Although the ID perspective on biology has yet to gain wide acceptance (despite its impressive recent gains), a new approach to biology has recently captured the imaginations and funds of many in the larger scientific establishment: biomimicry. This discipline studies the complex and specified structures of biology and uses these as models for humanly-engineered technology. Recall Bill Gates’s statement made above that the information structure of DNA is far more complex than any computer. If so, that structure (and others like it) can provide ideas for various machines. Reueters reports that: “International Business Machines Corp is looking to the building blocks of our bodies—DNA—to be the structure of next-generation microchips.”[1] Microchips are obviously intelligently designed for a particular function. They evince specified complexity. Yet engineers in search of better information structures are looking to DNA, and other aspects of biology, for better models of efficiency in engineering.[2]
In light of biomimicry, consider this argument
1. Scientists are mimicking naturally-occurring mechanisms in nature (such as DNA) in order to develop better design plans for various manmade technologies.
2. If (1) is true, this assumes that these naturally occurring mechanisms are themselves designed, since they evince design plans superior to human design plans.
3. Therefore, these naturally-occurring mechanisms (such as DNA) are designed, otherwise
they would not be candidates for imitation by technologies.
[1] Claire Baldwin, “IBM uses DNA to make next-gen microchips,” Reuters, August 16, 2009 at: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE57F1K720090816
[2] See Bharat Bhushan, “Biomimetics: lessons from nature – an overview,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London A, Vol. 367, 1445–1486 (2009). The author does not advocate ID. The whole issue in which this paper appears is dedicated to biomimicry.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Tony Jones on Perverse Unions
Tony Jones, in a short video, defends blessing and legalizing homosexual and lesbian "monogamous" relationships. He stares into the camera and opines idiocy with great smugness, packing fallacies and absurdities tighter than sardines in a can run over by a steam roller. The claims is that there is no slippery slope. If we allow these "unions" it will not lead to inter species unions or to polygamy. It's all OK in a democracy. Tony said so.
1. Set aside any slippery slope concern. These unions themselves are unnatural, wrong, and ungodly in themselves--whatever they lead to. The biblical norm is heterosexual monogamy (Genesis 2; Matthew 19:1-2). Anything else issues from the the results of the fall, not creation. Anything else is not blessed by God but rather erupts from the sinful hearts of human beings bent on creating their own sexuality (Mark 7:21-23). It is sinful autonomy writ large and ugly. We should love, not hate, people in this situation; but to deny their sin does not help them, nor does it honor God, who will bring everything into account one Day.
2. "Monogamy" refers to "one spouse." Spouses are of the opposite sex of their spouse. Using "monogamous," as Jones does, for same sex unions is a semantic absurdity. To invoke Schaeffer, it is "semantic mysticism"--one uses a soft, friendly term to defend a hard falsity.
3. Slippery slopes do exist. Legalizing abortion on demand led to an overall cheapening of unborn life in America. The argument was that abortion would only occur in "hard cases"--threats to the mother's life, extreme fetal deformity, etc. Now people have abortions for sex selection and to murder Down's babies--80-90% of which are now killed before birth. The slope is real, Mr. Jones. To say otherwise to be be a flagrant (if popular) ignoramus. Legal scholars are already arguing for the legal legitimation of polygamy, since same sex unions are considered marriages in some (debauched) states.
We are seeing the degression of Romans 1:18-32 played out in our culture and in our churches. The truth of God is supressed and idols made from human imagination--idols of "liberation" through perverse associations--put on the throne.
May God have mercy on us and lead Tony Jones to repentence. He should read James 3:1 and tremble before the Word of God, which is living and active (Hebrews 4:12).
1. Set aside any slippery slope concern. These unions themselves are unnatural, wrong, and ungodly in themselves--whatever they lead to. The biblical norm is heterosexual monogamy (Genesis 2; Matthew 19:1-2). Anything else issues from the the results of the fall, not creation. Anything else is not blessed by God but rather erupts from the sinful hearts of human beings bent on creating their own sexuality (Mark 7:21-23). It is sinful autonomy writ large and ugly. We should love, not hate, people in this situation; but to deny their sin does not help them, nor does it honor God, who will bring everything into account one Day.
2. "Monogamy" refers to "one spouse." Spouses are of the opposite sex of their spouse. Using "monogamous," as Jones does, for same sex unions is a semantic absurdity. To invoke Schaeffer, it is "semantic mysticism"--one uses a soft, friendly term to defend a hard falsity.
3. Slippery slopes do exist. Legalizing abortion on demand led to an overall cheapening of unborn life in America. The argument was that abortion would only occur in "hard cases"--threats to the mother's life, extreme fetal deformity, etc. Now people have abortions for sex selection and to murder Down's babies--80-90% of which are now killed before birth. The slope is real, Mr. Jones. To say otherwise to be be a flagrant (if popular) ignoramus. Legal scholars are already arguing for the legal legitimation of polygamy, since same sex unions are considered marriages in some (debauched) states.
We are seeing the degression of Romans 1:18-32 played out in our culture and in our churches. The truth of God is supressed and idols made from human imagination--idols of "liberation" through perverse associations--put on the throne.
May God have mercy on us and lead Tony Jones to repentence. He should read James 3:1 and tremble before the Word of God, which is living and active (Hebrews 4:12).
Friday, August 28, 2009
The Limits of Apologetics
Although various apologetic systems have proved useful, even the best apologetic method must squarely face its limits. While a strong proponent of a thorough and wide-ranging apologetic is sorely needed today, apologetics is bounded by at least three realities.
First, the Bible is a long, ancient, and sometimes perplexing book for contemporary people. Defending what the Bible teaches is no simple task, and certainly does not admit of a formula. Even the stellar apologist must face her intellectual limits and never bluff knowing more than she knows. However, to admit this difficulty is not to revel in mysteries, paradoxes, or (worse yet) absurdities. Rather, we should realize that all of our intellectual endeavors—especially those dealing with the broadest and deepest questions of life’s meaning—will be dogged to some degree by misunderstanding, ignorance, and intellectual disappointment. To hold that the Christian worldview is the best rational explanation for the things that matter most does not imply that we have a lock on all the best arguments or have attained all the truths we need.
Second, apologetics is not only limited by the difficulty of the subject itself, but by the weaknesses of the subjects who practice it—you and I. We commend and defend Christianity through our speech, our writing, and our demeanor. And we are sinners. We are the medium for this matchless message, but we are flawed. The best argument carried forth by a bad character will not likely have the desired effect. We may know strong apologetic arguments, but lack courage to present them, or, conversely, we may confidently offer arguments that we think are strong, but are not. We may study too much and pray too little, or the opposite. And so it goes. Yet we may be thankful that “God can make a straight line with a crocked stick,” as the medieval saying goes.[1] If we fall short as apologists, this does not mean that Christianity is untrue or irrational or that all our efforts are vain. Our job is to faithfully give the best arguments possible from the purest heart possible.
Third, apologetics must be understood within the framework of God’s secret counsels, as Calvinists like to put it.[2] God often does not tell us how or why he brings some things about. As the hymn puts it, “God works in mysterious ways, his wonders to perform.” God may use any means at his disposal, and every means are at his disposal. As the majestic Westminster Confession of Faith puts it, “God, in his ordinary providence, maketh use of means, yet is free to work without, above, and against them, at his pleasure.”[3] The apologist might be likened to a physician trying to cure an ailment. He can only use the tools of his trade, but he realizes that some people spontaneously recover without treatment and some do not respond well to treatment that should help them. Nevertheless, he does not despair of his task.
---------------
[1] See also See Francis Schaeffer, “The Weakness of God’s Servants” in No Little People, No Little Places (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1974), 43-60.
[2] They typically appeal to Deuteronomy 29:29; see also Romans 11:33-36.
[3] Chapter V, section 3.
First, the Bible is a long, ancient, and sometimes perplexing book for contemporary people. Defending what the Bible teaches is no simple task, and certainly does not admit of a formula. Even the stellar apologist must face her intellectual limits and never bluff knowing more than she knows. However, to admit this difficulty is not to revel in mysteries, paradoxes, or (worse yet) absurdities. Rather, we should realize that all of our intellectual endeavors—especially those dealing with the broadest and deepest questions of life’s meaning—will be dogged to some degree by misunderstanding, ignorance, and intellectual disappointment. To hold that the Christian worldview is the best rational explanation for the things that matter most does not imply that we have a lock on all the best arguments or have attained all the truths we need.
Second, apologetics is not only limited by the difficulty of the subject itself, but by the weaknesses of the subjects who practice it—you and I. We commend and defend Christianity through our speech, our writing, and our demeanor. And we are sinners. We are the medium for this matchless message, but we are flawed. The best argument carried forth by a bad character will not likely have the desired effect. We may know strong apologetic arguments, but lack courage to present them, or, conversely, we may confidently offer arguments that we think are strong, but are not. We may study too much and pray too little, or the opposite. And so it goes. Yet we may be thankful that “God can make a straight line with a crocked stick,” as the medieval saying goes.[1] If we fall short as apologists, this does not mean that Christianity is untrue or irrational or that all our efforts are vain. Our job is to faithfully give the best arguments possible from the purest heart possible.
Third, apologetics must be understood within the framework of God’s secret counsels, as Calvinists like to put it.[2] God often does not tell us how or why he brings some things about. As the hymn puts it, “God works in mysterious ways, his wonders to perform.” God may use any means at his disposal, and every means are at his disposal. As the majestic Westminster Confession of Faith puts it, “God, in his ordinary providence, maketh use of means, yet is free to work without, above, and against them, at his pleasure.”[3] The apologist might be likened to a physician trying to cure an ailment. He can only use the tools of his trade, but he realizes that some people spontaneously recover without treatment and some do not respond well to treatment that should help them. Nevertheless, he does not despair of his task.
---------------
[1] See also See Francis Schaeffer, “The Weakness of God’s Servants” in No Little People, No Little Places (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1974), 43-60.
[2] They typically appeal to Deuteronomy 29:29; see also Romans 11:33-36.
