"No Ultimate Meaning Without Immortality and God"

William Lane Craig

• William Lane Craig is Research Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology in La Mirada, California. He is well known for his work as an apologist, speaker and debater. He is the author of Reasonable Faith. View all resources by William Lane Craig

http://www.bethinking.org/who-am-i/introductory/no-ultimate-meaning-without-immortality-and-god.htm

If each individual person passes out of existence when he dies, then what ultimate meaning can be given to his life? Does it really matter whether he ever existed at all? It might be said that his life was important because it influenced others or affected the course of history. But this only shows a relative significance to his life, not an ultimate significance. His life may be important relative to certain other events, but what is the ultimate significance of any of those events? If all the events are meaningless, then what can be the ultimate meaning of influencing any of them? Ultimately it makes no difference.

Look at it from another perspective: Scientists say that the universe originated in an explosion called the 'Big Bang' about 15 billion years ago. Suppose the Big Bang had never occurred. Suppose the universe had never existed. What ultimate difference would it make? The universe is doomed to die anyway. In the end it makes no difference whether the universe ever existed or not. Therefore, it is without ultimate significance.

The same is true of the human race. Mankind is a doomed race in a dying universe. Because the human race will eventually cease to exist, it makes no ultimate difference whether it ever did exist. Mankind is thus no more significant than a swarm of mosquitos or a barnyard of pigs, for their end is all the same. The same blind cosmic process that coughed them up in the first place will eventually swallow them all again.

And the same is true of each individual person. The contributions of the scientist to the advance of human knowledge, the researches of the doctor to alleviate pain and suffering, the efforts of the diplomat to secure peace in the world, the sacrifices of good men everywhere to better the lot of the human race—all these come to nothing. In the end they don’t make one bit of difference, not one bit. Each person’s life is therefore without ultimate significance. And because our lives are ultimately meaningless, the activities we fill our lives with are also meaningless. The long hours spent in study at the university, our jobs, our interests, our friendships—all these are, in the final analysis, utterly meaningless. This is the horror of modern man: because he ends in nothing, he is nothing.

But it is important to see that it is not just immortality that man needs if life is to be meaningful. Mere duration of existence does not make that existence meaningful. If man and the universe could exist forever, but if there were no God, their existence would still have no ultimate significance. To illustrate: I once read a science-fiction story in which an astronaut was marooned on a barren chunk of rock lost in outer space. He had with him two vials: one containing poison and the other a potion that would make him live forever. Realizing his predicament, he gulped down the poison. But then to his horror, he discovered he had swallowed the wrong vial—he had drunk the potion for immortality. And that meant that he was cursed to exist forever—a meaningless, unending life. Now if God does not exist, our lives are just like that. They could go on and on and still be utterly without meaning. We could still ask of life, 'So what?' So it is not just immortality man needs if life is to be ultimately significant; he needs God and immortality. And if God does not exist, then he has neither.

Twentieth-century man came to understand this. Read Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett. During this entire play two men carry on trivial conversation while waiting for a third man to arrive, who never does. Our lives are like that, Beckett is saying; we just kill time waiting—for what, we don’t know. In a tragic portrayal of man, Beckett wrote another play in which the curtain opens revealing a stage littered with junk. For thirty long seconds, the audience sits and stares in silence at that junk. Then the curtain closes. That’s all.

One of the most devastating novels I’ve ever read was Steppenwolf, by Hermann Hesse. At the novel’s end, Harry Haller stands looking at himself in a mirror. During the course of his life he had experienced all the world offers. And now he stands looking at himself, and he mutters, 'Ah, the bitter taste of life!' He spits at himself in the looking-glass, and then he kicks it to pieces. His life has been futile and meaningless.

French existentialists Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus understood this, too. Sartre portrayed life in his play No Exit as hell—the final line of the play are the words of resignation, 'Well, let’s get on with it.' Hence, Sartre writes elsewhere of the 'nausea' of existence. Camus, too, saw life as absurd. At the end of his brief novel The Stranger, Camus’s hero discovers in a flash of insight that the universe has no meaning and there is no God to give it one. The French biochemist Jacques Monod seemed to echo those sentiments when he wrote in his work Chance and Necessity, 'Man finally knows he is alone in the indifferent immensity of the universe.'

Thus, if there is no God, then life itself becomes meaningless. Man and the universe are without ultimate significance.

Please follow this link to read the whole chapter
The Absurdity of Life Without God - 'Reasonable Faith', Chapter Two

• © This is a sample from the book 'Reasonable Faith' by William Lane Craig, copyright 1994, page 51-75.

Read More

Transsexual Freakazoid Is Ruled Both Man and Woman

Original

Posted by Van Helsing

At last Britain has cleared up the confusion over whether a transsexual is a man or a woman. The answer: s/he is both, depending on whichever is more advantageous.

A transsexual man has won the right to be treated as a man in the marriage system and a woman in the pension system.

Christopher Timbrell, who has changed his name to Christine, [Wednesday] won his case against the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

Three Appeal Court judges ruled he was being discriminated against by not receiving a woman's pension and he will now be paid backdated funds.

It gets even weirder…

Under the Gender Recognition Act Mr Timbrell can apply to be viewed in law as a woman but he must first dissolve or annul his marriage.

Mr Timbrell is still married to his wife, Joy, and they say they do not want to divorce.

Two women cannot be legally married in the UK but the Court decided that Mr Timbrell should be allowed to remain married to his wife, and claim a woman's pension.

Men can't collect their pension until age 65, but Timbrell will get his at 60, because he's a woman — but he's also a man, despite having undergone the ghastly choppadickophomy procedure at age 59, or his marriage wouldn't be valid.

Considering how far the liberal establishment bends over backward to cater to freaks at everyone else's expense, it's surprising they didn't set a new retirement age of 27 for the sexually disoriented.

Christopher Timbrell: Another creepazoid games the system.

Read More

Ancient Fragments of Moses’ Song of the Sea

http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/240361 by Dewayne Bryant, M.A.

Printer version | Email this article

On February 26, 2010, the Associated Press reported that two pieces of a biblical manuscript had been reunited after being separated for centuries (Demirjian). The fragments date to the 7th century A.D., a period during which almost no Hebrew manuscripts survive. This exciting discovery has once again drawn the world’s attention back, not only to one of the earliest books of the Hebrew Bible, but one of its earliest sections.

The two portions together contain the Song of the Sea from Exodus 15:1-20. The song was sung just after the crossing of the Red/Reed Sea (Exodus 14). The song celebrates God’s victory over the Egyptian military, which was the strongest at the time in the ancient Near East. The Exodus event is so momentous in Jewish history that it has often been called the “Gospel of the Old Testament.” It was the foundational salvation event in Hebrew history that gave birth to the Jewish nation.

Scholars studying the manuscript believe that they were not only written by the same scribe, but were once part of the same scroll. This is remarkable given the fact that manuscripts from the Hebrew Bible dating to the period between the 3rd and 8th centuries A.D. are extremely rare. To the casual observer, these two Hebrew manuscripts may be little more than historical artifacts from a distant age and culture. But to believers, these manuscripts are yet another signpost pointing to the historical veracity of Scripture.

Scholars generally recognize the Song of the Sea as one of the oldest compositions found in the Hebrew Bible. The Song of the Sea is written in archaic Hebrew, consisting of a hymn (vss. 1-3), a short narrative (vss. 4-12) and a closing note on the victory (vss. 13-18). Its archaic appearance is important, since the first few books of the Bible are under fire by some scholars who claim that they were not written until very late in Israel’s history.

The antiquity of the song is attested by several elements. Alan Cole identifies the word for “praise” in verse 2 as a haepax legomenon (a word that appears only once in the Bible), arguing that it “is one of the many archaisms of the song” (Cole, 1973, p. 131). Additional examples include archaic suffixes on the Hebrew verbs “destroy” (vs. 9) and “swallowed” (vs. 12), and the phrases “holy habitation” and “sanctuary” in vss. 13 and 17, respectively (pp. 131-132).

A consensus of scholars have dated the song no later than the 10th century B.C. W.F. Albright dated the composition to the 13th century B.C. (1957), while, more recently, Brian Russell has dated it to about 1150 B.C. (2007). Widely respected scholars Frank Moore Cross and David Noel Freedman date the song no later than the 10th century. Writing in 1997, Freedman flatly states,

I am as firmly convinced today as I was forty-five years ago that early [Hebrew] poems really are early. While it is true that many, perhaps most, serious scholars date this poetry across the whole spectrum of Israelite history...I believe that the whole corpus belongs to the earliest period of Israel’s national existence, and that the poems were composed between the twelfth and tenth-ninth centuries B.C.E. I have encountered neither compelling evidence nor convincing argument to the contrary, or to make me think otherwise (Cross and Freedman, 1997, p. x).

While scholars generally date the song very early, many still date it several centuries after the time of Moses. However, there is solid evidence that supports the belief that Moses could have written the song himself. This includes Egyptian language in the song, which would be only natural since Moses would have been trained in an Egyptian school called the k3p, or “the Royal Nursery,” where foreign-born princes were educated. [NOTE: Despite the use of the word “nursery,” this school was a prestigious one—some prominent Egyptian government officials listed their attendance in the Royal Nursery in their “resumes” recorded on the walls of their tombs. Cf. Acts 7:22] This connection is strengthened by the fact that the language in Exodus 15:4 includes the formal Egyptian phrase “of the choicest” and the word often translated “captains,” both of which have Egyptian parallels (Craigie, 1970, pp. 84-85). In order to use this language, whoever wrote it must have been trained in Egypt. This provides a perfect fit for the biblical account of Israel’s presence in Egypt.

An unfortunate tendency among modern critics is to date everything in the Bible as late as possible, arguing that it was the Exile, not the Exodus, which served as a starting point for ancient Hebrew literature. Archaic verbal forms and the parallels cited by scholars above obviously militate against an assumption that is actively—and wrongly—dismissive of the ancient evidence. The Christian belief that the book of Exodus is ancient is both well-founded and well-supported. Thanks to a remarkable discovery by a trained eye, that fact is once again confirmed to the world.

REFERENCES

Albright, William F. (1957, reprint 1994), Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan: A Historical Analysis of Two Contrasting Faiths (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns).

Cole, R. Alan (1973), Exodus (Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press).

Craigie, Peter (1970), “Short Notes: An Egyptian Expression in the Song of the Sea (Exodus 15:4),” Vetus testamentum, 20[1]:83-86, January.

Cross, Frank Moore, Jr. and David Noel Freedman (1997), Studies in Ancient Yahwistic Poetry (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, and Livonia, MI: Dove Booksellers).

Demirjian, Karoun (2010), “Ancient Bible Manuscript Fragments Reunited,” Associated Press, February 26, http://news.discovery.com/history/bible-manuscript-fragments-reunited.html.

