Saturday, July 18, 2009
A Must Get Book -- An Atheist Defends, Essentially, Freedom of Thought
The doctrine of intelligent design is often the subject of acrimonious debate. Seeking God in Science cuts through the rhetoric that distorts the debates between religious and secular camps. Bradley Monton, a philosopher of science and an atheist, carefully considers the arguments for intelligent design and argues that intelligent design deserves serious consideration as a scientific theory.
Monton also gives a lucid account of the debate surrounding the inclusion of intelligent design in public schools and presents reason why students' science education could benefit from a careful consideration of the arguments for and against it.
Comments:
"Seeking God in Science is a refreshing and fair-minded exploration of intelligent design arguments. Unlike the many ideologically-driven detractors of intelligent design, Monton refuses to set up a straw man, poison the well, or dismiss it as unscientific. Bradley Monton writes as "a friendly atheist"—one who seriously and honestly considers claims that challenge atheism. As such, this book is a welcome breakthrough."
Douglas Groothuis, Professor of Philosophy, Denver Seminary
"This is a brave and important book. Monton does not defend 'intelligent design' as true – he thinks it is most likely false. Instead, he defends it as a hypothesis worth taking seriously. He argues convincingly that it can be formulated as a scientifically testable hypothesis, and that there is some important empirical evidence for it – not as much evidence as its supporters claim there is, but some evidence. Virtually all voices in this debate insist either that ID is not even worth taking seriously or else that it is manifestly the truth. It is refreshing to see a talented philosopher give the thesis its due and make a serious attempt to weigh the evidence for and against it, without the weight of the ‘culture wars' hanging over every sentence."
John T. Roberts, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
"It's about time that a competent analytic philosopher took a look at design-theoretic arguments in the sciences – and this because analytic philosophers have until now responded to serious challenges to prevailing orthodoxy by squirting out ink and indignation in equal measure. Bradley Monton's book should be read by philosophers, biologists and physicists willing to keep their minds open long enough to let out the stale air and let in a few arguments."
David Berlinski, Senior Fellow, Discovery Institute, Center for Science and Culture
"Bradley Monton has done the intellectual community an enormous service in writing this defense of intelligent design. As an atheist, he defends ID not because he thinks it is true. Rather, he shows how it raises important questions and how many critics, in their enthusiasm to kill the baby in the cradle, are short-circuiting a discussion that needs to happen. Monton understands that important questions are never resolved by ignoring or marginalizing them. By employing his considerable skills as an analytic philosopher, he brings clarity to this much controverted question of intelligent design."
William A. Dembski, author of The End of Christianity
Bradley Monton is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
(Audio -- Interview) Harry Alford: Barbara Boxer Is A Racist
Harry Alford goes there on John Ziegler's radio show today. Alford blasts Barbara Boxer for the way she treated him during a Senate committee hearing, calling her a racist and accusing her of treating him "like an ignorant jigaboo up there."
Friday, July 17, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
When Robert Byrd Is Worried About Obama's 30[+] Czars... Is Something WrongReally?
In an historic and possibly unconstitutional expansion of Executive authority, President Obama has named more than 30 “czars” with unprecedented and seemingly unlimited authority in a breadth of fields—ranging from U.S. border czar to Iran czar. All are responsible only to Obama. Now, the Messiah's appointment of czars has been labeled a blatant and unconstitutional power grab by an unusual source—the President pro tempore of the U.S. Senate, Robert Byrd, D-WV.
In a February letter to Obama, Byrd wrote that the czars “as presidential assistants and advisors “are not accountable for their actions to Congress, to cabinet officers, or to virtually anyone but the president.” He wrote the czarist system violates the Constitutional system of checks-and-balances and the separation of powers, and is a clear attempt to evade Congressional oversight....
Could you imagine if Bush attempted to evade Congressional oversight? The Dems would go ape @%#? -- its only okay if they do it, right?
Senator Boxer Tries the Race Card, Black Chamber of Commerce, President and CEO Harry Alford Shuts Her Down
This is classic because the Democrats expect all minority persons to "fall in line" in regards to the Party line. If they do not, typically they are maligned and besmirched... one only need recall the Left's tolerance (quoting a poster at Politico, "mkat33"):
Enjoy... I did:
when the left attacked Clarence Thomas, why wasn't that about race? When the left attacked Alberto Gonzales, why wasn't that about race? When the left attacked Sarah Palin, why wasn't that about gender? You may think that those on the right are the haters, but I guarantee you'll never see a "Sonia Sotomayor is a C***" t-shirt. Sure, the Democrats have a bigger tent, but that's only to allow them to fit the hordes of intolerant stooges that blindly follow the left's politics of hate.
UPDATE: Harry Alford goes there on John Ziegler's radio show today. Alford blasts Barbara Boxer for the way she treated him during a Senate committee hearing, calling her a racist and accusing her of treating him "like an ignorant jigaboo up there."
Terrifying 57% Tax Looms For Biggest Earners In N.Y.C. -- This is a great plan if one wished to chase all business out of NY
These Democrats DO NOT want to help our economy recover! I would say that the taxes in NY are going to be even higher (at least the cost of business) if Cap n’ Trade and carbon credits pass. Obama is a child when it comes to what will help or hurt our economy. It is as almost these people are working against our current system... like many of them belong to the Democratic Socialist of America organization? Oh wait, they do.
