Free Republic

Today there are many different views and thoughts about just what the term “Sin” means. Just the word alone gives people the Hee-bee-Gee-bees. People do not like to think of themselves as “Sinners.” They say or think, “Well, I’m not that bad. I’ve never killed anyone. If you only knew the good I do...(and so on and so forth).” These statements and sentiments are expressed in attempting to justify their “dead works” (Hebrews 6:1; 9:14). Sin, as defined in God’s Word, the Bible, is the transgression and violation of the righteousness and perfection of Almighty God. Sin is also the...

Gang of children - some as young as TEN - caught slowly roasting puppies over bonfire (See pic in URL) By Jaya Narain 04th February 2009 A gang of children aged as young as 10 were caught trying to roast a pair puppies over a bonfire. Passerby Melanie Johnson spotted them kicking the pups and holding them over the fire on a canal bank. The youngsters fled, abandoning the dogs, when she challenged them. Ms Johnson, 32, took the puppies home, then passed them on to an RSPCA centre where staff treated the dogs and are now looking to find...

The Art Instinct by: Daniel Allen, January 27, 2009 It is hard to imagine what purpose art could have served in a world where every day was largely a struggle to survive until the next day. How did art develop among our ancestors, and what role did it play in their ability to survive and progress? In The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure and Human Evolution, Denis Dutton seeks to answer these questions as he explores the characteristics of art in the framework of Darwinian philosophy and human evolution. Many readers will doubtless reject The Art Instinct out of hand, disagreeing...

Friday was the opening of The Day the Earth Stood Still starring Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly; it’s director Scott Derrickson’s remake of the 1951 Robert Wise classic. The previous Friday witnessed our panel discussion at Caltech about how science intersected with the film. Reviews thus far (of both the movie and the panel) have been mixed; personally, I thoroughly enjoyed the panel and thought the movie rose to the level of “pretty good.” (Lost amidst the excitement of aliens and CGI was the excellent acting in the film, including a great performance by Jaden Smith in the role of...

A BBC presenter has attacked coverage of Afghanistan's ongoing war, claiming TV reporters are not covering the 'humanity of the Taliban'. Lyse Doucet, a presenter and correspondent on BBC World News, was speaking at a discussion of TV reporting of the war in the country. Doucet, who has been at the BBC since 1983, also spoke out against the nature of the reports on Prince Harry's deployment in Afghanistan. The veteran correspondent and presenter, who played a key role in the BBC's coverage of the war in Afghanistan in 2001, told the Edinburgh International Television Conference: 'What's lacking in the...

"For a long time, humans were pretty dumb, doing little but make 'the same very boring stone tools for almost 2 million years,' says Philipp Khaitovich of the Partner Institute for Computational Biology in Shanghai. Then, 150,000 years ago, our big brains suddenly got smart. We started innovating. We tried different materials. We started creating art and maybe even religion. To understand what caused the cognitive spurt, researchers examined chemical brain processes known to have changed in the past 200,000 years.

Filmmaker Andrew Stanton says his latest film isn't about the environment or obesity. It's about relationships...[said Stanton] what really interested me was the idea of the most human thing in the universe being a machine because it has more interest in finding out what the point of living is than actual people. The greatest commandment Christ gives us is to love, but that's not always our priority. So I came up with this premise that could demonstrate what I was trying to say—that irrational love defeats the world's programming. You've got these two robots that are trying to go above...

HARTFORD, Conn. - A 78-year-old man is tossed like a rag doll by a hit-and-run driver and lies motionless on a busy city street as car after car goes by. Pedestrians gawk but do nothing. One driver stops briefly but then pulls back into traffic. A man on a scooter slowly circles the victim before zipping away. The chilling scene — captured on video by a streetlight surveillance camera — has touched off a round of soul-searching in Hartford, with the capital city's biggest newspaper blaring "SO INHUMANE" on the front page and the police chief lamenting: "We no longer...

Got word that the Palm Beach Post jolted the newsroom yesterday with a bulletin-board announcement that it is cutting costs in the next few weeks, including eliminating an unknown number of newsroom staffers through "early retirement" packages. Post management will also reduce the size of the newspaper by cutting pages, combining sections, and axing some sections altogether, according to a source. It's another chilling sign of the severe contraction of the newspaper industry, and the method used to convey the potentially life-changing cuts only added to the jarring nature of the news. The announcement was made via letter-sized memos from...