Russell, Brian D. (2007), The Song of the Sea: The Date of Composition and Influence of Exodus 15:1-21 (New York: Peter Lang).

Read More

Top footballer: I could be dead but God saved and restored me

http://www.christiantelegraph.com/issue9779.html

A Premiership football star has revealed just how important a part God has played in his life, reports Christian Concern for our Nation.

On the brink of appearing in the final of Europe’s second most prestigious competition, Fulham star Zoltán Gera, 31, revealed the life story of how his Christian faith has helped him to overcome many problems in his youth.

As a youngster, Mr Gera was driven to the brink by drink, drugs and gambling. He claims he was saved by finding God and now he hopes his remarkable story will serve as an example of how a life tainted by despair can become one graced with hope.

His story, which appeared in The Evening Standard, becomes all the more remarkable taking into account that doctors once told him he had subjected his body to so much abuse, through the imbibing of alcohol and illegal substances, that he would never realise his dream of playing football at the highest level.

‘I was very, very skinny because I did lots of bad things. Doctors said I would never be a professional football player because my body was no longer good enough,’ Mr Gera recalls.

He continued, saying how he was turned by feral influences at school, missing his football training sessions and even forming a gang to create trouble in his area. Dreaming about becoming ‘a criminal, a real godfather, feared by all, who robs people and fights them every day,’ Mr Gera had abandoned school and football by the age of 16.

After his father offered him the chance to visit a local church, he was ‘shocked to see people happily smiling and singing’.

‘On our way home I asked my father why the people were singing and clapping together. He told me that they were singing to God because they had experienced His presence. Right then, I had a good feeling,’ he says.

After visiting the church and turning to God he experienced a total transformation. Despite being ill and very skinny, and being told by doctors that he will never play football again, he said that ‘the Bible says whatever the locust and the worm devours, God will restore.’

‘One day as I was going home from a game of football, with the ball in my hand, I started to pray. I said: ‘Help me, God, that I may become a good player.’ I honestly told God I wanted to become a successful player, that people may see there is a way out of the mess I was in, that there was hope for them, too. I'm happy now, I'm a lucky boy,’ he said in another interview.

Fifteen years on and a fully restored attacking midfielder, Mr Gera has captained his national side, making 63 appearances to date and been named Hungarian Player of the Year three times in 2002, 2004 and 2005. He has also been named in the 2007–08 The Championship all-star team.

‘I'm a Christian and I believe God gives me lots of energy,’ said Mr Gera.

‘But of course, you also need to work hard. You need to do your best at your job and it will pay off. I was a bad boy but I changed. That's why I want to be a good example. It doesn't matter how old you are, you can turn your life to the good way. It doesn't matter where you have been before, you can still play in a football final.’

‘Every single day I think about where I was 15 years ago and where I am today. It's been an amazing journey for me. Yes, I have been so lucky,’ he added.

Today, 12 May 2010, Mr Gera will appear in the Europa League Final against Atletico Madrid.

In February 2010, another top sportsman explained why God’s word and his Christian faith are important to him, and why he refuses to play on Sundays and even watch the first match of his team.

Photo via ccfon.org

Euan Murray, a Scottish rugby union star, currently playing for Northampton Saints, told the media how in finding God he was able to change his path. The Guardian described how Mr Murray took a mug of tea and a glass of water and held them out in front of him.

‘This is the tea, all dirty and horrible, this is me, yeah? That's Jesus,’ he says, motioning to the water.

‘Pure. He's taken that filth upon himself and before God he says, 'Punish me for it'. He's been punished and look what he's given me. That perfect goodness in the eyes of God. He's declared me innocent.

‘Can it be that simple?’ he said swilling the dregs of the tea and smiling.

‘I'm ashamed of the things I've done. Of course I am. But I'm thankful I have a saviour. He's saved me from that lifestyle. He's given me a new life.’

When asked whether his faith conflicts with the team ethos of the sport, he responded:

‘You bring your individual assets to benefit the team and hopefully you'll get synergy when you put all these different components together. I'm a Christian, I try to be hard working, honest and fair. That's what I bring to the team.’

Read More

City Taken Over by Illegal Immigrants Collapses into Bankruptcy and Lawlessness

Original

Posted by Gregory of Yardale at 6:06 PM |

Dateline Maywood, California. This Los Angeles County municipality --- 97% Hispanic, 40% illegal --- was one of the first cities to declare itself a sanctuary city and to demand a boycott of the state of Arizona for enforcing immigration laws. Its city council is entirely Hispanic and dominated by La Raza racists. Years ago, it prohibited its police department from confiscating cars from unlicensed drivers. It has demanded Congress grant unconditional amnesty to illegal immigrants. It is every progressive left/Wall Street Journal policy on open borders concentrated in one Los Angeles suburb.

How's that working out for them?

Today, Maywood is broke. Its police department dismantled along with all other city departments and personnel. Only the city council remains and a city manager to manage the contracts with other agencies for city services in Maywood.

Even the L.A. Times called the Maywood Police Department a "haven for misfit cops." Their story alleged that a veteran officer was extorting sex from relatives of a criminal fugitive; that another officer tried to run overthe president of the Maywood Police Commission; and that another officer has impregnated a teenage police-explorer scout.

Maywood is the end result of what Obama-Napolitano-La Raza-the Arizona boycotters and the editorial board of the WSJ want for America.

Hat Tip: Bill

Read More

Seniors Not Allowed to Pray Before Meals at Nursing Home

Original

Posted by Jim Hoft

This is unbelievable… Now they won’t allow our seniors to pray before meals.
When did America become a communist regime?

