Most prevalent reaction to Expelled: anger

Why can’t we follow WHERE the EVIDENCE leads????

Some people loved the movie, some hated it. Sure it was propaganda, but it was fighting for something worth fighting for. It angers me how close-minded people are. The reaction from “big science” has not been good since the release of Expelled. Many are trying to sue Expelled, some are just firing away their propaganda agianst the movie and others are not even willing to see the movie or talk about the REAL ISSUES in a realistic, justly manner.
I do understand why some would want to sue “expelled” because of the whole “Crossroads” situation and some of the content being “out of context” but those are NOT the REAL issues.

The REAL action needs to be happening in institutions. Institutions that stress and say they view academic freedom need to step up to the plate and investigate the issue, they need to decide how “free” they really are. they need to open up to FACTS instead of being dead to the TRUTH and letting big science have their way.

I was and still am anger about closed minds in institutions.
There is a sick cycle happening big science leaders are pushing out any ideas that go agianst what THEY believe. Ironic? How free is that? People should be able to research and discuss ALL aspects and theories and not be limited by whoever is in the dictating the leadership positions of the institutions. the whole point of learning is to see the FACTS and make a decision for yourself, not being forced into ONE belief system!

http://www.expelledthemovie.com/bigscienceacademy.php

http://www.freeexchangeoncampus.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1004

http://www.freeexchangeoncampus.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=15&Itemid=48

Scientists are fatally proud of their reliance on peer-review to ensure that only good science gets funded and published. Yet it has been shown that peer review does not increase the quality of studies^11,12 and because the anonymous reviewers generally represent established ideas it is an effective way to suppress innovation ^13,14 .

Censorship is most effective when the censor’s hand is invisible. Modern science has developed an effective hierarchy for disseminating ‘acceptable’ information and, perhaps more importantly, for excluding work that threatens mainstream scientists and the governments and industries that fund them. Luckily, there are still publications and websites outside this web of self-censorship. You should take advantage of this information, use it to formulate your own opinions, and discuss them with friends, family and colleagues. Small donations of your time and money can make a tremendous difference to the world’s excluded scientists.

From http://www.suppressedscience.net/

Please sign

http://www.academicfreedompetition.com/index.php

Freebie Friday: Day off

Today is my 23rd Bday. It is a free day off from the blog for me.

Darwinism is so crazy, false

Some reasons Darwinism cannot work!!!

1. It is mathematically impossible for amino-acids to form strings in the right sequence by chance and make proteins, and for these to give rise to a cell. See Miller’s experiment which failed.

2. Human embryos do not have gills, Ernst Haeckel lied to you.

3. There isn’t a “tree of life.”

4. The Myth of Vestigial Organs

5. Myth of Mutations

6. The Imaginary Family Tree of Man does not fit for actual men.

There are just a few of the fabrications you can draw from Darwinism. Visit the sources below for more interesting facts!

Sources:
http://www.darwinismrefuted.com/
http://www.darwinism-watch.com/index.php?git=makale&makale_id=1466
http://evolutionfacts.blogspot.com/

Other interesting articles:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/838464/posts
http://www.darwinism-watch.com/index.php?git=makale&makale_id=1142

I leave you with this awesome/ funny clip from Expelled, Michael Ruse and his crazy crystal theory:

broken vs. brokeness

Is brokenness good or bad? Is brokenness the same as being broken?

I read an article the other day that said “God wants you WHOLE, complete, nothing missing nothing broken! Physically, spiritually, emotionally, mentally, financially, etc… That’s what I believe – and the scriptures back it up. WHOLE is the complete opposite of broken.”

I will agree for the most part of this idea, especially after looking at the Scriptures he uses to back himself up. God does want us to be whole physically. But what I am concerned about is the use of the word “broken.”

I do believe God wants us to enjoy Himself and enjoy life and His creation. But God never said everything is going to be good, perfect, easy…He promises danger, instability, and a life that will inevitably be broken. I do not believe in the prosperity Gospel. And I do believe God wants us to be broken all of the time, by this I mean physically and emotionally hurt and sadden.