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict said on Thursday that embryonic stem cell research, artificial insemination and the prospect of human cloning had "shattered" human dignity. In an address to members of the Vatican department on doctrinal matters, Benedict said the Church had a duty to defend the "great values at stake" in the field of bioethics. The speech was the latest in a series in which the conservative Pope has told his listeners that scientific progress should not be accepted uncritically. Benedict, who headed the same department for years before his election in 2005, said the Church was not...

An almost complete human skull fossil that could date back 100,000 years was unearthed in Henan last month, Chinese archaeologists announced yesterday... The Henan find was made after two years of excavation at the site in Xuchang. Archaeologists have worked on an area of 260 sq m, merely one-hundredth of the Paleolithic site... The fossil consisted of 16 pieces of the skull with protruding eyebrows and a small forehead. More astonishing than the completeness of the skull is that it still has a fossilized membrane on the inner side, so scientists can track the nerves of the Paleolithic ancestors... The...

The successful efforts of the Human Genome Project rightfully stand amongst the greatest intellectual achievements of human history. The brilliance and diligence displayed in this research cannot be quantified or described in a way that does it all justice. However, the question now becomes what we actually do with the knowledge of the human genome? Given the previous history of human technology, the heroic industry and intelligence of the scientists who achieved this discovery will in no way guarantee that it won’t fall into the hands of evil despots or malicious haters. It becomes possible that human beings as we...

Map of Humanity by Rex Libris and Nil creator James Turner

Attacking "God" has become a lucrative book business. But there's not much substance behind the latest atheist tracts. There is nothing new under the sun," proclaims the Book of Ecclesiastes. The rise of the new new atheism confirms this ancient biblical wisdom. Of course the famous words of Ecclesiastes should not be taken in a slavishly literal sense, a technique that is all-too-common among those who think they can refute belief in God by showing that the Bible abounds in demonstrably false and self-contradictory statements.

It is not easy to be a Christian. To be perfect, as our heavenly Father is perfect, is a directive which should instill both awe and humility into its hearers. Likewise, commandments to love our neighbors and pray for our enemies are also tall orders, which, without the grace of God, would be almost impossible to obey. As difficult as Christian living is, it's harder still to be a Catholic. Though the Holy Church is a gift and a blessing from God and ultimately, a gateway to eternal life, its ways are never easy, nor were they promised to be....

Put it this way: if you are about to have major surgery and your only choice was a church-going doctor with a high mortality rate, or an agnostic with a high success record, which would it be?Conservative Evangelical Christian voters have come a long way in a short time. From their nearly unanimous condemnation of Bill Clinton for his extramarital affairs, a growing number of these “pro-family” voters appear ready to accept several Republican presidential candidates who do not share their ideal of marriage and faith. Among those seriously under consideration by these church-going folks is former New York Mayor...

The "Palestinian" Contributions to Humanity 1) Commit the crimes on your own kids (human bombs, human shields) and always blame the Zionist victim. 2) How to united the Arab world, bring about "Dead Arab kids", Hezbollah picked up on that very fast. 3) The bastion of (fake) excuse for Islamists' crimes against humanity. 4) The phenomenon of "brown" Arabs Kissing up to "white" Hitler, Hitlerists, never mind what one wishes the other. 5) Inventing big drama words, such as "apartheid", "racism" for those daring to stand up against Racist, Fascist terrorists. 6) The lucky invention of the 1960's, One of the 21...

Suppose for a moment that the birth in Bethlehem that Christians celebrate this week never happened --that it is, as the secularists would have it, mere mumbo jumbo, superstition, a myth. In other words, consider it not as an event but as a narrative. You want to launch a big new global movement from scratch. So what do you use? The birth of a child. If Christianity is just a myth, then it is, so to speak, an immaculately conceived one. On the one hand, what could be more powerless than a newborn babe? On the other, without a newborn...

Abortion: Should the Unborn be Considered Human? Abortion is one of the most divisive issues in America today. The reasons for this are manifold, as abortion ties into many facets of American society. In this paper, I will elaborate on one part of the debate; specifically, the humanity of the unborn. The question being asked is whether or not a fetus should be considered a living human being. Viewpoints regarding this issue vary wildly, but I aim to clarify why one should be considered human from the moment of conception. What is the fetus? According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the...

There have been times recently when I have scarcely dared to open the newspaper for fear of discovering the latest enormity committed by our fellow human beings. You all know the feeling. At this rate, will the human race survive? Does it deserve to survive? Significantly, the first to express this feeling of disgust at humanity was God himself. The Book of Genesis (6:5–8) records: “When the Lord saw that man had done much evil on earth and that his thoughts and inclinations were always evil, he was sorry that he had made man on earth, and he was grieved...

