Lusiana Speight (Tuesday, April 12, 2005)
HE makes his way home after a hectic day at school and is still in the hype of playing rugby with his school mates.
Unbeknown to the young, energetic third former, his life was not going to be the same again from that evening.
After dinner, Sekove Maqanatagane, 14 years old then, was restless and could not sleep.
His family did not know what was wrong with him and being the youngest, his parents were worried.
"I couldn't sleep and kept moving about," he said. At daybreak the once full of life teenager was paralysed from the neck down.
"My parents could not take it anymore and took me to hospital."
It is every parent's nightmare to wait at the hospital for the doctor's diagnosis while their child suffers in the small hospital room where the doctor is examining him.
The diagnosis was not good and the doctors explained to his parents that the virus which affected his movement was moving to his brain.
"The disease was spreading fast and they said they could do nothing.
"My parents took me home and started to look for medicine and other ways to cure me."
Herbal medicines did not work and his family started losing hope.
"It reached a stage when they told me it would be better if I died because nothing else could cure me," he said.
"I was hurt and frustrated but then I started to listen to gospel music from the Akafa Family gospel group and little by little I started my hopes lifted."
As a Form Three student of Savusavu Secondary School in 1997, Sekove's youth was cut short.
He was paralysed and bed-ridden for the next four years of his life, missing out on what boys his age group were enjoying, such as playing rugby.
"In those four years I never thought I would recover.
"Everytime I asked myself why this happened to me and where did the disease come from."
Sekove's parents took him to his village of Nabua in Cakaudrove in the hope that people in the village could find a cure.
After three years, people in the village gave up and started counting the days he had left to live.
With everyone around him giving up, Sekove turned to the only source of hope and peace he found the gospel sounds of the Akafa family singers.
"I found meaning in the words of their songs and became inspired," he said.
"I started to read the word of God and found peace in verses from the Bible which spoke of His healing power."
In September, 2001 at the age of 18, Sekove committed his life to the Lord .
"That Friday, I told everyone at home and relatives in the village that I would walk, by the power of God, on Monday.
"They were shocked but I had faith in God's healing power and knew what I was talking about."
Everyone in the village looked forward to the day.
"On Monday morning I got out of bed with my family watching.
"My brothers and sisters were concerned and told me to lie down after they heard my hip bones crackling," said Sekove.
"I let go the crutches which had supported me and never looked back. I knew the Lord healed me."
From that day, the Cakaudrove lad vowed he would spend each day giving thanks to his Saviour.
"It has been my routine since that morning to wake up before the sun rises and play my guitar and sing gospel songs to thank God for my life.
"Whatever I earn and work for I give back to him because I am eternally thankful for my life."
For the past three years Sekove has worked at his plantation in Vanua Levu planting dalo, tavioka other root crops.
"I never dreamt I would work my limbs again and it was only when God changed my life that I started to work hard."
Sekove, now 22, attends the South Pacific missionary training centre at Veisari. He started three weeks ago.
"Since I got better, I have shared my experience with people bedridden with sickness," he said.
While reading The Fiji Times last week, Sekove came across nine-year-old Jone Tukana who was suffering from an incurable tumour.
The story touched him and he was determined to approach the boy's parents and share with them his experience.
"I knew how Jone was feeling and understood the anguish of his parents.
"I wanted to tell them that their boy's life could be saved if they don't lose hope and let God take control."
According to Sekove, Jone can still be helped despite his condition.
"Jone's parents should seek divine intervention through God's healing power because it is Jone's only hope," he said.
"This is the same God who has healed thousands. If Jone's parents take this to heart, through them God can heal Jone."
Sekove has a similar message to people inflicted with incurable diseases give their troubles to God. He says he is a testimony of His healing power.
"Many people, when told by the doctor they cannot be healed, return home and lose hope," he said.
"We must change that way of thinking and start relying on God's power to heal us. He did it to me.
"It's about changing how we think and depending on God," he said.
Back to Top of Article
HE makes his way home after a hectic day at school and is still in the hype of playing rugby with his school mates.
Unbeknown to the young, energetic third former, his life was not going to be the same again from that evening.
After dinner, Sekove Maqanatagane, 14 years old then, was restless and could not sleep.
His family did not know what was wrong with him and being the youngest, his parents were worried.
"I couldn't sleep and kept moving about," he said. At daybreak the once full of life teenager was paralysed from the neck down.
"My parents could not take it anymore and took me to hospital."
It is every parent's nightmare to wait at the hospital for the doctor's diagnosis while their child suffers in the small hospital room where the doctor is examining him.
The diagnosis was not good and the doctors explained to his parents that the virus which affected his movement was moving to his brain.
"The disease was spreading fast and they said they could do nothing.
"My parents took me home and started to look for medicine and other ways to cure me."
Herbal medicines did not work and his family started losing hope.
"It reached a stage when they told me it would be better if I died because nothing else could cure me," he said.
"I was hurt and frustrated but then I started to listen to gospel music from the Akafa Family gospel group and little by little I started my hopes lifted."
As a Form Three student of Savusavu Secondary School in 1997, Sekove's youth was cut short.
He was paralysed and bed-ridden for the next four years of his life, missing out on what boys his age group were enjoying, such as playing rugby.
"In those four years I never thought I would recover.
"Everytime I asked myself why this happened to me and where did the disease come from."
Sekove's parents took him to his village of Nabua in Cakaudrove in the hope that people in the village could find a cure.
After three years, people in the village gave up and started counting the days he had left to live.
With everyone around him giving up, Sekove turned to the only source of hope and peace he found the gospel sounds of the Akafa family singers.
"I found meaning in the words of their songs and became inspired," he said.
"I started to read the word of God and found peace in verses from the Bible which spoke of His healing power."
In September, 2001 at the age of 18, Sekove committed his life to the Lord .
"That Friday, I told everyone at home and relatives in the village that I would walk, by the power of God, on Monday.
"They were shocked but I had faith in God's healing power and knew what I was talking about."
Everyone in the village looked forward to the day.
"On Monday morning I got out of bed with my family watching.
"My brothers and sisters were concerned and told me to lie down after they heard my hip bones crackling," said Sekove.
"I let go the crutches which had supported me and never looked back. I knew the Lord healed me."
From that day, the Cakaudrove lad vowed he would spend each day giving thanks to his Saviour.
"It has been my routine since that morning to wake up before the sun rises and play my guitar and sing gospel songs to thank God for my life.
"Whatever I earn and work for I give back to him because I am eternally thankful for my life."
For the past three years Sekove has worked at his plantation in Vanua Levu planting dalo, tavioka other root crops.
"I never dreamt I would work my limbs again and it was only when God changed my life that I started to work hard."
Sekove, now 22, attends the South Pacific missionary training centre at Veisari. He started three weeks ago.
"Since I got better, I have shared my experience with people bedridden with sickness," he said.
While reading The Fiji Times last week, Sekove came across nine-year-old Jone Tukana who was suffering from an incurable tumour.
The story touched him and he was determined to approach the boy's parents and share with them his experience.
"I knew how Jone was feeling and understood the anguish of his parents.
"I wanted to tell them that their boy's life could be saved if they don't lose hope and let God take control."
According to Sekove, Jone can still be helped despite his condition.
"Jone's parents should seek divine intervention through God's healing power because it is Jone's only hope," he said.
"This is the same God who has healed thousands. If Jone's parents take this to heart, through them God can heal Jone."
Sekove has a similar message to people inflicted with incurable diseases give their troubles to God. He says he is a testimony of His healing power.
"Many people, when told by the doctor they cannot be healed, return home and lose hope," he said.
"We must change that way of thinking and start relying on God's power to heal us. He did it to me.
"It's about changing how we think and depending on God," he said.
Back to Top of Article
HE makes his way home after a hectic day at school and is still in the hype of playing rugby with his school mates.
Unbeknown to the young, energetic third former, his life was not going to be the same again from that evening.
After dinner, Sekove Maqanatagane, 14 years old then, was restless and could not sleep.
His family did not know what was wrong with him and being the youngest, his parents were worried.
"I couldn't sleep and kept moving about," he said. At daybreak the once full of life teenager was paralysed from the neck down.
"My parents could not take it anymore and took me to hospital."
It is every parent's nightmare to wait at the hospital for the doctor's diagnosis while their child suffers in the small hospital room where the doctor is examining him.
The diagnosis was not good and the doctors explained to his parents that the virus which affected his movement was moving to his brain.
"The disease was spreading fast and they said they could do nothing.
"My parents took me home and started to look for medicine and other ways to cure me."
Herbal medicines did not work and his family started losing hope.
"It reached a stage when they told me it would be better if I died because nothing else could cure me," he said.
"I was hurt and frustrated but then I started to listen to gospel music from the Akafa Family gospel group and little by little I started my hopes lifted."
As a Form Three student of Savusavu Secondary School in 1997, Sekove's youth was cut short.
He was paralysed and bed-ridden for the next four years of his life, missing out on what boys his age group were enjoying, such as playing rugby.
"In those four years I never thought I would recover.
"Everytime I asked myself why this happened to me and where did the disease come from."
Sekove's parents took him to his village of Nabua in Cakaudrove in the hope that people in the village could find a cure.
After three years, people in the village gave up and started counting the days he had left to live.
With everyone around him giving up, Sekove turned to the only source of hope and peace he found the gospel sounds of the Akafa family singers.
"I found meaning in the words of their songs and became inspired," he said.
HE makes his way home after a hectic day at school and is still in the hype of playing rugby with his school mates.
Unbeknown to the young, energetic third former, his life was not going to be the same again from that evening.
After dinner, Sekove Maqanatagane, 14 years old then, was restless and could not sleep.
His family did not know what was wrong with him and being the youngest, his parents were worried.
"I couldn't sleep and kept moving about," he said. At daybreak the once full of life teenager was paralysed from the neck down.
"My parents could not take it anymore and took me to hospital."
It is every parent's nightmare to wait at the hospital for the doctor's diagnosis while their child suffers in the small hospital room where the doctor is examining him.
The diagnosis was not good and the doctors explained to his parents that the virus which affected his movement was moving to his brain.
"The disease was spreading fast and they said they could do nothing.
"My parents took me home and started to look for medicine and other ways to cure me."
Herbal medicines did not work and his family started losing hope.
"It reached a stage when they told me it would be better if I died because nothing else could cure me," he said.
"I was hurt and frustrated but then I started to listen to gospel music from the Akafa Family gospel group and little by little I started my hopes lifted."
As a Form Three student of Savusavu Secondary School in 1997, Sekove's youth was cut short.
He was paralysed and bed-ridden for the next four years of his life, missing out on what boys his age group were enjoying, such as playing rugby.
"In those four years I never thought I would recover.
"Everytime I asked myself why this happened to me and where did the disease come from."
Sekove's parents took him to his village of Nabua in Cakaudrove in the hope that people in the village could find a cure.
After three years, people in the village gave up and started counting the days he had left to live.
With everyone around him giving up, Sekove turned to the only source of hope and peace he found the gospel sounds of the Akafa family singers.
"I found meaning in the words of their songs and became inspired," he said.
"I started to read the word of God and found peace in verses from the Bible which spoke of His healing power."
In September, 2001 at the age of 18, Sekove committed his life to the Lord .
"That Friday, I told everyone at home and relatives in the village that I would walk, by the power of God, on Monday.
"They were shocked but I had faith in God's healing power and knew what I was talking about."
Everyone in the village looked forward to the day.
"On Monday morning I got out of bed with my family watching.
"My brothers and sisters were concerned and told me to lie down after they heard my hip bones crackling," said Sekove.
"I let go the crutches which had supported me and never looked back. I knew the Lord healed me."
From that day, the Cakaudrove lad vowed he would spend each day giving thanks to his Saviour.
"It has been my routine since that morning to wake up before the sun rises and play my guitar and sing gospel songs to thank God for my life.
"Whatever I earn and work for I give back to him because I am eternally thankful for my life."
For the past three years Sekove has worked at his plantation in Vanua Levu planting dalo, tavioka other root crops.
"I never dreamt I would work my limbs again and it was only when God changed my life that I started to work hard."
Sekove, now 22, attends the South Pacific missionary training centre at Veisari. He started three weeks ago.
"Since I got better, I have shared my experience with people bedridden with sickness," he said.
While reading The Fiji Times last week, Sekove came across nine-year-old Jone Tukana who was suffering from an incurable tumour.
The story touched him and he was determined to approach the boy's parents and share with them his experience.
"I knew how Jone was feeling and understood the anguish of his parents.
"I wanted to tell them that their boy's life could be saved if they don't lose hope and let God take control."
According to Sekove, Jone can still be helped despite his condition.
"Jone's parents should seek divine intervention through God's healing power because it is Jone's only hope," he said.
"This is the same God who has healed thousands. If Jone's parents take this to heart, through them God can heal Jone."
Sekove has a similar message to people inflicted with incurable diseases give their troubles to God. He says he is a testimony of His healing power.
"Many people, when told by the doctor they cannot be healed, return home and lose hope," he said.
"We must change that way of thinking and start relying on God's power to heal us. He did it to me.
"It's about changing how we think and depending on God," he said.
Back to Top of Article
HE makes his way home after a hectic day at school and is still in the hype of playing rugby with his school mates.
Unbeknown to the young, energetic third former, his life was not going to be the same again from that evening.
After dinner, Sekove Maqanatagane, 14 years old then, was restless and could not sleep.
His family did not know what was wrong with him and being the youngest, his parents were worried.
"I couldn't sleep and kept moving about," he said. At daybreak the once full of life teenager was paralysed from the neck down.
"My parents could not take it anymore and took me to hospital."
It is every parent's nightmare to wait at the hospital for the doctor's diagnosis while their child suffers in the small hospital room where the doctor is examining him.
The diagnosis was not good and the doctors explained to his parents that the virus which affected his movement was moving to his brain.
"The disease was spreading fast and they said they could do nothing.
"My parents took me home and started to look for medicine and other ways to cure me."
Herbal medicines did not work and his family started losing hope.
"It reached a stage when they told me it would be better if I died because nothing else could cure me," he said.
"I was hurt and frustrated but then I started to listen to gospel music from the Akafa Family gospel group and little by little I started my hopes lifted."
As a Form Three student of Savusavu Secondary School in 1997, Sekove's youth was cut short.
He was paralysed and bed-ridden for the next four years of his life, missing out on what boys his age group were enjoying, such as playing rugby.
"In those four years I never thought I would recover.
"Everytime I asked myself why this happened to me and where did the disease come from."
Sekove's parents took him to his village of Nabua in Cakaudrove in the hope that people in the village could find a cure.
After three years, people in the village gave up and started counting the days he had left to live.
With everyone around him giving up, Sekove turned to the only source of hope and peace he found the gospel sounds of the Akafa family singers.
"I found meaning in the words of their songs and became inspired," he said.
"I started to read the word of God and found peace in verses from the Bible which spoke of His healing power."
In September, 2001 at the age of 18, Sekove committed his life to the Lord .
"That Friday, I told everyone at home and relatives in the village that I would walk, by the power of God, on Monday.
"They were shocked but I had faith in God's healing power and knew what I was talking about."
Everyone in the village looked forward to the day.
"On Monday morning I got out of bed with my family watching.
"My brothers and sisters were concerned and told me to lie down after they heard my hip bones crackling," said Sekove.
"I let go the crutches which had supported me and never looked back. I knew the Lord healed me."
From that day, the Cakaudrove lad vowed he would spend each day giving thanks to his Saviour.
"It has been my routine since that morning to wake up before the sun rises and play my guitar and sing gospel songs to thank God for my life.
"Whatever I earn and work for I give back to him because I am eternally thankful for my life."
For the past three years Sekove has worked at his plantation in Vanua Levu planting dalo, tavioka other root crops.
"I never dreamt I would work my limbs again and it was only when God changed my life that I started to work hard."
Sekove, now 22, attends the South Pacific missionary training centre at Veisari. He started three weeks ago.
"Since I got better, I have shared my experience with people bedridden with sickness," he said.
While reading The Fiji Times last week, Sekove came across nine-year-old Jone Tukana who was suffering from an incurable tumour.
The story touched him and he was determined to approach the boy's parents and share with them his experience.
"I knew how Jone was feeling and understood the anguish of his parents.
"I wanted to tell them that their boy's life could be saved if they don't lose hope and let God take control."
According to Sekove, Jone can still be helped despite his condition.
"Jone's parents should seek divine intervention through God's healing power because it is Jone's only hope," he said.
"This is the same God who has healed thousands. If Jone's parents take this to heart, through them God can heal Jone."
Sekove has a similar message to people inflicted with incurable diseases give their troubles to God. He says he is a testimony of His healing power.
"Many people, when told by the doctor they cannot be healed, return home and lose hope," he said.
"We must change that way of thinking and start relying on God's power to heal us. He did it to me.
"It's about changing how we think and depending on God," he said.
Back to Top of Article
HE makes his way home after a hectic day at school and is still in the hype of playing rugby with his school mates.
Unbeknown to the young, energetic third former, his life was not going to be the same again from that evening.
After dinner, Sekove Maqanatagane, 14 years old then, was restless and could not sleep.
His family did not know what was wrong with him and being the youngest, his parents were worried.
"I couldn't sleep and kept moving about," he said. At daybreak the once full of life teenager was paralysed from the neck down.
"My parents could not take it anymore and took me to hospital."
It is every parent's nightmare to wait at the hospital for the doctor's diagnosis while their child suffers in the small hospital room where the doctor is examining him.
The diagnosis was not good and the doctors explained to his parents that the virus which affected his movement was moving to his brain.
"The disease was spreading fast and they said they could do nothing.
"My parents took me home and started to look for medicine and other ways to cure me."
Herbal medicines did not work and his family started losing hope.
