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In Matthew 16:24, Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”

So many of us want the promises, the rewards, and the gifts of Jesus. However, we seem to miss the key to receiving them. Are we a true disciple of Jesus Christ? Of course, many of us will quickly say yes without hesitation. However, maybe we should hesitate just for a moment to find out  what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ? A disciple of Jesus is one who denies himself, takes up his cross, and follows Jesus. We think it is great to follow Jesus and we try to but without denying ourselves to do the will of the Father, it is impossible to follow Jesus. We will always find ourselves fighting with what we want and what God wants. I was at a church service a few years ago and the pastor told his congregation lift up their envelopes and ask God to give them that big house, that new Lexus and Mercedes, and the high paying job they’ve always wanted. We really need to get our prayers and priorities in order. There are people hurting out there in bad situations slowly perishing away while we sit in church trying to gratify our wicked flesh. Jesus didn’t die on a cross so we could feed our flesh. He didn’t die for us to have more stuff. He died to bring salvation and redemption to a dead and dull world; a world that is so full of darkness that it can’t even recognize it is slowly but surely digging it’s own grave; a world where instead of sin prevention, it practices sin tolerance and acceptance. We are destroying ourselves. We desperately need to come back to the Word of God. Now more than ever, we need to learn what it means to pick up our cross to do the will of the Father; a simple will to believe in Jesus Christ so we can gladly follow Him.

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Behavioural Healthcare Religiousness may have a positive impact on the quality of life of older adults with schizophrenia, according to new research looking at a large multiracial group of people with schizophrenia living in the community.  The research appears in the September issue of Psychiatric Services, a journal of the American Psychiatric Association. Previous research [...] - [Read more]

Interesting research coming out of the US looking at the religiosity of those believers affiliated with church and those not. Written by Tom Rees of Epiphenom: One of the big news stories from last year was the revelation that Americans are leaving their churches and religious institutions in droves. They are becoming “unaffiliated”, although there [...] - [Read more]

I walked past the bush this morning.

If  they had been there then, I think I wouldve noticed.

Three beautiful red roses.

I came home late this afternoon after having attended the funeral of a friends mother.

It was a very meaningful service, held at lovely church in a nearby town.

As I came down the walkway, I passed the bush.

After only a step or two, I turned and went back to look again.

Did these bloom just today? Hmmm.

I began to continue my walk to the front door.

Once again, I was compelled to turn around and step back.

I gazed at the flowers for a long moment.

Three roses---blooming on the day this dear womans family and friends had gathered to share a final tribute.

The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit came to my mind. Somehow, the three roses spoke to my heart in an instant.

Closely following, I thought of our lives as redeemed children of God.

We live out our years on Earth; when we die, we are ushered into the presence of our Father in Heaven.

At the resurrection, we will have new, eternal bodies, fashioned by Him.

Three roses.

Three forms of life.

In probably less than sixty seconds, a significant lesson had been placed before me.

A reminder of who God is and the assurance of our existance with Him, now and in the time to come.

Do you know someone who needs to have this assurance?

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit...  ---Matthew 28:19

In his article Discovery Channel Gunman James Jay Lee Was No Terrorist, psychiatrist Dr. Keith Ablow states of James Jay Lee—the man who took hostages and was untimately gunned down at the Discovery Channel building—“My guess is that James Lee had become hostage to a psychiatric disorder long before he took hostages.”

Indeed, that seems like the case:

Last year, he was arrested outside the Discovery Channel after throwing thousands of dollars up in the air to protest corporate greed. He objected to shows like “Dirty Jobs” and said at trial that he was inspired to save the planet not only by Al Gore, but by the novel “Ishmael,” about a talking gorilla.

Incidentally, “Dirty Jobs” is a show that has the host taking on just that; dirty jobs, such as cleaning sewers, cleaning up at a farm, treating deer skins, processing coal, etc., etc., etc.

Now, on the other hand, some of his other insane views are actually mainstream insane views:

Lee also wrote that he objected to all “immigration pollution and the anchor baby filth that follows that.”

Other reports note that he referenced “disgusting human babies” and “parasitic infants.”

Granted, correlating "Dirty Jobs" with saving the planet is far out there.

However, in referencing immigrants should be prevented from having babies is essentially the founding motto of Planned Parenthood. Also, in referring to “disgusting human babies” and “parasitic infants” he is speaking much like some pro-abortion activists such as those who say that they do not want their daughters “punished with a baby.”

I have known some parents who just dreaded the milestone-rich fall. Besides school, there are change of weather, the smell of the fresh fall air, football season, Halloween and “the holidays." But for each of you there will be several milestone events that highlight the absence of your child. - [Read more]

In Matthew 16:23, Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”

There is a sharp distinction made here. Jesus addressed Peter as “Satan.” It is not that Peter was actually Satan, but that his rebukes of Jesus about God’s plan for man’s salvation and redemption were influenced by Satan. Many times, people try to be neutral about Jesus. However, Jesus never allowed any neutral grounds. He expressed on many occasions, if you are not with Me, you are against Me. Peter was caught in the middle of a spiritual battle. He was in the crossfire. One minute he was acknowledging Jesus as the Christ, the son of the living God and the next minute he was rebuking Jesus forbidding Him to redeem man. We go through the same battle almost on a daily basis. Sometimes we want to be “tolerant” of others. To me, tolerant is a short way of saying a person has no confidence in what you truly believe, if they believe it at all. We say Jesus is the way for me but someone might have their own way that works for them. If that is the case, we do not know Jesus as we should. With those kind of statements, we are calling Him a liar and we stand against Him. He said “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no one gets tot he Father except through Me.” If we say someone has their own way, we are going against God and spitting on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross which wash away all of our sins and cleansed us white as snow. At that point we are being used by Satan just as Peter was being used. O, my beloved, it is so important that we know Jesus personally. We need to stand with Him so we are not misguided and mislead by this ever so dying world around us.

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The Guardian has a poll on at the moment asking: Is physicist Stephen Hawking right that physics, not God, created the universe? The results so far are: 81.3% Yes. I believe in gravity, not divinity 18.8% No. God: Hawking ‘not necessary’ Go on hop over and boost the “Hawking not necessary” vote. If you have [...] - [Read more]

On Tuesday President Obama addressed the US nation and informed the world that the war in Iraq was over. So tonight, I am announcing that the American combat mission in Iraq has ended.  Operation Iraqi Freedom is over, and the Iraqi people now have lead responsibility for the security of their country. In the years [...] - [Read more]

Well, it’s time for our weekly dose of psychobabble and I’m staggered to be able to reveal to you [Jim] that I have uncovered a rarity, namely, a pro-God piece. It’s only a short article so I’ll just link to this one: Psychology Today: The Mystery of Happiness – How to live a soulful and [...] - [Read more]

Can you catch Leviathan on a fishhook
       or tie its tongue down with a rope?
        Can you put a cord through its nose
       or a hook in its jaw?
        Will it keep begging you for mercy
       and speak to you with gentle words?
        Will it make an agreement with you
       and let you take it as your slave for life?
        Can you make a pet of Leviathan as you would a bird
       or put it on a leash for your girls?
        Will traders try to bargain with you for it?
       Will they divide it up among the merchants?
        Can you stick darts all over its skin
       or fill its head with fishing spears?
        If you put one hand on it,
       you will never forget the battle,
       and you will never do it again!
        There is no hope of defeating it;
       just seeing it overwhelms people.
  No one is brave enough to make it angry,
       so who would be able to stand up against me?

US Postal Service due to issue a stamp commemorating Mother Teresa, a proposal to which Freedom From Religion Foundation is objecting.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation was established in the USA which is a nation that was premised upon the concept of freedom of religious expression.
It seems that from about November to February they calculate their budget and go on a lawsuit filing frenzy so as to claim victim status and beg their adherents for money (much of which they waste on bus ads and billboards)—the are the underdog not under God (a little dyslexia humor).

I have detailed how the New Atheist sorts have, quite brilliantly, absconded from taking on the true dangers of “religious” extremism in the world and instead choose easy targets such as Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, the Pope, the Bishop and Canterbury and now—Mother Teresa. Of course, this is not the first time that she has been in the atheist’s cross hairs as, for example, Christopher Hitchens besmirched her previously.

This time, the issue is the proposed US Postal Service issuing of a stamp commemorating Mother Teresa who is:

Noted for her compassion toward the poor and suffering, Mother Teresa, a diminutive Roman Catholic nun and honorary U.S. citizen, served the sick and destitute of India and the world for nearly 50 years…
Her humility and compassion, as well as her respect for the innate worth and dignity of humankind, inspired people of all ages and backgrounds to work on behalf of the world’s poorest populations.[i]

Well respected worldwide, she successfully urged many of the worlds business and political leaders to give their time and resources to help those in need. President Ronald Reagan presented Mother Teresa with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1985, the same year she began work on behalf of AIDS sufferers in the U.S. and other countries. In 1997, Congress awarded Mother Teresa the Congressional Gold Medal for her “outstanding and enduring contributions through humanitarian and charitable activities.”[ii]

In 1979 AD, she also received the Nobel Peace Prize for her humanitarian work.
Born in 1910 AD, it was at the age of 18 that she, “realized my vocation was towards the poor…From then on, I have never had the least doubt of my decision.”[iii]
While not doubting her decision to do more good for the world in one day than the likes of the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) will do in a lifetime, she did experience bouts of doubts about God. She was a true and honest skeptic who wrestled with doubts about God even whilst helping those whom she believed God had created, those whom the Hindu cast system had cast off.

Note the specific reasons to which the US Postal Service (USPS) appealed in issuing the stamp. This comes into play when considering the utter illogicality behind the FFRF’s objections. FFRF co-founder Annie Laurie Gaylor stated the following about the USPS’s criterions for considering the issuance of stamps as she notes that criterion No. 6 should have been a stumbling block:

…Stamps or stationery items shall not be issued to honor fraternal, political, sectarian, or service/charitable organizations…The organization she ran and was inextricably identified with, Missionaries of Charity, was both sectarian (Roman Catholic) and a service/charitable organization.[iv]

I love how they hide their prejudice behind concerns for the integrity of USPS regulations.
Let us attempt to follow the bounding ball of logic:
1) Criterion No. 6 states that stamps shall not be issued to various organizations.
2) But the organization Mother Teresa ran and was inextricably identified with Roman Catholicism, etc.
3) Therefore, her organization is not being honored on the stamp: Mother Teresa is being honored.
It is really as simple as that: her organization cannot be honored and it is not, she is being honored and thus, the FFRF’s objections are discredited, null and void.

USPS spokesman Roy Betts:

expressed surprise at the protest, given the long list of previous honorees with strong religious backgrounds, including Malcolm X, the former chief spokesman for the Nation of Islam, and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a Baptist minister and co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
“In fact we honored Father Flanagan in 1986 for his humanitarian work. This has nothing to do with religion or faith”…

Mother Teresa is not being honored because of her religion, shes being honored for her work with the poor and her acts of humanitarian relief…Her contribution to the world as a humanitarian speaks for itself and is unprecedented… He said the Mother Teresa stamp, like other stamp subjects, will “stand the test of time, reflect the cultural diversity of our nation and have broad national appeal.”[v]

Now, what does the FFRF do when refuted by troublesome things such logic and facts? They merely tread on:

Gaylor said the atheist group opposed Father Flanagans stamp but not those for King and Malcolm X, because she said they were known for their civil rights activities, not for their religion.
Martin Luther King “just happened to be a minister,” and “Malcolm X was not principally known for being a religious figure,” she said.
“And hes not called Father Malcolm X like Mother Teresa. I mean, even her name is a Roman Catholic honorific…she was doing was to promote religion, and what she wanted to do was baptize people before they die”
Gaylor said the foundations only concern is the “other things that deserve to be commemorated but are not because the people behind it didnt have the power of the Catholic church.”
“Its enormously difficult to get them…and people have huge campaigns, and to me this speaks of the power of the Roman Catholic Church in hierarchy. They want to make her a saint and this is part of the PR machine.[vi]

Martin Luther King “just happened to be a minister” in the same way that Richard Dawkins just happens to be an atheist. “Malcolm X was not “called Father Malcolm X” because he was not a Roman Catholic priest but the one time chief spokesman for the Nation of Islam who later embraced non-Nation of Islam Islam (and who was also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz).
It is all a vast Roman Catholic conspiracy to do what exactly? The Roman Catholic Church put its power behind honoring a Baptist and Muslim?—rage against the PR machine, fight the power and so on. No, no, just this one nun—apparently, they do not wield much power.

Note that the FFRF “is encouraging its supporters to purchase the new stamp honoring the late actress Katharine Hepburn, who was an atheist, instead.”[vii] Hepburn, “told the Ladies’ Home Journal in 1991, ‘Im an atheist, and thats it. I believe theres nothing we can know except that we should be kind to each other and do what we can for other people.’”[viii]
Of course, being kind to each other and doing what we can for other people is a non sequitur from presupposing atheism. But recall that Annie Laurie Gaylor’s objection was that—while Mother Teresa’s organization was not being honored—“The organization she ran and was inextricably identified with” Roman Catholicism, etc. Thus, the objection is that her humanitarian deeds were done though the premise of Roman Catholicism.
Moreover, Gaylor stated, “You cant really separate her being a nun and being a Roman Catholic from everything she did.”[ix] Let us grant this and logically follow it by stating that since Katharine Hepburn premised her humanitarian claims on atheism, you cant really separate her being a humanitarian and being an atheist from everything she did (which is what, exactly?).
Now, Mother Teresa conducted humanitarian work for some eight decades. But the FFRF support a stamp honoring an actress. Why the one over the other? Because Katharine Hepburn was an atheist and so is being supported due to her atheism.

But there is one more objection up the FFRF’s sleeves:

Gaylor said Mother Teresa infused Catholicism into her secular honors — including an “anti-abortion rant” during her Nobel Prize acceptance speech — and that even her humanitarian work was controversial.[x]

Indeed, the FFRF seek to, “use this opportunity to enlighten friends and colleagues about the darker side of Mother Teresas religious activism” which includes the “a disturbing, befogged religious rant”[xi] against abortion which they reiterated thusly:

Heres another objection: Mother Teresa used almost every public occasion, including her acceptance speech for the Nobel prize, to promote Roman Catholic dogma, especially its antiabortion ideology…Even during her Nobel acceptance, the nun delivered a gratuitous tirade against abortion.[xii]

But why is this a problem? It is because the FFRF supports the brutal, dismembering murder of healthy, beautiful, innocent and defenseless human babies. FFRF co-founder Dan Barker stated that “abortion is a blessing” and generally has a very low view of human dignity and worth, particularly with regards to babies in the womb.

Other notables have made relevant comments such as the Pacific Justice Institute’s President Brad Dacus:

Just when you think the atheists and anti-religionists have run out of things to complain about, they attack Mother Teresa, one of the great role models of the last century. We are encouraging anyone who has been inspired by Mother Teresa to join us in writing letters of appreciation to the U.S. Postal Service to counter the ridiculous complaints they are receiving from the FFRF.[xiii]

Bruce Sheiman, an atheist and author who wrote An Atheist Defends Religion (imagine that; an atheist defends religion while Christians condemn it):

said the Freedom from Religion Foundation is being “hypocritical” and really “stepping over the line.”
“Clearly there are a number of things that you can point to and say its religious and a number of things you can point to and say that its areligious…So it really doesnt make sense to protest it.”
He said the Foundations campaign stems from concern that the abundance of humanitarian work done by believers will overshadow that done by atheists.
“Like billboards and bus ads, this is just part of the whole campaign that theyre doing to make non-belief more visible.”[xiv]

Lastly, note that “Hindu leaders have applauded the stamp decision. Rajan Zed, head of the Universal Society for Hinduism, called it an honor to all of India.”[xv]

Overall, the FFRF’s illogical objections are quite obviously a very thinly veiled excuse for expressing prejudice and attempting to gain support and funds.

[i] Diane Macedo, “Atheist Group Blasts Postal Service for Mother Teresa Stamp,” Fox News, January 28, 2010
[ii] Bob Unruh, “Atheists attack Mother Teresa Say shes not worthy of memorial stamp,” World Net Daily, January 25, 2010, © 2010 WorldNetDaily
[iii] Ibid.
[iv] Ibid.
[v] Macedo
[vi] Ibid.
[vii] Ibid.
[viii] Unruh
[ix] Macedo
[x] Ibid.
[xi] Unruh
[xii] Ibid.
[xiii] “Save Mother Teresa Postage Stamp Campaign begins - Atheist Group Assails Mother Teresa Postage Stamp,” Oregon Faith Report, January 28, 2010
[xiv]Macedo
[xv] Oregon Faith Report

It must be refreshing when you can be introduced as “Neuroscientist” and not as “The militant-activist-Buddhist-mystic-atheist.” Such is the nomenclature which Sam Harris has traversed. Yet, one must wonder if a change in label equals a change in substance. The Neural Correlates of Religious and Nonreligious Belief is a study recently conducted by Sam Harris, Jonas T. Kaplan, Ashley Curiel, Susan Y. Bookheimer, Marco Iacoboni and Mark S. Cohen. Before getting to the substance of the study, which I am most certainly not qualified to dissect from a neuroscientific perspective, it seemed to me important to make a point about Sam Harris. In Sam Harris we are dealing with a person who has admitted that he did not get into the field of science in order to perform the ideal task of an unbiased researcher who is prepared to do away with a lifetime’s worth of research and published opinions when it is toppled by contradicting evidence. Rather, we are dealing with someone who holds to an a priori conclusion and has become a scientist in order to, as I will state it, seek to find evidence that will reinforce his conclusions and or place a thin veneer of scientific respectability as a façade around his militant atheistic opinions. We can certainly hope that Kaplan, Curiel, Bookheimer, Iacoboni and Cohen were able to balance Sam Harris’ biased and predetermined goal based research. It may also be note worthy that the study was funded, in part, by The Reason Project of which Sam Harris is the co-founder and CEO. Within the study the The Reason Project is described as a “foundation whose mission includes conducting original scientific research related to human values, cognition, and reasoning.” Note the qualifier “includes.” This is quite accurate as The Reason Project is basically an atheist blog which provides a platform from which to besmirch theism. Apparently, conducting original scientific research related to human values, cognition, and reasoning includes, as a mere example, a page on “Language in The Scripture Project” the icon for which is this expletive implying call out box:

What I believe, though cannot yet prove, is that belief is a content-independent process. Which is to say that beliefs about God—to the degree that they are really believed—are the same as beliefs about numbers, penguins, tofu, or anything else… What I do believe, however, is that the neural processes that govern the final acceptance of a statement as ‘true’ rely on more fundamental, reward-related circuitry in our frontal lobes—probably the same regions that judge the pleasantness of tastes and odors… Once the neurology of belief becomes clear, and it stands revealed as an all-purpose emotion arising in a wide variety of contexts (often without warrant), religious faith will be exposed for what it is: a humble species of terrestrial credulity. We will then have additional, scientific reasons to declare that mere feelings of conviction are not enough when it comes time to talk about the way the world is. The only thing that guarantees that (sufficiently complex) beliefs actually represent the world, are chains of evidence and argument linking them to the world…Understanding belief at the level of the brain may hold the key to new insights into the nature of our minds, to new rules of discourse, and to new frontiers of human cooperation…[1]

If we better understood the workings of the human brain, we would undoubtedly discover lawful connections between our states of consciousness, our modes of conduct, and the various ways we use our attention. If we ever develop such a science, most of our religious texts will be no more useful to mystics than they now are to astronomers.[2]

The Future Of An Illusion Society Without God Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins Of Religious Breaking The Spell: Religion As A Natural Phenomenon Religious Thought And Behaviour As By-Products Of Brain Function Born Believers: How Your Brain Creates God Why We Believe In The Unbelievable Exploring The Natural Foundations Of Religion

The relevance of the brains ventromedial dopaminergic systems to religious experience, belief and behavior is suggested by several lines of evidence…The serotonergic system has also been implicated, as drugs known to modulate it—like… LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, N,N-dimethyltryptamine (“DMT”), and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (“ecstasy”)—seem especially potent drivers of religious/spiritual experience. In addition, 5-HT1A receptor densities have been inversely correlated with high scores on the “spiritual acceptance” subscale of the Temperament and Character Inventory.

enrolled 54 subjects who were (1) between the ages of 18–30, (2) not taking anti-depressants, (3) neurologically healthy, (4) free of obvious psychiatric illness or suicidal ideation, and (5) native speakers of English as their first language…[the study] attempted to balance these groups with respect to 1) general reasoning ability, 2) age, and 3) years of education. We also sought to exclude all subjects who exhibited signs of psychopathology. To this end we assessed subjects general intelligence…Our final study consisted of data acquired from 30 subjects (15 Christians; 15 Nonbelievers; 7 men and 8 women in each group).

We note, however, that the subjects retained in this experiment do not represent the full range of religious commitment found in the general population.

While religious faith remains one of the most significant features of human life, little is known about its relationship to ordinary belief at the level of the brain. Nor is it known whether religious believers and nonbelievers differ in how they evaluate statements of fact… We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure signal changes in the brains of thirty subjects—fifteen committed Christians and fifteen nonbelievers—as they evaluated the truth and falsity of religious and nonreligious propositions. For both groups, and in both categories of stimuli, belief (judgments of “true” vs judgments of “false”) was associated with greater signal in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex… This region showed greater signal whether subjects believed statements about God, the Virgin Birth, etc. or statements about ordinary facts. A comparison of both stimulus categories suggests that religious thinking is more associated with brain regions that govern emotion, self-representation, and cognitive conflict, while thinking about ordinary facts is more reliant upon memory retrieval networks…

Since the 19th century, it has been widely assumed that the spread of industrialized society would spell the end of religion. Marx, Freud, and Weber—along with innumerable anthropologists, sociologists, historians, and psychologists influenced by their work—expected religious belief to wither in the light of modernity. It has not come to pass. Religion remains one of the most prominent features of human life in the 21st century. While most developed societies have grown predominantly secular, with the curious exception of the United States, orthodox religion is in full bloom throughout the developing world. Indeed, humanity seems to becoming proportionally more religious, as the combination of material advancement and secularism is strongly correlated with decreased fertility. When one considers the rise of Islamism throughout the Muslim world, the spread of Pentecostalism throughout Africa, and the anomalous piety of the United States, it becomes clear that religion will have geopolitical consequences well into the 21st century… while religious and nonreligious thinking differentially engage broad regions of the frontal, parietal, and medial temporal lobes—and, hence, appear quite distinct as modes of thought—the difference between belief and disbelief appears to be content-independent…

Our finding of greater signal in VMPFC for belief compared to disbelief was significant in both Christians and nonbelievers for both religious and nonreligious stimuli, supporting a role for this brain region in the acceptance of truth-claims across content domains. A direct comparison of belief minus disbelief in Christians and nonbelievers did not show any significant group differences for nonreligious stimuli. For religious stimuli, there were additional regions of the brain that did differ by group, however these results seem best explained by a common reaction in both groups to statements that violate religious doctrines… The opposite contrast, disbelief minus belief, yielded increased signal in the superior frontal sulcus and the precentral gyrus. The engagement of these areas is not readily explained on the basis of prior work…

While the contrast of belief minus disbelief yielded similar activation patterns for both stimulus categories, a comparison of all religious trials to all nonreligious trials produced a wide range of signal differences throughout the brain… The opposite contrast, nonreligious minus religious statements, produced greater signal in left hemisphere networks, including the hippocampus, the parahippocampal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, temporal pole, and retrosplenial cortex…It is well known that the hippocampus and the parahippocampal gyrus are involved in memory retrieval. The anterior temporal lobe is also engaged by semantic memory tasks, and the retrosplenial cortex displays especially strong, reciprocal connectivity with structures in the medial temporal lobe. Finally, among our religious stimuli, the subset of statements that ran counter to Christian doctrine yielded greater signal for both groups in several brain regions… These regions showed greater signal both when Christians rejected stimuli contrary to their doctrine (e.g. “The Biblical god is a myth”) and when nonbelievers affirmed the truth of those same statements…

religious beliefs and concepts must arise from mental categories and cognitive propensities that predate religion—and these underlying structures might determine the stereotypical form that religious beliefs and practices take. These categories relate to things like intentional agents, animacy, social exchange, moral intuitions, natural hazards, and ways of understanding human misfortune. On Boyers account, people do not accept implausible religious doctrines because they have relaxed their standards of rationality; they relax their standards of rationality because certain doctrines fit their “inference machinery” in such a way as to seem credible.

is aimed at describing neuro-cognitive systems that [a] are part of the normal make-up of human minds as a result of evolution by natural selection…This cognitive framework was developed to account for the recurrent properties of religious concepts and norms in different cultures...Religious concepts and norms can be explained as a by-product of standard cognitive architecture.

