Free Republic

This year is the bicentennial of the birth of Charles Darwin (1809–1882), and it’s no accident that assorted atheists are making sure that everyone knows that. But they have some competition from those wanting to name 2009 as the “International Year of Astronomy”, because it’s the quadricentennial of the first use of the telescope by Galileo Bonaiuti de’ Galilei (1564–1642), usually known by his first name only. Not to be outdone, the atheists have long used Galileo as a story of “science versus religion”. So what are the facts? [1] Not science vs religion, but science vs scienceMany historians of...

Archbishop Charles Chaput Colorado Springs, Colo., Jul 9, 2009 / 01:11 pm (CNA).- At a Wednesday evening gathering of the Catholic business group Legatus, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver analyzed the influence of the media upon American Catholics. The news media, he said, has the important role in our democracy of protecting truth and pursuing reason, but it is failing to deliver. "America’s news media have enormous opinion-shaping power," Chaput explained. "Therefore it’s vital for Catholics to understand how the media work, and especially how they work on us.""The media’s power to shape public thought is why it’s so...

With the election of abortion-friendly President Obama, abortion advocates have been praising the return of “science” to issues of reproductive health. Conversely, I am an advocate for the health of the unborn and question what “science” has to do with abortion on demand. Attempts to rationalize the morality of the abortion issue with abortion advocates is a losing proposition when they believe in subjective morality, i.e. morality is defined by the majority or, in this case, by the loudest contingent of the population. Therefore, let’s evaluate the issue on a more scientific basis...

New Voices in Evolution Activism: From Madalyn Murray O'Hair to Eugenie Scott by Lawrence Ford* Recently, the prestigious publication Scientific American honored Eugenie Scott as one of its ten most influential science people in America, along with a manager at a computer chip company, an electric car industry executive, an infectious disease physician, and even Bill Gates from Microsoft. Who is Eugenie Scott and why is she being honored? Did she contribute to lifesaving cancer research? No. Did she invent a device that will help millions of people in need? No.Kate Wilcox of Scientific American writes of Scott: Thomas Henry...

Tennessee Planned Parenthood loses government funding for abortions Bob Diamond July 5, 7:05 PM .iconpanel a { text-decoration:none; color:#006699}; .iconpanel a:hover { text-decoration:none; color:#006699} .emailshowing { display:none}                There was a one-sided vote in both the Tennessee house and senate that removed Planned Parenthood’s decades long stranglehold on family planning funds in the Volunteer State.  Susan Allen of Tennessee Right to Life is thankful that Planned Parenthood will no longer receive the annual automatic nod from the state.  She commented that, "For approximately 40 years, Planned Parenthood was given preferential treatment in the Tennessee state law for getting family...

July 1, 2009 — “Absolutely amazing” and “absolutely gobsmacking” are exclamations made by scientists analyzing the fossilized skin of a hadrosaur known as Dakota. The researchers found cell structures and organic matter in the skin and layers that resemble the skin of birds and crocodiles. The specimen was uncovered in 1999 on a North Dakota ranch and is still being analyzed. Photos on the BBC News show clear scales and cross sections of microscopic tendon structures. The article said, “Tests have shown that the fossil still holds cell-like structures,” adding, “although the proteins that made up the hadrosaur’s skin had...

David Barton is the founder of Wallbuilders. He is a brilliant scholar on the true founding of the United States and how ingrained Christianity was in our founders. This is the best video I have EVER seen. He is so detailed and yet succinct, on how we were really founded and who's responsible. The level of black participation in our liberty is astounding and yet, you hear none of it. I speculate that the Al Sharpton's/Jesse Jackson's of this country do not want anyone to hear these truths because it could insite pride in the country from our black population....

"And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family." (Leviticus 25:10)This verse is especially significant in American history as the verse from which the great exhortation was taken on the first Independence Day: "Proclaim liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants thereof!" It has ever since been associated with the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, as Americans each year thank God for "the land...

Roman Catholicism and Genesis A review of The Doctrines of Genesis 1–11: A Compendium and Defense of Traditional Catholic Theology on Origins by Fr Victor P. Warkulwiz The Catholic Church’s belief about Genesis 1–11 has been in a muddle for a long time—ever since uniformitarianism and evolution came on the scene. This situation is similar to Protestant churches, sadly for both liberal and conservative ones. Within the ‘traditionalist’ churches, this book is a welcome addition to the book Genesis, Creation and Early Man by the Russian Orthodox heiromonk Seraphim Rose,1 who documented that the Church fathers of Eastern Orthodoxy from...