"It reached a stage when they told me it would be better if I died because nothing else could cure me," he said.
"I was hurt and frustrated but then I started to listen to gospel music from the Akafa Family gospel group and little by little I started my hopes lifted."
As a Form Three student of Savusavu Secondary School in 1997, Sekove's youth was cut short.
He was paralysed and bed-ridden for the next four years of his life, missing out on what boys his age group were enjoying, such as playing rugby.
"In those four years I never thought I would recover.
"Everytime I asked myself why this happened to me and where did the disease come from."
Sekove's parents took him to his village of Nabua in Cakaudrove in the hope that people in the village could find a cure.
After three years, people in the village gave up and started counting the days he had left to live.
With everyone around him giving up, Sekove turned to the only source of hope and peace he found the gospel sounds of the Akafa family singers.
"I found meaning in the words of their songs and became inspired," he said.
"I started to read the word of God and found peace in verses from the Bible which spoke of His healing power."
In September, 2001 at the age of 18, Sekove committed his life to the Lord .
"That Friday, I told everyone at home and relatives in the village that I would walk, by the power of God, on Monday.
"They were shocked but I had faith in God's healing power and knew what I was talking about."
Everyone in the village looked forward to the day.
"On Monday morning I got out of bed with my family watching.
"My brothers and sisters were concerned and told me to lie down after they heard my hip bones crackling," said Sekove.
"I let go the crutches which had supported me and never looked back. I knew the Lord healed me."
From that day, the Cakaudrove lad vowed he would spend each day giving thanks to his Saviour.
"It has been my routine since that morning to wake up before the sun rises and play my guitar and sing gospel songs to thank God for my life.
"Whatever I earn and work for I give back to him because I am eternally thankful for my life."
For the past three years Sekove has worked at his plantation in Vanua Levu planting dalo, tavioka other root crops.
"I never dreamt I would work my limbs again and it was only when God changed my life that I started to work hard."
Sekove, now 22, attends the South Pacific missionary training centre at Veisari. He started three weeks ago.
"Since I got better, I have shared my experience with people bedridden with sickness," he said.
While reading The Fiji Times last week, Sekove came across nine-year-old Jone Tukana who was suffering from an incurable tumour.
The story touched him and he was determined to approach the boy's parents and share with them his experience.
"I knew how Jone was feeling and understood the anguish of his parents.
"I wanted to tell them that their boy's life could be saved if they don't lose hope and let God take control."
According to Sekove, Jone can still be helped despite his condition.
"Jone's parents should seek divine intervention through God's healing power because it is Jone's only hope," he said.
"This is the same God who has healed thousands. If Jone's parents take this to heart, through them God can heal Jone."
Sekove has a similar message to people inflicted with incurable diseases give their troubles to God. He says he is a testimony of His healing power.
"Many people, when told by the doctor they cannot be healed, return home and lose hope," he said.
"We must change that way of thinking and start relying on God's power to heal us. He did it to me.
"It's about changing how we think and depending on God," he said.
HE makes his way home after a hectic day at school and is still in the hype of playing rugby with his school mates.
Unbeknown to the young, energetic third former, his life was not going to be the same again from that evening.
After dinner, Sekove Maqanatagane, 14 years old then, was restless and could not sleep.
His family did not know what was wrong with him and being the youngest, his parents were worried.
"I couldn't sleep and kept moving about," he said. At daybreak the once full of life teenager was paralysed from the neck down.
"My parents could not take it anymore and took me to hospital."
It is every parent's nightmare to wait at the hospital for the doctor's diagnosis while their child suffers in the small hospital room where the doctor is examining him.
The diagnosis was not good and the doctors explained to his parents that the virus which affected his movement was moving to his brain.
"The disease was spreading fast and they said they could do nothing.
"My parents took me home and started to look for medicine and other ways to cure me."
Herbal medicines did not work and his family started losing hope.
"It reached a stage when they told me it would be better if I died because nothing else could cure me," he said.
"I was hurt and frustrated but then I started to listen to gospel music from the Akafa Family gospel group and little by little I started my hopes lifted."
As a Form Three student of Savusavu Secondary School in 1997, Sekove's youth was cut short.
He was paralysed and bed-ridden for the next four years of his life, missing out on what boys his age group were enjoying, such as playing rugby.
"In those four years I never thought I would recover.
"Everytime I asked myself why this happened to me and where did the disease come from."
Sekove's parents took him to his village of Nabua in Cakaudrove in the hope that people in the village could find a cure.
After three years, people in the village gave up and started counting the days he had left to live.
With everyone around him giving up, Sekove turned to the only source of hope and peace he found the gospel sounds of the Akafa family singers.
"I found meaning in the words of their songs and became inspired," he said.
"I started to read the word of God and found peace in verses from the Bible which spoke of His healing power."
In September, 2001 at the age of 18, Sekove committed his life to the Lord .
"That Friday, I told everyone at home and relatives in the village that I would walk, by the power of God, on Monday.
"They were shocked but I had faith in God's healing power and knew what I was talking about."
Everyone in the village looked forward to the day.
"On Monday morning I got out of bed with my family watching.
"My brothers and sisters were concerned and told me to lie down after they heard my hip bones crackling," said Sekove.
"I let go the crutches which had supported me and never looked back. I knew the Lord healed me."
From that day, the Cakaudrove lad vowed he would spend each day giving thanks to his Saviour.
"It has been my routine since that morning to wake up before the sun rises and play my guitar and sing gospel songs to thank God for my life.
"Whatever I earn and work for I give back to him because I am eternally thankful for my life."
For the past three years Sekove has worked at his plantation in Vanua Levu planting dalo, tavioka other root crops.
"I never dreamt I would work my limbs again and it was only when God changed my life that I started to work hard."
Sekove, now 22, attends the South Pacific missionary training centre at Veisari. He started three weeks ago.
"Since I got better, I have shared my experience with people bedridden with sickness," he said.
While reading The Fiji Times last week, Sekove came across nine-year-old Jone Tukana who was suffering from an incurable tumour.
The story touched him and he was determined to approach the boy's parents and share with them his experience.
"I knew how Jone was feeling and understood the anguish of his parents.
"I wanted to tell them that their boy's life could be saved if they don't lose hope and let God take control."
According to Sekove, Jone can still be helped despite his condition.
"Jone's parents should seek divine intervention through God's healing power because it is Jone's only hope," he said.
"This is the same God who has healed thousands. If Jone's parents take this to heart, through them God can heal Jone."
Sekove has a similar message to people inflicted with incurable diseases give their troubles to God. He says he is a testimony of His healing power.
"Many people, when told by the doctor they cannot be healed, return home and lose hope," he said.
"We must change that way of thinking and start relying on God's power to heal us. He did it to me.
"It's about changing how we think and depending on God," he said.
An amazing tale of healing - Fiji Times Online
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
A case for intelligent design
Monday, April 11, 2005
By Clifford W. Randall
When I read the "Evolution vs. creationism" headline in the March 27 Horizon section, I expected to read a comparison presentation of intelligent design principles versus evolutionary principles. Instead, I read a misrepresentative article about ID that made no pertinent points about it, and three articles written by fervent evolutionists who were neither forthcoming enough nor astute enough to deal with the troublesome issues of evolutionism.
For example, Steve Olson goes to great length to explain the difference between "hypothesis" and "theory" ("An argument's mutating term"), but doesn't seem to realize there is a term beyond theory, i.e. "law." Apparently he has not noticed, but physical scientists do not refer to the "theory of gravitation," they refer to the "law of gravity (or gravitation)."
When it was first proposed by Sir Isaac Newton, it was the theory of gravity. Since that time, the scientific community has developed a mathematical model that accurately describes the forces of gravity and is able to use the model combined with centrifugal force and other models to very accurately predict the escape velocities for rockets, the movement of spacecraft among planets, the presence of dwarf star companions of larger, more visible stars, and the presence of planets circling stars by the wobble of the stars.
That is why the theory has become a law. You can mathematically express it and you can use the relationship to accurately predict what will occur because of the existence of the gravitation and other forces.
None of the preceding is true for the theory of evolution. There is no mathematical model for it. Those who purport to understand it cannot study it conclusively in controlled experiments, cannot use it as a predictive tool, and it plays no important role in biochemistry. Even the remarkable finches of the Galapagos Islands, if removed to a mainland environment, do not continue to evolve to new genera or beyond, but, instead, revert back to ordinary finches. That is why evolution is still a theory and not a law.
As long as it is a theory, it is in the best interest of science to debate its veracity and other options for explaining what is being observed. It has become almost impossible to do that in academic settings because so many academicians uncritically accept all of the proposed principles of evolution and the teachings of the popular evolutionists, many of whom have a poor understanding of what the evolutionary principles are, and then they dismiss those who challenge the status quo rather than truly listen to what they say.
This approach discourages scientific breakthrough rather than encouraging it. This is similar to what happened with geophysical theory early in the 20th century. Geophysical scientists were so committed to the concept of stationary continents that they refused to accept the obviousness that the West African and Eastern South American coasts used to be joined together to form a larger land mass. Also, the "stationary continents" adherents actively belittled and ostracized those who insisted that drifting had occurred. Today, continental drift and plate tectonics are known to be geophysical laws.
It is time to expand the evolutionary debates, given the minimal progress that has been made in defining and explaining the fundamental mechanisms of evolution since the time of Darwin. This is the objective of the intelligent design scientists and why they should at least be given the opportunity to present their concepts and ideas within scientific forums.
Robert Boyd ("Science is neither good nor evil, just logical") emphasizes that science is based on logic. Yet he, and most evolutionists, verbalize that evolutionary forces were responsible for the development of life on planet Earth, even though the basic principle of evolution is "survival of the fittest." Note, however, that survival of the fittest is impossible unless you already have both life and death. Therefore, evolutionary forces could not have been responsible for the existence of life on Earth.
To overcome this obvious problem, evolutionists expand Darwin's theory to include chemical and biochemical evolution, without any logical support for this leap of faith. Darwin himself did this in later life.
However, there is no supporting evidence for it on planet Earth. All efforts to accomplish generation-of-life-requirement chemicals (amino acids, proteins, DNA, RNA) in the laboratory have been recognized as failures, even by most of those who performed the experiments. Even the few amino acids formed were the wrong kind. In fact, most of the experiments were performed using very reduced environments, and it is now accepted that the early Earth environment was oxidized, not reduced.
Boyd refers to Pasteur to support his argument, yet Pasteur disproved spontaneous generation, the very force that evolutionists are relying on to explain life on this planet. Where is the logic? Based on existing published evidence, the evolutionist's belief that life on this planet was spontaneously generated is the equivalent of the creationist's belief that a supernatural force was involved. Why should one leap of faith be allowed into the classroom but another one excluded?
The evolutionists who wrote the articles you published appear to be confused about where the disagreement lies. No ID scientist disagrees with the adaptation of species, or that new species can be formed because of it. They do not dispute that so-called evolutionary forces can be used to explain the modification of whales from land to aquatic animals, or bats from nonflying mammals. They agree with Darwin's theories as long as they are consistent with the title of his book, "The Origin of the Species."
They do dispute that these same forces can be responsible for the development of conscious life, or for the development of complex mammals from single-celled organisms, within the time limits of suitable conditions on planet Earth. They dispute the random development of a flagella for a bacterium, or the random development of an eye for a vertebrate creature. For that matter, they dispute the spontaneous generation of DNA and RNA from random chemicals and environmental conditions based on the logic of statistical probability.
Boyd is correct in noting that the "Big Bang" theory, which states that the universe had a discrete beginning and will have an eventual end, i.e., will run out of usable energy, leaves us with only one logical conclusion. The universe was established by a force outside of it, and that force, whatever its form, is God. However, Professor Suchitra Samanta ("Why the argument?") would be wise to read the first chapter of Genesis in the Bible with careful attention to the use of the words translated as "created" and "made." Note that only three creation events occur, as recorded by the writer. The creation of the entire universe (heavens and earth, a phrase meant to mean the entire universe) and, logically, all of the physical, chemical, biological and biochemical laws that operate within it; the creation of conscious life; and the creation of the spirit of humans, because God is spirit. Everything else is made.
roanoke.com - Commentary Stories -A case for intelligent design
By Clifford W. Randall
When I read the "Evolution vs. creationism" headline in the March 27 Horizon section, I expected to read a comparison presentation of intelligent design principles versus evolutionary principles. Instead, I read a misrepresentative article about ID that made no pertinent points about it, and three articles written by fervent evolutionists who were neither forthcoming enough nor astute enough to deal with the troublesome issues of evolutionism.
For example, Steve Olson goes to great length to explain the difference between "hypothesis" and "theory" ("An argument's mutating term"), but doesn't seem to realize there is a term beyond theory, i.e. "law." Apparently he has not noticed, but physical scientists do not refer to the "theory of gravitation," they refer to the "law of gravity (or gravitation)."
When it was first proposed by Sir Isaac Newton, it was the theory of gravity. Since that time, the scientific community has developed a mathematical model that accurately describes the forces of gravity and is able to use the model combined with centrifugal force and other models to very accurately predict the escape velocities for rockets, the movement of spacecraft among planets, the presence of dwarf star companions of larger, more visible stars, and the presence of planets circling stars by the wobble of the stars.
That is why the theory has become a law. You can mathematically express it and you can use the relationship to accurately predict what will occur because of the existence of the gravitation and other forces.
None of the preceding is true for the theory of evolution. There is no mathematical model for it. Those who purport to understand it cannot study it conclusively in controlled experiments, cannot use it as a predictive tool, and it plays no important role in biochemistry. Even the remarkable finches of the Galapagos Islands, if removed to a mainland environment, do not continue to evolve to new genera or beyond, but, instead, revert back to ordinary finches. That is why evolution is still a theory and not a law.
As long as it is a theory, it is in the best interest of science to debate its veracity and other options for explaining what is being observed. It has become almost impossible to do that in academic settings because so many academicians uncritically accept all of the proposed principles of evolution and the teachings of the popular evolutionists, many of whom have a poor understanding of what the evolutionary principles are, and then they dismiss those who challenge the status quo rather than truly listen to what they say.
This approach discourages scientific breakthrough rather than encouraging it. This is similar to what happened with geophysical theory early in the 20th century. Geophysical scientists were so committed to the concept of stationary continents that they refused to accept the obviousness that the West African and Eastern South American coasts used to be joined together to form a larger land mass. Also, the "stationary continents" adherents actively belittled and ostracized those who insisted that drifting had occurred. Today, continental drift and plate tectonics are known to be geophysical laws.
It is time to expand the evolutionary debates, given the minimal progress that has been made in defining and explaining the fundamental mechanisms of evolution since the time of Darwin. This is the objective of the intelligent design scientists and why they should at least be given the opportunity to present their concepts and ideas within scientific forums.
Robert Boyd ("Science is neither good nor evil, just logical") emphasizes that science is based on logic. Yet he, and most evolutionists, verbalize that evolutionary forces were responsible for the development of life on planet Earth, even though the basic principle of evolution is "survival of the fittest." Note, however, that survival of the fittest is impossible unless you already have both life and death. Therefore, evolutionary forces could not have been responsible for the existence of life on Earth.
To overcome this obvious problem, evolutionists expand Darwin's theory to include chemical and biochemical evolution, without any logical support for this leap of faith. Darwin himself did this in later life.
However, there is no supporting evidence for it on planet Earth. All efforts to accomplish generation-of-life-requirement chemicals (amino acids, proteins, DNA, RNA) in the laboratory have been recognized as failures, even by most of those who performed the experiments. Even the few amino acids formed were the wrong kind. In fact, most of the experiments were performed using very reduced environments, and it is now accepted that the early Earth environment was oxidized, not reduced.
Boyd refers to Pasteur to support his argument, yet Pasteur disproved spontaneous generation, the very force that evolutionists are relying on to explain life on this planet. Where is the logic? Based on existing published evidence, the evolutionist's belief that life on this planet was spontaneously generated is the equivalent of the creationist's belief that a supernatural force was involved. Why should one leap of faith be allowed into the classroom but another one excluded?
The evolutionists who wrote the articles you published appear to be confused about where the disagreement lies. No ID scientist disagrees with the adaptation of species, or that new species can be formed because of it. They do not dispute that so-called evolutionary forces can be used to explain the modification of whales from land to aquatic animals, or bats from nonflying mammals. They agree with Darwin's theories as long as they are consistent with the title of his book, "The Origin of the Species."
They do dispute that these same forces can be responsible for the development of conscious life, or for the development of complex mammals from single-celled organisms, within the time limits of suitable conditions on planet Earth. They dispute the random development of a flagella for a bacterium, or the random development of an eye for a vertebrate creature. For that matter, they dispute the spontaneous generation of DNA and RNA from random chemicals and environmental conditions based on the logic of statistical probability.
Boyd is correct in noting that the "Big Bang" theory, which states that the universe had a discrete beginning and will have an eventual end, i.e., will run out of usable energy, leaves us with only one logical conclusion. The universe was established by a force outside of it, and that force, whatever its form, is God. However, Professor Suchitra Samanta ("Why the argument?") would be wise to read the first chapter of Genesis in the Bible with careful attention to the use of the words translated as "created" and "made." Note that only three creation events occur, as recorded by the writer. The creation of the entire universe (heavens and earth, a phrase meant to mean the entire universe) and, logically, all of the physical, chemical, biological and biochemical laws that operate within it; the creation of conscious life; and the creation of the spirit of humans, because God is spirit. Everything else is made.
roanoke.com - Commentary Stories -A case for intelligent design
Science, creation discussed
Panel: Ideas need not conflict
By Kevin Eigelbach
Post staff reporter
Science answers the 'what' and 'how' questions, not the 'who' and 'why' questions.
David Kime, an adviser in the honors program at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights, heard the science/religion debate put that way once, and he agrees.
