In Kansas, late-term abortionist George Tiller was murdered in church today. From World Magazine (conservative, Christian): Anti-abortion groups have denounced the killing. Operation Rescue President Troy Newman said in a statement, “We are shocked at this morning’s disturbing news that Mr. Tiller was gunned down. Operation Rescue has worked for years through peaceful, legal means, …
Month: May 2009
Reading — May 2009
"When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes." -- Erasmus (Roman Catholic theologian of the Reformation era). Books I finished in May: A Biblical Case for an Old Earth, by David Snoke. The best chapter in the book was the one on animal death …
Internet Monk: Stories of science/faith resolution
Michael Spencer (a.k.a. The Internet Monk) has a post asking for comments from Christians who are scientists or trained in science. They are to answer the following question: How have you resolved the tensions in your own life and thinking between science and your faith? What has been your journey? What was particularly significant in …
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The new atheists: summary of arguments
Rev. Cwirla, in his review of the Charlotte Allen article on atheism that I linked to in my previous post, summarizes the new atheist (Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris, Dennett, Myers, et al.) arguments as follows: 1. The existence of God can't be proven scientifically, therefore there is no God. 2. Religious people do bad things, therefore …
The new atheists: “primitive opposition to faith and reason”
From the LA Times: Atheists: No God, no reason, just whining, by Charlotte Allen Subtitle: Superstar atheists are motivated by anger -- and boohoo victimhood. Here are a few quotes: I can't stand atheists -- but it's not because they don't believe in God. It's because they're crashing bores. Other people, most recently the British …
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A field trip I wish I had been on
From the Billings Gazette: Geologists witness Y'stone explosion Yellowstone National Park geologist Hank Heasler was lecturing a group of colleagues in Biscuit Basin on the rarity of hydrothermal explosions last week when Boom! A hot pool behind him exploded, spewing mud, rocks and hot water 50 feet in the air. Geologists know of only a …
A cheaper way to get humans to Mars: One-way tickets
NASA's Astrobiology Magazine has the text of a presentation given by physicist Paul Davies: A One-way Ticket to Mars. The greatest expense in sending a group of astronauts to Mars is actually getting them back to Earth. Davies estimates that we may be able to save up to 80% of the costs by sending a …
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Aral Sea — environmental disaster
This is all that is left of what was the Earth's fourth largest lake only 50 years ago. From NASA's Earth Observatory: Dust Over the Aral Sea. In the 1960s, the Soviet Union started diverting most of the water from the rivers that fed the Aral Sea to irrigation, primarily for cotton. This led to …
Lake Eyre, Australia
I love this picture, as only a geologist who loves streams and sediments could. From NASA's Earth Observatory site: Rare Refill of Lake Eyre, Australia's Simpson Desert. From the EO description: Waves in central Australia’s Simpson Desert usually come in the form of sand dunes. In these images, they ripple in long vertical lines across …
Conversations in progress
I've had a number of good comments in the past month on the following posts. Feel free to join in. Dr. Dino still in prison -- I consider the teachings of Kent Hovind ("Dr. Dino") to be anti-apologetics that has no place in our churches and Christian schools. Not everyone agrees. Augustine and Darwin -- …
Six bad arguments from Answers in Genesis (Part 3)
This is part three of a six-part series examining supposed evidences for a global flood that have recently appeared on the Answers in Genesis web site. The people at AiG are my brothers and sisters in Christ, and I share their love for the Lord Jesus Christ, their respect for the Bible as the Word …
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Lake Powell images, 1999 to 2009
NASA's Earth Observatory has a series of images from 1999 to 2009 showing fluctuating water levels in Lake Powell in southeastern Utah. Lake Powell is formed by Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River in northern Arizona. Earth Observatory has a "play" link to watch the images in played in order. From the description at …
Switching religions
A significant number of people move from their childhood faith to another, as shown in this diagram from Eclectic Christian and Internet Monk: Most who "change faiths" do so by age 23 or 24. After that people are mostly set in their ways. Note that we Evangelicals lose about as many of our own children …
Francis Schaeffer — 25th anniversary of his death
Today is the twenty-fifth anniversary of the death of Christian author, philosopher, and pastor Francis Schaeffer. Schaeffer is highly regarded in the Evangelical Christian world for his defense of the faith, his advocacy of pro-life political action, and leadership of the l'Abri community in Switzerland. Francis Schaeffer was also an advocate of environmental protection. HT: …
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Santa Barbara fires
From NASA's Earth Observatory: Jesusita Fire, California, near Santa Barbara, California, 5/8/2009. The red outline areas indicate hotspots, and represent the areas of active wildfires. Grace and Peace
Concentric circles emanating from glowing red dot
Earthquake and tsunami news from the Onion News Network: HT: Geographic travels with Catholicgauze Grace and Peace
Augustine and Darwin
Alister McGrath (DPhil in molecular biophysics, Doctor of Divinity) has an article at the Christianity Today website: Augustine's Origin of Species: How the great theologian might weigh in on the Darwin debate. St. Augustine (AD 354-430) was the bishop of Hippo, in what is now Algeria, but was then part of the Roman Empire. I …
C.S. Lewis on Progress
From Mere Christianity: We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the …
Nature’s enduring value is not in what it can provide us
I saw two bumper stickers on a truck this morning. One read: Earth First! We'll mine the other planets later The other one read: Strip mining prevents forest fires. There were other bumper stickers on the truck: NRA, Ducks Unlimited, and a few others I couldn't read (I was driving after all). It would not …
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The Map Room
The Map Room blog just put in a plug for me, so I'll return the favor. I do have a maps category over in the first column on the right. Thanks for visiting The GeoChristian. Grace and Peace
GeoChristian 