“common sense dualists”—that is, we may be constitutionally inclined to see mind as distinct from body and, therefore, will tend to intuit the existence of disembodied minds at work in the world. This could lead us to presume ongoing relationships with dead friends and relatives, to anticipate our own survival of death, and to generally conceive of people as having immaterial souls.

A variety of experiments suggest that children are predisposed to assume both design and intention behind natural events—leaving many psychologists and anthropologists to believe that children, left entirely to their own devices, would invent some conception of God… Because our minds have evolved to detect patterns in the world, we may tend to detect patterns that arent actually there—ranging from faces in the clouds to a divine hand in the workings of Nature…

these data are of greater value when interpreted against related results in the neuroscientific literature. Such a discussion necessarily entails “reverse inference” of a sort often considered problematic in the field of neuroimaging. One cannot reliably infer the presence of a mental state on the basis of brain data alone, unless the brain regions in question are known to be truly selective for a single state of mind. As the brain is an evolved organ, with higher order states emerging from lower order mechanisms, very few of its regions are so selective as to fully justify inferences of this kind. Nevertheless, our results appear to make at least provisional sense of the emotional tone of belief. And whatever larger role our regions of interest play in human cognition and behavior, they appear to respond similarly to putative statements of fact, irrespective of content, in the brains of both religious believers and nonbelievers.

Pierre Jean Georges Cabanis, “The brain secretes thought as the liver secretes bile.” Karl Vogt, “The brain secretes thought as the stomach secretes gastric juice, the liver bile, and the kidneys urine.” Dan Barker, [the human brain was], “haphazardly jury-rigged accidentally randomly put together for survival reasons, for adaptability.”[3] Daniel Dennett refers to our brains as being “stone age.” Christopher Hitchens makes reference to “the mind” as “the only thing that we’ve got that makes us higher primates, the faculty of reason.”[4] Annie Laurie Gaylor, “The only ‘higher power’ we can truly invoke lies in our own minds and our own intelligence.”[5]

was designed to produce high concordance on nonreligious stimuli (e.g., “Eagles really exist”) and high discordance on religious stimuli (e.g., “Angels really exist”). The fact that we found essentially the same signal maps for belief minus disbelief in both groups, on both categories of content, argues strongly for the content-independence of belief and disbelief as cognitive processes. Despite the fact that religious believers and nonbelievers accepted and rejected diametrically opposite statements in half of our experimental trials, the same neural systems were engaged in both groups throughout… [Barbey D.] Kapogiannis et al. also found signal in the insula to be correlated with the rejection of religious statements deemed false…Because Kapogiannis et al. did not include a nonreligious control condition in their experiment, they interpreted the insulas recruitment as a sign that violations of religious doctrine might provoke “aversion, guilt, or fear of loss” in people of faith…

We note that a possible difference between responding to our religious and nonreligious stimuli is that, for both groups, a persons answers could serve to affirm his or her identity: i.e. for every religious trial, Christians were explicitly affirming their religious worldview, while nonbelievers were explicitly denying the truth-claims of religion… Finally, there were several regions that showed greater signal in both groups in response to “blasphemous” statements (i.e. those that ran counter to Christian doctrine). The ventral striatum signal in this contrast suggests that decisions about these stimuli may have been more rewarding for both groups: Nonbelievers may take special pleasure in making assertions that explicitly negate religious doctrine, while Christians may enjoy rejecting such statements as false.

“We seem to be doing the same thing when we accept a proposition about God or the virgin birth as we do about astronomy”… his results “cut against the quite prevalent notion that theres something else entirely going on in the case of religious belief”…The bigger picture, from Harris’s point of view, is that science urgently needs to get involved in the biggest questions of human existence—good, evil, morality, ethics, and what he calls “human well-being”—and not cede these to the religious sphere.

[1] Edge - The World Question Center, “What do you believe is true even though you cannot prove it?” [2] Sam Harris, The First Ten Pages [3] Dan Barker on The Laura Ingraham Show, audio here [4] “The Four Horsemen” video here or transcript here, and my review here [5] Annie Laurie Gaylor, In Defense of “Godlessness” - [Read more]

What follows in a cross-post which appeared on the excellent Scientia et Sapientia blog. Despite the fact that I’ve already linked to this in a previous post, I requested permission to feature in full on this blog, as this article absolutely ‘nailed it’ and is a timely message that needs to be heard: Guest blog [...] - [Read more]

I heartily enjoyed this blog post written by Vincent, hailing from the Orthodox tradition, and rebuffing the myth of a “golden age” of the Church: The Golden Age of the Church – Franciscan Mafia There wasn’t one. This is a myth and it is something often curiously thrown in the face of Orthodox Christians as [...] - [Read more]

I have been contemplating issues Glenn Beck related as of late, particularly with regards to his recent Washington DC gathering.
Gregg, of the blog Gospel-Driven Disciples, recently posted Glenn Beck: The Usurping of the Christian Agenda and this seemed a good opportunity to play off of his musing, some of which follows:

Church – What is wrong with this picture?

“A Mormon television star stands in front of the Lincoln Memorial and calls American Christians to revival. He assembles some evangelical celebrities to give testimonies, and then preaches a God and country revivalism that leaves the evangelicals cheering that they’ve heard the gospel, right there in the nation’s capital. The news media pronounces him the new leader of America’s Christian conservative movement, and a flock of America’s Christian conservatives have no problem with that.”
--Russell Moore

Just how naive is evangelical Christianity today? In a great show of patriotic conservatism and the spirit of ecumenism “Christianity” and the "evangelical church" demonstrated its depth of nativity and foolishness this past weekend in Washington D. C.

I am not going to question Glenn Beck or the conservative “right’s” motives or patriotism. Beck and anyone else for that matter has the right to stand for their political party and agenda. My problem is not with Beck but with the so called “Christian” right…

as of yet, I have not read nor heard of an explanation that would biblically convince me that Beck is a Christian. He is a baptized Mormon in good standing with the theological position of that organization…

It is my prayer that men like Glenn Beck become true believers.

I wanted to focus on all of the buzz about Mormonism (aka The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) and Christianity—the correlation or disparity. The buzz is actually 180 years old and raises its head periodically such as when Mitt Romney ran for president.
For some the issue is as simple as, “Well, Mormons use the words and believe in ‘God’ and ‘Jesus’ and read the Bible so obviously they are Christians.”
For others, the more discerning, the issue is, “Well, Mormons use the words and believe in ‘God’ and ‘Jesus’ and read the Bible but what do they mean when they say ‘God’ and ‘Jesus’? How do they define their terms? When they read the Bible what do they take it to mean? (this is not merely about interpretation, mind you), etc.”

Glenn Beck has stated that Tim LaHaye, of Left Behind fame, attempted to preach the gospel to him at which time Beck offered LaHaye his witness. Essentially, that once he accepted Jesus through Mormonism his life got turned around, no more drunkenness, etc. That was, essentially, the end of the discussion: he must really have something there. Well, what he had was a dose of Jesus. What he needs to do now is to develop a close relationship with the one true Jesus of history and the Bible and compare Mormon doctrines to the Bible’s.
Otherwise, it is reminiscent, to some extent, of when God sent Jeremiah to preach to Shiloh in order to instruct them to cease worshipping the Queen of Heaven. What was their response?

We will not listen to the message you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD!
We will certainly do everything we said we would:
We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and will pour out drink offerings to her just as we and our fathers, our kings and our officials did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and were well off and suffered no harm.

In other words; things go well when we worship that which God called an abominable idol and so we will not stop. Glenn Beck has a similar outlook; things go well when he worships that which God called an abominable idol and so he does not stop.
See Roman Catholic Maryology: Mary in Roman Catholicism, part 14 - Queen of Heaven? for details.

But just what abominable idol does Glenn Beck worship? After all he believes in and uses the words “God” and “Jesus,” reads the Bible and calls himself a Christians.

Let us succinctly consider three issues: “Christian,” “God” and “Bible”:

Christians:
The reason that Mormons want to be known as “Christians” is in order to fit in to the mainstream. They could be said to either be claiming to Christians with only some slight doctrinal differences or, perhaps more likely, claiming to be the real true Christians.
This is because during his first vision, his initial revelation, Joseph Smith claimed the following—although there are different accounts of his first vision this one is taken from Pearl of Great Price - Joseph Smith - History - 2:18-20:

My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join.
No sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able to speak, than I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right-and which I should join.
I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: “they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.” He again forbade me to join with any of them.

Thus, according to Joseph Smith, God declared that the Christian sects were all wrong, all their creeds abominations and all their professors corrupt.
Some Mormon apologists claim that “all” does not mean “all” of Christianity but only “all” sects that were available to Joseph Smith. Granting this we must note that these Christian sects held to good old fashioned traditional biblical Christian doctrines—on the main issues, the essentials. Moreover, if there was any uncorrupted Christianity anywhere on Earth, God could certainly have revealed that to Joseph Smith rather than having him start his own church which would claim to have another testament of Jesus Christ which, as it turns out, was . a testament of another Jesus Christ.
In any regard, for nearly two centuries Mormons sought to differentiate themselves from the corrupt sects. Yet, now they seek unity with those corrupt sects.
See my essay Mormonism is an Offensive Religion for an elucidation of why they are offensive: meaning that they, from the get go, have been on the offence against Christianity.

God:
Glenn Beck made an interesting remark about his recent gathering; that it was about the one God. Firstly, this leaves out various American non-monotheists. Ironically, this would include Mormons. I cannot tell whether Glenn Beck simply does not know Mormon theology very well, if he is playing to the mainstream who does not know Mormon theology very well or what have you. What I do know is that Mormonism is not monotheistic.
Mormonism is often described as polytheistic but it may be more accurate to describe them as henotheistic, basically; belief in many gods but that only one of them should be worshipped.
Actually, the Bible is monotheistic, the Book of Mormon is monotheistic, and other Mormon scriptures are monotheistic. I pointed this out to a Mormon missionary and he agreed. I then asked why, since this is the case, is Mormonism now henotheistic. His answer was all too simple: since Mormon prophets have since revealed that there are many gods, so be it.
This is what happens when the biblical parameters are breached: anything goes.
In my post Jeff Durbin debates two Mormon missionaries you can hear Jeff Durbin ask what the context is of a text that is up for discussion. One Mormon asks, “Does it matter?” and continued, whilst pounding on the desk, with “Joseph Smith was prophet” and later, “the most important thing…I don’t need to know everything in the Bible…most important thing to know is truth; Joseph Smith is a prophet of God.”
Mormon theology asserts that created beings, such as humans, can become gods who copulate and give birth to created beings who can become gods who copulate and give birth to created beings who can become gods, etc. Thus, there is no knowing how many gods there are.

Bible:
Mormons affirms that the Bible is the word of God, period! Period? Well, not quite.
Mormon article of faith number eighth states “We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.”
How do we know when the Bible has been accurately translated? Textual criticism, manuscript evidence, study of ancient languages, etc.? No. The issue is very simple, given the Mormon worldview: if it deviates from Mormon doctrine then it is considered not to be translated correctly with absolutely no regard to any other considerations.
Also, while they “believe the Bible to be the word of God” and “the Book of Mormon to be the word of God” Joseph Smith stated this about the Book of Mormon, “A man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts than by any other book.”

Certainly much, much more could be said of these and various other theological issues. Glenn Beck may be of interest to those whose political leanings are conservative, he may be a good source for getting to know a bit about history and the founding fathers yet, when it comes to theology Christians are not to let themselves be taken in by generic references to “God.”

For more information about Mormon theology, the Book of Mormon and much more please see my section on Mormonism as well as the Mormonism section of my Links page

The UK Guardian’s health editor, Sarah Boseley, wrote the following article with regards to the fact that worldviews has consequences. In this case, literal life and death consequences.

Terminally-ill patients would be well advised to find out the religious beliefs of their doctor, according to research showing the effect of faith on a doctors willingness to make decisions that could hasten death.

^{Doctors who are atheist or agnostic are twice as likely to take decisions that might shorten the life of somebody who is terminally ill as doctors who are deeply religious} – and doctors with strong religious convictions are less likely even to discuss such decisions with the patient, according to Professor Clive Seale, from the centre for health sciences at Barts and the London school of medicine and dentistry.

"If I were a patient facing end of life care, I would want to know what my doctors views were on religious matters – whether they are non-religious or religious and whether the doctor felt that would influence them in the kinds of decisions they were looking at," said Seale.
A patient who wanted their life prolonged at all costs in the event of a terminal illness, or did not want it prolonged, should make sure they had a doctor who was in sympathy with this.

Doctors are influenced by their beliefs, just as other people are, said Seale.
"^{It is easy for clinicians to present themselves as neutral appliers of science, but values do come into it}," he said. That is accepted in abortion care, but the issue has not yet been widely discussed in the care of the dying. "I had a GP who was powerfully committed to not legalising euthanasia," said Seale. He has now changed his GP.

Seales study, published online today in the Journal of Medical Ethics, was based on a survey of doctors in specialisms likely to care for people at the end of life, such as neurology, elderly and palliative care but also general practice. More than 8,500 doctors were contacted and almost 4,000 responded.
The doctors were asked about the care of their last patient who died, if relevant – including whether they had provided continuous deep sedation until death and whether they had discussed decisions judged likely to shorten life with the patient.
They were also asked their religious beliefs, ethnicity, and their views on assisted dying/euthanasia. More than 3,000 described the death of a patient.

Specialists in the care of the elderly were somewhat more likely to be Hindu or Muslim, while palliative care [any form of medical care or treatment that concentrates on reducing the severity of pain, symptoms and stress of serious illness] doctors were somewhat more likely than other doctors to be Christian, white, and agree that they were "religious."
The chances of a doctor making an ethically controversial decision expected or partly intended to end life was largely unrelated to the doctors ethnicity, but was strongly related to his or her specialisation. Specialised doctors in hospitals were almost 10 times as likely to report this than palliative care specialists.

But regardless of their speciality, doctors who described themselves as "extremely" or "very non-religious" were almost twice as likely to report having taken these kinds of decisions as those with a religious belief.
The most religious doctors were significantly less likely than other doctors to have discussed options at the end of life with their patient.1

In my parsed essay Scientific Cenobites I provided a wealth of evidence as to the nature of the manner in which the sciences are practiced. While the ideal as to how they are practiced was intelligently designed to ensure unbiased research and conclusions some take it upon themselves to do their science based on worldviews, professional rivalries, schools of thought, adherence to preferred theories, etc., etc., etc.

1. 1. Sarah Boseley, “Atheist doctors more likely to hasten death - Study finds medics faith affects care of terminally ill, as hospital clinicians admit ethically controversial decisions,” The Guardian, 26 August 2010, copyright Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

Various Rabbis and Jewish Scholars (continued):
Jewish scholar Herz Homberg (1749-1841 AD),

“According to the opinion of Rashi and Ibn Ezra, it relates to Israel at the end of their captivity. But if so, what can be the meaning of the passage, ‘He was wounded for our transgressions’? Who was wounded? Who are the transgressors? Who carried out the sickness and bare the pain? The fact is that it refers to the King Messiah.”

“The fact is that it refers to the King Messiah, who will come in the latter days, when it will be the Lord’s good pleasure to redeem Israel from among the different nations of the earth…and even the Israelites themselves will only regard him as ‘one of the vain fellows’, believing none of the announcements which will be made by him in God’s name, but being contumacious against him, and averring that all the reproaches and persecutions which fall to his lot are sent from heaven, for that he is ‘smitten of God’ for his own sin.
For they will not at first perceive that whatever he underwent was in consequence of their own transgression, the Lord having chosen him to be a trespass-offering. Like the scapegoat which bore all the iniquities of the house of Israel. Being, however, himself aware that through his pains and revilings the promised redemption will eventually come at the appointed time, he will endure with a willing soul, neither complaining nor opening his mouth in the siege and distress wherewith the enemies of Israel will oppress him (as is pointed out from the passage here in the Haggadah.”1

The Karaite (Quarite) Yefeth ben Ali (10th c. AD),

“Others of them think the subject of it to be David and the Messiah, saying all the expressions of contempt, such as ‘many were desolated at thee,’ refer to the seed of David who are in exile; and all the glorious things, such as, ‘behold my servant will be prosperous’ and ‘so shall he sprinkle,’ refer to the Messiah.

As to myself, I am inclined, with Benjamin of Nehawend, to regard it as alluding to the Messiah, and as opening with a description of his condition in exile, from the time of his birth to his accession to the throne: for the prophet begins by speaking of his being seated in a position of great honour, and then goes back to relate all that will happen to him during the captivity. He thus gives us to understand two things:

In the first instance, that the Messiah will only reach his highest degree of honour after long and severe trials; and secondly, that these trials will be sent upon him as a kind of sign, so that, if he finds himself under the yoke of misfortunes whilst remaining pure in his actions, he may know that he is the desired one…

The expression ‘my servant’ is applied to the Messiah as it is applied to his ancestor in the verse, ‘I have sworn to David my servant’ (Ps. 84:4)…By the words ‘surely he hath carried our sicknesses,’ they mean that the pains and sicknesses which he fell into were merited by them, but that he bore them instead: the next words ‘yet we did esteem him,’ etc., intimate that they thought him afflicted by God for his own sins, as they distinctly say, ‘smitten of God and afflicted’…

Thus from the words ‘he was wounded for our transgressions’, we learn two things: 1) that Israel had committed many sins and transgressions, for which they deserved the indignation of God; 2) that by the Messiah bearing them they would be delivered from the wrath which rested upon them, and be able to endure it, as it is said, ‘And by associating with him we are healed.’ God will indeed afflict the Messiah with longer and severer sicknesses than Ezekiel…

And here I think it necessary to pause for a few moments, in order to explain why God caused these sicknesses to attach themselves to the Messiah for the sake of Israel…The nation deserved from God greater punishment than that which actually came upon them, but not being strong enough to bear it…

God appoints his servant to carry their sins, and by doing so lighten their punishment in order that Israel might not be completely exterminated. ‘And the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all.’ The prophet does not by avon mean iniquity, but punishment for iniquity, as in the passage, ‘Be sure your sin will find you out’ (Num. 32:23).”2

Jacob Mann,

“The addition of 53.4-5 [to the cycle of synagogue readings] was evidently of a Messianic purport by reason of the theory of a suffering Messiah. The earlier part of [the Haftarah] (52.7ff.) dealt with the redemption of Israel, and in this connection the tribulations of the Messiah were briefly alluded to by the recital of the above 2 verses.”3

1. 1. From the commentary of great Jewish scholar Herz Homberg, from his exposition of the entire Old Testament called Koren (1818 AD)
2. 2. The Karaite (Quarite) Yefeth ben Ali (10th c.) a commentary of Saadyah’s, according to the MS., No. 569
3. 3. Jacob Mann, The Bible as Read and Preached in the Old Synagogue (New York: KTAV, 1940 reprinted 1971), p. 298

                   

  Offer sacrifices in the right spirit,
      and trust the Lord.

  Many people say, “Who will show us better times?”
      Let your face smile on us, Lord.
  You have given me greater joy
      than those who have abundant harvests of grain and new wine.
  In peace I will lie down and sleep,
      for you alone, O Lord, will keep me safe. ---Psalm 4:5-8

Exclusive to m-briomusic.com is Revelation tvs One to One Show. Hosted by Michael Owusu, Episode 8 features an interview with... - [Read more]

This Weeks BOTW is Israel Houghton. Israel is someone we first saw as a musician over 10 years ago on... - [Read more]

On my way home from work, the sky was threatening.

It was also magnificent.

Watching the changes in the clouds as I traveled, I convinced myself to actually pull off the road and take some photographs.

Its considerably hard for me to stop looking at the sky when conditions present themselves in such a powerful way.

For me, it is a display of Gods power.

A display of His awesome control over our surroundings.

My conclusion is that each/any/every/all materialistic/atheistic/naturalistic moral/ethical concepts are immoral/unethical. There, is that enough synonyms? Just want to make sure I cover my bases.

How and why?

Because no materialistic/atheistic/naturalistic moral/ethical concepts provide justice and are therefore, themselves, unjust and are therefore, themselves, immoral/unethical.

But how can this be considering that many judicial systems in the here and now do, indeed, mete out justice?

Consider someone like Adolf Hitler: he enjoyed his power, he had hundreds of thousands of adoring adherents, he did as he pleased, when he pleased, to whom he pleased, and in the end—when he decided it was the end—he took his own life and then…then nothing. No judgment, no accountability no justice; only the sort of perfect peace of annihilation. Simply stated, he enjoyed his life, deeds and power and got away with slaughtering millions.

Now, consider someone more like you, like me: out of all of the very many dirty, rotten, stinking, illegal, immoral/unethical things I have done in my life I have only been called into account for a stunning minority of those doings. Surely we are dealing with 99.9% “got away with it” versus a negligible percentage of things for which we have been called to account, in whatever way.

Granted; two of atheism’s most popular and appealing consoling delusion are 1) the consoling delusion of lack of ultimate accountability and 2) the consoling delusion of absolute autonomy.
Why do you think that atheists are constantly going on and on about the fallacious nature of Judeo-Christian morality/ethics? They do not want it to be true, do not want to be held accountable and attempt to get others to agree with them as sinful rebellion loves company.
And yet, rejecting Judeo-Christian morality/ethics gets them to want to build materialistic/atheistic/naturalistic morality/ethics on the (so they think) discredited premise of Judeo-Christian morality/ethics (something for which they are nailed by Friedrich Nietzsche). Yet, what they end up building is unjust, immoral/unethical concepts.

In a chapter of his book Orthodoxy entitled “The Suicide of Thought” G. K. Chesterton noted:

But the new rebel is a Sceptic, and will not entirely trust anything…And the fact that he doubts everything really gets in his way when he wants to denounce anything. For all denunciation implies a moral doctrine of some kind; and the modern revolutionist doubts not only the institution he denounces, but the doctrine by which he denounces it…He curses the Sultan because Christian girls lose their virginity, and then curses Mrs. Grundy because they keep it…In his book on politics he attacks men for trampling on morality; in his book on ethics he attacks morality for trampling on men [find the full quote and its elucidation here]

Now, justice is one issue: Mother Theresa and Adolf Hitler end up the same way on the atheist view—worm food.
The other issue is one beyond anything that atheist could ever conceive: grace.

The concept of grace includes justice. We have sinned, we are guilty, we are accountable. Yet, Jesus has offered to take the accountability from us and upon Himself. Consider the disparity in the following video clip as both the atheist (my friend Michael) and the Christian (me) offer answers to a question about why would someone give their lives for someone else:

His answer is nonsensical to me and my answer is inconceivable to him. FYI: the entire debate can be viewed at this link.

So, you can make your choice: unjust, immoral/unethical materialism/atheism/naturalism or graceful Jesus.

No wonder Sigmund Freud was asked what a cigar means. Considering that he appeared to tie all human behavior to sexuality (desires for the mother and aggression against the father and such) and considering that he was always chomping on a cigar, perhaps wanting to escape his own phallic obsession, he famously responded, “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.”

The New Atheists such as Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, et al appear to suffer from a sex crazed obsession. No, I am not addressing their personal libidos. I am addressing the fact that they are obsessed with the idea that God is obsessed with sex. They find it impossible to believe that an eternal, omnipotent, omnipresent God would have nothing better to do than being concerned with the sexual activities of individual human beings living in the backwaters of a tiny corner of the universe.

As Michael Shermer stated it during his debate with Dinesh DSouza (On God, Religion, Morality),

…the creator of the universe’s biggest concern is what consenting adults are doing with their sex organs in the privacy of their bedrooms.