Congressional plans to fund a massive health-care overhaul could have a job-killing effect on New York, creating a tax rate of nearly 60 percent for the state's top earners and possibly pressuring small-business owners to shed workers.
New York's top income bracket could reach as high as 57 percent -- rates not seen in three decades -- to pay for the massive health coverage proposed by House Democrats this week.
The top rate in New York City, home to many of the state's wealthiest people, would be 58.68 percent, the Washington-based Tax Foundation said in a report yesterday.
That means New York's top earners, small-business owners and most dynamic entrepreneurs will be facing new fees and penalties.
The $544 billion tax hike would violate one of President Obama's ironclad campaign promises: No family will pay higher tax rates than they would have paid in the 1990s.
Under the bill, three new tax brackets would be created for high earners, with a top rate of 45 percent for families making more than $1 million. That would be the highest income-tax rate since 1986, when the top rate was 50 percent.
The legislation is especially onerous for business owners, in part because it penalizes employers with a payroll bigger than $400,000 some 8 percent of wages if they don't offer health care.
But the cost of the buy-in to the program may be so prohibitive that it will dissuade owners from growing their businesses -- a scary prospect in the midst of a recession. ...
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
The Black Sphere's New Book
I wrote this awhile back for American Thinker, and decided that for the 4th of July I should post it here. It is written much like parts of my new book The BIG Black Lie, so I hope you enjoy it. I received an email from a black man who was attempting to convince me that, though I am completely black, I have no experience growing up black in America. The bulk of his theory on my ‘blackness' was based on the fact that I constantly lampoon Obama in my blog. He counseled me to embrace Obama, as Obama could help me to "rediscover the black experience." He warned that "whites would never see me, as I see me."
Touting Obama as the poster child for blackness is a ridiculous notion. Further, the idea that Obama can teach me "blackness" is equally ridiculous. Unlike me, Obama is only half-black -- as much white, as he is black. Obama's formative years were spent mostly in the white world. He was raised by his white grandparents in upper middle-class lifestyle. He attended expensive mostly white private schools in his youth, his education culminating with Harvard. Read more...
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Student Wins Lawsuit Against Anti-Christian Professor
Judge rules college can't censor religious speech for being 'offensive'
A California court has ruled in favor of a student who was insulted for defending traditional marriage and has ordered the college to strike from its website a sexual harassment policy that censors speech deemed "offensive" to homosexual people.
As WND reported, Jonathan Lopez, a student at Los Angeles City College, was delivering a speech on his Christian faith in speech class when Professor John Matteson interrupted him, called him a "fascist b----rd" for mentioning a moral conviction against homosexual marriage and later told him to "ask God what your grade is."
The professor also warned on his evaluation of Lopez's speech, "Proselytizing is inappropriate in public school," and later threatened to have Lopez expelled.
Represented by attorneys from the Alliance Defense Fund, Lopez sued the Los Angeles City College District, the largest community college system in the U.S., with over 135,000 students.
The lawsuit not only targeted the school over the professor's comments, however, but also sought removal of a campus sexual harassment and speech policy that court documents allege "systematically prohibits and punishes political and religious speech by students that is outside the campus political mainstream."...
The original story from the LA Times
Los Angeles City College student Jonathan Lopez is suing the LA city college district because of how a professor, John Matteson, treated him in class.
From the Los Angeles Times:
A classroom dispute at Los Angeles City College in the emotional aftermath of Proposition 8 has given rise to a lawsuit testing the balance between 1st Amendment rights and school codes on offensive speech.
Student Jonathan Lopez says his professor called him a "fascist bastard" and refused to let him finish his speech against same-sex marriage during a public speaking class last November, weeks after California voters approved the ban on such unions.
When Lopez tried to find out his mark for the speech, the professor, John Matteson, allegedly told him to "ask God what your grade is," the suit says.
Lopez also said the teacher threatened to have him expelled when he complained to higher-ups.
In addition to financial damages, the suit, filed last week in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, seeks to strike down a sexual harassment code barring students from uttering "offensive" statements.
...Lopez, a Los Angeles resident working toward an associate of arts degree, is described in the suit as a Christian who considers it a religious duty to share his beliefs, particularly with other students. He declined to comment. Matteson could not be reached.
Lopez is represented by the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal organization based in Scottsdale, Ariz., and co-founded by evangelical leader James Dobson of Focus on the Family. The group also advised proponents of Proposition 8 and sued, unsuccessfully, to stop the release of the names and addresses of donors, who said they had been harassed during the weeks of demonstrations that followed the measure's passage.
Alliance staff counsel David J. Hacker said Lopez was a victim of religious discrimination.
"He was expressing his faith during an open-ended assignment, but when the professor disagreed with some minor things he mentioned, the professor shut him down," Hacker said. "Basically, colleges and universities should give Christian students the same rights to free expression as other students."
[I]n a letter to Alliance, the district said it deemed Lopez's complaint "extremely serious in nature" and had launched a private disciplinary process.
In the letter, Dean Allison Jones also said that two students had been "deeply offended" by Lopez's address, one of whom stated that "this student should have to pay some price for preaching hate in the classroom."
Hacker said the district's response was inadequate.
"What they didn't do was ensure this wouldn't happen to other students," he said. "The dean accused Jonathan of offending other students."...
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