Darwin Day

Discovery Institute tells us what happened to Lincoln’s Birthday

February 12 used to be celebrated in schoolrooms across America as Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. Not anymore. In recent years, schools, museums, and community groups have decided to use the day to celebrate the birthday of the father of evolution instead. Darwin Day celebrations provide an eye-opening glimpse into the world of grassroots Darwinian fundamentalism, an alternate reality where atheism is the conventional wisdom and where traditional religious believers are viewed with suspicion if not outright paranoia. Darwin Day events often explicitly attack traditional religion, and the original “honorary president” of Darwin Day was biologist Richard Dawkins, author most recently of The God Delusion. Darwin Day celebrations are symptomatic of how science is routinely misused in America today to attack traditional morality and religion, and how Darwinian biology in particular is influencing virtually every area of our culture—morality, the courts, the welfare system, medicine, and even our churches.

Join author Dr. John West, author of the provocative new book Darwin Day in America: How Our Politics and Culture Have Been Dehumanized in the Name of Science (ISI Books) as he explores the Darwin Day movement and what it reveals about the pervasive influence of Darwinism and scientific materialism on every part on our culture.
What: Darwin Day in America
Who: Dr. John G. West
When: Feb. 12, 12pm – 1:30pm
Where: Media Center at the Family Research Council, Washington, DC

The Value of the Values Voter

From the folks at ChronWatch:

By Tony Perkins Tony Perkins is executive director of the Family Research Council in Washington, D. C.

In the latest round of political musical chairs, when the music stopped last night in Florida Mayor Giuliani was knocked out. What happened to this front runner who just months ago was all but anointed as the GOP candidate, the only one who could beat Hillary Clinton?

Spiritual Morphine- The Delusory Hope of Dying on Your Own Terms

This is an excerpt from an article from this month’s Touchstone Magazine. It can be found in it’s entirety here

by Kristina Robb Dover

….Simone Weil goes so far as to say that in the same way that the natural phenomenon of a sunset reminds us of the order and beauty of creation, so too does affliction—it is written into the delicate structure of the universe to which human beings belong and ultimately must give heed. In her essay, “The Love of God and Affliction,” she writes:
Each time that we have some pain to go through, we can say to ourselves quite truly that it is the universe, the order and beauty of the world, and the obedience of creation to God that are entering our body. After that, how can we fail to bless with tenderest gratitude the Love that sends us this gift?
By agreeing with Weil that even pain can minister God’s grace to us, I do not intend to glorify suffering purely for suffering’s sake. There is nothing redemptive in suffering alone. Nor do I wish to suggest that death is a good. The Bible is clear from start to finish that just as death did not belong to God’s original plan for creation, death will not have a place in the heavenly resurrected life that God promises to those who love him.
My unease is with a Christianity that in a highly therapeutic, health-obsessed Western culture genuflects before the idols of comfort and happiness. A religion that assigns greater value to pain relief in the here and now than to the lordship of Jesus Christ has only succeeded in erecting another golden calf, with the damaging result that health and comfort and a pain-free death are falsely proclaimed as the answer to the riddle of human existence.
Such misplaced worship is a far cry from “true religion,” understood as that “which binds us to God as the one and only God,” in the words of John Calvin (a man, incidentally, racked with illness his whole life). It falls prey to the kind of utilitarianism that Friedrich Schleiermacher once bewailed: religion that exists not for its own sake, but as a means to an end—in this case, the relief of pain…..

Time for Huck to Bail?

Question- If Huckabee were not in the race who would his supporters most likely vote for?
My hunch is the answer would be Romney. Except in Texas maybe where for some reason they seem to have a strong affinity for Paul. (I guess we are a bunch of loonies down here)

Assuming my hunch is correct, that Huckabee’s supporters, given the choice between Romney and McCain, would support Romney, then is Huckabee’s continued run hurting Romney and helping McCain?

Does Huckabee see himself as gathering enough delegates to make him kingmaker at the convention and thus able to have some say in the platform?

Or do the republicans seek a “favorite son” solution suggested here or do they just “recruit Newt” as suggested here

Thoughts anyone?

Either way it looks to be an interesting process. Too bad it’s also getting kind scary.

A Sign of Things to Come?

