oddXian: Challenge the Consensus

And you thought the Stones were old… 3.2 Million Year Old Lucy to make 11-city Tour Now what could possibly be the motive behind this, since it has already been established that Lucy is not a human ancestor ? The article even refers to Lucy as "the world's most famous human ancestor" and “the hominoid skeleton” . I guess some feel that, if you repeat a lie often enough, it’ll eventually become true.

Bin Laden's Decree: Martyrdom or Assisted Suicide? It's being reported that Bin Laden has decreed that he would never be captured. "If there's a 99 percent risk of the Sheik's being captured, he told his men that they should all die and martyr him as well, " Question: If this occurred, should it be considered martyrdom or assisted suicide? The American Heritage Dictionary defines a martyr as one who chooses to suffer death rather than renounce religious principles. There's a significant difference in "choosing to suffer death" for particular beliefs or principles and "decreeing others to bring about one's own death" (even if it is dependent upon future circumstances). In the first case, one submits to death brought on by others; while in the latter Bin Laden would be the cause and responsible agent (on one level) of his own death. ...... Compare the difference between Laden's statement and that of the Apostle Paul, who said ...

Questions for Catholics concerning the beatification and canonisation of Mother Teresa: 1. Why is it that the Catholic church goes through such a laborious process to try to make one a saint, when the term saint (hagios = holy, set apart, sanctified, consecrated, etc.) is regularly bestowed upon all believers? Does not Paul write "to all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi" (Philippians 1:1); "to all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints" (Rom 1:7); calling God's people to "be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints" (Eph 6:18); 1 Cor 14:33; Col 1:12; 2 Cor 13:13; Rom 15:25; Rom 8:27; Eph 3:18; etc.? Does not David in Psalm 30:4 say "Sing to the LORD, you saints of his; praise his holy name."? Do you think it might be that Catholic tradition by redefining sainthood as something other than Scripture defines it is leading to the problems it now is dealing with? ...... 2. Where in the Bible do you find that it...

WOW! What an illustration ? Mother Theresa, after all the works she did on earth, was left asking the question: “ WHAT DID I LABOR FOR ?” Not many stories are more powerful or telling than this one! Sure, you have those who have believed “money” was the answer but when they obtained great riches recognized the answer was not found in fortune; you have those who have believed “power” was the answer but when they reached the top realized the answer was not in position, power, influence, or control; the list could go on – “fame”, “possessions”, “honor”, even “love” itself; ... But here is one who not only participated in abundant works but was recognized by the entire world for those works but yet with all her "works" (/accomplishments) was left asking the question: “WHAT DID I LABOR FOR?” This question is one that all those who look to works (be they Catholic, Mormon, or on one level agnostic, atheist, etc.) should consider. ...... If all the works Mother Theresa participated ...

Isn't it amazing what a handful of ape teeth can be used to prove? Fossil find pushes human-ape split back millions of years First, we are told... "The handful of teeth from the earliest direct ancestors of modern gorillas ever found -- one canine and eight molars -- also leave virtually no doubt, the study's authors and experts said, that both humans and modern apes did indeed originate from Africa". Then we are told... "We know nothing about how the human line actually emerged from apes". Well, which is it???

I am cautiously optimistic...

I am cautiously optimistic...

A thought close to my heart: Don’t misunderstand there have always been good theologians and biblical scholars in Southern Baptist life. The problem is that theology was pushed to the periphery of Southern Baptist discourse. Politicians and king makers from both the right and the left seemed to be the most prominent and influential men in the denomination. Now, however, that may be changing. There is a generation of Southern Baptist pastors that are more influenced by theologians and expositors than power-brokers. more here

With a nod to Scriptorum Daily , here is the following, from Robert Leighton, (1611-1684), one of our excellent fathers in the faith, which he delivered to the students upon return to the University of Edinburgh. It is an excellent summary of purpose and aims of those involved in higher education. You can read a little bit about Leighton here . His commentary on 1 Peter (for purchase here ) is absolutely first rate exposition. ...... AN EXHORTATION TO THE STUDENTS UPON THEIR RETURN TO THE UNIVERSITY AFTER THE VACATION WE are at last returned, and some for the first time, brought hither by that Supreme Hand which holds the reins of this universe, which rules the stormy winds and swelling sea, and distributes peace and war to nations, according to its pleasure. The great Lord of the universe, and Father of mankind, while he rules the world with absolute sway, does not despise this little flock, provided we look up unto him, and humbly pray, that we may feel the favourable effects of...

As I have meandered around the web, I have seen this topic broached many times - sometimes in the form of - "No one has ever killed anyone in the name of Atheism" or "All mass killings have been initiated for religious reasons" or "Religion has been responsible for all significant historical mass murders" - I'd like to express my skepticism of these and similar statements by posting some research statistics I found a couple of years ago. Take a look - besides the obvious fact that humans are REALLY good at killing each other - Anybody else see the elephant in the room?

