Free Republic

Police charged a third person Wednesday in connection with beatings and rape that authorities say were carried out by a satanic cult. Diana Palmer, 44, of Cottage Woods Court, surrendered to police Wednesday afternoon. She was charged with being an accessory after the fact of assault with a deadly weapon and was being held in the Durham County Jail under a $95,000 bond. Joseph Craig, 25, has been charged with kidnapping, rape, forcible sexual offense and assault in the case. His wife, Joy Johnson, 30, has been charged with aiding and abetting. Both were being held Wednesday in the Durham...

The crevo threads typically degenerate into name calling. Recently, the Religion Moderator declared that "science is not religion", and did not publish the criteria for such consideration. My suggestion to the evolutionist community has been to acknowledge that Scientism is a religion and start to utilize the protections offered under the religion tags that are different than other threads (due to the intensity of feelings over religious issues). So this thread is intended to be an ECUMENICAL thread under the tag of SCIENTISM. The intent is to keep discussion civil. I would like to see a straightforward discussion over the...

The Open Secret: A New Vision for Natural Theology by Alister E. McGrath (Too new - there are no customer reviews as yet) Editorial Reviews Review "Alister McGrath's The Open Secret provides nothing less than the foundations of a vigorous renewal of natural theology for our time. Theologians and others who have considered natural theology an exhausted topic will have second thoughts after reading this richly nuanced, scholarly, creative, and enjoyable book." John F. Haught, Georgetown University "This is vintage McGrath: confident, capacious in scope, brisk in exposition, decisive in argument. Noone is better placed to make a case for...

An athiest friend of mine just send this to me . He never lets up . On the other hand , I never attempt to convert him . What are you thoughts on what this Nick Gisburne says . What is your counter argument ?

With its image of blue sky and fluffy clouds, the rectangle floating lately over I-95 near Allegheny Avenue suggests something dreamy, almost heavenly. At least from a distance. Drivers headed north toward the giant billboard might first discern the words God and Believe and suppose this to be the work of a fundamentalist church. But this is the work of no church. "Don't believe in God?" it asks. "You are not alone." Think of it as a sign of the times. Mounted by a consortium of local atheists, it is an invitation to the area's atheists, agnostics, skeptics, rationalists and...

"Anonymous" While we go about our daily lives--surfing the web, using it to pay bills or catching up on the latest news and chatting with friends and family--little do we realize that just beneath the digital surface of the worldwide web a war is being waged: the first Cyber World War, between a modern-day David versus Goliath. Goliath is the Church of Scientology, a multi-billion dollar enterprise, who is being systematically unmasked by the group known as Anonymous, the modern day David. ALSO at DBKP.com: * 'Anonymous' Hackers Vow to Destroy Scientology * Anonymous Issues Warning Number III to...

Mormons, note the simularity of portions of the Book of Mormon to the King James Version of the Bible, assert that it proves the divine origin of the Book of Mormon. Of course that convicted fraud Joseph Smith Jr. would need to plagerize, but the G-d of Israel, of Jacob, and of Abraham would not need to plagerize, seems to have excaped them.

Stemming from this comment >>I think the RCC doctrines are a product of the enemy<< Please tell us where we stand here. Examples welcome, but I'm not sure that actual names can be used when quoting another FReeper, so date and thread title may be better.

Two times in two weeks I've had a conversation with friends about agnosticism. Both friends -- one a rational, intelligent person and another one who ... well, let's just say he wasn't as bright -- claimed to be agnostic when asked the very, very loaded question "Do you believe in God?" I used to just ignore it when people would answer "I'm agnostic," to such a question, even though I took issue with it. As an atheist, I knew that my so-called agnostic friends were really atheists. ...

An evolutionist professor from Antelope Valley College on Wednesday conceded the strong probability of intelligent design in life's earliest forms. The announcement came at the end of a 3-hour presentation at the LPAC by scientists from Reasons to Believe, a Christian ministry that creates and tests scientific models based on the Bible. Matthew Rainbow, a biology professor with a Ph.D. in molecular biology and biochemistry, told a crowd of several hundred that he had been persuaded to change his view of the origins of life about six months earlier, after reading books by the evening's two Reasons to Believe presenters,...

