Religio-Political Talk: 10/14/07

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Cookie Monster in Rehab

Nothing Is Sacred

Bored and Starting to Feel A little Better

Bill Maher vs 9/11 Truthers in His Audience

Sittin at Home Sick

I am well enough to get around, but the happy-hour food from El Presidente didn't fair well with my digestive track...

...

...so I am having a Preparation-H moment and wanted to share how twice now in a few short weeks I have found myself rooting for Bill Maher. Enjoy (CAUTION >>> VIDEO HAS GRAPHIC LANGUAGE WARNING... Bill Maher is a liberal and cusses often). I must return to the lavatory.

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Friday, October 19, 2007

Dinosaurs, the Bible, and Creation Proofs

Titanosaur

This article was thanks to the CARM forum/discussion board and can be found in an ENN - Article.

Most complete new giant dinosaur found in Patagonia

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazilian and Argentine paleontologists have discovered the largely complete fossil of a new species of giant dinosaur that roamed what is now northern Patagonia about 80 million years ago.

The herbivorous Futalognkosaurus dukei measured an estimated 105 feet to 112 feet from head to tail and was as high as a four-storey building. It is one of the three biggest dinosaurs yet found in the world.

….

The find pointed to a new lineage of titanosaurs, with particularly bulky necks, he said.

"Its neck was very big in diameter, strong and huge."

Fossilized remains of an ecosystem from the same Late Cretaceous age, including well-preserved leaves and fish, were also found. The description was published in the latest issue of the annals of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences.

….

"The accumulation of fish and leaf fossils, as well as other dinosaurs around the find, is just something fantastic. Leaves and dinosaurs together is a great rarity," he told Reuters. "It's like a whole lost world for us."

He was referring to "The Lost World" by Arthur Conan Doyle, a classic tale set in a remote part of South America where a scientific expedition finds dinosaurs still roaming an isolated plateau.

Some of the leaves made part of the diet of the titanosaur and other specimens found there. The researchers said the fossilized ecosystem pointed to a warm and humid climate in Patagonia, which had forests during the Late Cretaceous period. The area is steppe-like now and almost bare of vegetation.

Researchers believe the carcass of the giant dinosaur, which died of unknown causes, its flesh devoured by predators, was washed into a nearby slow-flowing river, where it created a barrier, accumulating bones and leaves in its structure for many years until all became fossilized.

A fossil of a carnivorous theropod Megaraptor found at the site contained a complete and articulated arm with very large sickle-shaped claws. Previously, similar fragmented bones were interpreted as a foot, researchers said.

The joint Argentine-Brazilian project also works in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, where Kellner said an important find has been made but would be revealed at a later date.

Desert-like areas in Argentina are good for preserving fossils, while they are more difficult to find in the wetter soil in Brazil.

There are a few things I take issue with here, but they are minor. Every fossil find involves a river or a local flood. I just love it as a Young Earth Creationist (YEC) to here this because it is at every description of multiple fossil finds. In fact, all the fossils found are in flood deposits. Hmmm, could it be, well now… let’s see… could it be – The Flood! At any rate, I am going to post two small blurbs I wrote on matter dealing with dinosaurs. Enjoy:

Dinosaurs and the Bible?

Lets start this paper out by playing a game. The game is “Pin the Tail on the Donkey.” Except we don’t have a donkey, but I’m sure you can figure it out.

Of course, you are probably wondering why I am displaying these comical pictures, and what, if anything these pictures have to do with dinosaurs and the Bible! Let me explain. The ancient record of a man named Job is found in the Bible. It goes back to a time over 2,000 years before Christ. The fascinating story of Job is one of the oldest pieces of literature on earth. It was written down just a few hundred years after the flood of Noah’s time.

Now, I know you are thinking to yourself, “Flood!? Noah!? Bible!? Dinosaurs and man co-existing is outrages by evolutionary terms, I mean, dinosaurs died out at least 64 million years ago! And man didn’t show up on the evolutionary scene till about 1 to 4 million years ago (depending on what evolutionary tree you accept).” Yes, I know this sounds incredible, but some amazing items from history and archaeology are mounting the evidence against this belief that man and dino are separated by massive amounts of time and geological layers. Unfortunately, this particular paper does not deal with this topic of history and archaeology for proving the co-existence of dino and man.