He doesn't see a conflict between evolution and belief in God. But some people do.
Kime and a lecture room full of professors listened Friday afternoon to a presentation about some of those people.
Alan Gishlick, a visiting professor with the National Center for Science Education, talked about two alternatives to Darwinian evolution - creation science and intelligent design.
The Oakland, Calif.-based non-profit exists to keep evolution in the classroom and creationism out of it.
Gishlick spoke as part of a weekend conference on science and math education sponsored by the leaders of NKU, the University of Cincinnati and Xavier University.
It's an important issue for educators who want to present the claims of science without undermining a student's faith.
Gishlick said something similar happened to him when he told a Christian friend that the creation stories in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2-3 contradict one another.
In the first chapter, God creates men and women on the sixth day, his last act of creation before resting. In the second chapter, he creates Adam, then the animals, then Eve.
Gishlick's friend eventually came to agree with him, lost her faith and became an atheist. It made him feel terrible, he said.
But his belief in evolution has had the opposite effect on him, he said.
"The more I learn about the natural world, the more I believe in God," he said.
All the same, he has little patience for those who hold to the literal word of Genesis, such as the Hebron-based Answers In Genesis, one of creation science's most influential voices.
For creationists, the Bible as literally interpreted is the prime source of truth, but they try to find scientific justification for its claims.
As Gishlick contended, they tend to blame all of society's ills on acceptance of evolution.
He faults them, among other things, for saying one can't call himself a Christian if he believes in evolution - in effect, forcing a choice between the two.
That criticism hit home with Tom Rambo, an NKU biology teacher who's also a lay minister.
The literal interpretation is only one way to read Genesis, he said, but some ministers have children believing that their entire faith rests on it.
"My faith is in Jesus Christ, not in some scientific thing that's going to convince me," he said.
One could call intelligent design "creationism in a cheap suit," Gishlick said.
Simply put, it's the belief that life is too complex to have evolved by chance.
Many intelligent design advocates accept evolution and also an Earth billions of years old, not thousands. But they see God putting together the building blocks for the simplest forms of life.
Rambo said Gishlick's tendency to poke fun at his opponents didn't sit well with him. But on the other hand, creationists do the same thing to evolutionists, he said.
He asked Gishlick what he thought of scientists who maintain that evolution has disproved God's existence.
They are being just as unscientific as creationists, Gishlick replied.
Rambo's wife, Elinor, an NKU biology lecturer, wondered if the uncertainty and insecurity of the times have prompted people toward fundamentalism.
"There's got to be an inner need for simple answers," she said.
One reason these ideas have caught on is that people lack the basic scientific knowledge to refute them, Gishlick said.
That's why it's so important to start teaching evolution when children are young, just as creationists are doing, he said.
He urged professors to get into their communities and talk with children about evolution, to run for school boards and talk to reporters doing science stories.
The public needs to know that scientists aren't scary, he said. "They're not atheists. They're not out to destroy Christianity."
The Cincinnati Post - Science, creation discussed
By Kevin Eigelbach
Post staff reporter
Science answers the 'what' and 'how' questions, not the 'who' and 'why' questions.
David Kime, an adviser in the honors program at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights, heard the science/religion debate put that way once, and he agrees.
He doesn't see a conflict between evolution and belief in God. But some people do.
Kime and a lecture room full of professors listened Friday afternoon to a presentation about some of those people.
Alan Gishlick, a visiting professor with the National Center for Science Education, talked about two alternatives to Darwinian evolution - creation science and intelligent design.
The Oakland, Calif.-based non-profit exists to keep evolution in the classroom and creationism out of it.
Gishlick spoke as part of a weekend conference on science and math education sponsored by the leaders of NKU, the University of Cincinnati and Xavier University.
It's an important issue for educators who want to present the claims of science without undermining a student's faith.
Gishlick said something similar happened to him when he told a Christian friend that the creation stories in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2-3 contradict one another.
In the first chapter, God creates men and women on the sixth day, his last act of creation before resting. In the second chapter, he creates Adam, then the animals, then Eve.
Gishlick's friend eventually came to agree with him, lost her faith and became an atheist. It made him feel terrible, he said.
But his belief in evolution has had the opposite effect on him, he said.
"The more I learn about the natural world, the more I believe in God," he said.
All the same, he has little patience for those who hold to the literal word of Genesis, such as the Hebron-based Answers In Genesis, one of creation science's most influential voices.
For creationists, the Bible as literally interpreted is the prime source of truth, but they try to find scientific justification for its claims.
As Gishlick contended, they tend to blame all of society's ills on acceptance of evolution.
He faults them, among other things, for saying one can't call himself a Christian if he believes in evolution - in effect, forcing a choice between the two.
That criticism hit home with Tom Rambo, an NKU biology teacher who's also a lay minister.
The literal interpretation is only one way to read Genesis, he said, but some ministers have children believing that their entire faith rests on it.
"My faith is in Jesus Christ, not in some scientific thing that's going to convince me," he said.
One could call intelligent design "creationism in a cheap suit," Gishlick said.
Simply put, it's the belief that life is too complex to have evolved by chance.
Many intelligent design advocates accept evolution and also an Earth billions of years old, not thousands. But they see God putting together the building blocks for the simplest forms of life.
Rambo said Gishlick's tendency to poke fun at his opponents didn't sit well with him. But on the other hand, creationists do the same thing to evolutionists, he said.
He asked Gishlick what he thought of scientists who maintain that evolution has disproved God's existence.
They are being just as unscientific as creationists, Gishlick replied.
Rambo's wife, Elinor, an NKU biology lecturer, wondered if the uncertainty and insecurity of the times have prompted people toward fundamentalism.
"There's got to be an inner need for simple answers," she said.
One reason these ideas have caught on is that people lack the basic scientific knowledge to refute them, Gishlick said.
That's why it's so important to start teaching evolution when children are young, just as creationists are doing, he said.
He urged professors to get into their communities and talk with children about evolution, to run for school boards and talk to reporters doing science stories.
The public needs to know that scientists aren't scary, he said. "They're not atheists. They're not out to destroy Christianity."
The Cincinnati Post - Science, creation discussed
CRASH MIRACLE
April 8, 2005 -- A born-again Christian in an SUV — whose license plate read "I M SAVED" — miraculously survived a fiery collision yesterday that killed a retired firefighter who was going the wrong way on the Belt Parkway.
Curtis Plunkett, 30, of Elmont, L.I., was in stable but critical condition at Brookdale Hospital after the 4 a.m. crash.
Retired FDNY Lt. Walter Knobloch, 59, of Massapequa, L.I., was killed after his 1999 Ford Crown Victoria crashed into Plunkett's 2003 Mercedes SUV.
Cops said Knobloch's car overturned and burst into flames.
They said the 34-year veteran was driving west on the parkway's eastbound lane near 81st Street when the crash took place.
Plunkett's mother, who declined to give her name, said her son was alive only because of his strong religious beliefs.
"We're all born-again Christians," she told The Post as she wept for her unconscious son in one of the hospital's waiting rooms.
"God is always on our side," she said. "We pray to him . . . and that's why he's keeping us."
The woman said she was stunned to hear that a former firefighter was driving the other car.
"I just can't imagine it," she said. "Right now, I'm here to see that my son's OK. Everything else, I will deal with later."
Plunkett's relatives said he was awaiting surgery and had been unconscious ever since the crash.
They said the car belonged to another relative.
Plunkett's mom said Curtis had ordered the plates himself in order to underline his belief in Jesus Christ as his savior.
"The Lord is helping him through this," she told The Post. "That's why he's alive."
FDNY officials said Knobloch, of Massapequa, had worked mostly in Queens.
He retired in 2002 — just shy of 34 years with the department.
New York Post Online Edition:
Curtis Plunkett, 30, of Elmont, L.I., was in stable but critical condition at Brookdale Hospital after the 4 a.m. crash.
Retired FDNY Lt. Walter Knobloch, 59, of Massapequa, L.I., was killed after his 1999 Ford Crown Victoria crashed into Plunkett's 2003 Mercedes SUV.
Cops said Knobloch's car overturned and burst into flames.
They said the 34-year veteran was driving west on the parkway's eastbound lane near 81st Street when the crash took place.
Plunkett's mother, who declined to give her name, said her son was alive only because of his strong religious beliefs.
"We're all born-again Christians," she told The Post as she wept for her unconscious son in one of the hospital's waiting rooms.
"God is always on our side," she said. "We pray to him . . . and that's why he's keeping us."
The woman said she was stunned to hear that a former firefighter was driving the other car.
"I just can't imagine it," she said. "Right now, I'm here to see that my son's OK. Everything else, I will deal with later."
Plunkett's relatives said he was awaiting surgery and had been unconscious ever since the crash.
They said the car belonged to another relative.
Plunkett's mom said Curtis had ordered the plates himself in order to underline his belief in Jesus Christ as his savior.
"The Lord is helping him through this," she told The Post. "That's why he's alive."
FDNY officials said Knobloch, of Massapequa, had worked mostly in Queens.
He retired in 2002 — just shy of 34 years with the department.
New York Post Online Edition:
Thursday, April 07, 2005
What Happens if the Earth Suddenly Stopped Rotating?
What Happens if the Earth Suddenly Stopped Rotating?
Everything not attached would get displaced to the east, parallel to the surface of the Earth. The speed would depend upon your latitude. Only the people at the poles would be safe. You wouldn't go flying off into space because the 1000 mph maximum (at the equator) isn't enough to overcome gravity, which would still be present (Gravity is dependent on mass of objects in close proximity). If you survived, the resulting six month day and six month night would probably take care of you pretty quick.
1. Centrifugal force: force that makes things fly away from the center.
2. Centripetal force: force that makes things move towards the center.
Ok, here's how centrifugal force works: Inertia means that any object going in a particular velocity will tend to stay like that. Centrifugal force is inertia trying to overcome the constant shifts in velocity associated with spinning and stop turning.
On the matter of Earth stopping spinning: Since the centrifugal force of a human is irrelevant, due to the fact that it is much smaller than the gravitational pull of the Eath, and is counteracted by centripetal force, no gravitational changes would happen if the Earth stopped spinning. The mass of the Earth would be the same, and so its gravitational constant would be unchanged. One half of the Earth would be subjected to freezing temperatures, and the other half would bake. The lack of spin would remove wind, and the atmosphere would dissipate. All in all, the effect on your "weight" would be negligible.
Everything not attached would get displaced to the east, parallel to the surface of the Earth. The speed would depend upon your latitude. Only the people at the poles would be safe. You wouldn't go flying off into space because the 1000 mph maximum (at the equator) isn't enough to overcome gravity, which would still be present (Gravity is dependent on mass of objects in close proximity). If you survived, the resulting six month day and six month night would probably take care of you pretty quick.
1. Centrifugal force: force that makes things fly away from the center.
2. Centripetal force: force that makes things move towards the center.
Ok, here's how centrifugal force works: Inertia means that any object going in a particular velocity will tend to stay like that. Centrifugal force is inertia trying to overcome the constant shifts in velocity associated with spinning and stop turning.
On the matter of Earth stopping spinning: Since the centrifugal force of a human is irrelevant, due to the fact that it is much smaller than the gravitational pull of the Eath, and is counteracted by centripetal force, no gravitational changes would happen if the Earth stopped spinning. The mass of the Earth would be the same, and so its gravitational constant would be unchanged. One half of the Earth would be subjected to freezing temperatures, and the other half would bake. The lack of spin would remove wind, and the atmosphere would dissipate. All in all, the effect on your "weight" would be negligible.
Study Reveals Media Bias ... Again
By AFA Journal
April 6, 2005
(AgapePress) - It's certainly beginning to look like the liberal media has no place left to hide its bias.
In "A Measure of Media Bias," political science professor Tim Groseclose of the University of California at Los Angeles and Jeff Milyo of the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago ranked major media outlets to determine whether they had an observable political bias.
Groseclose and Milyo used an objective standard by which members of Congress are regularly ranked according to their political views.
The report stated: "Our results show a very significant liberal bias. All of the news outlets except Fox News' Special Report received a score to the left of the average member of Congress." (See list below.)
Groseclose and Milyo said, "Although we expected to find that most media lean left, we were astounded by the degree."
In the report, media outlets were given scores according to the objective standards designed for the study. On a scale of 0-100, the higher the score, the more liberal the outlet. Also included were the average scores for members of Congress.
Wall Street Journal - 85.1
New York Times - 73.7
CBS Evening News - 73.7
Los Angeles Times - 70.0
CBS The Early Show - 66.6
Washington Post - 66.6
Newsweek - 66.3
NPR Morning Edition - 66.3
U.S. News & World Report - 65.8
Time Magazine - 65.4
NBC Today Show - 64.0
USA Today - 63.4
NBC Nightly News - 61.6
ABC World News Tonight - 61.0
ABC Good Morning America - 56.1
CNN Newslight with Aaron Brown - 56.0
PBS Newshour with Jim Lehrer - 55.8
Fox News Special Report with Brit Hume - 39.7
U.S. Representative Average - 44.5
U.S. Senator Average - 40.0
In another look at the media, analysts for Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor examined the nation's ten major newspapers in terms of circulation, and focused on their op-ed columnists.
With one exception, all the newspapers carried more liberal columnists than conservative. The New York Times, for example, has four liberal columnists but only one conservative. Liberals at the Washington Post outnumber conservatives 11-4; and at the Chicago Tribune, there are six liberals to one conservative.
Only the New York Post had a conservative dominance, with 10 conservative and no liberal op-ed columnists.
News from Agape Press
April 6, 2005
(AgapePress) - It's certainly beginning to look like the liberal media has no place left to hide its bias.
In "A Measure of Media Bias," political science professor Tim Groseclose of the University of California at Los Angeles and Jeff Milyo of the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago ranked major media outlets to determine whether they had an observable political bias.
Groseclose and Milyo used an objective standard by which members of Congress are regularly ranked according to their political views.
The report stated: "Our results show a very significant liberal bias. All of the news outlets except Fox News' Special Report received a score to the left of the average member of Congress." (See list below.)
Groseclose and Milyo said, "Although we expected to find that most media lean left, we were astounded by the degree."
In the report, media outlets were given scores according to the objective standards designed for the study. On a scale of 0-100, the higher the score, the more liberal the outlet. Also included were the average scores for members of Congress.
Wall Street Journal - 85.1
New York Times - 73.7
CBS Evening News - 73.7
Los Angeles Times - 70.0
CBS The Early Show - 66.6
Washington Post - 66.6
Newsweek - 66.3
NPR Morning Edition - 66.3
U.S. News & World Report - 65.8
Time Magazine - 65.4
NBC Today Show - 64.0
USA Today - 63.4
NBC Nightly News - 61.6
ABC World News Tonight - 61.0
ABC Good Morning America - 56.1
CNN Newslight with Aaron Brown - 56.0
PBS Newshour with Jim Lehrer - 55.8
Fox News Special Report with Brit Hume - 39.7
U.S. Representative Average - 44.5
U.S. Senator Average - 40.0
In another look at the media, analysts for Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor examined the nation's ten major newspapers in terms of circulation, and focused on their op-ed columnists.
With one exception, all the newspapers carried more liberal columnists than conservative. The New York Times, for example, has four liberal columnists but only one conservative. Liberals at the Washington Post outnumber conservatives 11-4; and at the Chicago Tribune, there are six liberals to one conservative.
Only the New York Post had a conservative dominance, with 10 conservative and no liberal op-ed columnists.
News from Agape Press
Young Earth Creationist Has New Bone to Pick With Evolutionists
By Allie Martin
April 6, 2005
(AgapePress) - The president of Answers in Genesis says the recent discovery of a dinosaur bone in Montana supports the biblical creationist theory of a young Earth.
According to an article published in last month's Science magazine, in 2003 scientists found a Tyrannosaurus Rex thigh bone during an archaeological dig. The research team had to break the bone in pieces in order to fit it into a helicopter, and when they did so, they discovered the fossil contained well-preserved soft tissues, including blood vessels.
Ken Ham, president of the creationist group Answers in Genesis (AiG), says this important find supports the biblical view of the Earth's timeline. "The reason this is such startling news is because you just wouldn't expect soft tissue and cells like this in a bone supposedly 70 million years old," he says.
The general consensus among scientists prior to the find was that such soft tissue could not survive for tens of millions of years. Now, the dinosaur remains have many evolutionists scrambling to accommodate their evolutionist ideas about origins.
But what AiG scientists would say about the find, Ham observes, "is that it's totally consistent with the fact that these bones aren't that old and probably date back to the time of the flood just a few thousand years ago." However, he doubts evolutionists will give consideration to the possibility that the T-Rex bones are only thousands rather than millions of years old.
"Nothing has been found, nothing in observational science, that contradicts what the Bible says," the AIG spokesman contends, "but over and over, it does contradict the ideas of evolutionists."
Still, because evolutionists' beliefs about the past are so entrenched, he predicts they will just look for ways to explain away the contradictory evidence.
"Instead of questioning their beliefs they just come up with secondary and tertiary explanations," Ham says. "'Well, given enough time ...' or 'Well, we think there is a process somewhere' or 'Well, even though we don't know why' -- In other words they'll do anything but question their beliefs."
Ham is convinced proponents of the theory of evolution will not allow the Montana find to change their minds. Even though, he contends, the recent discovery supports the young Earth theory of origins, he believes evolutionists will say anything rather than admit that the biblical account of creation is true.
News from Agape Press
April 6, 2005
(AgapePress) - The president of Answers in Genesis says the recent discovery of a dinosaur bone in Montana supports the biblical creationist theory of a young Earth.
According to an article published in last month's Science magazine, in 2003 scientists found a Tyrannosaurus Rex thigh bone during an archaeological dig. The research team had to break the bone in pieces in order to fit it into a helicopter, and when they did so, they discovered the fossil contained well-preserved soft tissues, including blood vessels.