Oprah Winfrey may have gone too far in exploiting and distributing the teachings of a questionable New Age writer. On Monday night, Winfrey conducted her weekly Web "event" seminar with New Age writer Eckhart Tolle. His message: "Life is the dancer and you are the dance." Got that?

I've said it before and I'll say it again: it is hard not to be sympathetic to the travails of the people of Tibet. Annexed against their will almost 60 years ago, their culture destroyed, their self-determination trampled under foot, their freedoms curtailed, and their religion mocked, Tibet is a case study of what atheists do when they get to rule. Please, recall the infamous Maoist maxim: "Religion is poison." It is the same feeling echoed by the "bright" Neo-atheists such as Dawkins, Harris, Wilson, and their sycophant followers. The difference between these and the Maoists is that the latter...

Is Belief in God Just a Natural Phenomenon? Posted: Thursday, March 27, 2008 at 4:04 am ET The attempt to explain every dimension of the cosmos in purely natural terms is one of the monumental projects of the modern age. If the existence of a supernatural Creator is denied, then everything -- everything -- must be explained by purely natural and material causes. Explaining some aspects of human experience will pose an especially difficult challenge for those committed to a naturalistic worldview, but some scientists are working hard toward meeting the challenge. For years now, Daniel Dennett of Tufts...

Mexico City, Mar 26, 2008 / 05:47 pm (CNA).- Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics, Geography and Information Technology said this week that while most Mexicans remain Catholic, the fastest growing group in the country is atheists. In a recent report, the Institute said the number of atheists grows annually by 5.2%, while the number of Catholics grows by 1.7%. Mexicans “are increasingly more involved in the new religious movements that are gaining ground in the ambit of the faith, mainly in rural zones, poor urban areas and indigenous communities,” the report indicates. “These faithful are characterized by two things: high...

Following a visit to Assisi where he was reported to have prayed at the tomb of St Francis, perestroika father and former USSR president, Mikhail Gorbachev, has denied rumours that he is secretly a Catholic. AsiaNews says rumours of Mr Gorbachev's alleged "secret" conversion had begun circulating after he and his daughter Irina visited the Basilica of St Francis in Assisi, home to the saint's relics. Italian daily La Stampa called the event a "spiritual perestroika". "Over the last few days some media have been disseminating fantasies, I can't use any other word, about my secret Catholicism, citing my visit...

In What's So Great About Christianity, Dinesh D'Souza is skeptical of skepticism and enthusiastic about the faith. There are two types of Christian apologetics. One makes the positive case for faith; the other responds to critics. Dinesh D'Souza's delightful book, What's So Great About Christianity, falls into the second category. It sets out to rebut recent exuberant atheist tracts, such as Christopher Hitchens's God Is Not Great and Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion. [Snip] This leads us to perhaps the strongest argument against atheism, which D’Souza makes only indirectly—the argument from experience. Atheism cannot reach our hearts. A rigorous atheist...

I used to be a pagan. Not a neo-pagan with phony stilted semi-Tolkienesque speech (“Bright blessings! Merry meet!” “An it harme noone do as thou wilt”). Nor was I an adherent of some recently minted group of Gaia-worshippers playing dress-up in their Society for Creative Anachronism costumes and pretending they are living by Ye Olde Religion like somebody from The Da Vinci Code’s central casting department.No. I was a real pagan, which is to say, I was like jillions of other kids raised in American suburbia in the 1960s and ’70s, so remote from God that I didn’t even know...

A column published earlier this month, entitled "To hell with the dole," seems to have hit a nerve with some readers. Essentially, these folks took issue with what they saw as my flippant use of a serious theological term. In response to these concerns, I want to be clear that I gave very serious thought to the use of the word "hell." I would not have used the word "hell" if it did not have the precision I intended to convey. Idolatry is a very serious matter. In fact, as we read through the biblical history of Israel, we see...

(ACPA-london) Excitement is growing in the Northern England town of Huddlesfield following the news that a local man saw an image of the big-bang in a piece of toast. atheist donald chapman, 36, told local newspaper, "the huddlesfield express" that he was sitting down to eat breakfast when an unusual toast pattern caught his eye. "I was just about to spread the butter when I noticed a fairly typical small hole in the bread surrounded by a burnt black ring. however the direction and splatter patterns of the crumbs as well as the changing shades emanating outwards from this black...