There is some great patriotic programming on TBN over the next several days. Yes, it's primarily Christian in nature, but it's all incredibly patriotic, Independence Day related, and some incredible history lessons as well. Hey, what's on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, etc? Enjoy! TBN.org TBN TV schedule July 2nd (East coast): Note: Primary schedule is west coast, but you can change time zones. Some great programs (Eastern Time). Check schedule for additional broadcasts. 11:30 AM - A Nation Adrift * http://tbn.org/index.php/2/4/p/324.html 1:30 PM - Medal of Honor * http://tbn.org/index.php/2/4/p/535.html 5:00 PM - America's Godly Heritage * http://tbn.org/index.php/2/4/p/307.html 6:00 PM -...

Ancient Find Proves Christ's Words?Archaeologists have unearthed in Jordan what they believe to be the first Christian church in the world. Dating back almost 2,000 years to sometime between 33 AD to 70 AD, the church, which is actually a cave, was found underneath Saint Georgeous Church, which itself dates back to 230 AD, in Rihab in northern Jordan near the Syrian border. Agence France Presse and The Jordan Times report that the church is thought to have sheltered the world's earliest Christians from persecution and certain death. "We have evidence to believe this church sheltered the early Christians--the 70...

Father refuses to give al Shabaab extremists information about house church pastor. Islamic extremists have beheaded two young boys in Somalia because their Christian father refused to divulge information about a church leader, and the killers are searching Kenya’s refugee camps to do the same to the boys’ father. Before taking his Somali family to a Kenyan refugee camp in April, 55-year-old Musa Mohammed Yusuf himself was the leader of an underground church in Yonday village, 30 kilometers (19 miles) from Kismayo in Somalia. He had received instruction in the Christian faith from Salat Mberwa. Militants from the Islamic extremist...

Muslim Mob Burns Down 100 Christian Homes in PakistanJuly 1, 2009, 02:01:44 PMCountry:PakistanMuslim Mob Burns Down 100 Christian Homes in PakistanRiot Incited via Mosque Loudspeakers; Mob Throws Acid on Women and Children07/01/09 Pakistan (International Christian Concern) - This morning 100 Christian houses and churches were set on fire by local Muslims in the city of Kasur South, east ofLahore, Pakistan. The riots were incited by broadcasts from local mosques. This incident issimilar to a February 1997 attack when thousands of Christian houses and churches wereburned and hundreds of Christians were injured.ICC partners received the news this morning and went...

Jesus Fish/Darwin Fish --snip-- Atheists use their Darwin fish to protest against the Christian faith. That they use evolution to counter biblical faith shows how foundational the issue of origins is to the gospel, and that church leaders who dismiss it as a ‘side issue’ have their heads in the sand...

The GOP party platform (by the way, where are the GOP folks who represent this platform? I want them in office), has many sections, but the core values, the ideas and values that make the GOP what it is, are based on our Judeo-Christian foundation, as Americans. The main stream media (MSM) attacks social conservatives at every turn and uses every weakness shown by a GOP politician as a way to drive a wedge between the two factions of the party, conservatives and rino’s. Social values are where the GOP must make a stand.

Britain is no longer a Christian nation and the Church of England could die out within a generation, an Anglican bishop has warned. The Rt Rev Paul Richardson said declining church attendance and the rise in multiculturalism meant that "Christian Britain is dead". He criticised his fellow bishops for failing to appreciate the scale of the crisis and warned that their inaction could seal the Church's fate. The General Synod, the Church's parliament, will next month consider proposals to cut the number of bishops and senior clergy amid fears over the Church's finances. Writing for The Sunday Telegraph, Bishop Richardson...

The U.S. Navy has ordered a chat group gathered on a special website the military set up for families of service members to drop the word "Christian" from its title. It also has changed the website's rules to ban all "religious discussions" because such speech "contradicts our purpose by creating unnecessary divisions among site members." The issue was exposed by officials with Liberty Counsel, a public interest law firm that has written to Navy Secretary Ray Mabus demanding that the censorship on the NavyforMoms.com website be reversed. "The prohibition of religious groups and religious speech on Navy for Moms by...

Top protestant evangelist to promote new religion; 'Chrislam' at radical Muslim conventionThe Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), an organization with ties to Hamas and other terrorist groups, will hold its annual convention—the largest yearly gathering of Muslims on the continent—in Washington, D.C. over the Fourth of July weekend. And the keynote speaker will be Reverend Rick Warren, founder and senior minister of the Saddleback Church, an evangelical mega-church located in Lake Forest, California. Rev. Warren has become one of America’s leading Christian leaders. Over 400,000 pastors attend his “purpose-driven” church seminars and his books, including “The Purpose Driven Life,”...

