Thomas Jefferson returns to the White House

Posted on February 28, 2009 by me

It appears that Obama is channeling the spirit of Thomas Jefferson, who famously took it upon himself to cut out those portions of the Bible that he didn’t believe.  Obama hasn’t gone quite that far, but he has started a new tradition of editing prayars.

From U.S. News and World Report:

During Obama’s recent visit to Fort Myers, Fla., to promote his economic stimulus plan, a black Baptist preacher delivered a prayer that carefully avoided mentioning Jesus, lest he offend anyone in the audience. And at Obama’s appearance last week near Phoenix to unveil his mortgage bailout plan, an administrator for the Tohono O’odham Nation delivered the prayer, taking the unusual step of writing it down so he could E-mail it to the White House for vetting. American Indian prayers are typically improvised.

Read Albert Mohler’s comments here.

I have never been a premillennialist, and haven’t believed in a literal person who is the anti-Christ. However, as I’ve mentioned before, the insidious nature of this presidency may cause me to rethink my eschatology.

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Bad Grammar

Posted on February 28, 2009 by me

h/t to 300 Lutefisks!

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Let’s all get on the Omnibus…

Posted on February 26, 2009 by me

Is anyone paying attention to this?

Last week it was the $787 billion Stimulus Bill, which supposedly contained no earmarks of any kind. Of course, that was a lie, but, let’s set that aside for now.  This week, it’s the Omnibus Bill, which if you aren’t aware, is a totally separate, $410 billion bill that’s been passed by the House this week.  An omnibus bill is a scary thing; it’s essentially hundreds of separate bills that may be totally unrelated, which are grouped together in one big package. This particular bill, besides containing pro-abortion language, includes about 9,000 earmarks.  That’s right, 9,000 earmarks – those things that were so bad, Obama wanted everyone to know they weren’t a part of the stimulus package.  This is a classic magician’s sleight of hand trick; while all eyes are on the Stimulus, there goes the Omnibus.

An example?  How about $2 million for “swine odor and manure management.”  Or another $2 million for new buildings at the Center for Grape Genetics.  Want more?  Here’s all 258 pages.

And, unfortunately, we can’t just blame the Democrats. No, many Republicans were quick to include as much Republican pork as they possibly could.

Change?  Hardly.  The only change I think we’re going to see is what we have left in our pockets after Obama and company take our wallets.  By the way, I’m not mentioning the President’s proposed budget, which would leave us with a deficit the equivalent of $12,000 per taxpayer.

Earlier today I was thinking of the old song by Ten Years After, I’d Love To Change The World:

Tax the rich
Feed the poor
Till there are no
Rich no more.

I’d love to change the world,
But I don’t know what to do.
So I’ll leave it up to you.

However, “leaving it up to you” now means leaving this mess for our kids to pay off.  I’m thinking that perhaps another old song is more appropriate:

Call out the instigators
Because there’s something in the air
We’ve got to get together sooner or later
Because the revolution’s here, and you know it’s right
And you know that it’s right

We have got to get it together
We have got to get it together now (Something In The Air – Thunderclap Newman)

I’m just sayin’ …

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Is “religion” compatible with science?

Posted on February 25, 2009 by me

In recent comments to a prior post, my friend Mike once again raised the issue of whether religion was compatible with science (or vice versa).  With incredibly perfect timing, Bradley Monton (who I have identified in the past as one of my favorite atheists for his very open and honest views) authored a post that is right on point, Bias in academia.  The post is relevant on 2 fronts: First, it addresses the issue of “bias in academia” (obviously a very appropriate title), this time referring to philosophy as opposed to science.  His brief comments on this issue speak for themselves, so I suggest you head over there (when you’re done here) and read them.

Monton’s post was motivated by the introduction to a live-blog review of a debate between atheist philosopher Daniel Dennett, known for his pro-evolution, anti-religion views, and Alvin Plantinga, a well-known Christian philosopher who the author identifies as “one of the finest epistemologists of the last fifty years and one of the finest philosophers of religion since the Medieval period.”  At the debate, Plantinga presented a paper on the issue of whether theism was compatible with science. Dennett was there to respond.

I was pleased that Plantinga opened by stating that Theism is not incompatible with science, it is incompatible with naturalism, a point that I’ve raised (it’s always nice to know that you agree with really smart guys).  And, Dennett, for the most part, agreed.  Of note, Dennett said:

  • Evolution is compatible with theism
  • We don’t have to have a conception of randomness that is incompatible with theism
  • The theistic hypothesis can’t be refuted
  • Contemporary evolutionary theory can’t rule out ID

Dennett appears to have behaved exactly like I would have expected him to, and in keeping with much of the science v religion debate that I’ve seen.  Overall, he failed to address most of Plantinga’s points, and resorted to ridicule and insults (the comments tended to agree with the reviewer’s assessment).  It makes you wonder why he even bothered to show up, except that it did illustrate the current state of the science v religion debate.

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