(Flickr)
Senior citizens are no longer allowed to pray before meals at the Port Wentworth’s Ed Young Senior Citizens Center near Savannah, Georgia. Local officials say the meals are now provided with federal money and therefore the seniors are not allowed to pray before meals.
WSBTV reported:

Preston Blackwelder proudly showed off a painting of his grandmother that had hung next to the front door of his Port Wentworth home.

She was the woman who led him to God, Blackwelder said Friday.

And with that firm religious footing, Blackwelder said it would be preposterous to stop praying before meals at Port Wentworth’s Ed Young Senior Citizens Center near Savannah because of a federal guideline.

“She would say pray anyway,” Blackwelder said of his grandmother. “She’d say don’t listen.”

But Senior Citizens Inc. officials said Friday the meals they are contracted by the city to provide to Ed Young visitors are mostly covered with federal money, which ushers in the burden of separating church and state.

On Thursday, the usual open prayer before meals at the center was traded in for a moment of silence.

The dilemma is being hashed out by the Port Wentworth city attorney, said Mayor Glenn “Pig” Jones.

Tim Rutherford, Senior Citizens Inc. vice president, said some of his staff recently visited the center and noticed people praying shortly before lunch was served. Rutherford said his company provides meals like baked chicken, steak tips and rice and salads at a cost of about $6 a plate. Seniors taking the meals pay 55 cents and federal money foots the rest of the bill, Rutherford said.

“We can’t scoff at their rules,” he said of federal authorities. “It’s a part of the operational guidelines.”

Hat Tip Carol C.
Our forefathers are rolling over in their graves.
This is abuse.

Read More

The Danger of Affirming Homosexuality in the Public Schools

Share this Article

by Brian Thomas, M.S. *

Modern culture increasingly embraces the notion that homosexuals are born, not made. It is even sometimes presented as fact that a "gay gene" compels some people to seek same-sex partners. In that vein, more and more public school educators are being pressured to present homosexuality as a normal lifestyle that should be affirmed in students who feel they might be gay. The American College of Pediatricians, however, has issued a caution to educators warning of the dangers of these falsehoods.

An open letter addressed to school superintendents cited portions of The Language of God, a book by National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins. He wrote that homosexuality is "not hardwired by DNA, and that whatever genes are involved represent predispositions, not predeterminations."¹ Dr. Collins, who is also the former director of the Genome Project, summarized studies showing that no known gene compels any behavior, and he further stated that "environment, particularly childhood experiences, and the prominent role of individual free will choices have a profound effect on us."²

A news release from the college stated that "schools should not seek to develop policy which 'affirms' or encourages these non-heterosexual attractions among students who may merely be experimenting or experiencing temporary sexual confusion."³

Nor are there merely moral motivations underlying this admonition. The letter provided a link to a fact sheet that highlights research-based conclusions that counter pro-homosexual school programs. For example:

The homosexual lifestyle, especially for males, carries grave health risks…. For many youth, homosexual attraction develops due to negative or traumatic experiences, such as sexual abuse. These students need therapy for the trauma, not affirmation of a "gay identity."⁴

The letter also cited a "landmark survey and analysis of 125 years of scientific studies" into homosexuality. This survey affirmed that sexual orientation can be changed with therapy, especially among youth who are undergoing temporary sexual identity questions. In addition, homosexuals are plagued by far more diseases and suicides than heterosexuals, making it a very dangerous lifestyle.

An online summary of this landmark survey stated:

This is supported by studies that demonstrate the life-threatening risk-taking of unprotected sex, violence, antisocial behavior, higher levels of substance abuse, anxiety disorders, depression, general suicidality, higher levels of promiscuity and of non-monogamous primary relationships, higher levels of paraphilias (such as fisting), sexual addiction, personality disorders, and greater overall pathology among homosexual vs. heterosexual populations.⁵

Indeed, another study concluded that homosexuality and its associated practices serve to shorten life spans by 20 to 30 years.⁶

Both observations--that homosexuality is caused by choices and influences and not by DNA, and that a homosexual lifestyle is utterly unsafe--are consistent with a biblical worldview. On the one hand, the Creator intended that male and female "shall be one flesh."⁷ And on the other hand, He uses the harsh consequences of disregarding those intentions as a kind of natural tutor to bring people back into relationship with Him. Romans 1 explicitly named homosexuality as deserving of judgment, but the next chapter warned anyone who would heed:

But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Who will render to every man according to his deeds: To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life.⁸

Adolescents are vulnerable to confusions and outside influences as they make the transition from child to adult. A school environment that encourages a child to "come out" or self-identify as gay--especially based on false or misleading information--can cause tremendous harm. As the American College of Pediatricians' letter to school officials states:

It is the school's legitimate role to provide a safe environment for respectful self-expression for all students. It is not the school's role to diagnose and attempt to treat any student's medical condition, and certainly not a school's role to "affirm" a student's perceived personal sexual orientation.¹

The efforts of the American College of Pediatricians and others who care for the well-being of youth are to be commended.

References

1. Benton, T. Letter to School Officials. Facts About Youth, a project of the American College of Pediatricians. Posted on factsaboutyouth.com March 31, 2010, accessed April 13, 2010.
2. Collins, F. 2004. The Language of God. New York: Free Press, 260, 263.
3. College Cautions Educators About Sexual Orientation in Youth. American College of Pediatricians press release, April 5, 2010.
4. What You Should Know About Sexual Orientation of Youth. Facts About Youth fact sheet. Posted on factsaboutyouth.com, accessed April 13, 2010.
5. What Research Shows (Summary). National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality. Posted on narth.com, accessed April 13, 2010.
6. Cameron, P., K. Cameron and W. L. Playfair. 1998. Does homosexual activity shorten life? Psychological Reports. 83 (3 pt 1): 847-866.
7. Genesis 2:24.
8. Romans 2:5-7.