[3] Chapter V, section 3.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Bradbury on Television (thanks to Erin Heim for this)
From Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451:
"If you're not driving a hundred miles an hour, at a clip where you can't think of anything else but the danger, then you're playing some game or sitting in some room where you can't argue with the four-wall televisor. Why? The televisor is "real." It is immediate, it has dimension. It tells you what to think and blasts it in. It MUST be right. It SEEMS so right. It rushes you on so quickly to its own conclusions your mind hasn't time to protest, "What nonsense!"
ObamaCare/AbortionCare
"The health-care reform proposed by House Democrats, if enacted, would in fact mark a significant change in the federal government's role in the financing of abortions. [...] So in effect, anyone who wanted to sign up for the public option, a federally funded and administered program, would find themselves paying for abortion coverage [...] Nonetheless, the new system differs markedly from the old federal policy of not involving the government in abortion services unless issues of rape, incest, or life of the mother are at play" -TIME, August 24, 2009, "How Abortion Could Imperil Health Care Reform."
“Health care legislation before Congress would allow a new government-sponsored insurance plan to cover abortions, a decision that would affect millions of women and recast federal policy on the divisive issue.” -The Associated Press, August 5, 2009, “Gov’t Insurance Would Allow Coverage for Abortion.”
“Obama has said in the past that ‘reproductive services’ would be covered by his public plan, so it’s likely that any new federal insurance plan would cover abortion unless Congress expressly prohibits that… Therefore, we judge that the president goes too far when he calls the statements that government would be funding abortions ‘fabrications.’”-Factcheck.org, August 21, 2009, “Abortion: Which Side is Fabricating?”
“Health care legislation before Congress would allow a new government-sponsored insurance plan to cover abortions, a decision that would affect millions of women and recast federal policy on the divisive issue.” -The Associated Press, August 5, 2009, “Gov’t Insurance Would Allow Coverage for Abortion.”
“Obama has said in the past that ‘reproductive services’ would be covered by his public plan, so it’s likely that any new federal insurance plan would cover abortion unless Congress expressly prohibits that… Therefore, we judge that the president goes too far when he calls the statements that government would be funding abortions ‘fabrications.’”-Factcheck.org, August 21, 2009, “Abortion: Which Side is Fabricating?”
Alone, but Watched
Many have observed that contemporary life in America suffers from a lack of community. Defining "community" is not easy, but a significant factor is the presence of significant and lasting human relationships in public and private living spaces. And by this, I mean face to face interactions, not what occurs on the Internet or cell phones. This is being lost, especially amidst our electronic "connections."
One dominant feature of contemporary life is anonymity. We are often alone together, with others but isolated from them because we do not know them and they do not know us. We shuttle around in our automobiles, isolated spatially and sonically. We may sit next to someone on a light rail, but most are listening to iPods, tapping on laptops, or yakking on cell phones (as if no one in the car was hearing them). And so it goes.
Anonymity also means a lack of responsibility and accountability to others. Who knows if you check into a hotel (where no one knows you) and watch a pornographic film? Yes, God knows and you sin will find out you; but in the short run, you feel safe because you are anonymous. You are unknown. But one would not do this openly at home in front of one's parents or spouse. Of course, anonymity is a way of life for many on the Internet. Many who post on this blog use false names. I always take their comments less seriously.
To compensate for anonymity, however, we have become a surveillance society. More and more of our public activities are monitored electronically. Look at the cameras at busy intersections. The Denver Light Rail cars also have hidden cameras, as I was told yesterday by the conductor through a public address system after someone pulled the emergency stop wire. "We will get you," he said in an annoyed voice.
Surveillance tries to provide the accountability lost in anonymity. It cannot. It can only detect infractions and punish them legally. Surveillance overcomes some aspects of privacy that might be used in anti-social ways, but it cannot provide moral incentive for the common good.
Surveillance is no replacement for friendship, citizenship, and membership in embodied communities. These are being lost at a rapid rate. Love is lost as souls are untethered from one another and their God.
One dominant feature of contemporary life is anonymity. We are often alone together, with others but isolated from them because we do not know them and they do not know us. We shuttle around in our automobiles, isolated spatially and sonically. We may sit next to someone on a light rail, but most are listening to iPods, tapping on laptops, or yakking on cell phones (as if no one in the car was hearing them). And so it goes.
Anonymity also means a lack of responsibility and accountability to others. Who knows if you check into a hotel (where no one knows you) and watch a pornographic film? Yes, God knows and you sin will find out you; but in the short run, you feel safe because you are anonymous. You are unknown. But one would not do this openly at home in front of one's parents or spouse. Of course, anonymity is a way of life for many on the Internet. Many who post on this blog use false names. I always take their comments less seriously.
To compensate for anonymity, however, we have become a surveillance society. More and more of our public activities are monitored electronically. Look at the cameras at busy intersections. The Denver Light Rail cars also have hidden cameras, as I was told yesterday by the conductor through a public address system after someone pulled the emergency stop wire. "We will get you," he said in an annoyed voice.
Surveillance tries to provide the accountability lost in anonymity. It cannot. It can only detect infractions and punish them legally. Surveillance overcomes some aspects of privacy that might be used in anti-social ways, but it cannot provide moral incentive for the common good.
Surveillance is no replacement for friendship, citizenship, and membership in embodied communities. These are being lost at a rapid rate. Love is lost as souls are untethered from one another and their God.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
The Problem of Evil
I have a short essay, "Addressing the Problem of Evil," in The Christian Research Journal, Vol. 32, No. 4 (2009).
Sunday, August 23, 2009
I now have 28 "followers" on Twitter. I need thousands, of course. I am attempting to give thoughtful links and nontrivial propositions or questions or Scriptures. My name: DougGroothuis. I think that's all you need to be a "follower." Of course, you should only be a follower of Jesus Christ. Again, I will quit if I find it pointless.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Obama: Single Payer Health Care
Obama wants a "single payer" health care system. He said it. That means: the civil government controls the medical system in its entirety. It's called a socialist take over.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Clarification
The "My Pledge" post does not mean I'm going to respond to every taunt offered me. I received one of these and did not post it. I cannot possibly respond to every attack on Christianity out there. However, my book, What Matters Most (in process) will, Lord willing, deal with most all the major attacks and give the strongest arguments. I am most interested in interacting with sincerely interested people.
Naturalistic Miracle
“The complexity of the simplest known type of cell is so great that it is impossible to accept that such an object could have been thrown together suddenly by some kind of freakish, vastly improbable event. Such an occurrence would be indistinguishable from a miracle."--Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, 264.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
My Pledge
I will do anything and everything within my power to explain, defend, and apply the Christian worldview before unbelievers, God helping me. Take me up on it, please.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Another Outtake from "What Matters Most"
Ted Bundy, naturalism, and nihilism:
Ted Bundy (1946-1989), the stunningly successful mass murder (until caught and executed), shared Stirner’s basic philosophy.[1] Although I have no evidence that Bundy read Max Stirner (few have), his philosophy of life was quintessential Stirner. A transcript taken from recorded comments by Bundy, which were made to a woman he was about to rape and kill, reveal his worldview. Having learned that “value judgments” are subjective and that none can be deemed right or wrong, Bundy found no reason to obey the law. Especially for one like himself, “who was bold and daring” and who had “the strength of character to throw off the shackles.” Bundy discovered his freedom by rejecting that “he was bound to respect the rights of others.” If humans have no intrinsic rights, “Why is it more wrong to kill a human animal than any other animal, a pig or a sheep or a steer?” In an age of “scientific enlightenment,” there is no justification for calling “some pleasures as ‘moral’ or ‘good’ and other as immoral and ‘bad.” This is how Bundy justified the raping and murdering of dozens of young women.[2] Given his (false) amoral presuppositions, he was right.
[1] It was revealed in a 1989 interview with James Dobson shortly before Bundy’s execution that Bundy repented of his crimes.
[2] A paraphrased and rewritten statement of Ted Bundy by Harry V. Jaffa, Homosexuality and the Natural Law (Claremont, CA: The Claremont Institute of the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy, 1990), 3-4.
Ted Bundy (1946-1989), the stunningly successful mass murder (until caught and executed), shared Stirner’s basic philosophy.[1] Although I have no evidence that Bundy read Max Stirner (few have), his philosophy of life was quintessential Stirner. A transcript taken from recorded comments by Bundy, which were made to a woman he was about to rape and kill, reveal his worldview. Having learned that “value judgments” are subjective and that none can be deemed right or wrong, Bundy found no reason to obey the law. Especially for one like himself, “who was bold and daring” and who had “the strength of character to throw off the shackles.” Bundy discovered his freedom by rejecting that “he was bound to respect the rights of others.” If humans have no intrinsic rights, “Why is it more wrong to kill a human animal than any other animal, a pig or a sheep or a steer?” In an age of “scientific enlightenment,” there is no justification for calling “some pleasures as ‘moral’ or ‘good’ and other as immoral and ‘bad.” This is how Bundy justified the raping and murdering of dozens of young women.[2] Given his (false) amoral presuppositions, he was right.
[1] It was revealed in a 1989 interview with James Dobson shortly before Bundy’s execution that Bundy repented of his crimes.
[2] A paraphrased and rewritten statement of Ted Bundy by Harry V. Jaffa, Homosexuality and the Natural Law (Claremont, CA: The Claremont Institute of the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy, 1990), 3-4.
Cross Purposes, Indeed
The Denver Post has published my letter on Christianity and Buddhism, which responded to a story saying that more people were combining Buddhism with Christianity.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Rationing of Health Care?
Maybe you have heard it said that we already ration health care, and that it is unjust. Therefore, we need the civil government to ration it fairly. I heard this in a public forum and no one challenged it.
This clever trope is deeply misleading and trades on an equivocation. The distribution of scarce goods is not always "rationing." When the state takes over anything, it rations by coercion. People in charge make decisions that are the final word.
No, health care is not perfectly implemented as it stands, but we have a relatively discentralized process that is not subject to top-down abuses. Please read this essay on that topic.
This clever trope is deeply misleading and trades on an equivocation. The distribution of scarce goods is not always "rationing." When the state takes over anything, it rations by coercion. People in charge make decisions that are the final word.
No, health care is not perfectly implemented as it stands, but we have a relatively discentralized process that is not subject to top-down abuses. Please read this essay on that topic.
