Free Republic

Is the U.S. Constitution “Sharia-Compliant?” By Jean F. Drew Imam Feisal Abdel Rauf recently declared that the U.S. Constitution is “Sharia-compliant.” Rauf is the Egyptian-born Muslim cleric who is spearheading the construction of Park51, originally named Cordoba House, a planned 13-story Islamic community center and mosque to be located just two blocks from the World Trade Center, the site of the most devastating attack on the American people in the history of our nation. He claims that Park51 is being built to promote greater cultural understanding and tolerance among the various religious communities in America. In short, he holds himself...

BOSTON — The Massachusetts Senate has enacted a bill that would give the state's Electoral College votes to the presidential candidate who wins the national popular vote. The bill enacted by the Senate 28-9 Tuesday is part of a nationwide effort to secure the agreement of enough states so the winner of the national popular vote would be guaranteed to win the presidency. The bill will now be sent to Gov. Deval Patrick, who has said in the past he supports the bill.

TWO REVOLUTIONS, TWO VIEWS OF MAN By Jean F. Drew As every American schoolchild has been taught, in Western history there were two great sociopolitical revolutions that took place near the end of the eighteenth century: The American Revolution of 1775; and the French, of 1789. Children are taught that both revolutions were fought because of human rights in some way; thus bloody warfare possibly could be justified, condoned so long as the blood and treasure were shed to protect the “rights of man.” The American schoolchild is assured that the American and French revolutions were both devoted to the...

The Internal Revenue Service on Wednesday extended until May 11 the deadline for filing federal income tax returns, a move that will give people affected by the floods nearly a month longer than usual to get their taxes done. The extension applies to all of Rhode Island, except Bristol County, which accounts for 5 percent of the state’s population, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures. The Rhode Island Division of Taxation will also extend its filing deadline to May 11 for all counties in Rhode Island without exception, state Tax Administrator David M. Sullivan said. “We will do the whole...

Review of Life After Death: The Evidence by Stephen M. Barr Life After Death: The Evidence by Dinesh D’Souza Regnery, 256 pages, $27.95 While much apologetic effort has been spent arguing for the existence of God, relatively little has been spent defending the reasonableness of belief in an afterlife and the resurrection of the body, despite the fact that these are among the hardest doctrines of biblical religion for many modern people to accept. D’Souza brings to the task his renowned forensic skills. (By all accounts, he has bested several of the top New Atheists in public debate.) He understands...

SOTU I: Or, How to Peddle a Second Reality Using First-Reality Language By Jean F. Drew Every single man is but a blind link in the chain of absolute necessity by which the world builds itself forth. The single man can elevate himself to dominance over an appreciable length of this chain only if he knows the direction in which the great necessity wants to move and if he learns from this knowledge to pronounce the magic words (Die Zauberworte) that will evoke its shape (Gestalt). — Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770 – 1831) Am I alone in thinking these...

David Brooks notes that in the last year, something dire has happened: The public has turned decisively against the "educated classes" and all of their works. At the same time, it has also moved against Barack Obama, who began his term with approval ratings that bumped up against 70, and have now sunk to the high to mid-40s, with "strongly disapprove" ratings that rival those of George W. Bush at his worst. It has also moved strongly against his — and the educated classes' — ideas. It is more pro-life, more anti-climate change, more free market, less statist, more inclined...

President Obama under the Lens of the Citizenship Question By Jean F. Drew The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America declares: We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. So, who are these “People,” beyond the fact that they are the sovereign power that “ordained and established” our fundamental rule of law?...

Einstein’s God by Jean F. Drew Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955) — reluctant scientific revolutionary and one of the most prolific theoretical physicists who ever lived — continues to fascinate us as a world-class thinker and important public actor to this day. There has been much speculation regarding his religious views in particular over the course of many decades. Some people nowadays maintain that Einstein was an atheist. Others, a pantheist. His great biographer Abraham Pais (in Subtle Is the Lord, 1982) averred that Einstein’s God was simply the God of Baruch Spinoza ((1632–1677), one of the most influential European...

RELIGIOUS SYMBOLISM IN THE GREAT SEAL OF THE UNITED STATES The Great Seal of the United States of America is a cornerstone document in the foundation of the American Republic, created in 1782, midway between the Declaration of Independence and the Constitutional Convention. Its creation was entrusted to the brilliant classical scholar Charles Thomson (1729–1824), Founding Father, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and Secretary of the Continental Congress throughout its entire duration — the second-highest ranking office in the nation at that time, after only the President of the Congress. The Great Seal was approved by Congress on June...

Dear Nikki Tsongas: I attended your Town Hall Meeting at Hudson High School last evening. I just want to say that I found it disgraceful that I was not allowed to bring my handbag into the event. I volunteered to have it searched, just to keep it with me (I mean, my money’s in there, my credit cards, my personal identification documents, etc.), but my request was declined. I had to leave it outside, if I wanted to go inside. I was told there had been “calls.” But nobody could tell me anything about their nature, or why private citizens...