In his debate with Alister McGrath, which was entitled Poison or Cure? Religious Belief in the Modern World, Christopher Hitchens stated,

every religion thats ever been is distinguished principally by the idea that we should be disgusted by our own sexuality. Name me a religion that does not play upon that fact.

I will be glad to name two: Judaism and Christianity when they are biblically based. Moreover, Tantric Hinduism is, shall we say, the extreme opposite of disgusted by our own sexuality.

Yet, being aware that Christopher Hitchens possesses a rare gift (or curse) for concocting tightly wound combinations of a great number of confused and non-related issues with phantasmagoric results, one can only wonder what he is actually stating or asking.

For instance, what does he mean by “our own sexuality”? If he means do what thou wilt sexually then religion or not, sexuality must be restricted to a certain degree—this is self evident.

The Judeo-Christian scripture restricts damaging sexuality but honors and glorifies normative sexuality. God did, after all, invent sex.

One can only wonder which, if any, sexual acts Christopher Hitchens opposes. Moreover, I would imagine that he has fallen for a very common misconception which is to confuse biblical teaching in and of themselves with what occurred later in history when these were comingled in the western church with Greek philosophy and or Gnosticism. These held to body / spirit distinctions to the point of declaring the body unclean as opposed to the spirit (you may want to read Some Gnosis of Gnosticism). If this is the case, then when he states “religion” holds that we should be disgusted by our own sexuality, he may have a point if he is referring to “religion” as a manmade ritualistic hierarchical authority.
The Bible is very level headed about sex in the real world and oft describes marital sexual bliss. For example, the entirety of Song of Solomon is, shall we say, “Hot!”

Proverbs 5:18-19 states,

rejoice with the wife of your youth. As a loving deer and a graceful doe, let her breasts satisfy you at all times; and always be enraptured with her love.

1st Corinthians 7:3-5 seeks to encourage both husband and wife to be sexually fulfilled with each other,

Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband…Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again.

As I pointed out in Ecce Homo’s Commandments, one of Richard Dawkins’ “new ten commandments” (of which there are fifteen) reads as follows,

Enjoy your own sex life (so long as it damages nobody else) and leave others to enjoy theirs in private whatever their inclinations, which are none of your business.

Certainly, this is an unfounded assertion. In that essay I commented on the issue of what “damages” may mean.

Richard Dawkins’ statement is a precise and succinct version of many people’s concept, “I’ll do my thing and you do yours. Don’t bother me about mine and I won’t bother you about yours,” or, as they say in common parlance, “It’s all good!” This sentiment is very appealing in that it encourages us to not really bother with the whole sensitive and complex issue of sexuality. It is very liberating and is viewed as tolerant (except that that it makes you intolerant when you do not tolerate the intolerant).

However, this sentiment is simplistic, inadequately generalized and morally bankrupt. In short, this sentiment is far too narrow and shallow to be the least bit useful in the real world of sexuality in—and this is the key concept that I will be addressing—all of its forms. It is an invitation to cease from making very difficult and important decisions.

Even if we would concede that God is obsessed with sex, or with people’s sexuality, we ought to note that God invented sex. The sentiment also seems to ignore the fact that sex is very, very important. Sex affects the lives of virtually every single human being who has ever lived and has done so in very, very many ways. Sex is not at all unimportant enough to ignore as an issue since sex is greater than the individual. It is more important than mere enjoyment. It is also about more than procreation, which Richard Dawkins claims is the only Darwinian reason for sex.[2]

God would be neglectful if He did not address sexuality in its many, many forms from procreation and enjoyment to abuse.

We must take careful note that many New Atheists have a fascinating way of conveniently narrowing arguments so as to facilitate concocting self-serving conclusion. However, once they reach their conclusion we realize that they have not dealt with the arguments as they would be readily discussed and identifiable by the hoi polloi. Rather, they tend to offer a simplistic caricature of what is, in reality, often a complex multifaceted issue.

Consider the simplistic concept as set forth above: enjoy your sex life.

This certainly is easy to understand and practice, in fact, far too easy. Why should God be concerned with scrutinizing sexuality? Because this simplicity does not take into consideration that sexuality deals with the following issues, and surely many more:

Adultery
Abuse
Abortion
Adoption
Abandonment of children
Bestiality
Children being forced to live out of a suitcase, shuffled between un-cohabitating parents
Consent
Control
Federally funded STD research
Federally funded welfare programs (such as for single parents and abandoned children)
Healthy, happy families
Incest
Intimacy issues
Prostitution
Forced prostitution
Rape
Sexually transmitted diseases
Single parents
Teen pregnancy
Pedophilia
Psychological problems

Even if someone such as Richard Dawkins attempts to broad-brush many of these issues as being done away with by the qualifier “damages” it still leads to many unanswered questions. Does an animal consent to bestiality? Did a baby in the womb consent to the sexual act that conceived it? How then was the sexual act a private matter between two consenting adults? Is tax money forced out of your wallet in order to fund research for STDs wrought by the irresponsible sexual activities or others? How then was the sexual act a private matter between two consenting adults? Etc., etc., etc.

Yet, most importantly the point that I seek to make is that the reason that God is concerned about sex appears to be that the above mentioned and many other issues are attached to it. It is not enough to simply assert that God, and by extension “religious” people, ought not to be concerned about it. It is one thing to completely ignore it, another thing to kick people’s bedroom doors down and quite another still to face the issue full on.

The New Atheist movement is neglectful in this realm, God is not.

If God’s will was followed none of the problem associated with sexuality would exists.
If the New Atheist’s will was followed we would have—well, we would have precisely what we have now.

Moreover, it is invalid to argue that God’s will is irrelevant since some people will not follow it because God’s will takes that into consideration and because the deeper issue is: for what shall we strive?

Striving for the New Atheism is going to get us more of the same and worse. Striving for God’s will can repair and prevent much of the damage that is done by human abuse of God’s gift of freewill and sexuality.

[1] Giles Fraser, “Face to faith - Secularists who dismiss Christianity as the choice of the stupid should turn their critical gaze a little closer to home,” The Guardian, Sat. Oct. 22, 2005
[2] Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2006), p. 221

Krishna Consciousness / Hare Krishna:
“A preacher of God consciousness is a friend to all living beings. Lord Jesus Christ exemplified this by teaching, ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ But the Christians like to misinterpret this instruction. They think the animals have no soul, and therefore they think they can freely kill billions of innocent animals in the slaughterhouses. So although there are many persons who profess to be Christians, it would be very difficult to find one who strictly follows the instructions of Lord Jesus Christ…Christ can take the sufferings for the previous sins of his devotees…
Similarly, when you commit sinful activities, you must suffer—not Jesus Christ. This is God’s law…He wanted to deliver God consciousness…Of course, the message that Christ preached was just according to his particular time, place, and country, and just suited for a particular group of people…He is our guru. He is preaching God consciousness, so he is our spiritual master…
Actually, anyone who is preaching God’s glories must be accepted as a guru. Jesus Christ is one such great personality…Christ comes from the Greek word Christos, and Christos is the Greek version of the word Krsna…
So when we address God as ‘Christ,’ ‘Krsta,’ or ‘Krsna,’ we indicate the same all-attractive Supreme Personality of Godhead. When Jesus said, ‘Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name,’ that name of God was Krsta or Krsna. ‘Christ’ is simply another way of saying ‘Krsta,’ and ‘Krsta’ is another way of pronouncing Krsna. Therefore, the Christian clergymen should cooperate with the Krsna consciousness movement. They should chant the name Christ or Christos and should stop condoning the slaughter of animals. This is not some philosophy that I have fabricated; it is taught in the Bible. If the Christians follow these principles, the world situation will improve. If they simply stop killing animals and chant the holy name of Christ, everything will be perfect. The Bible also demands this. So the Christians should cooperate with us and chant. Actually, it doesnt matter—Krsna or Christ—the name is the same. The main point is to chant the name of God. The easiest way is to chant the maha-mantra: Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.”1

[I wrote a response to this at this link]

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi - Transcendental Meditation:
“Be still and know that you are God.”2
“Our goal is to create Heaven on Earth, and we are taking practical steps to accomplish it.”3

Paramahansa Yogananda - Self-Realization Fellowship:
“In the great saints we see combined the ideal masculine and feminine qualities. Jesus was like that; so were all the masters…
[God] manifests Himself in whatever way He pleases. He appears before His saints in the form each of them holds dear: a Christian sees Christ, a Hindu beholds Krishna or the Divine Mother, and so on. Devotees whose worship takes an impersonal turn become conscious of the Lord as an infinite Light or as the wondrous sound of Aum, the primal Word, the Holy Ghost…
Krishna, like Christ, is a title signifying the spiritual magnitude of the avatar—his oneness with God…
Christ center: The center of concentration and will in the body, at the point between the eyebrows. Seat of Christ Consciousness and of the spiritual eye…
Christ Consciousness: ‘Christ” or ‘Christ Consciousness’ is the projected consciousness of God immanent in all creation. In Christian scripture it is called the ‘only begotten son,’ the only pure reflection of God the Father; in Hindu scripture it is called Kutastha Chaitanya, the cosmic intelligence of spirit everywhere present in creation. It is the universal consciousness, oneness with God, manifested by Jesus, Krishna and other avatars. Great saints and yogis know it as the state of samadhi meditation wherein their consciousness has become identified with the intelligence in every particle of creation; they feel the entire universe as their own body.”4

Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh:
[Bhagwan Shree means Sir God]
“When you call Jesus, really you have called me. When you call me, really you have called Jesus.” 5

Baba Ram Dass - Hanuman Foundation / Lama Foundation:
“Avatar:—(lit. to come from without) an incarnation of the Supreme Lord in human form, e.g., Christ, Krishna, Rama, Zoroaster, Buddha.”6

Daheshism:
“Jesus Christ is rejected as God Almighty. The underlying essence of all religions is the same. All of God’s Prophets (Jesus Christ, Moses, Mohammed, Gandhi, Buddha, Dahesh, and others) are accepted.”7

Krishnamurti - The Theosophical Society:
Krishnamurti stated “that neither Buddha nor Christ had claimed divinity or wished to found a religion; it was their followers who had done so after they were dead.”
Asked, “Are you the Christ?” Krishnamurti answered, “If I say I am the Christ, you will create another authority. If I say I am not, you will also create another authority.”
Krishnamurti said, “A reporter asked me if I was the Christ and I said, yes, in the true sense but not in the traditional, accepted sense of the word.”
The Theosophical Society taught, “Lord Maitreya, the World Teacher—the Christ in the West, the Bodhisattva in the East…The Lord Maitreya, they maintain, had twice taken possession of a human body in order to bring to the world a new teaching at a period of dire need—first that of Sri Krishna in the fourth century B.C. and then that of Jesus. The time would soon ripen when the Lord Maitreya would once again take possession of a human vehicle and give a new religion to the world.”
Krishnamurti “explained what he meant by ‘the World Teacher’: I hold that there is an eternal Life which is the Source and the Goal, the beginning and the end and yet it is without end or beginning. In that Life alone is there fulfillment. And anyone who fulfills that Life has the key to the Truth without limitation. That Life is for all. Into that Life the Buddha, the Christ entered. From my point of view, I have attained, I have entered into that Life. That Life has no form as Truth has no form, no limitation. And to that Life everyone must return.” 8

ECKANKAR:
“A very new member of ECK…did the Spiritual Exercises of ECK every day during her first two months of studying the ECK discourses. These are monthly lessons in the spiritual works that the Mahanta, the Living ECK Master usually sends to ECKists for the expansion of consciousness…
The Light of God filled her Spiritual Eye, and a few notes of music (the Sound of God) followed. Then came the sound of rushing air or wind. She was moving in her true spiritual form, the Soul body. But suddenly doubt and fear filled her heart. A former Pentecostal, she immediately called out the name of Jesus. Things started to go in reverse. Where once she had moved forward, she was now traveling backward in the spiritual worlds…
[she] told herself that she would put her complete faith and trust in the Mahanta. Again she moved forward. The lesson gained from this Soul Travel experience was that if she placed her trust in anyone other than the Mahanta, she would indeed regress instead of moving forward spiritually.” 9

“Call Him anything you like, Love, the Christ Consciousness, the Nazarene, the Logos, the Bread of Life, but it makes no difference. He is anything that you can think of and more too. However, do not put Him in a Special category, for ALL Saviors and prophets who came to earth to help mankind did their part and passed on the glory of the heavenly kingdom.”10

Elizabeth Clare Prophet - Church Universal And Triumphant:
“Saint Germain, Kuthumi, El Morya, Afra, Mother Mary, Saint Teresa of Avila, Archangel Michael, Moses, Godfre, Lao Tzu, Confucius, Kuan Yin and Jesus…These immortal spiritual beings are known as ascended masters. They won their eternal freedom, the ascension, by embracing the path of love, cultivating their innate divinity, mastering their karma and serving others. They walked the earth as great mystics and were innovators in religion, government, science, art, education and other fields. We knew them in past lifetimes as our friends, family, co-workers and leaders.”11

“Jesus gave a mantra to his disciples when he pronounced the fiat ‘I AM the resurrection and the life.’ This was a formula of the Word given to him by his guru, Lord Maitreya, who holds the focus of the Cosmic Christ. By repeating it, you realize the resurrection and the life of the God flame within you. By this mantra and other sacred formulas of the law, Jesus proved the victory of life over death. He expected his disciples to do likewise. To assist Jesus and the masters of the East in the training of their disciples, the hierarchy of ascended masters who comprise the Great White Brotherhood have set forth their mantras for western chelas on the path of the Christ and the Buddha…Those who pronounce them with devotion to the fiery blueprint of creation merge with the Electronic Presence of the I AM THAT I AM.”12

“Jesus-the Son of God. The Light, the Son, is also known as the Word and the Universal Christ. The Universal Christ is individualized for each one of us as our Higher Self. You can think of your Higher Self as your Inner Christ. Your Higher Self represents your potential to realize God and to become one with him. As the apostle Paul wrote of Jesus, ‘in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.’ But there is not one incarnation of Christ. Incarnating the Christ is in reality the goal of the mystics of every religion, whether or not they express it in these terms; for all mystics seek the direct experience of and union with their Higher Self. Most of us cannot yet say that we are ‘the Son of God,’ with an uppercase S. But we can say we are sons and daughters of God, with a lowercase s and d, who are in the process of fully developing our divine potential. The term Son of God is therefore a title that all can earn by merit. None can lay claim to this title on the grounds that he is a born Jew or a reborn Christian. Sonship is not automatic, for it is written: ‘God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him.’

Jesus - the Avatar of the Piscean Age. While there are other Sons of God in heaven, we can all claim a special relationship to Jesus Christ because he was and is the archetypal Christ, or avatar, for the 2,150-year period known as the age of Pisces…
The age of Aries brought the awareness of God as Father, as Lawgiver…
The Piscean age brought the awareness of God as the Son and was marked by the coming of Jesus Christ as the representative of the Son…
Today we are entering a new age. It is the age of Aquarius. This age will be marked by a universal awareness of the Holy Spirit and the Divine Mother…
Out of all the Sons of heaven, God chose Jesus to incarnate on earth to be the avatar of the Piscean age. In this role, Jesus has borne the weight of the sins, or negative karma, of the world for the past 2,150 years, both prior to and after his birth. He has shielded us from the full consequences of our misdeeds. Nevertheless, we are still responsible to atone for that sin, that karma…
By taking upon himself the burden of our sin, Jesus bore the sins of the world so that we could come of age spiritually and bear our own burdens. In effect, he ‘pardoned’ our sin for the duration of the Piscean age. But his pardon did not cancel the debt: it only postponed our payment of it…
Thus Paul taught that ultimately ‘every man shall bear his own burden.’ He warned, ‘Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.’ Paul also taught that each of us must work out our own salvation in fear of the LORD and with humility.

Jesus - the Exemplar of Christhood…He came to demonstrate how to achieve union with the Higher Self so that we too would know how to become one with the Christ and realize our own Christhood after his example. In the Book of John, Jesus promises at the Last Supper: ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me [the Christ], the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father.’ Here it is apparent that Jesus intends each of us to do the same works he did and to walk our own path of personal Christhood. Although this is not the portrait of Jesus that orthodox Christians have chosen to paint, there is plenty of evidence to support it. The Book of Matthew records that Jesus urged us to strive for perfection. ‘Be ye therefore perfect,’ Jesus said, ‘even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.’ Paul taught the Galatians, ‘I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you....
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.’ Likewise Paul wrote to the Corinthians, ‘We have the mind of Christ,’ and to the Philippians, ‘Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.’…
The Gnostics claimed to possess an advanced teaching that had been secretly handed down to them from Jesus and his close circle of disciples…Because the teachings of the Gnostics threatened the unity of the growing orthodox Church, Church leaders banned, suppressed and almost totally destroyed Gnostic scriptures. The few Gnostic texts that have survived teach that a true disciple imitates his teacher in order to become equal to him or even surpass him. An early collection of wisdom sayings found at Nag Hammadi, called the Sentences of Sextus, instructs: ‘A good man is the good work of God…
A man who is worthy of God, he is God among men, and he is the son of God.’ In the Apocryphon (Secret Book) of James, Jesus says, ‘Verily I say unto you, no one will ever enter the kingdom of heaven at my bidding, but only because you yourselves are full....
Become better than I; make yourselves like the son of the Holy Spirit!’ The Gnostic Gospel of Philip describes the follower of Jesus who becomes ‘no longer a Chris-tian but a Christ.’ It says: ‘You saw the spirit, you became spirit. You saw Christ, you became Christ. You saw the Father, you shall become Father.’ In the Gospel of Thomas, which claims to record the secret sayings of Jesus, the Master tells his disciples, ‘Because you have drunk, you have become intoxicated from the bubbling spring which I have measured out....
Whoever drinks from my mouth will become like me. I myself shall become he, and the things that are hidden will be revealed to him.’

The Universal Christ. The bubbling spring that Jesus speaks of is the fount of the Universal Christ. Jesus promises that when with love and gratitude you have drunk and assimilated those waters of everlasting life, ‘You will become like me, like the Christ. I myself, the incarnation of the Christ, shall become you.’
The mystical paths of the worlds religions bear witness to the universal truth that whoever drinks from the fount of the One Source will become one with that Source, whether we hear ‘You can become one with Brahman,’ ‘You can become one with the Tao,’ ‘You can become a Buddha,’ ‘You can cleave to Ein Sof and the sefirot’ or ‘You can become the Son of God.’”13

1. 1. Nathan Parker, Christ, Christians, & Krishna. Srila Prabhupada Speaks Out: On Christ, Christians, and Krsna (BTG—Volume 12, No. 12. Dec. 1977), http://www.eu.spiritweb.org/Spirit/christ-krshna.html
2. 2. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Meditations of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (New York: Bantam, 1968), p.178; quoted in James W. Sire, Scripture twisting (Downers Grove, IL.: Inter Varsity Press, 1980), p. 34
3. 3. Kathy Juline, Settled Mind, Silent Mind, an interview with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (Science of Mind, November 1993), http://www.tm.org/news/science_mind.html
4. 4. Paramahansa Yogananda, Where There is Light (Los Angeles: Self Realization Fellowship, 1988), pp. 136, 169-170, 187
5. 5. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, quoted in Fear of the Master (Hemet, CA.: Jeremiah Films, 1987)
6. 6. Baba Ram Dass, Be Here Now (New York: Crown Publishing, 1978), p. 117
7. 7. Mounir Murad, Daheshism and the Journey of the Soul (Virginia: Murad Publishing, Alexandria, 1993), p. 99
8. 8. Mary Lutyens, Krishnamurti, The Years of Awakening (New York: Avon Discus Printing, 1975), pp. 282, 302, 11, 280-281
9. 9. ECKANKAR; Sri Harold Klemp, Getting Answers from God through Past Lives, Dreams, and Soul Travel, http://www.eckankar.org/Harold/Article01.html retrieved 8-18-02. Quoting ECK Spirituality Today, copyright 2000 ECKANKAR. All rights reserved. Excerpted from The ECKANKAR Journal, copyright 1995 ECKANKAR. All rights reserved
10. 10. Paul Twitchell, The Tiger’s Fang, p. 171
11. 11. http://www.tsl.org/church/masters.html
12. 12. Given to the Messengers Mark and Elizabeth Prophet, Decrees Fiats Prayers Meditations Songs and Mantras (Colorado Springs: Summit University Press, A Summit Lighthouse Publication, 1975), Vol. 1, pp. 3-4
13. 13. http://www.tsl.org/teachings/masters/jesus/mission.htm

In a much needed afternoon of house cleaning and straightening, I came across a dvd in a box.

I decided I would take a momentary break from my task and sit down to watch at least part of it.

The video contained footage of our youngest son and several of his classmates when he was in the fourth grade.

He is now 15 years old and has grown into quite a young man. His friends have grown along with him.

We still have contact with a few of his childhood friends. Looking into the the elementary aged faces on the screen brought back so many memories.

Later, I spoke to my son about the what I had been watching. We talked about his friends; we talked about growing up.

For those of us who are loving parents, there is a common bond. We make tremendous investments into our children, desiring to instill a yearning for God and a heart of faith. We do our best to foster good character and virtue within each precious son or daughter.

Talking with my son about this, I explained that for me, this was all like growing corn.

Corn?

Corn farmers begin with preparing the ground for planting. There is much to be done and it must be done carefully and diligently.

When the time is right, corn seeds are placed in the soil.

Parents are like farmers. We try to prepare our children for life. There is much to be done and it must be done carefully and diligently.

When the time is right, we plant seeds of faith and character within them.

While a corn farmer may choose to stay with his land, tending it daily, parents are often separated from the crops for a time. We hope, we pray and we long to see what the harvest will bring.

On the day that we are allowed to view the crops, joy will fill our hearts as we top the hill, go around the bend and see the first images of the tall, strong stalks bearing ears of corn.

When our children are small, we begin planting the seeds.

Time races by and the seasons change quickly.

Suddenly, it seems, they have matured into teens or young adults, going out into the world to begin life on their own.

We hope the seeds are growing. We pray the seeds have taken root.

On the day that we journey to see the harvest that God has prepared, joy will fill our hearts as we top the hill, go around the bend and see the first images of the tall and strong young men and women of Christ they have become, yielding a crop of faithfulness and love, thirty, sixty and even a hundred times as much as had been planted.

“Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seed.  As he scattered it across his field, some of the seed fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate it.  Other seed fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seed sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow.  But the plant soon wilted under the hot sun, and since it didn’t have deep roots, it died.  Other seed fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants so they produced no grain.  Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they sprouted, grew, and produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted!” Then he said, “Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.”---Mark 4:3-9

We now continue and conclude considering Dan Barker’s hypocrisy and contradictions as he seeks to condemn in others those very characteristics which he, himself, displays.

We continue considering his statements as he identifies one of the Unitarian Universalism’s (UU) primary dogmas. The previous segment ended by noting that Barker stating that the UU is “a truly creedless religion.” Yet, that they are a “creedless religion” is their dogmatic creed and you cannot be in good standing with the UU if you contradict that creed. Thus, he is utterly wrong in stating that they de-emphasized polarization, as they polarize the pseudo-creedless from the creedful. UU is like any church in that they “open the gates and let everyone in” but just as with any other church you cannot remain inside forever if you disagree with their dogmas and in doing so they most certainly “lock the doors and keep the evil ones out.”

This brought about an interesting point as the interviewer states:

Here are two questions about the controversy surrounding "the language of reverence," which swirls within Unitarian Universalism. As you know, Rev. William Sinkford, President of the UUA, complained that the Principles and Purposes of the UUA were bereft of religious language. He then encouraged UUs to "reclaim" that vocabulary, while mentioning his own strong belief in God.
Your organization, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, wrote to Sinkford: "Your proposal flies in the face of the UUA motto to affirm the inherent worth and dignity of every person by slamming the door in the face of some of the nations most thoughtful and peace-loving citizens--those who reject belief in the supernatural."

This is why the politically correct concepts de jour about tolerance are fallacious; they amount to I will only tolerate that with which I agree. Did you catch it?

