Craig vs. Dicarlo Debate - Does God Matter?

In a word the answer is "True!" Dr. Craig argued that God does matter and Christopher Dicarlo argued that God does not matter. This debate was different. Instead of trying to prove that God exists they were arguing about God's relevance. This is a very different question. I liked how Dr. Craig argued about the absence of moral absolutes and plain emptiness and purposeless of life without a relationship with our creator. He was brilliant. This one is important enough that I will post it below the link where I initially found the debate

Apologetics 315: Craig vs. Dicarlo Debate MP3 Audio - Does God Matter?

Here is the audio:

Craig-Dicarlo-Deba...

Programmable Matter

I want this!!!!!

We Need God

I just read an article I found through AOL. It is called Does Any Woman Have to Lose Weight to Get Lucky? It details the story of a young woman who lost over half her body weight to make herself more attractive to men.

Charlotte developed an unhealthy obsession with food after she graduated from school. Being shy, she would stay home and have dinner for one while her friends went on dates. "I was 21 and desperate to be loved and to enjoy the affection my friends were getting from men," she said.

So she dropped the weight - 180 pounds and the article goes on:

After losing 180 pounds, Charlotte did the deed with a guy she met on vacation and has done it with two more since. She says, "Since I've become slim, I am more attractive to men. Sadly, that's the world we live in."

While we can't argue with the fact that we live in a looks-obsessed society, we know plenty of women of all sizes who have never let a few extra pounds stop them from getting active in the bedroom.

According to Charlotte, when she was heavy she "feared men seeing her naked and eventually stopped going out altogether." Sure, weight gain can take a toll on your self-esteem and energy levels, but that's only if you let it.

Take notice of what she said. She said she was "desperate to be loved" and she wanted attention from men because she thought that men would fulfill her desire to be loved. She overate because she was trying to fill a hole in her soul. My question now that she has slept with 3 different men, is her need to be loved been fulfilled. She's had three relationships with three men and after they got what they wanted from her, she was alone again. Is that love? Not according to the Bible. God wants more for us. Charlotte is not alone. We all have whole in our souls. Some of us try to fill it with food, material possessions, success, sex, drugs, television, all kinds of various vices, and everything that we use to make ourselves that we are happy apart from God. None of this will satisfy a human being but the love of God. It's a free gift. All we have to do is put our trust in Jesus, admit and repent of our sins - the things in our lives that are ungodly, and serve the Lord.

Bart Ehrman Rears His Head

If you haven't heard the debate between James White and Bart Ehrman concerning the topic Does the Bible Misquote Jesus? you are missing out! Here is another link to get to it. Ehrman has just released another book. It's entitled: Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (and Why We Don't Know About Them). James White has weighed in on his blog. His comments bear reading:

So says Bart Ehrman when you challenge his highly challengeable theological conclusions and claims. Ehrman's new anti-Christian book, Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (and Why We Don't Know About Them), is lying on my desk, having just arrived. I flipped the book open to the back and my eyes fell upon this statement:

There is not literally a place of eternal torment where God, or the demons doing his will, will torture poor souls for 30 trillion years (as just the beginning) for sins they committed for thirty years. What kind of never-dying eternal divine Nazi would a God like that be? (p. 276).

Now, aside from the inherent problems (poor souls = innocent souls, the issue of divine justice, the continued hatred of those under punishment for God, etc.) in this common atheistic blast, the real issue is, does this book finally signal the end of Ehrman's "I'm not a theologian, I'm just a high-brow scholar so I cannot be held accountable for all the theological pronouncements I make" excuse making? Will those in the "academy" finally see his real intentions, and start to recognize his bias? Personally, I sort of doubt it. Anyone who is embarrassed by the open profession of the lordship of Christ over the mind will not wish to risk their next invitation to some major conference by pointing out Ehrman's bold anti-Christian zealotry. But churchmen who recognize when a wolf is stocking the sheep will do well to cull some of the whopper statements in this book as excellent examples of the fact that Ehrman is no unbiased textual critical scholar. He has moved far beyond the realm of his narrow expertise in his last three most popular books, all of which are designed to do one thing: destroy Christian faith.

