oddXian: Challenge the Consensus

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...

Chosen John 15:16 " You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. We play no more part in "choosing" Christ than we do with "choosing" our eye color. We only acknowledge the result, not determine the outcome. (Romans 8-9, John 6, John 10, John 17, Ephesians 1-2, 1 Peter 1, etc..,etc...)