oddXian: Challenge the Consensus

Download PDF Here: Top Ten Darwin and Design Science News Stories for 2010

Pretty good stuff - Smart feller. I'd only comment that we don't know via the scientific method how life came about.

from the latest post:  Professor: God Would Not Create the Giraffe's Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve Evolution may or may not be true, but it is not a scientific fact. No one knows for certain whether evolution is true or not, but we certainly do know what is the state of our knowledge. The claim that evolution is a scientific fact is a claim about the state of our knowledge. And while there is uncertainty about evolution, there is no uncertainty about our knowledge. We all know what the state of our knowledge is and, from a scientific perspective, that knowledge does not indicate evolution to be a scientific fact. Not even close. link here

Christmas is beautiful time of year celebrated by many, but not by all. This was evident in Richard Dawkin's response to Pope Benedict XVI's message in a piece entitled "A Shameful Thought for the Day" In this post, Dawkins with utter audacity and unbridled shamelessness, stemming only from the bowels of the very sinful nature he himself seeks to deny, displays none other than the antithesis of godliness as he with full understanding regarding the strategic intent and timing of his release spews forth nothing other than the poisonous spiritual & rhetorical venom of a present day viper who with a dead and hardened heart has inclined and bound himself with unrelenting commitment to opposing, throwing off and trampling without cease the name and glory of his creator and eternal ruler, and in the process is found doing no other than seeking his own glory and trying to build a name for himself among men, which eventually in time and eternity will be seen as not only t...

oops... could it be another wishful hope fizzling out? Did 'Martian' methane signal come from Earth? ... perhaps, the better hope is the one found in the good news of Christmas!

“It can be pretty lonely for a nonbeliever at Christmastime around here." (Terry McDonald, chairman of atheist group in Fort Worth running bus ads) ... Immanuel (God with us!)

Should the discovery of a "potentially habitable planet" really be considered as "Evidence for ET"? Evidence for ET is mounting daily, but not proven I have no idea of life exists on other planets or not. However, the above article seems to cheapen the miracle that is life, assuming that life can (and necessarily will) emerge from abiotic material just as long as a planet can be found to support it.

Wrote this to a friend - thought it might be useful to others: You mentioned in conversation that there was no condition except "blaspheming the Holy Spirit" in which you can lose your salvation. I'd like to orient your thoughts about that :) - and to make sure we are starting from the right place - some Scripture: Mark 3:29 "whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin" Luke 12:10b "the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven" Romans 1 18For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21For a...

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link to google doc The Lord’s Prayer - Mallote Transposed by JD Longmire (Give me some love if you repost - this was hard!) 4/4 time G - for 3 beats D G Our Father C D C Am D Which art in heaven G C G/B Hallowed be thy name Em Bm Thy kingdom come Em Bm G C Thy will be done on earth Bm Em Am G As it is in heaven (interlude) C G C G Em C G (end interlude) C G C G Em C G Give us this day our daily bread Em Bm And forgive us our debts Em F# Em F# As we forgive our debtors Bm D Am And lead us not into temptation C#m Am-D But deliver us from evil G C Am For thine is the kingdom C Am And the power C D G--- Em C-D G C G C G Em C G And the glory, forev----er, A---men

Remember Gliese 581g , the Earth-like planet whose discovery scientists announced two weeks back, saying it could potentially sustain life? Bad news: Not only were the initial reports that "the chances for life on this planet are 100 percent" overblown; now, new data suggests that the planet may not actually exist. Steven Vogt , the researcher who led the team that announced the Gliese 581g discovery (and the utterer of the now-infamous "chances for life on this planet are 100 percent" line, which he clarified was a statement of personal belief rather than of scientific evidence), based his discovery on a mix of his work at Hawaii's Keck Observatory and previously published data. But the publishers of that old data used by Vogt, who collected it using Chile's High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS), have come out with new data which lacks evidence for Gliese 581g. uh-huh... link to article -- Respectfully, JD Qui cantat, bis orat ...

While I don't agree with the worldview - I do resonate with the logic against "technological triumphalism". Singularity-level technology changes the world to the point where the things our ancestors wanted are not the same things we want. Today, we are trying to roll back the effects of industrialization. We are trying to undo the damage that penicillin did. If history, real history, teaches us any lesson it's that new technologies do not cause us to transcend. They fix some things, and then cause new problems we hadn't anticipated. Link to full article -- Respectfully, JD Qui cantat, bis orat (to sing once is to pray twice!) - St Augustine

File under: Funding ploy... http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-09-30/-potentially-habitable-planet-discovered-orbiting-nearby-star.html -- Respectfully, JD Qui cantat, bis orat (to sing once is to pray twice!) - St Augustine

