Free Republic

snip- Yet many scientists — 40 percent according to a 1997 poll cited by Shermer — believe in God. This isn't big news to scientists, but might surprise people who rely on mainstream views of science. A handful of those folks — including Jerome Groopman, a professor of medicine at Harvard, and William D. Phillips, Nobel laureate in physics and a fellow of the Joint Quantum Institute of the University of Maryland and the National Institute of Standards and Technology — are also represented in the booklet, arguing that the natural world and the world of faith are relatively separate,...

Hey sweetie, are you bitter? Pittsburgh Tribune-Review By Salena Zito Perfect Sen. John McCain bumper sticker: Hey sweetie, are you bitter?

FP: Bill Warner, welcome to Frontpage Interview. Warner: Thank you Jamie. FP: I’d like to talk to you today about how many of the names, words and phrases we use about Islam are muddled and incorrect. Many non-Muslims create certain terms about Islam to try to make the world seem safer and to feel good about themselves. But many of these terms have no actual basis in Islamic theology or culture and have no real meaning in an Islamic context.

Obama and his Kentucky cross TRIBUNE-REVIEW By Salena Zito Chris Brody, the senior national correspondent for Christian Broadcast Network (CBN), is reporting Sen. Barack Obama has a flier for next week’s primary contest in Kentucky that shows Obama standing with a substantial-sized cross to his left. Brody writes that Obama “is making a direct appeal to evangelicals with fliers that mention his conversion experience and they highlight a big old cross. Remember (Gov.) Mike Huckabee’s supposed subliminal cross in his Christmas campaign ad? Well, Obama campaign ditches

Iran Violates Religious Freedoms Iran is designated by the U.S. State Department as among the world’s top violators of religious freedom. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is an independent body that does not speak for the U.S. government. But it is required by Congress to report to the U.S. Secretary of State every year on governments that abuse the religious liberty of their people. Consistent with the annual State Department report on Religious Freedom, the recent Commission report says that the regime in Tehran "engages in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom, including prolonged detention, torture...

"The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this." "For me the Jewish religion like all others is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are no better than other human groups,...

It's tough to run a college these days. It's tougher still when you set high standards. And it's toughest of all when those standards reflect an Ozzie and Harriet morality in a Sarah Jessica Parker world. Just ask the folks at Wheaton College. Wheaton is a Christian college that takes its beliefs seriously. These beliefs are embodied in a "Community Covenant" that all must sign and live by if they hope to teach or study there. The provisions include a biblically based view of marriage, and the understanding that the only acceptable grounds for divorce in this community are those...

CHEYENNE, Wyo. - An American Indian who shot a bald eagle for use in a tribal religious ceremony must stand trial, a federal appeals court has ruled. A three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver on Thursday reversed a 2006 lower court ruling that dismissed a criminal charge against Winslow Friday, a Northern Arapaho Indian who has acknowledged shooting a bald eagle in 2005 during the tribe's Sun Dance. In dismissing the charge, U.S. District Judge William Downes of Wyoming said the federal government has shown "callous indifference" to American Indian religious beliefs. Eagle feathers are...

Wayne Bent, who has been charged with criminal sexual contact of a minor and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, was released from jail on a $55,000 bond. (AP Photo )SANTA FE, N.M., May 9, 2008 AP) The leader of an apocalyptic sect accused of sex crimes against underage female followers was released from jail Friday after bond was posted, authorities said. Wayne Bent left the city-county lockup in the small northeastern New Mexico town of Clayton about 3 p.m., Police Chief Scott Julian said. "He is no longer in our custody," Julian said. Bent was released after...

NEW YORK — Conservative legal advocates are recruiting pastors nationwide to defy an IRS ban on preaching about politicians, in a challenge they hope will abolish the restriction. The Alliance Defense Fund, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., will ask the clergy to deliver a sermon about specific candidates Sept. 28. If the action triggers an IRS investigation, the legal group will sue to overturn the federal rules, which were enacted in 1954. Under the IRS code, churches can distribute voter guides, run voter registration drives, hold forums on public policy and invite politicians to speak at their congregations. However, they cannot...

I am posting this on behalf of many LDS freepers. They will post their own 'signature' to this in the comments below. --- Some of you have noticed lately a lot of LDS (ie: Mormon) threads here on FR. I'm going to tell you why. For many years there have been several active LDS freepers here. We post to all the forums on relevant issues, and were happy to have a site where conservative values were so openly welcomed. Those conservative values include faith in God, and freedom of religion. We fully respect the rights of all posters to express...