I might note that the quote above would be just as applicable to the Islamic view of the fire as well. Just don't ask Bart about that. As he begins his rounds on NPR, do you think someone will ask him, "So, you are saying Allah in the Qur'an is a never-dying eternal divine Nazi?" Yeah, probably not.

It really infuriated me during the debate when Ehrman denied the theological implications of his conclusions while at the same time affirming that it was why he is no longer a Christian. Ehrman can't have it both ways. He also can't make assertions against the validity of the Bible without also applying those same conclusions to the Koran. It's dishonest. I doubt that Ehrman ever was born again Christian who truly ever knew Jesus. He doesn't talk about his faith as one where he had a relationship with the risen Christ. If he did he would come to different conclusions. I hope He finds Jesus and knows him so he won't be lost and that he'll stop leading others astray.

Craig vs. Ehrman Debate The Resurrection

I tell you the Apologetics 315 blog is a gold mine! I just found a debate between Bart Ehrman and William Lane Craig. They debated about whether the Resurrection of Christ is a fact of History or Not. To be honest, it is my opinion that Craig, who argued that the Resurrection is a fact of history, won this hands-down. Let me put it in the venacular of my generation: Ehrman got owned. The Resurrection is a subject of Dr. Craig's expertise and he did a wonderful job presenting it. It's so important that I would like to post audio below as well as a transcript of the debate. Here is the link to the Apologetics 315 post:

Apologetics 315: PDF Download: Craig vs. Ehrman Resurrection Debate Transcript

My favorite part of the debate was when Ehrman tried to argue that there are other possible explanations for Jesus' empty tomb. His point was that God supernaturally raised Jesus was improbable. Dr Craig countered by appealing to the work of a scholar from Oxford University who uses Probability Calculus to show the odds that Jesus was raised from dead against other possible explanations. I loved it. Here is the audio and the transcript.

CraigEhrmanDebate2...

More Police Brutality

More police brutality has been video taped and it has been making the rounds on the internet and television since last weekend. It found out that a 15 year-old girl was assaulted while she was in custody. She kicked her shoe at the deputies, and one of them slammed her against a wall and tossed them down on the ground. She was struck. Yes, she was being rude and disrespectful but I think the county deputies over-reacted. What do you think?

Looking Over Life

Did you see the video a guy did of himself over a period of time where he just sped up the time? They did a spoof on it on the Simpsons. Here is the video and the Simpson spoof.


Time Lapse Beard Growth - Watch the top videos of the week here

Evolution of Homer Simpson

God Truly Saves

I have found a video report on a miracle from last week. A woman's ex-boyfriend tried to shoot her in the head as she drove away but her hair weave kept the bullet from penetrating her skull. Amazing! I have never heard of such a thing before. God saved that young woman from certain death, proving that if He doesn't say its time to die, it doesn't matter what happens you won't die. She says she is thanking God everyday for her life. She's right.

Really? He had no Idea He was Being a Racist Jerk!

I saw a story today from Black Snob that just infuriates me. Yet again we have people making racist remarks against Obama and then claim that black people are making more out of it than we should. There was a link to the following article: Los Alamitos Mayor Dean Grose Emailed His Friends A White House Watermelon Picture. The article explains that the mayor of Los Alamitos, California, Dean Grose, sent around a personal email containing the following picture:

with the caption “No Easter egg hunt this year,” and yes, those are watermelons photoshopped into a picture of the white house. He sent this to a bunch of people as a joke. Out of the 12,000 people who live in that town, I doubt that there are a lot of black people but there is at least one black person on his e-mail list, Keyanus Price. She did what you are supposed to do just talk to the person who offended you. She wrote:

"Hey, that’s not nice at all. Not all black people like watermelon… you should know better than that.”

Grose replied: “The way things are today, you gotta laugh every now and then. I wanna see the coloring contests.”