Christian Photographer Hauled before Commission for Refusing Same-Sex Job
By John Jalsevac

….A same-sex couple asked Elaine Huguenin, co-owner with her husband of Elane Photography, to photograph a “commitment ceremony” that the two women wanted to hold. Huguenin declined because her Christian beliefs are in conflict with the message communicated by the ceremony.
The same-sex couple filed a complaint with the New Mexico Human Rights Division, which is now trying Elane Photography under state antidiscrimination laws for sexual orientation discrimination. ….

read full story here

‘Filthy’ Israel’s days are numbered – Iran

HARDLINE president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has renewed his verbal attack on Israel, saying its days are numbered and predicting that the “filthy Zionist entity” will fall sooner or later.”I advise you to abandon the filthy Zionist entity which has reached the end of the line,” Mr Ahmadinejad today told world powers in a speech in the southern city of Bushehr carried live on the state television. “It has lost its reason to be and will sooner or later fall,” he said. “The ones who still support the criminal Zionists should know that the occupiers’ days are numbered.”

the full story

UN human rights chief backs plan that seeks end to Zionism

UN human rights chief backs plan that supports elimination of Israel

Just another day at the office for the UN Human Rights commission. “Arbour backs plan that seeks end to Zionism: UN human rights czar supports controversial pan-Arab charter,” by Steven Edwards for The Ottawa Citizen (thanks to Sounder):
UNITED NATIONS – Louise Arbour, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, has thrown her support behind a major pan-Arab human rights charter that commits to the elimination of Zionism.
Some critics say the wording is code for the destruction of Israel, but in a statement from her Geneva headquarters, the former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada welcomes the Arab Charter on Human Rights, which will come into force in mid-March….

While the document demands respect for a host of internationally recognized human rights, its references to Zionism concern leading human rights activist groups, including Amnesty International, International Commission of Jurists and UN Watch.
click here for the rest

We Will Destroy America and Britain, But Won’t Use Nuclear Bombs

As reported by Yahoo News (McClatchy Newspapers) here

and an interview with him here at Jihad Watch:

“Pakistani Taliban Emir By’atullah Mahsoud: We Will Destroy America and Britain, But Won’t Use Nuclear Bombs,” from MEMRI (thanks to Mackie):
Following are excerpts from an interview with By’atullah Mahsoud, the Emir of the Pakistani Taliban, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on January 25, 2008. Throughout the interview, the assassination of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto was not mentioned, and it seems the interview was recorded earlier.
To view this clip, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1668.htm.

From the interview:
Interviewer: “Have you ever had any connection with Al-Zarqawi, Al-Zahawiri, or bin Laden?”

By’atullah Mahsoud: “Before Al-Zarqawi left for Iraq, he was in our region with us. We had strong relations with him. After America began committing injustice in Iraq, he went over there, and he had an extraordinary role. With regard to Osama and Al-Zawahiri, I never met them, but I have the utmost love and respect for them, because of their enmity towards the Jews and the Christians. The Muslims must be harsh towards the infidels and compassionate among themselves. These two men reflect this Koranic verse. Their enmity towards the Jews and the Christians is strong, and therefore, I respect them.[...]
That’s Qur’an 48:29: “Muhammad is the apostle of Allah. Those who follow him are merciful to one another, but harsh to the unbelievers.”

Quote Of The Day- My Favorite Lefty

“The central doctrine of Christianity, then, is not that God is a bastard. It is, in the words of the late Dominican theologian Herbert McCabe, that if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you.”–Terry Eagleton

review of Richard Dawkins’s The God Delusion in the London Review of Books beginning “Imagine someone holding forth on biology whose only knowledge of the subject is the Book of British Birds, and you have a rough idea of what it feels like to read Richard Dawkins on theology.” — Terr Eagleton

The 10 Most Redeeming Films of 2007-From CT

From Christianity Today

What do monks, kites, unwanted pregnancies, a 19th century abolitionist, and a young man with a life-sized inflatable doll have in common? They’re all in movies that we’ve deemed the ten most redeeming films of 2007.posted 01/29/08
First off, what do we mean by “redeeming” films? They’re all stories of redemption—sometimes blatantly, sometimes less so. Several of them literally have a character that represents a redeemer; all of them have characters who experience redemption to some degree—some quite clearly, some more subtly. Some are “feel-good” movies that leave a smile on your face; some are a bit more uncomfortable to watch. But the redemptive element is there in all of these films.
See the list here