    Robert L. Millet, “The Ancient Covenant Restored,” Ensign, Mar 1998, 36 The Prophet Joseph Smith and the promises made to the fathers.Filled with inspiration and insight, the book of Genesis offers timely and timeless lessons on almost every page—painful and joyous lessons from the lives of men and women of the past. Moses—the Lord’s lawgiver, the author of the Pentateuch—constructed his scriptural narrative in such a way as to lead the reader quickly through the Creation, the Fall, the Flood, and the scattering of the nations through the confounding of tongues. By the time we have covered 10...

* * * * FLASH TRAFFIC: WASHINGTON UPDATE * * * * WHAT THE MEDIA ISN'T TELLING YOU THE MUSLIM WORLD By Joel C. Rosenberg (Washington, D.C., June 22, 2009) -- Dramatic news out of Iran this weekend. More than 3,000 Reformers arrested. Some 600 wounded. Conflicting reports about deaths. Some say at least 19 have been killed by the security forces. CNN has unconfirmed reports put the number of deaths at 150.But this isn't the only story of revolution in the region. What the media isn't telling you is that the Revivalists are moving powerfully to share the gospel...

A best-selling author and critic of Islam says he can't understand why U.S. President Barack Obama and the United Nations are not expressing more outrage over the execution-style murder of three Christian missionaries in Yemen, apparently by al Qaeda. According to a spokesman from the Yemeni Embassy in Washington, nine foreign nationals -- four German adults, three small German children, a British man, and a South Korean woman -- were abducted on June 12 after they ventured outside the city of Saada without their required police escorts. Days later the bodies of German nurses Rita Stumpp and Anita Gruenwald, and...

Liberty University’s student Democratic club has reached an agreement with the school on its status. Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. said today that a change in university policy will allow the Liberty University College Democrats to exist as an unofficial club. The policy change, which took effect yesterday, also changed the College Republicans from an officially recognized campus group to the new unofficial status. Liberty withdrew official recognition of the Lynchburg school’s club last month because it supported the Democratic Party’s platforms and candidates. Under the new policy, the unofficial organizations won’t receive school funding but may use the Liberty name...

When does a boy become a man? The answer goes far beyond biology and chronological age...

Is the right responsible for inspiring murder, such as that of late-term abortionist George Tiller by Kansas native Scott Roeder?  Some certainly seem to think so.  For instance, the Friday before last Bill O'Reilly had as a guest on his show Joan Walsh, the editor of leftist news site Salon.com.  She appeared because she had criticized O'Reilly for engaging in what she called a "jihad" against Tiller.  Her thesis is that O'Reilly and, presumably, the rest of us who are passionately pro-life are culpable Tiller's death. Of course, this isn't a novel idea among the left.  If there is any...

June 18, 2009 — A picture of colorfully-plumed dinosaurs graces an article on National Geographic, but were feathers found with the fossil? No; the article said, “Primitive feathers may have covered the dinosaur’s body, but there is no direct evidence for that, noted [James] Clark, whose work was funded in part by the National Geographic Society” (which also owns National Geographic News). The feathers are apparently completely imaginary. National Geographic has been caught doing this before...

1. Definition of “Atheism” There is confusion and debate about the term “atheism” and its definition. The term “atheism” finds its etymology in the Greek combination of “a” and “theos”. What “atheos” means is, as with any term, subject to context (and perhaps personal interpretation). Note that if an atheist states, “I do not believe in God”, this is technically not a statement about God’s existence or lack thereof. Does atheos mean “no God”, “without God”, “lack God belief” or “God does not exist”? Early Christians were referred to as “atheists” because they did not believe in the Greek or...

An evangelical Christian group from Anaheim has filed suit in federal court, demanding that its members be allowed to work the sidewalks and distribute pamphlets during an upcoming Arab festival. The group, Arabic Christian Perspectives, says police are violating its free-speech rights by attempting to confine its members to a "designated corner" of the festival in Dearborn, Mich. Its lawsuit names the city and police of Dearborn and seeks an order blocking any such restrictions. Organizers describe this weekend's 14th annual Arab International Festival in Dearborn as the largest of its kind in the nation, and expect it to draw...

PBS, citing what it says is a rule that has been on the books for 25 years, has issued a ban on new religious programs to local affiliates. This edict means no new religious programs — like weekly Mass or devotional readings — will be aired. Six PBS affiliate stations that currently carry religious programming will be allowed to continue doing so. Religious groups defended the programming as a community service that reflects the makeup and interests of the cities that offer them. "This is community-based, locally produced programming that fills a community need," said Susan Briggs, director of communications...