The Pain of Prayer
Jesus called his followers to deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow him. This is the cross-life. It is the only entry into the abundance life Christ promised. Yet it involves suffering and hard work (not to earn salvation, but in following the Savior).
Part of the pain is prayer. Prayer, especially as praise and thanksgiving, can be joyful--communion with God as he reveals his goodness. But prayer can be hard and agonizing work. It often is for me. I must deny myself to pray over worries and concerns regarding myself, others, and this fallen and bleeding world, to keep praying when nothing seems to be happening, when my thought wander. Yet Jesus said to his disciples before his own supreme suffering, "Could you not pray for one hour?" How many of us in America today pray for one hour at a time, or even one hour a week? I mean time dedicated only to prayer, not prayer throughout the day or ten second prayer before a meal.
Jesus said we should not make a spectacle of our prayer, as did the Scribes and Pharisees, but how do we pray with feeling and intelligence publicly in a way that reveals our anguished yearning for the greater in-breaking of God's Kingdom? How often do we weep over the world's woes as we pray--in the manner of Jeremiah?
In hedonistic American, where for so many, the principal values are personal peace and affluence (Francis Schaeffer), we tend to avoid the difficult and medicate the painful at all costs. Yet the gospel calls us to embrace certain kinds of pain--the pain of struggling against a sinful world and self--for the sake of the greater good of the Kingdom of God.
Part of the pain is prayer. Prayer, especially as praise and thanksgiving, can be joyful--communion with God as he reveals his goodness. But prayer can be hard and agonizing work. It often is for me. I must deny myself to pray over worries and concerns regarding myself, others, and this fallen and bleeding world, to keep praying when nothing seems to be happening, when my thought wander. Yet Jesus said to his disciples before his own supreme suffering, "Could you not pray for one hour?" How many of us in America today pray for one hour at a time, or even one hour a week? I mean time dedicated only to prayer, not prayer throughout the day or ten second prayer before a meal.
Jesus said we should not make a spectacle of our prayer, as did the Scribes and Pharisees, but how do we pray with feeling and intelligence publicly in a way that reveals our anguished yearning for the greater in-breaking of God's Kingdom? How often do we weep over the world's woes as we pray--in the manner of Jeremiah?
In hedonistic American, where for so many, the principal values are personal peace and affluence (Francis Schaeffer), we tend to avoid the difficult and medicate the painful at all costs. Yet the gospel calls us to embrace certain kinds of pain--the pain of struggling against a sinful world and self--for the sake of the greater good of the Kingdom of God.
Big, Bad, and Dangerous
Read the Heritage Foundation's Fact sheet on how ObamaCare would hurt the family. Then write, fax, or call your congressperson, attend a town hall meeting, and make your voice heard.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
"Won't Get Fooled Again..."?
Go there to read an argument that ObamaCare would include tax dollars for abortion. I think the Democrat spin machine is trying to deceive us on this.
Monday, August 10, 2009
"Reform" That Should Revolt You
Charles Colson writes a powerful piece today about the health care "reform" bill that would undermine religious liberty, individual liberty, endanger hospitals and doctors who do not perform abortions, and would require your tax dollars to support abortion on demand. This is now illegal under the Hyde Amendment.
This health bill is draconian, authoritarian, and unneeded. Real health reform is needed, but not something that makes health care a huge federal bureaucracy (covering 1/6 of the economy) involving rationing and the undermining of doctor's and patient's conscience. Please let your concerns be known to your representatives before it comes up for a vote after the August recess. So very much is at stake for you and your country.
This health bill is draconian, authoritarian, and unneeded. Real health reform is needed, but not something that makes health care a huge federal bureaucracy (covering 1/6 of the economy) involving rationing and the undermining of doctor's and patient's conscience. Please let your concerns be known to your representatives before it comes up for a vote after the August recess. So very much is at stake for you and your country.
Sunday, August 09, 2009
"The Cove" and Another Moral Topic
"The Cove" is a documentary, adventure, horror film about the plight of the dolphin, and especially about the dolphin killing cove in Japan where 23,000 of these creatures are slaughtered for meat every September. (It plays at Chez Artiste in Englewood through this Thursday.) A smaller number of dolphins are taken alive to become enslaved entertainers for humans. The film makes the case that dolphins are self-aware creatures of moral value who should not be kept in captivity or slaughtered for food. The film is hard to watch in parts, especially the latter scenes where the water turns blood red and the dolphins are speared to death. Cruelty is painful to watch.
This is a superb piece of film making with a cogent narrative and moral. (Listen to the interview with two of the principal activists in the film.) As I watched the resourceful team crack the secrecy of the killing cove to film these atrocities (this is what makes it an adventure), I wondered why at least some Americans with pro-life convictions do not marshal this level of intelligence and moral courage on behalf of the one million human beings legally slaughtered in the US each year. If Obama Care passes, your tax dollars will be paying for America's killing fields, because any abortion will be covered under that socialized system. The Hyde Amendment forbids this now.
What in the name of God, who made us in his image, can awake the conscience of the American people (or at least part of the Church) to the moral carnage of abortion on demand--soon to be paid for by everyone if the Democrats push through their draconian disaster known as "health care reform"?
Is there a remnant? Or perhaps a remnant of a remnant remaining?
This is a superb piece of film making with a cogent narrative and moral. (Listen to the interview with two of the principal activists in the film.) As I watched the resourceful team crack the secrecy of the killing cove to film these atrocities (this is what makes it an adventure), I wondered why at least some Americans with pro-life convictions do not marshal this level of intelligence and moral courage on behalf of the one million human beings legally slaughtered in the US each year. If Obama Care passes, your tax dollars will be paying for America's killing fields, because any abortion will be covered under that socialized system. The Hyde Amendment forbids this now.
What in the name of God, who made us in his image, can awake the conscience of the American people (or at least part of the Church) to the moral carnage of abortion on demand--soon to be paid for by everyone if the Democrats push through their draconian disaster known as "health care reform"?
Is there a remnant? Or perhaps a remnant of a remnant remaining?
Saturday, August 08, 2009
Friday, August 07, 2009
Dr. Gordon Lewis Class Available (Links Corrected)
I received this from my esteemed senior colleague, Dr. Gordon Lewis, author of Testing Christianity's Truth Claims, and many other works:
You might have occasion to refer some people (anywhere) to my on-line credit course on Apologetics with the Institute for Theological Studies (ITS). Here are the two links to the course and its professor.
http://store.itscourses.org/p-60-exploring-approaches-to-apologetics.aspx
http://store.itscourses.org/t-prof_featured.aspx
You might have occasion to refer some people (anywhere) to my on-line credit course on Apologetics with the Institute for Theological Studies (ITS). Here are the two links to the course and its professor.
http://store.itscourses.org/p-60-exploring-approaches-to-apologetics.aspx
http://store.itscourses.org/t-prof_featured.aspx
Art Walk This Friday, August 7
Elyane Moseley will have some of her beautiful paintings at the Spark Gallery this Friday night for the First Friday art walk. It is at: 900 Santa Fe Drive, Denver, CO 80204. I hope to see you there. They are open until 9:00 on Friday.
Thursday, August 06, 2009
Missing Doug Groothuis Articles
Before its demise, TrueU.org had about 10 essays of mine posted. I had PDFs of all of my essays, but these were lost in a computer meltdown. Does anyone out there have these files? I think someone sent them to me some months ago. Thankyou.
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Danger Then, Danger Now
Listen to Ronald Reagan warning of socialized medicine several decades ago. The last minute should give you chills, because we are now at the moment Reagan feared--the imposition of socialism and the obliteration of the American tradition of liberty.
Dynamics of Faith and Doubt
I am teaching a two-hour course this fall at Denver Seminary this called "Dynamics of Faith and Doubt." it meets on Tuesday nights from 6:30-8:20. We will explore the nature of biblical faith and how to deal with doubt in a healthy way. The texts are:
1. Francis Schaeffer, True Spirituality
2. Ajith Fernando. The Call to Joy and Pain
3. C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters.
4. Os Guinness, God in the Dark.
I'm not sure the web page will tell you much, but you can contact Denver Seminary at:
Phone: 303-761-2482
E-mail: info@denverseminary.edu
I can also send you a syllabus. If you do not want to take the class for credit, you may audit for a fee.
1. Francis Schaeffer, True Spirituality
2. Ajith Fernando. The Call to Joy and Pain
3. C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters.
4. Os Guinness, God in the Dark.
I'm not sure the web page will tell you much, but you can contact Denver Seminary at:
Phone: 303-761-2482
E-mail: info@denverseminary.edu
I can also send you a syllabus. If you do not want to take the class for credit, you may audit for a fee.
Obama: You Will Pay To Kill The Unborn
It is confirmed (no surprise) that Obama's socialist medical system would cover "elective abortions." That means about 98% of them, since abortion is almost never needed to save the life of the mother. Contact your representative to oppose this federally-funded carnage.
What will pro-life people do if this passes?
What will pro-life people do if this passes?
Home on the School
Mark Early writes on the benefits of home schooling. I have long advocated this an a prefered alternative to statist, Darwinist education. Of course, there are private schools as well. As is, everyone is taxed for statist education, even if you send your children to a private school, home school them, or have no children. It is another collectivist injustice.
Sunday, August 02, 2009
A Few Thoughts on Preaching
1. Preaching is serious, serious business. James says that not many should be teachers (which includes preaching), since we they be judged more strictly and can lead many astray. Therefore, the air of jocularity, entertainment, and silliness is entirely inapt. Yet many preachers breath the poluted air of popular culture and model themselves after entertainers. The church needs something different and far better: truth through an earnest and well-studied personality. That doesn't exclude all humor, but it should put sober things up considerably. The presumption should be to use humor sparingly. See A.W. Tozer's classic essay, "The Use and Abuse of Humor."
2. One should read the text in question aloud many times before preaching it, since this familiarizes you with the sound of the text. Besides hard study of the text (or topic), one should meditate on the material at length. I did this recently on Acts 17:24-34 and was amazed at what I found, even though I had preached it several times in the past five years.
3. Pray over every aspect of the message: preparation, execution, and how it will be received. Ask others to pray for you. Spurgeon, the great preacher, said his secret was that "my people pray for me." Americans do not pray. They are too busy doing "important things." Thus, there is little power or holiness in the pulpits of the land.