Read More

Secular Geology Admits to Rapid Canyon Formation by Megafloods

Original
June 21, 2010 — It’s hard to deny catastrophic canyon formation when you have the evidence right in front of you. Look what happened in Texas a few years ago, as reported by PhysOrg:

In the summer of 2002, a week of heavy rains in Central Texas caused Canyon Lake – the reservoir of the Canyon Dam – to flood over its spillway and down the Guadalupe River Valley in a planned diversion to save the dam from catastrophic failure. The flood, which continued for six weeks, stripped the valley of mesquite, oak trees, and soil; destroyed a bridge; and plucked meter-wide boulders from the ground. And, in a remarkable demonstration of the power of raging waters, the flood excavated a 2.2-kilometer-long, 7-meter-deep canyon in the bedrock.

The actual canyon was formed in just three days, said Science Daily. Live Science also reported the story, saying, “Some of the most spectacular canyons on Earth and Mars were probably formed in the geologic blink of an eye, suggests a new study that found clues to their formation deep in the heart of Texas.”
Such catastrophic floods and canyons that resulted are not unknown in historic times, but what’s new is that geologists are taking note and applying the lesson of Canyon Lake to large, prehistoric megafloods on earth and even Mars. PhysOrg continued, “Our traditional view of deep river canyons, such as the Grand Canyon, is that they are carved slowly, as the regular flow and occasionally moderate rushing of rivers erodes rock over periods of millions of years.” Quoting Michael Lamb of Caltech, co-author of a paper in Nature Geoscience,¹ the article said that such is not always the case: “We know that some big canyons have been cut by large catastrophic flood events during Earth’s history.”
Lamb went on to explain that there is not often an easy way to tell a catastrophically-formed canyon from a gradually-formed one:

Unfortunately, these catastrophic megafloods – which also may have chiseled out spectacular canyons on Mars—generally leave few telltale signs to distinguish them from slower events. “There are very few modern examples of megafloods,” Lamb says, “and these events are not normally witnessed, so the process by which such erosion happens is not well understood.” Nevertheless, he adds, “the evidence that is left behind, like boulders and streamlined sediment islands, suggests the presence of fast water”—although it reveals nothing about the time frame over which the water flowed.

Lamb found that process like “plucking” – in which boulders popped up from fractured bedrock became sledgehammers in the current, and headward-eroding waterfalls, led to quick downward erosion of the canyon. He hopes the features witnessed in the Canyon Lake flood will aid in interpreting megaflood evidence on earth and Mars. Here is the abstract from the paper by Lamb and Fonstad:

Deep river canyons are thought to form slowly over geological time (see, for example, ref. 1 [Grand Canyon]), cut by moderate flows that reoccur every few years 2, 3. In contrast, some of the most spectacular canyons on Earth and Mars were probably carved rapidly during ancient megaflood events 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Quantification of the flood discharge, duration and erosion mechanics that operated during such events is hampered because we lack modern analogues. Canyon Lake Gorge, Texas, was carved in 2002 during a single catastrophic flood 13. The event offers a rare opportunity to analyse canyon formation and test palaeo-hydraulic-reconstruction techniques under known topographic and hydraulic conditions. Here we use digital topographic models and visible/near-infrared aerial images from before and after the flood, discharge measured during the event, field measurements and sediment-transport modelling to show that the flood moved metre-sized boulders, excavated ~7 m of limestone and transformed a soil-mantled valley into a bedrock canyon in just ~3 days. We find that canyon morphology is strongly dependent on rock type: plucking of limestone blocks produced waterfalls, inner channels and bedrock strath terraces, whereas abrasion of cemented alluvium sculpted walls, plunge pools and streamlined islands. Canyon formation was so rapid that erosion might have been limited by the ability of the flow to transport sediment. We suggest that our results might improve hydraulic reconstructions of similar megafloods on Earth and Mars.

Their references included the paper by J H Bretz on the channeled scablands of Washington, and other research on the Lake Bonneville floods, but no work by creation geologists who have postulated rapid formation of the Grand Canyon by a dam breach megaflood. They did not discuss the Grand Canyon in their paper other than to state in the introduction that “Most bedrock river canyons are thought to be cut slowly over millions of years (for example, Grand Canyon, USA, ref. 1) by moderate flows that reoccur every few years.” They did not say whether they agree with that assessment now in light of their work.
Lamb and Fonstad described in the paper how it is hard to tell slow processes from rapid ones:

It is difficult to identify morphologic features in Canyon Lake Gorge that indicate canyon formation during a 3 day event, versus a longer-lived flood or multiple events. For example, inner channels, knickpoints and terraces are often formed slowly over geologic time in response to shifting climate or tectonic forcing, but in Canyon Lake Gorge and other megafloods they must have formed rapidly through intrinsic instabilities in the erosion processes. A narrow gorge is sometimes inferred to represent slow persistent erosion, whereas Canyon Lake Gorge was formed in a matter of days. It is clear that models for the rate of bedrock erosion are needed to calculate the duration of flooding necessary to excavate a canyon of known volume. Although notable progress has been made, there are no well tested mechanistic models of bedrock erosion via plucking during megafloods.