The principal source of my melancholy, however, is my firm conviction that today's most obstreperous infidels lack the courage, moral intelligence, and thoughtfulness of their forefathers in faithlessness. What I find chiefly offensive about them is not that they are skeptics or atheists; rather, it is that they are not skeptics at all and have purchased their atheism cheaply, with the sort of boorish arrogance that might make a man believe himself a great strategist because his tanks overwhelmed a town of unarmed peasants, or a great lover because he can afford the price of admission to a brothel. So long as one can choose one's conquests in advance, taking always the paths of least resistance, one can always imagine oneself a Napoleon or a Casanova (and even better: the one without a Waterloo, the other without the clap). full article here -- Respectfully, JD Qui cantat, bis orat (to sing once is to pray twice!) - St Augustine

The God of the Bible is not merely a First Cause — He is the sovereign Creator and Sustainer of all that is, who rules the universe by His Word. Christians must recognize the "God of the gaps" as a false idol of theological surrender. Furthermore, Christians must also understand that any scientific admission of God as a possible First Cause without continuing rule over creation is no cause for celebration. The triune God cannot be reduced to a First Cause among other causes. Full article here

As Stephen became more famous, his associations changed to more and more eminent scientists, which Jane had to admit she did not find appealing. The contrast between her old friends and the world's leading scientists who became their friends (as Stephen became increasingly renowned in his field) was enormous .  Their old friends were able to talk intelligently about many things and show a 'human interest in people and situations'. In contrast, as a whole, their new friends were 'a dry, obsessive bunch of boffins', little concerned with people, but rather very concerned with their personal scientific reputations. She adds, 'They were much more aggressively competitive than the relaxed, friendly relativists with whom we had associated in the past' (p. 296). Their old friends' dedication to science verged on the dilettante in comparison with the 'driving fanaticism' of their new friends (p. 296). Jane stresses that she concluded that 'Natu...

I like Symbaloo.com - iPod like interface to organize your bookmarks online - I even added a Reformed, etc webmix - give it a try!

I will gladly listen to Stephen Hawking when he holds forth on matters of theoretical physics, but he’s as qualified to talk about philosophical and religious issues as any college freshman. There is a qualitative difference between the sciences, which speak of objects, forces, and phenomena within the observable universe, and philosophy or religion which speak of ultimate origins and final purposes. Science, as such, simply cannot adjudicate questions that lie outside of its proper purview—and this is precisely why scientists tend to make lots of silly statements when they attempt to philosophize. article here

This guy is blowing me away! -- Respectfully, JD Qui cantat, bis orat (to sing once is to pray twice!) - St Augustine

We are engaged in a great battle for ideas that Christians understand to be a battle for hearts, minds, and souls. Dowd and his fellow evangelists for evolution are certain that they own the future, and that biblical Christianity will simply fade and disappear. "Ours is a time of space telescopes, electron microscopes, supercomputers, and the worldwide web," he asserts. His conclusion: "This is not a time for parsing the lessons given to a few goatherds, tentmakers, and camel drivers." Well, give Michael Dowd credit for reminding us where the rejection of biblical Christianity inevitably leads. full article here -- Respectfully, JD Qui cantat, bis orat (to sing once is to pray twice!) - St Augustine

"If your intention in  Saving Darwin  is to show "how to be a Christian and believe in evolution," what you have actually succeeded in doing is to show how much doctrine Christianity has to surrender in order to accommodate itself to evolution." Full article here -- Respectfully, JD Qui cantat, bis orat (to sing once is to pray twice!) - St Augustine

Very presuppositional approach - shout out to Swordbearer for the video!

I've started a new (additional) blog here for those who are interested. http://christianswordbearer.blogspot.com/

Dethrone King takes rook, HIS truth captures my lies The omniscient one has calculated my demise The moves I see are clear as day Nervously, anticipating the final blow to L.A... Staring into the marble at the reflection of a stranger Spider sense is tingling, in the presence of my danger Forever running hard to escape what awaits Stuck in a zugzwang of which my opponent mates Allowing King L.A. to reign was my first blunder His nature from my ideology of him I tried to sunder His depraved gambit & my ruination to accept Willfully foolish or worst inept Running out of time, I hear HIS clock’s cadence Absent of free will, or choice but providence My king lays prostrate, by the light of HIS brilliance On my face, I obtain a glimpse of the magnificence of HIS countenance Once my bête noire now my Sovereign Lord A released slave to myself for which I whored Now with HIS strength I stand erect, gripping my Sword A gracious, submissive piece on HIS side of the chessboard

To me, what is at stake in this debate is not only the potential unhappiness of children, grave as that is; it is our ability to maintain the most basic components of our humanity. I believe, in fact, that we are at an "Antigone moment." Some of our fellow citizens wish to impose a radically new understanding upon laws and institutions that are both very old and fundamental to our organization as individuals and as a society. As Antigone said to Creon, we are being asked to tamper with "unwritten and unfailing laws, not of now, nor of yesterday; they always live, and no one knows their origin in time." I suspect, moreover, that everyone knows this is the case, and that, paradoxically, this very awareness of just how much is at stake is what may have induced, in defenders of those same "unwritten and unfailing laws," a kind of paralysis. full article here

This is on the north side in the middle of Horn island and also at the east tip. You can see the shipyard crane (Pascagoula) in one of the pictures.

