars to emergency portable generators. [...]

    This has the potential to change a great deal in military applications.  It can generate electricity for energy based weapons and power for the various types of motors and engines used since the beginning of the age of mechanized warfare to enhance the power of the soldier. 

Tags: hydrogen, Purdue, internal combustion engines, fuel cell

More on the North American Union

By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

Despite having no authorization from Congress, the Bush administration has launched extensive working-group activity to implement a trilateral agreement with Mexico and Canada.

The membership of the working groups has not been published, nor has their work product been disclosed, despite two years of massive effort within the executive branches of the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

The groups, working under the North American Free Trade Agreement office in the Department of Commerce, are to implement the Security and Prosperity Partnership, or SPP, signed by President Bush, Mexican President Vicente Fox and then-Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin in Waco, Texas, on March 23, 2005.

Tags: SPP, Security and Prosperity Partnership

Powered by Qumana

The Amero

Tags: Amero, dollar, North American Currency
What, the end of the dollar bill.. This is certainly a cultural change for North America. We might want to pay attention to the development of the Euro. We also might want to find out who want this and why.

A North American Union

This video certainly says a great deal about culture in America today. It reveals the fears of many common people and it reveals some of the possibilities that are out there. The proposed North American Union and its combined currency, the Amero, is certainly a large change of society on this continent.

Tags: North American Union, Lou Dobbs, Amero

Norman Corwin

All I saw was the end of a program on the documentary channel when I caught the name "Norman Corwin". Never heard of him. A quick trip to Google changed that. Oh, I have heard his legecy. Remember the speeches by Jimmy Stewart in 'A Wonderful Life'. We have all heard them and they sound like Corwin to me. He certainly influenced our culture and is a voice to remember.

Charitable Choice: Should We Help Via the Marketplace or Via the Church?

Someone came to me with an interesting proposal recently: for my church to sponsor an African native in the U.S. while he gets Information Technology training for two years.
There are several unique pieces to this proposal. First, we would sponsor someone who is a Christian, but not someone who is officially engaged in the life of the church in Sierra Leone, where he’s from. In other words, he’s not a seminarian, missionary or pastor. Second, that we would not only give some money to help someone in need, but we would full-scale sponsor a person with only the hope that he would proclaim the gospel in Africa through his business. And this is no small proposal; the total would be at least $50,000 for the two-year program.

This is an example of how churches help people in need all over the world.  It might also be an example of how churches mis-use money given to them with too few questions and not enough oversight.  It takes a great deal of boldness to ask an institution for a gift of $50,000 with no obvious list of reasons that the recipient has any particular merit.  Who is this guy? How did he get such special connections?  Can he succeed? What guarantees that he won't get a degree and stay in the US rather than return to a poor African nation that the church is trying to help.  Churches often to great work through charity.  The people in those churches are often robbed by the same means. 

Tags: charity, africa, religion, church, faith

Link

Powered by Qumana

Trica's House in Texas

Flickr: Photos from user225937
I was looking over my pictures tonight. This one of Trica's home in Houston, Tx caused me to think how much we are influenced now by the distance between some of our family members. Thank God for the phone and for all the new ways to communicate, like this blog.

When I was in the Navy in 1970, I felt that I was in a remarkable time. That communication was cheap compared to what it had been. That was true but look at it now. Then a call home from Virginia cost $.50 per minute. Now, it is free.

Some things get better.

Video Camera Teaches Robot to Dance

August 14, 2007—The mighty Transformer Optimus Prime might be able to save the universe, but who's going to teach the Autobots to do the Hustle?

Enter HRP-2, a humanoid robot designed by Japanese researchers that is programmed to reproduce dance steps with the practiced grace of an electronic geisha. The 5-foot-tall (1.5-meter-tall) robot is seen here at a press demo at the University of Tokyo's Institute of Industrial Science on January 12, 2005.

(Video: Watch the robot dance alongside a human counterpart in this undated footage from Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, a co-developer of the automaton.)

To teach HRP-2 its groove, the researchers devised a new approach that transforms motion-capture video of a human dancer into data for the robot's sequence of limb motions. A report on the work appears in this month's issue of the International Journal of Robotics Research.

"This study especially focuses on leg motions to achieve a novel attempt in which a biped-type robot imitates not only upper body motions but also leg motions including steps," the authors write.

Teaching a robot to perform on this level with only a video camera is truly remarkable.  Obviously, jerky robot dances are so 'twentyeth century'.

Link

Tags: Robots, Folk Dance, Japan, Robot Instruction, HRP-2

Powered by Qumana

RISE OF ROBOETHICS

In April, the government of Japan released more than 60 pages of recommendations to "secure the safe performance of next-generation robots," which called for a centralized database to log all robot-inflicted human injuries. That same month, the European Robotics Research Network (EURON) updated its "Roboethics Roadmap," a document broadly listing the ethical implications of projected developments like robotic surgeons, soldiers, and sex workers. And in March, South Korea provided a sneak peek at its "Robot Ethics Charter" slated for release later in 2007. The charter envisioned a near future wherein humans may run the risk of becoming emotionally dependent on or addicted to their robots.

This article details the need to deal with the relationships humans and robots are about to have for the first time.