They did the best they could to come up with a “semi-empirical theory” of sediment transport capacity to account for the rapid erosion of Canyon Lake Gorge. Apparently it was not the strength of the bedrock that limited erosion, but the ability of the water to pick up and move large blocks: “Thus, it seems plausible that erosion of well-jointed rock by large floods might be extremely rapid, such that canyon formation is limited by the capacity of the flood to transport plucked blocks rather than by the plucking processes itself.” Whether that is the only surprising paradigm shift from this observational example of rapid canyon formation remains to be seen. It may be time to change a lot of western national park interpretive signs.

---

1. Lamb and Fonstad, “Rapid formation of a modern bedrock canyon by a single flood event,” Nature Geoscience, Published online: 20 June 2010 | doi:10.1038/ngeo894.

What does he mean this is not well understood? If the secular geologists had been reading the creationist journals for decades, which are way ahead of the curve on this topic, they would not be so clueless. The Creation Research Society Quarterly, Journal of Creation and other peer-reviewed journals written by creation scientists, with field research and PhDs, have for years been talking about the power of catastrophic processes to produce the Grand Canyon and other large earth features in just days and weeks by breached dams and other megaflooding processes. This is nothing new, but the secular journals and news media act like it is. It’s nice for the secular crowd, still awaking from their Lyellian slumbers, to catch the groove finally (better late than never), but how about some attribution? Creationist authors of papers on this subject should get together and walk into Lamb’s office with a stack of their papers on catastrophic canyon formation by megafloods, pile them on his desk, and ask, “Where have you been all this time?”

Read More

UN Attacks Poland’s Pro-Life Laws at Human Rights Meetings

By Hilary White

GENEVA, June 7, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Officials of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva have launched a full-scale attack on Poland’s pro-life laws. Poland protects the right to conscientious objection for health care workers and the rights of the Catholic Church.

Pat Buckley, European officer for the United Kingdom’s Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) said that the 14th session of the Human Rights Council sitting this week “promises to be lively.”

A report submitted to the council by Anand Grover, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on health care rights, includes what Buckley called a “radical and comprehensive attack on Poland’s pro-life position on access to abortion, conscientious objection, contraception and sex education.”

Poland, Malta, and the Republic of Ireland are the last countries in the European Union to retain specific and effective protections for unborn children. These countries have been placed in the direct line of fire for abortion activists within the UN and the EU.

SPUC director John Smeaton called the report “mendacious” in its use of abortion lobby groups who provided “expert witness” that pro-life and conscientious objection laws for health care workers are a threat to the rights of women.

In his report, Grover cited a complaint by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) that Poland’s laws conflicted with their obligations under article 12 of the UN’s Convention to protect women’s equal right to access health care services. The report did not mention that CEDAW is one of the UN’s most active abortion lobbying organizations. In fact, CEDAW regularly insists that countries around the world eliminate pro-life legal protections.

Grover’s report quoted CEDAW as calling for “concrete measures to enhance women’s access to health care, in particular to sexual and reproductive health services” – language that is universally understood to include abortion, contraception and sterilization.

These “services” should include “research on the scope, causes and consequences of illegal abortion and its impact on women’s health and life; measures to ensure women’s access to legal abortion services and against limitation of such access by the use of the conscientious objection clause.”

Grover also quoted a demand made in 2009 by the UN’s Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights that Poland “take all effective measures to ensure that women enjoy their right ... by enforcing the legislation on abortion and implementing a mechanism of timely and systematic referral in cases of conscientious objection.”

The Economic, Social and Cultural Rights committee, Smeaton notes, was blasted two years ago by Northern Irish pro-life leaders for demanding legal abortion in Northern Ireland.

Smeaton wrote, “The ugly face of the culture of death was seen yesterday at the Human Rights Council in Geneva in the following section of Mr Grover's chilling report.”

“Freedom of religion, conscience and thought is to be swept aside in favour of the alleged right to kill unborn children.”

The Polish delegation to the meeting did not back down. Representative Branislav Lysák said that the country’s laws have benefitted both women and children. Infant mortality in Poland has dropped by 71% over the last 2 decades and maternal mortality is down by 82%. These figures match those released recently by the UN showing that Ireland, one of the last countries in the world to totally outlaw abortion, has one of the world’s lowest maternal mortality rates.

Lysák denied that there is such a thing as a universal right to abortion and said that the issue is the exclusive competence of independent states according to numerous international agreements.

Read More

NY Times Now Pushing Child Porn Agenda

Original

This was sick.

The New York Times published a glowing piece on a liberal judge who does not believe in punishing those who enjoy child porn. The judge, Jack Weinstein, has even thrown out child porn convictions that would have ensured at least 5 years behind bars.
The judge believes: “We’re too tough on child pornographers.”

In his 43-year career as a federal judge, Jack B. Weinstein has come to be identified by his efforts to combat what he calls “the unnecessary cruelty of the law.” His most recent crusade is particularly striking because of the beneficiary: a man who has amassed a vast collection of child pornography.

Judge Weinstein, who sits in the United States District Court in Brooklyn, has twice thrown out convictions that would have ensured that the man spend at least five years behind bars. He has pledged to break protocol and inform the next jury about the mandatory prison sentence that the charges carry. And he recently declared that the man, who is awaiting a new trial, did not need an electronic ankle bracelet because he posed “no risk to society.”