"Either relativism is a genuine theory in which a real assertion is made, or else it isn't. But any attempt to assert relativism without relying on just-plain truth [absolute] would inevitably fail, because it would generate an infinite regress. And, of course, any assertion of relativism that does not rely on just-plain truth would be-self defeating. So it looks like any apparent assertion of relativism is either self-defeating or else is not a real assertion, but something more like an empty slogan." (Jubien, Michael. Contemporary Metaphysics. Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1997) "The only way the relativist can avoid the painful dilemma...

Are you a joyful bride-to-be? An eager (or nervous!) groom? Perhaps you have a son or daughter getting married this spring or summer? Perhaps a beloved grandchild? Or maybe a lifelong friend? The peak of wedding season is arriving and many of us have a special acquaintance or family member ready to “tie the knot” in a beautiful marriage ceremony of thrilling romance and holy commitment. So what does any of this have to do with the law? Why am I raising the subject of weddings in my Christian legal column? I’m writing to brides and grooms and those close...

First Florida, now South Carolina. Legislators talk about "I Believe" tags.A South Carolina House subcommittee is discussing a bill that would create a new license plate for Christians. It would have a cross with the words "I believe" on the tag. The same tag stirred quite a controversy in Florida legislature. If such a license plate is approved, it would be the first to feature a religious symbol. Opponents say it violates separation of church and state, and makes it seem as if the state encourages a particular religion. Supporters say not allowing the plate is a violation of free...

Brussels officials have turned to religious VIPs to help spread the gospel of an environmentally friendly society and increase awareness of climate change in their parishes, as well as promoting tolerance between different confessions in Europe. Twenty high-level representatives – 19 men and one woman - from European Christian, Jewish and Muslim congregations met in Brussels on Monday (5 may) to discuss the sensitive issues of climate change and reconciliation between peoples. The meeting was co-chaired by European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, Slovenian Prime Minister and current president of the European Council, Janez Jansa, and the president of the...

A good friend recently pointed out a web site which has scans of Catholic comic books from the 1940s through the 1960s. On the one hand, they are fun and a great snapshot into mid twentieth- century Catholicism. On the other hand, it is remarkable how much serious content they bring with them. The images pictured here come from a 1948 issue on the Mass, which starts with Old Testament typologies, gives a short history of the development of the rites, and then establishes that the earthly liturgy takes place within the context of the joining of heaven and earth....

Open the pages of a liberal magazine or peruse the liberal blogosphere, and you’re bound to come across denunciations of the religious right, if not religion itself. The “reality-based community,” as self-satisfied liberal bloggers call themselves, was a term created in direct response to the “faith-based community,” what the Bush administration called recipients of money from its Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Given the religious right’s use of “faith” to justify hoaxes such as “intelligent design” and the ruinous attempt to convert homosexuals into heterosexuals, the left had good reason to criticize, and sometimes mock, the absurdities that are...

Baldilocks is black, female and conservative. Responding to a column by John Derbyshire at NRO, She writes:...columnists Stephan and Abigail Thernstrom at did their homework on Black Liberation Theology and the "black church": Most black churchgoers belong to congregations that are overwhelmingly African-American and are affiliated with one of the historically black religious denominations such as the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) or the National Baptist Convention. Rev. Wright's Trinity Church, on the other hand, is a predominantly black branch of a white denomination that is not part of "the African-American religious tradition." The United Church of Christ (known until...

New film takes Da Vinci Code conspiracy theories and shaky evidence to new heightsJoseph Brean, National PostWhen Ben Hammott discovered the apparent tomb of a Knight Templar at the bottom of a hole in a cave in the countryside of southern France, he thought he had discovered the final resting place of Mary Magdalene, and so he did what any amateur treasure hunter in this age of the Da Vinci Code would have done. He returned with a Hollywood director, lowered a pole into the tomb with "some sticky stuff on the end," removed the shroud from the body, plucked...

Lex picked up on a column by Sam Harris that demonstrates that old adage about politics and bedfellows well. Commenting on the challenge the world faces in differentiating between “good Muslims� and “bad Muslims�, Harris correctly notes, The connection between the doctrine of Islam and Islamist violence is simply not open to dispute. It’s not that critics of religion like myself speculate that such a connection might exist: the point is that Islamists themselves acknowledge and demonstrate this connection at every opportunity and to deny it is to retreat within a fantasy world of political correctness and religious apology. Then,...