Salt Lake City - This morning, PETA sent a letter to newly elected Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints President Thomas Monson wishing him well in his new position and urging him to emphasize God's requirement to protect His creatures and treat our bodies as sacred gifts by urging all Mormons to go vegetarian. "As you know, the Doctrine and Covenants states, 'And [animals] hath God made for the use of man only in times of famine and excess of hunger,'" writes PETA Vice President Bruce Friedrich, a lifelong Christian, in his letter to Monson. "Adopting a vegetarian diet...

Jesus Was an Iconoclast During the days of the Byzantine Empire , a group of religious zealots arose in the Orthodox Church known as iconoclasts. Their self-appointed job was to go to various religious sites and smash what they called idols, which to them were various forms of religious art that depicted saints and the Deity.Iconoclasm in our world has come to have a different meaning. Its broader meaning refers to the practice of forcefully challenging, even destroying, established beliefs or institutions. Jesus was an iconoclast because he loved to challenge his day’s conventional thinking. He challenged the Pharisees’...

LA GRANGE, Ky. -- A father is in a courtroom battle, trying to keep his son from attending a Catholic high school.The parents involved in this case are divorced. David Ryan, the father, is an atheist. The mother is a Roman Catholic. Their son, who is in the eighth grade, attends a Catholic school in Oldham County.“This is something where it can't be both ways,” said Ryan’s attorney, Edwin Kagin. “We think the constitution wins.” According to Kagin, when Ryan and his wife got divorced, a judge ordered their son continue attending a Catholic school.But Ryan is an atheist and...

I watched the movie "The Great Debaters" last night, and it helped me to understand why atheists are such bad debaters. The movie portrays four students from a little black college in Texas, and shows how, under the tutelage of their pugnacious coach, they went on to defeat Almighty Harvard. Denzel Washington, who plays the coach, says early in the movie that debate is a kind of bloodsport. It's great virtue is that it puts rival ideas up against each other, as argued by people who passionately espouse those ideas, and then it lets the truth emerge through a kind...

So last night (Sunday, 12/30/07) I get ready in front of the T.V. at 8 p.m. with my son to watch the very much hyped documentary on the History Channel titled "How The Earth Was Made". Since my son is a first-grader and very much into science, his main interests include Earth and the entire Solar System. The two-hour documentary was fantastic, but it raised a key question in my mind and it made me, shall I say, more of a believer in God as Our Creator (not that I ever stopped 'believing', but I'm an open-minded person who believes...

The history of cosmology – the study of the Universe – for the last five hundred years is often portrayed as a clash between science on the one hand, and the cold hand of religious dogma on the other. Part of this is rooted in fact – the Catholic Church of the Counter-Reformation for instance was suspicious of intellectual innovation and experiment, with its harsher elements longing for the certainties of the age before Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation. The desire to make the Universe fit into a pre-ordained and orderly scheme that needed no correction reached its infamous,...

Eagle Scout ordered to take God out of park projectI can't post the article, but basically it mentions a Boy Scout's Eagle project for a public park that included a mention of God. After the inevitable complaint, the Parks Dept, which approved the original proposal with "God" included, asked the Scout to remove the offending marker.

War on 'Merry Christmas'? http://access.aikenstandard.com/archive_detail.php?archiveFile=./pubfiles/aik/archive/2007/December/09/site-localnews/143446.xmlhttp://tinyurl.com/26bjsbDecember 09, 2007 By HALEY HUGHES Staff writer What would you say if someone wished you a "Merry Christmas"? Would your response be "Merry Christmas to you, too," or would you ever so subtly correct them by throwing out the more politically correct term, "Happy Holidays"? Would you say anything at all? In an ever-increasingly PC world, it seems "Happy Holidays" is the more accepted greeting passed from person to person when the holiday season (whatever the holiday may be) arrives. The fear of offending someone by referring to Christianity's most treasured figure has driven individuals...

