Recently, a social media friend who is either an atheist or theistic evolutionist asked whether I believed Donald Trump was a Christian or not. He proceeded to offer his own opinion that Barack Obama and Joe Biden are sincere Christians, but Donald Trump is only a pretender. Because I prefer to give honest and direct answers rather than evasive or vague ones when someone asks my opinion, I told him the truth: I don't know if Donald Trump is a Christian or not. In my opinion, yes, Donald Trump is Christian. But I've never met the man in person. Judging what is in the heart and mind of another human being is a job only fit for a God, and that's WAY above my pay grade. I don't even see myself as some minor deity, unlike some people with pretentious (and contrived) last names, and an ego to rival my own. It is almost as big as Trump's ego. At best, I can sit on a jury and judge the actions of another person, but I cannot read their minds to better understand their motives. If someone wants to understand my motives, they only need to ask. Or, I might just come out and tell you, anyway. Why am I writing this short essay on morality and God? The short answer is, I feel compelled, which I shall explain momentarily. I won't earn a penny from writing it, unless one day down the road some magical little money tree sprouts from the fruits of my labor today, because to be brutally honest, ten years after beginning my career as a writing, I'm still trying to figure out the mystery of how to get paid consistently. I sell a few books and novels from time to time, especially … [Read more...]
Aron Ra, atheism’s rock star
If you've never heard of Aron Ra, you are probably not an atheist. Don't feel too bad. He's rather famous, but mostly limited to secular/humanist circles. If the "Four Horsemen" of atheism, meaning Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and the late Christopher Hitchens, represent the creme of the crop of people who have become famous for evangelizing atheism, then Aron Ra ranks only one notch down on the totem pole, in the second tier of revered atheists with Seth Andrews and Matt Dillahunty who are collectively known as the "unholy Trinity." Mr. Ra is the host of the "RaMen" podcast, a frequent lecturer, and creator of the Phylogeny Explorer Project. These people have successfully turned their talent arguing for atheism into full-time jobs with career opportunities. They travel all over the world, giving lectures to crowds of adoring fans. Not a bad gig, if you can get it. No wonder he's smiling. photo by R. van Elst via Creative Commons Now before I write another word, I would like to acknowledge that Mr. "Ra" (obviously not his birth surname) is quite an intelligent man, and I'm delighted to say he possesses an ego that easily matches and possibly exceeds my own. I personally find the guy quite entertaining. Mr. Ra has a Wikipedia biography that claims he studied paleontology in Dallas, but does not mention a college degree. Don't let that fool you. He's very clever and bright, as well as apparently smart enough to run away from a fight he was unlikely to win--an argument with me about the relevance of creation. During the course of our recent … [Read more...]
Panspermia
The concept of panspermia was first introduced to me by National Lampoon in the form of a joke--one issue of the magazine contained a description of a new version of the video game Space Invaders in which players are encouraged to "knock down the invading sperm from space before they knock up your little sister." Well, I laughed. I don't apologize for my often bizarre sense of humor. In my opinion, one ought to be able to admit that the idea of extraterrestrial sperm coming from outer space to create life on Earth is pretty funny. What's even funnier is panspermia is actually a scientific hypothesis that mostly exists because of a mathematics problem, created by the foolish assumption of secular-minded scientists that creation can come to exist without a Creator. After DNA was discovered, calculations were performed to determine low long it would take "Nature" to produce a double helix without intelligent help. Even the most optimistic projections could not explain how life came to exist so quickly after the Earth was created (approximately 4 billion years ago). The same experts say that the earliest forms of life appeared on Earth 3.6 billion years ago, only 400 million years later. The mathematics problem associated with the origin of life on Earth stems from calculations of how long experts have estimated it would take for DNA to form by luck and random chance. The most optimistic estimates require a lot more time than four hundred million years. Because the universe is many billions of years older than Earth, by invoking panspermia and proclaiming the … [Read more...]
A monopoly on speech
If you aren't worried, you must not be paying attention. Of course, you could be a neo-liberal, and believe everyone except a heterosexual white Christian male has the right to speak freely. In that case, you'll probably think it's great if someone decides to "de-platform" this website under the premise that it's "hate speech" to state the obvious, which is to say that people born with an "Y" chromosome (formerly known as biological males) have significant physical advantages when engaged in athletic competitions against people without "X" chromosomes, a.k.a biological females. Or, if I really wanted to throw caution to the wind, I might even have the audacity to say that fetus is nothing more than a fancy word substituted for the phrase unborn baby to assuage the guilty consciences of millions who want the legal right to kill them. I know, I know...the word "fetus" is a technical, scientific term, and I'm using the vernacular of the unwashed, uneducated (and uber-religious) masses to describe the exact same thing. However, the point of this little diatribe isn't to rail specifically against transgender athletes or legal abortions, but to demand the freedom to criticize them without having to live in fear of retribution. The First Amendment guarantee of free speech does not require that a private business should have to provide services to customers they do not wish to serve. Because I supported the right of Colorado businessman Jack Phillips and his Masterpiece Cakeshop to refuse to bake a cake for a gay wedding on religious grounds, I must also, albeit … [Read more...]
Every day reaches a new low
Social media becomes more problematic for me to use by the day. Liberals can say whatever the hell they want with absolutely no fear of censorship. Conservatives can't tell the truth without Facebook or Twitter slapping some half-assed "fact checking" claim that is usually a pathetic joke of biased interpretation passed off as truth by a lazy press corps. Politics cannot be avoided, but only half the conversation is being allowed. I've always used Facebook and liked the interface until I began to realize how intrusive their data mining has become. For example, somehow Mark Zuckerberg found out that I took a business trip to Ireland in 1998. Facebook wasn't launched until six years later, so I could not have posted photos of my trip or published my travel itinerary, not that I would be stupid enough to advertise to burglars when I'm not around to protect my home. I am 99.9999+ percent certain that I have never mentioned that little tidbit of information on Facebook. So, the question is, how did Facebook find out about my trip and mention it as one of the fun facts about me that others can learn without my intentional consent. Ah, but there's the rub, isn't it? To what have I consented, when I clicked "Agree" to their book-length terms of service agreement? I understood that the social media application was going to use information learned about me from my use of Facebook and the internet itself to help advertisers market products to me while I'm using their product. Again, information about my travel to Ireland can't even be on my own computer, because my laptop … [Read more...]