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is split along party lines over whether to designate Iraq as a "country of particular concern" for religious freedom. A recommendation to designate Iraq as a "country of particular concern" would be a blow to the Baghdad government of Prime Minister Maliki, putting Iraq on a list with some of the most repressive countries on the planet, such as North Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan. It could also prompt the next American president to cut off foreign aid to Iraq, an option under the International Religious Freedom Act that created the...

copyright, can't post Flap Over pastor hurts Obama http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-05-04-obama_N.htm Another poll by drive-by, another story. Clinton up by 7 pts, which is in complete contrast with NYT's poll for the same period showing Obama up by 12 pts. Take your pick!!!

'Open dialogue' will have to wait until next time. Under pressure from a homosexual bishop and his friends, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) has canceled a May 5 event in Washington, D.C., that promised “balanced discussion” on the origins and treatment of homosexuality. The pro-homosexual speakers — Bishop Gene Robinson, an openly homosexual Episcopalian in New Hampshire, and Dr. David Scasta, past president of the Association of Gay and Lesbian Psychiatrists — had sought “common ground and new perspectives” with two conservatives: Dr. Albert Mohler, president of South Baptist Theological Seminary and a member of the Focus on the Family...

Chapter 1Introduction "Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call Him Lord and God. Let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He did not leave that open to us. He did not intend to."- C.S. Lewis1A Restoration Church The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) is a radical religion by the standards...

The instructions are simple: Read the Prayer . . / Drink the Water . . . / Believe in God! / Believe in Yourself! Spiritual Water, the faith-inspired venture of two Sunrise businessmen, offers its drinkers clearer focus, positive thinking and connection to a higher power. The 11 bottles in the company's collection bear prayers and impressively detailed images of Jesus Christ, St. Michael and the Virgin Mary. Spiritual Water joins a broad slice of feel-good products -- Testamint, Bible Gum and other bottled holy waters -- emerging at the intersection of religion and commerce, entrepreneurship and pop culture. ''There...

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. , May 1, 2008 – At just 16 years old, Jose A. Bautista-Rojas left his hometown of Guadalajara, Mexico, for Los Angeles in hopes of creating a better life for himself and the parents he left behind. At the time, he had no idea his journey would lead him into the priesthood, the military or the opportunity to shake the pope’s hand. The road from Guadalajara was not short, and life in Los Angeles was not easy, Bautista said. Living with friends, working all day and attending English-as-a-second-language classes at Evans Community Adult School...

May 01, 2008, 9:00 a.m. More Carbon Dioxide, PleaseRaising a scientific question. By Roy Spencer There seems to be an unwritten assumption among environmentalists — and among the media — that any influence humans have on nature is, by definition, bad. I even see it in scientific papers written by climate researchers. For instance, if we can measure some minute amount of a trace gas in the atmosphere at the South Pole, well removed from its human source, we are astonished at the far-reaching effects of mankind’s “pollution.� But if nature was left undisturbed, would it be any happier...

Found this posted on another thread by Bushwacker777. Very powerful - a wonderful reminder of why America is a Republic with an Electoral College instead of a simple-majority Democracy. Just what our founding fathers were worried about.

The Confluence of Religion & Freedom by Nancy Salvato, Senior EditorApril 28, 2008   “Textbooks today are trapped in an ideological straitjacket that, in contrast to the surrounding popular culture, restricts content and sterilizes social realities.” – The Mad, Mad World of Textbook Adoption I’ve always enjoyed learning about history. When I look back on my history classes, it wasn’t because I was interested in reading the textbooks, it was the teacher who made history come alive, by inserting anecdotes that made it “real,” showing footage of actual events, or by connecting what happened in the past to the present....

At this moment in time, the issue of academic freedom is probably more far reaching and is as great a threat to our liberty as limited school choice, dumbed-down curriculum, lack of accountability, or unsafe school environments, which typically dominate when the topic of education is in the news. Thanks to Ben Stein, the issue of Intelligent Design, which falls under academic freedom is garnering renewed attention and hopefully people will tune in and learn more about the importance of presenting a balanced curriculum in our schools, but even more than that, allowing for a more balanced coverage of issues,...

I think Stephen enjoys the juxtaposition of my brother Alec and me on one side and he on the other side and again the attention that might garner in the media that Baldwins are at war at the dinner table. I'm not saying he doesn't believe what he says. I just don't think that he fully understands. So I asked him, “Do you think a gay couple should be married? And if not, do you think they deserve access to the same rights on a federal level and state level that you do? And if you don't -- are they...