This writing only deals with the Bible’s take on dino and man. So lets get to it. In the 40th chapter of Job’s account, we see the record of the Creator Himself speaking to job. He is drawing Job’s attention to one of the wonders of the creation. Let’s read it.

“Look now at the behemoth, which I made along with you…” (verse 15)

Behemoth in the Hebrew simply means large beast. Most bibles have a marginal note by this verse explaining that this creature was most likely an elephant or hippopotamus (half of the above drawings explained!). God is saying to Job, “take a good look at this creature. I am going to demonstrate something to you.”

“He eats Grass like an ox.” (Verse 15)

The animal must be a vegetarian, but it’s likely larger than an ox.

“See now, the strength is in his hips [or loins].” (Verse 16)

This critter must have powerful legs. So it could be an elephant.

“His power is in his stomach muscles.” (Verse 16)

He apparently has a massive mid-section. If that was all we had to go on we could rightly assume Job may very well be looking at a hippo. But let’s read on.

“He moves his tail like a cedar.” (Verse 17)

Now we have a problem (and the answer to the drawings above). Have you noticed something distinctive about cedar trees? They are big aren’t they? Now have you seen a tail of an elephant or a hippo? It doesn’t seem that a cedar tree is a very appropriate analogy does it. Let’s re-read – and finish – the verses of study.

Genus Name: Seismosaurus ("earth shaker lizard")
Type Species: * S. hallorum (Gillette, 1991)
Length: about 120 feet (37 meters)
Weight: 30-70 tons
Time: 155-145 million years ago (Late Jurassic) [Debatable]
Place: New Mexico
Diet: plant-eater (herbivore)

Job 40: 15-24 (KJV)

15 Behold now behemoth [large beast], which I made with thee [all animals and Adam and Eve were created on the sixth day]; he eateth grass as an ox [vegetarian]. 16 Lo now, his strength [is] in his loins [large, powerful legs], and his force [is] in the navel of his belly [large mid-section.] 17 He moveth his tail like a cedar [huge tail]: the sinews of his stones are wrapped together. 18 His bones [are as] strong pieces of brass [big bones]; his bones [are] like bars of iron [again, big bones]. 19 He [is] the chief of the ways of God [largest or mightiest creation]: he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him [only God can kill him]. 20 Surely the mountains bring him forth food, where all the beasts of the field play. 21 He lieth under the shady trees, in the covert of the reed, and fens [we have all seen drawings of these beasts halfway in the water with their head up eating the vegetation on the sides of the banks]. 22 The shady trees cover him [with] their shadow; the willows of the brook compass him about [again, in a swamp, or the like]. 23 Behold, he drinketh up a river, [and] hasteth not: he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth [the NASB says in v. 23: “if a river rages, he is not alarmed. He is confidant, though the Jordan rushes to his mouth”. 24 He taketh it with his eyes: [his] nose pierceth through snares [you cannot catch him].

Paraphrase Bible

Although the monstrous creature was obviously vegetarian, its size was overwhelming. Its hips were built to withstand the enormous force of each pounding step and its midsection was a mass of muscle. Its gigantic tail extended far behind, not unlike a giant cedar tree swaying behind its body. Its bones were built like steel girders with ribs like iron bars to support his enormous weight. Surely, this was the greatest among the creatures ever to roam the swamps and rivers of the earth.

Fresh dinosaur bones found?

Most people think that all known dinosaur bones are fossils, and that this proves dinosaurs died out millions of years ago. Yet “fresh”, unfossilized, dinosaur bones have been found, suggesting that dinosaurs might have lived recently.

In northwestern Alaska in 1961 a geologist found a bed of dinosaur bones in unpermineralized (“unfossilized”) condition. (See Journal of Paleontology, vol. 61 no. 6, 1986–7, pages 198–200.)

In another case, a young Inuit (Canadian Eskimo) who was working with scientists from Newfoundland's Memorial University in 1987 on Bylot Island found part of a lower jaw of a duckbill dinosaur. It too was in fresh condition.

Good enough to compare with chicken!