UK researchers believe they may have “broken new ground” in the ongoing quest to find out how living cells first evolved. The New York Times proclaimed, “An English chemist has found the hidden gateway” to the origin of life.[1] But despite the claim that the scientists “have developed an experiment that sheds new and fascinating light on how life on Earth might have begun,”[2] what they really demonstrated was that the molecules of life can only come from living cells...

Leon Trotsky (1879–1940) was the organizer, propagandist, and military leader of the communist seizure of power in Russia following the revolution of 1917. He was communist dictator Lenin's heir apparent, until Stalin usurped this position. Intolerant, tactless and impatient, Trotsky had an unbounded faith in Marxism, which was reinforced by his uncritical acceptance of Darwinism...

Recent creation refers to the biblical view of creation and earth history known as young-age creationism. The recent creation point of view accepts the historicity, authority, and inerrancy of the Bible. Recent creation also accepts the historical narratives of the Bible as describing real historical events and real people. Many Christians have little interest in the controversy about the age of the earth. Some believers will say, “What matters to me is the Rock of Ages, not the ages of rocks.” This innocent sounding statement inadvertently opens the door to undermining the authority of Scripture. This statement about the “Rock...

Do we eat Kentucky Fried Dinosaur? According to the dogma of many evolutionary propagandists for the last decade or so, indeed we do—they believe that birds evolved from the carnivorous dinosaur group known as theropods. Yet there are many problems with this idea. And now, new research into the birds’ lung and leg anatomy provides more strong evidence against it...

Imagine you're at Focus on the Family to watch founder James Dobson formally step down from the board after three decades. The newly powerful ministry president—the micro-managerial Dobson is now officially powerless—steps to the mic and says: "What we want to see are more families like Barack Obama's."Would never happen, right?Well, it already has. The Denver Post reports on Focus's newish CEO, Jim Daly, who wants to trade Focus's image as a Christian right group in for one of as a family-focused ministry. After all, apolitical, family-focused work still absorbs the vast majority of Focus's resources.A few key graphs...

Joseph Campbell died in 1987 but remains influential. In this revealing video, Campbell clarifies why he left the Roman Catholic faith of his youth — EVOLUTION...

June 15, 2009 — Sex brings pleasure to many, but pain to Darwinists. Why? Because they can’t figure it out. Nick Lane is a case in point. In New Scientist, he wrote...

June 14, 2009 — David Klinghoffer on Evolution News and Views has pointed out that James von Brunn, the man who murdered guard Tyrone Johns at Washington’s Holocaust Museum on June 10, was motivated by ideas of natural selection and eugenics. Klinghoffer provided additional information on Belief.Net with quotes from Brunn’s writings. He also found hundreds of references to...

Despite “decades of persistent failure to create life by the ‘spark in the soup’ method,”[1] evolutionary biochemists are still trying to find an exclusively naturalistic explanation for how the first cell developed. Many possible chemical precursors to life have been systematically ruled out by rigorous experiments. What they have found is that the molecules necessary for life are found exclusively within cells that are already living. One explanation proposed by evolutionists...

London, England, Jun 14, 2009 / 07:01 pm (CNA).- Catholic bishops in Britain have voiced “significant concerns” about a proposed Equality Bill, saying it treats the rights of religious believers as secondary and could force Catholic schools and care homes to remove crucifixes and holy pictures if someone finds them “offensive.” It has also been suggested the bill could force churches to hire youth ministers who do not support Christian ethics. The bill, supported by Equality Minister Harriet Harman, penalizes “harassment.” The newspaper The Catholic Herald says this is defined as “unwanted conduct ... with the purpose or effect...

Psychology and faith might seem unlikely partners at first glance, but they are compatible, according to a recent edition of a professional journal of psychology. In fact, psychology needs a conception of the human person that can accurately describe what our body and soul are and how they relate. It also would do well to acknowledge that humans have both natural and transcendent desires. This was the opening affirmation of the just-published "Catholic issue" of the journal "Edification: A Journal of the Society of Christian Psychology" (Vol. 3.1). The issue was entrusted to the Institute for the Psychological Sciences (IPS),...