The President of the UUA—and who is he to make any recommendations to the UUA, right?—urges reclamation of “the language of reverence.” Now, to atheists such as Dan Barker, who recognize no being higher than themselves, everything is about them, every expression of religion is a personal affront, every religious display is actually aimed at them as they are meant to offend—will the day soon come when an believer gets sued because they said “God bless you” after an atheist sneezed?
Note how instantly Barker takes the issue to an extreme; urging the “the language of reverence” (note how generic and non-theistic that is) amounts to no longer affirming “the inherent worth and dignity of every person” (a dignity which Barker does not seem to recognize). But how? It is “by slamming the door in the face of some of the nations most thoughtful and peace-loving citizens.” But what does a generic “the language of reverence” have to do with the supernatural? As is quite apparent from his lectures and books, Barker prefers the “the language of irreverence” and I am not merely attempting to be clever; this is the very point.

Again, Barker seeks to merely turn the tables whereby he will put in place the very same standards but merely redirect them in his favor. Understand that there are UU members who do not “reject belief in the supernatural” and they feel as if they are being neglected by the loss of “the language of reverence” and they may very well state,

by neglecting “the language of reverence” you are slamming the door in the face of some of the nations most thoughtful and peace-loving citizens—those who reject atheism.

You see the problem? One side feels neglected and thus “the language of reverence” should be restored and the other side feels neglected and thus, “the language of reverence” should be removed. Either some perfect medium will have to be found or else both sides will have to actually practice the tolerance upon which the UU is supposed to be based.

Dan Barker stated,

The United States of America, for example, is a proudly rebellious nation. We fought a Revolutionary War kicking out the king, dictator, lord. There is value in not bowing to traditions that imply subservience to a Master--we are not slaves. Yet most religious language suggests the opposite: we must worship that which is above us and adore or obey the Father/Mother/Creator who guides our lives. [emphasis in original]

Being an atheist, Dan Barker is a self made man and the problem with a self made man is that he worships his creator. Barker states that “Darwin has bequeathed what is good” i.e., he is our authority, Barker states that you are free to choose actions “within the limits of humanistic morality” which he, himself determines for you, the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s Annie Laurie Gaylor wrote, in In Defense of “Godlessness”,

The only “higher power” we can truly invoke lies in our own minds and our own intelligence.

Atheism is not about ridding oneself of God, it is about replacing the supernatural God with natural gods. Atheists console themselves with delusions of absolute autonomy and lack of ultimate accountability. If God is then God surely deserves our worship and if God is not then we end up, essentially, worshipping ourselves and each other (professor of philosophy Daniel Dennett argues that the atheist Joseph Stalin was a theist).

God states, “You shall have no other gods before me,” atheists state, “I shall have no other gods besides me.”

Incidentally, it is commonly misconceived that the Bible contains a commandment against making images in general; it does not. It commands that no image be made of God since no image can capture that which is God. The commandment which many mistake to be against making images is misunderstood because people do not read it in context. Generally what is quoted is,

You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth

Yet, this is part of a statement that represents a complete thought,

You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve (see Exodus 20:4-5, 23 & Deuteronomy 5:8-9)

Here is where the restriction lays; in how we treat them. It is not merely do not make them but do not make them to serve them. I elucidated this point and considered various images in my essay “On the Treatment of Images,” part 1, part 2. Interestingly, Philippians 3:19 refers to those, “whose god is their belly” they worship that which they most serve. Also, Luke 16:13 states, “You cannot serve God and mammon [riches, treasure, money],” you can have both but only serve one as “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.”

Dan Barker further stated:

About twelve years ago I performed a concert at a Unitarian fellowship in the midwest where the minister is an open atheist. She told me that her board had cautioned her to downplay her atheism and criticism of religion before the congregation because they need to keep people in the pews.
They had just remodeled part of the sanctuary and had a hefty mortgage to pay off and did not want to scare off any new young families who might be using Unitarianism as a transition out of a stricter more conservative religion. She felt muzzled, complaining that she thought Unitarianism was supposed to improve the world, not keep it ignorant. [emphasis in original]

We are back to pleasing one side and angering the other in a pseudo-tolerant catch 22. Note that this atheist was smart enough to become a “minister” in order to promulgate militant atheism to a congregation week after week after week. Her messages consisted of attempting to intolerantly convert the “ignorant”—those not well informed enough to be atheists—and thereby improve the world; all hail atheism!

Dan Barker retells,

Carl Sagan was once asked by a college student after a lecture: “If there is no God, then how do we find a meaning for life?” Carl looked at the student and simply said, “Do something meaningful.”

Yet, this was just begging the question. Incidentally, I argue that “If there is no God” there is purpose in the universe but not meaning. “If there is no God” can lead to absolutely anything at all; what if I find violence meaningful? What if I find slaughtering millions of people meaningful?

This was the very fallacy in Carl Sagan’s atheist propaganda disguised as “science” known as “Cosmos.” Therein he promulgates the idea that we humans live on a little pale blue dot in the backwaters of the universe, etc. therefore, we should get along. But this begs the question as it does not necessarily follow. What if I conclude that since I am a mere accidental organism on a cosmically insignificant planet in the universe’s backwater I will do whatever I please, whenever I please, as much as I please and to whomever I please?

That a man of science as brilliant as Carl Sagan was forced into such non-sequiturs by adherence to his atheism is one thing and that Dan Barker would approvingly quote such an illogical and meaningless statement is quite another. In fact, when Barker made the comment likening himself to broccoli because “nothing cares and nobody cares….No one’s gonna care” he duck-taped a statement about getting along at the end of it but it does not necessarily follow and from that premise you can justify, logically, absolutely anything at all. If I find it meaningful to beat up my neighbors pets then I have fulfilled the Saganic/Barkerian great commission.

Lastly, let us note that Barker stated:

There is no purpose of life: there is purpose in life. If there were a purpose of life, then that would cheapen life: it would make us slaves or tools of some “higher plan.” As long as there are problems to solve, facts to find, beauty to create, then there will be plenty of purpose in life.

Note that he shifted from Sagan’s “meaning” to his own “purpose” which I point out in order to note that this is very common, to obfuscate the terms, but I think that they are very different.

Herein we also got another taste of Barker’s odd sort of logic, arbitrary standards and rebellion against God. If there was a “higher plan”—read as “God”—this would make us slaves; how? I do not know. When I play softball there is a “higher plan,” the team captain’s plan, but I am not a slave because 1) I joined the team willingly, via freewill, 2) I work with a team, 3) we set out to better ourselves, tightening up our game thereby, 4) we solve problems and 5) have a blast.

Note that, of course, Barker and Sagan are pushing one of atheism’s consoling delusions: the delusion of subjective meaning in an objectively meaningless universe. Note that being part of a “higher plan” would equate slavery or make us tools, and while with God—this is bad with evolution—this is good; with Barker’s “strict determinism” whereby we lack “libertarian freewill” —it is good; with the atheist “minister” who seeks to improve the world by converting theists/deists to atheist—it is good; with the “higher” goals of the Freedom From Religion Foundation—it is good, etc.

The point is that it is Dan Barker who, for whatever reason and in whatever way, determines for himself and for you, by the way, that “there will be plenty of purpose in life” “As long as there are problems to solve, facts to find, beauty to create.” The point is not even that these are not agreeable measures of purpose but that Dan Barker invented them and now doeth bequeath them arbitrarily.

For example, perhaps a certain man takes the generic search for “purpose in life” to heart and seek to find “problems to solve”—Adolf Hitler propose his final solution to the Jewish problem. Hitler sought “facts to find”—about how they were genetically corrupt and how to do away with them. Hitler found “beauty to create” by restoring the purity and beauty of the Aryans and the German nation. This is merely a point about how such arbitrary statements can be taken in any direction whatsoever.

Let us conclude by quoting a statement which I have quoted on a number of occasions. Bill Vallicella, the Maverick Philosopher, offered a very interesting and succinct observation in his post Are Atheists Evil? Bad Reasoning in Sam Harris:

Imagine a situation in which A is in a position to impose his will on B (by raping and murdering her, say) and that A will “get away with it.” (No one cares about B, they are far off in the wild, etc. We may imagine that A will die in a month from cancer.)In this situation, does A have a reason not to rape and murder B, a reason to not gratify himself? If there is no God, and no surivival [sic] of physical death, what reason could A have? Because it is wrong in the abstract for A to rape and murder? That will strike A as a joke.“You are going to oppose to my real and furious lust an abstract moral demand that hangs in the air with no way of being enforced??” This is one way to focus the question that people like Harris and Shermer apparaently [sic] dont grasp.

Overall, it does not seem that Dan Barker nor his interviewer were able to recognize his continuous contradictions and the fact that he exhibits the very characteristic which he so condemns in others.

God has blessed me with a very good friend.

Yesterday, my friends mother died.

While driving over to her house to offer comfort, I began to think of a surprise party I had been to recently.

There may have been fifty or more people hiding in a dark room, waiting for the honoree to come down the steps and open the door.

When that moment came, the lights suddenly went on with simultaneous shouts of "SURPRISE!!" and an ensuing chorus of "Happy Birthday."

Joy filled the room.

I have known for years that my good friends older brother had died as a child from an illness. Her mother had kept some of his toys through the years. I had the privilege of seeing them and hearing about the young boy.

As I drove, I began to consider what this elderly lady was now experiencing in Heaven.

I imagined what it would be like to finally be reunited with her little boy after all these years apart.

For those still here who loved my friends mother, there is sadness and a feeling of loss. Yet, in only a second, this dear woman entered a realm of holiness and complete bliss as she was transported from this life into the presence of God and her loved ones gone before.

In one moment, it was as if she was walking down the steps to open the door and suddenly, "SURPRISE!"  All the wonders of Gods etenal home prepared for her had been waiting on the other side! A perfect welcome,  made especially for her.

Through His sacrifice, Jesus has given us the hope of eternal life.

Knowing this, there should be a deeply abiding joy and cheer that remains with us through every hour.

Our bodies are like tents that we live in here on earth. But when these tents are destroyed, we know that God will give each of us a place to live. These homes will not be buildings that someone has made, but they are in heaven and will last forever. While we are here on earth, we sigh because we want to live in that heavenly home. We want to put it on like clothes and not be naked. These tents we now live in are like a heavy burden, and we groan. But we dont do this just because we want to leave these bodies that will die. It is because we want to change them for bodies that will never die. God is the one who makes all of this possible. He has given us his Spirit to make us certain that he will do it. So always be cheerful!--II Corinthians 5:1-6a

I only imagined pondering the question due to the very fact that Dan Barker is that which he detests. He does not seem to recognize that he exhibits very same characteristics which he condemns in others. Perhaps self loathing is too great an inference (even conceptually) yet, hypocritical and contradictory most certainly fit the bill. In order to be self loathing Barker would have to be consistent. This point came across very clearly in an interview with Dan Barker by the Unitarian Universalist Infidels.[i]That he correlates religion to sexism and racism is merely Barkerian emotionalism. What is of interest is his continuous contradictions and illogicality. He states,

The word "infidel" simply means "without faith.!!…Personally, since I am without faith, I can wear "infidel" as a badge of honor…For most of us who might embrace the label "infidel" (I sometimes wear an FFRF t-shirt with the word), it is not simply because we have discarded faith—although that would be enough in itself to recommend it, since faith can be dangerous—but because we also champion reason as its replacement, as the only viable tool of knowledge.

The Unitarian-Universalist association has a proud heritage of religious diversity and openness, welcoming people of all faiths and of no faith. I am often privileged to perform or speak at UU fellowships, and in every single one I visit, I encounter a subset of atheists and agnostics, humanists and skeptics, mixing happily with the (mostly liberal) Christians, Jews, Buddhists, and other religious identities. In some cases, these freethinkers comprise the majority of the fellowship. Certainly, "infidels" have always been a part of the rich fabric of Unitarian Universalism.

might try to broaden the word "religion" beyond what has been historically understood. But good luck. To my mind, the word "religion" seems stuck to the supernatural. And since we already have perfectly good natural terms for secular philosophies and moralities, why make things needlessly ambiguous with such a loaded term as "religion"?

Some religious leaders and theologians, like the Dalai Lama and George Fox, are calling for spirituality distinct from religion. The Dalai Lama, in fact, calls for a "secular spirituality" based on compassion and love, and on scientific research into matters like meditation. Do you separate religion from spirituality? Do you think the American public, in general, makes this distinction, or is it too nuanced?

Thomas Jefferson wrote to John Adams (August, 1820), saying: "To talk of immaterial existences is to talk of nothings. To say that the human soul, angels, God, are immaterial, is to say, they are nothings, or that there is no God, no angels, no soul. I cannot reason otherwise." (This does not mean Jefferson was an atheist: as a deist, he conceived of God as a material being, or as nature itself.)… When people like the Dalai Lama suggest that our values originate outside of ourselves--in some "spiritual" realm--they inadvertently insult our species, as if we are just too weak to figure things out on our own. I know he means his phrase as a compliment, and his motives may be truly humanistic, and I can join him in those activities I may deem to be truly moral and beautiful, but pretending to welcome us "secularists" as outsiders invited to his lofty "spiritual" table misses what it truly means to be human and moral.

There is no moral interpreter in the cosmos, nothing cares and nobody cares….what happens to me or a piece of broccoli, it won’t [matter], the Sun is going to explode, we’re all gonna be gone. No one’s gonna care.

Individuals are free to choose, within the limits of humanistic morality.

When people like the Dan Barker suggest that we have no libertarian freewill and that our values originate from a nature which does not care—in some “material” realm—he inadvertently insult our species, as if we are just too weak to recognize freewill and that rape is absolutely immoral. I know he means his phrases as compliments, and his motives may be truly humanistic, and I can join him in those activities I may deem to be truly moral and beautiful, but pretending to welcome us “theists” as outsiders invited to his lofty “secularist” table misses what it truly means to be human and moral.

Religion is one way (not the only way) to bring people together. A key component of religion is the sense of community it provides; but this can cut both ways. On the one hand, the clumping into groups can produce a dangerous “we versus them” mentality, as too often happens with fundamentalist and conservative religions. On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with community. Many atheists and agnostics feel isolated in their (non) beliefs and long for an opportunity to socially interact with similarly open-minded individuals and join a group working for charitable, social and activist causes. We want to laugh, sing, learn, compare notes, and feel connected with the world. The “religious tradition” of Unitarian Universalism--today a truly creedless religion--has consistently de-emphasized the polarizing and potential insular effects of community and re-emphasized the humanistic values that unite us all. For Unitarian Universalists, community means "open the gates and let everyone in," not “lock the doors and keep the evil ones out.” Many atheists and agnostics who love being around people are comfortable, indeed happy with this tolerant attitude…

[i] Reprinted from Search of Reason, Vol. 1, Issue 1, Spring 2004 (apparently, an ongoing search) [ii] I ask this because it is somewhat of a common misconception. In reality it is not circular logic because the Bible is not one book written by one author but is 66 books written by some 40 authors.

Various Rabbis and Jewish Scholars (continued):
Rabbi Moses Haddarshan,

“Immediately the Messiah, out of love, took upon himself all those plagues and sufferings, as it is written in Isaiah 53, ‘He was abused and oppressed.’”

Rabbi Elijah Ben Moshe De Vidas of Safed, 1575 AD,

“The meaning of ‘He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities’ is, that since the Messiah bears our iniquities which produce the effect of His being bruised, it follows that whoever will not admit that Messiah thus suffers for our iniquities must endure and suffer for them himself.”1

“‘But he was wounded because of our transgressions, he was crushed because of our iniquities…’ [Is. 53:5]. The meaning of this is that since the Messiah suffers because of our sins, causing him to be crushed, one who desires that he not suffer must himself suffer and experience affliction. A story is told about a certain pious individual who used to undergo various afflictions because of his transgressions; he did so in order to prevent the suffering of the Messiah.”2

Rabbi Moses Alshekh (or El-Sheikh) Chief Rabbi of Safed (17th c. AD),

“there are sufferings which are the result of sin and others which arise from love, when a righteous man suffers for the sins of his generation…and here the innocent righteous man, who has committed no sin, is forced to carry the sins of all the evildoers, so that they might rejoice but he will be filled with sorrow, they will be preserved in health but he will be crushed and stricken…and this testifies to the Messiah-King, who will suffer for the sins of the children of Israel, and his reward will be with him.”3

“I may remark, then, that our Rabbis with one voice accept and affirm the opinion that the prophet is speaking of the King Messiah, and we ourselves also adhere to the same view”

“First of all they say, ‘He came up as a tender shoot…’ etc. i.e. we see one who was as a tender shoot with water for it to absorb, and growing great and tall; he was like this, however, only in the upper world; for though this just and perfect sufferer flourished and grew great before God in the upper world, yet in the earth which we see below, he was as a root coming out of dry ground, where there was no water for him. Being lowly, therefore, in our eyes, he was without form and comeliness in the world. His form was darkened by the blackness of his sufferings…neither had he any beauty that we could desire him on account of his righteousness, but on the contrary, he was rejected in our eyes.”

“Our ancient Sages have preserved for us the witness of tradition that this refers to the Messiah. For this reason we too, following them, should consider the subject of this prophecy to be David, the Messiah, who will appear in this way.”

“Upon the testimony of tradition, our old rabbis have unanimously admitted that king Messiah is here [Isaiah 53] the subject of discourse. We, in harmony with them, conclude that king David, i.e., the Messiah, must be considered as the subject of this prophecy - a view which is indeed quite obvious.”4

Rabbi Naphtali ben Asher Altschuler,

“I will now proceed to explain these verses of our own Messiah, who, God willing, will come speedily in our day! I am surprised that Rashi and Rabbi David Kimchi have not, with the Targum, applied them to the Messiah…

but the Messiah suffered in order that by his suffering atonement might be made for the whole of Israel, as it is said of the prophet Micah, that the blood issuing from him made atonement for all Israel. The sickness which ought to have fallen on us was borne by him: the prophet means to say, when Messiah Ben Joseph shall die between the gates, and be a marvel in the eyes of creation, why must the penalty be so severe?

What is his sin, and what is his transgression, except that he will bear the chastisements of Israel, according to the words, ‘smitten of God.’ Others consider that the passage speaks of the Messiah who is smitten ‘now’ with the pains of the world to come as it stands in the Gemara and endures the suffering of Israel. ‘And yet we’—it is Israel who are speaking—thought that he had been hated of God. But it was not so: he was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, and ‘the chastisement’ which was afterwards to secure our peace was upon him.”5

Rav Asher Soloff,

“We know that messianic homilies based on Josephs career (his saving role preceded by suffering), and using Isaiah 53 as the prophetic portion, were preached in certain old synagogues which used the triennial cycle.”6

1. 1. A. Lukyn Williams, Christian Evidences, pp. 169-172 and Dalman, Der leidende und der sterbende Messias, pp. 35-39
2. 2. Lawrence Fine, trans. and intro., Safed Spirituality, Rules of Mystical Piety, The Beginning of Wisdom (New York: Paulist Press, 1984), p. 115
3. 3. Alexander McCaul, article published in Hebrew on Isaiah 53, London 1899, p. 22. See also Is. 62:11
4. 4. See Hulsii Theologia Judaica, pp. 321
5. 5. Rabbi Naphtali ben Asher Altschuler, Hind Sent Forth; a commentary on the Prophets and Hagiographa
6. 6. Rav Asher Soloff, The Fifty Third Chapter of Isaiah According to the Jewish Commentators, to the Sixteenth Century (Ph.D. Thesis, Drew University,1967), p. 146

Windows.

Everyone knows what they are.

I decided to look them up in the dictionary, anyway.

This definition caught my interest:

Anti-Christian atheist activist PZ Myers has just undergone cardiac surgery.

Please pray for his spiritual and physical well being and recovery.

Well done Brian!

Brian of the most excellent blog Apologetics 315 masterminded the project "Is Christianity True?"

The project consisted of 31 segments (23 essays) written by 31 personages (including yours truly).

Brian has just posted the e-book of the entire series:

The essays are listed at this link by date, author and title.

At this link you can find the e-book to which I will link here in its various formats:
Kindle version
Mobi
ePub
PDF

Lastly, you can find the podcast of the entire series at this link.

Acoustic Performance By Jake Isaac - ‘Amazing Love’

Hey guy’s. We came across this video of one of our favourite Worship Leader’s; Jake Isaac not too long ago and wanted to share it with you all. In this video Jake sings ‘Amazing Love’ accompanied by his acoustic guitar. It’s a great rendition of the song and stripped down to such a simple form without losing the heart of worship and and still reaching out to the worshiper inside us all just through watching.

Jake is our current ‘Centre Stage’ artist so be sure to check out that feature if you haven’t already. Make sure you download ‘All I Am’ by Jake and the i = Change band for FREE from our website too. It’s one of our favourite songs and we’re sure you’ll love it too!

I am not here referring to circular logic or illogicality but to alogic which is not merely illogical, not logical, but simply lacking in logic. Furthermore, by alogic I am referring to an argument that is a very popular talking point of certain atheists. There are a plethora of alogical arguments that certain atheists consider devastating, cleaver or “unanswerable” because they are being made and uncritically repeated by atheist who are, apparently, engaging in well-within-the-box-groupthink.

Put any search engine to the task of finding references to “Who designed the designer?” and you will uncover two things:
1) Atheists are all too pleased to repeat this talking point and consider it a fatal blow to theism.
2) Theists, from philosophers to pajama clad cyber-John Does blogging from their mother’s basement are picking this alogical argument apart as the carrion that it is.

Some examples of this alogical pseudo-argument are as follows:

Richard Dawkins (in The Blind Watchmaker) wrote, “To explain the origin of the DNA/protein machine by invoking a supernatural Designer is to explain precisely nothing, for it leaves unexplained the origin of the Designer.”

Christopher Hitchens (in God Is Not Great) wrote, “who designed the designer or created the creator. Religion and theology have consistently failed to overcome this objection.”

Daniel Dennett (in Darwin’s Dangerous Idea) references Prof. Richard Dawkins’ text and declares that it is an “unrebuttable refutation, as devastating today as when Philo used it to trounce Cleanthes in Humes Dialogues two centuries earlier.”

And of course, Richard Dawkins (in The God Delusion) quotes Daniel Dennett who is quoting Richard Dawkins and proclaims that Daniel Dennett is correct in approving of Richard Dawkins.

It is rather odd that such self-professed sharp minds are, in their middle ages, promulgating as unrebuttable objection that which Sunday School children rebut in their most tender years.

That Dawkins make this the very center piece of The God Delusion tell you something about what a tel of fallacies that book is. That he prefers referring to “luck” as a viable option is another matter altogether and one that reeks of desperation—well then, carpe despero.

Let us consider two other examples as the physicist Milton Rothman wrote,

All of the God theories collapse when three serious questions are asked: Where did God come from, where did God exist before the universe existed, and how did this God learn how to create?[1]

Stephen Hawking wrote,

Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations. What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe?...Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing? Is the unified theory so compelling that it brings about its own existence? Or does it need a creator, and, if so does he have any other effect on the universe? And who created him?...So long as the universe had a beginning, we could suppose it had a creator. But if the universe is really completely self-contained, having no boundary or edge, it would have neither beginning nor end: it would simply be. What place, then, for a creator?[2]

Interesting that the universe could simply be but God would require a maker.

Let us note that these objections are premised upon atheistic atheology. That is to say that they presuppose knowledge of God and demand that their theological presuppositions are met. For example, Richard Dawkins presupposes that the supernatural Designer had an origin and both he, Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, etc. presupposes that the designer was designed.

I previously explained how the creator, the designer, is not only uncaused but uncausable in a parsed post entitled: On the Flying Spaghetti Monster, the Invisible Pink Unicorns, et al.

The point of this essay was merely to point out:

1. That theology has consistently overcome this “objection.”

2. That it is an objection that is premised upon the atheist’s own theological presuppositions.

3. That even if the designer did have an origin and we did not know its origin, did not know who designed the designer, it would say nothing about its existence or lack thereof.

4. That this brand of atheism is quite pleased unskeptically repeating popular talking point but fail to note that there is no field of scientific or philosophic inquiry that uncovers a cause for a certain effect but then rejects the cause when it cannot explain the cause’s origins.

That we cannot explain the explanation and so the explanation ought to be rejected would be an inquiry stopper, a science killer as it would cause scientific and philosophic inquiry to cease. Rather, we either continue our inquiry or we reach a finite regress.