The journal Science on December 24, 1993 (pages 2020–2023) reported on the amazing preservation of the bones of a young duckbill dinosaur found in Montana. Under a microscope, the fine structure of the bones was seen to have been preserved to such an extent that cell characteristics could be compared with cells of chicken bone.

Claudia Barreto and others said, “In the dinosaur specimens, the same high degree of structural resolution can be seen as in modern specimens.” Even the calcium and phosphorus ratios were comparable. In other words, these appeared to be fresh bones, not fossilized — even though they are claimed to be more than 70 million years old.

Such findings cast serious doubt on the millions of years claimed for the dinosaurs.

Blood Cells & Protein

By using immunological tests, Gerard Muyzer of Leiden University in the Netherlands, isolated samples from some fresh T-Rex bone that had a specific bone protein (osteocalcin) in them. These proteins, reported in Geology magazine (Oct. 1992), are very unstable, and cannot last for very many years once the creature who carries them dies [perm-a-freeze cannot account for the longevity evolution gives to these proteins]. The photo below is a newer find where malleable flesh and intact blood cells are throughout.

Not only dino bones!

Fresh-looking organic remains are not restricted to dinosaur bones. A “frozen forest” found on Axel Heiberg Island in the Canadian Arctic was claimed to be 45 million years old. Yet wood and leaf debris were surprisingly well preserved. The plant material was not petrified, and the logs were reported to be wood that could be sawn and burned.

Some interesting burial stones have been found for many, many years down in South America. They are commonly referred to as Ica burial stones. These people (long ago) drew every thing about their lives and had them buried with them. Some even depict man and dinosaur co-existing (there is much evidence of this, but what I will show here will suffice.

It will be interesting to see if we – as we find more preserved fossil skeletons of these giant beasts – if they were indeed able to feed their young in this way. I think we will find proof of such things soon. There is already scientific discussion that these beasts were warm blooded and not reptiles. If memory serves me there is talk of four-chambered hearts in these giant animals. At any rate, the Ica stones seem to show eyewitness testimony of such:

Here is a large rock with drawing on all sides:

This is a hammer encrusted with Cretaceous rock:

There is just sooo much to show and discuss on this issue, but you should watch these videos if you have the time to see “for yourself”, my favorite is the trip this guy went on for many purposes (history, knowledge, etc) but one in the back of his mind was apparently confirmation of a YEC’s photo or video so he could in person verify it. HOW FUN!

Trip to Temples in Cambodia??? (1000[+]-yr-old carving in the Ta Prohm temple of Angkor Wat) -- (3-minutes)

A decent presentation of archaeological evidences connecting man and dino’s coexistence (27 minutes)

A blurb from Ken Ham and others on the evidence for man coexisting with dinosaurs (9-minutes).

Interview of Michael Cremo by a radio conspiracy guy (Coast to Coast Radio Show), I do not agree wioth some of the UFO conclusions the radio host tries to pull from this evidence. Nor do I agree with Michael Cremo that mankind is 2-billion years old. I want the listener to zero in just on the evidence and the discussion about all the evidene found that because of biases were never discussed widely. (10-minutes long)

A more biblically based presentation of Dinosaurs in the Bible as well as archaeological proofs (51 minutes)

World of Warcraft

Funny Toyota Ad

Rush (1) Reid (0)

Cash Money!

In case you didn’t know, Rush is matching the funds and the whole thing is being given to a military family fund.

Original Harry Reid/Rush Limbaugh Smear Letter - @ E-BAY

2.1 Million

The bidder may be a Liberal who might default on the purchase and then expect the government to come in with subsidies to bail him or her out.

Quarter Pipe Car

Skills

(or, lots of beer)

The video “tag at Liveleak says a “Half-Pipe,” in reality, it would be a “Quarter-Pipe.” But it is still amazing! The question is, is it fake or real?

Thursday, October 18, 2007

The Flying Nuns

You Have Got To Be Kidding?

(Caution… Graphic)

This photo above has got to be one of the most upsetting thing in a while I have seen, well, one of the two most upsetting news items this week. In case you can’t see it, it is an elderly nun being frisked by an Islamic girl in a full veil!

I am sorry, but did an elderly nun kill these children’s families and burn their churches while beating and rapping them?