There is little public sympathy for collectors of child pornography. Yet across the country, an increasing number of federal judges have come to their defense, criticizing changes to sentencing laws that have effectively quadrupled their average prison term over the last decade…

“I don’t approve of child pornography, obviously,” he said in an interview this week. But, he also said, he does not believe that those who view the images, as opposed to producing or selling them, present a threat to children.

Maybe this explains why the Vatican says Satan is working behind the scenes at The New York Times.

Read More

British Government Offers Teens Jobs on X-Rated Websites

Original

Posted by Van Helsing at 8:00 AM | Comments (2)

Big Government can help us in so many ways. Admittedly the massive burden of taxation and regulation it imposes drives millions out of work. But not to worry, bureaucrats are always there to catch you when you fall. They can even help you find a job consistent with their own liberal values:

Some government-run unemployment offices in Britain are offering teenage job seekers a chance to make more than $1,000 a week on x-rated Web sites, the Birmingham Mail reports.

The newspaper says the "job with a difference" is being advertised at Jobcentre Plus offices in Birmingham, Warwickshire and Shropshire by an adult recruiting agency, Faceclick.

The agency encourages applicants to engage in sexually explicit conversations with customers and to perform "activities that you feel comfortable with" when naked in front of a camera, the newspaper says.

There will never be a lack of demand for dirty websites, so long as the world is so full of overpaid bureauweenies with too much time on their hands.

It gets worse. In Germany, a woman was told she would be cut off from the government teat for failing to accept a job as a prostitute.

No matter how many broken crutches Big Government generously bestows (paid for with our own money), it would be infinitely better if it never broke our legs in the first place by crippling the economy.

On a tip from MP.

Read More

The Author of Salvation took on flesh

http://www.answersingenesis.org/e-mail/archive/AnswersWeekly/2005/1224.asp

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. But, through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.

It was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.

Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

We rejoice that in our Creator and Savior, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.

– Genesis 1:1, 31; Romans 5:12; Hebrews 2:10, 14, 15; Ephesians 1:7

Read More

Archaeologists Find Oldest Paintings of Apostles in Roman Catacombs

Original

AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito

A cameraman films a painting discovered with the earliest known icons of the Apostles Peter and Paul in a catacomb located under a modern office building in a residential neighborhood of Rome, Tuesday, June, 22, 2010. Restorers said Tuesday they had unearthed the 4th-century images using a new laser technique that allowed them to burn off centuries of white calcium deposits without damaging the dark colors of the original paintings underneath. The paintings adorn what is believed to be the tomb of a Roman noblewoman and represent some of the earliest evidence of devotion to the apostles in early Christianity.

ROME — The earliest known icons of the Apostles Peter and Paul have been discovered in a catacomb under an eight-story modern office building in a working-class neighborhood of Rome, Vatican officials said Tuesday.

The images, which date from the second half of the 4th century, were discovered on the ceiling of a tomb that also includes the earliest known images of the apostles John and Andrew. They were uncovered using a new laser technique that allowed restorers to burn off centuries of thick white calcium carbonate deposits without damaging the dark colors of the original paintings underneath.

The paintings adorn what is believed to be the tomb of a Roman noblewoman in the Santa Tecla catacomb and represent some of the earliest evidence of devotion to the apostles in early Christianity, Vatican officials said in opening up the tomb to the media for the first time.

Last June, the Vatican announced the discovery of the icon of Paul — timed to coincide with the end of the Vatican's Pauline year. At the time, Pope Benedict XVI also announced that tests on bone fragments long attributed to Paul "seemed to confirm" that they did indeed belong to the Roman Catholic saint.

On Tuesday, Vatican archaeologists announced that the image of Paul discovered last year was not found in isolation, but was rather part of a square ceiling painting that also included icons of three other apostles - Peter, John and Andrew - surrounding an image of Christ as the Good Shepherd.

An Atztec tomb, the oldest known paintings of Peter and Paul, the graveyard of the gladiators, the world's oldest shoe and more. The latest discoveries from the ancient world.

"These are the first images of the apostles," said Fabrizio Bisconti, the superintendent of archaeology for the catacombs, which are maintained by the Vatican's Pontifical Commission of Sacred Archaeology.

The Vatican office oversaw and paid for the two-year, euro60,000 restoration effort, which for the first time used lasers to restore frescoes and paintings in catacombs. The damp, musty air of underground catacombs makes preservation of paintings particularly difficult and restoration problematic.

In this case, the small burial chamber at the end of the catacomb was completely encased in centimeters (inches) of white calcium carbonate, which under previous restoration techniques would have just been scraped away by hand. That technique, though would have left a filmy layer on top so as to not damage the paintings underneath.

Using the laser, restorers were able to sear off all the layers of calcium that had been bound onto the painting because the laser beam stopped burning at the white of the calcium deposits, which when chipped off left the brilliant darker colors underneath it unscathed, said Barbara Mazzei, the chief restorer.

Read More

Ray Comfort and Homossexuality

Read More

Gallup: Self-Identifying Conservatives At Highest Level Since 1992

http://minx.cc/?post=303004

Plus: Wal-Mart Moms Abandoning Democrats?

—Ace

Asymptotic.

The 42% identifying as conservative represents a continuation of the slight but statistically significant edge conservatives achieved over moderates in 2009. Should that figure hold for all of 2010, it would represent the highest annual percentage identifying as conservative in Gallup's history of measuring ideology with this wording, dating to 1992.