In other words, no apology so Price went public. Now Grose says:

“It was just poor judgment on my part, and I am deeply sorry. It wasn’t meant to hurt her,” he said.

and

"Bottom line is, we laugh at things and I didn't see this in the same light that she did," Grose told the AP. "I'm sorry. It wasn't sent to offend her personally - or anyone - from the standpoint of the African-American race."

His defense: I didn't know it was racist. I'm sorry. Well at least he is stepping down as mayor. However, he never admitted that it was a racist joke!

I have also seen a quote from another person concerning this incident:

Obviously the email was a reference to certain agricultural policies of the Obama administration and their impact on California melon growers…some people are so touchy. If it makes you feel any better, I’m sure Mayor Grouse will apologize for you being so thin-skinned.

"Thin-skinned"? Serious? This with the monkey cartoon last week shows us that Eric Holder was right last week. Offending others using racist jokes and sterotypes has got to be faced head-on. Americans don't do that. That is why Holder said that we are nation of cowards. We gotta stop proving him right.

Science of "Watchmen"

Here is a video from YouTube that shows the Physics Consultant on the film talk about Dr. Manhattan's powers and the theoretical science beneath the fiction. Very, Very interesting!

Parodying Christian Bale

You may have heard about this already but a few weeks ago, an audio recording surfaced of Christian Bale going ballistic on the set of Terminator 4. Apparently someone made a mistake and he went on a tirade of cursing and belittling and insulting people and threatening to leave the set and never coming back. There are several versions of it on YouTube and there have been a couple of very funny parodies of this.

If you want to hear the original tirade, just type in "Christian Bale" into the search box in YouTube and you can see it, but I won't post it because it's just too much profanity and I could not find an edited version.


Here is the Family Guy parody



Here is the Marvel Comics parody

Black Women and Flight

I received an e-mail this month stating that the only flight where the entire flight crew is black and female it seems that one of the crew started the e-mail chain. It got me thinking about the first black woman to hold a pilots license in the United States and internationally. Her name was Bessie Coleman. She was awesome. I'm going to make sure my daughter knows about her. Read this link to find out all about her life. It is very complete. Bessie's picture is on the upper left of this post and the all-black-female flight crew is on the right. Below is the e-mail as I received it.

VERY COOL!

Possible First All Female African-American Flight Crew

Very Motivating..

Our African-American women continue to demonstrate professionalism, intelligence and unlimited potential as they contribute to our overall struggle for
unlimited freedom, access and opportunity in America. The sisters on Flights 5202 and 5106 (a jet owned by Atlantic Southeast
Airlines) have proven that African-American women can do anything if just given a fair opportunity.

Their aviation success is a very proud moment for us all.

I'm not 100% sure, but I'm almost positive that we might have made history on Thursday, February 12, 2009. I was a part of an all African American female
crew. I'm attaching the photos and you can pass them along to whomever.
We were so excited!

We operated flight 5202 from Atlanta to Nashville and flight 5106 from Nashville back to Atlanta .



The crew included Captain Rachelle Jones, First Officer Stephanie Grant, Flight Attendants Robin Rogers and Diana Galloway!

This was just this month! The pictures of the crew are on this post

New Watchmen Motion Comic on DVD

A few weeks ago, I posted an article about "motion" Comics. It's where comic book art is animated. I am planning to attend the Wondercon Convention this Saturday and I'm planning to see if i can get the Watchmen graphic novel, but this DVD would be another cool way to experience the story. It Comes out 03-03-09 I admit that Warner Brothers and Fox are attempting to milk us for all they can. That being said...I can't wait for the movie, the motion comic, and the animated companion movie called The Black Freighter on 03-24-09. Also I wanna see Watchmen in IMAX. Looks like a movie that must be seen in IMAX.

