Tag Archives: Expelled

Education

In other news, every kid who is a fan of the national champion Ohio State Buckeyes just got expelled.

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aVia Virginia school suspends an 11-year-old for one year over a leaf that wasn’t marijuana:

Earlier this school year, a sixth-grader in the gifted-and-talented program at Bedford Middle School in Bedford, Virginia was suspended for one year after an assistant principal found something that looked like a marijuana leaf in his backpack.

The student, the 11-year-old son of two school teachers, had to enroll in the district’s alternative education program and be homeschooled. He was evaluated by a psychiatrist for substance abuse problems, and charged with marijuana possession in juvenile court. In the months since September, he’s become withdrawn, depressed, and he suffers from panic attacks. He is worried his life is over, according to his mother, and that he will never get into college.

The only problem? The “leaf” found in the student’s backpack wasn’t what authorities thought it was — it tested negative for marijuana three separate times.

All of this is laid out in detail by Dan Casey in a column in the Roanoke Times today. While the juvenile court dropped its case against the student after the tests turned up negative, the school system, in a community located midway between Roanoke and Lynchburg, has been far less forgiving. That’s because stringent anti-drug policies in school districts in Virginia and elsewhere consider “imitation” drugs to be identical to real ones for disciplinary purposes.

The school’s lawyer, Jim Guynn, is quoted in the Roanoke Times article defending the policy on the basis that “it’s a pretty standard policy across the Commonwealth.” In 2011, for instance, four seventh-graders in Chesapeake, Virginia were suspended over bringing a bag of oregano to school. A quick Google search suggests similar policies are in effect in many other states as well.

It doesn’t matter if your son or daughter brings a real pot leaf to school, or if he brings something that looks like a pot leaf — okra, tomato, maple, buckeye, etc. If your kid calls it marijuana as a joke, or if another kid thinks it might be marijuana, that’s grounds for expulsion.

One more reason to home school.  The paranoid zero tolerance rigidity of the public schools is making things worse than ever.

Apologetics

Retirement ministry ideas

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Hey all you Christian apologists, here’s something you can work in your schedule when you retire: Take college philosophy or science classes where the professors have an agenda to bully Christian students and spread their false views.  You could be good ambassadors for Christ by graciously exposing their impure motives and errors.

We know from the movie Expelled! and countless other examples how many professors aggressively work their false, anti-Christian worldviews into their classes.  A family friend was taking a philosophy class at a local junior college and the teacher launched into an anti-God tirade the first day.

So wouldn’t it be enjoyable and productive to be in those classes and destroy their arguments?  It sounds almost biblical:

2 Corinthians 10:5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ

Seriously, apologists could go in and be polite but firm in refuting what the professors say.  It wouldn’t take long for them to go back to teaching the actual subject material — you know, the thing they are paid to do.  And who knows, if you go in as good ambassadors it might just change the professors’ minds.

Christians never retire.  Whatever you do after you stop working for a paycheck, strive to advance the kingdom. (Of course you should serve in many ways while you are working, but you probably don’t have the flexibility to take daytime college classes.)

Favorites, Politics

Not so strange bedfellows: Evolutionists and Global Warming proponents

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Climategate: the final nail in the coffin of ‘Anthropogenic Global Warming’?  This is really quite huge.  It demonstrates the lies behind the global warming fraud and that they are some of the techniques used by evolutionists to avoid competition with their worldview.  The Expelled! movie could have been made about GW alarmists as well.

It is hard to imagine a bigger story.  If the roles were reversed Hollywood would be firing up an Academy Award winning movie  highlighting the evil Right Wingers and their plot to fake evidence to destroy economies, expand government controls and take over the world.  Only in this case, it is the Left trying to do exactly that.  And they were busted. 

These scientists are frauds and liars and indirectly stole billions of dollars. 

I’m tagging this as a favorite for future use in reminding people that not all scientists are just noble, fact seeking purists.  The stain of original sin affects us all. 

Just one question: Will all the school kids who suffered through An Inconvenient Truth be told the real truth now?  Countless children were forced to watch the Inherit the Wind evolution propoganda movie as well.

Here’s another take on this critical story.

I borrowed stole these examples of the fraud from the Wintery Knight:

  • Phil Jones writes to University of Hull to try to stop sceptic Sonia Boehmer Christiansen using her Hull affiliation. Graham F Haughton of Hull University says its easier to push greenery there now SB-C has retired.(1256765544)
  • Michael Mann discusses how to destroy a journal that has published sceptic papers.(1047388489)
  • Tim Osborn discusses how data are truncated to stop an apparent cooling trend showing up in the results (0939154709). Analysis of impact here. Wow!
  • Phil Jones encourages colleagues to delete information subject to FoI (Freedom of Information) request.(1212063122)
  • Phil Jones says he has use Mann’s “Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series”…to hide the decline”. Real Climate says “hiding” was an unfortunate turn of phrase.(0942777075)
  • Kevin Trenberth says they can’t account for the lack of recent warming and that it is a travesty that they can’t.(1255352257)
  • Tom Wigley discusses how to deal with the advent of FoI law in UK. Jones says use IPR argument to hold onto code. Says data is covered by agreements with outsiders and that CRU will be “hiding behind them”.(1106338806)
  • Reaction to McIntyre’s 2005 paper in GRL. Mann has challenged GRL editor-in-chief over the publication. Mann is concerned about the connections of the paper’s editor James Saiers with U Virginia [does he mean Pat Michaels?]. Tom Wigley says that if Saiers is a sceptic they should go through official GRL channels to get him ousted. (1106322460) [Note to readers – Saiers was subsequently ousted]
  • Later on Mann refers to the leak at GRL being plugged.(1132094873)

    • It goes on and on. There are FORTY-SEVEN of these.

roundup

Roundup

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Sweden is having major problems with the growth of Islam.  The country is often held up as an example of how swell things can be if you ignore God, but they are finding out the that the “reap what you sow” part from Galatians is true.  Sure, people may enjoy sin for a time, but it always leads to pain.

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“Expelled! Exposed” Exposed – a thorough set of rebuttals to the criticisms of the documentary.  It highlights some of Richard Dawkins’ lies about the making of the movie, among other things (though to his credit he sort-of apologized).

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Why can’t Prosperity Pulpit Pimps manage their own money and follow their own advice to solve their financial problems?   The video is nauseating.  These people are crooks.  As awful as this economic mess is I hope it cleans out some of the fakers.  Maybe some of their gullible followers will see the light.

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Obama used a logical fallacy-fest to rationalize Embryonic Stem Cell Research.  Fact: This is the government funded destruction of human beings for scientific research.  All the emotional pleas about getting in the way of cures fail for multiple reasons. 

If ESCR is such a swell idea, why hasn’t private money supported it? 

It is cloning, regardless of whether it is therapeutic cloning or reproductive cloning.  In Obama’s world it is only bad cloning if you let the human being live to be delivered.  As long as you destroy him or her it is OK. 

Ghouls.

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Obama offends the Brits  – again! – and his high tech administration can’t answer the phone.   Wasn’t he supposed to make the world love us?

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Obama’s double-speak on marriage.  Shocking.

When presidential candidate Barack Obama visited the Saddleback Civil Forum in California in August 2008, he gave his views on marriage:  “I believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman.”

Yet, the new administration’s actual policies and planned actions for marriage are stated much differently. The new administration…

· Supports “full civil unions and federal rights for [homosexual] couples”

· Opposes a “constitutional ban on same-sex marriage”

· Promises to repeal the federal “Defense of Marriage Act”

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Man Driving to Abortion Clinic Runs Over Pro-Lifer, then Persuaded by Victim’s Wife Not to Abort – now there’s a powerful example of love and forgiveness that saved a life!

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It only makes sense that those who oppose the 2nd Amendment may eventually oppose your 1st Amendment rights to speak about the 2nd Amendment.  You won’t be able to defend your 1st Amendment rights when they take away your guns.

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Obama can’t go anywhere without his teleprompter – does he use one at breakfast?  Seriously, can you imagine the mockery President Bush would have endured if he had done this?  Once again the MSM covers for Obama.

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If you are pro-life and like sarcasm, don’t miss this post by The Raving Theist (formerly the Raving Atheist) on National Day of Appreciation for Abortion Providers.

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Apologetics, Favorites

Hyperbole gone mad

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universe.jpgI realize that part of the New Atheist approach is to crank up the volume on old arguments, so some of what we hear from Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, etc. is not a big surprise.  But some of their arguments and those of their followers, are so over the top that they lose credibility. 

At an atheist blog one of the commenters insisted that the evidence we offer for the existence of God was equivalent to that for pink unicorns (I have no idea why they are always pink), even though I pointed out cosmological (“first cause”), teleological, moral and other reasoning.  Then there is this jewel of a comment: 

God is about as unlikely as fairies, angels, hobgoblins, etc.

Richard Dawkins, from Expelled

Now I don’t adhere to materialist arguments, but I wouldn’t be smug and dismiss their questions by saying they had no more reasoning behind them than there is for pink unicorns or hobgoblins.

And keep in mind that Dawkins is the fellow who thinks it is possible that aliens came into being on another planet and evolved faster than we did, then seeded human beings here.  If Mr. Science Person has empirical evidence for this view then he is holding out on us.  The irony that he sees the need for an Intelligent Designer, albeit an alien one, speaks volumes.

The blogging on Expelled is a great example.  Virtually every commentary I’ve seen – usually from those who haven’t seen the movie – is just a series of personal attacks and poor reasoning.  Saying that ID is just “creationism in disguise” isn’t an argument.  Calling people liars because you disagree with their points while simultaneously encouraging people to pirate the DVDs and pay for a ticket to a different movie while sneaking into Expelled is incongruous at best. 

And watch how the New Atheists treat someone like Antony Flew, a famous scientist who “converted” from atheism to deism (almost there!) based on his extensive research.  He wrote There is a God – How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind.

We have lots of evidence for the existence of God: Cosmological (”first cause”), teleological (design), morality, logic, the physical resurrection of Jesus, archeological support and fulfilled prophecies of the Bible, etc.  If atheists don’t find that compelling, then so be it. I’m on the Great Commission, not the paid commission. But to insist that we have no evidence is uncharitable in the extreme and makes reasoned dialogue virtually impossible.  When they trot out the unicorn argument I just treat that as the Atheist Concession Speech.  I’m confident that true seekers will realize which side is more credible.

Here are a few arguments for the existence of God.   Also see the apologetics links in the blogroll in the right-hand column.

Theism

 

Existence of God

Cosmological Evidence

In Defense of the Kalam Cosmological Argument – William Craig

Adler’s Cosmological Argument for the Existence of God– John Cramer

A New Cosmological Argument – Richard Gale

A New Look at the Cosmological Argument– Robert Koons

Aquinas’ Third Way Modalized – Robert Maydole

The Kalam Cosmological Argument Neither Bloodied nor Bowed– David S. Oderberg

Some Recent Progress on the Cosmological Argument– Alexander Pruss

A Scotistic Cosmological Argument Remixed – Joshua Rasmussen

Mind, Cosmology, and Sufficient Reason as a Vindication of Rational Theism – James Sennett

The Cosmological Argument: A Defense – Richard Taylor

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Axiological Evidence

Two Kinds of Moral Arguments Concerning the Existence of God – Anthony Anderson

Robert Adams’ Demoralization Argument – Anthony Anderson

Why Be Moral? Social Contract Theory vs. Kantian-Christian Morality – Kelly James Clark

The Indispensibility of Theological Meta-Ethical Foundations for Morality – William Craig

Do We Need God To Be Moral? – John Frame

Can We Be Good Without God? – John Hare

The Argument from Conscience– Peter Kreeft

Does Ethics Require Theism? – Michael Murray

The Argument from Inalienable Rights– Victor Reppert

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Noölogical Evidence

Arguments from Reason for the Existence of God– John DePoe

An Argument From Consciousness and Free Will– Stewart Goetz and Charles Taliaferro

Sentiments of Reason and Aspirations of the Soul – John Haldane

Does the Argument from Mind Provide Evidence for God?– JP Moreland

The Argument from Persons – Joshua Rasmussen

The Argument from Reason– Victor Reppert

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Fine-Tuning Evidence

The Fine-Tuning Argument – Robin Collins

Does the Many-Universes Hypothesis Really Explain the Fine-Tuning? – Robin Collins

Universes Galore: Where Will it All End? – Paul Davies

Post-agnostic Science: How Physics is Reviving the Argument from Design– Robert Koons

Our Place in the Cosmos – John Leslie

Toward a Rational Reconstruction of Design Inferences– Timothy McGrew

The Cosmos as a Work of Art– Alexander Pruss

Shaken Atheism: A Look at the Fine-Tuned Universe– Holmes Rolston

The Universe, Design, and Fine-Tuning– Michael Sudduth

A Design Argument from Cognitive Reliability– William Vallicella

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Experiential Evidence

The Experiential Basis of Theism – William Alston

The Intuitive Conception and Knowledge of God – William Alston

Re-Identifying God in Experience– Jerome Gellman

Epistemic Virtue, Religious Experience, and Belief– James Montmarquet

A Religious Experience Argument for the Existence of a Transcendent Holy Being– Alexander Pruss

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A Priori Evidence

Conceivability, Defeasibility, and Possibility: A Defense of the Modal Ontological Argument– Trent Dougherty

The Ontological Argument– Alvin Plantinga

Samkara’s Principle and Two Ontomystical Arguments– Alexander Pruss

Reflections on Godel’s Ontological Argument – Christopher Small

The Conceptualist Argument for God’s Existence – Quentin Smith

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General

Evidence for the Existence of God– Shandon Guthrie

Twenty Arguments for the Existence of God– Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli

Hume, Kant, and Rational Theism– Hugo Meynell

Two Dozen (or so) Theistic Arguments– Alvin Plantinga

The Existence of God – Richard Swinburne

Response to Dawkins – Richard Swinburne

Language, Being, God, and the Three Stages of Theistic Evidence – Dallas Willard

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The Nature of God

Omnipotence

On Two Alleged Conflicts Between Divine Attributes– Torin Atler

Maximal Power – Thomas Flint

Omnipotence and God’s Existence – Gregory Rich

Omnipotence– Edward Wierenga

Omniscience

Middle Knowledge, Truth Makers, and the Grounding Objection – William Craig

Truth, Omniscience, and Cantorian Arguments – Alvin Plantinga and Patrick Grimm
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Omnibenevolence

Is it Coherent to Suppose that God is Both Morally Good and ‘Above Morality’?– Michael Sudduth

God and Time

Divine Timelessness and Personhood – William Craig

Is Timeless Divine Action Coherent?– Michael Sudduth

God Inside Time and Before Creation – Dean Zimmerman

General

Divine Responsibility Without Divine Freedom– Michael Bergmann

The Coherence of Theism – Part I – William Craig

The Coherence of Theism – Part II – William Craig

God’s General Concurrence with Secondary Causes: Pitfalls and Prospects– Alfred Freddoso

Divine Transcendence– Jonathan Kvanvig

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Philosophical Theology

Divine and Human Dialogue – William Alston

Abba, Father: Inclusive Language and Theological Salience– Harriet Baber

Feminism and Christian Ethics– Harriet Baber

God and Counterpossibles – Richard Davis

Haecceities, Individuation, and the Trinity – Richard Davis

Logic, Ontology, and Ockham’s Christology – Alfred Freddoso

Human Nature, Potency, and the Incarnation– Alfred Freddoso

What Difference Does Heaven Make?– Peter Kreeft

Hell– Jonathan Kvanvig

Heaven and Hell – Jonathan Kvanvig

Split Brains and the Godhead– Trenton Merricks

Does Prayer Change Things? – Michael Murray

Simplicity and Creation – Timothy O’Connor

Prophecy without Middle Knowledge– Alexander Pruss

Love and Obedience– Alexander Pruss

The Metaphysics of Original Sin – Michael Rea

Understanding the Trinity – Michael Rea

Is Divine Immutability Compatible with the Practice of Petitionary Prayer?– Michael Sudduth

Is Human Language Adequate to Talk about God?– Michael Sudduth

I Look for the Resurrection of the Dead and the Life of the World to Come– Peter van Inwagen

Christian worldview, Intelligent Design, Politics

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

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dna2.gifSeven minute preview of the upcoming movie. 

The more I thought about this situation, the more I wondered why we tolerate free speech in every other area of this society, but not here.

What makes this situation so different?  In my experience, people who are confident in their ideas are not afraid of criticism.  So that tells me that Darwinists are afraid. 

. . .

But if you do leave, will anyone be left to fight this battle?  Anyone?  Anyone?

Ben Stein