Link

Powered by Qumana

The Base of "Clash of Civilizations"

Online Videos by Veoh.com
This video give the background of the term "Clash of Civilizations". It is extremely interesting.

The '300' and 'the clash of civilizations'

In celebration of the success of the motion picture 300, Warner Bros. Records will release "300: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - The Collector's Edition" to coincide with the DVD on July 31. The limited edition will include three unreleased tracks from the movie -- "First Battle Push," "One Wild Night," "Blood Drunk," and Philip Steir's "Sacrifice to Sparta" of "To Victory" Remix. The CD will be encased in a 42-page color hardbound book with epic scenes from the film and a personal commentary from composer, Tyler Bates.

I listened to some of the clips from this release on Itunes.  Wagner and Germany in the 1930's comes to mind.  Not simply from some simplistic point of view but from  the point of appeal to some fundamental thing in western culture.  Does this movie appeal to some need for myth that we all share.  Does it relate to the current struggle between the West and Iran, the descendants of the Persians.   The Greeks fought for the freedom of their world.  We fight for the values of the modern age.

Tags: 300, clash of civilizations, Xerxes, Sparta, Persian Wars

 

Link

Tags: 300, battle of thermopylae, king leonidas, spartans, spartan, leonidas

Powered by Qumana

Manifesto

Link

Watch the video for a look at how God is viewed by most of mankind

Manifesto Enbedded

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Hellenistic Culture

I was able to start a very interesting article about individualism in the ancient world .  The author of the link says that it began with Alexander the Great.  This article is well worth finishing. 

Link

Tags: Alexander the Great, Hellenism

Powered by Qumana

Mithraic Mysteries

Here in the end we may sense a profound kinship between Mithraism and Christianity. For early Christianity also contained at its core an ideology of cosmic transcendence. Nowhere is this better expressed than in the opening of the earliest gospel, Mark. There, at the beginning of the foundation story of Christianity, we find Jesus, at the moment of his baptism, having a vision of "the heavens torn open." Just as Mithras is revealed as a being from beyond the universe capable of altering the cosmic spheres, so here we find Jesus linked with a rupture of the heavens, an opening into the numinous realms beyond the furthest cosmic boundaries. Perhaps, then, the figures of Jesus and Mithras are to some extent both manifestations of a single deep longing in the human spirit for a sense of contact with the ultimate mystery.

Link

The article goes to great lengths to explain the relationship of Mithra to Christianity.  The Author has a book that can be ordered from the site.

Tags: Mithras, Christianity, Cosmos, Phaedrus, Hipparchus, Age of Aquarius

Powered by Qumana

De Bruggen van Madison Provincie

De Bruggen van Madison Provincie 1995

Genesis 2.0, the creation of synthetic life

Synthetic life approaches creation from the bottom up.  It starts with the dust and works toward life.  It is probably true that if life is not found on Mars or some near space object in the next few years, it will be found in the laboratories here on Earth. 

Imagine what a new creation would mean to theology.  From that moment on in creation we would not be alone.  Granted that a very basic life form is not the equal of a man, but does anyone doubt that creating that life form is a long way toward something with an intelligence. 

I believe that the creation of synthetic life is one of the great milestones of all our history.

Tags: synthetic life, creation, creation 2.0, theology

Powered by Qumana

SYNTHETIC life and Creation

SYNTHETIC life could be just around the corner - depending on what you mean by "synthetic".

Last week, genomics pioneer Craig Venter announced that his team has passed an important milestone in its efforts to create a bacterial cell whose genome is entirely synthetic - constructed chemically from the building blocks of DNA. Venter claims this goal could be achieved within months.

But while Venter's synthetic genome will be housed within an existing bacterial cell, other scientists are aiming for the even more ambitious target of building an entire living cell from the basic chemical ingredients. Giovanni Murtas of the Enrico Fermi Centre at the University of Rome 3, Italy, reported last week at the Synthetic Biology 3.0 meeting in Zurich, Switzerland, that his team had taken a step toward this goal by successfully synthesising proteins in cell-like compartments.

According to George Church at Harvard Medical School in Boston, who has devised a complete blueprint for a synthetic cell, an investment of around $10 million would be enough to turn the "bottom-up" dream into reality. "Our approach doesn't require any super new technology," he says.

Whichever definition of synthetic life you adopt, it seems now to be a question of when rather than if. "We are at the doorstep of being able to create life," says Steen Rasmussen, a physicist trying to create artificial living systems at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

Article

The creation of synthetic life should lead to many questions about traditional views of creation.  With forty percent of America's population having literal, fundamentalist views, this will be another question for to answer.

Tags: Creation, synthetic life, George Church, Craig Venter, Steen Rasmussen

Powered by Qumana

Einstein's Dreams-Alan Lightman

Origins: The Lives and Worlds of Modern Cosmologists

In extended interviews with 27 leading cosmologists about their science, their childhood, their influences, their belief systems, and their religious views, Origins explores the personal and philosophical factors that enter into the scientific process. This anthology is unique. The book begins with an introduction to modern cosmology, then ranges over all contemporary issues. Interviewees include

Tags: Fred Hoyle, Allan Sandage, Gerard de Vaucouleurs, Maarten Schmidt, Wallace Sargent, Dennis Sciama, Martin Rees, Robert Wagoner, Joseph Silk, Robert Dicke, James Peebles, Charles Misner, James Gunn, Jeremiah Ostriker, Vera Rubin, Edwin Turner, Sandra Faber, Marc Davis, Margaret Geller, John Huchra, Stephen Hawking, Don Page, Roger Penrose, David Schramm, Steven Weinberg, Alan Guth, Andrei Linde.