Ken Ham, president of the creationist group Answers in Genesis (AiG), says this important find supports the biblical view of the Earth's timeline. "The reason this is such startling news is because you just wouldn't expect soft tissue and cells like this in a bone supposedly 70 million years old," he says.
The general consensus among scientists prior to the find was that such soft tissue could not survive for tens of millions of years. Now, the dinosaur remains have many evolutionists scrambling to accommodate their evolutionist ideas about origins.
But what AiG scientists would say about the find, Ham observes, "is that it's totally consistent with the fact that these bones aren't that old and probably date back to the time of the flood just a few thousand years ago." However, he doubts evolutionists will give consideration to the possibility that the T-Rex bones are only thousands rather than millions of years old.
"Nothing has been found, nothing in observational science, that contradicts what the Bible says," the AIG spokesman contends, "but over and over, it does contradict the ideas of evolutionists."
Still, because evolutionists' beliefs about the past are so entrenched, he predicts they will just look for ways to explain away the contradictory evidence.
"Instead of questioning their beliefs they just come up with secondary and tertiary explanations," Ham says. "'Well, given enough time ...' or 'Well, we think there is a process somewhere' or 'Well, even though we don't know why' -- In other words they'll do anything but question their beliefs."
Ham is convinced proponents of the theory of evolution will not allow the Montana find to change their minds. Even though, he contends, the recent discovery supports the young Earth theory of origins, he believes evolutionists will say anything rather than admit that the biblical account of creation is true.
News from Agape Press
The Science of Design
by Mark Hartwig
'Intelligent design.' It's been in the news a lot lately. Lawsuits over textbook stickers, the presentation of evolution and the legality of presenting alternatives, have thrust the term into public awareness.
But just what is intelligent design? To hear some folks talk, you'd think it's a scam to sneak Genesis into science classrooms. Yet intelligent design has nothing to do with the six days of creation and everything to do with hard evidence and logic.
Intelligent design (ID) is grounded on the ancient observation that the world looks very much as if it had an intelligent source. Indeed, as early as the fifth century BC, the Greek philosopher and astronomer Anaxagoras concluded, "Mind set in order … all that ever was … and all that is now or ever will be."
After 2400 years, the appearance of design is as powerful as ever. That is especially true of the living world. Advances in biology have revealed that world to be one staggering complexity.
For example, consider the cell. Even the simplest cells bristle with high-tech machinery. On the outside, their surfaces are studded with sensors, gates, pumps and identification markers. Some bacteria even sport rotary outboard motors that they use to navigate their environment.
Inside, cells are jam-packed with power plants, assembly lines, recycling units and more. Miniature monorails whisk materials from one part of the cell to another.
Such sophistication has led even the most hard-bitten atheists to remark on the apparent design in living organisms. The late Nobel laureate Francis Crick, co-discoverer of DNA's structure and an outspoken critic of religion, has nonetheless remarked, "Biologists must constantly keep in mind that what they see was not designed but rather evolved."
Clearly, Crick (and others like him) considers the appearance of design to be strictly an illusion, created by naturalistic evolution. Yet it's also clear that this impression is so compelling that an atheistic biologist must warn his colleagues against it.
In contrast, ID theorists contend that living organisms appear designed because they are designed. And unlike the design thinkers whom Darwin deposed, they've developed rigorous new concepts to test their idea.
In the past, detecting design was hampered by vague and subjective criteria, such as discerning an object's purpose. Moreover, design was entangled with natural theology--which seeks, in part, to infer God's character by studying nature rather than revelation. Natural theologians often painted such a rosy view of nature that they became an easy mark for Darwin when he proposed his theory of evolution. Where they saw a finely-balanced world attesting to a kind and just God, Darwin pointed to nature’s imperfections and brutishness.
Since the 1980s, however, developments in several fields have made it possible to rigorously distinguish between things that "just happen" and those that happen "on purpose." This has helped design theory emerge as a distinct enterprise, aimed at detecting intelligence rather than speculating about God's character.
Dubbed "intelligent design" to distinguish it from old-school thinking, this new view is detailed in The Design Inference (Cambridge University Press, 1998), a peer-reviewed work by mathematician and philosopher William Dembski.
In contrast to what is called creation science, which parallels Biblical theology, ID rests on two basic assumptions: namely, that intelligent agents exist and that their effects are empirically detectable.
Its chief tool is specified complexity. That's a mouthful, and the math behind it is forbidding, but the basic idea is simple: An object displays specified complexity when it has lots of parts (is complex) arranged in a recognizable, delimited pattern (is specified).
For example, the article you're now reading has thousands of characters, which could have been arranged in zillions of ways. Yet it fits a recognizable pattern: It's not just a jumble of letters (which is also complex), but a magazine article written in English. Any rational person would conclude that it was designed.
The effectiveness of such thinking is confirmed by massive experience. As Dembski points out, "In every instance where we find specified complexity, and where [its] history is known, it turns out that design actually is present."
Thus, if we could trace the creation of a book, our investigation would lead us to the author. You could say, then, that specified complexity is a signature of design.
To see how this applies to biology, consider the little consider the outboard motor that bacteria such as E. coli use to navigate their environment. This water-cooled contraption, called a flagellum, comes equipped with a reversible engine, drive shaft, U-joint and a long whip-like propeller. It hums along at a cool 17,000 rpm.
Decades of research indicate that its complexity is enormous. It takes about 50 genes to create a working flagellum. Each of those genes is as complex as a sentence with hundreds of letters.
Moreover, the pattern--a working flagellum--is highly specified. Deviate from that pattern, knock out a single gene, and our bug is dead in the water (or whatever).
Such highly specified complexity, which demands the presence of every part, indicates an intelligent origin. It's also defies any explanation, such as contemporary Darwinism, that relies on the stepwise accumulation of random genetic change.
In fact, if you want to run the numbers, as Dembski does in his book No Free Lunch, it boils down to the following: If every elementary particle in the observed universe (about 1080) were cranking out mutation events at the cosmic speed limit (about 1045 times per second) for a billion times the estimated age of the universe, they still could not produce the genes for a working flagellum.
And that's just one system within multiple layers of systems. Thus the flagellum is integrated into a sensory/guidance system that maneuvers the bacterium toward nutrients and away from noxious chemicals--a system so complex that computer simulation is required to understand it in its entirety. That system is meshed with other systems. And so on.
Of course, what's important here is not what we conclude about the flagellum or the cell, but how we study it. Design theorists don't derive their conclusions from revelation, but by looking for reliable, rigorously defined indicators of design and by ruling out alternative explanations, such as Darwinism.
Calling their work religious is just a cheap way to dodge the issues. The public--and our students--deserve better than that.
TheRealityCheck.Org Guest Writer
'Intelligent design.' It's been in the news a lot lately. Lawsuits over textbook stickers, the presentation of evolution and the legality of presenting alternatives, have thrust the term into public awareness.
But just what is intelligent design? To hear some folks talk, you'd think it's a scam to sneak Genesis into science classrooms. Yet intelligent design has nothing to do with the six days of creation and everything to do with hard evidence and logic.
Intelligent design (ID) is grounded on the ancient observation that the world looks very much as if it had an intelligent source. Indeed, as early as the fifth century BC, the Greek philosopher and astronomer Anaxagoras concluded, "Mind set in order … all that ever was … and all that is now or ever will be."
After 2400 years, the appearance of design is as powerful as ever. That is especially true of the living world. Advances in biology have revealed that world to be one staggering complexity.
For example, consider the cell. Even the simplest cells bristle with high-tech machinery. On the outside, their surfaces are studded with sensors, gates, pumps and identification markers. Some bacteria even sport rotary outboard motors that they use to navigate their environment.
Inside, cells are jam-packed with power plants, assembly lines, recycling units and more. Miniature monorails whisk materials from one part of the cell to another.
Such sophistication has led even the most hard-bitten atheists to remark on the apparent design in living organisms. The late Nobel laureate Francis Crick, co-discoverer of DNA's structure and an outspoken critic of religion, has nonetheless remarked, "Biologists must constantly keep in mind that what they see was not designed but rather evolved."
Clearly, Crick (and others like him) considers the appearance of design to be strictly an illusion, created by naturalistic evolution. Yet it's also clear that this impression is so compelling that an atheistic biologist must warn his colleagues against it.
In contrast, ID theorists contend that living organisms appear designed because they are designed. And unlike the design thinkers whom Darwin deposed, they've developed rigorous new concepts to test their idea.
In the past, detecting design was hampered by vague and subjective criteria, such as discerning an object's purpose. Moreover, design was entangled with natural theology--which seeks, in part, to infer God's character by studying nature rather than revelation. Natural theologians often painted such a rosy view of nature that they became an easy mark for Darwin when he proposed his theory of evolution. Where they saw a finely-balanced world attesting to a kind and just God, Darwin pointed to nature’s imperfections and brutishness.
Since the 1980s, however, developments in several fields have made it possible to rigorously distinguish between things that "just happen" and those that happen "on purpose." This has helped design theory emerge as a distinct enterprise, aimed at detecting intelligence rather than speculating about God's character.
Dubbed "intelligent design" to distinguish it from old-school thinking, this new view is detailed in The Design Inference (Cambridge University Press, 1998), a peer-reviewed work by mathematician and philosopher William Dembski.
In contrast to what is called creation science, which parallels Biblical theology, ID rests on two basic assumptions: namely, that intelligent agents exist and that their effects are empirically detectable.
Its chief tool is specified complexity. That's a mouthful, and the math behind it is forbidding, but the basic idea is simple: An object displays specified complexity when it has lots of parts (is complex) arranged in a recognizable, delimited pattern (is specified).
For example, the article you're now reading has thousands of characters, which could have been arranged in zillions of ways. Yet it fits a recognizable pattern: It's not just a jumble of letters (which is also complex), but a magazine article written in English. Any rational person would conclude that it was designed.
The effectiveness of such thinking is confirmed by massive experience. As Dembski points out, "In every instance where we find specified complexity, and where [its] history is known, it turns out that design actually is present."
Thus, if we could trace the creation of a book, our investigation would lead us to the author. You could say, then, that specified complexity is a signature of design.
To see how this applies to biology, consider the little consider the outboard motor that bacteria such as E. coli use to navigate their environment. This water-cooled contraption, called a flagellum, comes equipped with a reversible engine, drive shaft, U-joint and a long whip-like propeller. It hums along at a cool 17,000 rpm.
Decades of research indicate that its complexity is enormous. It takes about 50 genes to create a working flagellum. Each of those genes is as complex as a sentence with hundreds of letters.
Moreover, the pattern--a working flagellum--is highly specified. Deviate from that pattern, knock out a single gene, and our bug is dead in the water (or whatever).
Such highly specified complexity, which demands the presence of every part, indicates an intelligent origin. It's also defies any explanation, such as contemporary Darwinism, that relies on the stepwise accumulation of random genetic change.
In fact, if you want to run the numbers, as Dembski does in his book No Free Lunch, it boils down to the following: If every elementary particle in the observed universe (about 1080) were cranking out mutation events at the cosmic speed limit (about 1045 times per second) for a billion times the estimated age of the universe, they still could not produce the genes for a working flagellum.
And that's just one system within multiple layers of systems. Thus the flagellum is integrated into a sensory/guidance system that maneuvers the bacterium toward nutrients and away from noxious chemicals--a system so complex that computer simulation is required to understand it in its entirety. That system is meshed with other systems. And so on.
Of course, what's important here is not what we conclude about the flagellum or the cell, but how we study it. Design theorists don't derive their conclusions from revelation, but by looking for reliable, rigorously defined indicators of design and by ruling out alternative explanations, such as Darwinism.
Calling their work religious is just a cheap way to dodge the issues. The public--and our students--deserve better than that.
TheRealityCheck.Org Guest Writer
Believers Worldwide Gear Up for Public Bible-Reading Events
By Allie Martin and Jenni Parker
April 7, 2005
(AgapePress) - Officials with a Tennessee-based ministry say an upcoming scripture-reading marathon that will be taking place all across America and in other nations around the free world is more than just a symbolic gesture. It is also a celebration and a chance to spread the knowledge of the Word of God.
Back in 1990, Christians gathered on the steps of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, DC, for a continuous public reading from the Holy Bible, leading up to the National Day of Prayer. The approximately 80-hour Bible Reading Marathon events have been held several times over the years since.
Barbara Bivens of Bible Pathway Ministries says similar planned scripture-reading marathons will be going on early next month at public places throughout the United States and Canada. Commenting on her excitement over the project on a recent Mission Network News broadcast, she observed, "I think we can just be so grateful that we can participate in these events -- the prayer and the reading of God's Word. This nation was based on biblical fundamentals, and I think it's so important as a sign of this country's strength that we can do this."
Bivens notes that Bible Reading Marathons have been held not only in North America but in nations around the world, including England, Germany, India, New Zealand, Nigeria, Peru, Russia and Sweden. And although it may seem to many believers in America that society is increasingly hostile to Christian expressions, she points out that public scripture readings are protected by the Constitution of the United States, so those involved in the event should not put up with being harassed by authorities.
"The big thing is to tell them that it's being done at our nation's Capitol," Bivens adds. "How are you going to say, in a little town, 'You can't do it' if it can be done on the nation's Capitol? That's the strong point of the one in Washington, DC -- it's a focal point for the whole country."
The Bible Pathway spokeswoman says the sponsors of the scripture-reading event have always encouraged coordinators to stand up for their rights and to remind city, county, or other municipal officials that if their government "allows any kind of public gathering, then they have to allow the Bible Reading Marathon." However, she notes, "Other than a few hecklers here and there, we've not had any serious problems."
The nationwide Bible Reading Marathons, scheduled for next month on dates leading up to the May 5 National Day of Prayer, will take place in cities across the U.S. at such venues as county courthouses, town squares, at State Capitol buildings. Also, since the 2005 Bible Reading Marathon takes place on Cinco de Mayo this year, Bible Pathway is putting a special emphasis on reaching out to the Hispanic community.
Bivens says the 2005 Marathon effort hopes to capitalize on the coinciding cultural celebration by urging Hispanic people in particular to celebrate their freedoms -- including the freedom to read God's Word and to pray in public venues. The ministry spokeswoman feels those freedoms are something to celebrate, and she herself is grateful for them.
News from Agape Press
April 7, 2005
(AgapePress) - Officials with a Tennessee-based ministry say an upcoming scripture-reading marathon that will be taking place all across America and in other nations around the free world is more than just a symbolic gesture. It is also a celebration and a chance to spread the knowledge of the Word of God.
Back in 1990, Christians gathered on the steps of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, DC, for a continuous public reading from the Holy Bible, leading up to the National Day of Prayer. The approximately 80-hour Bible Reading Marathon events have been held several times over the years since.
Barbara Bivens of Bible Pathway Ministries says similar planned scripture-reading marathons will be going on early next month at public places throughout the United States and Canada. Commenting on her excitement over the project on a recent Mission Network News broadcast, she observed, "I think we can just be so grateful that we can participate in these events -- the prayer and the reading of God's Word. This nation was based on biblical fundamentals, and I think it's so important as a sign of this country's strength that we can do this."
Bivens notes that Bible Reading Marathons have been held not only in North America but in nations around the world, including England, Germany, India, New Zealand, Nigeria, Peru, Russia and Sweden. And although it may seem to many believers in America that society is increasingly hostile to Christian expressions, she points out that public scripture readings are protected by the Constitution of the United States, so those involved in the event should not put up with being harassed by authorities.
"The big thing is to tell them that it's being done at our nation's Capitol," Bivens adds. "How are you going to say, in a little town, 'You can't do it' if it can be done on the nation's Capitol? That's the strong point of the one in Washington, DC -- it's a focal point for the whole country."
The Bible Pathway spokeswoman says the sponsors of the scripture-reading event have always encouraged coordinators to stand up for their rights and to remind city, county, or other municipal officials that if their government "allows any kind of public gathering, then they have to allow the Bible Reading Marathon." However, she notes, "Other than a few hecklers here and there, we've not had any serious problems."
The nationwide Bible Reading Marathons, scheduled for next month on dates leading up to the May 5 National Day of Prayer, will take place in cities across the U.S. at such venues as county courthouses, town squares, at State Capitol buildings. Also, since the 2005 Bible Reading Marathon takes place on Cinco de Mayo this year, Bible Pathway is putting a special emphasis on reaching out to the Hispanic community.
Bivens says the 2005 Marathon effort hopes to capitalize on the coinciding cultural celebration by urging Hispanic people in particular to celebrate their freedoms -- including the freedom to read God's Word and to pray in public venues. The ministry spokeswoman feels those freedoms are something to celebrate, and she herself is grateful for them.
News from Agape Press
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
Survey Shows Religious Polarization in U.S.
By AFA Journal
April 4, 2005
(AgapePress) - The nation appears to be split along religious lines -- even among faith traditions -- according to a recent poll sponsored by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
The polling data came from the Fourth National Survey of Religion and Politics, in November and December 2004 by the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron.
"Both President Bush and Sen. Kerry benefited from strong support among key religious constituencies," said Dr. John Green, director of the Bliss Institute, in analyzing Election 2004. "Yet there was strong polarization not only between different religions as was common in the past, but also within the major religious traditions, a relatively new phenomenon."
In fact, the survey showed a stark ideological split between conservative and liberal Christians -- or traditionalist and modernist, as the Pew Forum called them. For example, while traditionalist evangelical Protestants were solidly for Bush by an 88 percent to12 percent margin, modernist evangelical Protestants went for Kerry, although by a narrower 52 percent to 48 percent gap. The same was true among Catholics: traditionalists went strongly for Bush (72%-28%), while modernist Catholics were solidly in Kerry’s corner (69%-31%).