4. Try to find as much silence as possible on the way to preaching the sermon. If driving, do not listen to the radio or music, unless it is godly worship music. The best thing for me has been to drive in silence while thinking and praying through the message.
5. Try not to be distracted if people leave during the message. You may not know why they are leaving. Moreover, the truth often offends people who cannot take it. It is not necessarily a judgment on the value of your preaching. People called the Apostle Paul a "babbler," but he did not give up (Acts 17).
6. Pray before and after the message. Mean it. Call out to God to bless the message and to edify and convict you and your congregation. Don't preach in the prayer, but beseech God according to the truth you preach.
7. It often settles people down to take a moment of silence at the beginning and/or end of the service. Sadly, some churches throw so much clutter at the congregation--skits, bad music, pointless announcements, film clips--that silence is required to enter the proper frame of mind to preach and listen to the preaching.
2. One should read the text in question aloud many times before preaching it, since this familiarizes you with the sound of the text. Besides hard study of the text (or topic), one should meditate on the material at length. I did this recently on Acts 17:24-34 and was amazed at what I found, even though I had preached it several times in the past five years.
3. Pray over every aspect of the message: preparation, execution, and how it will be received. Ask others to pray for you. Spurgeon, the great preacher, said his secret was that "my people pray for me." Americans do not pray. They are too busy doing "important things." Thus, there is little power or holiness in the pulpits of the land.
4. Try to find as much silence as possible on the way to preaching the sermon. If driving, do not listen to the radio or music, unless it is godly worship music. The best thing for me has been to drive in silence while thinking and praying through the message.
5. Try not to be distracted if people leave during the message. You may not know why they are leaving. Moreover, the truth often offends people who cannot take it. It is not necessarily a judgment on the value of your preaching. People called the Apostle Paul a "babbler," but he did not give up (Acts 17).
6. Pray before and after the message. Mean it. Call out to God to bless the message and to edify and convict you and your congregation. Don't preach in the prayer, but beseech God according to the truth you preach.
7. It often settles people down to take a moment of silence at the beginning and/or end of the service. Sadly, some churches throw so much clutter at the congregation--skits, bad music, pointless announcements, film clips--that silence is required to enter the proper frame of mind to preach and listen to the preaching.
Saturday, August 01, 2009
Groothuis Sermon Available On Line
My sermon at West Bowles Community Church, "Christianity in the Marketplace, I" (Acts 17:16-23) is on line at their web page. Go to the "Sermon Archive" for July 26, 2009.
I give the second installment on August 2 at 10:00 AM. This covers verses verses 24-34, the meat of Paul's remarkable speech to the philosophers of Athens.
I give the second installment on August 2 at 10:00 AM. This covers verses verses 24-34, the meat of Paul's remarkable speech to the philosophers of Athens.
Friday, July 31, 2009
One Email in a Lifetime: Neil Postman
Eric Goodman tracked down Neil Postman's only email communication, in which he channels the ghost of Marshall McLuhan.
----------
Subject: Observing the Law, 1997
This is the Ghost of Marshall McLuhan speaking to you. I don't haveto tell you from what world I come. I am using Chris Nystrom's facilityin order to reach you. I will say what I have to say only once. Youwill not hear from me again unless you persist in your foolishness.
Does the word "books" mean anything to you? Do you have so much timeon your hands that you can afford to waste yourselves on this infernalmachine? Have you already accumulated so much wisdom that you no longerneed to read the best that has been thought and written? Is this theway you honor the work and life of my great friend and disciple, NeilPostman? Do any of you actually know how to spell?
I have now read all of your idiotic messages. Hear, now, The Law:Every medium taken to its furthest extent flips to its opposite. Thusthe written word, which is the source of all the intellect we have,when used in this unholy fashion becomes a medium for the expression ofall our stupidities. This, you have demonstrated amply. Enough, I say.
I must now return from whence I came. Remember what happened to the Hebrews when they did not follow the Law.
Ghost
----------
Subject: Observing the Law, 1997
This is the Ghost of Marshall McLuhan speaking to you. I don't haveto tell you from what world I come. I am using Chris Nystrom's facilityin order to reach you. I will say what I have to say only once. Youwill not hear from me again unless you persist in your foolishness.
Does the word "books" mean anything to you? Do you have so much timeon your hands that you can afford to waste yourselves on this infernalmachine? Have you already accumulated so much wisdom that you no longerneed to read the best that has been thought and written? Is this theway you honor the work and life of my great friend and disciple, NeilPostman? Do any of you actually know how to spell?
I have now read all of your idiotic messages. Hear, now, The Law:Every medium taken to its furthest extent flips to its opposite. Thusthe written word, which is the source of all the intellect we have,when used in this unholy fashion becomes a medium for the expression ofall our stupidities. This, you have demonstrated amply. Enough, I say.
I must now return from whence I came. Remember what happened to the Hebrews when they did not follow the Law.
Ghost
Darwin's Dilemma
There is a preview of the new Illustra Media film, "Darwin's Dilemma," which addresses the Cambrian explosion. I cannot wait to see this film. Illustra's previous work--"Unlocking the Mystery of Life" and "Privileged Planet"--were superb: strong interviews with articulate experts, pleasing music, excellent narration, and state of the art computer graphics used for educational ends. It does not get any better than this.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Creator's Cafe: Jazz Gig and Benefit (Written by Ezra Ministry)
Ezra is an outreach to the streets & streetkids in Denver. The street kids we work with range in age from 15 to 40. Most come from backgrounds of abuse and neglect by those who were supposed to love and nurture them. This neglect has continued in how society treats them and they are now a forgotten and ignored segment of society. Many deal with addictions, mental illness and violence on a daily basis. These streetkids have much to offer, but the opportunities for them are few. Ezra offers an atmosphere of love, acceptance, expression, hope, opportunity and growth.
For more info on what Ezra does, go to http://www.justezra.com/ or www.justEzra.com/facebook.
Creators' Cafe is an outreach to the Capitol Hill neighborhood, offering an enjoyable, safe environment to listen to great live music and view incredible art (available for purchase) created in the studio at Ezra by the talented streetkids in Denver.
On Friday, July 31st, Creators' Cafe is hosting a Fundraiser for Ezra. We will be blessed with live music from the Steve Selinsky Band featuring Michael Vlieger and Dave Montoya. The suggested donation cover charge is $5. All of the proceeds will go to support Ezra. Our goal is raise $500.
For more info on what Ezra does, go to http://www.justezra.com/ or www.justEzra.com/facebook.
Creators' Cafe is an outreach to the Capitol Hill neighborhood, offering an enjoyable, safe environment to listen to great live music and view incredible art (available for purchase) created in the studio at Ezra by the talented streetkids in Denver.
On Friday, July 31st, Creators' Cafe is hosting a Fundraiser for Ezra. We will be blessed with live music from the Steve Selinsky Band featuring Michael Vlieger and Dave Montoya. The suggested donation cover charge is $5. All of the proceeds will go to support Ezra. Our goal is raise $500.
Wes Montgomery
Thumb on string, "Four on Six,"
swinging free,
flying fast
swinging free,
flying fast
over friendly frets.
Sweet heat
of liquid lyricism.
Octivation.
Elevation.
Inspiration.
Never before,
never since...
Sweet heat
of liquid lyricism.
Octivation.
Elevation.
Inspiration.
Never before,
never since...
Wes Montgomery.
Television Termination: Lesson #98
Here is another good reason to get rid of your TV. Obama is always on it.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Jitter
Move over Twitter, your day is over.
Introducing: Jitter, the newest Internet instant ego-casting device. Jitter does Twitter one better. Instead of bogging down with words. Jitter allows anytime, anywhere emotivism through state-of-the art emoticons!
Jitter reads sounds you make into your Blue Tooth and translates them into strings of moving, multi-color, evolving emoticons. So, if you are cut off in traffic and utter a sign or groan or blast of outrage, jitter translates this into the appropriate emotion string to all your JitterConnections. If you yawn, Jitter is there, and will find the emoticon to best capture this precious moment of your autobiography for all to experience. If you laugh, the world laughs with you--through Jitter!
Any acoustic blast emanating from your mouth is translated instantly into emoti-mania for the jittering masses. And you have access to the ego-casting of endless others throught the JitterEye mini-screen that attaches to your Blue Tooth. Your Jitterisms can also be seen on iPhones, Blackberries, on anything that receives data!
This makes LSD look like 3.2% beer. It will connect our psyches, transform our culture, cure our loneliness, fill the howling void in our souls. And more, always more.
Jitter is word-free--beyond text. Words take too long to write and read and just get in the way. Jitter is the new way to spray the world with your viscera virtually. Text-less, word-less--join the JitterWorld. Now.
Introducing: Jitter, the newest Internet instant ego-casting device. Jitter does Twitter one better. Instead of bogging down with words. Jitter allows anytime, anywhere emotivism through state-of-the art emoticons!
Jitter reads sounds you make into your Blue Tooth and translates them into strings of moving, multi-color, evolving emoticons. So, if you are cut off in traffic and utter a sign or groan or blast of outrage, jitter translates this into the appropriate emotion string to all your JitterConnections. If you yawn, Jitter is there, and will find the emoticon to best capture this precious moment of your autobiography for all to experience. If you laugh, the world laughs with you--through Jitter!
Any acoustic blast emanating from your mouth is translated instantly into emoti-mania for the jittering masses. And you have access to the ego-casting of endless others throught the JitterEye mini-screen that attaches to your Blue Tooth. Your Jitterisms can also be seen on iPhones, Blackberries, on anything that receives data!
This makes LSD look like 3.2% beer. It will connect our psyches, transform our culture, cure our loneliness, fill the howling void in our souls. And more, always more.
Jitter is word-free--beyond text. Words take too long to write and read and just get in the way. Jitter is the new way to spray the world with your viscera virtually. Text-less, word-less--join the JitterWorld. Now.
Jesus Christ and the Trinity
The doctrine of the Incarnation is closely related to another cardinal Christian doctrine, that of the divine Trinity. Jesus is called the Second Person of the Trinity, along with the Father as the First Person and the Holy Spirit as the Third Person. Although the Trinity, like the Incarnation, is often taken to be a hopeless mystery or paradox, it is nothing of the sort. Before explaining the apologetic significance of the Trinity, it should be described briefly.