In the aftermath of the U.S. visit by Pope Benedict XVI, traditional Catholics are asking a troublesome question: Did pro-choice politicians receiving Communion at the papal Masses indicate the pope had softened on the abortion question? The answer is no. On the contrary, it reflected disobedience to Benedict by the archbishops of New York and Washington. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sens. John Kerry, Christopher Dodd and Edward M. Kennedy received Communion at Nationals Park in Washington, as did former mayor Rudolph Giuliani at Yankee Stadium in New York. Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington and Cardinal Edward Egan, archbishop of...

The controversial public display of Padre Pio's body is attracting a new kind of Irish holidaymaker who likes to combine sunshine and spirituality. Thousands of these 'tourist pilgrims' are travelling to view the mystic monk's remains in San Giovanni Rotondo, before heading off for some secular sight-seeing around the rest of Italy. But the stigmatic saint, whose body has been exhumed 40 years after his death, is the main draw in these religious vacations to the Puglia region. Tour operators are tapping-into this growing market for trips with a sacred flavour. Around 750,000 pilgrims from all over the world have...

Theologians past and present have used a bouquet of initials and analogies to describe Calvinist doctrine. Historically, the Reformed Synod of Dort in the Netherlands delineated the differences between Calvinism and the teachings of James Jacobus Arminius. For the sake of simplicity—and playing on an association with the best-known Dutch flower—those teachings have been summarized through the TULIP acrostic. • Total depravity. Human beings are dead in their sins, and they stand justly condemned before God, unable to do anything to save themselves. • Unconditional election. From eternity, God in his sovereignty chose specific human beings to be saved. That...

After centuries of trying to uncover the fundamental laws of the universe, science is still no closer to answering some of humanity’s biggest questions about the meaning of life, the existence of God and the evolution of the human mind and societies. Is that because science is not sufficiently advanced to tackle such problems" Or is it because the traditional approach to science is incapable of answering humanity’s deepest wonders" It is the latter, according to University of Calgary physicist, biologist and philosopher Stuart Kauffman, who argues in his forthcoming book that nature’s infinite creativity should become the basis for...

Perhaps it was inevitable: The Democrats' battle for the presidential nomination has now led us into the thicket of race and religion. Hillary Clinton's significant victory over Barack Obama in the Pennsylvania primary was the result of many factors, but most troubling for Obama's camp were exit polls suggesting that an underlying anti-Obama vote was responsible for the size of Clinton's victory. One little-noticed finding was that 6 percent of Clinton's own voters said that they would defect to John McCain in the fall against Clinton herself. These Pennsylvania Democrats were clearly not Clinton enthusiasts. They were voting against Obama....

Though it is true that Jesus did not tell the Disciples how to vote, He certainly did instruct them on how to live. Why is it that whenever the issue of voting is raised, red flags are raised with some people?

MIAMI — Florida drivers can order more than 100 specialty license plates celebrating everything from manatees to the Miami Heat, but one now under consideration would be the first in the nation to explicitly promote a specific religion. The Florida Legislature is considering a specialty plate with a design that includes a Christian cross, a stained-glass window and the words "I Believe."

LIBREVILLE, gabon–When the body of 13-year-old Ralph Edang N'na was found drained of blood and with gaping wounds in his genitals, chest and neck last month, many in Gabon thought it was politicians who had ordered his killing. The murder of children and young adults, whose organs are eaten or used to make magical amulets, has increased in recent years in the oil-rich central African nation. Campaigners say some Gabonese politicians use the black magic rituals to boost their chances of winning lucrative government posts. With elections to municipal councils on Sunday, many fear a spate of gruesome child murders....

Each Sunday, worshippers file into the York-Ogunquit United Methodist Church beneath a cross and, since February, a symbol of another sort. The church's roof is now partly covered by an array of solar panels that make electricity to run the lights and heat inside the sanctuary. It's perhaps the most visible evidence yet of a growing environmental ethic spreading through Maine's religious communities. "Certainly we want to lower our power bill," said William Wieting, chairman of church's board of trustees. "But the enthusiasm didn't derive from the monetary value to the church as much as it was the right thing...