I'd like to ask for your help and guidance with a philosophical religious question that has bothered me for years. According to the Christian Bible, God created Adam. Then God created Eve from Adam. They had 2 children, Cain & Abel. Then Cain killed Abel. So how did the human race descend from just those three surviving humans? Is there something missing from the Bible regarding the story of Humanity? Why would it be missing? After all, isn't the Bible the Holy Word of God? Who would be so mighty as to edit the Word of God? So where did...

Good VS Evil, summary of last days... - Arab-Muslim-Jihadists ('Palestinians' & Iranian- Hezbullah) bomb civilians directly -- in the comfort of their homes -- and Israel sends out fliers for civilians to evacuate the Hezbullah area before they are going to react. - Arab-Muslim-Jihadists attack BUSY residential-houses in broad day light & Israel attacks EMPTY Hamas-buildings on 1:20 AM 'just to send a message'. - Arab Muslim Jihadists ('Palestinians') are caught with explosives about to carry out 'another genocide bombing on a: school/restaurant/bus, etc.' and Israel bombs Hamas officials EMPTY building. - Arab Muslim Jihadists attack residents MURDERING BY FULL...

When I am at my bank, filling out deposit slips in the management of my vast financial empire, I often think that by adding up my check totals by hand rather than using the calculator stationed by the deposit slips, that I am preserving the ways of the Ancients. This feeling was reinforced when, not long ago, I was in the office of a recent hire who asked me to take a look at some problems that his sister-in-law was having difficulty with in an undergraduate business class. One question pertained to discounting cash flows (the mathematical expression of the...

The Stanford University Symbolic Systems Program and the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence announced today the Singularity Summit at Stanford, a one-day event free to the public, to be held Saturday, May 13, 2006 at Stanford Memorial Auditorium, Stanford, California. The event will bring together leading futurists and others to examine the implications of the "Singularity" -- a hypothesized creation of superintelligence as technology accelerates over the coming decades -- to address the profound implications of this radical and controversial scenario. "The Singularity will be a future period during which the pace of technological change will be so rapid, its...

Options for a coming singularity include self-destruction of civilization, a positive singularity, a negative singularity (machines take over), and retreat into tradition. Our urgent goal: find (and avoid) failure modes, using anticipation (thought experiments) and resiliency -- establishing robust systems that can deal with almost any problem as it arises. In order to give you pleasant dreams tonight, let me offer a few possibilities about the days that lie ahead—changes that may occur within the next twenty or so years, roughly a single human generation. Possibilities that are taken seriously by some of today's best minds. Potential transformations of human...

MARINE CORPS RECRUITING STATION DENVER, Colo. (March 13, 2006) -- It was a perfect day in Denver to build a house for Habitat for Humanity -- assuming your idea of perfect is 12 degrees below zero. The weather factor, however, did not deter the Marines and poolees of Recruiting Substation Metro South, Recruiting Station Denver, who teamed up to build a home in the Denver area as a part of their weekly pool function. “The weather, in fact, made the experience much more memorable and rewarding,” said Staff Sgt. James D. Regan, canvassing recruiter, RSS Metro South. “When one steps...

In experiments reported in the journal Science, toddlers helped strangers complete tasks such as stacking books. Young chimps did the same, providing the first direct evidence of altruism in non-human primates. Altruism may have evolved six million years ago in the common ancestor of chimps and humans, the study suggests.

Frederick T. Zugibe, M.S., M.D., Ph.D., FCAP,  FACC,  FAAFS      HOMECONTACT FORENSIC PATHOLOGY & MEDICINE Biography Publications News Public Health Psychotropic  Drugs Study   CRUCIFIXION and SHROUD STUDIES Crucifixion & Shroud Involvement Barbet Revisited Man of the Shroud was Washed Texas Lecture Paris  Lecture Turin 2000 Lecture MISCELLANEOUS: The Code for Human Life                                                          THE CODE FOR HUMAN LIFE  [Reprinted from the Catholic Answer 9: 40-45,1996]     A fertilized human egg at the moment of Conception, is the opinion of the creator that a human life at that instant, must begin.... F. Zugibe    ...

Iraqi and U.S. officials have prepared a long-range plan to excavate mass graves in Iraq and prepare forensic evidence of crimes against humanity, according to Andrew Natsios, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in May 2003, more than 270 mass graves in Iraq have been reported, Natsios told reporters March 17 at the State Department's Foreign Press Center in Washington. Some of the graves are relatively small, containing a few dozen remains, while other graves are hundreds of meters long, according to a report distributed at the briefing. There are 300,000-400,000...

Mideast edition, Monday, December 12, 2005 U.S., Afghan and coalition troops are helping groups of Afghan Muslims to complete the hajj, the annual religious pilgrimage to Mecca. Last week, some 150 Afghans flew from Kandahar Airfield to Saudi Arabia, with a little assistance from the troops. Making the hajj at least once in a lifetime is one of the pillars of Islam. More than 4 million Muslims from throughout the world are expected to participate in the hajj this year. In recent years, the sheer number of pilgrims has led to stampedes and other accidents in which hundreds have been...

I know that Vanity items are mostly looked down upon, but I need some help. I am hoping that someone can lead me in the right direction, or point me to it, or someone in Illinois works for a organization that can help. My Brother-In-Law was diagnosed with Luekemia about 4 1/2 years ago. He was given 5 years at the most. His wife in the meantime has had lung and heart problems. At the moment she is at home, Hopsice is there and she has at most 48 hours to live. My wife has been taken care of his...

I just finished reading about that sorry b*st*rd, George Clooney: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1528789/postsHe whines on about the past twelve months being the worst year of his life. Boo Hoo. I guess being a world traveling multi-millionaire isn't as wonderful as we might think.What I have discovered over the years is that good and bad times are somewhat cyclical. Everything can be going well and then, all of a sudden, a bad cycle will emerge. The same is true in reverse.I thought it might be enlightening to hear what real people have to say about the worst year of their life. I am...

At the onset of the twenty-first century, humanity stands on the verge of the most transforming and the most thrilling period in its history. It will be an era in which the very nature of what it means to be human will be both enriched and challenged, as our species breaks the shackles of its genetic legacy and achieves inconceivable heights of intelligence, material progress, and longevity. For over three decades, the great inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil has been one of the most respected and provocative advocates of the role of technology in our future. In his classic...

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- The PGA TOUR will have reached the $1 billion milestone in all-time charitable contributions with the expected donations from this weekend's tournaments ~snip~ During the 2005 season, the PGA TOUR, Champions Tour and Nationwide Tour and their tournaments participated in "Drive to a Billion," a year-long campaign focused on reaching the milestone and celebrating the spirit of giving and teamwork in 100 communities across the country. Since the TOUR's first recorded donation of $10,000 in 1938, more than 2,000 charities and one million lives have been helped annually. ~snip~ Our goal is to give our...

This guy All Kinds of Wristbands seems to make a compelling argument for these wristbands. You can check out the site for yourself, but his message seems to be that humanity in general (cancer patients, troops, hurricane survivors) can all be helped by this. This includes poor Chinese people who need a job because of their crappy government. Thoughts?

ARAB RACISM & ISLAMIC JIHAD!!! Are Militant Muslims DECAPITATING Tourists in S. Philippines? IT'S ARAB MUSLIM FANATICS' RACISM + JIHAD!!! Did Sadistic Saddam attack Arab Kuwaiti 'brothers' tortured them horrifically? IT'S ARAB MUSLIM FANATICS' RACISM + JIHAD!!! Did Sadistic Saddam BUTCHER/GASSED/TORTURED HIS OWN PEOPLE? IT'S ARAB MUSLIM FANATICS' RACISM + JIHAD!!! Do Arab Muslim Militant Hamas/Islamic-Jihad/other 'Palestinian' Militants (& often Fatah - connected to the official 'Palestinian' authority) TARGET BABIES, (not as the West targets terrorists) Yes or no? IT'S ARAB MUSLIM FANATICS' RACISM + JIHAD!!! Did Arab Islamists attack French subways? (1985) IT'S ARAB MUSLIM FANATICS' RACISM +...

Here is yet another case of savage butchery committed against a woman for offending the honor of a man. From the New Brisbane's News: MULTAN, Pakistan - A Pakistani man cut off the nose and lips of his 19-year-old sister-in-law after she went to court for a divorce in a tribal area of the central province of Punjab, police said on Thursday. Abbas then attacked the girl, hacking off her nose and slicing off her lips. A doctor treating the girl said her nose had been cut off from the bridge and her lips partially severed. Numerous cases have also...

Soldiers, commanders, children, parents: The human face of a natural disaster. The e-mail came from a reader, U.S. Marine Corps, retired: So, I was driving down I-20 from NE Columbia [S.C.] toward the city when I began to pass this huge convoy of Army trucks, Humvees, etc. The convoy was in the right lane. I was driving in the left. The convoy vehicles were loaded with tough-looking young soldiers, and each of them had the familiar "AA" (All American) patches of the famous 82nd Airborne Division stitched on their sleeves. Of course--being such an enormously long convoy of these young...

