Free Republic

Let me ask you a question. Are you against slavery? Do you believe that the issue of slavery is a moral position? Are laws legislating that particular moral position appropriate? What you've said is that it's appropriate to legislate certain moral issues and that you'd be in favor of that. The economic issue would actually be on the side of the South because slavery is what propped up the economic system of the South. When slaves were emancipated it gutted them of their economic force. Let's remove the economic argument. Based solely on morality, are you willing to say that...

Bostrom: From Extinction to Transcendence by Paul Gilster on February 27, 2013 At the top of my list of people IÂ’d someday like to have a long conversation with is Nick Bostrom, a philosopher and director of OxfordÂ’s Future of Humanity Institute. As Centauri Dreams readers will likely know, Bostrom has been thinking about the issue of human extinction for a long time, his ideas playing interestingly against questions not only about our own past but about our future possibilities if we can leave the Solar System. And as Ross Andersen demonstrates in Omens, a superb feature on BostromÂ’s...

Right now, I'm in a lot of pain. I'm hurting. Everyone I love is hurting. Things just keep going from bad to worse. Today I received a call, a woman soliciting donations for a charity. I blew up. I told her that I'd just spent my entire morning canceling all of my monthly charitable donations. I'd given all I could give and I had nothing left. I'm bled dry. I almost hung up on her. She asked me what was wrong. I sighed and couldn't speak and she told me it was alright. I started to choke up and I...

............my reaction to Mises' work underscores my particular problem with libertarianism in general: the fact that it has little to no soul,reducing man to a rational,pleasure-seeking animal. The central premise of Human Action, the basic theory of Mises' praxeology,is that all men are united by one logic,one universal bent toward happiness, which they seek in the most advantageous way possible. In short,man,though capable of making poor decisions,will even in failure choose the most logical poor decision known to him;he furthermore always desires one object more than everything else at any given moment,and the object of his desire is revealed only...

This week science fiction writer Elizabeth Moon argues that everyone should be given a barcode at birth. “If I were empress of the Universe I would insist on every individual having a unique ID permanently attached - a barcode if you will; an implanted chip to provide an easy, fast inexpensive way to identify individuals.

Focusing on mitochondrial DNA sequences from 13 Neandertal individuals, including a new sequence from the site of Valdegoba cave in northern Spain, the research team found some surprising results. When they started looking at the DNA, a clear pattern emerged. Neandertal individuals from Western Europe that were older than 50,000 years and individuals from sites in western Asia and the Middle East showed a high degree of genetic variation, on par with what might be expected from a species that had been abundant in an area for a long period of time. In fact, the amount of genetic variation was...

Mary: Mother of God? This article is prompted by an ad in the Parade Magazine titled: "Mary Mother of God: What All Mankind Should Know." The offer was made for a free pamphlet entitled "Mary Mother of Jesus" with this explanation: "A clear, insightful pamphlet explains the importance of Mary and her role as Mother of God." This is quite a claim, to say the least! Nowhere in the Bible is Mary said to be the mother of God. I touched on this subject in a series on "Mary Co-Redeemer with Christ" printed recently. Question: If Mary is the Mother...

Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich would invite mostly scientists and entrepreneurs — including Charles Darwin, father of the theory of evolution — to a hypothetical dinner party in which he could select the guest list from historical figures, living or dead, he told the Bio channel. "He was the most influential scientist in the modern world, and an extraordinary observer of nature," Gingrich said of the evolutionary scientist. The topic of evolution has become a hot-button issue in the Republican field, after Rick Perry said that it was "a theory that is out there — and it's got some gaps...

little Friday morning comedy courtesy of The Hill: “I’ve been as consistent as human beings can be,” the presidential candidate said in a meeting with the editorial board of New Hampshire’s Seacoast Media Group. “I cannot state every single issue in exactly the same words every single time, and so there are some folks who, obviously, for various political and campaign purposes will try and find some change and try to draw great attention to something which looks like a change which in fact is entirely consistent.” I’m not sure if Romney actually believes this nonsense, or if he thinks...

Seth Shostak, a top astronomer at SETI has recently suggested that instead of trying to listen for standard transmissions from advanced alien biological lifeforms like ourselves, we should probably be listening for AI transmissions. This is based on our own experience, we as humans developed radio transmissions only a short while ago, considering the length of time our civilization has been advancing. And if we're any indication of the general route technologically capable life evolves, the galaxy is probably full of sentient AI collectives, not biological lifeforms. In an interview with the BBC, Dr Shostak said:"If you look at the...

