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Richard Dawkins is that rare specimen, a public intellectual, a knight of the mind who goes into battle against the ignorance and foolhardiness of the populace. Unlike the French, who worship their public intellectuals, giving them pet names such as les intellos, and airing them regularly on serious television and in print, the British like to shove academics into a musty corner, or laugh at them. This was not always the case: the Victorians, with their public lectures and royal societies, gloried in debate and celebrated the thrills of fresh knowledge. The nearest we get to this now is celebrating...

Christian protests put Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials film trilogy in doubt By Stephen Adams Last Updated: 1:01pm BST 18/07/2008 The future of the film trilogy based on Phillip Pullman's books His Dark Materials is in doubt after the controversial author said he did not know if the sequel to The Golden Compass would be made. The first in the trilogy, which starred Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, was dogged by accusations from American religious groups that it was anti-Catholic and even sought to "destroy God". British author Pullman admitted such objections may have hit US box office sales.... The...

  Urgent prayer request From Snykerz | 07/16/2008 12:56:06 AM PDT Dearest Prayer Warriors:It’s been a long time since I have posted here on Freerepublic, but I remember how much you had helped me out with the prayers I had requested for my older sister Sherryl, and she is doing well. Now here I am again asking for your help.My younger sister “Lori” needs all the prayers that anyone can spare. She was admitted to the hospital ( Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, Ca) a little over a week ago with a kidney infection, which turned into Gram Negative...

What they found was 12 percent of United States high school biology teachers consider creationism a "valid scientific alternative to Darwinian explanations for the origin of species," and believe "many reputable scientists view these as valid alternatives to Darwinian theory."

...Near the end of the silly new anti-evolution film, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed—in which fellow panelist Steve Meyer appeared—host Ben Stein asks Richard Dawkins, who is arguably the best-known living evolutionary biologist on the planet, if he could think of any circumstances under which intelligent design might have occurred. Incautiously, Dawkins brings up the idea that aliens might have seeded life on earth; so-called directed panspermia. This idea was suggested by biologists Francis Crick and Leslie Orgel back in the 1970s. In the film, Stein acts like this is a great "gotcha," like it's the silliest thing he's ever heard....

Dancing With the Baby Stars - The Amazing Feats of Fetal Development You may not think of yourself as the next Kristi Yamaguchi, but long before you could walk, you could dance. Not on the floor, mind you, but in the womb. If you want proof of an unborn baby's dancing ability, check out http://www.yourdevelopingbaby.com/sampleChapters/7.htm. There, under the headline "Baby aerobics," you'll see a baby 15 weeks after conception, doing a unique form of hip hop. The incredible video comes courtesy of two Harvard radiology professors, Peter Doubilet and Carol Benson, a married couple who have written an eye-catching book...

It’s the summer of talking about the summer of ‘68. And back during that infamous summer, there was sex — an encyclical on sex, that is: Humanae Vitae, from Pope Paul VI, issued on July 25. Its message is being heard and misheard as much now as then. It would be for the benefit of all — Catholics and non-Catholics alike — to give it a 40th-anniversary look. Even Jessica Valenti, author of the new book He’s a Stud, She’s a Slut, and 49 Other Double Standards Every Woman Should Know, might find it more helpful than she’ll care to...

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In a letter to Mr Jones in 2003, Cardinal Pell said his claims of sexual assault could not be substantiated, going against the advice of church investigators who were looking into the matter. Last night, the program revealed a recorded phone conversation in which Father Goodall refuted any suggestion that a sexual encounter between him and Mr Jones was consensual, throwing further doubt over Cardinal Pell's decision to dismiss the claims of sexual assault.

I'm a twenty-two Virginian girl, and this is my rant at my peers. Every day I peruse the forums of FreeRepublic, scouring the pages and reading of the troubles that face the United States. And to be entirely honest, it breaks my heart. Every time see another article about the efforts of so many to bring radical and harmful changes to America, I can think of nothing except the English landing at Jamestown and one man saying that if paradise existed on Earth, it was Virginia. And now many people are trying to pull the United States down to the...

In the past, I have observed that the newsmedia and scientific establishment commonly promote the Darwinist bias against intelligent design (ID), where the media "carefully selects the sources of information it will broadcast to the public on this issue." (To see how various groups in the establishment serve as checkpoints to prevent scientific information that challenges neo-Darwinism from reaching the public, observe the diagram at left.) National Geographic (NG) is doing its job as a media checkpoint, promoting biased information to the public on ID.

Louisiana is another story. A hub of creationist activism since the early 1980s, it was Louisiana that enacted the Balanced Treatment Act, which required that creationism be taught alongside evolution in schools. In a landmark 1987 case known as Edwards vs Aguillard, the US Supreme Court ruled the law unconstitutional, effectively closing the door on teaching "creation science" in public schools. ID was invented soon afterwards as a way of proffering creationist concepts without specific reference to God.