In the CNN article "Rejecting radical Islam -- one man's journey" , a man named Daveed Gartenstein-Ross is quoted as saying about Islam "he saw the religion which he had embraced for its tolerance become obsessed with rules and ideology." Point: Works based salvation always tends toward licentiousness, legalism, or both (inconsistently). Solution: Grace salvation rather than works salvation. Grace based righteousness rather than works based righteousness. Perhaps others can learn a lesson from Daveed before becoming entwined in Islam's net.

For all those who suggest there are no absolutes (including moral) and that the standard of morality is set by society (i.e., the "majority", etc.), .......HOW MANY of them do you think ever recognize and give much credence to the societal standard when their personal beliefs and practices are in conflict with the majority's? ...... My experience in dialogue and debate with folks like this indicates that when there is a difference between the individual's position and society's position, it's always the society that must be "uneducated' or "biased" or 'behind the times", etc., ... or there's a choice to select what "segment" of society to side with (which interestingly enough always happens to resemble their own personal beliefs and desires). When examined, often the accepted "societal standard" is not much different than the "self standard", in fact its never different. In this case, the only stand...

I saw this booklet on offer in Lifeway today and I thought, "I hope someone has given this thing the review it deserves": Tom Ascol's review :) ...and a related article.

...Christ’s healings are a sign of the in-breaking of the Kingdom of God and its final victory over all disease and all the works of Satan. It is right and good to pray for healing. Christ has purchased it in the death of his Son, with all the other blessings of grace, for all his children (Isaiah 53:5). But he has not promised that we get the whole inheritance in this life. And he decides how much. We pray and we trust his answer. If you ask your Father for bread, he will not give you him a stone? If you ask him for a fish, he will not give you a serpent (see Matthew 7:9-10). It may not be bread. And it may not be a fish. But it will be good for you. That is what he promises (Romans 8:28). more here

Most atheists I know are caught in a Kantian paradox. They want to say they "know" what naturalistic science reports to be objectively true (that only the material world is real), but they want to live AS IF they believe in the objective reality of the immaterial world which contains laws of morality and thought, meaning, the mind, human will, human consciousness, human dignity, justice, beauty, rights, etc. Yet, as a consistent thinker, they must admit that these abstract entities are only illusions. So, they live in tension. But it is worse than that. Kant admitted that these two realms appear to contradict each other. If the unguided machine of scientific materialism governs and perfectly determines every event in the universe, then it governs every event in the human body. There is no meaning behind the term "self" or "I" because humans are only cogs in an impersonal deterministic machine. We are, as one Darwinian thinker has put it, "complex comp...

Speaking of preaching... ...with thanks to Building Old School Churches blog ATTENTION! By Charles Haddon Spurgeon OUR subject is one which I find scarcely ever noticed in any books upon homiletics - a very curious fact, for it is a most important matter, and worthy of more than one chapter. I suppose the homiletical savans consider that their entire volumes are seasoned with this subject, and that they need not give it to us in lumps, because, like sugar in tea, it flavors the whole. That overlooked topic is, How TO OBTAIN AND RETAIN THE ATTENTION OF OUR HEARERS. Their attention must be gained, or nothing can be done with them: and it must be retained, or we may go on wordspinning, but no good will come of it. more here

My wife and I were listening to NPR yesterday morning and heard a report concerning the practice of some colleges and universities charging increased tuition for certain majors. The idea is, apparently, that college education is worth more for engineering students, let's say, than for history or classics majors. How, do you suppose, such a "worth" is calculated? The answer shows us just how our higher educational institutions evaluate the "product" they provide. ...... Sadly, the answer is not surprising. The idea is that engineering students are deemed to gain more from their having a BS in their field... but that gain is calculated in dollars and cents - and this is the problem. If the worth of a college degree is determined by the average salary of outgoing graduates, there's a major problem (no pun intended). As noted in my last post , the aims of education ought to be to equip students to pursue and attain intellectual maturity, and to begin (one ...

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The audio is here: Is an atheistic worldview superior? (JD the editor's addition:) Part 1 - Free Low Quality Part2 - Free Low Quality Part3- Free Low Quality The CD quality files are available for .98 each from the website...

From this article, The Gullible Age , we read this: "For Dawkins, of course, science is a religion, at least in the sense that it is something he fiercely believes in, a belief system that insists its dogma stand up to rigorous “double blind” experimental testing and rejects anything that fails. Those who refuse to put their beliefs to any test, he suggests, do so because they instinctively know they will fail." ...... Apart from the rather obvious fact that we already knew, that Dawkins regards science as his religion, one has to wonder whether his own position stands up to internal scrutiny. To start with, can Dawkins show us the setup of the double blind experiment that will test the truth of his position. Of course he may point to many successful experiments across scientific fields, but that is just question begging. The methodology, which is what he apparently is arguing for, is assumed before those experiments can begin. What he needs to show is the double-blind experi...