If I hold a ball in my hand and let it go stating, “Gravity did it, gravity caused it to fall” is a perfectly valid explanation even though I cannot fully account for gravity or answer as to what caused gravity. If we find that on the dark side of the moon the words, “Earthling go home!” had been written we could conclude the activity of aliens even if we cannot explain the aliens nor whence they came.

Lastly, let us note that, that which is considered nonsense when promulgated by Judeo-Christianity is considered the utmost in erudition when promulgated by atheists. Here are some examples:

It is ignorant and superstitious to believe that God made everything out of nothing.
It is rational and scientific to believe that nothing made everything out of nothing.

It is ignorant and superstitious to believe that God is eternal.
It is rational and scientific to believe that matter is eternal.

God is an effect and must have had a cause.
Matter is the uncaused first cause.

If God made everything, then who made God?
Matter made everything and nothing made matter.

[1] Milton Rothman, “What Went Before?,” Free Inquiry (Winter 1992/93), p. 12
[2] Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time (New York: Bantam Books, April, 1998), p. 174

Ancient words, carried through a friend, can deliver impact and inspiration which you dare not... - [Read more]

In keeping with the very reason that the New Atheist movement has discredited itself and is conceptually dead—their unwillingness to take on Islam (see elucidation of this point at this link)—I wonder…oh, how I wonder…

I wonder if any atheists anywhere, specifically and especially the New celebrity Atheists have made any comments at all on the fact that Ayatollah Kazem Sedighi claims that Extramarital sex leads to earthquakes:

Tehran, Apr 17: An Iranian cleric has proclaimed that inappropriately dressed women leading to extramarital affairs are the reasons behind the devastating earthquakes that frequently rattle the country.

Speaking to worshippers at the Friday prayers here on Apr 16, senior cleric Ayatollah Kazem Sedighi said, "Many women who dress inappropriately ... cause youths to go astray, taint their chastity and incite extramarital sex in society, which increases earthquakes."

"Calamities are the result of peoples deeds...We have no way but conform to Islam to ward off dangers," the religious leader is quoted as saying in newspaper reports.

The Islamic laws prescribe a strict dress code for women. Females are expected to cover hair and bodily contours in public or face punishment and fine.

However, the cleric was probably referring to the women who appear on the streets with well-fitted clothes and layers of make-up as the evil forces behind the natural calamities.

Let Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson or the likes say such a thing and atheists are all over it like an elephant in musth but let a Muslim say it and…and nothing; let’s just keep bashing Christianity!

Consider one small example as Richard Dawkins wrote the following in The God Delusion (pp. 301-302):

In illustration of the dark side of absolutism, I mentioned the Christians in America who blow up abortion clinics, and the Taliban of Afghanistan, whose list of cruelties, especially to women, I find too painful to recount.

An entire book that bashes Christianity but as for Islam or even the Taliban in particular: side step and wipe brow (for a dissection of Dawkins’ folly on this point, see George Tiller, Abortionist Murders, and the Richard Dawkins Correlation).

The reality is American evangelicals close more churches each year than we open new ones.  Like it or not, we are a post-christian nation.  This is why it is so important to plant churches.  I have read stories and met guys that had all the good intentions in the world for their church plant but for some reason or another they failed.  Here are three reason that contribute to the closure of new churches:

1.  Lack of Vision - Habakkuk 2:2-3 tells us to write the vision clear so it is easily understood and able to spread.  There are churches that I have walked into and no one knows the vision of the church.  No one can even articulate a version of the church’s vision.  Problem?  YES!  Vision is key to any church growth but vital for a church plant.  I heard once that if your staff is tired of hearing about the vision then your people will get it and if your people are sick of hearing the vision then your community will get it.  We want our communities to GET IT so preach it until you are blue in the face.

2.  Moral Failure - want to ruin your church plant?  Then have a moral failure.  NOT only you but your staff’s moral failures can ruin your plant.  It is important to have accountability in place to keep you clear of immorality.  Also since your staff can bring it down be slow to hire and give titles.  Your church  plant will thrive without fancy titles.

3.  Lack of Execution – Church planting is fought and won in the trenches.  This is probably one of the hardest components to church planting.  Most church planters are 60 foot view guys.  Let me explain, most guys are entrenched with vision and forget to seek and identify the steps to take to complete the vision which gives them a 60 foot view.  If you are a big picture thinker then you need to surround yourself with execution people, clipboard nazi and self proclaimed bean counters.

Church planting is our only hope so make sure you are ready for the pressures of church planting and educated yourself on the things that can bring it down.

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Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.---Romans 12:4-6a

If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you But make allowance for their doubting too, If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or being [...] - [Read more]

What sets you apart from other people?

This morning, I was driving to work very early. It had been raining, and the clouds were just separating enough in the eastern sky to allow the bright rays of sunrise to escape.

I take exactly the same route to work everyday; I have worked in the same place for years. To my knowledge, I have never noticed a very tall building just a block or so away from the main road---that is, until today.

The multi-story building is that of a very prominent telephone company. The architecture is somewhat unique with reflective glass panels serving as the outer walls of each floor.

On this specific day and at just the time I was driving nearby, the suns light reflected off the building, creating a blinding display of energy. In a matter of moments, the building that had been unnoticed before had become a towering blaze of light, impossible to look upon directly and quite impossible to miss.

The building, however unremarkable it had been before, was only reflecting.

Who we are without the light of God in our lives pales in comparison to who we are when Gods Spirit is within us.

If we simply reflect the character---the love---of God to those around us, would we be impossible to miss?

Most of the time we go through life not expecting anything to happen. The sad culmination is that when God does show up unexpectedly we are so caught off guard we miss the blessing.  What if everyday you started with the thought, “Today God is going to reveal Himself to me.” Would your prayer life change?  Would your weeks become shorter because you wouldn’t be drawn down but the mundane things in life?  I believe that we would be set free to serve our Lord to our greatest capacity if we prayed and lived with expectant hearts.  Every ordinary day has a miracle waiting to happen and I want to experience everything that God has to offer.

As we move closer to our Grand Opening at Journey Church we need to expect God to show up and take care of business.  Lives are at steak here.  Decide to change, to be different and experience God in the fullness of His Glory.

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Having a family that loved and served God has been the desire of my heart for a very long time.

From the birth of our first child many years ago until now, I have hoped and prayed for a Christian family.

A family that  trusted in the Lord.

A family unified by Gods love.

There are many instances of Gods faithfulness to us through the years.

They remind us that He is there, always.

We have these stories to pass down to our children.

As they mature in the Lord, they will become aware of what He is doing in their own lives.

The children of Israel gathered stones as a memorial to what God had done for them at the Jordan River.

The stones were to serve as a prompting---when their little ones in the future would inquire about them, they were to tell them of the great faithfulness of God.

What "stones" have I set up as a reminder of the great things God has done for our family?

When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua, "Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe,  and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan from right where the priests stood and to carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight."

  So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe,  and said to them, "Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites,  to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, What do these stones mean?  tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever."---Joshua 4:1-7

Please take a few moments to listen to my heart for you and your future:   heart1.mp3 Download audio file (heart1.mp3) - [Read more]

Conservapedia has an "Atheist and Evolutionist Helpline" page.

One thing upon which it comments is something which Gary Wolf , contributing editor to Wired magazine who, by the way, includes himself in the following description: “we lax agnostics, we noncommittal nonbelievers, we vague deists who would be embarrassed to defend antique absurdities like the Virgin Birth or the notion that Mary rose into heaven without dying, or any other blatant myth” referred to as follows:

At dinner parties or over drinks, I ask people to declare themselves. "Who here is an atheist?" I ask. Usually, the first response is silence, accompanied by glances all around in the hope that somebody else will speak first. Then, after a moment, somebody does, almost always a man, almost always with a defiant smile and a tone of enthusiasm. He says happily, "I am!"
But it is the next comment that is telling. Somebody turns to him and says: "You would be."
"Why?" "Because you enjoy pissing people off"
"Well, that’s true."
This type of conversation takes place not in central Ohio, where I was born, or in Utah, where I was a teenager, but on the West Coast, among technical and scientific people, possibly the social group that is least likely among all Americans to be religious.1

Conservapedia quotes further elucidation by Vox Day:

Its not just a figment of my imagination, it seems atheists truly are socially autistic by their own report. Aspergers Syndrome is a disorder described as "autistic psychopathy" by its discoverer, Dr. Hans Asperger. Those with the disorder tend to be intelligent, socially awkward and difficult to converse with. They are also likely to be male.

Based on Wired Magazines observation that atheists tend to be quarrelsome, socially challenged men, to say nothing of the unpleasant personalities of leading public atheists such as Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Michel Onfray, one could reasonably hypothesize that there is likely to be a strong correlation between Aspergers and atheism. Its by no means a scientific test, but it is interesting to note the coincidence that 59 of the virulent atheists over at Dr. PZ Myers place report an average score on the Aspergers Quotient test of 27.8. And this does not include the two individuals who actually have Aspergers but did not report any test results.

The test notes that "Scores over 32 are generally taken to indicate Aspergers Syndrome or high-functioning autism". The average male score is 18, the average female score is 15. By way of comparison, I scored 14...

Obviously, more comprehensive and scientific tests would be advised before any definite conclusion can be reached...

Of course, Vox Day is the author of The Irrational Atheist:

Therein he explained the difference between an atheist and an agnostic:

Agnostic: I don’t believe there is a God. Because I haven’t seen the
evidence.
Atheist: There is no God. Because I’m an *******. [expletive removed]

Does anyone see any truth to these points?

1. 1. Wolf, Gary, "The Church of the Non-Believers," Wired Magazine

Brian of Apologetics 315 has posted a great book review of the book "Science & Its Limits: The Natural Sciences in Christian Perspective" by Del Ratzsch.

I believe we need to plant churches like it is going out of style not only because its biblical but because its our only hope.  Here my top 5 reason why we need to plant churches.

1. Hands down most effective evangelism tool - in major denominations around 80% of the recorded salivations came from churches that where younger than two years old.  What does this tell us…? Church plants are more effective.  This doesn’t mean that established churches don’t have there place, they DO and they can have a big impact on the culture of church planting.  Lots of larger and more established churches can fund church planting.
2. We are commanded too! -  the results of the great commission ministry is discipleship and discipleship leads to congregationalism aka church.  So, if we are making disciples we are planting churches.  Right?  Its a natural progression.
3. Lots of lost people - the last stat I read was that there were over 120 million unchurched people in the United States.  This make us the largest mission field in the Western Hemisphere and the fifth largest field in the world.  Hmm, think we should be starting new churches?  Especially since we close somewhere in the neighborhood of 3500 churches each year.
4. Church plants reach younger people – A key characteristic of church plants is that their attenders tend to be younger than churches generally, with more than two-thirds (69%) of adult attenders being aged 15-49 years, compared with only 48% at churches generally.
5. It is the most exciting thing to do on the face of this planet (yeah I’m partial) – need I say more!!!

The fact is we need a reality check.  If we don’t plant more churches than close each year our children won’t have a church to attend.  Actually we need a GUT check.  If you feel like God is leading you to plant then I encourage you to begin the process of becoming a planter.  Here are some good questions to ask yourself before planting.

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I truly believe the best is yet to come at Journey Church. God has been in the process of positioning us for a huge movement from God and here is why:

1. We have been faithful in the little – On March 14th we started with nothing, at least equipment.  However, we had the most dedicated team in the history of church planting.  We continue to elevate Jesus in our community while intentionally making disciples.  Matthew 25:23 tells us that if we continue to be faithful God will give us more Kingdom responsibilities.
2. God pours out His favor on those you seek Him – Jeremiah 29:11, probably one of the most misused verses, tells us that God has plans for us to prosper, plans of a future and hope.  If we keep reading in Jeremiah 29:13 we see that we will find God when seek Him with all of our hearts.  I can only imagine that when we experience God’s presence the only outcome can be a movement that changes our community.  God will respond to prayers of restoration so remain faithful and God will deliver his promises.
3. God is not done with His Church and neither are we - Matthew 16 assures us that the enemy will not over take the church so until the day that Jesus returns we are not going to stop elevating Jesus and disciple the saved.

Do you believe the best is yet to come?  If we continue in obedience, step aside and let God move then we will truly see great things in the future.

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You simply must appreciate the lucidity with which Richard Dawkins expresses his ignorance:

The New American Bible, Translated from the Original Languages with Critical Use of All Ancient Sources and The Revised New Testament Authorized by the Board of Trustees of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine and Approved by the Administrative Committee/Board of The National Conference of Catholic Bishops and the United States Catholic Conference, Nihil Obstat: Stephen J. Hartdegem, OFM, SSL. and Christian P. Ceroke, O. Carm., S.T.D. (Nashville: Catholic Bible Press a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1987)

The New Testament of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Translated from the Latin Vulgate, A Revision of the Challoner-Rheims Version, Edited by Catholic Scholars Under the Patronage of The Episcopal Committee of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Nihil Obstat: Rt. Rev. Msgr. Henry J. Grimmelsman, S.T.D., Rev. John F. McConnell, M.M., S.T.L., S.S.L., Rev. Joseph J. Tennant, S.T.D., S.S.L. Also approved by Eugune Cardinal Tisserant, President of the Pont. Biblical Commission and His Excellency Most Rev. Edwin V. O’Hara Bishop of Kansas City (Patreson, NJ: St. Anthony Guild Press, 1941)

The New Testament Rendered from the Original Greek with Explanatory Notes, Part One-The Four Gospels translated by James A. Kleist, S.J. Part Two Acts of the Apostles, Epistles and Apocalypse translated by Hoseph L. Lilly, C.M. Nihil Obstat: Robert G. Boucher, C.Ss.R., S.T.L., S.S.L. (Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Co., 1954)

New Catholic Edition of the Holy Bible translated from the Latin Vulgate. The Old Testament Douay Version with newly edited annotations of Bishop Challoner and a new translation of the Book of Psalms for the New Latin Version approved by Pope Pius XII and the New Testament Confraternity Edition a revision of the Challoner-Rheims Version edited by Catholic scholars under the patronage of the Episcopal Committee of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (New York: Catholic Book Publishing Co., 1949-1950) Imprimatur: +Francis Cardinal Spellman, Archbishop of New York, 9-14-48.

The Holy Bible with the Confraternity Text-Papal Edition—This Bible was commended by Pope Paul VI—Edited by Rev. Thomas B. McDonough S.T.L., J.D. The Catholic Press Chicago, Illinois 1969. A new edition of the Catholic Family Bible published previously with the approbation of His Eminence Samuel Cardinal Strich and with the Imprimatur of His Eminence Albert Cardinal Meyer Archbishop of Chicago—Imprimatur Rt. Rev. Francis W. Byrne J.C.L. Vicar General Archdiocese of Chicago 59-69.

The Sacred Heart League Edition-The Word of God-The New Testament of Our Lord and Savior in Today’s English Version, contains a letter from Joseph B. Brunini Bishop of the Diocese of Jackson, Mississippi, Imprimatur: John Francis Wheaton, S.T.L, S.S.L. Archbishop of Hartford (Walls, MI.: The Apostolate of the Printed Word, Published for Sacred Heart League by the bible Society, 1971)

Bible dictionary consulted:
New American Bible Fireside Family Edition, Approved at the Vatican, by Pope Paul VI on 9-18-70. Authorized by the Board of Trustees of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine and approved by the Administrative Committee / Board of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and the United States Catholic Conference. (Wichita, Kansas: Devore and Sons, inc. 1981 and 87). Nihil Obstat for the Old Testament Stephen J. Hartdegem, OFM, SSL. and Christian P. Ceroke, O. Carm., S.T.D. Nihil Obstat for the Revised New Testament Stephen J. Hartdegem, OFM, SSL. Censor Deputatus. Nihil Obstat for the Encyclopedic Dictionary Michael F. Gutgsell, JCD. and Valentine J. Peter STD., JCD. Censor Liborum.

Imprimatur: Latin word meaning “let it be printed.”
Before a book pertaining to Catholic teachings or morals can be printed for the use of the faithful, the contents must be examined by a censor, and approved by the bishop of the diocese. Such approbation is indicated by the stamp, Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur, which usually appear on the back of the title page of a publication.1

Nihil Obstat: A Latin Phrase, which means nothing hinders. The phrase is printed in the front of a book which indicates it has been examined by an ecclesiastical censor who has found nothing in the publication which would be contrary to faith and morals.2

These approvals mean that the text has been reviewed and proclaimed as containing nothing that will hinder, or go against, the Roman Catholic faith. It does not mean that Roman Catholics are required to believe what the text states as it is not the declaration of official dogma. What it does mean is that a Roman Catholic can believe anything in the text because it is in keeping with Roman Catholic dogma.

1. 1. From The New American Bible Fireside Family Edition (Wichita, Kansas: Devore and Sons, Inc., 1987)
2. 2. From The New American Bible Fireside Family Edition

http://tinyurl.com/voting-against-ourselves Much has been said about the attack on the family and Judeo-Christian values in America.  Social conservatives are understandably vexed over the abandonment of social mores and core values that have served America well for hundreds of years.  In an effort to resist the moral and social decline some have shifted their attention to influencing federal legislators [...] - [Read more]

Via a post, Marcus made me aware of some interesting statements by John Loftus who wrote:

There is just something about the Christian story that makes me want to believe it. I know of no other story like this one.
In fact, when I watch music videos of the Christian story I feel its psychological pull on me, and Im a former believer who has rejected that story and became an atheist. So how much more does the story have a great amount of psychological pull on the hearts of others, especially believers, whose faith is confirmed whenever they ponder it.

He also made the following statement—note that since he is unable to extinguish the ring of truth from his soul and unable to deal with the issue logically, he turns to the only real and useful weapon that an atheist has: causing emotion to arise in their audience so that when an emotional connection is formed the audience is more likely to take his side, keep to his side and defend him. He turns to a tactic whereby he builds a straw-man meant to convey that the fictional Christian story which still pulls at him like no other is a merely psychological effect—ala Sigmund Freud’s baseless notions—and that, based on humanity’s overactive ego. Thus, while these statements are certainly emotive they are devoid of facts or evidence and heavy on ridicule:

We want to believe we can be forgiven for things we have done wrong. We want to believe there is divine help when in trouble. We want to believe there is life after death too. And we want to believe we are so important that God would take notice of us and redeem us.
Yes, we are that important, such selfish bastards that we are. Yes, Yes, Yes. God, the creator of the universe cares for me, Lil Ole me, enough to become a baby and die for me, and enough to help me through life and welcome me into his presence.

If you read the section of my CMI atheism essay on why atheism is chosen you will note likewise sentiments.
We find that atheism just is, “I find that I don’t seem to have a choice over whether or not I believe in God, I simply find that I do not.”
Atheism as emotion, “I finally decided that I’m a creature of emotion as well as of reason. Emotionally I am an atheist. I don’t have the evidence to prove that God doesn’t exist, but I so strongly suspect he doesn’t that I don’t want to waste my time.”
Atheism as inherited, “Her father, she explained, had told her there was no God when she was a child. She hadn’t really thought about it much since then.”
Atheism is chosen “as a reaction to a very difficult childhood. My mother died…”
Many more choose it due to the loss of a loved one, “become an atheist…by the tragedy of his daughter’s death.” Another is “a strident non-believer, having lost his faith after his sister, Mary Jane, died…his father was often drunk, beat him and sent him to military school’ and committed suicide.”
Read the section; you may be surprised as to who some of these people are.

Lastly, note the words of Thomas Nagel, and be very attentive as he is no mum’s basement blogger nor emotive reactionary such as John Loftus but he is supremely equipped to tear down the logical, philosophical foundations of Christianity as he is hold a B.Phil., Oxford and Ph.D., Harvard, he is the Professor of Philosophy and Law, University Professor, and Fiorello La Guardia Professor of Law. He specializes in Political Philosophy, Ethics, Epistemology, and Philosophy of Mind. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Fellow of the British Academy, and has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Are you ready for his erudite elucidation? Here is it:

I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers.
It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God and, naturally, hope that I’m right in my belief.
It’s that I hope there is no God!
I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that.

With this in mind we can turn John Loftus’ statements around:

We, atheists, don’t want to believe that we commit any sins and so do not need to be forgiven. We don’t want to believe there is divine help when in trouble because we are the most evolved creatures and the most intelligent humans. We don’t want to believe there is life after death because we fear judgment. And we don’t want to believe we are important to God because if the God in whom we don’t believe did exist, atheist theology’s dogmatheism demands that God would not take notice of us or redeem us (especially since there is nothing to redeem).
Yes, we are that important, such selfish bastards that we are to believe that we are the most evolved. Yes, Yes, Yes. Nature conspired to create me, Lil Ole me, enough to cause the suffering and death of billions of less fit beings, and enough to let me choose how I live—surviving as the fittest by being malevolent or benevolent and in the end, it matters not—except to the worms that my corpse will feed.

The fact is that John Loftus’ atheism began when he blamed God for not stopping him from commenting adultery. Illogical and un-theologically emotionally based from the beginning and illogical and un-theologically emotionally based to this day. Keep in mind that he does not argue that atheism is somehow less absurd than Christianity but that since Christianity is absurd, why not choose to believe something else that is absurd: atheism.
For evidence that backs these claims see:

John Loftus reduced to absurdity—without apology, by his own admission

John Loftus vs. Dinesh D′Souza debate

John Loftus Makes Some Videos

Review of John Loftus, “Why I Rejected Christianity: A Former Apologist Explains”

Can Christians Be Freethinkers?

We will conclude by considering various other statements by Adolf Hitler about Christianity; having previously affirmed that Hitler was an anti-Christian as was Nazism in general.

13th January, 1923:

The internal expurgation of the Jewish spirit is not possible in any platonic way. For the Jewish spirit as the product of the Jewish person. Unless we expel the Jewish people. Unless we expel the Jewish people soon, they will have judaized our people within a very short time.
—Eberhard Jäckel, Hitler’s Weltanschauung: A Blueprint for Power [Hitler’s Worldview], p. 52; from a speech at Nuremberg

11th-12th July, 1941:

National Socialism and religion cannot exist together….The heaviest blow that ever struck humanity was the coming of Christianity. Bolshevism is Christianitys illegitimate child. Both are inventions of the Jew. The deliberate lie in the matter of religion was introduced into the world by Christianity.... Let it not be said that Christianity brought man the life of the soul, for that evolution was in the natural order of things.

21st July, 1941:

If only one country, for whatever reason, tolerates a Jewish family in it, that family will become the germ center for fresh sedition. If one little Jewish boy survives without any Jewish education, with no synagogue and no Hebrew school, it [Judaism] is in his soul. Even if there had never been a synagogue or a Jewish school or an Old Testament, the Jewish spirit would still exist and exert its influence. It has been there from the beginning and there is no Jew, not a single one, who does not personify it.
—quoted in Robert Wistrich, Hitlers Apocalypse: The Jews and the Nazi Legacy, p. 122; from a conversation with Croatian Foreign Minister General Kvaternik

10th October, 1941:

By means of the struggle, the elites are continually renewed. The law of selection justifies this incessant struggle, by allowing the survival of the fittest. Christianity is a rebellion against natural law, a protest against nature. Taken to its logical extreme, Christianity would mean the systematic cultivation of the human failure.

14th October, 1941:

The best thing is to let Christianity die a natural death...When understanding of the universe has become widespread, when the majority of men know that the stars are not sources of light but worlds, perhaps inhabited worlds like ours, then the Christian doctrine will be convicted of absurdity...Christian doctrine will be convicted of absurdity....Christianity has reached the peak of absurdity....And thats why someday its structure will collapse....the only way to get rid of Christianity is to allow it to die little by little...Christianity the liar...Well see to it that the Churches cannot spread abroad teachings in conflict with the interests of the State.

19th October, 1941:

The reason why the ancient world was so pure, light and serene was that it knew nothing of the two great scourges: the pox and Christianity….
The reason why the ancient world was so pure, light and serene was that it knew nothing of the two great scourges: the pox and Christianity. Christianity is a prototype of Bolshevism: the mobilisation by the Jew of the masses of slaves with the object of undermining society.

