Devils Demons and Double Standards
By Duane | July 3, 2009
“Baby killer’s day out from prison to go shopping” “Baby killer let out to visit mall”
Just two of the many headlines from several pages of The Daily Telegraph’s (DT) diatribe last Friday (26th June) against the supervised shopping trip of one Phillip King, who was imprisoned after he “killed his own baby son in a fit of rage when he punched and kicked Kylie Flick’s stomach after she refused to have an abortion”, the DT reports.
“He didn’t steal a car, he stole a life”, was one way Kylie expressed her anguish over the memory of the birth of her stillborn son, whom she Christened Jonathan.
The DT also point out that Ms Flick’s son “never drew breath”, (a seemingly redundant piece of information), and that King’s “horrific 2002 crime led to a new law with a maximum 25-year jail term for people for people who kill a foetus…”
This attack by the media you might say is fair game. He did take the life of an innocent human being after all, and injured several others both physically and emotionally in the process. So why shouldn’t the media have their pound of flesh? Well here are some more of the headlines and comments from the same articles.
Topics: Abortion, Ethics/Morality, Family, News/Media | 2 Comments »
Don’t Force Your Beliefs on Me!
By Duane | June 30, 2009
One of a series of images that appear on the pro-life clothing range available from http://www.christianshirts.net/
Some of you may recognise that ”Don’t force your beliefs on me” is the kind of self-refuting PC slogan typically used by the Pro-Abortion crowd to silence people who think abortion is wrong because it takes the life of a defenceless human being. When they use their slogan (which is not an argument by the way), the normal way to expose it as a self-refuting view is to ask, Why Not? It’s very difficult to answer that question without them forcing their own belief on you. This shirt however, takes a different tact. These guys have basically borrowed the pet PC slogan of the Pro-Abort guys and used it against them. Petty? … Hmmm perhaps. Certainly no more petty than than when the Pro-Abort’s use it. But I think it is an effective way at getting to the heart of the issue. That is, what is the unborn?
And then another favourite…
[In Australia the figure is about 200+ per day 1]
See, when abortions are viewed as the unjustified taking of innocent human life, the sloganistic ‘Get you rosaries off my ovaries!’ just doesn’t cut the mustard as a defence does it?
1. Abortion and the Law in NSW, p3. Calculated from the commonly cited estimated minimum of 70,000 abortions in Australia per year. The estimated maximum is cited as approximately 100,000 per year (or about 270 per day), which puts Australia in the same ball park with the USA on a per capita basis.
Topics: Abortion, Ethics/Morality | Comments Off
Heads we win, Tail you lose: The Evolutionary Mantra
By Duane | June 24, 2009
From a recent article on the Uncommon Descent Blog, by O’Leary:
First junk DNA proved Darwin was right, then when it turned out not to be junk, you can be pretty sure, it will still prove Darwin was right. Darwinism has become a catch-all for a tired, worn-out theory, hysterically popular in the academic culture, with no real definition or foundation for why.
OK we know they’re not going to give the game away just because it turns out there is no “junk” in DNA or there is no ”vestigial” in organs (in a manner of speaking). But rather than tow the party line with ad-hoc after-the-fact explanations, I’d like to hear an evolutionist just come clean and say, “You know what, we got it wrong, but we are moving forward and developing the theory further based on this new information” … pun intended.
As has been pointed out numerous times by many apologists in this field, assuming that an Intelligent Designer is behind the origin of life is a completely different way of thinking that provides insights that an evolutionary worldview cannot. But by assuming that certain biological structures (e.g. appendix, male nipples, coccyx) are useless evolutionary leftovers, or that certain information (like we find in DNA) is junk, “rather than applying good research to figure out what they are for, evolutionists have hindered and delayed key insights into physiology that could have advanced medicine and increased understanding of biological design. [For example,] Some 180 body parts were considered vestigial as recently as the 1930s. The list included organs as vital as the pituitary gland and thymus.” Would you like to have them removed?