Oh, and this is interesting: More Nearly as many independents say they're conservative than moderate:

And Wal-Mart moms now very much against ObamaCare and anti-"incumbent:"

“They’re conflicted,” said Republican pollster Neil Newhouse, who co-authored the study. “They like Obama, and they want more activist government. But when it gets to specifics, they disagree.”

On one hand, 60 percent of those polled said that they believe “government should do more to solve problems and help meet the needs of the people.” But specific policy proposals that require a more heavy-handed government — take the recently passed health-care overhaul, for example — find favor from only 14 percent of the group. In fact, 42 percent said that the Affordable Care Act would make things worse for them and their families.

But the finding that will likely make incumbents and political strategists most nervous is that more than 61 percent of the group said it disapproves of the job that Congress is doing in Washington. With so many battleground states for the taking in November, the study shows that Wal-Mart Moms are tilting toward Republicans.

Posted by Ace at 02:56 PM New Comments Thingy

Read More

Erosion of religious freedom threatens Church and nation

England is becoming the dream of every progressive fascist.

Archbishop Donald Wuerl, photo via catholicnewsagency.com

In an exclusive interview obtained by CNA, Dr. John Haas of the National Catholic Bioethics Center asked Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington D.C. about some of the issues facing the Church in the “contemporary context.” In his reply, Archbishop Wuerl spoke about the role of and need for religious freedom in society, a role which is dramatically changing, reports Catholic News Agency.

While there are several “individual issues” right now, said the archbishop, most of which focus on the dignity and value of human life, “there’s a growing concern” that “our very ability to carry on our activities” is being challenged.

Archbishop Wuerl said that what is taking place across the country, which he himself has experienced in his own archdiocese, is that, “when you begin to address specific issues, whether they are life issues, marriage issues, whether they have to do with the definition of marriage or a whole range of very basic concerns,” Catholics are now facing “the presumption that you do not have a right to express your religious convictions and you do not have a right to live out those convictions in those institutions which are a part of our Catholic faith tradition.”

One issue to which the archbishop referred was the definition of marriage, a contentious issue, especially after the City Council of Washington D.C. passed a law allowing the recognition of same-sex “marriage” without allowing voters to weigh in on the issue. The measure resulted in Catholic Charities of Washington D.C. being forced to stop offering benefits to employees’ spouses and to close their adoption program.

“If you take another position than what is presented by people today … you are defined as discriminatory,” he said. “And because of that, you and your institutions can be very, very severely criticized,” or even sanctioned.

Essentially, what we are facing, Archbishop Wuerl stated, “Is the failure to balance the rights of free expression of religion with all these other newly-created rights that are coming up out of our secular society.”

The archbishop said that, once the balance shifts against the rights of freedom of religious expression, both on a personal level and on an institutional level, “we are going to find ourselves in a situation we’ve never faced before in the United States.” He called it the “tip of the iceberg,” saying that the erosion of the freedom of religious expression would spread across the Western world.

“At the heart of the issue is the failure to recognize the important place that religious values, and religious institutions and religious faith, have always played in the history of our country,” Archbishop Wuerl declared. “This idea, this new pressure, to reduce everything slowly and completely to secular values is going to impact us very dramatically.”

The role of all believers and people of faith, he said, is to speak up and make their voices heard so all will be aware just how much religious faith is part of America’s history and heritage. “Religious faith is a thread that is woven into the very fabric of our nation,” he continued. “Remove that thread and we do damage to the whole cloth.”

Read More

Teh Gheys Choose 10-Year-Old Boy as Pride Parade Grand Marshal - Moonbattery

Original

Posted by Gregory of Yardale a

A 10 year old boy has been selected as the Grand Marshal of the NW Arkansas Gay Pride Parade. Way to fight that stereotype of rampant pederasty, guys.

I don't think you have to be a homophobe to find this disturbing on many levels. Just to name a few:

1. Gay Pride parades are notorious for celebrating sleaze. The organizers of the NW Arkansas Pride Parade declare that their event is "family-friendly," but the evidence is that teh gheys define "family friendly" rather broadly.
2. This kid rocketed to progressive fame by refusing to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. So, once again, anti-American behavior is rewarded and celebrated by the progressive left.
3. This kid's dad is a piece of work, don't you think? Pimping out his son in service of his personal political agenda? Sadly, it's all too typical for activist parents to exploit their kids as extensions of their agenda.

I'm not down with parents of any political persuasion who use their kids as props. But at least at a Tea Party, they're not putting them around a bunch of guys in studded leather and buttless chaps leading around other guys on dog leashes.

Hat Tip: Mats.

Read More

It Begins. Cops Arrest Christians For Handing Out Bibles to Muslims in Michigan

And it begins. The Christophobes and the Theophobes who run the USA must be delighted with this.

Via Gateway Pundit.

It’s come to this…

Police in Dearborn, Michigan arrested Christians last week for handing out Christian literature:

From the Video: If you have questions about the legality of preventing Christians from distributing copies of the Gospel on a public street, you may contact the Dearborn Police Department at 313.943.2240.

AllahPundit at HotAir reported this on the arrested Christians:

Via Powerline, so insane is this that I’m paranoid there’s a key detail missing somewhere that might explain the whole thing. Could the Christians have been trespassing on private property, maybe? Sure doesn’t look like it, and in any case, they weren’t arrested for trespassing. They were arrested for “disorderly conduct,” which apparently now extends to the offense of offering religious literature to someone who might not want it.

No wonder the far left and Islamists get along so well.

Read More

Dawah on Facebook?

(Click to enlarge)

Wonder when will we have a "Lord Jesus Saves" pass phrase?

Read More