Pope John Paul II once observed: “Original sin attempts ... to abolish fatherhood ... leaving man only with a sense of the master/slave relationship.”All the 19th-century philosophies of pride, ranging from Marx to Nietzsche to Freud to Darwin, were founded on the denial of God as Father, and the consequent perception of God as Master, giving us only the choice to be slave or rebel. Consequently, they inevitably taught that the human person:• is not in the image of God because God does not exist, • comes from chaos and shall return to chaos,• is the product of purposeless processes,•...

Scientist Richard Dawkins, an atheist known worldwide for arguing against the existence of God, has described himself as a "cultural Christian". He told the BBC's Have Your Say that he did not want to "purge" the UK of its Christian heritage. The comments came after Tory MP Mark Pritchard accused "politically correct" people of undermining Christmas. Professor Dawkins, author of the God Delusion, added that he liked "singing Carols along with everybody else". On Have Your Say, Mr Pritchard told Prof Dawkins there was an "increasing feeling" that "many of the main Christian festivals are being sidelined and marginalised, sometimes...

Contact: Kevin P. McVicker, Shirley & Banister Public Affairs, 703-739-5920, 800-536-5920, 703-727-9537 cell, kmcvicker@sbpublicaffairs.com FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla., Dec. 5 /Christian Newswire/ -- As Christians around the country are met with violence and marginalization, Dr. Gary Cass, has founded the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission (CADC) a new organization that aims to counter threats to millions of Christians' First Amendment rights. While the overwhelming majority of Americans are professed Christians, it has become routine for the media and elites to openly mock and trivialize Christians because they choose to express their faith.In his new book Christian Bashing and the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission, Dr....

CNA STAFF, Dec 3, 2007 / 05:44 pm (CNA).- The promoters of the controversial movie, The Golden Compass, are making an effort to diminish the boycott being threatened by Catholics and other Christian groups. The advertising agency for the movie has sent an email to the top 50 weekly Catholic newspapers asking that they consider running an ad promoting the movie. Advertising Media Plus, the agency promoting The Golden Compass, is trying to use a review by Harry Forbes, the director of the U.S. Bishops’ Conference Office for Film & Broadcasting, as leverage against the boycott being called for by Catholics...

Nick Milne, a reader of this blog who is in graduate school (studying English) at the University of Western Ontario, saw an advanced screening of "The Golden Compass" and sent the following (thanks, Nick!): An advanced screening of 'The Golden Compass' was offered today, and far be it for me to turn down the opportunity to beat the mainstream when it comes to a film (even if only for a film I had no particular interest in seeing).  Having followed the stalwart efforts of those at Insight Scoop and other venues to bring attention to the pernicious intent of Pullman's...

WASHINGTON, DC, November 30, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Harry Forbes has for many years been the Director of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Office for Film and Broadcasting.  In 2005, LifeSiteNews.com pointed out that Forbes issued a glowingly positive review of the homosexual propaganda film "Brokeback Mountain".  Yesterday, Forbes issued another positive review, this time for the film adaptation of the specifically anti-Catholic novel "The Golden Compass." "The Golden Compass," is one of Phillip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy, which includes "Northern Lights" (re-titled "The Golden Compass"), "The Subtle Knife" and "The Amber Spyglass." Pullman wrote these...

Pope Benedict XVI strongly criticized atheism in a major document released Friday, saying it had led to some of the "greatest forms of cruelty and violations of justice" ever known.In his second encyclical, Benedict also critically questioned modern Christianity, saying its focus on individual salvation had ignored Jesus' message that true Christian hope involves salvation for all.The document, titled "Saved by Hope," is a deeply theological exploration of Christian hope: that in the suffering and misery of daily life, Christianity provides the faithful with a "journey of hope" to the Kingdom of God."We must do all we can to overcome...

I've been noticing an ongoing stream of headlines relating to the Golden Compass in recent weeks (it opens Dec. 7th), and also to the Catholic League's initiative to boycott the film because it is based on Philip Pullman's anti-Catholic series, His Dark Materials. I blogged about this story back in August ("The Golden Compass is pointing towards anti-Catholicism") and composed a short summary of what you need to know about the film back in October ("The word is getting out about The Golden Compass"). Now, with the movie's release immanent, and the fate of films two and three hanging...