The Bible that Jesus believed in and taught from (Matthew 5:17-20; John 10:33) affirms that God is one Lord (Deuteronomy 6:4), deserving our complete worship. This was the central credo of the Jews. Polytheism was anathema. Jesus also spoke often of his heavenly Father and of the Holy Spirit, making them central to his teachings. To understand Jesus, one must understand his relationship to the Father and the Spirit, thus opening up discussion about the Trinity. While there are intimations and anticipations of the Trinity in the Hebrew Bible,[1] the central planks of the idea are not revealed until the New Covenant revelation, which teaches that there is one God (1 Corinthians 8:4), but that the Father is God (Matthew 6:9), the Son is God (John 1:1-2; Colossians 2:9), and the Holy Spirit is God (Acts 5:3-4). But there is one God, not three. While the doctrine of the Trinity was formulated over time, the essential concepts for the doctrine are contained in the Bible itself. The Athanasian Creed (381) puts it this way:
We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity. Neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the substance. For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost is all one, the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal. For such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost. The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, the Holy Ghost uncreated.[2]
God is, therefore, one what (or Godhead) and three whos (or persons). The three persons are equally divine, eternal, holy, and so on. The Father is not the Son, nor the Son the Father, nor is the Spirit the Father or the Son. However, they are one (or united) in their shared deity.
There is no reason to take this as a hopeless paradox or contradiction. The Trinity is not the nonsensical mathematical equation of 3=1, but rather a profound statement of three-ness and oneness. There are three persons in one Godhead. The members of the Trinity are alike in deity, but different in some functions. For example, God, the Son offers himself for atonement of human sin. This is not the ministry the Father or the Spirit. Yet the unity between the members of the Trinity is so strong that they are one God, not three gods. The members of the Trinity live and work together so intimately that theologians use the term perichoresis to describe their relationship. This literally means “to dance together.” At the heart of eternal reality, then, is a dance of love.
Far from being a hindrance to rational belief and knowledge, the Trinity—as brought to light through Jesus’ loving relationship to the Father and the Spirit—opens up the profundity of God’s being. God is not a faceless oneness, a solitary entity, who knew no genuine relationship until he created the universe of finite things. God has always been a unity of three mutually loving and communicating persons. As Chesterton quipped, “It was not well for God to be alone.”[3] In his high priestly prayer to the Father, Jesus speaks of his relationship with the Father “before the world began” (John 17:5). The doctrine of the Trinity secures the fact that love precedes the creation of the universe, that the deepest possible dimension of being is personal and interpersonal. Love and communication has always existed at the highest possible level in the Trinity. No other worldview stakes this bold claim. The God of Islam (Allah) is irreducibly singular in every respect. He is personal, but alone. Eastern religions take personality to be an illusion that must be transcended in mystical experience. Naturalism claims that personality is a latecomer in a godless universe and has no privileged status. It will die at the final command of entropy.
The Trinity is not a hopeless paradox, an opaque mystery, or a flat-out contradiction. Rather, it distinguishes Christianity from the two other monotheistic religions (Judaism and Islam) and gives a meaning and significance to personality (love and communication) unavailable according to any other worldview.[4]
[1] See Millard Erickson, God in Three Persons (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1995)
[2] The original creed says “the Father uncreate…” I have updated the language by adding “uncreated.” I have quoted only part of the creed.
[3] G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (orig. pub., 1908; Garden City, New York: Image Books, 1959), 136.
[4] For more on the logic of the Trinity, see John Feinberg, No One Like Him (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books); Moreland and Craig, Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), chapter 29.
The Bible that Jesus believed in and taught from (Matthew 5:17-20; John 10:33) affirms that God is one Lord (Deuteronomy 6:4), deserving our complete worship. This was the central credo of the Jews. Polytheism was anathema. Jesus also spoke often of his heavenly Father and of the Holy Spirit, making them central to his teachings. To understand Jesus, one must understand his relationship to the Father and the Spirit, thus opening up discussion about the Trinity. While there are intimations and anticipations of the Trinity in the Hebrew Bible,[1] the central planks of the idea are not revealed until the New Covenant revelation, which teaches that there is one God (1 Corinthians 8:4), but that the Father is God (Matthew 6:9), the Son is God (John 1:1-2; Colossians 2:9), and the Holy Spirit is God (Acts 5:3-4). But there is one God, not three. While the doctrine of the Trinity was formulated over time, the essential concepts for the doctrine are contained in the Bible itself. The Athanasian Creed (381) puts it this way:
We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity. Neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the substance. For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost is all one, the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal. For such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost. The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, the Holy Ghost uncreated.[2]
God is, therefore, one what (or Godhead) and three whos (or persons). The three persons are equally divine, eternal, holy, and so on. The Father is not the Son, nor the Son the Father, nor is the Spirit the Father or the Son. However, they are one (or united) in their shared deity.
There is no reason to take this as a hopeless paradox or contradiction. The Trinity is not the nonsensical mathematical equation of 3=1, but rather a profound statement of three-ness and oneness. There are three persons in one Godhead. The members of the Trinity are alike in deity, but different in some functions. For example, God, the Son offers himself for atonement of human sin. This is not the ministry the Father or the Spirit. Yet the unity between the members of the Trinity is so strong that they are one God, not three gods. The members of the Trinity live and work together so intimately that theologians use the term perichoresis to describe their relationship. This literally means “to dance together.” At the heart of eternal reality, then, is a dance of love.
Far from being a hindrance to rational belief and knowledge, the Trinity—as brought to light through Jesus’ loving relationship to the Father and the Spirit—opens up the profundity of God’s being. God is not a faceless oneness, a solitary entity, who knew no genuine relationship until he created the universe of finite things. God has always been a unity of three mutually loving and communicating persons. As Chesterton quipped, “It was not well for God to be alone.”[3] In his high priestly prayer to the Father, Jesus speaks of his relationship with the Father “before the world began” (John 17:5). The doctrine of the Trinity secures the fact that love precedes the creation of the universe, that the deepest possible dimension of being is personal and interpersonal. Love and communication has always existed at the highest possible level in the Trinity. No other worldview stakes this bold claim. The God of Islam (Allah) is irreducibly singular in every respect. He is personal, but alone. Eastern religions take personality to be an illusion that must be transcended in mystical experience. Naturalism claims that personality is a latecomer in a godless universe and has no privileged status. It will die at the final command of entropy.
The Trinity is not a hopeless paradox, an opaque mystery, or a flat-out contradiction. Rather, it distinguishes Christianity from the two other monotheistic religions (Judaism and Islam) and gives a meaning and significance to personality (love and communication) unavailable according to any other worldview.[4]
[1] See Millard Erickson, God in Three Persons (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1995)
[2] The original creed says “the Father uncreate…” I have updated the language by adding “uncreated.” I have quoted only part of the creed.
[3] G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (orig. pub., 1908; Garden City, New York: Image Books, 1959), 136.
[4] For more on the logic of the Trinity, see John Feinberg, No One Like Him (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books); Moreland and Craig, Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), chapter 29.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Is the Universe Fine-Tuned for Life?
Dr. Troy Nunley, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Denver Seminary, will be giving a talk on "Recent Developments in the Fine-Tuning Argument for God" on Sunday August 2 at 4:00 PM in room #133 at Bethany Evangelical Free Church--6240 S. Broadway, Littleton, Colorado.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Lowering the Pulpit: A Theology of the Pulpit
I have noticed that as churches embrace more of popular culture, especially in worship forms, the pulpit disappears or is lowered in elevation. One church has the sermon delivered on a riser on a lower level than the stage on which the worship occurs. Another church has an elaborate stage, but a tiny, transparent podium with no substance.
Pulpits at one time were sturdy, large, and central in Evangelical Churches. In Lutheran Churches, where they are off to the side, they are big and tall.
We need a theology of the pulpit. The Word of God is above us. The preacher should explain and proclaim and defend Scripture as true and holy. He or she is a servant of the Word and should be a deep student of its truth (2 Tim 2:15). There is, therefore, good reason for the pulpit to be central and raised up, since Holy Scripture is central and exalted.
I recently preached in a small church with a high pulpit. (The entire liturgy was the deepest I have heard outside of an Anglican Church.) There was no room to prowl around up there, as I sometimes do. That would mean falling off the raised square. It was a bit awkward, but the idea is strong. Too much of preaching is personality-driven, consumerist, and informal. The authority of the Scripture is eclipsed by the personality of the speaker, who must be interesting, dynamic, a good salesperson. This is deeply wrong.
We are creatures of place and symbol. A low, small, pulpit (or even a music stand, which I hate with a perfect hatred) does not communicate authority or transcendence. Of course, a bad preacher in a good pulpit is a bad preacher still. Yet, the pulpit itself speaks, both to the congregation (not an audience) and to the preacher. If you climb up into it, you had better be ready to deliver Spirit-led, biblically faithful words of truth.
Selah.
Pulpits at one time were sturdy, large, and central in Evangelical Churches. In Lutheran Churches, where they are off to the side, they are big and tall.
We need a theology of the pulpit. The Word of God is above us. The preacher should explain and proclaim and defend Scripture as true and holy. He or she is a servant of the Word and should be a deep student of its truth (2 Tim 2:15). There is, therefore, good reason for the pulpit to be central and raised up, since Holy Scripture is central and exalted.
I recently preached in a small church with a high pulpit. (The entire liturgy was the deepest I have heard outside of an Anglican Church.) There was no room to prowl around up there, as I sometimes do. That would mean falling off the raised square. It was a bit awkward, but the idea is strong. Too much of preaching is personality-driven, consumerist, and informal. The authority of the Scripture is eclipsed by the personality of the speaker, who must be interesting, dynamic, a good salesperson. This is deeply wrong.
We are creatures of place and symbol. A low, small, pulpit (or even a music stand, which I hate with a perfect hatred) does not communicate authority or transcendence. Of course, a bad preacher in a good pulpit is a bad preacher still. Yet, the pulpit itself speaks, both to the congregation (not an audience) and to the preacher. If you climb up into it, you had better be ready to deliver Spirit-led, biblically faithful words of truth.