21st October, 1941:

Originally, Christianity was merely an incarnation of Bolshevism, the destroyer.... The decisive falsification of Jesus doctrine was the work of St. Paul. He gave himself to this work... for the purposes of personal exploitation.... Didnt the world see, carried on right into the Middle Ages, the same old system of martyrs, tortures, faggots? Of old, it was in the name of Christianity. Today, its in the name of Bolshevism. Yesterday the instigator was Saul: the instigator today, Mardochai. Saul was changed into St. Paul, and Mardochai into Karl Marx. By exterminating this pest, we shall do humanity a service of which our soldiers can have no idea.

25th October, 1941:

Im sure that Nero didnt set fire to Rome. It was the Christian-Bolsheviks who did that, just as the Commune set fire to Paris in 1871 and the Communists set fire to the Reichstag in 1932.

13th December, 1941:

Christianity is an invention of sick brains: one could imagine nothing more senseless, nor any more indecent way of turning the idea of the Godhead into a mockery....
When all is said, we have no reason to wish that the Italians and Spaniards should free themselves from the drug of Christianity. Lets be the only people who are immunised against the disease….
I dont interfere in matters of belief. Therefore I cant allow churchmen to interfere with temporal affairs. The organised lie must be smashed. The State must remain the absolute master….
I can imagine people being enthusiastic about the paradise of Mahomet, but as for the insipid paradise of the Christians! In your lifetime, you used to hear the music of Richard Wagner. After your death, it will be nothing but hallelujahs, the waving of palms, children of an age for the feeding-bottle, and hoary old men. The man of the isles pays homage to the forces of nature.
But Christianity is an invention of sick brains: one could imagine nothing more senseless, nor any more indecent way of turning the idea of the Godhead into a mockery. A negro with his taboos is crushingly superior to the human being who seriously believes in Transubstantiation.

14th December, 1941:

Kerrl, with noblest of intentions, wanted to attempt a synthesis between National Socialism and Christianity. I dont believe the things possible, and I see the obstacle in Christianity itself....Pure Christianity—the Christianity of the catacombs—is concerned with translating the Christian doctrine into facts. It leads quite simply to the annihilation of mankind. It is merely whole hearted Bolshevism, under a tinsel of metaphysics.

9th April, 1942:

There is something very unhealthy about Christianity.

26th February, 1942:

As soon as the idea was introduced that all men were equal before God, that world was bound to collapse.

27th February, 1942:

Our epoch will certainly see the end of the disease of Christianity. It will last another hundred years, two hundred years perhaps. My regret will have been that I couldnt, like whoever the prophet was, behold the promised land from afar. We are entering into a conception of the world that will be a sunny era, an era of tolerance. Man must be put in a position to develop freely the talents that God has given him.

27th Jan 1942:

It was Christianity that brought about the fall of Rome – not the Germans or the Huns…..
It would always be disagreeable for me to go down to posterity as a man who made concessions in this field. I realize that man, in his imperfection, can commit innumerable errors-- but to devote myself deliberately to errors, that is something I cannot do. I shall never come personally to terms with the Christian lie. Our epoch Uin the next 200 yearse will certainly see the end of the disease of Christianity...My regret will have been that I couldnt...behold….
I shall never believe that what is founded on lies can endure forever. I believe in truth. Im sure that, in the long run, truth must be victorious. Its probable that, as regards religion, we are about to enter an era of tolerance. Everybody will be allowed to seek his own salvation in the way that suits him best. The ancient world knew this climate of tolerance. Nobody took to proselytizing.

4th April, 1942:

The fact that the Japanese have retained their political philosophy, which is one of the essential reasons for their success, is due to their having been saved in time from the views of Christianity. Just as in Islam, there is no terrorism in the Japanese State religion, but, on the contrary, a promise of happiness. This terrorism in religion is, to put it briefly, of a Jewish dogma, which Christianity has universalized and whose effect is to sow trouble and confusion in men’s minds.

5th June, 1942:

It is deplorable that the Bible should have been translated into German, and that the whole of the German Folk should have thus become exposed to the whole of this Jewish mumbo jumbo…
As a sane German, one is flabbergasted to think that German human beings could have let themselves be brought to such a pass by Jewish filth and priestly twaddle, that they were little different from the howling dervish of the Turks and the negroes, at whom we laugh so scornfully. It angers one to think that, while in other parts of the globe religious teaching like that of Confucius, Buddha and Mohammed offers an undeniably broad basis for the religious-minded, Germans should have been duped by a theological exposition devoid of all honest depth.

4th July, 1942:

The American statesmen, by subjecting the Church to the same regulations governing all other associations and institutions, have limited its field of activity to reasonable proportions; and, as the State does not contribute from State Funds one single cent to the church, the whole clergy cringes and sings hymns in praise of Government. This is not to be wondered at!
The parson, like everyone else, has got to live; what he makes out of the public offertory doesnt amount to much, and so he is more or less dependent on State charity. As he has no legal claim whatever on the State, he therefore takes very good care that his demeanour is always pleasing in the eyes of the State and therefore deserving of the crumbs it cares to toss to him….
The development of relations between State and Church affords a very instructive example of how the carelessness of a single statesman can have after-effects which last for centuries. When Charlemagne was kneeling at prayer in St. Peters, Rome, at Christmas in the year 8oo, the Pope, giving him no time to work out the possible effects of so symbolic an action, suddenly bent down and presto! popped a golden crown on his head! By permitting it, the Emperor delivered himself and his successors into the hands of a power which subjected the German Government and the German people to five hundred years of martyrdom.

28th August 1942:

Here is a lesson we would do well to learn: if we do not complete the conquest of the East utterly and irrevocably, each successive generation will have a war on its hand, to a greater or lesser degree. Even stupid races can accomplish something, given good leadership. Genghiz Khan’s genius for organisation was something quite unique.
Only in the Roman Empire and in Spain under Arab domination has culture been a potent factor. Under the latter, the standard of civilisation achieved was wholly admirable; to Spain flocked the greatest scientists, thinkers, astronomers and mathematicians of the world, and side by side there flourished a spirit of sweet human tolerance and a sense of the purest chivalry. Then with the advent of Christianity, came the barbarians.
The chivalry of the Castilians had been inherited by the Arabs. Had Charles Martel not been victorious at Poitiers – already, you see, the world had fallen into the hands of the Jews – so gutless a thing was Christianity! – then we should in all probability have been converted to Mohammedanism, that cult which glorifies heroism and which opens the seventh Heaven to the bold warrior alone. Then the Germanic races would have conquered the world. Christianity alone prevented them from doing so.

The above quotes, with the two noted exception, are from Norman Cameron and R.H. Stevens, trans., Hitler’s Secret Conversations 1941-1944 (Farrar, Straus and Young, Inc. 1953), published in Britain as Hitler’s Table Talk 1941-1944 (Oxford University Press) as are the following although I could not pin point the dates they were stated:

Christianity is the worst of the regressions that mankind can ever have undergone, and its the Jew who, thanks to this diabolic invention, has thrown him back 15 centuries….

The man who lives in communion with nature necessarily finds himself in opposition to the Churches. And thats why theyre heading for ruin - for science is bound to win…..

The earth continues to go round, whether it’s the man who kills the tiger or the tiger who eats the man. The stronger asserts his will, it’s the law of nature. The world doesn’t change; its laws are eternal.

The following quotes are from Hermann Rauschning, Hitler Speaks:

The struggle for world domination will be fought entirely between us, between Germans and Jews. All else is facade and illusion. Behind England stands Israel, and behind France, and behind the United States. Even when we have driven the Jew out of Germany, he remains our world enemy….

They refer to me as an uneducated barbarian. Yes, we are barbarians. We want to be barbarians, it is an honored title to us. We shall rejuvenate the world. This world is near its end….

Providence has ordained that I should be the greatest liberator of humanity. I am freeing man from the restraints of an intelligence that has taken charge, from the dirty and degrading self-mortification of a false vision called conscience and morality, and from the demands of a freedom and independence which only a very few can bear….

The Ten Commandments have lost their validity. Conscience is a Jewish invention, it is a blemish like circumcision….

Do you now appreciate the depth of our National Socialist Movement? Can there be anything greater and more all comprehending? Those who see in National Socialism nothing more than a political movement know scarcely anything of it. It is more even than religion; it is the will to create mankind anew….

Here is one more to complete Adolf Hitler’s anti-Christian rant:

You see, its been our misfortune to have the wrong religion. Why didnt we have the religion of the Japanese, who regard sacrifice for the Fatherland as the highest good? The Mohammedan religion too would have been more compatible to us than Christianity. why did it have to be Christianity with its meekness and flabbiness?
—quoted in Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich, pg. 115

Those of you who follow me on Twitter may have spotted that I’ve recently become disheartened by Mozy.

Until very recently they’ve been a service I’ve been happy to recommend to anyone – whether the free 2Gb account (with extra ¼Gb for every four users you sign up by an affiliate link) or indeed the unlimited $4.95pm account.

However several technical support queries have made me re-evaluate my stance. To the point where I’ve “restored” almost 12Gb of data and I’m seriously considering switching to a competitor.

To me, a service is good so long as you don’t have issues – but when you do you want that issue to be treated with respect, courtesy and in the case of a technical query by people that at least appear to be able to read. OK, so not everyone gets it right first time every time. I know that. I too work in support.

However, I at least take the time to try and understand the issue with 100% clarity before making assumptions.

I also ensure I’ve fully read any call notes and checked my own in-house FAQ or database for similar or common or known issues.

Additionally I try to make an educated insight as to the users state of mind and their actual problem based on the notes – not on what I think the notes say.

Only then do I contact the client and discuss exactly what it is I think they are saying and check if it’s been lost in translation between them logging the issue and the helpdesk operator transcribing it – well then I take the time to ask pertinent questions.

My latest issue with Mozy is that I clearly stated: “In Mozy and in Windows (and yes, I did tell them several times what my precise OS version is) I have the ‘view hidden files / folders’ turned on but I can’t see a particular folder which is usually hidden by the OS“. Additionally I noted that I could right click from Windows Explorer and use the “add to Mozy Backup” option but that the files / folders selected never showed up in any backup / restore.

So the last thing I expect is for them to teach me to suck eggs and

• tell me how to turn on view hidden files / folders in Windows and
• the same for within Mozy

No, I expect them to have worked that out from my carefully worded support ticket which already included that information and much more besides.

Additionally I don’t expect them to then presume they’ve fixed my fault and close my ticket, twice. If I did that in my job I’d expect the verbal rocket I’m almost certainly going to get.

So today, sadly, I have to say I can no longer recommend Mozy.

If you use them and have no issues – then excellent. If however you end up having issues, then lets hope you are capable of fixing it yourself.

Which is what I ended up doing.

• Do you use Mozy or similar?
• Am I being too harsh?
• Am I being too lenient on them?
• Which cloud backup service do you use?

Come on, have your say as it’s only hearing from customers that make companies sit up and take notice.

Lessons In Observation. is a post from: Church Techy

The bottom line of all such quotes as those that I provided in the previous segment is that it must be ascertained, defined, what Adolf Hitler meant when he employed theological terminology and why he employed it. The answers are clearly that he defined the terms as that which would support him in his drive towards the purity and grandeur of Germany and Aryan/Germans—I have provided much evidence of this in the various essays found here.

Who was the “Almighty Creator” to whom Adolf Hitler accorded his conduct? The power which granted him the good fortune of being permitted to live at a time when Germany and Aryan/Germans would be purified of the Jewish corruption of their nation and blood? It is this god, the eternal judge, to whom Hitler sang, Deutschland Über Alles—Germany Above All—this was his sincere conviction. In Christian theology the heavenly “songs” consist of, for example:

Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory (Isaiah 6:3).

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come…You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being (Revelation 4:8, 11).

Yet, according to Hitler “songs of the fatherland roared to the heavens” such as Deutschland Über Alles.

Again, we see that this “Creator” assigned a mission that Hitler must fulfill and this was to ensure the necessary security for the existence and increase of the Aryan/German race and people; the maintenance of their racial stock unmixed and the freedom and independence of Germany—again and again and again; his concern, motivation and goal was nation and race. This was his worldview and or “theology.”

It is only in the pure Aryan/Germans that the “images of God” is discernable and so impurity of their blood, lacking to ensure “their racial stock unmixed,” is tantamount to profaning this “Almighty.” This is why miscegenation (interracial mixing) lower the “superior race” and it is this which Hitler sees as “a sin against the will of the Eternal Creator” and this was “a sin this act will be avenged.” This was not a sin against the God of the Bible but against the god of evolution (the evolution to which Hitler adhered; see Hitler’s and Nazism’s Darwinism and Use, Abuse and Misuse of Darwin).

In Adolf Hitler’s view “paradise” is a pure Germany and his concept of original sin, the “expulsion from paradise,” is laying hands on, corrupting, “the highest image of the Lord” which is pure Aryan/German blood, this was “sacrilege.” While this sin is apparently unpardonable, as those already containing impure/mixed blood cannot purify it, redemption will come about by remaking the Reich. This purified Reich will “bow down before a higher god” whose theology consists of considering it “positively a sin against all reason” and “criminal lunacy” to have the “born half-ape” in high positions such as being a lawyer while “members of the highest culture-race must remain in entirely unworthy positions” as it is the Aryan/Germans who are the “most gifted beings.”

Indeed, it was this “Almighty Creator” who created perfectly pure Aryan/Germans and the “original sin” is “racial poisoning.” Note that Adolf Hitler, the supposedly Roman Catholic Christian, is lamenting voluntary celibacy as “obligated and bound by nothing except the injunction of the Church.”
Since the quote whence this came also states, “…the Almighty Creator beings such as He Himself created…” on the website NoBeliefs.com (a website saturated with expressions of that which they believe) Jim Walker posted an article entitled “Hitlers religious beliefs and fanaticism (Selected quotes from Mein Kampf)” and quite predicatively selects only those quotes which are self-servingly convenient for expressions of anti-Christian prejudice. To this quote he comments “‘Beings such as He Himself created,’ shows that Hitler believed in creationism” and later writes, “Here again Hitler shows his belief in a creationist model of humans origin.” Of course, it is left assumed to “creationism” is “creationism” is “creationism.” Yet, we have seen just what Hitler meant by “creation” and it should be further noted that were Jim Walker to not so narrowly select quotes he could have noted that Hitler wrote:

The idea of struggle is as old as life itself, for life is only preserved because other living things perish through struggle. In this struggle, the stronger, the more able, win, while the less able, the weak, lose. Struggle is the father of all things. It is not by the principles of humanity that man lives or is able to preserve himself above the animal world, but solely by means of the most brutal struggle.[1]

Also,

Thus there results the subjection of a number of people under the will, often of only a few persons, a subjection based simply upon the right of the stronger, a right which, as we see in Nature, can be regarded as the sole conceivable right, because it is founded on reason.[2]

These are not “creationist” concepts but Darwinian evolutionary concepts; for more see Atheist and Darwinist Communists and Hitler’s and Nazism’s Darwinism and Use, Abuse and Misuse of Darwin

Yet, the beliefs of NoBeliefs.com and the beliefs of Jim Walker do not end here as he also notes Adolf Hitler’s reference to the “image of God” and comments, “See Genesis 1:27 for man created in Gods image.” But why see Genesis when Hitler meant nothing to the likes of the Genesis reference which states that God created both male and female in His image? As we have seen, in Hitlerian terms the “image of God” is only visible in pure Aryan/Germans.

NoBeliefs.com / Jim Walker also believe that Hitler’s following statement “…refutes the common impression that Hitler admired ancient Nordic customs”:

The characteristic thing about these people is that they rave about old Germanic heroism, about dim prehistory, stone axes, spear and shield, but in reality are the greatest cowards that can be imagined. For the same people who brandish scholarly imitations of old German tin swords, and wear a dressed bearskin with bulls horns over their heads, preach for the present nothing but struggle with spiritual weapons, and run away as fast as they can from every Communist blackjack.
-Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)

Yet, Hitler is not saying a single word about “Nordic customs”/“old Germanic heroism” in and of themselves but was condemning those who “rave about” them but “in reality are the greatest cowards that can be imagined.” Because while they imitate these they do not actually fight but leave it up to a “struggle with spiritual weapons.”
Such is the lack of discernment of those who seek to condemn Christianity by appealing to Adolf Hitler while merely succeeding in discrediting themselves.

Lastly, note that regardless of denomination, Adolf Hitler preached “the sacred duty” to urging people to “actually fulfill Gods will”—which is when we see that for Hitler the “Church” was a tool to be remolded with a theology to be reinterpreted towards his own ends. As we have seen; he does not want to see “Gods word be desecrated” so as to destroy “His work” as by doing so they are “declaring war on the Lords creation, the divine will” which is the restoration of the purity of Aryan/Germans über alles and Deutschland über Alles.

It is readily discernable that within these quotes and the vast corpus of Adolf Hitler’s deeds, writing and speeches (and Nazism’s in general) there is not a shred of true, traditional, original, Biblical, clear and basic Christian theology. What we see is that any theological references are redefined as that which supports the German nation and the Aryan/German people and has an endgame the purity of both.

While many people seem to have merely conducted a keyword search for “God and Hitler”; the context of his words, the redefinition of theological terms and the evidence of his actions demonstrate that whatever Hitler meant by such references they were most certainly not reference to Biblical Christianity or the Bible itself.

[1] Joachim C. Fest, The Face Of The Third Reich (1963), p. 27 citing “Speech at Kulmbach on 5th February 1928, quoted by Alan Bullock in Hitler. A Study in Tyranny”
[2] See Chapter VII – “Means Used by the Nazi Conspirators in Gaining Control of the German State” (© 1996-2007 The Avalon Project at Yale Law School. The Lillian Goldman Law Library in Memory of Sol Goldman)

Recent statements by President Barack Obama with regards to the planned ground zero mosque have brought quite a few issues of import to the forefront. One that I wish to consider is the issue of straw-men (or, to be politically correct must I state, “non-gender specific straw-personages”?).

In fallacious argumentation one builds a straw-man because straw-men are so very easy to knock down. The logically fallacious tactic is to not deal with an issue but to caricature an issue, watering it down, misrepresenting it, etc., so as to build an target that is easy to discredit.
In other words; consider an issue, realize that your opposition—your pseudo-defeater—is weak, redefine the issue to fit your weak opposition, restate the issue according to your redefinition, offer your response to the watered down version, consider yourself victorious.
Yet, you have only succeeded in arguing against yourself; against your redefinition, and not the issue itself.

Here are two examples of this fallacy:
1) Same sex marriage: the pseudo-defeater, the talking-point, is, “How does same sex marriage affect your marriage?”
Wow! Great point!
Yet, the issue is not how same sex marriage affect my marriage. The issue is to ask, “Who claimed that the reason to oppose same sex marriage is because it will affect my marriage?” As far as I can tell; no one, at any time, in any place, at all, ever.

2) Muslim terrorism: the pseudo-defeater, the talking-point, is, “Not all Muslims are terrorists.”
Wow! Great point!
Yet, the issue is not that all Muslims are not terrorists. The issue is to ask, “Who claimed that all Muslims are terrorists?” As far as I can tell; no one, at any time, in any place, at all, ever.

Now, to Barack Obama who stated the following with regards to the ground zero mosque. Note that from the get go he mischaracterizes the issue as it is not true that “Recently, attention has been focused on construction of mosques in certain communities, particularly New York.” This is specifically a New York/ground zero issue (by the way, you know that Barack Obama is about to attempt to pull a fast one whenever he says, “Let me be clear”):

So, he affirms (to applause) Muslim’s rights to practice religion and the right to build mosques.
Wow! Great point!
Yet, the issue is not Muslim’s rights to practice religion and build mosques. The issue is to ask, “Who ever claimed that Muslims in America do not have the right to practice religion and build mosques?” As far as I can tell; no one, at any time, in any place, at all, ever.

Next came the following statement:

Again, he offers firm responses to arguments that no one made and affirmed that he refuses to deal with the actual, real issue. This is why this issue has blown up in his face; he refuses to deal with the issue and answer the real concerns which amounts to a lack of sensitivity on the part of those who support the building of the ground zero mosque, the ignoring of those concerns and the utter selfishness—as they only care about what they want; the mosque. A side issue is that this mosque is said to provide a meeting place, a place for dialogue. Yet, if they were really motivated by merely providing a meeting place, a place for dialogue they very well could—it would be called a build and not a specifically Muslim house of worship.

This is that which one must keep in mind as this issue is ubiquitously discusses; to note the category mistakes and parse the real issue from the false talking point.

Some people are intimidated by missionaries because they are trained and it is their job to preach. However, the more you deal with them, the more you realize that they are somewhat like classical musicians. Professional classical musicians are known for two things: 1) expertise at their craft—they can play many classical tunes, read the music, etc and 2) they cannot improvise to save their lives—ask them to “just play something…make something up…improve” and they do not know what to do since to them music is about prescribed notes and not about imagination and being creative.

Missionaries, and here I refer to cult missionaries, know their own step by step, Q&A, catechism, prescribed dialogue and know how to jump from partial verse to partial verse in order to tie together their particular and peculiar doctrines. Yet, get them to take them time to read an entire passage in order to determine context, get them to consider passages that are ignored as there are inconvenient to their particular/peculiar doctrines or, simply ask various questions of them and they fall apart.
When missionaries come to your home they always ask if you will invite them to share a prescribed and pre-packaged message with you. This message is the trained and rehearsed classical tune. I always tell them that I would rather discuss this or that issue instead. Although, going through their message and causing them to doubt that about which they were so certain is also a good idea.

When Jeff Durbin asks what is the context of a text that is up for discussion the Mormon asks, “Does it matter?” and continuing, whilst pounding on the desk, with “Joseph Smith was prophet” and later, “the most important thing…I don’t need to know everything in the Bible…most important thing to know is truth; Joseph Smith is a prophet of God.”

And there you have it: this is the very essence of Mormonism.
Joseph Smith stated the following in Pearl of Great Price - Joseph Smith - History 2:18-20:

My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join…
I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt…He again forbade me to join with any of them [emphasis added]

Once he is believed, the one and only things that matters is what Joseph Smith states: what the Bible stated does not matter, the context does not matter, nothing else matters because it is Joseph Smith to whom you submit all.
Now you know why Mormon article of faith number eighth is “We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.”
Now, how do we ascertain when it has been accurately translated? Textual criticism, manuscript evidence, study of ancient languages, etc.?
No. The issue is very simple, given the Mormon worldview: if it deviates from Mormon doctrine then it is considered not to be translated correctly with absolutely no regard to any other considerations.

For more information of Mormonism, please see: this link

Various Rabbis and Jewish Scholars:
Rabbi Moses ben Maimon (aka Maimonides or the Rambam) (11th c. AD),

“And Isaiah, too, said, describing his appearance without his father, mother, family, tribe, or partisans being known: For he grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground [Isa. 53:2]…As for the totality of his qualities described by all the prophets from Moses first to Malachi, you can gather them from all the twenty-four [biblical books]. But the most notable is that with his appearance God will astonish the kings of the earth by his report; their kingdoms will topple; and they will refrain from rising against him by war or revolt, I mean, they will not defame him or deny him, but be astonished by the remarkable things he performs and be absolutely silent. Isaiah says, describing the submission of all the kings to him: Kings shall be silenced because of him [Isa. 52:15].”1

Rabbi Maimonides wrote in his commentary on Genesis,

“From the beginning God has made a covenant with the Messiah and told Him, ‘My righteous Messiah, those who are entrusted to you, their sins will bring you into a heavy yoke’…And He answered, ‘I gladly accept all these agonies in order that not one of Israel should be lost.’ Immediately, the Messiah accepted all agonies with love, as it is written: ‘He was oppressed and he was afflicted.’”