Christian kids are typically sent to Sunday school for lessons on the Bible and morals. For nonbelievers, there's atheist Sunday school. With an estimated 14 percent of Americans professing to have no religion, according to the Institute for Humanist Studies, some are choosing to send their children to classes that teach ethics without religious belief. Bri Kneisley sent her 10-year-old son, Damian, to Camp Quest Ohio this past summer after a neighbor had shown him the Bible. "Damian was quite certain this guy was right and was telling him this amazing truth that I had never shared," said Kneisley, who...

Militant, fundamentalist atheists have been coming out of the woodwork lately, attacking Christianity. Granted, they are still using the same old, tired and shallow agruments that have been refuted over and over again. But here’s some stellar resources I have found perfect for refuting their vain attacks, which are sure to increase with Christmas approaching: The Case for the Real JesusFormer atheist Lee Strobel, who wrote The Case for Faith, The Case For a Creator and The Case for Christ, returns with a powerful volume that refutes the shallow attacks on the Bible’s authenticity and the attempts of skeptics to...

Let's face it: Atheism is in. Not since Nietzsche have disbelievers enjoyed such ready public reception to their godless message—and such near-miraculous royalties. But even that hasn't put them in a good mood. Snaps Christopher Hitchens, who wrote God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (although not, presumably, the pronouncements of atheists), "Many of the teachings of Christianity are, as well as being incredible and mythical, immoral." A feuding Richard Dawkins suggests that believers "just shut up." Apparently, they didn't get the tolerance memo. Other authors—including Douglas Wilson and Francis Collins—have capably refuted the new atheist shtick. But remembering...

Yesterday (Nov. 7): the 90th anniversary of Vladimir Lenin's Communist Revolution. Last week (Oct. 31): the 490th anniversary of the beginning of Martin Luther's Protestant Reformation. That numeral 4 indicates a key difference between the two: The 490 glorified God, while the 90 attempted to deify man -- and some men in particular. Luther was a theological revolutionary but not a political one. In 1521, he wrote "A Sincere Admonition by Martin Luther to All Christians To Guard Against Insurrection and Rebellion." The following year, as political unrest intensified, Luther preached about effecting change through patience, charity and reliance on...

Jacksonville, FL (PRWEB) November 9, 2007 -- Pat Holliday's new book "Marine Spirits Under the Sea" a supernatural narrative concerning supernatural cities under the sea. These cities are found under the sea around the world. Dr. Holliday points to testimonies from Scotland, Canada, Bermuda, Jamaica, East Africa, West Africa, South Africa and America. In her book, "The Witch Doctor and the Man Finds Jesus," she says, "Bishop Vagalas Kanco, an African fourth generation wizard, was trained as a wizard, under the sea." "It was Bishop Kanco that first revealed the 'water spirits' to me," said Dr. Holliday, "I had been...

Evil. This one word describes Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. All the more  diabolical is the marketing of his books to children. And yet, as Catholics continue to debate Harry Potter, Britain’s second-most popular children’s author has snuck onto reading lists as award-winning literature.             Critics hail Pullman as a new J.R.R. Tolkien and a better writer than C.S. Lewis. He has won England’s coveted Carnegie Medal, positive reviews from many of the major newspapers, and accolades from the publishing industry. Hollywood is now turning his first book, the Golden Compass (previously titled Northern Lights), into a movie. It...

From its birth in pagan transactions with the dead to the current marketing push to make it a “seasonal experience,” America’s fastest-growing holiday has a history far older (and far stranger) than does Christmas itself. In 1517 Martin Luther took a stand on it. In 1926 Houdini made his final exit on it. In 1938 Orson Welles perpetrated a national hoax on it. Today 70 percent of American households open their doors to strangers on it, 50 percent take photographs on it, and the nation drops more than six billion dollars celebrating it. The night is Halloween, of course, and...

From The Return of the Village Atheist, by Joel McDurmon (American Vision, 2007): "The character of the 'village atheist' reappears from time to time in history, usually after the latest scientific announcement or the latest natural disaster. His title is akin to that of 'village idiot'....The idea is that every village has its 'idiot' who was full of opinions and advice on every topic, would never shut up, and made little sense. No one took the guy seriously. "Like the village idiot, [the village atheist] knows everything, argues till he is blue in the face, never shuts up, and yet...