An excerpt fromROBERT ROSEN: THE WELL POSED QUESTION AND ITS ANSWER — WHY ARE ORGANISMS DIFFERENT FROM MACHINES? By Donald C. Mikulecky Department of Physiology Medical Campus of Virginia Commonwealth University The Well Posed Question and Its Answer Science, perception and measurement: The role of the modeling relation In order to be able to deal with some very confusing issues, it is necessary to formulate just what it is we think we are doing when we carry out this function called “science.” In a very real sense what we mean by science is the ultimate version of what humans do...

The Atheist Perversion of Reality By Jean F. Drew Atheism we have always had with us it seems. Going back in time, what was formerly a mere trickle of a stream has in the modern era become a raging torrent. Karl Marx’s gnostic revolt, a paradigm and methodology of atheism, has arguably been the main source feeding that stream in post-modern times. What do we mean by “gnostic revolt?” Following Eric Voëgelin’s suggestions, our definition here will be: a refusal to accept the human condition, manifesting as a revolt against the Great Hierarchy of Being, the most basic description of...

Barack Obama: Pied Piper of the Plethos Ignorance, illiteracy, stupidity always have been relevant social factors. This has been the case in any historical human social organization one cares to name — from clan to nation-state. In every civilization, there is a very thin upper stratum of the people who are concerned with questions of truth, justice, the good — in other words, with the life of reason, or of the human spirit if you prefer. Historically, such people have tended to believe these ultimate values have a claim on every man in terms of the constitution of the good...

Microevolution, Macroevolution; Chance, Necessityby Jean F. Drew A friend asked me the other day, “What’s your understanding of the mechanism that causes microevolution, and how would that mechanism differ in the case of macroevolution?” The question struck me as loaded. So I thought it might be good to unpack its elements, beginning with an analysis of the terms microevolution and macroevolution. As Doron Aurbach, Professor of Chemistry at Bar Han University, Israel, has pointed out, “When we examine what is universally known as evolution theory, we need to distinguish between two distinct aspects of the theory, namely, micro- and macro-evolution.”...

<p>“The commonly cited case for intelligent design appeals to: (a) the irreducible complexity of (b) some aspects of life. But complex arguments invite complex refutations (valid or otherwise), and the claim that only some aspects of life are irreducibly complex implies that others are not, and so the average person remains unconvinced. Here I use another principle—autopoiesis (self-making)—to show that all aspects of life lie beyond the reach of naturalistic explanations. Autopoiesis provides a compelling case for intelligent design in three stages: (i) autopoiesis is universal in all living things, which makes it a pre-requisite for life, not an end product of natural selection; (ii) the inversely-causal, information-driven, structured hierarchy of autopoiesis is not reducible to the laws of physics and chemistry; and (iii) there is an unbridgeable abyss between the dirty, mass-action chemistry of the natural environmental and the perfectly-pure, single-molecule precision of biochemistry.”</p>

Congratulations, Alamo-Girl, on the Release of Your New Book! There Is Only One Great Commandment Lulu Press, 2008 It is my honor and distinct pleasure to announce the publication of Alamo-Girl’s new book, There Is Only One Great Commandment, a prayerful work of Christian witness and devotion that speaks to how one centers one’s life in God. A non-denominational, non-sectarian work, it focuses on Christian living — on the growth of the Image of Christ in our souls, in our everyday lives. In There Is Only One Great Commandment, Alamo-Girl offers to conduct you on a spiritual walk through the...

Urgent Prayer Request: Our oldest son is dead I received this message from my dear friend Diamond today: Our oldest son, Alexander, 29 was stabbed once in the heart yesterday afternoon at about 4:45pm, presumably by his younger brother, our son Peter, 18, presumably in self-defense. Peter is presently in custody. Alex had severe bipolar disorder. He had attempted suicide several times in his life. He would occasionally become agitated and violent, but I tell you the truth, he did not have a malicious bone in his body. Alex lived alone in his small house. We spent many hours with...

Hegel as Sorcerer: The “Science” of Second Realities and the “Death” of God   by Jean F. Drew       A friend asked for an explanation of a remark I recently made on a public forum that the great German philosospher, Hegel, was a “sorcerer.” I’m glad for this opportunity to respond. For the spirit of Hegel is alive and well today in the construction of any Second Reality, of which I regard the recent Obama Campaign to have been a splendid example.   Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) was a world-class philosopher — a master of classical...

I've been seeing commercials on Fox News TV about this website. So thought I'd go over there and check it out. Notwithstanding the site seems to want to sell services to the public, the analysis there looks pretty reasonable, and their coverage "fair and balanced": Jeepers, they'll sell you a Obama/Biden bumper sticker!!! LOL! The editorial stance on this site struck me as favoring low taxes and small government. FReepers, if you have the time and interest, please go over there, then come back and tell us what you think.