Some of my short essays on “God and Creation” are being posted at BioLogos. For those who might be interested, these essays are also available in podcast format.
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Category: Miscellaneous News
Here’s a photo that shows bullet holes and other damage to a 4000-year-old ziggurat in Ur, the Biblical city from which Abraham originated, located in modern Iraq.
Any ROFT’ers (“Readers of First Things”) here might like to know that Ted Davis’ excellent review of Owen Gingerich’s book “God’s Universe” appears in the current issue of First Things (though there is always a delay before print version goes to web). Good to see an ASA leader’s voice in this important journal! I’ve not read all of Gingerich’s book, but from what I’ve read, as Davis notes in his review, Gingerich’s book is a delight. Gingerich affirms the compatibility of faith and science and supports the classical Christian notion of design, while carefully distinguishing some aspects of the “strong” ID program and avoiding polemics.
There is also, BTW, an interesting discussion going on at the FT website concerning physicist Stephen Barr’s (and others’) observations about quantum indeterminacy and free will. Barr’s Modern Physics and Ancient Faith is likewise a delight.
And, if you’re not a ROFT’er, you should be!
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The Flood
No, not the Noachian Deluge. See the glossy sheen on the floor in this picture? It’s about eighteen inches of water soaking my computer and music gear. I didn’t take in the sump pump hose and it froze. Moron!
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Schiavo and Judicial Activism
I was listening to the Sean Hannity show on my way into the office this afternoon. He was discussing the Florida District Court’s ruling denying the plaintiffs’ request for a temporary restraining order under the federal statute passed by Congress (the “Schiavo Act”). Hannity stated that he believed the court’s opinion did not even reference the Schiavo Act. He was hammering the federal court’s decision as symptomatic of the arrogance of the judiciary. Senator Rick Santorum came on the Hannity show and claimed the Schiavo Act required the federal court to order the reinsertion of nutrition and hydration tubes pending a full hearing on the merits. Santorum also decried the ruling as an abuse of judicial power. This seems to be the Christian Right’s theme: a National Right to Life Committee spokesman referred to the federal court’s decision as a “gross abuse of judicial power”; Christian Defense Coalition Director Pat Mahoney, quoted in a Focus on the Family article, attributed the federal court’s decision to “an arrogant and activist federal judiciary.”
Unfortunately, all of these comments about judicial activism are wrong.