I do think that God wants us to have a broken spirit (or spiritual brokenness) “which makes us sensitive and responsive to the Holy Spirit and develops spiritual maturity and character.”
Let me define the terms (broken and brokenness) and reference the Bible. I believe these two terms are two different concepts.

The more I read Tim’s article, the more I am confused by what he is trying to say. I think deep down he has got the concepts correct. But a lot of the Scriptures he uses are out of context or have nothing to do with spiritual brokenness. So now let me try my way of explaining it. Maybe Tim is saying the same thing. I am not sure.

Brokenness- Nancy DeMoss explains the brokenness I am talking about best, “Brokenness means the shattering of my self-will, so that the life and Spirit of the Lord Jesus may be released through me.” This brokenness is a shattering of our will. It is a choice, to let the Holy Spirit guide us instead of our own choices. (Acts 2: 38-41) People heard Peter’s preaching and they were broken in their hearts and ready to receive the Word of God. The Greek original, “katanusso” denotes a vehement piercing of sorrow. The tense of the verb indicates a one-time striking of the heart which brings one to the realization of the sorrow for one’s sin and the need for God’s grace.

Broken – being deeply hurt by tragic circumstances. A person may have experienced many deep hurts and tragedies.

This broken is physical, emotional – it is not the spiritual. It is painful, yes. But it completely different from what we mean we we are talking about spiritual brokenness. (Something God wants us to have.) Tim’s article does a good job explaining that God does not call us to be physical and emotionally sad all the time, hurt and broken down. This true. But I am saying that God does call us to a spiritual brokenness. And this brokenness is completely different from being broken. David was broken, due to his sin. Not spiritually broken but emotionally hurt. (Ps. 51:10) in the Hebrew word “shabar.” The Brown-Driver-Briggs-Gesenius Hebrew Lexicon denotes “shabar” with remarkable concrete-ness. Such meanings given for this root in it’s various moods include to break, to destroy in pieces, to break down, to hurt, to tear, to crush, to rend violently, to wreck, to rupture, to be maimed, to be crippled, to be wrecked, to shatter or be shattered.

This world is broken. The lost are hurt. They have been through train wrecks and are searching for truth and substance. A lot of unsaved folks are broken all the time. God does not want this. God comes to bring life and bring it abundantly. (Jn. 10:10)

To Christians God says this: We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 2 Cor. 4: 8-9 (NIV)

Passion for Spiritual Brokenness:
For the Christian, we are called to have a heart for God and the Holy Spirit. A spiritual Brokenness.

Psa. 51:17(KJV) The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
Put it in other words:
Sacrifice to God is the birthing of the Spirit. A humble heart God will not condemn.

God does call us to brokenness. To live selflessly. To let the Holy spirit reign.

Here are some resources on this topic:

Begin in my sanctuary – article by Nancy DeMoss

The Heart God Revives worksheet

Broken people vs. Proud People

Engage Culture!

“For an entire Christian community to neglect, generation after generation, serious attention to the mind, nature, society, the arts — all spheres created by God and sustained for his own glory — may be, in fact, sinful.”
In The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, Church historian Mark Noll

I really love this quote. Sometimes as Christians we live in our own sub-culture. We are afraid of the world and do not engage in it. We hide ourselves from the enemy. Within our own group of Christian friends, we are not fully seeing God’s beauties. We are not fully enjoying God and his creations.

Society, arts, and nature in a secular world actually displays God’s greatness. And His heart for a lost world. We need to engage the culture as Christians. And by doing so we will be in their territory. We will have a chance to glorify god and show His love to the lost. We need not be in our own sheltered sub-cultures. But we need to be a part of our world and culture.

Yes, we need to do this, but we need to do it carefully too!
I recently read an article about how we should engage culture as evangelistic Christians. I caught myself as guilty of doing many of the things that it suggest us not to do.

The article suggest that we engage culture: 1) prayerfully, 2) carefully, 3) biblically-theologically, 4) redemptively, 5) humbly and 6) selectively.

It made me think. And thought I would share it with you.

