2009-05-28

Here’s a readers guide for the Christian life at monergism. http://www.monergismbooks.com/skin1/readersguide.html

Engwer responds to the argument by skeptics, based on Irenaeus’ ‘criteria’ for exactly four Gospels using a parallel with ‘four zones of the earth’ and ‘four winds’, wherein the skeptics use this as an example of dubious criteria in rejecting other gospels while accepting the canonical ones. It is observed by Metzger and Ferguson that this use of numbers was more often a symbolical interpretation of the facts after the settlement of the different parts of the canon than as a means of determining that settlement – so it’s not an argument for the canon but an explanation of it. If there had been three Gospels, Irenaeus would have found a fitting analogy. Irenaeus And The Gospel Canon

The Audio from the Next conference is available here: Next Talks

Owen Strachan: "New York Times columnist Ross Douthat has just penned a provocative piece called "Liberated and Unhappy" that briefly analyzes a new study entitled "The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness" by economists Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers." Newsflash- Modern Women Are Unhappy HT: Challies: 27)

Turretinfan has an impressive list of patristic resources here. Patristics Resouces

John Frame has a number of good questions to ask of any film. Frame- Questions to Ak of a Film

Riddlebarger has a humourous (and creepy) post on what things would look like when environmentalists rule the earth. When Environmentalists Rule the Earth

Burk points out that a professor at U of Colorado has argued that animals have a sense of morality (incl. fairness, empathy). This lays the ethical groundwork for extending human rights to animals. The Scripture has not problem treating animals humanely (Prov. 12:10; a righteous man cares for the needs of his animal), but animals are not to be treated as if they are human – man only bears the image of God. Animals Are People Too

This article points to the problems with saying that human and chimp genomes are 99% identical. Not only is much untangling needed to even make this comparison (e.g. duplications, inversions, translocations, transpositions uniquely characterize both), this 99% identity figure is often derived from protein-coding regions that only comprise about 1.5% of the two genomes. Many mammalian protein-coding regions are highly conserved. He also points out that there is indeed functions to the interstitial telomeric sequences…the chromosome scars, the pieces of “junk” DNA (miles of repeating TTAGGG). They form ‘suborganelles’ in being bound at each end, and form complicated topographies like quadruplex DNA. Moreover, in the genomes of chimps and humans, as well as mice and rats and cows…, the 2q13 ITS is the only one that can be associated with an evolutionary breakpoint or fusion, so its a bit like cherry-picking the data to just focus on this, since most DNA scars are not the way they have been portrayed – this isn’t typical. http://www.evolutionnews.org/2009/05/guy_walks_into_a_bar_and_think.html

Hays argues that, when it comes for coercive interrogation techniques, while critics place the burden of proof on the interrogator, who should only use a technique if he knows for sure that it’s necessary to save lives, why should Americans place their own nation at risk instead of a captured terrorist? Coercive interrogation

If you’ve ever had questions about capitalism, and in particular whether or not a generous Christian can really support capitalism, DeYoung would encourage you to read Jay Richards’ new book Money, Greed, and God: Why Capitalism is the Solution and Not the Problem. DeYoung has an interview with the author here. Here’s a noteworthy quote: “I think that Christians often weight our (and others') motivations far too heavily on economic matters. It's as if we think feeling bad about poverty is more obligatory than actually doing something that helps the poor. For instance, several times in churches I've pointed out why minimum wage laws don't really help the poor in the long run. I've never had anyone try to debunk the argument, but several times I've received the complaint that my argument shows that I'm not really concerned about the poor. It doesn't of course. But even if it were evidence that I weren't concerned about the poor, the argument's validity ((or lack thereof) would remain the same.” While he doesn’t think fair trade makes sense economically [it doesn’t] it is normally an expression of a charitable impulse, and it appears, at least on the surface, to be a market-oriented way of dealing with third world poverty. Money, Greed, and God- An Interview with Jay Richards

Mohler comments on Prothero’s rejection of the analysis and data in the Newsweek article The Decline and Fall of Christian America. Prothero focuses on the cultural reality of Christian America; what Mohler calls a Christian branded ‘spirituality’. Prothero’s analysis actually articulated precisely the trends that are the problem, in trying to show that America really is a Christian nation. Mohler sums up his description as ‘post-christian Christianity’. Mohler defines Christianity in terms of the Gospel, and it that regard, America is far from being a Christian nation. http://www.albertmohler.com/blog_read.php?id=3686

Here’s some excerpts from Ware’s new systematic theology for children. Big Truths for Young Hearts- Systematic Theology for Little Ones, Part II

More news on a skin-cell derived stem cell breakthrough. http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/05/28/stem-cell-skin.html