Topics: Evolution, Intelligent Design | Comments Off
What do you have to do to go to Hell?
By Duane | June 18, 2009
Today I received a clever little wallet-sized booklet, produced and/or sponsored by www.wayofthemaster.com and www.christiananswers.net
On the front page is a question, which is identical to the title of this post. What do you have to do to go to Hell? When you open the small accordian-style booklet, it is only 8 pages long (4 panels on each side) and contains what I think is very useful and engaging information.
My favourite part of the booklet is the second page, which contains the answer to the question posed on the front page. I have reproduced the contents of the second page below…
(If you haven’t figured it out, the hint is on the beginning of the third page of the booklet, and it begins this way … ”That’s right. Nothing.”)
Topics: Christianity | 1 Comment »
Plugged in to God’s Word
By Duane | June 16, 2009
This is not the first time that some of you will have seen this picture - I have used it before. But I just love the metaphor and wanted to tell you about some of my recent reflections that flowed from it.
Now with a daughter of my own (and three sons), this metaphor really resonates with me. It is the perfect picture of the hope I would have for her (and for that matter, all my children). Notice the metaphors that surround her; Money, Sex, Drugs, Alcohol, Violence, Pornography (to name a few) - and she is totally centred on her Lord. I just love it!
And as Christians, isn’t this our most persistent concern for our children, which we lay daily at God’s feet through prayer. Is it not also our own desire to do as the Lord instructs in raising Godly children like this. But now, the reality check…
Topics: Christianity, Culture, Family | 5 Comments »
Once upon a time there was a Theropod…
By Duane | June 10, 2009
[Original Post Date: 13 Feb 2008. Updated 10 June 2009 to include more recent information - see bottom of this post.]
In the first two posts I wrote for this blog, I made brief comments that highlighted what I thought about the evolutionary notion of dinosaurs evolving into birds. (If God didn’t create them, they’ve gotta come from somewhere, right?). I’ve always thought the idea was, well… dumb, to put it bluntly, and I haven’t seen or heard anything since then to change my mind.
Dr. Ken Dial from the University of Montana, thinks he might be on the way to solving the problem. However the folks over at Creation Safaris are having a hard time swallowing it.
For years, evolutionary biologists have battled over the origin of flight. Did dinosaurs run along the ground and take off, or did they jump from trees? The first idea is called the cursorial hypothesis; the latter, the arboreal hypothesis. In 2003, Ken Dial had an idea: maybe watching partridge chicks could inform the debate. This month his approach made the journal Nature.
So the fruits of his escapades were published in a leading English scientific journal, which is only more evidence that peer review in scientific journals does not guarantee the publication of good quality, objective science.
Topics: Evolution | Comments Off
Can Science Disprove God?
By Duane | June 6, 2009
[Originally posted: June 14, 2007]
In an interview with Time Magazine, Dawkins gets it so miserably wrong;
Time [Magazine]: Professor Dawkins, if one truly understands science, is God then a delusion, as your book title suggests?
DAWKINS: The question of whether there exists a supernatural creator, a God, is one of the most important that we have to answer. I think that it is a scientific question. My answer is no.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1553986-2,00.html
Topics: Apologetics, Philosophy, Science | 1 Comment »
Historical Resurrection Quiz
By Duane | May 20, 2009
Gary Habermas is quite possibly the world’s leading scholar on the resurrection. His website (http://www.garyhabermas.com) and other published materials (such as his book, The Historical Jesus) are outstanding and make a fine first stop for anyone facing the “latest” regurgitated challenges to the resurrection and related topics.
But I recently discovered another reason to visit his website; the Historical Resurrection Quiz. The quiz is multiple-choice-based and focuses on the historical sources, challenges and arguments concerning the resurrection. The quiz is broken up into levels of various difficulty, requiring you to attain a particular level of knowledge before moving on the next, more challenging, level. All answers are scored and bonus questions at the end of each round is an opportunity to score more points. I found it to be both fun and educational.
Topics: Apologetics, Christianity, Theology | 2 Comments »
« Previous Entries