No! They were young Muslim men with veiled women at home. Was this young girl raped by an elderly nun and then hanged because she was “caught” alone with this nun (by “caught” I mean she told authorities what had happened thinking justice would befall her attacker)?

No! She was raped by a young Islamic man and then sentenced to death by an Islamic judge. Was this man beaten, tortured while chained to a wall being burned and drilled into with power tools by an elderly nun?

No! This man and others were tortured by young Islamic men who read their Quran daily. Are these young boys being shown how to kill Jews by elderly nuns who have a vast knowledge of military weapons and the know-how to make suicide belts?

No! They were young Islamic men and veiled women that are teaching their kids how to murder in the name of Allah! Are these nuns wanting to behead people in France for the mere fact that a Danish cartoonist drew a cartoon likeness of Muhhamad?

No! They are young Islamic men and veiled women!

No!

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No!

Elderly nuns should not have to be frisked until Caucasian elderly nuns start hijacking airplanes and flying them into buildings! The photo of a nun being frisked by an extremist Muslim (yes, someone who wears an entire mask over their face is extreme) makes me not only upset, but sad… because Americans are so Politically Correct and naïve as to think that this type of security will stop another 9/11!

That’s crazy! While Cox and Forkum can draw such a powerful statement about “never again,” I am sorry to say, “again.”

Antony Flew - A Theist or Deist?

Antony Flew

There Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind

(Antony Flew’s First Book Since Becoming a Theist)

A far cry from these days:

One of the most ardent atheists explains why he has become a theist, not a Christian, but an Aristotelian theist. The book is due out on October 23^rd, and should be a must read for all Christians. I will include at the bottom of this blog a debate Dr. Antony Flew had with Dr. Gary Habermas on the issue of the resurrection, that likewise is a must watch for both the Christian and the skeptic. I am looking forward to reading this book soon!

From the Book Description

In one of the biggest religion news stories of the new millennium, the Associated Press announced that Professor Antony Flew, the world's leading atheist, now believes in God.

Flew is a pioneer for modern atheism. His famous paper, Theology and Falsification, was first presented at a meeting of the Oxford Socratic Club chaired by C. S. Lewis and went on to become the most widely reprinted philosophical publication of the last five decades. Flew earned his fame by arguing that one should presuppose atheism until evidence of a God surfaces. He now believes that such evidence exists, and There Is a God chronicles his journey from staunch atheism to believer.

For the first time, this book will present a detailed and fascinating account of Flew's riveting decision to revoke his previous beliefs and argue for the existence of God. Ever since Flew's announcement, there has been great debate among atheists and believers alike about what exactly this "conversion" means. There Is a God will finally put this debate to rest.

This is a story of a brilliant mind and reasoned thinker, and where his lifelong intellectual pursuit eventually led him: belief in God as designer.

A great article is one where Gary Habermas interviews of Antony Flew in Philosophia Christi (PDF). This also is a must read for the person trying to find out more on why Antony Flew came to the logical conclusion he did based on evidence alone.

This is taken from that PDF document:

HABERMAS: You very kindly noted that our debates and discussions had influenced your move in the direction of theism.11 You mentioned that this initial influence contributed in part to your comment that naturalistic efforts have never succeeded in producing “a plausible conjecture as to how any of these complex molecules might have evolved from simple entities.”12 Then in your recently rewritten introduction to the forthcoming edition of your classic volume God and Philosophy, you say that the original version of that book is now obsolete. You mention a number of trends in theistic argumentation that you find convincing, like big bang cosmology, fine tuning and Intelligent Design arguments. Which arguments for God’s existence did you find most persuasive?

FLEW: I think that the most impressive arguments for God’s existence are those that are supported by recent scientific discoveries. I’ve never been much impressed by the kalam cosmological argument, and I don’t think it has gotten any stronger recently. However, I think the argument to Intelligent Design is enormously stronger than it was when I first met it.

HABERMAS: So you like arguments such as those that proceed from big bang cosmology and fine tuning arguments?

FLEW: Yes.

Another interview that is worth watching and making notes of is the following one by Lee Stroebel. A philosophy 101 student can get a lot out of this interview. Deism just doesn’t fit what Flew describes. In fact, most deists do not realize what they are saying when they say “God created the first “bang” and “set up natural laws” that have resulted in our known universe with conscious beings as “creations” pinnacle.