Not only was Bush support among these traditionalists extremely strong in 2004, but according to the study, more of them went to the polls in the most recent election. Seven percent more traditionalist evangelical Protestants voted in 2004 than in 2000, and traditionalist Catholic turnout was larger too -- 12 percent more in 2004.
News from Agape Press
April 4, 2005
(AgapePress) - The nation appears to be split along religious lines -- even among faith traditions -- according to a recent poll sponsored by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
The polling data came from the Fourth National Survey of Religion and Politics, in November and December 2004 by the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron.
"Both President Bush and Sen. Kerry benefited from strong support among key religious constituencies," said Dr. John Green, director of the Bliss Institute, in analyzing Election 2004. "Yet there was strong polarization not only between different religions as was common in the past, but also within the major religious traditions, a relatively new phenomenon."
In fact, the survey showed a stark ideological split between conservative and liberal Christians -- or traditionalist and modernist, as the Pew Forum called them. For example, while traditionalist evangelical Protestants were solidly for Bush by an 88 percent to12 percent margin, modernist evangelical Protestants went for Kerry, although by a narrower 52 percent to 48 percent gap. The same was true among Catholics: traditionalists went strongly for Bush (72%-28%), while modernist Catholics were solidly in Kerry’s corner (69%-31%).
Not only was Bush support among these traditionalists extremely strong in 2004, but according to the study, more of them went to the polls in the most recent election. Seven percent more traditionalist evangelical Protestants voted in 2004 than in 2000, and traditionalist Catholic turnout was larger too -- 12 percent more in 2004.
News from Agape Press
Group Hopes Rally Will Deter Bush and Sharon from Giving Up Israeli Territory to Arabs
By Chad Groening
April 4, 2005
(AgapePress) - A group of Baptist churches from Oklahoma, Colorado, and Texas are planning to descend on Crawford, Texas, next week to try to convince President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon not to give away any covenant land to Israel's enemies.
Bob Ross is an associate pastor at Windsor Hills Baptist Church in Oklahoma City. He says he and the other pastors hope to see at least 5,000 believers on hand for an Anti-Disengagement Rally in Crawford on April 11, the day President Bush is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Sharon there.
Ross says Israel's disengagement plan has biblical ramifications. He explains, "Genesis Chapter 12: 3 says simply, 'And I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee, and in thee shall all the families of the Earth be blessed.' We're not Muslim haters or anything like that. We do not try to give that image at all. But we do love Israel, and we love God's people."
And because this coalition of churches loves the Israeli people, Ross says, "We want them to know that we are on their side in this battle, and we oppose the giveaway of a single inch of Israel."
The Bible-believing coalition members feel it is their duty to support God's "chosen people" in their claim to the promised land, and so those Christians converging on Crawford will be urging the U.S. and Israeli leader to understand that Israel must not give up any ground, literally, to its enemies.
"We believe this is going to have definite ramifications on what God is going to do to Israel and what God is going to do to the United States of America," Ross says. "That land was given to the Jewish people by Jehovah-God, and it's not man's right to tamper with it or give an inch of it away."
Ross's church is spearheading the effort to organize the thousands of believers participating in the Anti-Disengagement Protest Rally next Monday. The protestors hope their rally will help to convince Bush and Sharon of the importance of following scripture's guide in this policy decision.
News from Agape Press
April 4, 2005
(AgapePress) - A group of Baptist churches from Oklahoma, Colorado, and Texas are planning to descend on Crawford, Texas, next week to try to convince President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon not to give away any covenant land to Israel's enemies.
Bob Ross is an associate pastor at Windsor Hills Baptist Church in Oklahoma City. He says he and the other pastors hope to see at least 5,000 believers on hand for an Anti-Disengagement Rally in Crawford on April 11, the day President Bush is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Sharon there.
Ross says Israel's disengagement plan has biblical ramifications. He explains, "Genesis Chapter 12: 3 says simply, 'And I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee, and in thee shall all the families of the Earth be blessed.' We're not Muslim haters or anything like that. We do not try to give that image at all. But we do love Israel, and we love God's people."
And because this coalition of churches loves the Israeli people, Ross says, "We want them to know that we are on their side in this battle, and we oppose the giveaway of a single inch of Israel."
The Bible-believing coalition members feel it is their duty to support God's "chosen people" in their claim to the promised land, and so those Christians converging on Crawford will be urging the U.S. and Israeli leader to understand that Israel must not give up any ground, literally, to its enemies.
"We believe this is going to have definite ramifications on what God is going to do to Israel and what God is going to do to the United States of America," Ross says. "That land was given to the Jewish people by Jehovah-God, and it's not man's right to tamper with it or give an inch of it away."
Ross's church is spearheading the effort to organize the thousands of believers participating in the Anti-Disengagement Protest Rally next Monday. The protestors hope their rally will help to convince Bush and Sharon of the importance of following scripture's guide in this policy decision.
News from Agape Press
Lay Pastor Beheaded in Bangladesh
Widow fears reprisals from murderers as she struggles to support her family.
by Sarah Page
DUBLIN, April 4 (Compass) -- Sources have confirmed the murder by beheading on March 8 of Dulal Sarkar, a lay pastor and evangelist in Bangladesh.
Sarkar, 35, worked with a local branch of the Bangladesh Free Baptist Church in Jalalpur village, in the southwest division of Khulna. He had planted several churches in the area and also worked as a guard and general caretaker for the church.
The week before he was murdered, he shared his faith with several Muslim villagers who became Christians. He then brought them to the church for counseling with the senior pastor.
On March 8, Sarkar once again talked about his faith with a number of villagers. On his way home, he was attacked by a group of armed men who, as one source said, “separated his head from his body.” The assailants were later identified as a group of 10 local Muslim extremists.
Sarkar’s wife immediately filed a police report and officers arrested three of the accused. However, local Christians say the remaining seven, who have connections with the Jamaat-e-Islami political party, have tried to bribe the police to get the suspects out of jail.
The pastor leaves behind his wife, Aruna, and five children; Daniel, Joseph, Parboti, Moses and Tutol. His mother has also lived with the family since his father passed away some years ago.
Aruna, struggling financially since her husband’s death, has now asked a Christian orphanage to take care of three of her children while she works in the fields. The church itself is poor and cannot afford to fully support the family.
The extremists also threatened Aruna after she filed the police report, forcing her to move from house to house in an effort to protect herself and her children.
Local Christians have done everything possible to ensure that justice is done. However, the legal system in Bangladesh is notoriously corrupt, and the political influence of Jamaat-e-Islami may prevent the case from going to court.
The incident was the second beheading in the space of a year. On September 18, 2004, Dr. Abdul Gani, a prominent Christian, was decapitated by a gang of assailants as he returned home from work around 9:30 p.m.
A source close to the doctor reported, “The moment he came under a banyan tree, these terrorist people attacked him and slaughtered him with sharp knives. We Christians are all very sad about this event.”
Dr. Abdul Gani and his family converted to Christianity in 1995. He was a respected Christian leader and medical practitioner in his home district of Jamalpur, 140 kilometers north of the capital, Dhaka.
Abdul Gani -- also known by his Christian name, Joseph Gomez -- was a counsel member of the Bangladesh Baptist Fellowship and frequently worked with members of the Catholic church.
According to an Asia News report, he once mortgaged his own home to raise funds for flood victims. Neighbors described him as a very compassionate man.
Christian evangelist Hridoy Roy was also murdered in April 2003. A group of eight men attacked him just after midnight as he returned home from showing the “JESUS Film” in a rural village. Entering his house, the assailants tied Hridoy Roy to his bed in “crucifixion style” and repeatedly stabbed him until he died.
Muslim neighbors had warned him several times to stop showing the “JESUS Film” and other films on the life of Christ.
Bangladesh has suffered from religious disharmony since 1971, when the nation was partitioned from Pakistan. The country is approximately 83 percent Muslim and 16 percent Hindu. Buddhists and Christians make up the remaining one percent.
Islam was declared the official state religion in 1998.
The current government is a coalition of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and three other Islamic parties. The third largest party, Jamaat-e-Islami, wants to turn Bangladesh into an entirely Islamic nation.
In February, a source who prefers to remain anonymous told Compass, “Our country is passing through a very tough time. Last year two evangelists were killed. Another was badly injured and is now undergoing treatment in India. This killing of Protestant ministers is happening for the first time in many years.”
Lay Pastor Beheaded in Bangladesh
by Sarah Page
DUBLIN, April 4 (Compass) -- Sources have confirmed the murder by beheading on March 8 of Dulal Sarkar, a lay pastor and evangelist in Bangladesh.
Sarkar, 35, worked with a local branch of the Bangladesh Free Baptist Church in Jalalpur village, in the southwest division of Khulna. He had planted several churches in the area and also worked as a guard and general caretaker for the church.
The week before he was murdered, he shared his faith with several Muslim villagers who became Christians. He then brought them to the church for counseling with the senior pastor.
On March 8, Sarkar once again talked about his faith with a number of villagers. On his way home, he was attacked by a group of armed men who, as one source said, “separated his head from his body.” The assailants were later identified as a group of 10 local Muslim extremists.
Sarkar’s wife immediately filed a police report and officers arrested three of the accused. However, local Christians say the remaining seven, who have connections with the Jamaat-e-Islami political party, have tried to bribe the police to get the suspects out of jail.
The pastor leaves behind his wife, Aruna, and five children; Daniel, Joseph, Parboti, Moses and Tutol. His mother has also lived with the family since his father passed away some years ago.
Aruna, struggling financially since her husband’s death, has now asked a Christian orphanage to take care of three of her children while she works in the fields. The church itself is poor and cannot afford to fully support the family.
The extremists also threatened Aruna after she filed the police report, forcing her to move from house to house in an effort to protect herself and her children.
Local Christians have done everything possible to ensure that justice is done. However, the legal system in Bangladesh is notoriously corrupt, and the political influence of Jamaat-e-Islami may prevent the case from going to court.
The incident was the second beheading in the space of a year. On September 18, 2004, Dr. Abdul Gani, a prominent Christian, was decapitated by a gang of assailants as he returned home from work around 9:30 p.m.
A source close to the doctor reported, “The moment he came under a banyan tree, these terrorist people attacked him and slaughtered him with sharp knives. We Christians are all very sad about this event.”
Dr. Abdul Gani and his family converted to Christianity in 1995. He was a respected Christian leader and medical practitioner in his home district of Jamalpur, 140 kilometers north of the capital, Dhaka.
Abdul Gani -- also known by his Christian name, Joseph Gomez -- was a counsel member of the Bangladesh Baptist Fellowship and frequently worked with members of the Catholic church.
According to an Asia News report, he once mortgaged his own home to raise funds for flood victims. Neighbors described him as a very compassionate man.
Christian evangelist Hridoy Roy was also murdered in April 2003. A group of eight men attacked him just after midnight as he returned home from showing the “JESUS Film” in a rural village. Entering his house, the assailants tied Hridoy Roy to his bed in “crucifixion style” and repeatedly stabbed him until he died.
Muslim neighbors had warned him several times to stop showing the “JESUS Film” and other films on the life of Christ.
Bangladesh has suffered from religious disharmony since 1971, when the nation was partitioned from Pakistan. The country is approximately 83 percent Muslim and 16 percent Hindu. Buddhists and Christians make up the remaining one percent.
Islam was declared the official state religion in 1998.
The current government is a coalition of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and three other Islamic parties. The third largest party, Jamaat-e-Islami, wants to turn Bangladesh into an entirely Islamic nation.
In February, a source who prefers to remain anonymous told Compass, “Our country is passing through a very tough time. Last year two evangelists were killed. Another was badly injured and is now undergoing treatment in India. This killing of Protestant ministers is happening for the first time in many years.”
Lay Pastor Beheaded in Bangladesh
It all depends on what you're listening to
John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
An Indian was walking in downtown New York City alongside a resident friend. As they approached a busy street corner in the center of Manhattan, the Indian seized his friend's arm and whispered, "Wait. I hear a cricket." "Come on!", the city boy sneered, "This is downtown New York -- how could you possibly hear a cricket?" His friend persisted however, "No - seriously, I do!"
As cars were roaring, horns honking, people shouting, brakes screeching, cash registers clanging, subway clamoring and people bustling about, the Indian began leading his friend along slowly, every now and again stopping and turning his ear toward the seemingly noiseless sound. At last, the Indian insisted they were near and proceeded to follow the sound across the street and toward a small dark corner next to a graffiti covered wall. There, he bent down to a miniscule tuft of grass and pulled out the cricket. "I told, you", he said, "I heard a cricket."
Astounded, the New Yorker marveled "How could you have heard that cricket in the middle of all this noise?" "Well", said his foreign friend, "My ears are different from yours. It simply depends on what you're listening to. Here, let me show you what I mean." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of change --a couple of quarters, three or four nickels, and a dime and a few pennies. "Now," he said, "watch this." He held the coins waist high and dropped them to the sidewalk. At once, every head within nearly a block turned around and looked in the direction of the Indian.
"You see, It all depends on what you're listening to."
To what sounds are our ears trained to listen? Are they trained to hear the sound of money, of gossip, of complaining, of worldly things or are they trained to hear the still small voice of the Most High, directing and advising us in the way we should go? Let's ask the Lord to train our ears to hear the things of God today. We need to be listening for His direction in the hustle and bustle of this noisy and influential world or we will surely go astray!
An Indian was walking in downtown New York City alongside a resident friend. As they approached a busy street corner in the center of Manhattan, the Indian seized his friend's arm and whispered, "Wait. I hear a cricket." "Come on!", the city boy sneered, "This is downtown New York -- how could you possibly hear a cricket?" His friend persisted however, "No - seriously, I do!"
As cars were roaring, horns honking, people shouting, brakes screeching, cash registers clanging, subway clamoring and people bustling about, the Indian began leading his friend along slowly, every now and again stopping and turning his ear toward the seemingly noiseless sound. At last, the Indian insisted they were near and proceeded to follow the sound across the street and toward a small dark corner next to a graffiti covered wall. There, he bent down to a miniscule tuft of grass and pulled out the cricket. "I told, you", he said, "I heard a cricket."
Astounded, the New Yorker marveled "How could you have heard that cricket in the middle of all this noise?" "Well", said his foreign friend, "My ears are different from yours. It simply depends on what you're listening to. Here, let me show you what I mean." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of change --a couple of quarters, three or four nickels, and a dime and a few pennies. "Now," he said, "watch this." He held the coins waist high and dropped them to the sidewalk. At once, every head within nearly a block turned around and looked in the direction of the Indian.
"You see, It all depends on what you're listening to."
To what sounds are our ears trained to listen? Are they trained to hear the sound of money, of gossip, of complaining, of worldly things or are they trained to hear the still small voice of the Most High, directing and advising us in the way we should go? Let's ask the Lord to train our ears to hear the things of God today. We need to be listening for His direction in the hustle and bustle of this noisy and influential world or we will surely go astray!
Debunking the Links between Sexual Orientation and Genetics
New Study Undermines Theory of 'Gay' Gene
By AFA Journal
April 5, 2005
(AgapePress) - While new research claims to have found proof of a genetic cause for homosexuality, some scientists say the actual words of the study undermine that conclusion.
The study was conducted by a team of researchers led by University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) psychologist Brian Mustanski and published in the March 2005 issue of the biomedical journal Human Genetics.
"In the first-ever study combing the entire human genome for genetic determinants of male sexual orientation," said a UIC press release, Mustanski "has identified several areas that appear to influence whether a man is heterosexual or 'gay.'"
Conservative critics were quick to respond. Dr. Warren Throckmorton, associate professor of psychology at Grove City College in Pennsylvania, said the study itself actually undermines Mustanski's claims. In a press statement of his own, Throckmorton cites admissions by the researchers that their evidence of genetic differences between heterosexual and homosexual men falls short of being statistically significant.
Three members of the scientific advisory committee for the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) also reviewed Mustanski's study and found it lacking.
NARTH's Dr. A. Dean Byrd, for example, said sexual orientation involves complex behaviors which involve multiple factors. Homosexuality, he added, might involve certain predispositions that are "strongly influenced by cultural and environmental factors."
LINKS:
New Study Undermines Theory of 'Gay' Gene
"Born that way" theory
March 2005 Human Genetics study concerning sexual orientation in men
By AFA Journal
April 5, 2005
(AgapePress) - While new research claims to have found proof of a genetic cause for homosexuality, some scientists say the actual words of the study undermine that conclusion.
The study was conducted by a team of researchers led by University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) psychologist Brian Mustanski and published in the March 2005 issue of the biomedical journal Human Genetics.
"In the first-ever study combing the entire human genome for genetic determinants of male sexual orientation," said a UIC press release, Mustanski "has identified several areas that appear to influence whether a man is heterosexual or 'gay.'"
Conservative critics were quick to respond. Dr. Warren Throckmorton, associate professor of psychology at Grove City College in Pennsylvania, said the study itself actually undermines Mustanski's claims. In a press statement of his own, Throckmorton cites admissions by the researchers that their evidence of genetic differences between heterosexual and homosexual men falls short of being statistically significant.
Three members of the scientific advisory committee for the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) also reviewed Mustanski's study and found it lacking.
NARTH's Dr. A. Dean Byrd, for example, said sexual orientation involves complex behaviors which involve multiple factors. Homosexuality, he added, might involve certain predispositions that are "strongly influenced by cultural and environmental factors."
LINKS:
New Study Undermines Theory of 'Gay' Gene
"Born that way" theory
March 2005 Human Genetics study concerning sexual orientation in men
Monday, April 04, 2005
A theory of everything
Nelly Villafuerte
HAVE you heard about the so-called "theory of everything" (TOE)? Simply, TOE claims that the laws of science are sufficient to explain the universe. But the flaw of this theory is that it has not resolved or answered one final question, namely: Who made the universe? Referring us back to a basic question on the existence of God.