A New Clue to Explain Existence "If confirmed, the finding portends fundamental discoveries at the new Large Hadron Collider outside Geneva, as well as a possible explanation for our own existence ....Sifting data from collisions of protons and antiprotons at Fermilab’s Tevatron, which until last winter was the most powerful particle accelerator in the world, the team, known as the DZero collaboration, found that the fireballs produced pairs of the particles known as muons, which are sort of fat electrons, slightly more often than they produced pairs of anti-muons. So the miniature universe inside the accelerator went from being neutral to being about 1 percent more matter than antimatter." I would suggest that the discovery of the origin of matter hardly gives an "explanation for our own existence", unless one were to conclude that we are merely material beings without free wills or rational thought processes, governed only by the determinate laws of nature. But ra...

After all, they do seem to really love each other.

Six months old and he can tell good from evil Mothers and fathers might think they have few higher duties than teaching a sense of right and wrong to their children. But research suggests that their offspring may already be a step ahead of them. Scientists have discovered that babies can start to make moral judgments by the age of six months and may be born with the ability to tell good from bad hard-wired into their brains. link -- Respectfully, JD Qui cantat, bis orat (to sing once is to pray twice!) - St Augustine

Puritan Prayers from the Valley of Vision Puritan Prayers Confession and Petition   |  Consecration and Worship   Contentment  |  The Deeps   |  Devotion  |  Divine Support  Evening Praise   |  Evening Prayer   |  Evening Renewal   Grace Active   |  Heart Corruptions   |  In Prayer   Longings after God  |  Meeting God   |  Morning   Morning Dedication   |  Morning Needs   |   Openness   Purification   |  Refuge   |  Resting in God   |  Spiritual Helps   The Valley of Vision Confession and Petition Holy Lord, I have sinned times without number, and been guilty of pride and unbelief, of failure to find Thy mind in Thy Word, of neglect to seek Thee in my daily life. My transgressions and short-comings present me with a list of accusations, but I bless Thee that they will not stand against me, for all have be...

This is not a joke, but an actual article in the New York Times suggesting that male chimps, by using leaves to attract females to certain body parts, show us an "evolutionary leap" and delivers the "most devastating blow yet to human self-esteem." Caution : Link does contain suggestive material When It Comes to Sex, Chimps Need Help, Too "I couldn’t imagine how chimps managed this evolutionary leap. But then, I couldn’t imagine what they were actually doing. Using blades of grass to tickle one another? Building heart-shaped beds of moss? Using stones for massages, or vines for bondage, or — well, I really had no idea, so I called Dr. McGrew, who is a professor at the University of Cambridge. The tool for sex, he explained, is a leaf. Ideally a dead leaf, because that makes the most noise when the chimp clips it with his hand or his mouth." So, how is your self-esteem now? Apparently I don't know what I'm missing.

As I have said - not sure I buy the presuppositions (for the earth to be old, God must be a deceiver) and the conclusions (anyone that doesn't adhere to the Old Earth position is propagating that conclusion), but this is still an interesting study. link here -- Respectfully, JD Qui cantat, bis orat (to sing once is to pray twice!) - St Augustine

'We're All Theologians' But is it the best or worst of times for doctrine? Only time will tell whether these are the best or worst of times for doctrine. On the one hand, many church leaders seem to sense that evangelicals must become reacquainted with Scripture as understood and taught throughout history. On the other hand, surveys indicate that they may struggle to convince younger believers that God's Word trumps experience and prevailing cultural norms. But new efforts to promote doctrinal formation in evangelical churches are trying to overcome Western culture's aversion to theological precision and exclusivity. Read more at Christianity Today

I am still a bit skeptical about the rationale and presuppositional approach (God would have to be deceiving if a young earth...), but this is interesting: PCA Geologists on the Antiquity of the EarthShare David Campbell Lyle D. Campbell, Chip Cates, Gregg Davidson, Keith Long, Richard F. Mercer, Kent Ratajeski, Davis A. Young, How old is the earth? Does an honest reading of the opening chapters of Genesis confine creation to six days a few thousand years ago, or does it allow for an origin of much greater antiquity? These questions are hardly new. Scientific assertions suggesting an alternate interpretation of the length of creation began more than 200 years ago, well before the days of Charles Darwin. With a debate more than two centuries in the making, one might reasonably expect that Reformed scholars long ago resolved the issue. In fact, the much-sought resolution has proven elusive. In 1998, the Presbyterian Church of America (PCA) commissioned a Creation Study Committee (CSC), m...