"There is no better way to understand the current confusions of the world's top cosmologists than by reading this timely and admirable anthology." -- The Washington Post Book World

"The interviews are exceptionally readable and informative while retaining the flavor of each scientist's personality and attitudes." -- The New York Review of Books

"If you are willing to tag along for the odd turns into blind alleys and to back up again looking for the main path, a wonderful two-pronged story starts to emerge. Half of it is the story of our horizon's being pushed out to the very edges of the universe . . . The other half is far more sober: the story of the scientific community . . . caught at a moment when its theories are in a terrible, uncertain flux." -- The Atlantic

"vigorous, often dissenting voices heard in this now revelatory, now mind-boggling book" -- Boston Phoenix

Alan Lightman

Tags: Alan Lightman, cosmology

Powered by Qumana

Alan Lightman on NPR

Listen

Alan Lightman explains the relationship of art and science.

Powered by Qumana

Yoism, a new point of view

Yoism is a new label to me. It will require some research to see what it means and who it is important to. I make a link here so we can research it further.

In another contrast to religions that are familiar to most of us—religions
that are built on "truths" received from special, long-dead "authorities"
who
supposedly witnessed or participated in miracles—The Way of Yo teaches
us that
our knowledge, our Truths, must be based on what people everywhere
can directly
experience for themselves, today. Despite the repeated claims
that there is
"overwhelming evidence" for this or that traditional belief,
the poor,
contradictory quality of such evidence was demonstrated over a
quarter of a
millenium ago by the philosopher, David Hume. This is why
traditional religion
inevitably resorts to appeals to blind faith, i.e.,
belief that must be accepted
without evidence. Indeed, such faith is often
taken to indicate piety. So in a
major contrast with the standard religions,
the existence of Yo, not only can be
proven, it has been proven by modern
science!

Link to Yoism.org

Richard Dawkins and Quantum Physics

Richard Dawkins explains the difference between mysterious proposals in science and religion. He uses the predictions of quantum physics and the implications of the doctrine of the Trinity

Google fights global internet censorship - Yahoo! News

Google fights global internet censorship - Yahoo! News

Google is contesting internet censorship through legal means by declaring it to be a restriction of trade. Under World Trade Organization rules, countries can limit trade for national security or public moral reasons, exceptions that authoritarian governments would likely cite when filtering politically sensitive material.

Free exchange of information is essential to entry into the modern world. Nations that deny it restrict that entry.

English version of the Hubble DVD 15 Years of Discovery, Chapter 8, BIRTH AND DEATH OF THE UNIVERSE

English version of the Hubble DVD 15 Years of Discovery, Chapter 8, BIRTH AND DEATH OF THE UNIVERSE. More information on the ESA Hubble 15th Anniversary page. NOTE: small parts of this material is third-party and may not be used without prior approval.

the "Big Wow"

Essentially, the "Big Wow" is about how the universe became conscious as a result of the OR collapse of universal wavefunction superpositions generated by early inflation, thereby linking consciousness itself to the information content of "qubits" at a certain threshold level in the specific systems under consideration. In this case, the universal awareness, which appears to coincide very precisely to the biological threshold [10^9 superpositional registers].

Link to Article

Tags: quantum mechanics, conscious, creation

Powered by Qumana

Answers with Ken Ham - Did God Create in 6 Literal Days? (Part 2 of 12)

Ken Ham clearly states how central an infallible Bible is to his whole belief system. Of course, it is impossible to disprove a Bible that is defined as never in error. If the world had facts in every tree that said something different than Genesis, Ham would be convinced Genesis was right. There is no meaningful debate and never can be.


Featuring Ken Ham, internationally known speaker and leading apologetics author on the accuracy and authority of the Scriptures, this fast-paced and sometimes humorous series provides solid answers to the most-asked questions about the Bible--particularly the book of Genesis. You'll think more biblically in all areas of life after viewing this Bible-honoring series. These well-illustrated presentations will teach you how to reconnect the Bible to the real world!

Al Gore's Bookl, Assault on Reason, is on my reading list.

A Message from Al Gore to Amazon.com Readers

I've dedicated my book, The Assault on Reason, to my father, Senator Albert Gore Sr., the bravest politician I've ever known. In the 1970 mid-term elections, President Richard Nixon relied on a campaign of fear to consolidate his power. I was in the military at the time, on my way to Vietnam as an army journalist, and I watched as my father was accused of being unpatriotic because he was steadfast in his opposition to the War--and as he was labeled an atheist because he dared to oppose a constitutional amendment to foster government-sponsored prayer in the public schools. The 1970 campaign is now regarded by political historians as a watershed, marking a sharp decline in the tone of our national discourse--a decline that has only worsened in recent years as fear has become a more powerful political tool than trust, public consumption of entertainment has dramatically surpassed that of serious news, and blind faith has proven more potent than truth.