Lee Stroebel Interview with Antony Flew

I blogged on this previously, but it was a small note on a larger issue that is very important, which is – that there exists enough evidence for even the most ardent skeptic to accept the logical/rational belief that God does truly exist! Below is a photo of Antony Flew shaking hands with the father of the modern Intelligent Design movement, Dr. Phillip Johnson. Philip Johnson has authored or edited the following books:

A-Team props

To the other side of Antony Flew in the above photo is Stephen Meyer, he has authored or edited the following books:

Dr. Gary Habermas authored the following books:

So you can see the type of people that have influenced Dr. Flew over the years via debates, becoming friends with Dr. Habermas, and the like. In fact, let me post the entire debate between Habermas and Flew on the Resurrection of Jesus.

PART 1

PART 2

PART 3

PART 4

PART5

Deism Defined - Miracles Impossible?

A Debate on Deism

Ahhh, Countess, what an honor it is that we meet again. Your name evokes wild pictures of moonlit nights from the pages of the Scarlet Pimpernel. I will indulge a further response from you, as your last post seemed contradictory. My question was simple, it was:

Are miracles – from the deist standpoint – possible?

You responded in kind that:

“No, miracles would, logically, not be possible. In a straight-line explanation, God created the universe, and the laws of the universe are the boundaries of the possible. In theory, God could, as the creator of the universe, violate those laws; however, there is no evidence that he has ever done this.”

I need to clarify; I didn’t ask “if miracles were actual” (i.e., miracles have actually occurred). I simply asked if they are possible. Let me give some more ways of looking at it, since you brought up the fact of actuality, then I will return to your statement that I chose to display above.

The denial that miracles are possible, and the denial that they are actual;
The belief that miracles are possible, but the denial that they are actual;
Agnosticism about whether miracles are possible, but the denial that they are actual;
The belief that miracles are possible, but agnosticism about whether they are actual;
Agnosticism about whether miracles are possible, and agnosticism about whether they are actual.

I believe – reading your opening statement above – that you would fall under category B. I say this because you even admitted that God could, theoretically, “violate” these laws. This seems an anathema to deists, who view these laws of nature as not descriptive, but prescriptive. Let me quote C. S. Lewis on this matter for the sake of clarity in defining what these laws of nature do, and don’t do:

But if God comes to work miracles, He comes “like a thief in the night.” Miracle is, from the point of view of the scientist, a form of doctoring, tampering, (if you like) cheating. It introduces a new factor into the situation, namely supernatural force, which the scientist had not reckoned on. He calculates what will happen, or what must have happened on a past occasion, in the belief that the situation, at that point of space and time, is or was A. but if supernatural force has been added, then the situation really is or was AB. And no one knows better than the scientist that AB cannot yield the same result as A. The necessary truth of the laws, far from making it impossible that miracles should occur, makes it certain that if the Supernatural is operating they must occur. For if the natural situation by itself, and the natural situation plus something else, yielded only the same result, it would be then that we should be faced with a lawless and unsystematic universe. The better you know that two and two make four, the better you know that two and three don’t.

This is what I have come across in deism, is a belief that if God would “violate” (I am highlighting that word for a reason) His laws of nature that He set up, we would live in a “lawless and unsystematic universe” (to quote Lewis). However, let us continue with his remarks:

This perhaps helps to make a little clearer what the laws of Nature really are. We are in the habit of talking as if they caused events to happen; but they have never caused any event at all. The laws of motion do not set billiard balls moving: they analyze the motion after something else (say, a man with a cue, or a lurch of the liner, or, perhaps, supernatural power) has provided it. They produce no events: they state the pattern to which every event – if only it can be induced to happen – must conform, just as the rules of arithmetic state the pattern to which all transactions with money must conform – if only you can get hold of any money. Thus in one sense the laws of Nature cover the whole field of space and time; in another, what they leave out is precisely the whole real universe – the incessant torrent of actual events which makes up true history. That must come from somewhere else. To think the laws can produce it is like thinking that you can create real money by simply doing sums. For every law, in the last resort, says “if you have A, then you will get B.” But first catch you’re a: the laws won’t do it for you.