Scientist Jeff Schweitzer, author of “Beyond Cosmic Dice” and Elijah, author of “The Underground Bible” debate the real culprit behind global warming. Schweitzer blames Christianity for harming the environment; Elijah challenges Schweitzer’s claims by stating he is using theory instead of scientific guidelines. Elijah presents never-before-heard insights about the Bible and the Church. According to Jeff Schweitzer, the responsibility of global warming should be placed squarely upon the shoulders of the Bible and Christianity. Elijah challenges Schweitzer’s claims as being unscientific. Elijah has 50 years of research to back up his views on science and the Bible. If you think...

Lee Strobel has written a sequel to his book "The Case for Christ." The new book is "The Case for the Real Jesus." Fundamentalist atheists have been attacking Jesus with renewed vigor, but as usual their claims don't stand up to even simple investigation. This may be Strobel’s best book yet and he successfully refutes pseudoscholars like Bart Ehrman, conspiracy theorists like Michael Baigent and hacks like Dan Brown. Their arguments so poorly stand up to scrutiny it’s almost laughable. Check it out, it has my vote for Book of rhe Year: http://www.amazon.com/Case-Real-Jesus-Journalist-Investigates/dp/031024210X/

Caracas - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez slammed the nation's Roman Catholic Church leadership as "morally unacceptable" late on Sunday for criticizing his proposal to rewrite the constitution to scrap term limits. Chavez's reform plan, which voters are expected to approve in a December referendum, also includes allowing security forces to detain citizens without charge during political "emergencies" or major natural disasters. Church leaders on Friday issued a strongly-worded statement accusing Chavez of seeking to concentrate power with an "authoritarian" proposal to overhaul the OPEC nation's constitution that he helped rewrite in 1999. Bishops 'make us ashamed' "They say the reform...

The 490th anniversary of Martin Luther's Protestant Reformation arrives on Oct. 31. The 90th anniversary of Vladimir Lenin's Communist revolution comes up on Nov 7. That numeral 4 indicates a key difference between the two: The 490 glorified God, the 90 attempted to deify Man, and some men in particular. Luther was a theological revolutionary but not a political one. He wrote, in 1521, A Sincere Admonition by Martin Luther to All Christians to Guard Against Insurrection and Rebellion. The following year, as political unrest intensified, Luther preached about effecting change through patience, charity, and reliance on God's Word rather...

I knew the devil's PR machine was working way overtime the minute I stumbled across a website affiliated with a well-known Protestant denomination. That site – and apparently the local church that spawned it – have as their mission the "re-imagining" of the God of the Bible as a pagan female deity. "To celebrate the feminine persona of God/dess" is the purpose of the site, according to whatever miscreant created it and lent it the appearance of respectability under someone else's 500-year-old denominational name. Hello? 'Scuse me? First of all, what goddess? And what does "re-imagine" mean in regular-people talk?...

Twelve audience members staged a silent walkout yesterday afternoon in the Agassiz Theatre to protest a conservative icon who has, in the past, downplayed the importance of domestic abuse. The demonstration occurred at a speech by Phyllis Schlafly, the woman credited with defeating the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in the 1970s. Twenty minutes into the lecture on “The Culture War in the Courts,” as Schlafly criticized judges who upheld the right of public school to require programs emphasizing tolerance for homosexuals, the protesters stood up and silently left the room. “It’s important to listen to viewpoints, but there’s a line,”...

Panel from The Manga BibleYoung Laurel Templeton spends her summer vacation “kidnapped by five cyborg flies and shrunk down to insect size so [she can] travel back in time with them to save the world from an evil spider.” You know, typical stuff.A manga comic character and the star of the new TimeFlyz series, Laurel may be just an average girl, but she has a centuries-old, ancient-Hebrew-speaking friend with whom she can’t communicate, and a Nobel Prize–winning father who has been kidnapped by a deranged arachnid named Darchon. By the end of Pyramid Peril, the first installment of her story,...