Rabbi Mosheh Ben Nachman [aka the Ranban or Nachmanides 1250-1270 AD],

“The right view respecting this Parashah is to suppose that by the phrase ‘my servant’ the whole of Israel is meant, as in Isaiah 44:2, and often. As a different opinion however is adopted by the Midrash, which refers it to the Messiah, it is necessary for us to explain it in conformity with the view there maintained. The prophet says, The Messiah, the Son of David, of whom the text speaks, will never be conquered or perish by the hands of his enemies. And in fact, the text teaches this clearly…

And so it is said in the Midrash, ‘He will be higher than Abraham, more exalted than Moses, and loftier than the Ministering angels’; the Messiah, that is, will be higher than Abraham, who was an expounder of the belief in God and, in spite of the opposition of the king, gained proselytes in the land of Nimrod: for the Messiah will do more than he did; he will proselytize many nations…

The text continues, referring to the Messiah, ‘As many were astonished by thee.’ Their astonishment was shewn by mocking him when he first arrived, and by asking how one ‘despised’, meek and riding upon an ass’ (Zechariah 9:9) could conquer all those kings of the world who had laid hold of Israel, and rescue him from their land…

For in the beginning he was ‘like a small tree’ springing up ‘out of the dry earth,’ which never grows great enough to put forth boughs and to bear fruit: he was ‘despised,’ for he had no army and no people…‘He was oppressed and he was afflicted’: for when he first comes, ‘meek and riding upon an ass,’ the oppressors and officers of every city will come to him, and will afflict him with revilings and with insults, reproaching both him and the God in whose name he appears, like Moses our master…

The prophet continues: ‘And because he was numbered with the transgressor,’ expected, as I have stated, to be reckoned amongst them, ‘and carried the sin of many’-what happened to him at the time was not for his own sins, but for the sins of others-‘and for the transgressors,’ i.e. (according to what is said above, verse 6) ‘allowed’ the iniquity of sinners and transgressors ‘to light’ upon himself.”

Again, Rabbi Nachmanides,

“…And by his stripes we were healed—because the stripes by which he is vexed and distressed will heal us; God will pardon us for his righteousness, and we shall be healed both from our own transgressions and from the iniquities of our fathers.”

Rabbi Shlomoh Astruc (14th c. AD),

“My servant shall prosper, or be truly intelligent, because by intelligence man is really man—it is intelligence which makes a man what he is. And the prophet calls the King Messiah my servant, speaking as one whosent him. Or he may call the whole people my servant, as he says above my people (lii. 6): when he speaks of the people, the King Messiah is included in it; and when he speaks of the King Messiah, the people is comprehended with him. What he says then is, that my servant the King Messiah will prosper.”2

Rabbi Shimon ben Yohai,

“And Armilaus will join battle with Messiah, the son of Ephraim, in the East gate…and Messiah, the son of Ephraim, will die there, and Israel will mourn for him. And afterwards the Holy One will reveal to them Messiah, the son of David, whom Israel will desire to stone, saying, Thou speakest falsely; already is the Messiah slain, and there is non other Messiah to stand up (after him): and so they will despise him, as it is written, ‘Despised and forlorn of men;’ but he will turn and hide himself from them, according to the words, ‘Like one hiding his face from us.’”3

1. 1. Rabbi Moses ben Maimon (a.k.a. Maimonides or Rambam), Epistle to Yemen; Ralph Lerner trans., The Empire of Light, Popular Enlightenment in an Age of Belief (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2000), p. 127
2. 2. Rabbi Shlomoh Astruc (14th c.) quoted in S. R. Driver and A. Neubauer, eds., The Fifty-third Chapter of Isaiah According to the Jewish Interpreters (2 volumes; New York: Ktav, 1969), p. 129
3. 3. Mysteries of R. Shimon ben Yohai quoted in Driver and Neubauer, p. 32, citing the edition of Jellinek, Beth ha-Midrash (1855), part iii. p. 80

Hitler - Mein Kampf
Lastly, let us go back to the mid 1920s and consider the quotes that Austin Cline provided from Mein Kampf:

1. Adolf Hitler: Acting According to Gods Will
I believe today that my conduct is in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator. - Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, Vol. 1 Chapter 2

2. Adolf Hitler: Thanking God
Even today I am not ashamed to say that, overpowered by stormy enthusiasm, I fell down on my knees and thanked Heaven from an overflowing heart for granting me the good fortune of being permitted to live at this time. - Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, Vol. 1 Chapter 5

3. Adolf Hitler: Deutschland Über Alles
I had so often sung Deutschland über Alles and shouted Heil at the top of my lungs, that it seemed to me almost a belated act of grace to be allowed to stand as a witness in the divine court of the eternal judge and proclaim the sincerity of this conviction. - Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, Vol. 1 Chapter 5

4. Adolf Hitler: Gods Grace Smiles
Once again the songs of the fatherland roared to the heavens along the endless marching columns, and for the last time the Lords grace smiled on His ungrateful children. - Adolf Hitler reflecting on World War I, Mein Kampf, Vol. 1, Chapter 7

5. Adolf Hitler: Fulfilling Gods Mission
What we have to fight for is the necessary security for the existence and increase of our race and people, the subsistence of its children and the maintenance of our racial stock unmixed, the freedom and independence of the Fatherland; so that our people may be enabled to fulfill the mission assigned to it by the Creator. - Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, Vol. 1 Chapter 8

6. Adolf Hitler: Fate of God
But if out of smugness, or even cowardice, this battle is not fought to its end, then take a look at the peoples five hundred years from now. I think you will find but few images of God, unless you want to profane the Almighty. - Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, Vol. 1 Chapter 10

7. Adolf Hitler: Sin Against the Will of God
In short, the results of miscegenation are always the following: (a) The level of the superior race becomes lowered; (b) physical and mental degeneration sets in, thus leading slowly but steadily towards a progressive drying up of the vital sap. The act which brings about such a development is a sin against the will of the Eternal Creator. And as a sin this act will be avenged. - Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, Vol. 1 Chapter 11

8. Adolf Hitler: Sacrilege Against God
Anyone who dares to lay hands on the highest image of the Lord commits sacrilege against the benevolent creator of this miracle and contributes to the expulsion from paradise. - Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf Vol. 2 Chapter 1

9. Adolf Hitler: Confidence in God
Thus inwardly armed with confidence in God and the unshakable stupidity of the voting citizenry, the politicians can begin the fight for the remaking of the Reich as they call it. - Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf Vol. 2 Chapter 1

10. Adolf Hitler: Gold has Replaced God
It may be that today gold has become the exclusive ruler of life, but the time will come when man will again bow down before a higher god. - Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf Vol. 2 Chapter 2

11. Adolf Hitler: Sin Against the Will of God
It doesnt dawn on this depraved bourgeois world that this is positively a sin against all reason; that it is criminal lunacy to keep on drilling a born half-ape until people think they have made a lawyer out of him, while millions of members of the highest culture-race must remain in entirely unworthy positions; that it is a sin against the will of the Eternal Creator if His most gifted beings by the hundreds and hundreds of thousands are allowed to degenerate in the present proletarian morass, while Hottentots and Zulu Kaffirs are trained for intellectual professions. - Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf Vol. 2 Chapter 2

12. Adolf Hitler: Creation of God
That this is possible may not be denied in a world where hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people voluntarily submit to celibacy, obligated and bound by nothing except the injunction of the Church. Should the same renunciation not be possible if this injunction is replaced by the admonition finally to put an end to the constant and continuous original sin of racial poisoning, and to give the Almighty Creator beings such as He Himself created? - Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf Vol. 2 Chapter 2

13. Adolf Hitler: Dont Just Talk About Fulfilling Gods Will
The folkish-minded man, in particular, has the sacred duty, each in his own denomination, of making people stop just talking superficially of Gods will, and actually fulfill Gods will, and not let Gods word be desecrated. For Gods will gave men their form, their essence and their abilities. Anyone who destroys His work is declaring war on the Lords creation, the divine will. - Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf Vol. 2 Chapter 10

For a basic consideration of Hitler as Bible Expositor see the relevant portion of From Zeitgeist to Poltergeist, Part 7

In the next segment I will paraphrastically review these quotes and glean their actual, un-Christian, meaning—which should be obvious enough to require not elucidation.

One issue that comes up in the second video is that the Jehovah’s Witness claims that the Bible does not state that Jesus raised Himself up from the dead.

According to the Bible God, the Triune God, each member of the Trinity, raised Jesus:

Jesus:
John 2:19-21 "destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. Then the Jews said, It has taken forty-six years to build this temple and will you raise it up in three days? But He was speaking of the temple of His body."

John 10:17-18 "Therefore my Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from my Father."

The Father (here as “God”):
Acts 2:24 "But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him"

Romans 4:24 "but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness-for us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead"

Romans 8:11 "But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you."

1st Thessalonians 1:9-11 "you turned from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come."

1st Peter 1:21 "Through Him you believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God."

The Holy Spirit:
1st Peter 3:18 "For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit."

Also, the Jehovah’s Witness states that Jesus is “a god,” also that Jesus “isn’t a god,” and “is god like” and is “a god” and on it goes.

For more information on Jehovah’s Witnesses, please see: this link

And for the Trinity, please see: this link

Have you ever considered taking your ministry international? Has God spoken to YOU about the need to take the Gospel to the nations? Do you ever think to yourself, "I love using my gifts here in my own country…but I can’t help feeling there are greater needs beyond these shores that i can also meet"?  [...] - [Read more]

Much has been written over the years about having purpose and in particular about having a purpose driven life but I want to look at it from a slightly different perspective.

I’m sure you’ve heard of bucket lists – well put simply a bucket list is a purpose driven list.

Or put it another way a list of purposes.

Now I’m not saying that a bucket list should or even will replace your purpose but two things spring to mind:

1. If you have a purpose already then this can be a great cathartic listing of additional ‘fun’ desires that can help you along the way with your purpose and
2. If you don’t or haven’t yet found your purpose then this exercise could also help reveal your purpose

So how do you create your own bucket list?

First off set aside some time and then start writing down what comes to mind as you read these questions:

- What if you were to die tomorrow? What would you wish you could do before you die?

- What have you always wanted to do but have not done yet?

- What will you do if you have unlimited time, money and resources?

- Any countries, places or locations you want to visit?

- What are your biggest goals and dreams?

- What achievements do you want to have?

- What experiences do you want to have / feel?

- Are there any special moments you want to witness?

- What activities or skills do you want to learn or try out?

- What are the most important things you can ever do?

- What would you like to say/do together with other people? People you love? Family? Friends?

- Are there any specific people you want to meet in person?

- What do you want to achieve in the different areas: Social, Love, Family, Career, Finance, Health (Your weight, Fitness level), Spiritual?

- What do you need to do to lead a life of the greatest meaning?

So there you have it – a Purpose Driven Life meets a Bucket List.

• So do you have a purpose?
• What about a bucket list?

Purpose Driven Life is a post from: Church Techy

What’s your church’s backup plan?

Please tell me you have one?

There are numerous options and I won’t bore you with them – but one of the newer ideas around is cloud based backup. As in you copy your data to a remote data centre and let them worry about servers, resilience, cooling and all the other headaches that come with running a data centre.

However, who says you have to trust an unknown third party with your data?

So, if you’re happy that your backup plan actually works then why not find another local(ish) church and do a deal to put a server in their data room and let them do the same in yours. Then setup your server / software to copy the data offsite and voila you have a secure, offsite backup server.

• Is this something you’d do?
• Or is my idea too radical?
• What’s your cheap, offsite & secure solution?

Offsite Backup is a post from: Church Techy

My departure for Bolivia is just days away and my heart overflows with anticipation.  I’ve spent the day sitting at Barnes & Noble with my laptop, listening and writing as God shares HIS heart for Bolivia with me.  What a privilege.  The messages He’s giving are coming fast and with great clarity. Thanks for those [...] - [Read more]

The next Kingdom assignment God has set before me is BOLIVIA.  I’ll be serving in Bolivia on behalf of Food for the Hungry from August 7-14 during which time I’ll speak on 14 different occasions to groups ranging from small children (6-10 yrs old), teens, women, pastors, and FH staff to radio and TV interviews [...] - [Read more]

If you ever want to know why I have such a strong interest and opinions about security?

Then this post shows everything that is bad about people in this world …

from the too young child allowed seeming total freedom to do what she wants…

to the father that shouts abuse at a webcam from behind his daughters shoulder…

to the mother that stands off camera and mutters obscenities…

to sites like 4chan and Tumblr that have degraded the usefulness of the internets.

It’s a sad world that brings an 11yr old child to public tears on a youtube video.

The rest I’ll leave up to you to decide.

Nuff said.

Lessons in Hate is a post from: Church Techy

We’ve been getting a spate of phone calls at home.

The conversation goes something like this:

Me: Hello

Them: Can I speak with Mr. Smith? (name changed, but it isn’t mine)

Me: I’m sorry Mr. Smith hasn’t lived here since 2003.

Them: Is that Windy Way? (also changed)

Me: I’m not prepared to confirm that ….

We then bat back and forth a bit where they are trying to get some details about my address confirmed and I just stick to my mantra of “Mr. Smith hasn’t lived here since 2003″ and / or “I’m not prepared to confirm that”. At which point they have always got nasty or downright rude and it always ends with me hanging up as they try every tactic they can to get me to confirm something. Typically a day or so goes past before I get another one.

This seemingly innocuous approach to getting details is the old ‘social engineering‘ approach – whereby you use a fact (whether true or not) to gather accurate details of your target. The end game being that your or your company’s security gets compromised in some way.

The whole saga reminded me to have another chat with my children.

I’ve covered online dangers many a time with my children but for some reason had overlooked the more obvious direct approach.

My end advice to them was ultimately very simple:

If you don’t know the person then tell them nothing.

And always refer them to mum or dad.

Turns out our regular caller is a debt collection agency based in Scotland and they are known for their rude strong arm tactics in trying to get information so that they can pin a debt on you.

Reminds me that all the dangers aren’t online and we do well to remember that.

• have you any simple safety advice?
• have you fallen foul of social engineering?
• if so, what was the outcome?

Social Engineering is a post from: Church Techy

Identity or ID fraud is huge.

Here are some facts to make you think ….

90% of users never check all their transactions on their bank or credit card statements. (ID Theft Protect, Aug 2007)

89% of users do not use a password manager to store their online and offline usernames and passwords. (ID Theft Protect, Sept 2007)

Identity theft is costing the British economy over £1.7 billion annually. (2006 – CIFAS)

Impersonation of the dead is growing at a rate of increase of 60% each year. (2004 – UK Home Office)

In 2004 most UK card fraud was committed via face-to-face transactions in shops. (2004 – Cardwatch)

These are just UK figures.

So what can you or should you do to help protect your ID in an ever increasingly connected and online world?

• Keep personal information secure.
• Keep all your plastic (credit / debit / identity) cards safe.
• Keep your documents safe.
• Keep your passwords and PINs safe.
• Use individual passwords for anything that requires online transactions – monetary or not.
• Protect the identity of deceased family members.
• Shred letters / documents that contain identifying information.

I will almost certainly expand on some of these in the weeks and months to come, but if you need any specific information or answers now then please do ask via the comments section or via my contact form or even by using the Skribit suggestions tab.

Protect Against ID Fraud is a post from: Church Techy

If this doesn’t get you fired up about Making Money From Home, I’m out of ideas   Power 100 Call Download audio file (Power%20100%20Call.mp3) - [Read more]

Hi
If you stopped by in response to my first-ever newsletter, THANK YOU. I worked so hard computerizing. Glad it worked. Please take a moment to introduce yourself. Tell us how you became acquainted with this ministry and what you hoped to gain by stopping by.

I would encourage all of you to read the post on the 90-Day Renewal and prayerfully consider the benefits it offers you. Im going to begin the journey yet again and will be posting my thoughts each day, right here on the blog. PLEASE join in and share with us what God is teaching YOU about

Your Spirit - what youre learning from Gods Word
Your Soul - mind will and emotions
Your Body - exercise or heath tips that have worked in YOUR life. Your favorite healthy recipes.

We also want to talk about how we can Let Our Lives Count. Afterall, the whole point of being strong in spirit, soul and body is so God can work through our lives to touch the world. Thats why were here.

Anyway, welcome to the world of blogging, where the whole idea is to let your voice be heard. So dont be shy. Jump on in!

Blessings
Donna - [Read more]

The Advantages of ReboundingCopyright@2004 by Donna Partow

I honestly believe Rebounding is a tremendously beneficial exercise and an important component of the 90-Day Renewal Program. Let me share some of the unique benefits:Research conducted by NASA, comparing running to rebounding, found that rebounding is 68% more efficient in producing similar physiological results. It began when NASA scientists observed that astronauts in space for 14 days lost up to 15% of their bone and muscle mass because their cells didnt have gravity to oppose.So NASA had to find an exercise that would strengthen astronauts both before and after space trips. They found that nothing worked as well as rebounding! Maybe youve noticed that gravity is doing weird things to your body!?! Well, ladies, its time to fight gravity.......by defying gravity. How?Start jumping! If its good enough to keep astronauts in condition, think what it can do for the rest of us earthlings.

Rebounding not only strengthens your muscles and bones, it strengthens your cells. According to NASA research, the straight up-and-down movement of the body while rebounding exposes the human body to the G-Force (pull of gravity). Each time you resist the pull of gravity (by jumping up), your entire body becomes stronger. This takes the concept of resistance exercise to a whole new level!

Rebounding stimulates your Lymphatic System, which is your bodys primary tool for self-cleaning. It sucks out toxins, poisons and metabolic waste products, while destroying bacteria, viruses, germs, dead cells and other unhealthy material that doesnt belong in your body. Thats why a diagnosis of Lymphoma, or a report that cancer has spread to the Lymph nodes, is so dire. It means the very system design to purify your body has itself been contaminated. Its like trying to mop the floor with a dirty mop...except your very life is at stake.

As you can well imagine, it is vitally important to keep your Lymphatic System in great running order. According to Dr. Arthur C. Guyton, author of the book, Medical Physiology, If the Lymphatic System were to stop circulating for just 24 hours, death would occur. On the other hand, when the Lymphatic System is functioning as God designed it to, it is practially impossible to get sick.

The up-and-down motion of rebounding stimulates the Lymphatic System, promoting more efficient cell-cleansing processes. This explains why pockets of cellulite (notice the word CELL) begin to dissipate, even though theyve remained impervious to other forms of exercise like traditional weight-training.Rebounding provides a quick total-body workout. According to Albert Carter, founder of the American Institute of Reboundology and author of The New Miracles of Rebound Exercise, Rebounding "is like doing push-ups with every cell in the body all at once. All other strength exercises are designed to strengthen only the muscles and generally only one group at a time. While strengthening muscles is necessary, it is also important to have strong bones, connective tissue and strong vital organs. Rebounding strengthens the whole body, cell by cell. (excerpted from Albert E. Carters Rebound Exercise Lecture)

You can place your Rebounder in front of the television, therebyredeeming the time which would otherwise have been spent on the couch.Your children will love it. A depressing number of children are currently overweight. Rebounding provides your children with an efficent, total body workout and they have no idea they are getting their exercise.They think theyre having fun!

You can buy a mini-trampoline at Wal-mart for $20-$30. And if thats all you can afford, its a good place to start. But let me assure you that there is absolutely NO COMPARISON between a cheap mini-trampoline and a top-quality rebounder. This probably sounds like an infomercial, but its the truth. ReboundAIR sent me their ReboundAir for free and said, "If you arent convinced within 10 minutes, send it back." Well, I was convinced within 1 minute and have no intention of sending it back. The difference is in the impact. Each time your feet hit the ground--during any exercise--your entire body is impacted or jarred. Thats why jogging and high-impact aerobics have such a high rate of injury. Having just completed a marathon (thats 26.2 miles), i know all about the pain of impact. Shins and ankles give out long before the lungs and heart do! Jog in place and feel for yourself how your entire body reacts when your feet hit the floor. If youre really brave, jump up in the air and land on both feet. Does the word ouch spring to mind?

According to Albert Carter, "A study conducted at the University of Utah concluded that rebounding eliminates as much as 7/8th of the skeletal shock when compared to running on a hard surface." This dramatically reduces injury to shins, ankles, knees and the back.The beauty of mini-trampolines or rebounders is that they cushion the impact, so you can exercise with less risk of injury. Even a $20 mini-trampoline is less jarring than jogging on the pavement. Just like jogging on the grass is less jarring than jogging along the side of the road. But nothing cushions your landing like the

Note: I am indebted to Albert C. Carter and the American Institute of Reboundology for their assistance in preparing this information. - [Read more]

I am so convinced that the 90-Day Renewal Program (as set forth in Becoming the Woman I Want To Be) has the power to transform your life, that Id like to do two things for you:

1. Give you the first Chapter FREE. This chapter spells out exactly what the program offers and how it works.
   
2. Offer you FREE Daily support to spur you on to finish your 90-Day Journey on the 90-Day Blog
   
3. Give you the opportunity to interact with others who are taking the same journey. To share your triumphs--and even your setbacks--with others who want to be there to help.

I know it works because the 90-Day Renewal is what God gave me when my life had completely fallen apart. Ive written 20 books, but I did not set out to write Becoming The Woman I Want To Be. I had been through a horrible ordeal in my personal life (Im not even going there, so dont ask. But trust me: I was decimated) Instead, as i sat in my prayer room hour after hour, day after day, I kept a journal of the truths God was teaching me and the steps he was urging me to take. Im telling you: my life was a trainwreck. It took me three full years on my face before God to finally get restored to health and sanity. As others began to notice the absolute transformation in my life, I decided to conduct an experiment. I took all the things God had done in my life, categorized them into Spirt, Soul and Body, and put it up on the internet as an experiment. I asked people to "try it out" To see if these principles would work in their lives as well.

The results were nothing short of miraculous. You can read some of the testimonies for yourself.

Im taking that same step again. Im asking you to give it a try. To see for yourself the POWER of God to transform your life in spirit, soul and body. Wont you join us on the journey? Just click here to join the 90-Day Renewal Blog.

Blessings

Donna

At my familys urging -- and Gods prompting -- Im taking a sabbatical from the road this year and have agreed to do only a handful of open-to-the public events. Ill be in Ohio, Oregon, Montana, Nebraska and Arizona. For details, check out my schedule. If you can get to one of those states, Ill see you there. Otherwise, its 2007. By the way, my team of volunteers are currently evaluating which cities we want to visit with our 2007 Let Your Life Count Tour. If your church might be interested in partnering with us, please let me know. - [Read more]

2020TV are a christian, family run video/film production company. ?Producers of New Covenant Church, Right Now Jesus, Oxford Bible Church and many more. ?They believe in upholding normal broadcast standards for Christian TV channels, so that the Word of God can be glorified.?

I’ve been a long time fan of Ian “Gizmo” Richards and in days past we’ve had quite a natter about tech items. Sadly his newsletter no longer runs but he does still maintain the most excellent Gizmo’s Freeware reviews site under the old TechSupportAlert newsletter URL.

Sadly I don’t get as much time as I’d like to contribute there but a recent discovery of mine is his Security Advice Wizard.

It’s a very simple, 4 page, multiple choice info gathering wizard.

Nothing complicated and I guarantee that once you’ve read the T&C’s it’ll take you less than a minute to complete (and if you include those then make it less than 2 minutes).

At the end of it you get appropriate and focused advice on what you should do and how you should protect your Windows based computer..

I say you all should go through it … now.

Security Wizard is a post from: Church Techy

I’ve taken to recently unfollowing a bunch of folks on Twitter.

Not because I don’t want to see their tweets but because I’m seeing them twice and sometimes three times.

You see, I use lists – probably not as extensively as some do but then TweetDeck does recommend you restrict the maximum number of open columns. So in an effort to improve the flow of my twitter world I’ve taken to trying to be more organised.

Some lists I’ve created myself:

ChurchIT – this one covers far more than just IT. The basic criteria is do you go to a church (I don’t care what denomination or faith) and are you involved in IT, Tech, Media, AV, or similar in some way. If so, and I’ve seen your name then you are likely on this list. Currently it has 197 members and 17 followers.

CCNA – this one loosely covers anyone that tweets about the Cisco Certified Network Associate certification. It’s work related so I feel duty bound but it only has 19 members and one follower.

Welsh Rugby – I think this one is fairly self explanatory but it is a list of folks that play or have played rugby for or in Wales. A passion of mine and has 32 members but no followers.

I also have a couple of private lists that include folks I know IRL (in real life) and the folks I’ve interacted with on the 31DBBB project. I’m open to bribes for making my 31DBBB one public though. Equally I have a few lists I follow that I didn’t create.

The trouble with my recent actions is that it could cause some folks to unfollow me – and I accept this as it is too much effort to tell them individually that I’m following them via a list so please don’t drop me. Instead I’ll accept that my sphere of influence will likely decrease.

