Here is a trailer spotlighting the upcoming Trinity Institute: Building an Ethical Economy. It includes a brief interview with Dr. Williams, who will be the celebrant at this evening’s Opening Eucharist from 7:00 to 9:00 pm at Trinity Church.
To learn more about the conference, including registration details, use this link.
The lettering JN8:12 on this rifle scope means the Gospel of John, Chapter 8, verse 12 which reads: “When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’”
The Marine Corp is considering cancelling its contract with Trijicon, a Michigan based company that produces the sights now that the company has confirmed the meaning.
It seems the British are upset as well having purchased 400 of the sites for sharpshooters in Afghanistan.
But, according to the New York Daily News Maj. John Redfield, the spokesman for the U.S. Central Command, doesn’t have a problem. "The perfect parallel that I see is between the statement that's on the back of our dollar bills, which is 'In God We Trust,' and we haven't moved away from that,"
Lisa Miller has an interesting article over at Newsweek:
“In 2004 the members of St. James Church in tony Newport Beach, Calif., voted to secede from the Episcopal Church of the United States. Like dozens of other conservative Episcopal churches at the time, St. James found the theology of its denomination insufficiently orthodox (and the consecration of a gay Episcopal prelate unbiblical). So it, and others, sought—and found—protection among the conservative Anglican bishops of Africa. For administrative and theological purposes, St. James became an African church. It submitted to the authority of an African bishop and paid dues to an African diocese.”
Oh, the humor in it:
ROME (Reuters) – An Italian scientist says he has reproduced a human being, a feat that he says proves definitively that humans, which Christians say are made in the image of God, are medieval fakes produced using materials and techniques that were available in the middle ages.
A scientifically-made mannequin, measuring 6 feet, 2 inches tall, looks eerily like Luigi Garlaschelli, the scientist himself.
"We have shown that is possible to reproduce something which has the same characteristics as a human being," Luigi Garlaschelli, who is due to illustrate the results at a conference on the para-normal this weekend in northern Italy, said on Monday.
A professor of organic chemistry at the University of Pavia, Garlaschelli made available to Reuters the paper he will deliver and the accompanying comparative photographs.
The mannequin resembles the back and front of a bearded man with long hair with his arms crossed on his chest. He has two hands, two feet and a single head with two eyes and two ears.
Since Darwin, evolutionary biologists have believed that humans evolved along with other animals and plants from a common ancestor. But scientists have thus far been at a loss to explain why some people smoke cherry flavored pipe tobacco since it offers no evolutionary advantage.
Garlaschelli, who received funding for his work by an Italian association of atheists and agnostics, expects people to contest his findings. “They didn’t believe me when I reproduced the Shroud of Turin, Quantum physics and the Egyptian pyramids, thus proving that they, too, were medieval creations. “
“It works for me,” said PZ Myers, pastor of the Morris, Minnesota Pharyngula Church of Fundamentalist Atheists. “I was getting tired of evolution, anyway. I believe everything I read in the newspapers so long as it doesn’t conflict with my beliefs. If humans are manmade, that’s fine. I still don’t need to believe in God.”
Garlaschelli said the funding for his work by his own organization of like-minded atheists had no effect on his results. "I always start with results," he said. “That way, I always arrive at the desired conclusion.”
Terry Mattingly has written a powerful analysis of the news reporting on President Obama and stem cell research. He has injected some important observations into his piece entitled, “Hey, Politico! Quote the bishops?:” For instance:
In other words, Obama’s team has set up an open clash with Rome on a variety of issues, including the moral standing of late-term abortions and the right to legally restrict abortions in any way. This is territory that is thick with landmines for the evangelical-Catholic left, in part because the American public — check the Pew Forum numbers — clearly want to see compromise here, with the government seeking middle ground that mixes legal restrictions on abortion, especially after viability, and new efforts to support mothers and their children. Keep an eye on the actions of Democrats For Life.
But — Hey! Politico! — where are the mainstream Catholic voices? Where is the archbishop of DC? There’s a story here. Clearly there is a growing rift in the evangelical world. But how about the Catholic mainstream in America?
This religion and science story will play out for quite some time.
I congratulate Alonzo Fyfe who has written a significant article in his blog, Atheist Ethicist. I highly recommend it:
It appears that the atheist blogsphere is celebrating the results of the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey. It shows that the percentage of people who claim to have no religion has gone up from 14.2 percent to 15 percent.
Of course, for the sake of celebrating, we are going to ignore the fact that the survey that shows a 0.8 percent increase in the number of people who claim to have no religion has an error range of plus or minus 3 percent.
And we are going to ignore the fact that many atheists would disavow many others who claim "no religion" and subject them to as much if not more criticism as they do many of those who claim to belong to some religion or other.
And we are going to ignore the fact that the survey actually measures willingness to admit a lack of belief to a pollster which, in turn, presumes a willingness to admit a lack of belief to oneself.
My biggest lament is that all of this tribal "us" versus "them" energy could not be harnessed and put to work for peaceful purposes.
If all I knew about a person was that he was an atheist, then that would mean almost nothing to me. I am not one to assume that, just because a person does not believe in God, he is somebody who can be trusted. Nor am I prepared to assume that the fact that somebody believes in God means that he is a threat. So, I am not prepared to draw the conclusion that just because the number of people willing to claim that they do not follow an organized religion has gone up that the world is necessarily a better place.
We need to ask the question, "What kind of atheists are these?"
Are these the atheists who have perverted the teachings of Ayn Rand into a philosophy of life that says, "Take what you can, give nothing back."?
Or are these internalist atheists who believe that evolution has written a moral law onto their genes and all they need to do to determine if something is right or wrong is to contemplate how they feel about it. This is a frightening group of atheists because history gives us many unpleasant lessons on what a person can feel comfortable with.
My lament, as I said, is that this energy cannot be put to useful purposes. The divisions that I would most be willing to track are the numbers of people who are willing to protect children from harm versus those who seek to harm children. I am interested in the number of people willing to defend freedom of speech versus those willing to destroy it. The number of people willing to use deceit and rhetoric as a political weapon versus the number who prefer to give what, to them, seems true in an open court.
There is a message here for those of us who believe in God; for those of us who call ourselves Christians: What kind of Christians are we?
This very amusing training video on Muslims in the workplace is worth watching. Its purpose is to provide useful information:
My name is Dan Porter. I have always believed in God. And I have always been a Christian, which means I have always believed, at some level of understanding, Christian assertions about Christ. But during all of my adult life—I am now 65—I have struggled with many seeds of doubt brought on by modern science, objective history, the question of why a loving God would allow so much suffering in the world and difficulties with seemingly conflicting moral precepts. 