* * *
This question on the existence of God has divided the thinking of peoples of different races, including Filipinos. There are three kinds of thinking on this question of the existence of God. One, there are those who do not believe in the existence of God (atheists); two, there are those who doubt the existence of God (skeptics); and three, there are those who believe in the existence of God. Biblebelieving Christians fall under the third category. In the first verse of the first book of the Holy Bible, we find the following: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." (Genesis 1:1) The Holy Bible presupposes the existence of God.
* * *
From the Biblical point of view, we cannot disassociate God from science. Because the God of the Bible is also the God of Science. Not many know that there are many scientific statements found in the Holy Bible which at different stages of history have been tested and verified by scientists to be true.
* * *
Let me share some Biblical accounts that jibe accurately with scientific findings. Hopefully, these Biblical statements will increase your faith in our living God and make us realize that the theory of the supremacy of science in the universe is a fallacy. Everything bows down to our Lord God. No ifs, no buts.
* In the Holy Bible we find the following verse: "He (God) sits enthroned above the circle of the earth." (Isaiah 40:22) Before the introduction of the compass and the fifteenth century voyages of Columbus and Magellan, people thought that the earth was flat. Centuries before man found out that the earth was round, the Holy Bible already said in simple, clear, and brief terms that the earth is round.
* Long before our scientists and medical doctors found out that the perfect day to perform a circumcision is the eighth day of a newborn male, the Holy Bible already said so. In the Book of Genesis, God said to Abraham: "For the generations to come, every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised… (Genesis 17:12). One may ask: Why is the eighth day of a newborn male the safest time to perform circumcision? Modernday doctors and scientists found out that a newborn infant has a peculiar susceptibility to bleeding between the second and the fifth days of life. Because the important blood-clotting element Vitamin K is not formed until the fifth to the seventh day of a newborn baby. Also, a second element which is also necessary for the normal clotting of blood (prothrombin) is most abundant in the entire life of a male on the eighth day of his life. Findings of scientists and medical doctors on this matter merely confirmed why the Holy Bible chose the eighth day of a newborn male as the best time to circumcise him.
* The medical wisdom of the Hebrews is incredible. Considering that their neighbors in almost all ancient cultures – the Babylonians, the Egyptians, the Greeks, and other peoples – were dabbling in spiritism of various kinds to solve the mysteries of disease, injuries, and other human ailments. In the Book of Leviticus of the Old Testament, we see the medical knowledge of the Hebrews on health, sanitation, and quarantine comparable to the modern practices nowadays. For example, God taught Moses about the value of handwashing and changing of clothes after contact with infectious diseases. The Holy Bible does not mention only washing in a basin, but repeated washings in running water, with time intervals allowed for drying and exposure to sun to kill bacteria not washed off. Likewise, doctors today wash their hands in the operating rooms to avoid infection of their patients.
* Long before ocean scientists discovered that there are mountains, valleys, springs, fountains, and volcanoes in the floor of the sea, the Holy Bible already said so. (See 2 Samuel 22:16; Jonah 2:6; Genesis 7:11; Genesis 8:2; and Proverbs 8:28).
* There are scientific principles accurately described in the Holy Bible some of them centuries before man discovered them. Like the Law of Heredity demonstrated by the monk Johann Mendel (that all living things are reproduced after their own kind:; and the fist and second laws of thermodynamics. The first law of thermodynamics states that although energy can change form, it cannot be neither created or destroyed and therefore the sum total remains constant. The second law of thermodynamics states that when energy is transformed from one state to another, some of it is turned into heat energy forms.
* * *
To me the most awesome and astounding scientific procedure described in the Holy Bible is the creation of the first woman. This set a precedent in surgical procedure – a masterwork in technique and, using a Latin phrase to describe the procedure, magnum opus. The Biblical passage on the creation says: "So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh." (Genesis 2:21) To compare with the modern medical procedure: Pre-operative sedation (anaesthesia) vs. "to fall into a deep sleep;" surgical rib resection vs. "he took one of the man’s ribs;" closure of surgical incision vs. "closed up the place with flesh." Is this coincidence? No, because nothing happens by coincidence. The creation of the first woman was actually the world’s first medical operation. But more than that. The dramatic impact of the creation can never be duplicated by science. Never!
* * *
Let us not waiver in our faith in our Lord God. The intellect of the created (including the most learned scientists, researchers, and doctors) cannot compare with the wisdom of our Creator. As the Holy Bible says, "For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength." (1Corinthians 1:25)
A theory of everything
HAVE you heard about the so-called "theory of everything" (TOE)? Simply, TOE claims that the laws of science are sufficient to explain the universe. But the flaw of this theory is that it has not resolved or answered one final question, namely: Who made the universe? Referring us back to a basic question on the existence of God.
* * *
This question on the existence of God has divided the thinking of peoples of different races, including Filipinos. There are three kinds of thinking on this question of the existence of God. One, there are those who do not believe in the existence of God (atheists); two, there are those who doubt the existence of God (skeptics); and three, there are those who believe in the existence of God. Biblebelieving Christians fall under the third category. In the first verse of the first book of the Holy Bible, we find the following: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." (Genesis 1:1) The Holy Bible presupposes the existence of God.
* * *
From the Biblical point of view, we cannot disassociate God from science. Because the God of the Bible is also the God of Science. Not many know that there are many scientific statements found in the Holy Bible which at different stages of history have been tested and verified by scientists to be true.
* * *
Let me share some Biblical accounts that jibe accurately with scientific findings. Hopefully, these Biblical statements will increase your faith in our living God and make us realize that the theory of the supremacy of science in the universe is a fallacy. Everything bows down to our Lord God. No ifs, no buts.
* In the Holy Bible we find the following verse: "He (God) sits enthroned above the circle of the earth." (Isaiah 40:22) Before the introduction of the compass and the fifteenth century voyages of Columbus and Magellan, people thought that the earth was flat. Centuries before man found out that the earth was round, the Holy Bible already said in simple, clear, and brief terms that the earth is round.
* Long before our scientists and medical doctors found out that the perfect day to perform a circumcision is the eighth day of a newborn male, the Holy Bible already said so. In the Book of Genesis, God said to Abraham: "For the generations to come, every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised… (Genesis 17:12). One may ask: Why is the eighth day of a newborn male the safest time to perform circumcision? Modernday doctors and scientists found out that a newborn infant has a peculiar susceptibility to bleeding between the second and the fifth days of life. Because the important blood-clotting element Vitamin K is not formed until the fifth to the seventh day of a newborn baby. Also, a second element which is also necessary for the normal clotting of blood (prothrombin) is most abundant in the entire life of a male on the eighth day of his life. Findings of scientists and medical doctors on this matter merely confirmed why the Holy Bible chose the eighth day of a newborn male as the best time to circumcise him.
* The medical wisdom of the Hebrews is incredible. Considering that their neighbors in almost all ancient cultures – the Babylonians, the Egyptians, the Greeks, and other peoples – were dabbling in spiritism of various kinds to solve the mysteries of disease, injuries, and other human ailments. In the Book of Leviticus of the Old Testament, we see the medical knowledge of the Hebrews on health, sanitation, and quarantine comparable to the modern practices nowadays. For example, God taught Moses about the value of handwashing and changing of clothes after contact with infectious diseases. The Holy Bible does not mention only washing in a basin, but repeated washings in running water, with time intervals allowed for drying and exposure to sun to kill bacteria not washed off. Likewise, doctors today wash their hands in the operating rooms to avoid infection of their patients.
* Long before ocean scientists discovered that there are mountains, valleys, springs, fountains, and volcanoes in the floor of the sea, the Holy Bible already said so. (See 2 Samuel 22:16; Jonah 2:6; Genesis 7:11; Genesis 8:2; and Proverbs 8:28).
* There are scientific principles accurately described in the Holy Bible some of them centuries before man discovered them. Like the Law of Heredity demonstrated by the monk Johann Mendel (that all living things are reproduced after their own kind:; and the fist and second laws of thermodynamics. The first law of thermodynamics states that although energy can change form, it cannot be neither created or destroyed and therefore the sum total remains constant. The second law of thermodynamics states that when energy is transformed from one state to another, some of it is turned into heat energy forms.
* * *
To me the most awesome and astounding scientific procedure described in the Holy Bible is the creation of the first woman. This set a precedent in surgical procedure – a masterwork in technique and, using a Latin phrase to describe the procedure, magnum opus. The Biblical passage on the creation says: "So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh." (Genesis 2:21) To compare with the modern medical procedure: Pre-operative sedation (anaesthesia) vs. "to fall into a deep sleep;" surgical rib resection vs. "he took one of the man’s ribs;" closure of surgical incision vs. "closed up the place with flesh." Is this coincidence? No, because nothing happens by coincidence. The creation of the first woman was actually the world’s first medical operation. But more than that. The dramatic impact of the creation can never be duplicated by science. Never!
* * *
Let us not waiver in our faith in our Lord God. The intellect of the created (including the most learned scientists, researchers, and doctors) cannot compare with the wisdom of our Creator. As the Holy Bible says, "For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength." (1Corinthians 1:25)
A theory of everything
Jordan: King Abdullah cuts a tolerant figure, but converts know better
April 03, 2005
Jordan: King Abdullah cuts a tolerant figure, but converts know better
Tolerant, liberal Jordan is not so tolerant and liberal when it comes to those who convert from Islam to Christianity. This is yet more evidence of the fact that non-Muslims do not enjoy full and equal rights with Muslims in any Muslim country in the world today. "Apostasy rules," from World Magazine, with thanks to JS and Natasha Tynes:
In Jordan's King Abdullah, Washington saw the kinder, gentler face of the Arab world.
Arriving last month to accept an honorary doctorate from Georgetown University, the 43-year-old monarch told American reporters he supports democracy movements spreading from Iraq to Lebanon.
His visit to Washington came just as Arab leaders gathered in Algiers without him. The king skipped a regional summit of the Arab League, even though the most talked-about item on the agenda was a Jordanian peace proposal that for the first time dropped Arab demands that Israel cede all lands it acquired in the 1967 war. Rather than tussle with contentious Arab comrades, he met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and gave interviews with American reporters. His message: "Islam honors every human being, without distinction of color, race, or religion." Terrorists who struck the United States and elsewhere, he said, "have nothing to do with Islam."
But even as the king projects a more tolerant Islamic face, his record at home does not yet reflect the progressive image.
Ask Samer and Abeer. Last September Jordanian security police connected to the country's Mukhabarat, or intelligence agency, showed up at the couple's home unannounced. They arrested Samer and detained him overnight. Samer's crime: coming to faith in Jesus Christ 14 years ago. Originally a Muslim, Samer over the years since his conversion has been questioned several times by security police but never detained. This time, the police turned him over to the Islamic courts.
Jordan is a constitutional monarchy in name only, with an elected parliament whose decisions are subject to royal fiat and a judicial system that continues to impose strict penalties under Islamic, or Shariah, law. Apostasy, or religious conversion, is rarely punished but remains illegal. Church leaders in Amman say they know of two Muslim-background Christians now in prison because they became Christians, both non-Jordanians and one in solitary confinement.
At his October hearing, Samer was asked to "alter his confession," or recant his Christian faith. He refused. Officials set another court date. In the meantime, Samer made precautionary arrangements for Abeer, his wife, and their 18-month-old son to leave Jordan. (Samer's wife once spent six years in prison for an out-of-wedlock pregnancy before she was taken in by a Christian family and came to faith in Jesus Christ.) At a November hearing before the Islamic court, an exasperated judge told Samer, "We don't know what to do with you." He implored him, saying, "You cannot be a Christian, you must come back to Islam." Samer again refused.
Dhimmi Watch: Jordan: King Abdullah cuts a tolerant figure, but converts know better
Jordan: King Abdullah cuts a tolerant figure, but converts know better
Tolerant, liberal Jordan is not so tolerant and liberal when it comes to those who convert from Islam to Christianity. This is yet more evidence of the fact that non-Muslims do not enjoy full and equal rights with Muslims in any Muslim country in the world today. "Apostasy rules," from World Magazine, with thanks to JS and Natasha Tynes:
In Jordan's King Abdullah, Washington saw the kinder, gentler face of the Arab world.
Arriving last month to accept an honorary doctorate from Georgetown University, the 43-year-old monarch told American reporters he supports democracy movements spreading from Iraq to Lebanon.
His visit to Washington came just as Arab leaders gathered in Algiers without him. The king skipped a regional summit of the Arab League, even though the most talked-about item on the agenda was a Jordanian peace proposal that for the first time dropped Arab demands that Israel cede all lands it acquired in the 1967 war. Rather than tussle with contentious Arab comrades, he met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and gave interviews with American reporters. His message: "Islam honors every human being, without distinction of color, race, or religion." Terrorists who struck the United States and elsewhere, he said, "have nothing to do with Islam."
But even as the king projects a more tolerant Islamic face, his record at home does not yet reflect the progressive image.
Ask Samer and Abeer. Last September Jordanian security police connected to the country's Mukhabarat, or intelligence agency, showed up at the couple's home unannounced. They arrested Samer and detained him overnight. Samer's crime: coming to faith in Jesus Christ 14 years ago. Originally a Muslim, Samer over the years since his conversion has been questioned several times by security police but never detained. This time, the police turned him over to the Islamic courts.
Jordan is a constitutional monarchy in name only, with an elected parliament whose decisions are subject to royal fiat and a judicial system that continues to impose strict penalties under Islamic, or Shariah, law. Apostasy, or religious conversion, is rarely punished but remains illegal. Church leaders in Amman say they know of two Muslim-background Christians now in prison because they became Christians, both non-Jordanians and one in solitary confinement.
At his October hearing, Samer was asked to "alter his confession," or recant his Christian faith. He refused. Officials set another court date. In the meantime, Samer made precautionary arrangements for Abeer, his wife, and their 18-month-old son to leave Jordan. (Samer's wife once spent six years in prison for an out-of-wedlock pregnancy before she was taken in by a Christian family and came to faith in Jesus Christ.) At a November hearing before the Islamic court, an exasperated judge told Samer, "We don't know what to do with you." He implored him, saying, "You cannot be a Christian, you must come back to Islam." Samer again refused.
Dhimmi Watch: Jordan: King Abdullah cuts a tolerant figure, but converts know better
For 'Miracle Baby,' Life at 11 Is Happily Ordinary
Read this story before considering an abortion
N.Va. Girl Set Record in 1993 as Smallest Infant Born at Fairfax Hospital to Survive
(washingtonpost.com)
By Karin Brulliard
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 3, 2005; Page C07
There is the storybook version of birth: Dad rushes Mom to the hospital. Mom endures a few hours of painful labor. Mom and Dad are rewarded with a plump, healthy baby.
That is not Sara Peters's story. As the 11-year-old will tell you, her birth was far more fantastic.
A Peters family scrapbook includes photographs of Sara fighting for her life at Inova Fairfax Hospital. She weighed just 15 ounces at birth and was so tiny that two 3-by-3-inch squares of gauze served as her diapers.
"I weighed 15 ounces, I was 11 inches long, I had a 2 percent -- 2 percent?" Sara said on a recent afternoon, turning to her mother, Tracy, as the two sat on a plaid couch in their home in Prince William County.
"Two percent chance of living? One percent? I don't remember," Tracy Peters, 39, said. "It was pretty slim."
So slim that Sara became what is known in neonatal units as a "miracle baby." Born July 9, 1993, and weighing less than a can of soup, she set a record at Inova Fairfax Hospital: She was the smallest baby to be born there and survive. Her birth was induced at 25 weeks because her mother's life was in danger from a complication of pregnancy.
Take a look at Sara now, and that's hard to fathom. She is a wry, freckle-faced sixth-grader who wears Nike sneakers, loves math and history and teases her 7-year-old brother, Brett.
And amazingly, despite all the warnings whispered by doctors as her fragile body grew for four months in the hospital's neonatal unit -- that she might develop cerebral palsy or lose her hearing or sight -- Sara is perfectly fine.
"She dances twice a week. She's an A and B student" at Marsteller Middle School in Bristow, said Tracy Peters, a financial analyst for NV Homes. "It's as boring as it sounds, when you start off the way she did. She's just a normal 11 1/2-year-old -- which was the plan."
Sara also knows that she was a twin and that her sibling died in utero 10 weeks before she was born. By 25 weeks -- 15 weeks short of a full-term pregnancy -- Tracy Peters had developed a complication that affected her body's ability to clot blood. Doctors told Tracy and Mark Peters, 47, now a salesman for Mid-Atlantic Printers, that she would die if she did not deliver.
So Sara arrived, and she was tiny. The other day, she flipped through a photo album that chronicles her hospital stay and pointed out the details that came to measure her minuteness -- the two 3-by-3-inch patches of gauze that served as her diapers; her mother's size 4 engagement ring, which Sara could wear on her arm even after 29 days of life. Upstairs in Sara's blue-walled bedroom, a framed photo shows someone holding a telephone receiver next to baby Sara. It is almost as long as she is.
While she was in the hospital and hooked up to a labyrinth of tubes, more than two dozen nurses and doctors cared for her. They placed colorful signs on her incubator to mark each milestone of her growth: 700 grams, 800 grams.
At 65 pounds, Sara today is petite among her friends but nothing out of the ordinary. She has told some of them the story of her beginnings, and they, like she, think it's "cool." And though she cannot articulate just why, Sara said she strongly believes she still is lucky.
Doctors would agree. Robert Beck, a neonatologist at Inova Fairfax who treated Sara, said she had about a 50 percent chance of developing long-term problems. Except for a hernia, which is commonly seen in children born prematurely, Sara has had none.