For Barack Obama, campaign 2008 has been a series of absurd but consequential tests. First, there was the faith test: Profess publicly that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior. ....... Then there was the patriotism test: Recite the Pledge of Allegiance and wear an American flag lapel pin...... Having passed the God test and the country test, Obama recently has been subjected to the God and country test: Embrace the nation's beloved slogan, "God bless America." When the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's remix of this political favorite began to hit the airwaves, ...Obama... attempt damage control, appeared on cable news.......

The ancient question "Why is this night different" may have a different and somewhat unexpected connotation this year. A ruling on April 3 by Local Affairs Court Judge Tamar Bar-Asher-Tsaban limiting the extent of the 1986 Prohibition on the Display of Hametz Law has infuriated religious leaders and lawmakers and threatens to upset the delicate balance between secular and Orthodox in the capital. Last year the municipality filed lawsuits against four non-kosher eateries and a mini-market for failing to pay fines issued for selling hametz (leavened products). Bar-Asher-Tsaban's ruling, however, determined that the allegations in the charge were incorrect and...

About two months ago, my wife and I visited the Fundamentalist Mormon community of Colorado City, Arizona, the base of imprisoned leader Warren Jeffs. I had always wanted to see for myself how this community lives. Arriving late in the afternoon, we went to the main supermarket, where tens of fundamentalist Mormons were out buying food with their families. They were understandably suspicious of these intruders and reluctant to engage us in conversation. After a while, the manager of the store came over to us and asked, with considerable warmth, if we had found what we were looking for. He...

As the Edah Haredit gears up for a major protest against the sale of hametz in the streets of Jerusalem, secular Jews are asking themselves why their haredi brothers cannot just live and let live. After all, why should a haredi Jew from Mea She'arim possibly care if a Jewish Israeli with no religious ties whatsoever enjoys a slice of thoroughly leavened pizza? The haredi and the secular Israeli drew their lines of demarcation long ago. The haredi barely acknowledges the legitimacy of the State of Israel and might go through his entire life without ever having a significant social...

REGINA, Saskatchewan, April 21 (UPI) -- Three Canadian men from a Saskatchewan reservation were sentenced Monday to prison for running a marijuana farm the leader claimed was the Creator's order. The men were found guilty of running a farm of 10 marijuana greenhouses, or what Canadian police describe as "grow-ops," in Regina in February. The judge sentenced alleged ringleader Lawrence Agecoutay to six years in prison, his brother Robert to 3 1/2 years and Chester Girard to 5 1/2 years, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., reported. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police seized more than 6,000 marijuana plants in the raid in...

Stein turns the tables on Darwinists By Chris Weinkopf, Editorial Page Editor THERE'S a great piece of viral satire working its way around the Internet, an ad for Ben Stein's new movie, "Expelled." It's a music video featuring animated representations of prominent atheists rapping about their intellectual superiority over the majority of mankind that still has doubts about Darwinism as an all-purpose, infallible explanation for everything. The video is funny, but nowhere near as funny as some of the crusading atheists' responses to it. At the Web site of celebrity God-hater Richard Dawkins, both host and acolytes spent more than...

Why I became a nun, by former tennis star Andrea JaegerBy PETER ROBERTSON - More by this author » Last updated at 21:27pm on 19th April 2008  She was a troubled young girl ... and the finest tennis player of her generation.  At the age of 14, with her teeth still in braces and her hair in Brady Bunch pigtails, Andrea Jaeger dominated the courts, frightened of no one and confident in a talent that outstripped even Chris Evert and Billie Jean King. By the age of 16 she was No 2 in the world yet famously appeared to...

NEW YORK -- Pope Benedict XVI warned diplomats at the United Nations on Friday that international cooperation needed to solve urgent problems is "in crisis" because decisions rest in the hands of a few powerful nations. In a major speech on his U.S. trip, Benedict also said that respect for human rights, not violence, was the key to solving many of the world's problems. While he didn't identify the countries that have a stranglehold on global power, the German pope - just the third pontiff to address the U.N. General Assembly - addressed long-standing Vatican concerns about the struggle to...

Why ...

Remember the culture wars? This week the Democrats sued for peace.On Friday evening, email queues lit up everywhere with people reacting to Barack Obama's thoughts on life being nasty, bitter and short in small-town America. Time was not long ago that a Democratic candidate could have said such folk cling to guns and religion and are hostile to "diversity" with nary a peep from his party. Not now. Obama was repudiated. Crushed. Media analysis suggested the damage could last til November. Before midnight, Hillary was paddling down Whiskey River with the boys at Bronko's. Then on Sunday evening, the white...