We are at a pivotal moment in American democracy. The persistent and sustained reliance on falsehoods as the basis of policy, even in the face of evidence to the contrary, has reached levels that were previously unimaginable. It's too easy and too partisan to simply place the blame on the policies of President George W. Bush. We are all responsible for the decisions our country makes.

Reasoned, focused discourse is vital to our democracy to ensure a well-informed citizenry. But this is difficult in an environment in which we are experiencing a new pattern of serial obsessions that periodically take over the airwaves for weeks at a time--from the O.J. Simpson and Michael Jackson trials to Paris Hilton and Anna Nicole Smith.

Never has it been more vital for us to face the reality of our long-term challenges, from the climate crisis to the war in Iraq to the deficits and health and social welfare. Today, reason is under assault by forces using sophisticated techniques such as propaganda, psychology, and electronic mass media. Yet, democracy's advocates are beginning to use their own sophisticated techniques: the Internet, online organizing, blogs, and wikis. Although the challenges we face are great, I am more confident than ever before that democracy will prevail and that the American people are rising to the challenge of reinvigorating self-government. It is my great hope that those who read my book will choose to become part of a new movement to rekindle the true spirit of America.

Charlie Rose interviewed Al Gore at the 92nd St. Y recently.  Gore brought out the great danger in the lack of reason in public discourse we see today.  He discussed some of the methods use to lull the populace into accepting proposals that are commonly held to have great problems. 

I have felt for some time that our democracy is in danger from the skillful manipulation of the public perception of events and from a profound disregard for the truth in our public discourse.  Gore's book is essential reading.

Tags: Charlie Rose, Al Gore, 92nd Street Y, An Assualt on Reason, Public discourse, media, internet, democracy, environment

Powered by Qumana

References on Victorian Spiritualism

Victorian Magic

Site Contents

"The Art of Magic" by Alexander Herrmann "The magician depends for the success of his art upon the credulity of the people. Whatever mystifies, excites curiosity; whatever in turn baffles this curiosity, works the marvelous."

Robert-Houdin and the Spiritualists "Houdin announced that the spirit was present and in the box, and by way of proof put the question point-blank to the box, which answered by raps. In this manner all sorts of answers were spelled out by the obliging spirit."

"High Caste Indian Magic" by Harry Kellar "Fifteen years spent in India and the far East have convinced me that the high caste fakirs, or magicians, of Northern India have probably discovered natural laws of which we in the West are ignorant."

The Davenport Brothers "The Davenport Brothers are believed to have a mission, but the mission which underlies the untying of ropes, and the blowing of trumpets, can hardly be worth the serious attention of intelligent human beings."

"Medicine Men" by Harry Kellar "There were no ghosts in the Indian country. There was one Great Spirit who ruled the world and was worshiped by all red men of all tribes. The medicine men were the priests or only mediums of communication with the Great Spirit."

"The Magician and the Czar" by Alexander Herrmann "I consider the trick of restoring the shattered mirror as my most famous one. This I had the honor of performing before the Czar of Russia upon an invitation to give an exhibition at his court."

The Rochester Rappers "Here might be evidence of a power equal to the loftiest pretension of magnetic clairvoyance, and certainly out of the course of everyday phenomena."

"Native American Magic" by Harry Kellar "To the Indian, medicine means mystery; it is the essential element of his religion and has a sacred and solemn significance which has for generations guarded its secrets from the curious and unworthy."

"The Magician and the Sultan" by Alexander Herrmann "Constantinople spoke of nothing but 'Herrmann, the Great.' In every kiosk, on every street, and in every bazaar there was nothing talked of but the wizard."

"The Moqui Snake Dance" by Harry Kellar "If this power of the Moqui Indians to make companions of venomous rattlesnakes, to toss them about at will and to join with them in the mad whirl of a dance is not magic, what is it?"

The Fox Sisters "During the summer and autumn of 1849, it began to be whispered about that communications from the spirits of the departed had been and were being received in the city of Rochester, N.Y. - the alleged mediums being three sisters."

"Levitation" by Harry Kellar "The Sultan of Zanzibar described to me and asked me to duplicate the feat of the witch doctors of the east coast of Africa and of Borneo, who, he believed, projected their astral bodies at will, with the curious additional power of imparting to the astral image an aspect so hideous and terrifying that its appearance to human eyes could actually destroy life itself."

Daniel D. Home, the Celebrated Medium "A short time ago the daily papers reported the death of the celebrated medium Daniel D. Home, whose health was known to be in a very precarious condition. Instead, however, of having departed for the spirit-land, he still lives."

"The Whirling Fakirs of Calcutta" by Harry Kellar "The old man and his three assistants whirled faster and faster, with a rhythmic motion. Suddenly, to our great astonishment, we became aware that there was only one form visible, that of the old man."

Dr. Von Vleck, the Spiritual Medium Detective "Dr. Von Vleck will perform and fully explain the 'wonderful manifestations' exhibited by the Davenport Brothers, Dr. Slade, the Fox family and other notorious professional mediums.

Spiritualistic Humbugs "The believers in spiritualism flatter themselves that they are the pioneers in a new field of discovery, and they consider all who do not believe in this humbug, as conservative and so behind the progress of our age that they can not see the truth."

"Fakirs of the East" by Harry Kellar "With horrible contortions and the appearance of great agony, which the old fakir assured us was only an appearance, his assistant returned to the land of the living."

Tags: victorian, victorian age, spiritualism, fox sisters

Powered by Qumana

Sacred Stories from Many Faiths

Sacred Stories from many traditions are told on this site.  I have only had the chance to read one story so far but the site looks great.

Tags: Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Judiaisml, stories

Powered by Qumana

Bible Study in the age of the Internet

Bible Map allows two versions of the Bible to be used.  All place names provide links to their locations on the map.  This gives meaning to campaigns, cities, place names.  It is a very nice site.

Powered by Qumana

The Pope's Biggest Worry

Pope Benedict arrived in Brazil on wednesday.  People came from all over South America to greet him. His main concern in the region is the growth of Protestant Evangelical Churchs.

On the plane from Rome, Benedict said the exodus of Catholics for evangelical Protestant churches in Latin America was "our biggest worry."

But he said that the spread of Protestantism shows a "thirst for God" in the region and that he intends to lay down a strategy to answer that call when he meets with bishops from throughout Latin America in a once-a-decade meeting in the shrine city of Aparecida near Sao Paulo.

Aol News

It will be interesting to see how this chief concern for loosing members reflects in the policies of the church in the region.  The Pope's hard right stand on abortion and the policies of some Mexican regions will be of interest. 

The Pope said that church law demanded the excommunication of any doctors, nurses, politicians who took part in abortion any part of providing abortions.  That law does not seem to be enforced in the United States.

Tags: abortion, Pope Benedict, Brazil, Evangelical Churches, democratic rights, Mexico

Powered by Qumana

Christopher Hitchens in god is not Great

Christopher Hitchens states:

The argument with faith is the foundation and origin of all arguments, because it is the beginning—but not the end—of all arguments about philosophy, science, history, and human nature. It is also the beginning—but by no means the end—of all disputes about the good life and the just city. Religious faith is, precisely because we are still-evolving creatures, ineradicable. It will never die out, or at least not until we get over our fear of death, and of the dark, and of the unknown, and of each other. For this reason, I would not prohibit it even if I thought I could. Very generous of me, you may say. But will the religious grant me the same indulgence? I ask because there is a real and serious difference between me and my religious friends, and the real and serious friends are sufficiently honest to admit it. I would be quite content to go to their children's bar mitzvahs, to marvel at their Gothic cathedrals, to "respect" their belief that the Koran was dictated, though exclusively in Arabic, to an illiterate merchant, or to interest myself in Wicca and Hindu and Jain consolations. And as it happens, I will continue to do this without insisting on the polite reciprocal condition—which is that they in turn leave me alone. But this, religion is ultimately incapable of doing. As I write these words, and as you read them, people of faith are in their different ways planning your and my destruction, and the destruction of all the hard-won human attainments that I have touched upon. Religion poisons everything.

Since Christopher Hitchens is a neo-con.  I will have to put move time into this strange twist of fate.  In the meantime, see god is not great for views on religion from a neo-con point of view.

Tags: Christopher Hitchens, god is not great, neo-cons

Powered by Qumana

Bishop Shelby Spong Speaks on Fundementalism

Bishop Shelby Spong speaks on the evils of fundamentalism in a recent article on his site:

I want to examine the claim that the Bible is the "inerrant Word of God" from a different angle. I do this not only because that idea in and of itself is irrational, but because biblical literalism has been the source of so much overt evil in human history. Anti-Semitism, the conflict between science and religion, the debilitating prejudices of racism, sexism and homophobia are all rooted in the literal Bible. Biblical inerrancy is not a benign pious claim of "conservative Christians," it is an expression of ignorance, the evil of which should not be underestimated. The stakes of this debate are, thus, very high.

An inerrant Bible attributes to God behavior that by any contemporary standard is nothing other than immoral. It feeds the kind of religious bigotry that lies behind religious wars, religious persecutions and even the Inquisition. It encourages people in their tribal needs to rejoice in the suffering of their enemies. It reveals a deep and radical inconsistency in the way the Bible is understood. It is surprising, even discouraging, that inconsistency never seems to be a problem for fundamentalists who employ the most convoluted thinking imaginable to keep their minds from seeing what is obvious to everyone else.

Sign up for his newsletter

Bishop Spong points out some of the great difficulties caused by the adherence of a great deal of humanity to a fundamentalist view of humanity.  Their's is not a rational approach in what is supposed to be a rational age.  Their approach is summed up by the common quote "the Bible says it; I believe it"  .   As a group, fundamentalists know very little of how the Bible came to be.  Deep inspection would not be welcome in many of their congregations.  Those, who do value inspection of the Bible's formation should become knowledgeable of Bishop Spong's work.

Tags: Bishop Spong, Fundamentalism, Archbishop of Canterbury, Anglican Church, Episcopal Church

Powered by Qumana

A Young Woman at Virginia Tech Showed us the Way

BLACKSBURG, Va. (April 26) - A senior at Virginia Tech  said moral responsibility led her to add a stone for gunman Seung-Hui Cho  to a memorial for his 32 shooting victims that was set up at Virginia Tech late last week.