Since Sara's birth, dozens of babies her size and at least one weighing about 13 ounces have been born and survived at Inova Fairfax, Beck said. Preemies' chances at life have jumped for many reasons, he said, including the introduction of a chemical therapy that helps them breathe. Collaboratives of neonatal intensive care units, such as the Vermont Oxford Network, have also been established to share statistics and best practices, Beck said.
Continued at:
For 'Miracle Baby,' Life at 11 Is Happily Ordinary (washingtonpost.com)
N.Va. Girl Set Record in 1993 as Smallest Infant Born at Fairfax Hospital to Survive
(washingtonpost.com)
By Karin Brulliard
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 3, 2005; Page C07
There is the storybook version of birth: Dad rushes Mom to the hospital. Mom endures a few hours of painful labor. Mom and Dad are rewarded with a plump, healthy baby.
That is not Sara Peters's story. As the 11-year-old will tell you, her birth was far more fantastic.
A Peters family scrapbook includes photographs of Sara fighting for her life at Inova Fairfax Hospital. She weighed just 15 ounces at birth and was so tiny that two 3-by-3-inch squares of gauze served as her diapers.
"I weighed 15 ounces, I was 11 inches long, I had a 2 percent -- 2 percent?" Sara said on a recent afternoon, turning to her mother, Tracy, as the two sat on a plaid couch in their home in Prince William County.
"Two percent chance of living? One percent? I don't remember," Tracy Peters, 39, said. "It was pretty slim."
So slim that Sara became what is known in neonatal units as a "miracle baby." Born July 9, 1993, and weighing less than a can of soup, she set a record at Inova Fairfax Hospital: She was the smallest baby to be born there and survive. Her birth was induced at 25 weeks because her mother's life was in danger from a complication of pregnancy.
Take a look at Sara now, and that's hard to fathom. She is a wry, freckle-faced sixth-grader who wears Nike sneakers, loves math and history and teases her 7-year-old brother, Brett.
And amazingly, despite all the warnings whispered by doctors as her fragile body grew for four months in the hospital's neonatal unit -- that she might develop cerebral palsy or lose her hearing or sight -- Sara is perfectly fine.
"She dances twice a week. She's an A and B student" at Marsteller Middle School in Bristow, said Tracy Peters, a financial analyst for NV Homes. "It's as boring as it sounds, when you start off the way she did. She's just a normal 11 1/2-year-old -- which was the plan."
Sara also knows that she was a twin and that her sibling died in utero 10 weeks before she was born. By 25 weeks -- 15 weeks short of a full-term pregnancy -- Tracy Peters had developed a complication that affected her body's ability to clot blood. Doctors told Tracy and Mark Peters, 47, now a salesman for Mid-Atlantic Printers, that she would die if she did not deliver.
So Sara arrived, and she was tiny. The other day, she flipped through a photo album that chronicles her hospital stay and pointed out the details that came to measure her minuteness -- the two 3-by-3-inch patches of gauze that served as her diapers; her mother's size 4 engagement ring, which Sara could wear on her arm even after 29 days of life. Upstairs in Sara's blue-walled bedroom, a framed photo shows someone holding a telephone receiver next to baby Sara. It is almost as long as she is.
While she was in the hospital and hooked up to a labyrinth of tubes, more than two dozen nurses and doctors cared for her. They placed colorful signs on her incubator to mark each milestone of her growth: 700 grams, 800 grams.
At 65 pounds, Sara today is petite among her friends but nothing out of the ordinary. She has told some of them the story of her beginnings, and they, like she, think it's "cool." And though she cannot articulate just why, Sara said she strongly believes she still is lucky.
Doctors would agree. Robert Beck, a neonatologist at Inova Fairfax who treated Sara, said she had about a 50 percent chance of developing long-term problems. Except for a hernia, which is commonly seen in children born prematurely, Sara has had none.
Since Sara's birth, dozens of babies her size and at least one weighing about 13 ounces have been born and survived at Inova Fairfax, Beck said. Preemies' chances at life have jumped for many reasons, he said, including the introduction of a chemical therapy that helps them breathe. Collaboratives of neonatal intensive care units, such as the Vermont Oxford Network, have also been established to share statistics and best practices, Beck said.
Continued at:
For 'Miracle Baby,' Life at 11 Is Happily Ordinary (washingtonpost.com)
WHY WON'T ACLU PROTECT THIS SPEECH?
Michelle Malkin
04/04/2005
ON APRIL Fool's Day, the American Civil Liberties Union will show us what a joke its commitment to American civil liberties really is.
April 1st, in case you haven't heard, is the launch of the Minuteman Project, an all-volunteer effort by law-abiding American citizens to call attention to the wide open southern border.
Hundreds of Americans from New York to Michigan to California will travel to the U.S.-Mexico border for a month to monitor illegal aliens and alert immigration enforcement officials if they witness law-breaking.
Call it the mother of all neighborhood watch programs.
In doing so, the Minutemen will be exercising their constitutionally protected freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and freedom to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Those would be fundamental civil liberties found in something called the, uh, First Amendment, of which the ACLU is supposed to be the foremost expert and champion. Or so the group and its celebrity supporters say.
In sanctimonious new fund-raising ad campaigns, the organization features the likes of liberal actress Holly Hunter, who asks: "Do you want to be heard without fear? I am not an American who believes that questioning or criticizing my government is unpatriotic."
Uh-huh. "Dissent is patriotic," the Left likes to preach. Except, apparently, if the questioning and criticizing deals with the government's abject failure to enforce immigration laws.
Instead of coming to the defense of the Minutemen who are challenging our government, the ACLU has warned the 1,000 volunteers that it will send monitors to document the Americans' activities.
Moreover, the ACLU has threatened lawsuits against the American dissenters for exercising their rights.
This bullying of pro-immigration enforcement activists comes as no surprise to those of us who have followed the ACLU's aggressive open-borders agenda - from its support for driver's licenses for illegal aliens to its opposition to detaining illegal alien terror suspects after 9/11 and profiling foreign visitors from terror-friendly countries, to its efforts to stop local and state law enforcement officers from helping federal homeland security efforts.
ACLU of Arizona spokesman Ray Ybarra has warned that the Minutemen could "come to our state as 'vigilantes' and end up leaving as 'defendants.' "
The Minutemen have made it clear on their Web site and in repeated statements that they "will not violate anyone's civil rights, and will not abuse anyone from any country... We will alert border patrol to the location of illegals, and wait for the Border Patrol to come and pick them up. We will follow illegal aliens from a distance and continue spotting them until authorities answer our cell phone and/or back-pack radio calls. All spotting, calls for assistance, and the response from the appropriate authorities will be chronicled and provided to any media representative."
Contrary to the ACLU and media representations of the group as racists and immigrant-bashers, the Minutemen are a diverse volunteer group that includes Americans of Mexican, Armenian, Russian, Lebanese, Indian and Cuban descent; and black and Native American minorities. Also among the volunteers are 19 legal immigrants from Mexico, Peru, Russia, New Zealand, England, Australia and the Philippines.
By recklessly linking the Minutemen to white separatists and casting them as outlaws, the civil liberties crowd engages in the very guilt-by-association smear tactics it has so loudly condemned. And in putting the protection of illegal aliens' rights over law-abiding Americans' civil liberties, the ACLU demonstrates on which side of the border its true allegiances lie.
Philadelphia Daily News | 04/04/2005 | Michelle Malkin | WHY WON'T ACLU PROTECT THIS SPEECH?
04/04/2005
ON APRIL Fool's Day, the American Civil Liberties Union will show us what a joke its commitment to American civil liberties really is.
April 1st, in case you haven't heard, is the launch of the Minuteman Project, an all-volunteer effort by law-abiding American citizens to call attention to the wide open southern border.
Hundreds of Americans from New York to Michigan to California will travel to the U.S.-Mexico border for a month to monitor illegal aliens and alert immigration enforcement officials if they witness law-breaking.
Call it the mother of all neighborhood watch programs.
In doing so, the Minutemen will be exercising their constitutionally protected freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and freedom to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Those would be fundamental civil liberties found in something called the, uh, First Amendment, of which the ACLU is supposed to be the foremost expert and champion. Or so the group and its celebrity supporters say.
In sanctimonious new fund-raising ad campaigns, the organization features the likes of liberal actress Holly Hunter, who asks: "Do you want to be heard without fear? I am not an American who believes that questioning or criticizing my government is unpatriotic."
Uh-huh. "Dissent is patriotic," the Left likes to preach. Except, apparently, if the questioning and criticizing deals with the government's abject failure to enforce immigration laws.
Instead of coming to the defense of the Minutemen who are challenging our government, the ACLU has warned the 1,000 volunteers that it will send monitors to document the Americans' activities.
Moreover, the ACLU has threatened lawsuits against the American dissenters for exercising their rights.
This bullying of pro-immigration enforcement activists comes as no surprise to those of us who have followed the ACLU's aggressive open-borders agenda - from its support for driver's licenses for illegal aliens to its opposition to detaining illegal alien terror suspects after 9/11 and profiling foreign visitors from terror-friendly countries, to its efforts to stop local and state law enforcement officers from helping federal homeland security efforts.
ACLU of Arizona spokesman Ray Ybarra has warned that the Minutemen could "come to our state as 'vigilantes' and end up leaving as 'defendants.' "
The Minutemen have made it clear on their Web site and in repeated statements that they "will not violate anyone's civil rights, and will not abuse anyone from any country... We will alert border patrol to the location of illegals, and wait for the Border Patrol to come and pick them up. We will follow illegal aliens from a distance and continue spotting them until authorities answer our cell phone and/or back-pack radio calls. All spotting, calls for assistance, and the response from the appropriate authorities will be chronicled and provided to any media representative."
Contrary to the ACLU and media representations of the group as racists and immigrant-bashers, the Minutemen are a diverse volunteer group that includes Americans of Mexican, Armenian, Russian, Lebanese, Indian and Cuban descent; and black and Native American minorities. Also among the volunteers are 19 legal immigrants from Mexico, Peru, Russia, New Zealand, England, Australia and the Philippines.
By recklessly linking the Minutemen to white separatists and casting them as outlaws, the civil liberties crowd engages in the very guilt-by-association smear tactics it has so loudly condemned. And in putting the protection of illegal aliens' rights over law-abiding Americans' civil liberties, the ACLU demonstrates on which side of the border its true allegiances lie.
Philadelphia Daily News | 04/04/2005 | Michelle Malkin | WHY WON'T ACLU PROTECT THIS SPEECH?
Opinion divided on the crime of cleric who preached Jihad
Apparently it is ok to preach Jihad in America, but dare to read the Bible in public and go to jail
Washington, April 5 (PTI): As a landmark case against a cleric who preached holy war and inspired, among others the terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir, is pending in a US court, different opinions have been expressed whether he could be punished for his words, as the American constitution gives freedom of speech to all its citzens, a report said on Monday.
A Virginia court is to decide whether 41-year-old US-born Ali Al-Timimi can be prosecuted for words advocating war against the State or only for actions against the State or fellow citizens.
Civil rights advocates had assumed that the Constitutional right of freedom of speech protects words, no matter how inciting to murder and mahem -- and that an American can be prosecuted only if he did something violent or conspired to do so with someone else.
In the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, government says that Timimi's advocacy of jihad against the United States in his mosque constituted treason.
Prosecutors also note that his words inspired some young Americans to go to Pakistan to seek training in guerrilla war at camps of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, for war against India in Kashmir and elsewhere in the world and which has been labelled a terrorist organization by the U.S. Government, the Washington Post said.
His defenders say tht 'he is not accused of anything except talking. It is all about him saying something'. Shaker Elsayed, a member of the executive committee of Dar Al Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, where Timimi preaches, said: 'If this is not a First Amendment (right of free speech under the U.S. Constitution) issue, I don't know what is.'
The Hindu News Update Service
Washington, April 5 (PTI): As a landmark case against a cleric who preached holy war and inspired, among others the terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir, is pending in a US court, different opinions have been expressed whether he could be punished for his words, as the American constitution gives freedom of speech to all its citzens, a report said on Monday.
A Virginia court is to decide whether 41-year-old US-born Ali Al-Timimi can be prosecuted for words advocating war against the State or only for actions against the State or fellow citizens.
Civil rights advocates had assumed that the Constitutional right of freedom of speech protects words, no matter how inciting to murder and mahem -- and that an American can be prosecuted only if he did something violent or conspired to do so with someone else.
In the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, government says that Timimi's advocacy of jihad against the United States in his mosque constituted treason.
Prosecutors also note that his words inspired some young Americans to go to Pakistan to seek training in guerrilla war at camps of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, for war against India in Kashmir and elsewhere in the world and which has been labelled a terrorist organization by the U.S. Government, the Washington Post said.
His defenders say tht 'he is not accused of anything except talking. It is all about him saying something'. Shaker Elsayed, a member of the executive committee of Dar Al Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, where Timimi preaches, said: 'If this is not a First Amendment (right of free speech under the U.S. Constitution) issue, I don't know what is.'
The Hindu News Update Service
Islamic, America-Hating Airport Screener
April 04, 2005
Feel Unsafe, Very Unsafe: TSA’s Islamic, America-Hating Screener
More details on Sadeq Naji Ahmed, the jihadist airport screener, courtesy Debbie Schlussel:
Do overbearing, shoe-removing searches at the airport make you feel safe? How about the crisp black and white uniforms of screeners since Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Administration (TSA) took over?
Sadeq Naji Ahmed is Exhibit A that you are not safer, that the TSA isn’t screening the screeners. He’s also proof positive that radical Muslims in the military can get away with say anything, while other soldiers cannot.
For almost two years, Ahmed was a baggage screener at Detroit’s Metro Airport, despite his frightening background.
Ahmed, a Yemeni Muslim since indicted in federal court in Detroit, was honorably discharged from the U.S. Air Force. That might seem well and good, but the circumstances behind the discharge aren’t so honorable.
Between 1999 and the 9/11 attacks, Ahmed—then an airman stationed at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida—made statements in support of Osama Bin Laden, said he was not against the 9/11 attacks, that the U.S. deserved to be attacked, that he wouldn’t fight if the U.S. took action in Iraq, and that U.S. aircraft over Iraq should crash.
Ahmed was an information systems analyst with security clearances—not a position optimally occupied by an America-hating, Bin Laden booster.
Because of Ahmed’s statements, his security clearance to classified information and restricted areas of the base was suspended on September 17, 2001, and he was assigned administrative duty. On September 28, 2001—even though he had two months to go on his tour of duty—Ahmed was given an expedited honorable discharge, in order to effect Ahmed’s “removal from the U.S. military as quickly as possible,” according to his indictment. Rather than do the right thing and court-martial him, the Air Force made his life easier.
Unfortunately, the TSA quickly picked up this hot potato and kept him.
In December 2001, Ahmed became a baggage screener at Metro Airport, when it was handled by a private contractor. That’s bad enough.
Remember how the TSA was supposed to improve screening security and background checks for screeners, when it took over? In October 2002, BEFORE doing a background check on him, the TSA hired Ahmed. He lied on his application regarding the circumstances of his discharge and security clearance loss.
But the lies—for which he’s now being tried by a member of the U.S. Attorney’s Terrorism Task Force—weren’t discovered until August 2003, when Ahmed was terminated.
Almost a full year to do a background check before discovering lies on an application? Allowing the lying employee on the job for a year before he was screened? Isn’t the background check supposed to take place BEFORE the employee is hired?
Don’t you feel safer, now that TSA security is in place?
Incredibly, TSA spokeswoman Amy von Walter feels Ahmed’s case demonstrates the diligence of her agency’s background checks. “This incident highlights the importance of the in-depth background checks performed by the agency,” she told a Detroit newspaper.
No, the incident highlights the incompetence of the agency’s background checks and the absurdity that a pro-Bin Laden, anti-American employee could be on the job for nearly a year before that check is thoroughly conducted.
In the year before he was terminated, the disloyal Ahmed could have easily endangered American travelers’ lives—something to be expected given his pro-Bin Laden, anti-American statements. He could have easily allowed baggage containing explosives to pass undetected onto aircraft.
But the TSA isn’t the only government agency to blame for Ahmed’s almost two-year reign of possible danger to Americans. The Air Force deserves its fair share of blame.
Rather than court-martial and dishonorably discharge Ahmed, the Air Force took the meek course and set the stage for possible danger against civilian Americans flying the now not-so-friendly skies.
Had Ahmed been a non-Muslim, the government would have gotten tough.
Soldiers don’t have unfettered free speech rights. Article 134, known as the “Disloyal Statements” provision of the Uniformed Code of Military Justice, provides for penalties by court-martial for “disloyal statements” made "with the intent to promote disloyalty or disaffection toward the United States by any member of the armed forces or to interfere with or impair the loyalty to the United States."
Ahmed’s treasonous statements fit the U.S. government’s “Manual for Courts Martial‘s” definition of punishable disloyal statements, like a glove:
“Examples include praising the enemy, attacking the war aims of the United States . . . . A declaration of personal belief can amount to a disloyal statement if it disavows allegiance owed to the United States by the declarant.”
Unlike Ahmed, soldiers have been court-martialed and brought up on Article 134 “disloyal statement” charges for:
A letter to the editor questioning the war in Iraq;
Comments to a reporter questioning the war in Iraq, but saying he’d do his part and fight; and
Telling other soldiers he would not fight in Vietnam if ordered to.
But those soldiers had one thing in common: Unlike Ahmed, they’re not Muslim. They didn’t get handled with politically correct kid gloves. And unlike Ahmed, not one of them praised the enemy and wished for America’s failure.
Yet, Ahmed was rewarded with an honorable discharge and evading his required duty, allowing him to get screening jobs at airports.
And courtesy of weak-kneed U.S. Air Force and incompetent TSA officials, Sadeq Naji Ahmed had almost a year to endanger American passengers lives.
We’re just lucky he didn’t.
