Free Republic

I missed the big Carl Sagan thing when it happened. I was in high school when Cosmos came out, we lived in the country and if you wanted to watch a different television network, you had to go up into the attic and turn a giant antenna with a pipe wrench. Sports and girls and D&D were more of a priority than television. .................................................... Then suddenly we get a claim that Giordano Bruno is responsible for the concept of the universe - because he read 'banned' books. Lucretious wasn't science - there was no scientific evidence for his claim that...

Cosmos with Neil deGrasse Tyson: Same Old Product, Bright New Packaging If there was any doubt that the rebooted Cosmos series, which premiered last night, would be politically charged and have a materialistic ideological message, consider what viewers saw in its first sixty seconds. The opening featured President Obama giving a statement endorsing the series. That's not necessarily bad, except for what happened next. Immediately following President Obama's endorsement, the show replayed Carl Sagan's famous materialistic credo from the original Cosmos series that "The cosmos is all there is, or ever was, or ever will be." Does it violate the...

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez needs a new hairdresser — or a new stance on gay marriage. Martinez was recently dropped by her hair stylist, Antonio Darden, who is gay. Darden told a local news station that he cut the governor’s hair three times, but won’t do it again as long as she continues to oppose gay marriage. “The governor’s aides called not too long ago, wanting another appointment to come in,” he told KOB-TV. “Because of her stances and her views on this, I told her aides no. They called the next day, asking if I’d changed my mind...

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a religious organisation registered as a private unlimited company in the UK, was told in 2005 that it was not exempt from paying business tax on its temple in Preston, Lancashire. Because the public were not allowed access to the temple, which was reserved for the most devout Mormons, the High Court dismissed their appeal in July 2008. However, the church refused to accept the decision, claiming that it amounted to discrimination on religious grounds and taking their battle all the way to Strasbourg. Now the European Court of Human Rights has...

Those who watch the Oscars need to understand the song that receives the Oscar for best song may not deserve the honor. The Motion Picture Academy arbitrarily rescinded the nomination of the song "Alone Yet Not Alone" from the best song category. According to a review "ALONE YET NOT ALONE tells the inspiring story of Barbara and Regina Leininger and their journey of faith and survival during the French & Indian war in 1755. Captured by the Allegheny Indians in a raid on their home and transported over 300 miles of wilderness to Ohio, the sisters are sustained only by...

Secretary of State John Kerry demanded Monday that Uganda “repeal” its new anti-gay law and warned that the State Department has begun a “review” of U.S. assistance to the impoverished East African nation. “This is a tragic day for Uganda and for all who care about the cause of human rights,” Kerry said in a statement. “Ultimately, the only answer is repeal of this law.” President Yoweri Museveni signed into law on Monday legislation enacting tough prison sentences for homosexual acts, which were already illegal in Uganda. Kerry threatened to cut the more than $400 million the country receives in...

An experimental technique for creating embryos with three biological parents appears to be moving toward an okay from the FDA. Ostensibly to prevent mitochondrial disease, the experiment would use one genetically modified egg (with the nucleus from another egg), and sperm to create a new human life via IVF.Now, an FDA committee is holding hearings (on Feb 25-26) to determine whether to allow the technique to be used to bring babies to birth. From the Science story: In the United States, FDA has said it has the power to regulate any transfer of mitochondrial DNA in embryos, because it is...

The anti-balaka have outgrown their name. These militias in the Central African Republic, once united under a moniker meaning “anti-machete” in the local Sango language, are exacting their own vicious revenge upon the mainly Muslim rebels who overthrew the government last March and waged months of terror against the Christian population. They are now accused of atrocities far worse than what first prompted them to take up arms. An Amnesty International report on Feb. 12 said attacks on Muslims in January by anti-balaka militias, made up of Christians and animists, had amounted to “ethnic cleansing.” Fatou Bensouda, chief prosecutor at...

Because marriage between one man and one woman was established by nature itself, neither the government, the courts, nor the Democratic attorney general of Virginia have the “right or legitimate authority to alter the original design of marriage,” said the two Catholic bishops for Virginia, who added that the Catholic Church cannot violate its own teachings and “will continue to defend marriage as a union between a man and a woman.” Bishop Paul S. Loverde, head of the Catholic Diocese of Arlington, for northern Virginia, and Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo, head of the Diocese of Richmond, made their statement on...