In Christ,
Alex

Core Training 3 – Passions, Holy Discontent

At the Core Training (by Youth Specialties), we learned about Bite Back, which is an operation put together by Compassion International. I posted about this recently.

Today’s post, I wanted to share a few other topics that we learned about at Core. The reason I bring up BITE BACK Campaign again, is because it is built on some great truths.

Today’s youth, Gen Y, are very passionate. They are not too concerned with what older generations have said about “the way it is supposed to be” or “how it always has been, always will be.” It is a generation ready for change. And they want to bring this change.

In the past (for about 100 years or so), Christian camps have divided on theology. Conservative theology v. liberal theology. Conservative theology was founded around saving lost souls. While liberal theology was based on “helping people, showing God’s love.”

The beauty of Gen Y, is that they are not concerned with in-church fighting/debating. they see that both “saving souls” and “showing God’s love to everyone worldwide” as both being equally important. For the most part, Gen Y, does not take a side or fight about it. These young, Christians want it all. They want both. They are passionate enough to take it on and do the work too! There are countless stories across the country of young Christians taking on large -scale projects in to fight for their “holy discontents.”

They stand up for the things that really get them frustrated, fired up, and ready to take action for CHANGE. They feel discontentment about certain issues. And this discontentment is a holy one, because it is frustration and love for teenagers who are worlds away, in unfortunate situations. Bite Back is just one campaign where we are looking not only to save souls, but help defeat Malaria.

We met a young girl who puts on “fashion shows” to fight cancer. All of the models were cancer patients. 🙂 Her passion was administrating this event. Her heart was for the cancer patients. her love was Jesus Christ.

My youth group is working a few strategies to fight Malaria.
First we are going to put on a worship event. At this event, there will be a cover donation. We will explain the Bite Back campaign. We will rock out for God in worship, it’s our passion. The attendees will donate for the Bite Back campaign.

Second we are going to run a fund raiser in the school system. Yes, even people in the secular school will be on board to give money to fight these social issues. And by offering the community an opportunity to fight for this we will have a chance to seek local relationships and see people come to Christ!

Anyways the idea is that our generation is ready for CHANGE. We have Passions and talents. We want to use them not only to save souls (which is of the utmost importance) but also to help the change the world, fighting our holy discontents, and social issues that are not fair.

Thoughts on Expelled

I am not posting a comprehensive review of the movie. I know that my post of the movie will not be sufficient, compared to the dozens upon thousands of well-written posts on the movie. I do have some strong thoughts about the movie i do want to share:

First I thought that movie to be very thought provoking! It was put together very well.

The movie made me mad. Several occasions through-out the movie, I was ticked off and wanted to do something about it. I still do.

I do not know why the movie got such bad reviews. In my opinion that movie was not at all biased. Sure it was propaganda, and effective propaganda, but the movie did not start out biased and was not bluntly one-sided. Sure there is no way to prove that the people who were fired were fired for the reason of Intelligent Design (I.D.) solely. But the movie barely tipped the ice-burg mentioning just a few of the people have been affected becuase of an association with I.D. the movie started out.

What strikes me the hardest is the fact that this movie is more about Intellectual freedom than being about I.D. or Creationism. The irony is that all of the big wigs who were agianst the movie before they even knew what it was about, would have nothing to do with this movie. Other big wigs who do know about the movie, and maybe even seen the movie, continue the sick cycle of elitism. They are not allowing intellectual freedom. they are not allowing ideas of I.D. in Universities.

I.D. is NOT a water-down version of Creationism. I will post more about this later. But they are not the same at all. I.D. guys are not even religious for the most part. And most religious, (especially Christians,) people are Creationists. Most are NOT I.D. supporters. Many “fundamental” Christians do not even know what I.D. is all about. More about this later, I promise.

