My Long Overdue Review of The Creation Museum

I finally went to The Creation Museum today. I had to go if for no other reason than I have a policy against forming an official opinion on anything until I’ve experienced it for myself (with some exceptions… like murder)

My Analysis of Occupy Wall Street

People fear what they do not understand.
People hate what they fear.
People attack what they hate.

Most people in this country don’t understand the economy and see Wall Street as an amorphous body that is somehow the economy. Therefore: Occupy Wall Street. I think a certain percentage of Ron Paul supporters are the same way with the Federal Reserve, though I think the majority really do understand the problem.

Four Fundamental Problems with SOPA

You may have heard about H.R. 3261, better known as the Stop Online Piracy Act. It is a bill in the US House of Representatives that seeks to expand the Federal Government’s power for the purpose of putting an end to piracy online. This has caused much debate and concern, so I thought I’d weigh in with my two cents. Interestingly enough, I could not find anything on the websites for Mises, Lew Rockwell, Freedom Works or the Libertarian Party about SOPA. I figured it would be something that would be lighting up their circuits. Apparently not.

Now I don’t know all of the details of this bill, but I don’t think I need to. Whatever the particulars of such a measures are, they all boil down to the same basic issue: using federal authority to stop the exchange of copyrighted material for no cost and without the consent of the original publisher. I’m aware that copyright law does exist, and I’m also certain that a deep read of the act would simply involve nothing more than a specification for new authority and powers given to the Executive branch for the purpose of enforcement of the existing law. I highly doubt that any new laws are being defined here. But even given these factors, H.R. 3261 cannot but have four basic, fundamental flaws that preclude it from being a legitimate use of Federal power.

Did Jesus Die for Klingons? – A Response

I read a rather silly article today, which discusses the question, “Suppose we find life on other planets. Did Jesus die for them too?”

This really falls into the category of “How many angels can dance on the head of a pin.” However, since the underlying implication seems to be that the existence of alien life is somehow inconsistent with Scripture, I figured I’d respond.

Faith and Reason

Much has been said about the relationship between faith and reason. Many times faith and reason seem to be opposed. What is the Christian to do when faced with a claim that seems to have irrefutably evident reason behind it but contradicts the teachings of Scripture? If we believe that the Bible alone (when properly interpreted) is our infallible authority, what are we to do when met with claims such as Evolution?

As I’ve thought of this I’ve never really found an answer I’m comfortable giving. Though I hold both faith and reason to be important, the problem remains of what to do when they conflict. I recently remembered a book we discussed in my ethics class at Cedarville. It was by H. Richard Niebuhr called Christ and Culture. The book discussed five approaches to the relationship between Christ and Culture from a historical and ethical perspective. The details of the book are huge wash in my brain, but I remembered them enough to look up what the five views were. As I did so, I thought it might be beneficial to extrapolate these five categories into five views of the relationship between Faith and Reason.

That’s a Rip Off!!!

Why is scalping a crime? I’ve never been able to figure this out. What’s scalping?

To resell at a price higher than the established value: scalping tickets to the baseball game.

What is “established value”? Established value refers to the price printed on the ticket. In other words it’s the price that the box office of the venue or the performer has decided to sell the ticket for. So the simple answer to this question is, scalping is a crime because you’re ripping someone off by selling them something that isn’t worth what you asked them to pay you.

But is that a crime?

The Root of All Nanny Statism

“A great silent collapse, an enormous unspoken disappointment, has in our time fallen on our Northern civilization. All previous ages have sweated and been crucified in an attempt to realize what is really the right life, what was really the good man. A definite part of the modern world has come beyond question to the conclusion that there is no answer to these questions, that the most that we can do is to set up a few notice-boards at places of obvious danger, to warn men, for instance, against drinking themselves to death…” – G.K. Chesterton, Heretics.

No wonder we have so many public service announcements on TV and so many Nanny State laws!!!

Legislating Morality

Have you ever heard the saying, “You can’t legislate morality?” Ever wonder whether it’s true? People love to debate this topic. The fact of the matter is, people seem to think that you can. Whether it is the militant religious right attempting to push Biblical morality on the nation, or whether it’s those godless commie liberals who want everyone to hug trees1, many people – at least those in power – seem to be interested in behavior modification. But what’s a Biblical Perspective on this? I’ve written before on Theonomy, but here’s another observation:

Science and Christianity: From The Big Bang to Noah, Some Responding Thoughts – UPDATED

This post is a response to an article I read here. I hope you can tell that I’m trying to be somewhat light hearted and humorous in my response, since I’m trying to give some thoughts along the lines of what he’s saying, but also stand for some very important truths that I think are largely ignored, by all sides. If you’re at all confused by what I’m saying, go read his article first. From here on, I’m speaking in the second person, with the author of the original article as the antecedent for “you”.

Romans 7:7-8

I had a new insight into Romans 7:7-8 last night. This passage has been bugging me in the back of my mind for a while. I see in many other places in Scripture the obvious truth that each individual person is culpable for Adam’s transgression, and that as such it is thoroughly impossible to live a life worthy of heaven on one’s own merits. See Romans 5 for this. But then we get to Romans 7, and St. Paul says something that almost knocks me out of my seat.

What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead.