Tuesday, May 12, 2009

2009 White House Correspondents' Dinner President Obama Speech

I'm amazed how events such as the White House Correspondents' Dinner takes on some significance with the Obama Administration more than any previous President. Here is some video from Obama's speech. He made fun of some of his critics.





Here is comedian Wanda Sykes' comments. She was the first African-American woman to speak at the venue. And the first open lesbian. She drew fire because of the jokes she mad about some conservative, who's name I will not mention right now, hoping that he will get sick and die. I think, from a Christian point of view, it was over the line. However she is not professing to be a Christian.



Atheism is Dead: From Zeitgeist to Poltergeist, Part 10 of 13



This post is the tenth in Mariano's series of articles discussing Hitler's relationship to Christianity and Atheism. Check it out!

Atheism is Dead: From Zeitgeist to Poltergeist, Part 10 of 13

Old Earth Young Earth Debate MP3 Audio - Apologetics 315


There is a debate among Christians concerning how old the earth really is. "Young Earth" Creationists believe in a literal interpretation of Genesis in which the "Six Days of Creation" is interpreted as six 24-hour days. Many of these people also use the information contained in Genesis to calculate the age of the earth to be somewhere between 4000 to 6 thousand years. "Old Earth" Creationists interpret the "Six Days of Creation" think of "Day" as being several thousands to millions of years each. It seems that many of them accept the evidences of geology and science as to the age of the earth. I don't think the Bible gives us enough information to calculate the age of the earth. It's not that God could not make all there is in six 24-hour days. He is all-powerful. He could have done it in 6 seconds had he chosen. Even if you grant that the "day" of creation is 24 hours, we can't be certain of the geneologies because in Hebrew geneologies not every one is guaranteed to be mentioned - just the important people. Therefore we can't really use Genesis to calculate the age of the earth. So I'm gonna say that when it comes to this issue I have no idea. But checkout this debate to see what you come up with.

Old Earth Young Earth Debate MP3 Audio - Apologetics 315

Jay Richards Vs Christopher Hitchens - Intelligent Design



I am so excited that I have finally found the full video for this debate. I've been waiting for more than a year! It's Christopher Hitchens (right) debating Jay Richards (left) on Intelligent Design. The debate took place Sunday, January 27th at 4pm PST, Stanford University.



Watch Christopher Hitchens vs Jay Richards Debate in Educational & How-To  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com


The debate was really good. Unfortunately, Christopher Hitchens have not changed. I think he completely understands what the Bible says about what and who God is and Hitchens rejects that. He believes that the Bible says that God is in control of everything and Hitchens does not want to be controlled or be accountable to anyone or anything other than himself and what he thinks is right. He wants to call God "to the carpet" and call his design and purposes into question. The fact that in the Bible says "I am boss and you are not." This is what Hitchens is not.

I am also very amazed about Hitchens interpretation of what the Gospel is. He says its that about God stacking all the odds against people and then demand that we behave in a certain way when it's impossible. He does not understand what Jesus did for us. Because of His love and kindness, God regenerates us so that we can obey Him and follow Him - have a real relationship with God. The trick is that God does it himself through us. We can't do it without him. Something else Hitchens hates.

One point that I think Richards did loose on is on the question of free-will. He's right if someone gives you free will it is not libertarian free will. I think Richards skunked Hitchens on the matter about "infinite regression." If I ever am challenged with the proposition to refute the point that a designer must himself have a designer, I want to use his argument. Hitchens misses the point that Theists do not argue that God ever came into existence...He always was. Always is. Always will be. This is why Richards and William Lane Craig use words so carefully: "that which begins to exist must have a cause."

Another point I think is worth mentioning is the argument for design called "Fine-tuning". It says that the all the natural constants, force, physical laws and properties are set just right so that life exists on earth. Jay Richards and his partners pushes the point farther by saying that the universe is set up just right so that we can perform scientific inquiry. God not only designed the universe to support life on earth but put us in the perfect place so we can measure and observe what He did. I reject Hitchens' and other's attempt to criticize that design because they are assuming to know what God's purposes are are for why things are like they are. If you don't know what the intent was, assuming that there is a design, how did you know there was a failure? Reminds me of the Justice League cartoons when Batman throws a batarang at an opponent and we think he missed until a second later we see see that he was actually aiming for something else entirely - winning the confrontation. What Batman says in those circumstances is what I believe God is saying to us when we don't know what He's doing and why: "Wait for it."