"We did not lose only 32 students and faculty members that day; we lost 33 lives," senior Katelynn Johnson wrote in a letter.

Katelynn Johnson was a credit to the nation, her school and her family when she choose to remember Seung-Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech shooter,  Surely, his death was a tragedy too.  Her actions demonstrate a high sense of empathy for her fellow student.  She spoke for many of us who mourned him too.  I believe that the Jesus who asked for forgiveness for those who crucified him would ask the same for Cho.

Tags: Virginia Tech, Katelynn Johnson, Seung-Hui Cho, Blacksburg, memorial

Powered by Qumana

Science and Faith-Richard Dawkins and the Challenge of Science to Traditional Faith

Richard Dawkins writes in The God Delusion on traditional views of the Judao-Christian faith.  His razor sharp mind in deadly to believers particuliarly ministers who have deal with troublesome issues in the Bible by simply never talking about them.  Dawkins has lifted the vail.  In the video link above, he gives examples of problem issues.

The second part of his speech answers questions from the audience.  There, his serious answers to questions of various quality puts him far above lessor minds in universities all over America. 

Thanks to the internet more of his work is available online.        

Dawkins Links

Tags: Richard Dawkins, creationism, atheism, the God Delsion, evolution, darwin, God

Powered by Qumana

Postmodern/Emergent is pomo

Pomo sounds like a four letter word but it really refers to postmodern/emergent theology. I found a website dealing with this viewpoint. I think it will and perspective to the label.

So I am an Emergent/Postmodern-we'll have to discuss that

A few days ago, I took a quiz on the internet that said I have an "Emergent/Postmodern" religious view.  That was interesting to me since the age of Google loves labels.  Now, I can contact those who think like me and find those who do not.  Great discussions are sure to follow. 

Emergent should really be emerging, of course.  My religious view has everything to do with discussion and searching.  I want to know what other people think about religion and culture.  I want to know what they believe.  I am inclined to reject opionions that deny any other possible world view.  At any rate, do a search on emergent/postmodern and see what comes up.  I suspect you will reach a dynamic discussion. 

Tags: Emergent, Emergent/postmodern, postmodern, religion, theology, searcher

Powered by Qumana

Sola Scriptura or Solo Scriptura (Church Authority and the Bible)

THEOLOGICAL PROBLEMS

Solo scriptura is beset with numerous theological problems, the most significant being the problem of the canon. The canon is the list of books which are inspired by God. According to adherents of solo scriptura, the Bible is the only authority because its books are inspired, but the Bible nowhere includes an inspired list of inspired books. What this means is that solo scriptura can assert that Scripture is the only authority, but it cannot define with any absolute certainty what Scripture is. When adherents do attempt to define and defend a particular canon, they cannot do so using the Bible as their only authority. In order for solo scriptura to be true, the Bible would have to include not only all of the inspired books of the Bible, but also an inspired table of contents telling us which books were really inspired. However, even this would not be enough, for we would not know that the table of contents was inspired apart from an extra-scriptural divine intervention or another inspired document telling us that the original list was inspired. Of course then we would just move the problem back another step, and so on into infinity.

Most proponents of solo scriptura simply ignore the problem of the canon as if the Bibles they hold in their hands dropped whole and complete from heaven. Yet this is not what happened in actual history. The individual books of Scripture were written over a period of one thousand years. Even the New Testament books were written over a period of decades and only gradually found their way to all of the churches. Numerous apocryphal gospels and epistles were written, some of which were considered authoritative in certain churches. It took time for the New Testament canon of twenty-seven books that we have today to be universally recognized. The doctrine of solo scriptura presupposes a complete and closed canon that it cannot account for or defend on its own principles. This fundamental self-contradiction is one of its most obvious flaws.

The doctrine of solo scriptura also reduces the essential doctrines of the Christian faith to no more than opinion by denying any real authority to the ecumenical creeds of the Church. We must note that if the ecumenical creeds are no more authoritative than the opinions of any individual Christian, as adherents of solo scriptura must say if they are to remain consistent, then the Nicene doctrine of the Trinity and the Chalcedonian doctrine of Christ are no more authoritative than the doctrinal ideas of any opinionated Christian. The doctrine of the Trinity and deity of Christ become as open to debate as the doctrine of exclusive psalmody in worship.

It is extremely important to understand the importance of this point. If the adherents of solo scriptura are correct, then there are no real objective doctrinal boundaries within Christianity. Each individual Christian is responsible to search the Scripture (even though he can’t be told with any certainty what books constitute Scripture) and judge for himself and by himself what is and is not scriptural doctrine. In other words, each individual is responsible for establishing his or her own doctrinal boundaries — his or her own creed.

If the ecumenical creeds have no real authority, then it cannot be of any major consequence if a person decides to reject some or all of the doctrines of these creeds — including the Trinity and the deity of Christ. If the individual judges the Trinity to be an unbiblical doctrine, then for him it is false. No other authority exists to correct him outside of his own interpretation of Scripture. This is precisely why solo scriptura inevitably results in radical relativism and subjectivity. Each man decides for himself what the essential doctrines of Christianity are, each man creates his own creed from scratch, and concepts such as orthodoxy and heresy become completely obsolete. The concept of Christianity itself becomes obsolete because it no longer has any meaningful objective definition. Since solo scriptura has no means by which Scripture’s propositional doctrinal content may be authoritatively defined (such definition necessarily entails the unacceptable creation of an authoritative ecumenical creed), its propositional content can only be subjectively defined by each individual. One individual may consider the Trinity essential, another may consider it a pagan idea imported into Christianity. Without an authoritatively defined statement of Christianity’s propositional doctrinal content, neither individual can definitively and finally be declared wrong. Solo scriptura destroys this possibility, and thereby destroys the possibility of Christianity being a meaningful concept. Instead, by reducing Christianity to relativism and subjectivity, it reduces Christianity to irrationalism and ultimately nonsense

Or, it reduces Christianity to a constant discussion and effort to arrive at the truth of a proposition.  Discussions were how the Church was founded in the first place.  Discussions about the canon, what books would be in the Bible. Discussions about the divinity of Christ.  Discussions about the authority of bishops.  Discussions by people with no official authority but their belief in truth revealed to them.  Official Authority will never like that situation.  Official Authority slapped the face of Christ for the sin of being the Son of God.

"And the high priest said to Him, "I adjure You by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus said to him, "You have said so. But I tell you, hereafter you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven." Then the high priest tore his robes, and said, "He has uttered blasphemy. Why do we still need witnesses? You have now heard his blasphemy. What is your judgment?" They answered, "He deserves death."Then they spat in His face, and struck Him; and some slapped Him, saying, "Prophesy to us, you Christ! Who is it that struck you?" (Matthew 26:63-68 RSV)

Official Authority judged Jesus's  statement as untrue and therefore blasphemy. Twelve apostles appointed by someone with no 'official authority'  judged otherwise.

Tags: Creeds, God, Christ, Canon, Bishop, Solo Scriptura, Sola Scriptura

Powered by Qumana

Sola Scriptura or Solo Scriptura (Church Authority and the Bible)

THEOLOGICAL PROBLEMS

Solo scriptura is beset with numerous theological problems, the most significant being the problem of the canon. The canon is the list of books which are inspired by God. According to adherents of solo scriptura, the Bible is the only authority because its books are inspired, but the Bible nowhere includes an inspired list of inspired books. What this means is that solo scriptura can assert that Scripture is the only authority, but it cannot define with any absolute certainty what Scripture is. When adherents do attempt to define and defend a particular canon, they cannot do so using the Bible as their only authority. In order for solo scriptura to be true, the Bible would have to include not only all of the inspired books of the Bible, but also an inspired table of contents telling us which books were really inspired. However, even this would not be enough, for we would not know that the table of contents was inspired apart from an extra-scriptural divine intervention or another inspired document telling us that the original list was inspired. Of course then we would just move the problem back another step, and so on into infinity.

Most proponents of solo scriptura simply ignore the problem of the canon as if the Bibles they hold in their hands dropped whole and complete from heaven. Yet this is not what happened in actual history. The individual books of Scripture were written over a period of one thousand years. Even the New Testament books were written over a period of decades and only gradually found their way to all of the churches. Numerous apocryphal gospels and epistles were written, some of which were considered authoritative in certain churches. It took time for the New Testament canon of twenty-seven books that we have today to be universally recognized. The doctrine of solo scriptura presupposes a complete and closed canon that it cannot account for or defend on its own principles. This fundamental self-contradiction is one of its most obvious flaws.

The doctrine of solo scriptura also reduces the essential doctrines of the Christian faith to no more than opinion by denying any real authority to the ecumenical creeds of the Church. We must note that if the ecumenical creeds are no more authoritative than the opinions of any individual Christian, as adherents of solo scriptura must say if they are to remain consistent, then the Nicene doctrine of the Trinity and the Chalcedonian doctrine of Christ are no more authoritative than the doctrinal ideas of any opinionated Christian. The doctrine of the Trinity and deity of Christ become as open to debate as the doctrine of exclusive psalmody in worship.

It is extremely important to understand the importance of this point. If the adherents of solo scriptura are correct, then there are no real objective doctrinal boundaries within Christianity. Each individual Christian is responsible to search the Scripture (even though he can’t be told with any certainty what books constitute Scripture) and judge for himself and by himself what is and is not scriptural doctrine. In other words, each individual is responsible for establishing his or her own doctrinal boundaries — his or her own creed.

If the ecumenical creeds have no real authority, then it cannot be of any major consequence if a person decides to reject some or all of the doctrines of these creeds — including the Trinity and the deity of Christ. If the individual judges the Trinity to be an unbiblical doctrine, then for him it is false. No other authority exists to correct him outside of his own interpretation of Scripture. This is precisely why solo scriptura inevitably results in radical relativism and subjectivity. Each man decides for himself what the essential doctrines of Christianity are, each man creates his own creed from scratch, and concepts such as orthodoxy and heresy become completely obsolete. The concept of Christianity itself becomes obsolete because it no longer has any meaningful objective definition. Since solo scriptura has no means by which Scripture’s propositional doctrinal content may be authoritatively defined (such definition necessarily entails the unacceptable creation of an authoritative ecumenical creed), its propositional content can only be subjectively defined by each individual. One individual may consider the Trinity essential, another may consider it a pagan idea imported into Christianity. Without an authoritatively defined statement of Christianity’s propositional doctrinal content, neither individual can definitively and finally be declared wrong. Solo scriptura destroys this possibility, and thereby destroys the possibility of Christianity being a meaningful concept. Instead, by reducing Christianity to relativism and subjectivity, it reduces Christianity to irrationalism and ultimately nonsense