When we look at the numbers, we wonder where these people go to church. Though the survey included many others, here I will focus on the Evangelical (EV) and Mainline (ML) Protestant churches. Absolutely Certain Belief in God: EV Protestants - 90 percent; ML Protestants - 73 percent. Literal Interpretation of Scripture: EV Protestants - 59 percent; ML Protestants - 29 percent.

When Reverend Rigby wanted to teach his congregation a lesson about being kind to others he came up with a rather colourful way of demonstrating his point. As the 70 churchgoers turned up for their regular Sunday morning service at the Methodist church in Prestatyn, north Wales they found a scruffy tramp sitting in the church porch. Stinking of beer and dressed in filthy clothes, the disgusted churchgoers did their best to ignore him as they filed past. This task was made even harder when the unwanted guest joined them on the pews, surrounded with syringes and drinking from a...

A Middleton (WI) religious group plans to build a $6 million monastery that will have a zero-carbon footprint and meet the highest environmental and energy-efficiency standards.The monastery built by the Benedictine Women of Madison at 4200 Highway M would earn LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum certification upon completion. The two-story, 30,000-square-foot building, scheduled for completion in December 2009, will replace the Benedict House, a former high school and retreat center that was torn down. Most of its materials were recycled. Designed by Vertegy Consultants of St. Louis, the building will include an assembly room with gathering and...

SOME HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE RELIGION OF 'PEACE' IN JUST ONE WEEK [End of July 2008]   Pakistan, Islamic Bombing in the capital Islamabad. Pakistan police arrest 4 bomb suspectsCNN International - Jul 8, 2008More than 100 people died when Pakistani security forces stormed the mosque on July 10, 2007, ending a weeklong standoff between military forces and Islamic ...http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/07/08/karachi.blast/   Palestinians Hamas [despite of 'truce' pact with Israel's Defense Forces, continue to] shoot missiles upon Israeli civilians.Palestinians shoot at Nahal Oz farmers Ynetnewshttp://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3564613,00.html   Muslim - Arabs in Israel arrested for supplying info and 'targets' for Al Qaeda.Two Israeli Arabs...

Sir John Templeton agreed with the proverb that it's "easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." "There's a lot of truth in that," the billionaire philanthropist once said. "When people trust in something other than God, it's difficult to be truly spiritual. ... Don't fall in love with money." Sir John, a pioneering mutual fund manager, global investor and founder of the Templeton Prize, died Tuesday of pneumonia in the Bahamas, a spokeswoman at his foundation said. He was 95. Sir John was born...

The discovery of a missing link in the evolution of bizarre flatfishes—each of which has both eyes on the same side of its head—could give intelligent design advocates a sinking feeling. CT scans of 50-million-year-old fossils have revealed an intermediate species between primitive flatfishes (with eyes on both sides of their heads) and the modern, lopsided versions, which include sole, flounder, and halibut.

There were two recent news items which had to do with Islam. The first seemed to indicate that Islam is in the ascendency, while the second gave a slightly different perspective. The first story involved a statement from the Vatican which said that for the first time, Muslims now outnumber Catholics. Muslims make up 19.2 per cent of the world’s population, compared to Catholics who make up 17.2 per cent. This is mainly due to demographics: Muslims tend to still have large families, while Catholics are having much smaller families. Of course if all Christians are considered together, they make...

Has anybody read A.N. Wilson's "biographies" Jesus and/or Paul: The Mind of an Apostle I was just cruising around Amazon books and spotted these. I wondered if they were any good.

UPDATED: War clouds continue to build in the epicenter. Last month in Rome, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed that the United States and Israel would soon be "annihilated," language he had not used so explicitly since October 2005 when he promised to wipe Israel "off the map" and urged Muslims to "envision a world without the United States." This week, his regime authorized a new series of Iranian war games. He ordered the digging of 320,000 graves to bury the enemies of Islam. He is calling for the unification of the Islamic world politically and economically, including the creation of...

You might think from the recent spate of atheist best-sellers that belief in God has become intellectually indefensible for thinking people today. But a look at these books by Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens, among others, quickly reveals that the so-called New Atheism lacks intellectual muscle. It is blissfully ignorant of the revolution that has taken place in Anglo-American philosophy. It reflects the scientism of a bygone generation rather than the contemporary intellectual scene.

The flaw in Charles Darwin's pre-eminent theory is its failure to explain why some humans de-evolve to infant primates when debating the existence of God. Put atheists in the same room as the devout and, well, it's back to the sandbox. (There is a God; no there isn't -- is/isn't, is/isn't, is/isn't.)