Comments on Turek/Hitchens Debate

I enjoyed the debate between Frank Turek vs Christoper Hitchens. I blogged about it a few months at the following link. As you probably know Dr. James White has been busy with his own debates but he has finally commented on the Turek/Hitchen debate. It is interesting to hear someone who is an accomplished professional debator comment. I'm amazed. He pointed out something very important that I missed: although Hitchens is an atheist he was able to point out a flaw in Turek's argument: He tried to go from general theism (belief in the existence of some God) to arguing for the existence of God in the view of Judeo-Christianity without explaining how he did it! Here are Dr. White's commentes:

MLK Oratory winner 2009: Gerra Gistand

A little girl gives a speech on the following question: If Dr. King were alive today, what do you think he would say about current events? It is a great answer!

Challenging Islam

Here is a video I saw on YouTube that is very interesting...as well as humorous without being completely irreverent and I hope will not offend anyone. It raises questions as to how if you look at the life of Mohammad and what he taught in the Koran that you can conclude that Islam is a religion of peace? Take a look. All of the information presented I have seen in other sources.

Alan Keyes Warning

There is no love lost between Alan Keyes and Barack Obama. They have been rivals for years. To be honest, had Keyes been running against Obama, I would have voted for Keyes. They are both politicians, but Keyes' is a black man who shares my world views much more closely than Obama. Considering their history I'm not surprised that he disagrees with Obama's economic policies. Listen to what he has recently said



The one thing that stand out to me about what Keyes points out the question about how is a bankrupt government such as ours going to bail out anyone? Where is the money going to come from? I don't agree with Keyes saying that Obama is telling people not to pay their mortgages because the government is going to pay for it. I have never heard that suggested by the Presidential administration. Another problem is that Keyes repeated the lie that Obama cannot prove that he was born in the United State. Unfortunately, instead of offering alternative he really rips into Obama - his character and his abilities to be President. Obama said that he would listen to other opinions. I wonder if the two have talked?

UPDATE: I just read an article from Newsmax in which they report this very same story. One thing that I have noticed about Newsmax is that they are conservative Republicans and have been against Obama since day one. As for Keyes the article does point out that he is wrong about raising doubts about Obama's citizenship. Here is what is pointed out in the article:

Obama has stated he was born in Hawaii. His campaign has released his Certificate of Live Birth - not his actual birth certificate. Hawaii state officials said they reviewed the actual birth certificate and that Obama was born in the state of Hawaii.

Also, Obama's family placed a legal advertisement in a Hawaii newspaper days after he was born.

You can't fake a legal advertisement dated 40 years ago with the intention that one day the boy would be President in a country where his father would have been murdered in some places for race mixing! Let's get real. Newsmax did not have anything positive to say about Keyes either because let's face it some white Republicans are scared by him even more than by Barack Obama.

Marriage Video from West Virginia

Here is a good video framing what is at stake with redefining "marriage". It is good to watch. It's poignant for me in light of what my own marriage means to me and my parents' 51st anniversary which is today.

Malcolm X Assassination: 02-21-1965

Today, 44 years ago, Malcolm X was assassinated. I'm not going to comment much now because his life and legacy deserve more space than I am prepared to make at this time. For now here are some great videos I have found that showcase who he was. You can purchase much of his speeches, video and audio, and transcriptions at http://malcolmxfiles.blogspot.com/

Apologetics 315: Kyle Butt vs. Dan Barker Debate MP3 Audio - Does the God of the Bible Exist?

I think that a debate on "Does the God of the Bible Exist?" is very important. Dan Barker argued "no" and he claims that he used to be a believer. However all his arguments not only were new but boiled down to the idea that he did religion is based on the belief that there is something broken or missing from humanity and he rejects the idea that he needs to be saved from himself and refuses to serve or believe in God that would condemn anyone to hell for thinking for himself or herself. I thought Kyle Butt did the correct thing to not challenge Barker on everyone of his Bible "contradictions". Kyle was right, those "contradictions" can be reconciled and reasonably shown not to be contradictions. This is a good debate to listen to.

Apologetics 315: Kyle Butt vs. Dan Barker Debate MP3 Audio - Does the God of the Bible Exist?