I see Americans helping Americans. I hear stories and see photos that inspire me! I thank God I live in America.Brett Coomer / Chronicle A paramedic carries a pair of girls away from an Army helicopter after they were airlifted from their flooded home in New Orleans on Tuesday. More Chronicle PHOTOSI just listened to the local D.C. radio news and they played a woman screaming about no showers in the Astrodome. No this, no that, no nothing (I hear different). Then they quoted Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich making snide remarks about the progress of relief efforts. Melissa Phillip...

Living in the most materially advanced civilization in history, we Americans forget how fragile civilization is and the tragic nature of the human condition. This week, nature reminded us. .....Civilization has been compared to skin stretched over a skull – that is, the thin veneer under which the ever-present savage dwells. We have seen the truth of that observation borne out in horrifying tales of looters, some of them armed – and some of them police officers – running rampant in flooded New Orleans. To paraphrase Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the line between civilization and barbarism runs through every human heart. And...

Iran expresses grief at deaths of American people by Hurricane Katrina disaster Iran-US-Condolence Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi on Tuesday expressed grief at deaths of people in the United States caused by Hurricane Katrina. He said that Iranian nation and government sympathize with American people especially the bereaved families of the natural disaster. He hoped that situation in the flood hit states of America would return to normal soon. At least 50 people died in Mississippi and flood waters poured into low-lying New Orleans through levees battered by powerful Hurricane Katrina.

Though assisted dying seems to have been out of the news, several quiet developments have furthered its cause in the UK. First we have the highest judge in the land, Lord Chief Justice Woolf, supporting a move by the Home Office to set gradations of sentences for murder. When asked about mandatory sentences, Woolf noted the differences in murder: 'If you intend to kill someone deliberately then a life sentence may be the only appropriate sentence. But you can have someone who has a relative who is suffering pain of severity which someone in my position can only try to...

Dear George, You don’t mind if I call you George do you? When you sent me a letter offering your condolences on the death of my son, Spc. Casey Austin Sheehan, in the illegal and unjust war on Iraq, you called me Cindy, so I naturally assume we are on a first name basis. George, it has been seven months today since your reckless and wanton foreign policies killed my son, my big boy, my hero, my best-friend: Casey. It has been seven months since your ignorant and arrogant lack of planning for the peace murdered my oldest child. It...

I'll reply to this with a chronology.

The insertion of human stem cells into monkey brains runs a "real risk" of altering the animals' abilities in ways that might make them more like us, scientists said today. A panel of 22 experts -- including primatologists, stem cell researchers, lawyers and philosophers -- debated the possible consequences of the technique for more than a year. While the group agrees it is "unlikely that grafting human stem cells into the brains of non-human primates would alter the animals' abilities in morally relevant ways," the members "also felt strongly that the risk of doing so is real and too ethically...

It turns out your real estate agent was right. In determining the historic reasons why societies thrived and conquered, while others stayed backward, the answer is: location, location, location. At least that's the persuasive theory advanced by Jared Diamond, a UCLA professor, MacArthur "genius" grant winner and author of the best-selling book "Guns, Germs, and Steel." Now, Diamond's book has been adapted into a three-part television series by National Geographic that begins tonight at 10 on Maryland Public Television (Channel 22) and tomorrow at 9 p.m. on WETA (Channel 26). The shows strive for an epic feel, hopscotching the continents...

Could Asia have been the cradle of humanity? By David Ropeik, Globe Correspondent | July 5, 2005 Science continues to struggle with one of the most basic questions of all: Where did humans come from. There isn't much question that modern humans came out of Africa, probably in several waves of migration over the past 100,000 years. But it now appears that the ancient ancestors who gave rise to those African humans might have come from Asia. Until recently the only fossils of anthropoids -- the creatures at the base of the branch of the evolutionary tree that gave rise...

Jon Super/Associated Press The rock star Sir Bob Geldof is leading a drive for aid to Africa. LONDON, June 30 - It is virtually impossible these days to open a newspaper or turn on the television here without confronting the cavalier locks, rumpled visage and hectoring tones of Sir Bob Geldof, the former Boomtown Rats lead singer now cast by friends and foes alike as Africa's savior. With awesome ubiquity - a rock concert here, a documentary there, interviews at every turn - he offers his listeners a blend of profanity, rage and messianic imprecation, urging the political leaders of...

I'll reply to this with details.