Dunno how this will come over in the U.S. Recently, I had an interesting debate with a Dutch column writer in our best national newspaper. In short: he wrote, a Dutch proverb: a kiddie's hand is filled quickly, by which he meant: Obama is massively popular in Europe whilst no one can list his ideas (or even one of them, for that matter). I am not always in agreement with this writer, but this time he hit it on the head. Every young(ish) European seems enamoured with Obama, and being fancying him as the next Christlike figure. Without having an...

South Carolina plans license plate for Christians

23 DIE AS VIOLENCE GRIPS PALESTINE Bomb Starts a Riot in Haifa – Another Cast From Train – 100 Persons Wounded Wireless to THE NEW YORK TIMES. JERUSALEM, July 6.-Bombs, riots and police action in various parts of Palestine today resulted in at least twenty-three deaths and nearly a hundred less serious casualties. Among the dead at Haifa is Tuvia Dounia, a brother-in-law of Dr. Chaim Weizmann, president of the World Zionist Organization. He slumped at the wheel of his automobile, a bullet in his heart, while police were clearing the streets during one of the worst riots in the...

JERUSALEM — A three-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew that scholars believe dates from the decades just before the birth of Jesus is causing a quiet stir in biblical and archaeological circles, especially because it may speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days.

The Advocate newspaper in Baton Rouge Louisiana today published a front page story about Louisiana’s new law regarding teaching of evolution that contains a completely false statement in the lead. The paper reported an unnamed official stated that “Louisiana is the only state in the nation that has enacted a law that could change the way evolution is taught in public schools.” Louisiana recently enacted the Louisiana Science Education Act (LSEA) which protects teachers that encourage critical thinking and objective discussion about evolution and other scientific topics.

When a science director loses her job, it seems lots of people have an opinion about it. But after all, it's one woman and one job. "It's because this is really about what kind of education Texas students get in their public schools," Kathy Miller of the Texas Freedom Network said. Evolution supporters like Miller are thinking about the bigger picture in regards to what happened to Comer. The Texas Education Agency told Comer she had failed to remain neutral in the evolution versus creationism debate. "It's kind of like asking the science director to be neutral on whether the...

Did anyone hear the man claiming to have taken over 2 SF bay area radio stations last night? The stations involved were KFAX (1100 am) and KDOW (1220 am). These stations are owned by Salem Radio. KFAX format is Christian radio, KDOW format is newstalk and business. The takeover was in progress when I tuned in at about 2:15am (PDT), and was still going on when I turned it off at about 3:45am (PDT). The person on the air was threatening suicide, and FCC banned words were repeatedly put out over the air.

I have been looking at Snopes to "confirm" certain things out there about Obama. For instance, quotes from his books, and Snopes comes across as very liberal, defending Obama and making excuses for what he's said. Most of the quotes, he did in fact say but Snopes likes to say it was taken out of context, etc. Anyone else have an opinion on this?

Have a look at this original video of a 2 year old girl being brainwashed right into Islam's hateful beliefs. The remarks on Jews and Christians alone is enough to send chills down your spine. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg3m3t87-dk

How Same-Sex 'Marriage' Will Harm Christians It is all about equal rights, the gay “marriage” lobby keeps telling us. We just want the right to marry, like everyone else. That is what they are telling us. But that is not what they mean. If same-sex “marriage” becomes the law of the land, we can expect massive persecution of the Church. As my friend Jennifer Roback Morse notes in the National Catholic Register, “Legalizing same-sex ‘marriage’ is not a stand-alone policy . . . Once governments assert that same-sex unions are the equivalent of marriage, those governments must defend and enforce...

"...coal makes us sick, oil makes us sick, it's global warming, it's ruining our country, it's ruining our world, we've got to stop using fossil fuel, we've for generations taken it out of the earth, carbon out of the earth and put it in the atmosphere, it's making us all sick, it's changing our world...."

PRIEST is to sue the Catholic Church for sacking him over an 18-year affair with a woman. Former monsignor Joseph Creegan is the first Scottish priest to take the Church to court, claiming for lost wages via an employment tribunal. However, it is understood church lawyers will attempt to have the case thrown out, arguing the clergyman did not work for them but for God. If they are successful, the case will fail as only employees can go to a tribunal. A senior priest and expert in canon law said yesterday: "His relationship is with God, he is a servant...

For example, some people are already writing off most major religions which are based essentially on an Earth-centric model, as never being able to recover from such a crippling body blow. (The Bible makes no mention of other planets or life on other planets.)

Religion, it seems, has always depended on the kindness of strangers. Like Blanche DuBois, the Southern belle of Tennessee Williams' play "A Streetcar Named Desire," faith is beset by a world that often tramples on imagination and rewards strict rationality. Fate led DuBois to a mental hospital, but religion has thrived for milliennia in every known culture, anthropologists say. For neo-Darwinists, looking at it from a strictly evolutionary standpoint, that poses a puzzle.