It is therefore inaccurate to define a miracle as something that breaks the laws of Nature. It doesn’t. If I knock out my pipe I alter the position of a great many atoms: in the long run, and to an infinitesimal degree, of all the atoms there are. Nature digests or assimilates this event with perfect ease and harmonizes it in a twinkling with all other events. It is more bit of raw material for the laws to apply to, and they apply. I have simply thrown one event into the general cataract of events and it finds itself at home there and conforms to all events. If God annihilates or creates of deflects a unit of matter He has created a new situation at that point. Immediately all Nature domiciles this new situation, makes it at home in her realm, adapts all other events to it. It finds itself conforming to all the laws. If God creates a miraculous spermatozoon in the body of a virgin, it does not proceed to break [violate] any laws. The laws at once take it over. Nature is ready. Pregnancy follows, according to all normal laws, and nine months later a child is born…. Miraculous wine will intoxicate…. The divine art of miracle is not an art of suspending the pattern to which events conform but of feeding new events into that pattern. It does not violate the law’s provisio, “If A, then B”: it says, “But this time instead of A, A2,” and Nature, speaking through all her laws, replies, “Then B2” and naturalizes the immigrant, as she well knows how. She is an accomplished hostess.

A miracle is emphatically not an event without cause or without results. Its cause is the activity of God: its result follows according to Natural law. In a forward direction (i.e., during the time which follows its occurrence) it is interlocked with all Nature just like any other event. Its peculiarity is that it is not in that way interlocked backwards, interlocked with the previous history of Nature. And this is just what some people find intolerable. The reason they find it intolerable is that they start by taking Nature to be the whole of reality.

(C. S. Lewis was quoted from his book Miracles, chpt. 8, “Miracles and the Laws of Nature”)

This is the case with deism. They presuppose that God created “Nature to be the whole of reality.” a miracle doesn’t “violate” any law, simply, that law will predict what should happen once a miracle event happened.

I got a wee bit ahead of myself here, but I wanted to make sure that you understood that a proper understanding of the laws of Nature in no way restrict miracles, and that any further use of violate by me (and you) should encapsulate this definition. And all I was asking at this point was if miracles were possible. As one writer wrote of Deism:

“A being who could [as deists believe] bring the universe into existence from nothing could certainly perform lesser miracles if He chose to do so. A God who created water could part it or make it possible for a person to walk on it. The immediate multiplication of loaves of bread and fish would be no problem to a God who created matter and life in the first place. A virgin birth or even a physical resurrection from the dead would be minor miracles in comparison to the miracle of creating the universe from nothing [as deists believe]. It seems self-defeating to admit a great miracle like creation and then to deny the possibility of lesser miracles.”

(from: Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, by Norman L. Geisler, p. 189.)

I will conclude with a mock conversation from the book Answers for Atheists, Agnostics, and Other Thoughtful Skeptics: Dialogues About Christian Faith and Life. This conclusion is only meant to elucidate in laymen’s terms what C. S. Lewis has already said. Enjoy:

The very next day Dave was at Jim’s door again. Now he was more eager than ever to talk.

“You know that book you loaned me last night?” he said. “Well, I could hardly put it down today. It’s tough going, but it’s really interesting. I never knew there was so much historical evidence for the Bible.”

“Glad you’re enjoying it,” Jim said. “But last night you wound up by saying you couldn’t believe in Jesus’ resurrection because you think it’s unscientific to believe in miracles, right?”

“Right. They’re contrary to the laws of nature.”

“So?”

“Well, the law of nature can’t be broken.”

“And miracles, if they happen [are possible], would break them?”

“That’s what I’ve always understood.”

“Let me suggest another way to think of the laws of nature, Dave. The laws of nature don’t tell us everything that can possibly happen. They just tell us what can happen naturally – that is, by nature working on its own. They don’t tell us anything at all about what happens if something outside of nature acts on nature.”

“But there isn’t anything outside of nature.”

“Really? I thought we’d been through that already. You remember – entropy, creation of the universe, God, all that?” (pp. 73-74)

See Countess, you -- by default -- believe something to be outside the universe, and that this God actually did the greatest miracle of all time… that is, “creating the universe with laws and motion with mankind as its goal.” If that isn’t a miracle, then what is?