Selah.
Of Skunks On Line
After my first book was published, I was getting some vicious and irrational criticism from a speaker. I asked Walter Martin for his advise. (He had endorsed the book.) He said that given that this person was somewhat influential, I should send him or her a registered letter in which I rebutted all the charges, and then drop it. Then he said, "You can fight a skunk and win--but who wants to?"
I have not aways lived up to that sage advice, but I am trying. On the Internet, there are hordes of skunks--those who take cheap shots, don't use their real names, insult without arguments, and so on. So this should be kept in mind.
I have not aways lived up to that sage advice, but I am trying. On the Internet, there are hordes of skunks--those who take cheap shots, don't use their real names, insult without arguments, and so on. So this should be kept in mind.
Press Release for Upcoming ID Conference
For Immediate Release July 26, 2009
Contact – Craig Smith at Shepherd Project Ministries: 720-231-7579 / info@shepherdproject.com
Colorado-Based Shepherd Project Ministries Announces the Legacy of Darwin Intelligent Design Conference for Oct. 30-31, 2009.
This year marks the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his culture-shaking book, The Origin of Species. What has been the impact of a century and a half of the theory of naturalistic evolution dominating our universities and secondary education systems? As even secular researchers have discovered, the answer is frightening. Recent films like Ben Stein’s Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed have contributed to a growing awareness in the non-Christian world that the implications of embracing naturalistic evolution as a culture have been destructive and far-reaching.
On October 30-31 at the Douglas County Event Center in Castle Rock, CO, Shepherd Project Ministries will offer a revolutionary conference featuring scientists, researchers and speakers from the Discovery Institute. The conference will explore the cultural impact of Darwinism and the ground-breaking new evidence for Intelligent Design that is changing the shape of this crucial conversation today.
With presentations by some of the world's foremost Intelligent Design experts, this conference will equip Christians to understand the key issues and be able to speak effectively into a culture that is foundering in the sea of meaninglessness that is Darwin's most lasting legacy.
The world-class line-up of presenters includes Dr. Stephen Meyer (author of The Signature in the Cell), Dr. Michael Behe (author of Darwin's Black Box), Dr. David Berlinski (featured prominently in the recent film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed), Dr. John G. West, Dr. Craig A. Smith, Dr. Douglas Groothuis and more!
Presentations will include:
· Signature in the Cell: DNA Evidence for Intelligent Design
· Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution
· Darwin Day in America: The Impact of Darwinism on Our Culture
· Training the Next Generation: Practical Strategies & Resources
Because Shepherd Project Ministries is dedicated to touching both the head and the heart, we have also asked nationally known singer/songwriter Danny Oertli to lead times of worship before each main session.
No scientific background is necessary! This conference is designed to equip ordinary Christians to have an extraordinary impact on our culture.
Space is limited. Register now at www.shepherdproject.com/idconf.
Conference Details:
Oct. 30-31 (7-9:30 pm Friday & 9:15 am – 3:30 pm Saturday)
Douglas County Event Center, 500 Fairgrounds Dr., Castle Rock, CO 80104
Cost: $10 (single), $20 (family), $5 (student)
Register at: www.shepherdproject.com/idconf
Contact – Craig Smith at Shepherd Project Ministries: 720-231-7579 / info@shepherdproject.com
Colorado-Based Shepherd Project Ministries Announces the Legacy of Darwin Intelligent Design Conference for Oct. 30-31, 2009.
This year marks the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his culture-shaking book, The Origin of Species. What has been the impact of a century and a half of the theory of naturalistic evolution dominating our universities and secondary education systems? As even secular researchers have discovered, the answer is frightening. Recent films like Ben Stein’s Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed have contributed to a growing awareness in the non-Christian world that the implications of embracing naturalistic evolution as a culture have been destructive and far-reaching.
On October 30-31 at the Douglas County Event Center in Castle Rock, CO, Shepherd Project Ministries will offer a revolutionary conference featuring scientists, researchers and speakers from the Discovery Institute. The conference will explore the cultural impact of Darwinism and the ground-breaking new evidence for Intelligent Design that is changing the shape of this crucial conversation today.
With presentations by some of the world's foremost Intelligent Design experts, this conference will equip Christians to understand the key issues and be able to speak effectively into a culture that is foundering in the sea of meaninglessness that is Darwin's most lasting legacy.
The world-class line-up of presenters includes Dr. Stephen Meyer (author of The Signature in the Cell), Dr. Michael Behe (author of Darwin's Black Box), Dr. David Berlinski (featured prominently in the recent film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed), Dr. John G. West, Dr. Craig A. Smith, Dr. Douglas Groothuis and more!
Presentations will include:
· Signature in the Cell: DNA Evidence for Intelligent Design
· Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution
· Darwin Day in America: The Impact of Darwinism on Our Culture
· Training the Next Generation: Practical Strategies & Resources
Because Shepherd Project Ministries is dedicated to touching both the head and the heart, we have also asked nationally known singer/songwriter Danny Oertli to lead times of worship before each main session.
No scientific background is necessary! This conference is designed to equip ordinary Christians to have an extraordinary impact on our culture.
Space is limited. Register now at www.shepherdproject.com/idconf.
Conference Details:
Oct. 30-31 (7-9:30 pm Friday & 9:15 am – 3:30 pm Saturday)
Douglas County Event Center, 500 Fairgrounds Dr., Castle Rock, CO 80104
Cost: $10 (single), $20 (family), $5 (student)
Register at: www.shepherdproject.com/idconf
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Doug Groothuis Preaching
I will be preaching at West Bowles Church the next two Sunday mornings, July 26, August 2 on "Christianity in the Marketplace" (Acts 17:16-34). Services begin at 10:00 AM.
Hope for Liberia
Many Christian ministries and churches are being hit by the economic recession. However, many of them can absorb setbacks, given their resources. Some, however, cannot rest on acquired properties or large amounts of savings.
One such ministry is a visionary outreach to a war-ravaged and struggling African country called Liberia. Tony Weedor, his wife, and young daughter survived the civil war and Liberia in the late 1980s and spent three years in a refugee camp in Ivory Coast. They later came to Denver where Tony received an M. Div at Denver Seminary. Tony's vision is to start a study center in Liberia where the deep things of Christianity can be taught to those without theological and philosophical foundations. Tony is uniquely equipped to do this. They have purchased property and have received thousands of books to start a library, which would become the only functioning library in Liberia.
However, Tony has been losing support because supporters are losing jobs. The and his wife are struggling to keep up to support their four children and their aspiring ministry to bring truth and hope back to Liberia.
Please visit the CenterPoint web page, pray for this vital ministry, and consider supporting it financially, as my wife and I do.
One such ministry is a visionary outreach to a war-ravaged and struggling African country called Liberia. Tony Weedor, his wife, and young daughter survived the civil war and Liberia in the late 1980s and spent three years in a refugee camp in Ivory Coast. They later came to Denver where Tony received an M. Div at Denver Seminary. Tony's vision is to start a study center in Liberia where the deep things of Christianity can be taught to those without theological and philosophical foundations. Tony is uniquely equipped to do this. They have purchased property and have received thousands of books to start a library, which would become the only functioning library in Liberia.
However, Tony has been losing support because supporters are losing jobs. The and his wife are struggling to keep up to support their four children and their aspiring ministry to bring truth and hope back to Liberia.
Please visit the CenterPoint web page, pray for this vital ministry, and consider supporting it financially, as my wife and I do.
Friday, July 24, 2009
ID Conference in Denver Area This Fall
The Shepherd's Project and The Discovery Institute are co-sponsoring a significant conference on Intelligent Design to be held in Castlerock, CO, on Oct. 39-31, 2009. Some of the best thinkers in this vibrant movement will be giving lectures. I will be part of a panel discussion with John West and Stephen Meyer on Saturday. This is a conference that thinking people will not want to miss.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Health Care?
The Heritage Foundation on what's wrong with Obama's nationalized health bureaucracy plan. This is deeply disturbing. It could even require religious organizations to pay for abortions for its employees, says Jay Seculow. Our freedoms are being blown to bits by this statist.
"Well, I Really Didn't Mean It..."
Obama's "science czar" (he has way too many of these for a democracy) once defended forced abortion and other depopulation absurdities. Of course, he is now dissembling.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
The Moral Basis of Capitalism
Here is a detailed PowerPoint presentation by Dr. Paul Prentice on "The Moral Basis for Capitalism." I'm no fan of PowerPoint, but this offering is truth heavy with no fluff. I saw this presentation on July 17 as part of the Centennial Institute's "Issues Friday" program at Colorado Christian University. Dr. Prentice makes a compelling case.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Attitudes Hindering Religious Experience and Christian Belief
Some unbelievers may fail to experience the clues, signals, and wooing of God through personal experiences—or fail to respond to them wisely—because of certain settled dispositions that hinder an awareness of God’s presence. The Christian message may be found offensive because of three basic reasons, which have nothing to do with Christianity’s truth or rationality.
First, the offer of salvation through Christ is free; it cannot be earned. This offends our desire to earn what is most important to us.
Second, the gospel calls sinners to repentance. The message of Christ and his Apostles is inherently humbling to the prideful ego. We may chafe at this.
Third, the way of Jesus is the way of the Cross and of personal sacrifice for Christ and the Kingdom of God. The Cross asks for our all and warns us of the costs therein—but always with the promise of God's presence and ultimate vindication in view. Many would rather (try to) control their own lives as “captains of their own ship.”
These ideas are culled from John Stott's Why I am a Christian, but I cannot find the page number!
First, the offer of salvation through Christ is free; it cannot be earned. This offends our desire to earn what is most important to us.
Second, the gospel calls sinners to repentance. The message of Christ and his Apostles is inherently humbling to the prideful ego. We may chafe at this.
Third, the way of Jesus is the way of the Cross and of personal sacrifice for Christ and the Kingdom of God. The Cross asks for our all and warns us of the costs therein—but always with the promise of God's presence and ultimate vindication in view. Many would rather (try to) control their own lives as “captains of their own ship.”
These ideas are culled from John Stott's Why I am a Christian, but I cannot find the page number!