Although it might appear otherwise, U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III does not believe his participation in October in the Year of Evolution program in Philadelphia will promote anything except his judicial service. “I’m not a tout for Charles Darwin,” Jones, of Pottsville, said of the developer of the theory of evolution. “I’m not a scientist.” Jones, who gained worldwide notice for his 2005 ruling that the teaching of the theory of intelligent design was an unconstitutional advancement of religion, will speak on Oct. 13 as part of the citywide program celebrating the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth and...

Lately, I've had disturbing thoughts about the future, and the question arose in my mind: Can the United States become so bad, politically, that an option to leave for better climes becomes desireable? I think of our ancestors in Europe and their deep-rooted, ancient love for their own country, who, because of overwhelming political and social unrest and tyranical oppression, made the excruciating decision to migrate to America with little to start out and no prospects to succeed. I can't believe that we are so much better than many of these fine, Godly men, that we have resolve that they...

Anyome have great links for English to Hebrew? Example: Trust God All WisdomHow Would that script out in Hebrew or close to it?

In a one-two punch, Focus on the Family’s Dr. James Dobson ripped into Barack Obama, saying that Obama terrifies him, while on Tuesday night’s "Hannity & Colmes" show, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee warned that the Illinois senator’s views on such issues as partial birth abortion takes away the equality of unborn children, and that Obama makes him uncomfortable. Dobson appeared on Sean Hannity’s radio show Tuesday. During the show, Hannity commented that he found Obama to be dishonest overall, noting that “I think he was dishonest to the American people” when speaking of his former pastor and spiritual adviser...

Censorship. Book burning. The Criminalization of Christianity. It's here and it's now the law in the state of Colorado. The Ku Klux Klan can march. The Nazis can hand out brochures. Skinheads can do whatever it is that Skinheads do. But in the state of Colorado, the only group who is NOT allowed to be heard is … the Christians. They're the ones who disagree with same-sex marriage, cohabitation, and believe the biblical view that homosexuality is a sin. But if they voice that objection from now on, it had better be inside the four walls of a church. If...

Leanna has been in the hospital for a week with pain and fever. So far all the blood tests have come back negative ruling out many, many possibilities. The tests that were sent to the CDC in Atlanta should have results today/tomorrow. At this point, the doctors figure she has a viral infection (NOT expected to be contagious) that may have possibly been contracted during her vacation abroad(to Italy, Greece & Turkey). The doctors think that the infection will have to work its way out over a period of time from exposure. She seemed just slightly better over the weekend....

This video is about a true story that happened in the late 60's. My wife and I were visiting a small town called Chepachet R.I on Tanyard Lane, (the old 1910, black & white photo of this video). The song of the video played in Bluegrass Stile, “Precious Memories” sung with mixed artist unknown. The video also has been redone for better visual.

This video is about a true story that happened in the late 60’s. My wife and I were visiting a small town called Chepachet R.I on Tanyard Lane. The song of the video is, I Saw The Light sung by Hank Williams, Sr..

Just breaking - Abu Hamza has lost his appeal and now can be deported to the USA. How do you intend to welcome him....? Ideas please.

Mumbai, India (AHN) - Nearly five hours after being stillborn following a pre-mature delivery, an infant started breathing again to life when the relatives were carrying her to cemetery. The 30-year-old mother Aruna Gaikwad from western-Indian city of Mumbai was admitted to Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital on June 15 after being refused from three reputed city hospitals. She suffered from convulsions resulting from high blood-pressure in her pregnancy in the seventh month of gestation. Gaikwad was induced labor to undergo delivery and was put on anti-convulgents and anti-hypertensive therapy. The baby was delivered on the evening on June 16....

SO far: Do you think that same sex marriages should be legal? Yes 40% No 55% Don't know 5% Poll is near the bottom of the screen, right hand side.

The great celebration that has been going on today in the media over the impending commencement of gay marriages in California has left me fearful for this beloved country. Every time I heard the news or clicked on main news items, there it was: "At five o'clock, Pacific time, the State of California will permit gay marriages, etc..." Each time I saw it or heard it was like the tolling of a bell, which reverberated deep in my heart setting off a slight quiver of fear. My fear is, in large part, based on my religious beliefs. I am an...

First California Same-Sex Wedding June 16 By: ANDY HUMM 06/12/2008 Veteran lesbian activists Del Martin, 87, and Phyllis Lyon, 83, whose 2004 wedding in San Francisco was invalidated by the California Supreme Court, will be the first same-sex couple to legally marry there on Monday, June 16 at 5 p.m. when the high court's May ruling finding a constitutional right to marry for same-sex couples takes effect. It is the only one that Mayor Gavin Newsom will allow that day before county clerks across the state must begin issuing licenses to same-sex couples the next morning. The clerk in rural...