Jihad Watch: Feel Unsafe, Very Unsafe: TSAs Islamic, America-Hating Screener
Feel Unsafe, Very Unsafe: TSA’s Islamic, America-Hating Screener
More details on Sadeq Naji Ahmed, the jihadist airport screener, courtesy Debbie Schlussel:
Do overbearing, shoe-removing searches at the airport make you feel safe? How about the crisp black and white uniforms of screeners since Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Administration (TSA) took over?
Sadeq Naji Ahmed is Exhibit A that you are not safer, that the TSA isn’t screening the screeners. He’s also proof positive that radical Muslims in the military can get away with say anything, while other soldiers cannot.
For almost two years, Ahmed was a baggage screener at Detroit’s Metro Airport, despite his frightening background.
Ahmed, a Yemeni Muslim since indicted in federal court in Detroit, was honorably discharged from the U.S. Air Force. That might seem well and good, but the circumstances behind the discharge aren’t so honorable.
Between 1999 and the 9/11 attacks, Ahmed—then an airman stationed at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida—made statements in support of Osama Bin Laden, said he was not against the 9/11 attacks, that the U.S. deserved to be attacked, that he wouldn’t fight if the U.S. took action in Iraq, and that U.S. aircraft over Iraq should crash.
Ahmed was an information systems analyst with security clearances—not a position optimally occupied by an America-hating, Bin Laden booster.
Because of Ahmed’s statements, his security clearance to classified information and restricted areas of the base was suspended on September 17, 2001, and he was assigned administrative duty. On September 28, 2001—even though he had two months to go on his tour of duty—Ahmed was given an expedited honorable discharge, in order to effect Ahmed’s “removal from the U.S. military as quickly as possible,” according to his indictment. Rather than do the right thing and court-martial him, the Air Force made his life easier.
Unfortunately, the TSA quickly picked up this hot potato and kept him.
In December 2001, Ahmed became a baggage screener at Metro Airport, when it was handled by a private contractor. That’s bad enough.
Remember how the TSA was supposed to improve screening security and background checks for screeners, when it took over? In October 2002, BEFORE doing a background check on him, the TSA hired Ahmed. He lied on his application regarding the circumstances of his discharge and security clearance loss.
But the lies—for which he’s now being tried by a member of the U.S. Attorney’s Terrorism Task Force—weren’t discovered until August 2003, when Ahmed was terminated.
Almost a full year to do a background check before discovering lies on an application? Allowing the lying employee on the job for a year before he was screened? Isn’t the background check supposed to take place BEFORE the employee is hired?
Don’t you feel safer, now that TSA security is in place?
Incredibly, TSA spokeswoman Amy von Walter feels Ahmed’s case demonstrates the diligence of her agency’s background checks. “This incident highlights the importance of the in-depth background checks performed by the agency,” she told a Detroit newspaper.
No, the incident highlights the incompetence of the agency’s background checks and the absurdity that a pro-Bin Laden, anti-American employee could be on the job for nearly a year before that check is thoroughly conducted.
In the year before he was terminated, the disloyal Ahmed could have easily endangered American travelers’ lives—something to be expected given his pro-Bin Laden, anti-American statements. He could have easily allowed baggage containing explosives to pass undetected onto aircraft.
But the TSA isn’t the only government agency to blame for Ahmed’s almost two-year reign of possible danger to Americans. The Air Force deserves its fair share of blame.
Rather than court-martial and dishonorably discharge Ahmed, the Air Force took the meek course and set the stage for possible danger against civilian Americans flying the now not-so-friendly skies.
Had Ahmed been a non-Muslim, the government would have gotten tough.
Soldiers don’t have unfettered free speech rights. Article 134, known as the “Disloyal Statements” provision of the Uniformed Code of Military Justice, provides for penalties by court-martial for “disloyal statements” made "with the intent to promote disloyalty or disaffection toward the United States by any member of the armed forces or to interfere with or impair the loyalty to the United States."
Ahmed’s treasonous statements fit the U.S. government’s “Manual for Courts Martial‘s” definition of punishable disloyal statements, like a glove:
“Examples include praising the enemy, attacking the war aims of the United States . . . . A declaration of personal belief can amount to a disloyal statement if it disavows allegiance owed to the United States by the declarant.”
Unlike Ahmed, soldiers have been court-martialed and brought up on Article 134 “disloyal statement” charges for:
A letter to the editor questioning the war in Iraq;
Comments to a reporter questioning the war in Iraq, but saying he’d do his part and fight; and
Telling other soldiers he would not fight in Vietnam if ordered to.
But those soldiers had one thing in common: Unlike Ahmed, they’re not Muslim. They didn’t get handled with politically correct kid gloves. And unlike Ahmed, not one of them praised the enemy and wished for America’s failure.
Yet, Ahmed was rewarded with an honorable discharge and evading his required duty, allowing him to get screening jobs at airports.
And courtesy of weak-kneed U.S. Air Force and incompetent TSA officials, Sadeq Naji Ahmed had almost a year to endanger American passengers lives.
We’re just lucky he didn’t.
Jihad Watch: Feel Unsafe, Very Unsafe: TSAs Islamic, America-Hating Screener
Darwin's theory is falling apart
BY MICHAEL F. COCHRANE/SPECIAL TO THE DAILY PRESS
April 3, 2005
Editor's note: The following is in response to J. Emmett Duffy's March 20 Outlook article, "Faith, science and nature's mysteries." And below this rebuttal is Duffy's reply.
J. Emmett Duffy has tried, in good faith I believe, to argue that the notion of "intelligent design" is flawed and intellectually empty because it does not offer "scientific explanations" for natural phenomena. He also suggests that ID is simply a repackaging of so-called "creation science," foisted upon the academic community by irate (and clearly ignorant) Christian fundamentalists. Both of these commonly held beliefs are well intentioned, but because they are based on a false premise, they are wrong.
Duffy assumes his readers understand what he means when he uses ambiguous terms like "evolution." Is he talking about microevolution or macroevolution?
Virtually no one, scientist or otherwise, disagrees that the process of natural selection within species is well documented. This is what Charles Darwin himself observed during the years he studied various animal species on the Galapagos Islands. However, Darwin went much further. His theory essentially extrapolated the random mutation and adaptation observed in microevolution to the whole of creation - macroevolution. Darwin claimed that all living creatures descended from a common ancestor that lived eons ago, and that every new species can be explained by this random, genetic mutation.
In 1871, Darwin even speculated that life might have originated spontaneously in some prehistoric pond when inorganic chemicals combined to form protein compounds. The implications of this postulation are highly significant. Darwinism essentially claims that there is no creator, and that all life as we know it is merely the result of descent with modification.
In the true spirit of scientific inquiry, Darwin knew that the fossil record up to that point had not provided sufficient evidence to support his theory. But he believed that future discoveries would validate and support macroevolutionary explanations for species variations. The problem is, they haven't.
Darwinian evolution requires that natural selection take place gradually over time. However, 540 million years ago, during the Cambrian Period, sometimes called biology's Big Bang, virtually all of the major animal phyla we know today appeared within a mere 5 million years. Completely new body plans appeared that could not be accounted for by evolution. The last 150 years have not yielded any so-called "missing links" that can adequately explain this discontinuity.
The "Cambrian Explosion" is only one of many examples of the body of scientific evidence that gives rise to skepticism about macroevolution. Over the last 50 years, respected scientists in a variety of fields have begun to give serious consideration to the hypothesis that there is an intelligence behind the universe:
Cosmology: The Big Bang theory, which is robustly supported by the data, shows that the universe had a beginning. Logic dictates that if something has a beginning, then it has a cause.
Physics: The laws and constants of the physical universe have been determined to be finely and precisely tuned for the existence of life. According to physicist Robin Collins, gravity is fine-tuned to one part in a hundred million billion billion billion billion billion.
Astronomy: Our sun has just the right combination of mass, light, age, distance, orbit and location to sustain living organisms on a circling planet.
Biochemistry: Darwin himself said, "If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down." Biochemist Michael Behe has demonstrated that molecular "machines" such as cilia and bacterial flagella are "irreducibly complex"; that is, they are unlikely to have been built piecemeal through natural selection.
Biology: No naturalistic explanation has been advanced since the discovery of DNA that accounts for how information got into biological matter.
The scientific method of inquiry is conservative. A hypothesis is presented as an explanation for a physical phenomenon or process and is assumed to be true. Experimental data are collected and analyzed to see if the hypothesis is supported. If the collected data are so inconsistent with the assumed hypothesis then science rejects that hypothesis and postulates a competing one.
Proponents of ID are not religious fundamentalists. They include hundreds of respected scientists from many different disciplines who have followed the evidence, and the evidence has led them to conclude that the theory of Darwinian natural selection has so little explanatory power regarding the origins of the universe and life on this planet that serious doubts should be raised regarding its validity.
Duffy states that ID "fails ... because it not only offers no alternative scientific explanation, it offers no scientific explanation at all." This is an obviously misleading statement because the scientific evidence of the last 50 years is pointing to something beyond science. Of course ID offers no "scientific" explanation for the origin of the universe - there is none. Duffy accuses proponents of ID of being ideologically driven, but in fact, it is pure naturalistic scientists who are desperately clinging to a theory that is falling apart around them. To believe in macroevolution requires a greater amount of faith than does believing in an intelligent designer of the universe.
Stephen Meyer, a philosopher and historian of science, provides a possible explanation for the hostility many scientists feel toward ID: "Within the scientific culture there are belief systems that are philosophically very questionable. For instance, many believe that science must only allow naturalistic explanations, which excludes from consideration the design hypothesis. Many scientists put blinders on, refusing to acknowledge that evidence, and a kind of 'group think' develops."
Such a worldview does a major disservice to school students, who are mistakenly led to believe that Darwinism is the unquestioned and universally accepted explanation for the origins of life on earth.
My own view is that this hostility arises from fear (it quite often does) of losing control of the debate. These scientists recognize that they cannot pigeonhole the advocates of ID as ignorant, backward religious fundamentalists. In fact, skeptics of Darwinism are their own colleagues. In October 2001, more than 100 respected scientists with degrees from universities such as Cambridge, Stanford, Yale and Princeton took out a two-page ad in The Weekly Standard under the banner, "A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism." They were protesting a recently aired and highly biased PBS special on evolution.
The ultimate fear of Darwin advocates, however, might be of the implications if there is, in fact, an Intelligent Designer. What if there really is a God? I can imagine this would be a very unsettling situation for an avowed atheist, or even a practical one.
Duffy concludes, "Let's not cloud the issue by confusing deliberate obfuscation with a scientific theory." I would have to agree with him completely, although I would reverse the roles. Given the growing body of scientific evidence pointing to an Intelligent Designer, the perpetuation by the scientific community of the fiction that Darwinism is a valid scientific theory is, indeed a "deliberate obfuscation."
A rebuttal: Darwin's theory is falling apart
April 3, 2005
Editor's note: The following is in response to J. Emmett Duffy's March 20 Outlook article, "Faith, science and nature's mysteries." And below this rebuttal is Duffy's reply.
J. Emmett Duffy has tried, in good faith I believe, to argue that the notion of "intelligent design" is flawed and intellectually empty because it does not offer "scientific explanations" for natural phenomena. He also suggests that ID is simply a repackaging of so-called "creation science," foisted upon the academic community by irate (and clearly ignorant) Christian fundamentalists. Both of these commonly held beliefs are well intentioned, but because they are based on a false premise, they are wrong.
Duffy assumes his readers understand what he means when he uses ambiguous terms like "evolution." Is he talking about microevolution or macroevolution?
Virtually no one, scientist or otherwise, disagrees that the process of natural selection within species is well documented. This is what Charles Darwin himself observed during the years he studied various animal species on the Galapagos Islands. However, Darwin went much further. His theory essentially extrapolated the random mutation and adaptation observed in microevolution to the whole of creation - macroevolution. Darwin claimed that all living creatures descended from a common ancestor that lived eons ago, and that every new species can be explained by this random, genetic mutation.
In 1871, Darwin even speculated that life might have originated spontaneously in some prehistoric pond when inorganic chemicals combined to form protein compounds. The implications of this postulation are highly significant. Darwinism essentially claims that there is no creator, and that all life as we know it is merely the result of descent with modification.
In the true spirit of scientific inquiry, Darwin knew that the fossil record up to that point had not provided sufficient evidence to support his theory. But he believed that future discoveries would validate and support macroevolutionary explanations for species variations. The problem is, they haven't.
Darwinian evolution requires that natural selection take place gradually over time. However, 540 million years ago, during the Cambrian Period, sometimes called biology's Big Bang, virtually all of the major animal phyla we know today appeared within a mere 5 million years. Completely new body plans appeared that could not be accounted for by evolution. The last 150 years have not yielded any so-called "missing links" that can adequately explain this discontinuity.
The "Cambrian Explosion" is only one of many examples of the body of scientific evidence that gives rise to skepticism about macroevolution. Over the last 50 years, respected scientists in a variety of fields have begun to give serious consideration to the hypothesis that there is an intelligence behind the universe:
Cosmology: The Big Bang theory, which is robustly supported by the data, shows that the universe had a beginning. Logic dictates that if something has a beginning, then it has a cause.
Physics: The laws and constants of the physical universe have been determined to be finely and precisely tuned for the existence of life. According to physicist Robin Collins, gravity is fine-tuned to one part in a hundred million billion billion billion billion billion.
Astronomy: Our sun has just the right combination of mass, light, age, distance, orbit and location to sustain living organisms on a circling planet.
Biochemistry: Darwin himself said, "If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down." Biochemist Michael Behe has demonstrated that molecular "machines" such as cilia and bacterial flagella are "irreducibly complex"; that is, they are unlikely to have been built piecemeal through natural selection.
Biology: No naturalistic explanation has been advanced since the discovery of DNA that accounts for how information got into biological matter.
The scientific method of inquiry is conservative. A hypothesis is presented as an explanation for a physical phenomenon or process and is assumed to be true. Experimental data are collected and analyzed to see if the hypothesis is supported. If the collected data are so inconsistent with the assumed hypothesis then science rejects that hypothesis and postulates a competing one.
Proponents of ID are not religious fundamentalists. They include hundreds of respected scientists from many different disciplines who have followed the evidence, and the evidence has led them to conclude that the theory of Darwinian natural selection has so little explanatory power regarding the origins of the universe and life on this planet that serious doubts should be raised regarding its validity.
Duffy states that ID "fails ... because it not only offers no alternative scientific explanation, it offers no scientific explanation at all." This is an obviously misleading statement because the scientific evidence of the last 50 years is pointing to something beyond science. Of course ID offers no "scientific" explanation for the origin of the universe - there is none. Duffy accuses proponents of ID of being ideologically driven, but in fact, it is pure naturalistic scientists who are desperately clinging to a theory that is falling apart around them. To believe in macroevolution requires a greater amount of faith than does believing in an intelligent designer of the universe.
Stephen Meyer, a philosopher and historian of science, provides a possible explanation for the hostility many scientists feel toward ID: "Within the scientific culture there are belief systems that are philosophically very questionable. For instance, many believe that science must only allow naturalistic explanations, which excludes from consideration the design hypothesis. Many scientists put blinders on, refusing to acknowledge that evidence, and a kind of 'group think' develops."
Such a worldview does a major disservice to school students, who are mistakenly led to believe that Darwinism is the unquestioned and universally accepted explanation for the origins of life on earth.
My own view is that this hostility arises from fear (it quite often does) of losing control of the debate. These scientists recognize that they cannot pigeonhole the advocates of ID as ignorant, backward religious fundamentalists. In fact, skeptics of Darwinism are their own colleagues. In October 2001, more than 100 respected scientists with degrees from universities such as Cambridge, Stanford, Yale and Princeton took out a two-page ad in The Weekly Standard under the banner, "A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism." They were protesting a recently aired and highly biased PBS special on evolution.
The ultimate fear of Darwin advocates, however, might be of the implications if there is, in fact, an Intelligent Designer. What if there really is a God? I can imagine this would be a very unsettling situation for an avowed atheist, or even a practical one.
Duffy concludes, "Let's not cloud the issue by confusing deliberate obfuscation with a scientific theory." I would have to agree with him completely, although I would reverse the roles. Given the growing body of scientific evidence pointing to an Intelligent Designer, the perpetuation by the scientific community of the fiction that Darwinism is a valid scientific theory is, indeed a "deliberate obfuscation."
A rebuttal: Darwin's theory is falling apart
Friday, April 01, 2005
If we fail to learn history, we are doomed to repeat it
At the end of the year ... most men in Western Europe felt exceedingly gloomy about the future. Christian civilization appeared to be shrinking in area and dividing into hostile units as its sphere contracted. For over a century there had been no important advance in natural science, and registration in the universities dwindled as the instruction they offered became increasingly jejune and lifeless. Institutions
were decaying, well-meaning people were growing cynical or desperate, and many intelligent men, for want of something better to do, were endeavoring to escape
the present through the study of the pagan past.
Islam was now expanding at the expense of Christendom…. The Ottoman Turks, after snuffing out all that remained of the Byzantine Empire, had overrun most of Greece, Albania and Serbia; presently they would be hammering at the gates of Vienna.
Can you name the year this quote is describing? Sounds eerily like this year, however it was 1492.
Samuel Eliot Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1942), 3.
were decaying, well-meaning people were growing cynical or desperate, and many intelligent men, for want of something better to do, were endeavoring to escape
the present through the study of the pagan past.
Islam was now expanding at the expense of Christendom…. The Ottoman Turks, after snuffing out all that remained of the Byzantine Empire, had overrun most of Greece, Albania and Serbia; presently they would be hammering at the gates of Vienna.
Can you name the year this quote is describing? Sounds eerily like this year, however it was 1492.
Samuel Eliot Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1942), 3.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)