Or, it reduces Christianity to a constant discussion and effort to arrive at the truth of a proposition.  Discussions where how the Church was founded in the first place.  Discussions about the canon, what books would be in the Bible. Discussions about the divinity of Christ.  Discussions about the authority of bishops.  Discussions by people with no official authority but their belief in truth revealed to them.  Official Authority will never like that situation.  Official Authority slapped the face of Christ for the sin of being the Son of God.

"And the high priest said to Him, "I adjure You by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus said to him, "You have said so. But I tell you, hereafter you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven." Then the high priest tore his robes, and said, "He has uttered blasphemy. Why do we still need witnesses? You have now heard his blasphemy. What is your judgment?" They answered, "He deserves death."Then they spat in His face, and struck Him; and some slapped Him, saying, "Prophesy to us, you Christ! Who is it that struck you?" (Matthew 26:63-68 RSV)

Official Authority judged Jesus's  statement as untrue and therefore blasphemy. Twelve apostles appointed by someone with no 'official authority'  judged otherwise.

Tags: Creeds, God, Christ, Canon, Bishop, Solo Scriptura, Sola Scriptura

Powered by Qumana

Sola Scriptura-or-the Bible says it, I Believe it

Sola Scriptura is a doctrine that divides Protestants and Catholics at the core.  Basically, it is the belief that the Bible is the ultimate authority.  It holds that a layman, who follows the teaching of the Bible, has more authority than the highest authority in organized religion.

The article linked above give extensive background on this discussion.

Powered by Qumana

Philip Pullman's Myth of Religion

Philip Pullman

Philip Pullman is a great thinker on religion in our lives.  He relates what it has done, how it works and how we might relate to hit.  I recommend that you click on the video link, watch his movie and consider his thoughts yourself.

For more of his thoughts, you can watch this additional film.

Tags: God, Christianity, Philip Pullman, Myth, Angels, Priests

Powered by Qumana

Christians have difficulty asserting God governs history

Quote Link

As Christians, we believe God is in charge of all life – even technological “advances”. God has a purpose for us to discover what we discover, at the time and in the way we discover it. This is good news, because God knows much better than we do what is best.

At the same time, this is a hard truth to hold onto. It’s counter-cultural. As theologian Miroslav Volf puts it –

“It is increasingly difficult for Christians to [assert that] God governs history and that the salvation of the world can, let alone must, come from God. And the more God is pushed out of our world, the more difficult it will be to address this loving God in prayer and thanksgiving, and to stand before this holy God in awe and reverence.”

Yes, it is difficult to assert that God governs history.  If you do, then you are left with a God that is responsible for history.  You are left with a God to explain situations and events that can be explained more and more by known processes and experiences.  If modern biology can explain the creation of life by common processes, and if death and sickness disappear more and more thanks to comprehension of those processes, the common view of God will recede in the minds of many. That process seems to be taking place today.

Tags: God, Christianity, Creation, biology

Powered by Qumana

Philip Pullman dismisses CS Lewis as "blatantly racist and sexist"

The Whitbread prize-winning children's writer Philip Pullman has dismissed his best-selling predecessor CS Lewis as "blatantly racist" and "monumentally disparaging of women".
Pullman, attacked by a rightwing columnist as "the most dangerous author in Britain" and "semi-satanic", is celebrated for a trilogy which deliberately takes an opposite line to CS Lewis's Christian tales. In Pullman's world, the universe is ruled by a senile, viciously sadistic deity who has to be deposed in battle so that its inhabitants can join with angels in creating a "republic of heaven".

His impassioned discussion of imagination, spirituality and the poverty of modern secularism chimed with the themes of a 65-minute lecture given to one of the festival's biggest audiences by the archbishop.

A republic of heaven! What an interesting idea!  Pullman can't mean a republic though.. He must mean a democracy.  Republics have representatives who assume the power of the individual and make decisions for him.  Better a democracy where all have a voice in what is approved and disapproved. 

That idea stands the test if biology takes us past the point of being able to create ourselves.  That idea would make God alive and visible.  That idea makes each idividual responsible for themselves. 

We have no idea where current discoveries in biology will lead us.  We can't say what life is.  Without knowing what life is, how do we know what death is? Some regard life as information.  Information that is made physical and actual by being expressed in material and actuated by energy.  As biology takes us closer and closer to knowing what that material and energy are, will we be able to create ourselves.  Some say no! In fact, they scream it, but the test is upon us.  We will have an answer.  Suppose the answer is a creature that is created by us, that looks talks and acts like us and claims to have a soul.  A creature made by man from common materials and energy. 

Yes, a Republic of Heaven can stand in that world.  A vastly superior, creator God would have to be explained in that world  for sure!Tags: God, biology, creation, theology, Philip Pullman, CS Lewis, Chronicles of Narnia, Information, Energy, Culture

Powered by Qumana