Since I just preached last week - I found this article very illuminating...I am MUCH more the 25 minute kind of preacher... From Credenda.org : We have heard of both extremes—ten minute homilies that are barely sufficient to whet the spiritual appetite, and then the two-hour jobs preached by some earnest Puritan to Cromwell's Parliament. The former is easily dismissed by conservative Christians as "sermonettes for Christianettes," and the latter are obviously . . . well, a little swollen.

Book Review - The Dawkins Delusion? Richard Dawkins’s The God Delusion is a mega-seller, having been a long-time fixture on the New York Times list of bestsellers. Easily the world’s most prominent atheist at this time, Dawkins is becoming still more popular and gaining a wider and wider voice. Just recently he has introduced his “OUT” campaign which seeks to convince atheists to come out with their beliefs and to stop hiding in shame. He is leading the charge for society to regard atheism as a valid and respectable worldview.

Gary Eichten of Minnesota Public Radio interviewed Rabbi Harold Kushner about the collapse of the 35W bridge. Kushner is best known for his book When Bad Things Happen to Good People . There were several astonishing things about this interview—not unusual for religious talk shows on public radio, but astonishing still. 1. The most astonishing thing is that God’s grace is so great neither the Rabbi nor I was struck dead by God during the interview—he, because of his blasphemous belittlings of God, and I, because of my contaminated anger at what he said. more here

I've spent a little time recently thinking about the vocation of a liberal arts college - what exactly are we aiming for in higher education, and particularly, as a professor at a college of liberal arts and sciences, what is it that we should be about? I'll muse over this question for a few posts with the common title, "The Chief End of Higher Education". It's not as though this is a new question. The question has been discussed (from a Roman Catholic perspective) in Newman's "Idea of a University", extended and fleshed out more by James Sire in "Discipleship of the Mind", Richard T. Hughes in "How Christian Faith can Sustain the Life of the mind" and "Models for Christian Higher Education", etc., and in the work I would like to quote from here, an essay by Russel Kirk entitled "The Revitalized College: A Model", which is found in the book "Education in a Free Society," edited by Anne Husted Bu...

The bridge fell. Within hours, I saw many calls to prayer for the survivors, rescuers and families of victims. And just as swiftly, the normal atheist barrage of "Where was God?" The debates ensued, with atheist accusations of a cruel God who didn't hold up the bridge, and Christian answers about the larger purpose of God, unknowable to man. And so it rages back and forth, Scripture counters to anti-theist moral indignation, amidst a backdrop of anti-theist claims of purpose and sadness. Are we granting too much moral authority to man? It is the easy way, let's argue as God's jury. All of us...including Christians. Because not claiming to know God's purpose is an implicit judgment on God too, yes, we agree it is sad and bad, and God let it happen for an unknown reason. But if God let it happen, then as Christians, how are we to condemn it? On what moral basis do we then operate? It's even worse for the atheist. His argument for God being evil has to assume...

Today I found a cool tool call Slideshare that allows the sharing of presentations - this is a sermon I did a while back on Christian Liberty:

How To Craft a killer elevator pitch The Dumb Little Man weblog highlights the importance of a good elevator pitch, the under-than-a-minute pitch to convince your co-elevator passenger (presuming he/she has some sway in your success) that you've got a good thing going. Your pitch can apply to just about anything, from your business/startup to your skills as a potential employee. The post then suggests methods for putting together your own elevator pitch to sell yourself (in a non-prostitute way) in 30-60 seconds. The tips boil down to packing as much concise info into as little time as possible while peppering your pitch with a story and a good hook. If you've already got a killer elevator pitch, share your insight and methods in the comments. Photo by baratunde . How to Craft a Killer Elevator Pitch That Will Land You Big Business [Dumb Little Man] And from YouTube:

A survivor in an interview following the bridge collapse in Minnesota made a statement (that has been voiced by others in the past who also survived a tragedy in which others died), saying: "I felt guilty because I lived through it and they didn't." My question: Is this a legitimate thought? ...... Guilt has been defined as "the state of having done a wrong or committed an offense; culpability, legal or ethical (2) a painful feeling of self-reproach resulting from a belief that one has done something wrong or immoral (3) conduct that involves guilt; crime; sin (Websters New World Dictionary-Third College Edition) Consider the following: 1. If there is no God and FATE rules the day, then there's no reason to feel guilty since the outcome of events was determined(or predetermined) by an impersonal power either before or as the event(s) occurred. In this case, there is no reason for guilt or drawing any relationship between oneself and another person. Each si...