That’s no bad thing – after all it’s not about me.

Anyway, to utilise lists requires that you have a twitter app that allows you to easily view them.

My software of choice is TweetDeck because for me and the way I use Twitter it just works – and there’s an iPhone app for it as well.

• Do you use lists – if so tell me a list or lists you follow?
• What software do you use to manage your lists?
• How do you find your lists?
• Would you find a lists 101 helpful?
• Are you on any lists?
• Do you have a twitter plan of action?

Twitter Lists is a post from: Church Techy

Communion.net is your complete resource on all things communion.? Everything you need for your churchs communion.? We have First Communion covered from the invitations to the veil.

AV-Comparatives have, until recently, been a site I trust.

I’ve referred you good readers to them before as a place of independence.

But today, IMO, they’ve blown that trust.

In their words:

At the end of every year, AV-Comparatives releases a summary report to comment on the various Anti-Virus products tested over the year, and to determine the winners in the various tests.

All sounds good so far – but last year, 2009, they awarded “AV Product of the year” to Symantec.

What?

How on earth can the widely recognised bloat that is Symantec beat the likes of Kaspersky (2nd) or Nod32 (3rd) as two examples I do trust? OK, so no one company will get it right 100% of the time for 100% of the people, but day in day out Symantec AV software has shown to be problematical, slow and notoriously unfriendly to systems. And woe betide you if you want to remove it.

Take a look at the summary report on which they base their award. On the surface and just looking at the chart you’d be inclined to agree – and let’s face it; not many of us dig into the meat of reports like this. But I do and I did and it makes for far more revealing reading than the headline – AV Product of the Year. After all, will Symantec care that in the details they state “being recognised as “Best Product of 2009″ does not mean that a product is the “best” (underline emphasis mine) – ah right, so now the truth comes out.

So, explain it to me. How can you on the one hand award a best of and then on the other say it isn’t necessarily the best?

Either it is or isn’t.

As I said, Symantec won’t care as they’ll just use the headline.

Oh and you get all this at twice the price of the other two I mention. Go figure.

• Do you agree with me on trust?
• What about in this particular instance – should I just shrug my shoulders?
• Has any security company lost yoru trust?

Loss of Trust is a post from: Church Techy

Simply Him is a blog about faith, worship and the christian way of life. Features a weekly devotional based on the Word of God. Simply Him is focused at helping you find strength in your daily life, encouraging you in the journey, regaining victory in every step and draw you closer to the One who matters. - [Read more]

MyJesusTV.com is about Christian News worldwide. Its about praying for your needs in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. If you have a request for prayer, please dont hesitate to write to us through our video blog so that we could pray for your need. God Bless you. brother Pavel - [Read more]

Vine Radio provides free online original Christian music, classic and new hymns, sermons by some of todays most gifted preachers and classic sermons by well known preachers, and Bible teaching and studies based exclusively on the Bible. Vine Radio is spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world. Always free, no commercials, no donations, all Christian, all the time. - [Read more]

Here are 10 of the most popular Internet Scams.

I list them purely for your edification in the hopes that you don’t get caught out by them

- or that you can use this as either a quick reference

- or as a pointer for friends that may need some advice.

So, without further ado and in no particular order:

1. Nigerian scam – aka 419.

This almost always appears as an email from someone that is the “relative of the late [insert grand title]“ – in short they utilise emotion to try and get you to part with smaller sums of money in return for a decent %age of a much larger sum. One of the best sites out there for advice and fighting back is 419 Eater.

2. Lottery scams.

Similar to the 419 scam this one typically asks for an up-front payment to release the funds you’ve won. See FraudAid for some great advice.

3. Advance Loan Fees.

These, like the previous two, will ask for an up-front fee typically referred to as an admin or processing fee. They will normally ‘guarantee’ the loan – but ask yourself this: Why, when a conventional bank or credit card company will add the charge to any loan, do I need to pay an up-front fee? Short and to the point advice from Fraud.org.

4. Holiday scams.

These almost always take the approach that you’ve won a greatly reduced cost cruise or holiday but you never get to hear the ‘catch’ until you’ve signed up and paid what you believe is the total cost. Then the hidden clauses come out. ExpertLaw.com appears to have the best coverage of these types of ‘deal’.

5. Phishing scams.

I’ve talked about these before – see my full advice here.

6. Disaster relief scams.

I trust I don’t need to spell this one out? Instead I will simply say – go direct to the homepage of your favourite disaster relief charity and donate there. And if you don’t know any then check out CharityNavigator.

7. Chain eMails.

This is the modern equivalent of a chain letter and you are asked  to forward a small (typically) amount of money to a name & address and add your own to the bottom. More advice and fun at some of the emails out there from BreakTheChain.org.

8. Overpayment scam.

Best way to describe this is with an example. You want to sell item A for £100. Scammer B offers £500 in the form of a cheque (or similar) for goods they’ve sold in your country and for you to forward on the remainder. In this example £400. Then the cheque bounces and not only are you without item A but you’ve also sent B £400. Much more info on this type of scam at Scambusters.org.

9. Computer money making machine scam.

In return for some money, yes up-front, you are asked to install a program on your computer that opens lots of popups / adverts. Each of these effectively generate a click for that advert and ths income for the scammer. You are highly unlikely to see any return on this other then seriously impaired computer response. Avoid.

10. Employment scam.

The only reason this scam exists is to gather information – yours. Oh, and possibly your money too. The end result is likely to be fraud of some kind, either your ID is stolen or money from your bank (knowingly or not) and far from earning you money will always cost. Job-hunt.org has some great advice on this type of scam.

• Have I missed any obvious scams?
• Have you any great links to share that provide advice on avoiding scams?

10 Internet Scams is a post from: Church Techy

Half the worlds population are non readers. For them the Bible remains tragically silent. Our mission is to provide affordable digital products and MegaVoice audio Bibles for those who cannot read Gods life-giving Word. ? - [Read more]

You can visit our site to network with other christians as well as read testimonies from other christians. You can request parayer as well as post your upcoming church events. - [Read more]

Telling The Story is an outreach ministry of Crabtree Chapel Baptist Church. - [Read more]

DiscipleLife Resources is dedicated to equipping the church with quality discipleship materials and features products from Lifeway Christian Resources and others. - [Read more]

Our photo books are perfect for recordingYour TestimonyChurch Projects - Building - Outreach Christian Weddings, Baptisms and other Special Occasions Christian Conferences, Summer Camps and Celebrations - [Read more]

GERD Heartburn [...] - [Read more]

Close About Widemouth Open wide and tell it the way it is! WideMouth Widemouths Pages Why we need a daily multivitamin Andy Stanley Gone Astray? Why we need multivitamins Irena Sendler, Hero of Peace Irena Sendler, Holocaust Hero Vitamin E, Acne & Teen Suicide Thornburg Virus Reishi Mushroom Al Gore, The Gory Details Nobel Peace Prize Committee See all of Widemouths pages [...] - [Read more]

Prophetic Word about the recent volcanic eruption in iceland and coming earthquakes in Scotland. - [Read more]

The Answer Deck SquidU Forum Policy FAQ Feedback and Bugs Report Abuse [...] - [Read more]

Charity Central How it Works Donating is Easy Charity Sign-Up [...] - [Read more]

Squidoo is the worlds most popular site for creating single pages on your interests, hobbies, job, favorite books, and any of a billion other things.[...] - [Read more]

Already have an account and just want to login?[...] - [Read more]

The power of recommendation is all about you. Just set up an account and youre good to go. (You bet its that easy).[...] - [Read more]

This RSS Feed was generated using the Free HTML 2 RSS conversion tool from Feedage.com - [Read more]

Close About Widemouth Open wide and tell it the way it is! WideMouth Widemouths Pages Andy Stanley Gone Astray? Irena Sendler, Hero of Peace Why we need a daily multivitamin Thornburg Virus Al Gore, The Gory Details Irena Sendler, Holocaust Hero Why we need multivitamins Vitamin E, Acne & Teen Suicide Nobel Peace Prize Committee Reishi Mushroom See all of Widemouths pages [...] - [Read more]

song tamil Bro. N Victor, Yellam, Yesuve ministry, Thoothukudy - [Read more]

song+msg tamil - M Meganathan Yellam Yeasuve ministry, Tuticorin - [Read more]

song tamil M Meganathan+ Bro N Victor. Yellam Yesuve ministry, Thoothukudi - [Read more]

bible reading - morining prayer english Yellam Yesuve ministry, Thoothukudi email: amegnat@dataone.in - [Read more]

song tamil - R.Sundar,Yellam Yesuve ministry, Thoothukudi email: amegnat@dataone.in - [Read more]

Gospel song written by 16 year old Jacob English. If you have ever felt dispair you will relate and love this song! - [Read more]

Rick videos todays message from Central Point, Oregon, USA - [Read more]

This Nine Minute Bible Study continues our look at the Epistle of Colossians. Today we start with Colossians 1;6. - [Read more]

Oh precious is the flow, that makes me white as snow, no other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus. - [Read more]

tamil message - by Rev. P.K. Paul Durai, PerungkannanKulam, Tirunelveli Dist. Yellam Yesuve ministry, Thoothukudi email: amegnat@dataone.in - [Read more]

It is essential to know and understand that when purchasing or selling real estate, the transfer of ownership rights have to take place at the time of sale. There are several forms to apply to gain ownership of real property and each forms has its own set of rules and expectations. These are necessary requirements in order for buyers and sellers real estate transactions run smoothly and to be assured that everything is according to plan. And also, it is important to learn and understand all terms used among various types of ownership.

·    Sole Ownership

Sole ownership is the simplest form of property ownership used when one person or individual buys a house or a piece of real estate. This form of property ownership grants an individual all right over the property in question.

·    Tenancy in Common

This form of real estate ownership gives multiple people the rights to own a fraction of the same property. The fraction owned by the different parties may vary, but every individual has an equal right to the property for a lifetime. For example, if one person owned one-half interest of the property, this party could not remove the right from residing in the home of those parties owning only 25% of the property. The ownership arrangements of this form can even last for several generations because the interest of the property could be passed to the heirs of one of the tenant in common dies and it is not passed to the other owners.

·    Joint Tenancy

This form of ownership agreements has four conditions that need to be met by the owners of the property. These conditions are: first, tenants must receive the ownership rights at the same time; next, tenants must have an equal interest; then, every tenants name must be placed in the title; and finally, all owners must have the exact and the same rights of possession. Joint tenancy provides the right of survivorship, which allows the property to be passed to the remaining joint tenant in case one of the owners dies.

The term “living will” is a confusing one. Much of the confusion lies in the fact that a “living will” really isn’t a will at all. Every person who has a living will should also have a will and vice versa.

First, I will give you the lay definitions of the two words and then I will explain further:

A living will usually provides specific directives about the course of treatment that is to be followed by health care providers and caregivers.

A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his estate and provides for the transfer of his property at death.

As you see, the two documents define two entirely different sets of circumstances. Each is important in its own way. For the purpose of this discussion, we will focus on the rationale and benefits of having a living will.

People are programmed to act as if they are incapable of being hurt. This is the philosophy that “something bad would never happen to me”. However, we have all heard another clique phrase: “Accidents happen.” I urge every person to consider the fact that they are not invincible. My goal is to convince readers to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

We all remember hearing the media cover the Terri Schiavo case. Through the seven year legal battle between her husband and her parents over whether or not to resuscitate, many nerves were struck. There was sadness. There was anger. There was passion. People protested in the streets about whether or not Terri should be kept alive in her persistent vegetative state. People fought because they cared. Looking back, however, I can’t help but think that the back-and-forth battle could have been prevented.

With a living will, a person has the power to define what medical actions they want to be taken in the instance that they cannot make decisions on their own accord. At its core, it defines when to maintain life support and when not to. It allows people to make these complex decisions for themselves ahead of time, rather than leaving them up to others in the instance that they are incapacitated.

Each state has its own laws about the procedures involved in obtaining a living will. I urge every person to research these laws and to eventually get one. It is a preventative measure. If it helps, consider it an insurance policy that can be obtained without dealing with insurance companies. It’s your life. Don’t leave it in the hands of others.

When you listen about landlord forms, you first think that what landlord forms are. A landlord will require the people occupying their property to sign legal forms that put in writing the relationship. Landlord’s wear many different hats, having to do with:

1.      Advertising

2.      Selling

3.      Screening

4.      Negotiating

5.      Construction

6.      Painting

7.      Plumbing

8.      Property management

9.      Collection

10.  Lease enforcement and other areas connected with the business of renting real estate.

As a landlord you should follow legal issues in written form so that there is no ambiguity remains. Rental agreement legal forms is used by every landlord for great deal. Both the landlord and tenant agree upon the contract. It is a legal contract, which is according to the state laws; that’s why it is important to use a comprehensive rental agreement that act in accordance with your state’s landlord.

Try to be clear in every aspect of the landlord agreement. You should include the issues like the lease term, agreed-rent, presence of both parties, at the end of the lease agreement who is responsible for bills, utilities and all repairs, fee for late rental and also mention the grace period. Generally landlord is responsible for all repairs and all work. So this should be mention in the lease agreement with mutual consent. A legal agreement should be signed by both parties by their freewill.

An unlawful detainer signifies the act of retaining property without having the legal rights to said property, and is typically the last step in forcing an uncooperative tenant to leave the unit.

Eviction notice forms inform the tenant that they must also treat their default of the rental agreement or leave the rental property within a set period of time. It is also a landlord form.

Nowadays many landlords form LLC’s, neither partnership nor corporation, as the entity of choice for holding their real estate investments.  Because it gives many advantages to landlords like; limited liability, the availability of pass-through tax status, and reduced paperwork load.

All of these forms often vary from country to country. Landlords should be confident that he/she is using a good legal document. It is important to think about the situation and think about which form(s) exactly fix the situation.

This is a great article on CNN, about how analysts are seeing the number of foreclosures drop off.  But for those who think that there are better days ahead, look out. According to the article, 6 states accounted for 60% of all foreclosure filings. California was the leader follwed by Florida, Michigan, Illinois, Arizona and Texas. But Nevada recorded the highest foreclosure rate of any state with one household of every 102 getting hit. If you are a savy real estate investor, this is still a great opportunity to find that right deal. Make sure that your real estate forms or legal forms include language that ensures that you are getting the property in the best shape possible.  While there will always be money in renovations, owners who have been trying to unload property for months or years will be weary to put added investment in a property that isn’t selling.

Power of attorney forms are an excellent tool available to the legal service consumer for getting various business matters handled expeditiously even when the principal party is unable to be present in person.  Powers of attorney are documents authorizing one person to act in the place of another.  Each state has its own laws concerning Powers of attorney which must be strictly adhered to to render the act one which shall be upheld in the eyes of that particular state.

Conducting a real estate transaction when one of the principal parties is unavailable and cannot be present in person for the culmination of the transaction can be a major obstacle to completely concluding and properly funding the pending transaction.  Due care must be taken in advance of getting in the middle of a transaction and then having one of the important persons suddenly become unavailable, if at all possible.  When the situation can be anticipated in advance, steps can be taken to handle the situation appropriately and before the situation becomes a problem.  One of the best and most effective manners of handling the affairs of an unavailable party is through the use of a validly prepared and signed power of attorney.

One common use of powers of attorney is in real estate transactions and conveying property.  Often, the unavailability of a party is foreseeable when a transaction is being scheduled.   At that time, suitable plans can be made to have a power of attorney drafted, executed, recorded and put validly in place.   All jurisdictions have unique requirements concerning the validity of a power of attorney as to its execution and applicability.

Pertinent state laws governing real estate conveyances and transactions must be carefully consulted and construed to ensure that proper procedures are followed in order for the transaction to be considered valid and not voidable by anyone bringing a valid adverse claim resulting from a property transfer involving the use of a general warranty deed.

A property transfer involving a general warranty deed is one in which the transferor covenants that in conveying the property, s/he has a valid ownership interest in the property; signing such a deed without proper authority or ownership interest breaches the warranty of good title and would thus be violated if the deed were signed under an improper power of attorney; one not prepared in compliance with the statutes authorizing such preparation and execution.

In case you were wondering. There are many in the legal world that use online forms like we have on our own site. Just read this and tell us if you think or know of firms that do this. It makes sense but it really isn’t fair to make the customer pay that much for it. Hope you found the article useful.

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

A dinner is being held to honor Johan Smit and many other Rugby legends, the dinner will be raising funds for Operation BobbiBear. Please find details below:

Johan Smit dinner in aid of BobbiBear

In Daniel chapter 7 in the Old Testament you will read about his visions that he had seen which cover world events from his day all the way to the second coming of Jesus Christ. I invite you to read this article and learn the interpretation of these visions of Daniel and how they relate to future events. - [Read more]

Among the gods - A Hebrew just leaving the land in which polytheism attained its highest development, with gigantic statues and temples of incomparable grandeur, might well on such an occasion dwell upon this consummation of the long series of triumphs by which the greatness beyond compare of Yahweh was once for all established. - [Read more]

He appears as a Lamb, having seven horns and seven eyes; perfect power to execute all the will of God, and perfect wisdom to understand it, and to do it in the most effectual manner. - [Read more]

The root of David and the offspring of Judah, and as the King and head of the Israel of God; and he will do it, to the consolation and joy of all his people. - [Read more]

Those who see most of God, are most desirous to see more; and those who have seen his glory, desire to know his will. - [Read more]

This represented the secret purposes of God about to be revealed. - [Read more]

The great dragon will collect all his forces, to make one desperate struggle before all be lost. God warns of this great trial, to engage his people to prepare for it. - [Read more]

All are agreed, Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, will suddenly come again to judge the world. - [Read more]

The great dragon will collect all his forces, to make one desperate struggle before all be lost. God warns of this great trial, to engage his people to prepare for it. - [Read more]

These will be times of great temptation; therefore Christ, by his apostle, calls on his professed servants to expect his sudden coming, and to watch that they might not be put to shame. - [Read more]

Last night, Durban city was honored with the performance of “The Broadway Musical” at the Catalina Theatre.

Fifteen artists from New York took to the stage to the delight of the spectators. They offered a live repertoire of songs from different well known plays amongst them, “The Lion King”, “Mama Mia and “Rent”. Six actors from the Johannesburg “Lion King” production joined the spectacle unexpectedly which made the experience even more amazing and worth-seeing.

Twenty four tickets were donated for “Mother of Peace” and “BobbiBear” NPOs. Those who attended agreed that it was a performance characterized by amazing voices, sensitivity and dreams of a brighter future for all. After the performance the teenagers and children had the unique opportunity to meet the artists, sing-a-song along with them and take precious autographs home. This experience meant an awful lot for these young spectators who felt as special as they really are. These pictures prove that this was a night they will remember for ever and a dream-come true.

Pictures to follow…

WOW, congratulations to Mildrid and Thuli for a greak showing at the Sundance Film Festival. Rough Aunties received the “World Cinema Documentary Grand Jury Prize“, it is the highest award that can be offered. Operation BobbiBear is reaching new heights….

Rough Aunties | Sundance Festival 2009

This film can be very hard to watch due to it’s unwavering and unbiased look into such tough subject matter, but it definitely should be seen.  While I wasn’t able to watch all of the World Cinema Competition titles during my short time in Park City, I can say that it doesn’t surprise me that ROUGH AUNTIES won the World Cinema Documentary Grand Jury Prize.

Insert - Rough Aunties Review by AJ SCHNACK

Pictures still to come…

What an inspirational video this is, Jackie interviewed by KeepAChildAlive. She explains what exactly the organisation does as well as how the BobbiBears are used to helpthe children explain what exactly was done to them.

The intro gave me shivers, I think it would be a good thing to include that picture on the site? What do you guys think?

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Go OBB…

1. Programme Background

Under the apartheid regime the welfare system in South Africa was designed to accommodate and look after a small sector of privileged society. In 1994 when our constitution demanded care for all people in South Africa, the welfare structure had to stretch. Due to the breakdown of the family unit in Africa as well as violence, war and HIV/AIDS, we have found the welfare system broken and facing challenges no structure could cope with. We find children placed anywhere and this very often results in further abuse to the children. Children are left in places of safety with little or no resources and their needs and rights painfully absent.

The Honor programme has been initiated to ensure the children Bobbi Bear has put into places of safety are indeed being cared for and loved. That children are being visited regularly by the Bobbi Bear Honor programme manager to assess their very safety, to ensure they are cared for, to ensure they are in a school, to ensure they are not receiving further trauma and to ensure they are receiving ongoing counselling and treatment.

The Honor Programme will change that. The children will know they can call us at any time of day and night. The children will know they can tell us if they are being hurt or abused. The children will know they will be visited. The children will know that we  make sure their needs are met.

We at Bobbi Bear with our limited resources wish to be part of the solution for these children and thus we present to you Operation Bobbi Bear Honor Programme

2. Programme Aim

The aims of the Bobbi Bear Child Honor Programme are as follows:

• To ensure the children know they are individuals and are treated as such.
• To ensure the children know they have a voice ready to speak out for them in any situation.
• To ensure there is no secondary abuse.
• To ensure children’s rights are met.
• To ensure children’s needs are met mentally, physically and spiritually.

3.  Programme Objectives

The objectives of the Operation Bobbi Bear Honor Programme are as follows:

• To promote a caring attitude amongst children.
• To highlight the hardships and difficulties that children face in today’s society as a result of poverty, HIV/AIDS and violence.
• To decrease the amount of secondary abuse and violence that children are subject to in places of safety.
• To foster good working partnerships between Operation Bobbi Bear and places of safety.
• To create awareness and promote the work and services of Operation Bobbi Bear.

4. Expected Outcomes

The successful implementation of the Operation Bobbi Bear Honor Programme is expected to yield the following outcomes:

• Increased awareness that there is somebody that will always be there to help and Honor the Childs needs.
• A more respectful and caring attitude being shown between children and a decrease in incidents of abuse and victimisation between children.
• Improved co-operation and commitment from children’s homes and foster families with regards to children’s safety and the reporting of sexual abuse.
• A decrease in the amount of secondary abuse cases in children’s homes.

5. Programme Time Frame

The Operation Bobbi Bear Honor Programme will be run on an annual basis. The Programme will be implemented as soon as funding is secured

6. Geographical Areas of Operation

Initially, the programme will be implemented in the Kwa-Zulu Natal area. As more funding and resources are secured, the programme will expand to other areas with the long-term goal being to eventually run the programme on a provincial and national level. The programme will be implemented in urban, peri-urban and rural areas on the Durban South Coast.

7. Programme Monitoring & Evaluation

The programme will be monitored closely be the project manager, Michelle Jacobs with quarterly reports being produced on the progress of each child. A final evaluation and report will be submitted on an annual basis.

Here are some more pictures of Operation BobbiBear.

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Here are some of the pictures taken at the 5th Anual “Keep A Child Alive” Black Ball Event held in New York City and hororing Jackie Branfield of OBB (Operation BobbiBear) on her outstanding achievements in aiding children who are affected by HIV/AIDs.

We will update these pictures as soon as we get more…

WOW, what a moment it must have been for Jackie to be honored at the “Keep A Child Alive” Black Ball event held in New York City at The Hammerstein Ballroom on Thursday, November 13. We at BobbiBear are so very proud of our founder and driving force behind OBB (Operation BobbiBear), this has and will bring in the attention that OBB needs and hopefully will super charge OBB’s efforts.

The event had a lot of A-Listers including Alicia Keys (Performed as well as a OBB funder), Justin Timberlake, Queen Latifah and Jack White to name a few.

A big thanks to Leigh Blake who is the driving force behind KCA and who is directly responsible for Jackie’s honoring, KCA is now covering all of OBB’s operational costs which in turn allows for Operation BobbiBear to focus on the children and not raising funds to keep OBB operational.

We have managed to collect some photos of the event, please click here to see them (or the image)!

Jackie Branfield giving her speach

This was a mini documentary on Jackie Branfield from Operation BobbiBear, it was released and played in movie theatres all over Holland. Go Jackie…

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Here is a presentation that Operation BobbiBear gave about HIV/Aids and its affects on the body as well as how to minimise your chances of contracting the deadly desease (aka EduToy Programme):

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Click here to see what projects we are currently running…

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