I know something about everyone walking the planet today that is common to every human being, young or old, male or female, famous or unknown, attractive or not-so-attractive, affluent or poor. Regardless of where a person lives, these are things that are universally true of every person. First, everyone is empty. All humanity is crying for something. The problem is they don't know what it is. Pascal had it right when he said there is a God-shaped vacuum in every life that only God can fill. And it really is an emptiness for God. This is unique to humankind. God...

By JON A. SHIELDS As any churchgoer who tuned in to watch the recent NBA finals contest between the Lakers and Celtics already knows, the term redemption is probably now heard more often in NBA sports broadcasts than in homilies. A Google search under "redemption" and "NBA" generates approximately 2 million hits—more hits than "redemption" and "Christianity." The term can also be found in more than 2,600 stories on ESPN.com.

The current battle for the soul of America is raging as never before. We have seen in the last century a mad dash to push our country toward a secular liberal, godless fascist state in which the “elite class” rules over the masses. Our nation was founded on the bedrock of the Bible, Judean/ Christian values and the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God; hence the conflict. These Constitutional apostates and haters of our Constitutional Republic have nearly arrived at their Machiavellian destination. As America apostatizes from the realities of Almighty God, the Bible, and moral absolutes, we are...

Bill S. 1346 is fast moving forward and so is the Obama world order. An order in which we are the world and they are us....kumbaya and all that crap. The bill is all about the left's thirst for Cheney/Bushitler blood and in the end will diminish are already diminished status as a world power. Introduced by Democratic Senators Durbin, Cardin, Feingold, Feinstein, and Leahy in June ‘09 and considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee May 6th, the Crimes Against Humanity Act would more than just ”[open] the door to demands of reciprocity from other nations that seek to prosecute US military personnel and government officials for...

The creation of the welfare state in the late Forties brought many good things to Britain. Before it was introduced, millions of people received inadequate education, health care, support in sickness and old age, even warmth in their homes. The poor were denied legal aid. As one historian puts it: 'The feeling remained strong that poverty was the fault of the individual and should be punished.' It is extraordinarily moving, to read accounts of the wonder and gratitude with which, from 1948 onwards, those who had hitherto been deprived of what we consider necessities of life found that they could...

Today there are many different views and thoughts about just what the term “Sin” means. Just the word alone gives people the Hee-bee-Gee-bees. People do not like to think of themselves as “Sinners.” They say or think, “Well, I’m not that bad. I’ve never killed anyone. If you only knew the good I do...(and so on and so forth).” These statements and sentiments are expressed in attempting to justify their “dead works” (Hebrews 6:1; 9:14). Sin, as defined in God’s Word, the Bible, is the transgression and violation of the righteousness and perfection of Almighty God. Sin is also the...

Gang of children - some as young as TEN - caught slowly roasting puppies over bonfire (See pic in URL) By Jaya Narain 04th February 2009 A gang of children aged as young as 10 were caught trying to roast a pair puppies over a bonfire. Passerby Melanie Johnson spotted them kicking the pups and holding them over the fire on a canal bank. The youngsters fled, abandoning the dogs, when she challenged them. Ms Johnson, 32, took the puppies home, then passed them on to an RSPCA centre where staff treated the dogs and are now looking to find...

The Art Instinct by: Daniel Allen, January 27, 2009 It is hard to imagine what purpose art could have served in a world where every day was largely a struggle to survive until the next day. How did art develop among our ancestors, and what role did it play in their ability to survive and progress? In The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure and Human Evolution, Denis Dutton seeks to answer these questions as he explores the characteristics of art in the framework of Darwinian philosophy and human evolution. Many readers will doubtless reject The Art Instinct out of hand, disagreeing...

Friday was the opening of The Day the Earth Stood Still starring Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly; it’s director Scott Derrickson’s remake of the 1951 Robert Wise classic. The previous Friday witnessed our panel discussion at Caltech about how science intersected with the film. Reviews thus far (of both the movie and the panel) have been mixed; personally, I thoroughly enjoyed the panel and thought the movie rose to the level of “pretty good.” (Lost amidst the excitement of aliens and CGI was the excellent acting in the film, including a great performance by Jaden Smith in the role of...