Monthly Archives: October 2005

My Stand on Miers

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This post is an answer to N.Z. Bear’s call for blogger’s positions on Harriet Miers.

I oppose the Miers nomination.

She’s not qualified for the job. I’d much prefer a constitutional expert, with or without bench experience, or an experienced judge. My opinion is irrespective of her opinions regarding santity of life, homosexual marriage, etc. A competent interpreter is more important to me than a judge who thinks Roe V. Wade should be overturned (or at least given tighter parameters).

If you’d like to know how other bloggers feel, click here.

News Flash: Smoking is Stupid

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"The poorer mental function seen among alcoholics, many of whom also regularly smoke cigarettes, may be partially due to the long-term effects of nicotine, new research suggests…’cigarette smoking was negatively related to IQ and thinking’"

Well, since starting to smoke in the first place is pretty stupid, I can’t say I’m surprised.

Truth in the Catholic Church?

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The following question was sent to me in an email. Rather than answer it myself, I thought I’d present it to my readers. I’ll send your responses by email. 🙂

"you seem like a very intelligent man. far more so than i. do you know why we – christians, i mean – succeeded [sic] from the catholic church? please look into this because the catholic doctorine [sic] is about as far from the truth as you can get. i implore you to pray and meditate on the truth and it will be revealed to you. Luke 8:21 John 1:1 John 4:23" – K K

Here are the verses he recommends (taken from the ESV, a Protestant translation).

"But he answered them, ‘My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.’" – Luke 8:21

I assume this is a reference to Mary.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." – John 1:1

When have I ever disputed this?

"But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him."

I guess this implication is that Catholic’s don’t worship in spirit and truth.

So, what say you, gentle readers? How shall I respond to my critic?

Intelligent Design

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"There seems to be in both extremes [of creationism and unguided evolution] an ‘either/or’ mentality: either everything as we know it was created as it is now by God in the beginning, or there was no creation or God of creation at all."

….

"One can very comfortably believe that God is the Creator, and also hold the theory that creation had within it the seeds of an evolutionary development that would take place over eons."

– Most Reverend Donald W. Wuerl, Bishop of Pittsburgh

Creationism is a belief founded in faith and has no place in a secular scientific classroom. The logical consequences of creationism’s claims (such as earth being only thousands of years old), however, can be tested like any other scientific hypotheses and be proven or disproven (I suspect the latter). On the other hand, evolutionary theory goes too far when stating that the underlying processes are entirely random. At best one can state that they appear to be random. A great number of phenomena appear to be random, but are actually quite deterministic in nature. Actually, to honest, there is a great deal of ambiguity in the term "random". A process can be random and still be highly predictable. Scientists take advantage of this whenever they state that a process has such-and-such distribution. IOW, one can predict, with varying degrees of precision, future values of variables. Also, some processes may appear random but only really be pseudorandom, such as "random" numbers generated by computers.

What am I getting at? I’m saying that both sides, at least as presented by the media, are wrong. Creationism doesn’t belong in schools and evolutionary theory cannot prove that perceived randomness is truly random rather than only pseudorandom. Thus, introducing "intelligent design" into science classrooms is unnecessary. Teachers need only make room for guided evolution by not assuming more or less causality than the data indicate. If fundamentalists want to go farther than guided evolution, they should either not send their kids to public school. Either that or be willing to have their kids taught a broad variety of mythological creation stories from religions representative of America’s cultural and religious diversity.

Defending Purgatory

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“And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right? As you go with your accuser before the magistrate, make an effort to settle with him on the way, lest he drag you to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer put you in prison. I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny.” – Luke 12:57-59

Can this verse, like Matthew 18:21-35, possibly be used as a scriptural defense of purgatry, or is the debt to be understood as an unpayable one (thus making the prison hell rather than purgatory)?