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Solid Grounds Coffee House
The postmodern world is very technologically "connected" (I hate that word), but suffers from systemic loneliness. We have few truly public places for discussion and serendipity. We are so busy yelling into cell phone, checking text messages, or playing video games in the virtual world that we often fail to listen and speak to each other unmediated.
However, a few such places can be found amidst the postmodern desert. One of them is Solid Grounds, a coffee shop in Littleton, Colorado. (6504 S. Broadway.) The atmosphere is warm, friendly, and interesting. You can purchases a "bottomless" coffee (in a real, non-plastic cup) for about a dollar. The coffee is good, far better than Starbucks. Moreover, it seems to be a place where people linger and converse. The background music is not obtrusive and has been enjoyable the three times I have been there.
Solid Grounds is owned and run by South Fellowship. The manager, Mike Lasswell, tells me that their mission is to provide a public meeting place for Littleton where people can be served and loved. Some low-key outreach events may be in the offing there as well. You will learn of it here when it happens.
However, a few such places can be found amidst the postmodern desert. One of them is Solid Grounds, a coffee shop in Littleton, Colorado. (6504 S. Broadway.) The atmosphere is warm, friendly, and interesting. You can purchases a "bottomless" coffee (in a real, non-plastic cup) for about a dollar. The coffee is good, far better than Starbucks. Moreover, it seems to be a place where people linger and converse. The background music is not obtrusive and has been enjoyable the three times I have been there.
Solid Grounds is owned and run by South Fellowship. The manager, Mike Lasswell, tells me that their mission is to provide a public meeting place for Littleton where people can be served and loved. Some low-key outreach events may be in the offing there as well. You will learn of it here when it happens.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Doug Groothuis on BBC Radio
The BBC radio program, "Beyond Belief," will feature a half hour segment on religion and the Internet on its July 20 show. I am one of three panel members, which include a Rabbi and a man who found a cyber-church, St. Pixels. The latter gentleman and I had some disagreements. I recorded the program at 7:00 AM (not the Curmudgeon's favorite hour for social commentary) at the KUVO-FM studies in downtown Denver. (This is my favorite station [jazz!], so it was fun to be there and meet Rodney Franks, a radio host.) We had a satellite connection to Britain, where the host and two other fellows were talking. We recorded over forty minutes, but only about 27 will be used of that amount. There is also a three minute story.
Let me know what you think.
Let me know what you think.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Walter Cronkite (revised, spelling corrected)
Walter Cronkite, the legendary American newsman, has died at age 92. He officially retired from "The CBS Evening News" in 1980. His distinguished career in television was played out in a different media world than the one we know inhabit.
There were but three major television networks. There were no cable channels. Special effects were nonexistent on the news. Readers of the news did not have to have great good looks or big hair.
Yes, it was still television. Stories were usually only two minutes long; they jumped from one to another; they were interrupted by commercials having no conceptual connection with the news--what Neil Postman called the "And now this..." sensibility that makes incoherence a way of media existence. Yet compared to the hyperactivity of contemporary television--which literally makes me nauseous when I am accidentally exposed it terrors--television was rather calm, and Walter Cronkite possessed an avuncular gravitas. He was not histrionic; he was not an entertainer. Moreover, the language of the news was more thickly articulated; it had a richer vocabulary, and made more allusions to high culture. This is noted in Thomas Shachtman's book, The Inarticulate Society. Language has suffered horribly since then...
In the evening of November 21, 1968, I was in my small bedroom watching the evening news by myself. I was eleven years old. Adults filled the living room and kitchen of our small rented house in Anchorage, Alaska, as they had all day; but I was alone. My eyes were red from weeping. Mr. Cronkite ended the news that day by saying, "Labor leader, Harold Groothuis, and five others were killed at Point Barrow, Alaska today when their small plane crashed after take off." He may have also said, "They were part of government commission investigating claims of labor abuse among Alaska Native workers." That is true, but I do not remember if he mentioned it. (I was told my a reader of this blog that the videos are available. There is an abstract of the story on line, but it did not mention my father by name. I think the actual story did.) He looked a bit sad, and said, as he did at the end of every news broadcast, "And that's the way it is, November 21, 1968." I later told my Mom, "Mom, Walter Cronkite mentioned Dad on TV." It was the first and last time.
In many ways, I miss Walter Cronkite.
There were but three major television networks. There were no cable channels. Special effects were nonexistent on the news. Readers of the news did not have to have great good looks or big hair.
Yes, it was still television. Stories were usually only two minutes long; they jumped from one to another; they were interrupted by commercials having no conceptual connection with the news--what Neil Postman called the "And now this..." sensibility that makes incoherence a way of media existence. Yet compared to the hyperactivity of contemporary television--which literally makes me nauseous when I am accidentally exposed it terrors--television was rather calm, and Walter Cronkite possessed an avuncular gravitas. He was not histrionic; he was not an entertainer. Moreover, the language of the news was more thickly articulated; it had a richer vocabulary, and made more allusions to high culture. This is noted in Thomas Shachtman's book, The Inarticulate Society. Language has suffered horribly since then...
In the evening of November 21, 1968, I was in my small bedroom watching the evening news by myself. I was eleven years old. Adults filled the living room and kitchen of our small rented house in Anchorage, Alaska, as they had all day; but I was alone. My eyes were red from weeping. Mr. Cronkite ended the news that day by saying, "Labor leader, Harold Groothuis, and five others were killed at Point Barrow, Alaska today when their small plane crashed after take off." He may have also said, "They were part of government commission investigating claims of labor abuse among Alaska Native workers." That is true, but I do not remember if he mentioned it. (I was told my a reader of this blog that the videos are available. There is an abstract of the story on line, but it did not mention my father by name. I think the actual story did.) He looked a bit sad, and said, as he did at the end of every news broadcast, "And that's the way it is, November 21, 1968." I later told my Mom, "Mom, Walter Cronkite mentioned Dad on TV." It was the first and last time.
In many ways, I miss Walter Cronkite.
Growing Through Doubt
I will be preaching on "Growing Through Doubt (Matthew 11:1-11)" at Reformed Baptist Church of Colorado in Boulder, CO, this Sunday morning at 10:30. The church is pastored by Rev. Douglas Van Dorn, a Denver Seminary graduate and astute theological preacher.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Fetuses Said to Have Memories
The Washington Times reports that the unborn have memories. We, the unaborted, should remember this and act accordingly. More importantly, God remembers all of it, and will bring all into account when he judges "the secrets of humanity."
DemocraChurch
Since the voice of the people is the voice of God (vox populi, vox dei), and since technology gives us instant feedback, we announce:
DemocraChurch!
Each week member of DemocraChurch vote on the sermon topic (including video clips), worship songs, skits, and church activities. This is tabulated by a computer program and presented to the church staff (who come up for re-election each month). The service is based on the voting and every week is different! You even vote on the hair style and clothing of the pastor and worship leader!
It is totally relevant, just-in-time church. It empowers the congregation to be as comfortable as possible at all times. No authority above the voters! No challenges to conform to old-age, worn out ideas. No dull theology!
DemocraChurch!
With DemocraChurch, you can receive an automatic email telling you what the voting results are for each week. If you don't like the line up, just stay home! Or, if there are several DemocraChurch's in your city, chose the one that suits you best.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Iron Fists in Green Gloves
Read this article on the demonizing those who question global warming. The author is mistaken to compare global warming authoritarianism to McCarthyism. Communism was (and is) a real threat to civilization. Moreover, Communists had infiltrated many areas of American life and were trying to subvert the Constitution.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Free Philosophy Conference
Anyone interested in attending this at CU Boulder? The letter is from the Department of Philosophy.
----------------------
Dear Philosophy Friends,
In conjunction with the tenth-annual summer seminar at CU–Boulder, the Philosophy Department is hosting a tenth-anniversary reunion conference on July 24–25. Attendance is free and open to the Colorado philosophical community.
The schedule is as follows:
Friday, July 24th:2:00–3:15pm: Eric Swanson (Univ. of Michigan)“Counterpart Theory and Limit Assumptions”
3:45–5:00pm: Daniel Z. Korman (Univ. Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)“Restricted Composition without Sharp Cut-Offs”
Saturday, July 25th:9:00–10:15am: David Robb (Davidson College)“Are Properties Dependent Beings?”
10:45am–12:00pm: Christina Van Dyke (Calvin College)“The End of (Human) Life as We Know It: Thomas Aquinas on Bodies, Persons, and Death”
LUNCH
1:45–3:00pm: Katherine F. King (London School of Economics)“Lucky Genes? An Argument against the Natural Lottery”
3:30–4:30pm: Bas van Fraassen (San Francisco State Univ./Princeton)“Measurement Seen through Theory-Colored Glasses”
4:30–5:30pm: Isabelle Peschard (San Francisco State Univ.)“Measurement Seen through the Experimenters’ Eyes”
*All talks will be in MCOL W100, two buildings west of Hellems Hall on the CU–Boulder campus.
----------------------
Dear Philosophy Friends,
In conjunction with the tenth-annual summer seminar at CU–Boulder, the Philosophy Department is hosting a tenth-anniversary reunion conference on July 24–25. Attendance is free and open to the Colorado philosophical community.
The schedule is as follows:
Friday, July 24th:2:00–3:15pm: Eric Swanson (Univ. of Michigan)“Counterpart Theory and Limit Assumptions”
3:45–5:00pm: Daniel Z. Korman (Univ. Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)“Restricted Composition without Sharp Cut-Offs”
Saturday, July 25th:9:00–10:15am: David Robb (Davidson College)“Are Properties Dependent Beings?”
10:45am–12:00pm: Christina Van Dyke (Calvin College)“The End of (Human) Life as We Know It: Thomas Aquinas on Bodies, Persons, and Death”
LUNCH
1:45–3:00pm: Katherine F. King (London School of Economics)“Lucky Genes? An Argument against the Natural Lottery”
3:30–4:30pm: Bas van Fraassen (San Francisco State Univ./Princeton)“Measurement Seen through Theory-Colored Glasses”
4:30–5:30pm: Isabelle Peschard (San Francisco State Univ.)“Measurement Seen through the Experimenters’ Eyes”
*All talks will be in MCOL W100, two buildings west of Hellems Hall on the CU–Boulder campus.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Doug Groothuis Sermon on Line
My sermon at Scum of the Earth Church, "Meeting Jesus: Money Made New" (Luke 19:1-10), is available on their web page. Look for June 28, 2009. I can send you the sermon outline if you are interested.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
TV in the Good Old Days
While hunting for a Mortimer Adler quote (which I never found, on the idea of God from the Synopticon to the Great Books), I found this transcript from--hold on to your hat--a television program from the 1950s. This was when TV was copying other forms, such as the classroom. That is almost never done today.