What makes me mad is that our Universities and education system is not allowing true free thought. It is not being intellectually wise or even politically correct. It is not truly scientific. If we are seeking truth and knowledge. We should have the freedom to study all aspects and all research all of the evidence, no matter what topic we are looking into. And if the evidence points to evolution, so be it. If it points to something else, then we should be able to look at that, with or without religion. In fact, religion should be a non-issue. Be willing to look at the evidence and let it guide you. If it leads you to I.d., then so be it. If it leads you to God in your personal life then, so be it. But I am upset that Universities are not open to the evidence and allowing studies on I.D. and the evidence that exists.
There is a way to look at the evidence without worrying about religion. Despite personal religous views we can all coloborate tpgether publically and civilly even if all of the scientist have different diverse religious views. Why can’t we study the evidence. Why can’t we have free thought? Why can’t we collaborate together and put religious beliefs aside?

Also I have a lot of thoughts on Darwinism and evolution….but I will post more about these topics later also. And remember that Dawkins is technically a proponent of I.D. too. (He said o himself and then later disclaimed it, but it still happened.)

a world without diversions

I recently finished reading Living With Questions by Dale Fincher. It was a good read. Dale is an apologist and speaker to youth (high school aged). The book looks like a systematic theology book for Teenagers on the front cover because of the image (seen to the right.) But it reads like an apologist wrote it, as is the case. Dale eventually covers each of those questions, but not systematically, chapter-by-chapter. Instead he covers large chunks of questions and answers the questions with-in each chapter and uses a lot of real life stories and examples to help bring home the points.

I am forgetting where exactly Dale covers this but at one point early on, he talks about diversions in our life and in our faith and in our culture. Every one of us has diversions to reality. We use something to distract us from the pains and issues we do not like in real life. For example trends and music. People follow fashion trends and keep up with the latest clothing lines. People feel like they must have the latest look. They feel good when they do.
I want to imagine what would this life look life without diversions? What if we all knew we had a real purpose in life? How awesome would that be? We would not need distractions from the real thing. We would be living our dreams, our faith, and our lives with meaning and purpose. We would understand God’s love for our lives. We would live with purpose and meaning.

Love/Hate relationship with the "As" in software

I swear these Cooperations are going to take over the world and/or ruin it:

I love and use these company’s softwares, but at the same time I hate them and never know what to expect:

Apple – even if you don’t own a Mac, almost everyone has Itunes. It is easy and convenient. Come on, it just passed Walmart in Music sales! That is kick-butt. But the Apple software updater on my computer wants me to but Safari on my computer…I do not own a Mac, and I don’t want Safari. Also Itunes takes up a lot of RAM and memory, so it can be difficult to leave open if you are running several programs or doing something else that requires RAM.

Adobe – I love my Adobe and all my software (Cs3, other web building/designing software) – it is great. But sometimes it kills my computer. Adobe has weird cookies and hidden programs running in the background randomly and sometimes these strange Adobe files disable other Microsoft or Apple software from working properly. Then when I turn off the computer the Adobe files are exposed (Program still running “CAP”- or whatever it is)

American Online – No I do not even have an account with American Online, but like many Americans (lol) I have AIM (American Online Instant Messenger). The recent editions of AIM have actually been pretty good and have not interfered much with my computer, but this is not always been the case. Some days AIM will just decide not to work at all. By the way AIM and AOL are owned by Time Warner – who really is taking over the world.

I am surprised that they all start with “A” but maybe I shouldn’t be. maybe the “A” is a curse, in that case I (Alex) am in trouble.

7 things 2 learn in college

I read an article recently from TrueU.org it was about 7 things you should learn or will ahve a chance to learn about in college.

I agree. I did learn quickly how to get out of bed, since I showed up late for work once and almost got fired. Then I learned how to deal with stress when I had three exams in one day. I learned a lot about myself, who I am and what I believe, that is one reason why college was so fun. In life I think it is important to continue going through life asking hard questions and studying things that challenge thinking.

I struggled to learn:
How to use a credit card wisely. I am still learning, but have a bit more debt than I am proud to admit, fortunately I am not head under.
And I did not learn how to stay organized. I have my own system, which is not very organized, but it works for me. lol.

And I am always learning to say “No,” but it is not easy. It is all about priorities.

Unfortunately though college can do just the opposite if we are irresponsible, you will learn the hard way if you are not responsible, do not take care of yourself, and are too easily persuaded.