CIA Head (Panetta) Slams Cheney for Comments

Whitewashing Darwinism's Ongoing Moral Legacy Is it somehow petty, offensive, exploitative, and beyond the pale to point out how the Holocaust Memorial Museum shooter, who murdered a guard on Wednesday, writes about evolution in his sick manifesto? Should it be considered beneath one's dignity to quote the man and let his words speak for themselves?James von Brunn, the suspect in question, is a white supremacist, a bitter anti-Semite, a Holocaust-denier, a wacked out conspiracy theorist, who served more than 6 years in a federal prison for attempted kidnapping. All this is fair game to report. Everyone agrees to that. But...

Hey folks I gave my brother's Christian kids album a plug in a previous post, but now it's officially available on iTunes! Videos starring the Grace Place puppets are free on the site! So far they have one Freeper fan (Thanks LongElegantLegs)! If your kids like it let me know and of course tell a friend!

String theory “philosophy” challenged --snip-- The big bang is fundamental to cosmic evolution or the idea that somehow the universe made itself. The article majored on the varying ideas that emanate from big bang philosophy, such as dark energy and dark matter etc. that are used to solve some of the “science” problems of the big bang. It then went on to say that string theory is just another one of these ideas with no basis in experimental science...

Darwin-Only Advisors Hunker Down to Re-Strategize June 12, 2009 — Strict Darwinian materialists are a minority in the United States, yet they enjoy autocracy in educational policy, complete control of scientific institutions, and nearly complete unquestioned support from the mainstream media. Nevertheless, they have to face living in a country that is predominantly religious. Once in awhile they suffer setbacks, like the recent changes in textbook policy in Texas that will require more scrutiny of the claims of evolution. What do they say amongst themselves when strategizing how to handle the public?...

Read the following stories and much more by clicking the excerpt link at bottom: 1. ScienceDaily: “Discovery Raises New Doubts About Dinosaur-Bird Links" The allegation that birds evolved from dinosaurs is frequently treated as factual by evolutionists. Now, researchers have refuted that notion—and it starts with an unexpected discovery about bird anatomy. 2. LiveScience: “Do Dinosaurs Still Exist?” Creationists don’t claim that dinosaurs are still alive today. But because we believe at least two of each dinosaur kind survived Noah’s Flood (i.e., were on the Ark), we view the possibility as distinctly more likely than evolutionists. 3. BBC News: “Early...

Saving Mormon souls from the perceived falsehoods of their faith typically has included dubbing the church a "cult" and providing a point-by-point comparison with traditional Christianity, while caricaturing Latter-day Saint believers and practices. Such tactics may fill the pews and energize the Evangelicals, but to John Morehead and Ken Mulholland, they are not the best tools for ministering to Mormons. "We need to provide something constructive and Christ-centered that takes into account a true understanding of the journey they've have been on," Morehead says. To that end, Morehead and Mulholland have produced a 14-minute trailer for a full-length multimedia effort...

Darwin Versus His Colleagues This is the second part of a review of The Darwin Myth by Benjamin Wiker. Part one is available here. An element of the Darwin story that may surprise many readers of Benjamin Wiker’s fine new biography The Darwin Myth is the ultimate disconnect between Darwin and many of his colleagues. Wiker points out that many of Darwin’s avid supporters, who accepted and helped popularize his theory, rejected Darwin’s materialistic reductionism. They argued, indeed, that the evidence did not support Darwin’s materialistic understanding of evolution. Biologist Asa Gray at Harvard was Darwin’s strongest champion in...

Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries "Sharing Jesus" June 12, 2009 And He said to them, "Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out." Mark 1:38 Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ: The salvation story of Jesus Christ reaches around the world. So that the readers of our Daily Devotion may see the power of the Savior on a global scale, we have asked the volunteers of our International Ministry Centers to write our Friday devotions. We pray that the Spirit may touch your day through their...

Well, the big story yesterday was the nut job who attacked the Holocaust Museum, killing a guard. If anything is a “hate crime,” this is, though I don’t think that means he should be punished more harshly. Yes, it’s traumatic for those who appropriately hold the museum in high regard, but he should be punished for the act, not his state of mind at the time. Of course, the slander has already begun. Not of him, but of “right-wingers” and “conservatives.” The standard media template — that he was a white Christian “right-winger” — has been trotted out, and the...

“Folks, this is one of the most exciting games in Super Bowl history! In case you just tuned in, here’s what’s happening: With only 8 seconds to go, the Buffalo Bills are trailing the New York Giants 20-19, but in the past two minutes Bills quarterback Jim Kelley has moved his team to the Giants’ 29-yard line, setting up kicker Scott Norwood for a field goal attempt. If Norwood makes it, the Buffalo Bills will win 22-20.” Watched by tens of thousands in Tampa Stadium and millions more on TV, the Buffalo Bills line up for what will probably be...