Now we get the Michael Jackson funeral.
Now we get the Michael Jackson funeral.
Friday, July 10, 2009
"Does God Exist?"
I will be preaching both morning messages and the evening message at Grace Chapel in Englewood, CO this Sunday, July 12. The title is, "Does God Exist?" I have never preached on that before, but was asked to do so. I will give three arguments for God's existence and explain why this is important.
Buddhist, Christian Dialogue in Barnes and Noble
While at a local bookstore, I noticed that the all-important philosophy section had moved. But I could not find it. So, I asked a salesperson where it was. As she guided me there, I said, "Just when you think you really know a bookstore, it changes." She replied, "That's an object lesson in Buddhism: everything is impermanent." After a pause, I said, "Well, not everything is impermanent." She said, "Name one thing that is not impermanent." "God," I announced. She said, "Well, you are right about that."
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Narcissism is Good
Narcissism is good.
Nothing, spare self, has value.
In the beginning (for no reason)
were
the Particles,
the Laws,
the Chance.
Self, born from impersonal cauldron
finds itself
with
Itself.
It gives Itself
value.
It gives all else
value.
I value
myself.
Nothing else values anything
for me.
"All things are nothing to me" (Max Stirner).
Nothing is everything to me.
Axiology is autobiography.
Don't judge me
Don't censure me
Don't improve me
Don't punish me
But praise me,
for being me.
I confer value on
anything, everything, nothing, something,
as I deem fit.
I am fit
for anything, nothing, something.
It all depends on me.
Narcissism is good.
Who are you to say otherwise,
you orphan of particle, law, and chance?
You are nothing to me,
or something or everything
if I so choose...
Or am I chosen by
particle, law, and chance?
Never mind,
all is matter;
it doesn't matter;
I matter
to me--for now.
I am my own anchor
gyroscope,
map.
i am
i a m
ia m
i
a
m
.
.
.
Nothing, spare self, has value.
In the beginning (for no reason)
were
the Particles,
the Laws,
the Chance.
Self, born from impersonal cauldron
finds itself
with
Itself.
It gives Itself
value.
It gives all else
value.
I value
myself.
Nothing else values anything
for me.
"All things are nothing to me" (Max Stirner).
Nothing is everything to me.
Axiology is autobiography.
Don't judge me
Don't censure me
Don't improve me
Don't punish me
But praise me,
for being me.
I confer value on
anything, everything, nothing, something,
as I deem fit.
I am fit
for anything, nothing, something.
It all depends on me.
Narcissism is good.
Who are you to say otherwise,
you orphan of particle, law, and chance?
You are nothing to me,
or something or everything
if I so choose...
Or am I chosen by
particle, law, and chance?
Never mind,
all is matter;
it doesn't matter;
I matter
to me--for now.
I am my own anchor
gyroscope,
map.
i am
i a m
ia m
i
a
m
.
.
.
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Philosophy Chops
The Philosopher's Magazine has put on line my article "Swinging in Class." This was published in their hard copy magazine about two years ago. It is about applying jazz themes to teaching philosophy.
Defending Capitalism
Centennial Institute Invites You to Join Us for
Issue Friday * July 17, 10:00-11:30 am
Colorado Christian University, School of Business Room 103
"DEFENDING THE MORAL FOUNDATIONS OF CAPITALISM"
Dr. Paul Prentice, Centennial Institute Fellow & UCCS Economist
Prof. Tamara Hannaway, CCU School of Business
Plus Discussion Forum Moderated by John Andrews
** Why can we say that the market economy and free enterprise
are not only materially superior but ethically superior?
** What are the moral flaws in a centralized command economy?
** How is your intellectual ammunition for making these arguments
at a critical moment in American history? Come & reload with us!
Reservations recommended * RSVP on this email or call 303.963.3424
Directions to CCU Campus in Lakewood: From Garrison, go east two short blocks on Cedar, park on your right.
Continue east into the campus, toward flagpole. School of Business is the 2nd low building on your right.
The Centennial Institute sponsors research, events, and publications to enhance
public understanding of the most important issues facing our state and nation.
By proclaiming Truth, we aim to foster faith, family, and freedom,
teach citizenship, and renew the spirit of 1776.
Centennial Institute
Colorado Christian University
8787 W. Alameda Ave.
Lakewood, Colorado
80226303-963-3424
Centennial@ccu.edu
Issue Friday * July 17, 10:00-11:30 am
Colorado Christian University, School of Business Room 103
"DEFENDING THE MORAL FOUNDATIONS OF CAPITALISM"
Dr. Paul Prentice, Centennial Institute Fellow & UCCS Economist
Prof. Tamara Hannaway, CCU School of Business
Plus Discussion Forum Moderated by John Andrews
** Why can we say that the market economy and free enterprise
are not only materially superior but ethically superior?
** What are the moral flaws in a centralized command economy?
** How is your intellectual ammunition for making these arguments
at a critical moment in American history? Come & reload with us!
Reservations recommended * RSVP on this email or call 303.963.3424
Directions to CCU Campus in Lakewood: From Garrison, go east two short blocks on Cedar, park on your right.
Continue east into the campus, toward flagpole. School of Business is the 2nd low building on your right.
The Centennial Institute sponsors research, events, and publications to enhance
public understanding of the most important issues facing our state and nation.
By proclaiming Truth, we aim to foster faith, family, and freedom,
teach citizenship, and renew the spirit of 1776.
Centennial Institute
Colorado Christian University
8787 W. Alameda Ave.
Lakewood, Colorado
80226303-963-3424
Centennial@ccu.edu
Sunday, July 05, 2009
The Great Give Away
CAIR, inspired by Obama's positive comments about Islam, wants to give away 100,000 copies of The Qu'ran to influential US leaders. If you receive one, be sure to read the parts about jihad and polygamy, which have never been renounced by Islam and cannot be. Sharia law is incompatible with the American Constitution.
Lost in MeWorld
Hi, this is Me.
You need to know everything about Me. Here are hundreds of photos of Me. I am cool, cute, in the know, have photogenic friends, and those who aren't make Me look better. I can strike a pose, even hundreds of them: Me on display for you.
You need to know all My likes and dislikes, too: My favorite TV shows, movies, video games, foods, celebrities, clothes, tweets, and more. My trivia is your treasure--because it's Mine.
It's MeWorld: just Me for everyone out there, because you need to know Me. I need more friends on Facebook, more twitter partners, more posts on My blog, more cell calls, more links to Me, more emails to Me, more YouTube videos featuring Me.
You need to know everything about Me.
Don't you? Hello...
You need to know everything about Me. Here are hundreds of photos of Me. I am cool, cute, in the know, have photogenic friends, and those who aren't make Me look better. I can strike a pose, even hundreds of them: Me on display for you.
You need to know all My likes and dislikes, too: My favorite TV shows, movies, video games, foods, celebrities, clothes, tweets, and more. My trivia is your treasure--because it's Mine.
It's MeWorld: just Me for everyone out there, because you need to know Me. I need more friends on Facebook, more twitter partners, more posts on My blog, more cell calls, more links to Me, more emails to Me, more YouTube videos featuring Me.
You need to know everything about Me.
Don't you? Hello...
Media Analysis by Eric Goodman at Denver Seminary
I have recommended the video, "Thus Spake the Spectacle" on this world-famous blog. The creator of the video noticed and asked if he could present something at Denver Seminary. So, we will have Eric Goodman present the following on July 7 at 7:00PM in room 120 at Denver Seminary. The event is free, but will make you think. There will be time for discussion as well.
Thus Spoke The Spectacle:
Media, Technology, and the Co-option of the Sacred
Eric Goodman is a musician and videomaker living in New York City. He is a graduate of Cornell University, where he led off the first annual "MIDI Madness" Digital Music Festival. He has studied electronic music, music composition, video production and film scoring at Cornell and the Center for the Media Arts. His project of conceptual music videos, Thus Spoke The Spectacle, fuses original compositions, video clips, and narration from the fields of media studies, literature and philosophy. Drawing upon a wide range of theories, the project explores the meaning and effects of our corporate-controlled, media-saturated, technological society.
Thus Spoke The Spectacle:
Media, Technology, and the Co-option of the Sacred
Eric Goodman is a musician and videomaker living in New York City. He is a graduate of Cornell University, where he led off the first annual "MIDI Madness" Digital Music Festival. He has studied electronic music, music composition, video production and film scoring at Cornell and the Center for the Media Arts. His project of conceptual music videos, Thus Spoke The Spectacle, fuses original compositions, video clips, and narration from the fields of media studies, literature and philosophy. Drawing upon a wide range of theories, the project explores the meaning and effects of our corporate-controlled, media-saturated, technological society.
Saturday, July 04, 2009
A Prediction
I myself am convinced that the theory of evolution, especially the extent to which it’s been applied, will be one of the great jokes in the history books of the future. Posterity will marvel that so very flimsy and dubious an hypothesis could be accepted with the incredible credulity that it has.—Malcolm Muggeridge, The End of Christendom (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1980), 59.
Friday, July 03, 2009
"Truth Under Fire"
My essay, "Truth Under Fire," has been published by The Centennial Review, which is published by The Centennial Institute, a think tank associated with Colorado Christian University and led by John Andrews, formerly a Colorado state Senator. I am proud to be associated with The Centennial Institute, where I serve as a Fellow.
The Declaration of Independence: Truths Still Needed Today
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
— John Hancock
New Hampshire:Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts:John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut:Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York:William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey:Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania:Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware:Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland:Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina:William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina:Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia:Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
— John Hancock
New Hampshire:Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts:John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut:Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York:William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey:Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania:Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware:Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland:Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina:William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina:Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia:Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
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