An explosion tore through a bus carrying South Korean Christian tourists from Sinai to the Israeli border on Sunday, killing four people and wounding around 15. Excerpt per Reuters

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A gunman opened fire in a cathedral on the Russian island of Sakhalin, off the country's eastern coast, on Sunday, killing a nun and a churchgoer and wounding six other people, state-run news agency RIA reported.

Thomas Monson issued court summons to answer allegations of fraud - 2/4/14 The Prophet of the LDS Church, Thomas S. Monson has been ordered to attend court and face allegations of fraud. A court in London, England has issued Thomas Spencer Monson with 2 summons (see below) containing allegations of seven offences in contravention of Section 1 Fraud Act 2006. Mr. Monson is required to attend the court, Westminster Magistrates’ Court, on 14th March 2014. The court will then almost certainly refer the case to Southwark Crown Court for further proceedings. Failure of Mr. Monson to attend the Court on...

arguing that "secular" businesses should not be exempt from the mandate. The 19 senators planned to file a brief before the court, which is still weeks away from considering the closely watched case. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who planned to make her case on the Senate floor, adamantly defended the Obama administration's side. "What's at stake in this case before the Supreme Court is whether a CEO's personal beliefs can trump a woman's right to access free or low-cost contraception under the Affordable Care Act," she said in prepared remarks.

Former Vice President Al Gore raised eyebrows last week when he suggested that “fertility management” was the key to fighting global warming and promoting economic development in poor countries. Gore’s comments drew criticism from free-marketeers who said his remarks amount to “eco-imperialism.” “Gore’s agenda for saving the world from global warming has always included population control,” Myron Ebell, director of global warming and international environmental policy at the free-market Competitive Enterprise Institute, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “Advocating population control specifically for Africa is just another form of imperialism. Gore’s eco-imperialism is uncomfortably close to the original racist goals...

resident Obama reflected on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade by encouraging Americans to recommit to the “guiding principles” of the 1973 Supreme Court decision. According to Obama: Every woman should be able to make her own choices about her body and her health. We reaffirm our steadfast commitment to protecting a woman’s access to safe, affordable health care and her constitutional right to privacy, including the right to reproductive freedom. And we resolve to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies, support maternal and child health, and continue to build safe and healthy communities for all our children. Because this...

Russian Christian terrorists are apparently a major threat to America. If I didn’t know better, I would think that Hollywood had some kind of left-wing agenda. But instead Hollywood is just depicting real life. Like its attempt to make a Jack Ryan movie not based on a Tom Clancy movie, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (currently at no. 4 after Ride Along, Lone Survivor and The Nut Job) which depicts the reality of terrorist sleeper cells operating out of Russian Orthodox churches in Dearborn. A discerning viewer might notice that Russia essentially employs al-Qaeda tactics, of which would be ironic considering...

Femen is a group of disgusting feminists whose main purpose seems to be aggression and ferocious attacks against Christianity and its symbols. They can't be offended for being called "disgusting" because disgust is what they constantly try to provoke in normal people. I wonder how these men-haters would fare in non-Christian societies, like Muslim ones, for example. Freedom of expression is for everything, of course: repugnant and meaningless displays of vulgarity as well as reasoned discourse, unworthy as well as valuable communications. But at least we should recognise that some people use it in a mindless way, just to...

It was something I learned very young: Never say the word kaafir. I didn't know Arabic at the time, but I knew it was worse than a curse word. It was the most evil word you could possibly utter. Call a person anything you want, but never this. A kaafir was evil. A kaafir was a monster. A kaafir was doomed to Hell forever. These ideas floated around in my mind whenever I heard the word, and the sensation I felt upon even thinking of it was like the repulsion one would feel upon having a jinn-like beast sharing a...

The Devil’s Due: Satanic monument is inevitable by Daniel Clark In Oklahoma City, a group calling itself The Satanic Temple is proposing to erect a statue of Satan in front of the State Capitol. A design they’ve submitted depicts him as a goat-headed figure with wings, seated on a throne marked with a pentagram, and ministering to two small children. The Satanic Temple claims a right to do this, based on the presence of a monument of the Ten Commandments on Capitol grounds, which the ACLU is now suing to have removed. It’s not hard to see where this is...

Since its beginning, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has proclaimed to the world...there was an apostasy of the church which had been founded by Jesus during his earthly ministry...This is a fundamental belief of the restored church. In fact, it is the apostasy of early Christianity which creates the very need for the restored Latter-day Saint faith: if there had not been an apostasy, there would have been no need for a restoration.2 Latter-day Saint theology asserts...the church of Jesus and his apostles came to an end...the doctrines which its inspired leaders taught were corrupted and changed...