by ProfDave, ©2021 (May 27, 2021) — Lincoln was a poor prophet. He said we wouldn’t remember what he said, but we would remember what those two armies did at Gettysburg. Ask the average American today what happened at Gettysburg: they will say, “the Gettysburg address.” One more instance of the pen being mightier than […]
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Posted inPhilosophy & Religion
The Law and the Spirit; Shavuot and Pentecost
by ProfDave, ©2021 (May 24, 2021) — Sunday was Pentecost Sunday, the Feast of Weeks or of First Fruits, seven weeks after Passover and/or Easter. The Jewish version, Shavuot, was a week earlier this year. In the Torah it was the third and last of the annual festivals when all Jewish men were to “appear […]
Posted inPhilosophy & Religion
The Wrath of God
by ProfDave, ©2021 (May 20, 2021) — Where do all these disasters come from? Someone on the news was remarking that we have a hundred-year storm every couple of years and blamed global warming. Others blame the wrath of God. Think about it. There being more than a hundred regions in the world, the odds […]
Posted inEditorials
Health Care Reform
by ProfDave, ©2021 (May 18, 2021) — [Editor’s Note: This post was originally written in June 2009; revised May 15, 2021.] There are two things that frighten me about Federal health care. First, the current administration has no firm ethical foundation for health care. Secondly, whoever heard of the Federal Government being able to do […]
Posted inEditorials
Of Bombs and Clones and Scientific Naturalism
by ProfDave, ©2021 (May 13, 2021) — Reductionism is the logical fallacy that takes the part for the whole thing. I remember these frightening lines in a Chuck Colson article [Breakpoint 1/29/2009]. The world has changed in the last twelve years, but not that much – we still do it. Colson defined “scientific naturalism” as […]
Posted inEditorials
Have I got a Hang-up for You!
by ProfDave, ©2021 (May 11, 2021) — “Hang-ups are negative mental attitudes that are used to cope with people or adversity.” For example, anger, control, depression, fear, un-forgiveness, or my personal favorite: escape. In this broken world, when challenges come our way, we easily fall into counterproductive defense mechanisms, patterns of behavior and feeling that […]
Posted inEditorials
Prayer for America
by ProfDave, ©2021 (May 5, 2021) — In May 6, 2010 I wrote: Pray today – and every day – for our nation. It’s a sad day when prayer is politicized. Since the inauguration the administration’s attitude towards the public recognition of God has been cooling. The NDP Committee (then Franklin Graham, Shirley Dobson and […]
Posted inPhilosophy & Religion
Conscience and Sexuality
by ProfDave, ©2021 (Apr. 29, 2021) — “Nothing is wrong if it’s between consenting adults!” declares one of my young friends. He probably doesn’t realize this is the Playboy slogan from the 60’s, the decade that gave us STD’s (AIDS was later), abortion, and the fatherless Gen-X. Depends on what you mean by “wrong,” “consenting,” and […]
Posted inEditorials
The Pearl of Disregard
by ProfDave, ©2021 (Apr. 27, 2021) — A Charles Colson’s commentary in 2009 cited “a report by a Harvard faculty committee, which read, ‘The aim of a liberal education . . . is to unsettle presumptions, to defamiliarize the familiar . . . [and] to disorient young people and to help them to find ways […]
Posted inEditorials
Christians, Churches and Politics
by ProfDave, ©2021 (Apr. 22, 2021) — Normally I try to avoid partisanship in these blogs, because not all of my friends are on the same side. Good people may be Republicans or Democrats, Liberals or Progressive Conservatives or NDP or Parti Quebećois, Tories or Laborites – maybe even Communists? But I am concerned about […]
Posted inPhilosophy & Religion
What Would a “Right” World Look Like?
by ProfDave, ©2021 (Apr. 15, 2021) — What would a “Right” World look like? I’m representing a “Christian” worldview. [Disclaimer: I should say Judeo-Christian, because the roots and the trunk of a Biblical worldview are really Jewish.] Christianity – ethical monotheism in general – is supposed to have a problem with the problem of evil. […]
Posted inPhilosophy & Religion
The Forbidden Verses
by ProfDave, ©2021 (Apr. 13, 2021) — Last Sunday the Bible class was studying Romans 1: the chapter some want to censor. There is some concern since same-sex marriage is legal (for a decade now), that preachers may be prosecuted for “hate speech” related to this passage – or even for reading it. There have […]
Posted inPhilosophy & Religion
Life after Death?
by ProfDave, ©2021 (Apr. 8, 2021) — What does Easter tell us about life after death? Given that Israel actually exists today, and that people all over the world call themselves Christians, should the Biblical history be taken as seriously as, say, Thucydides or Caesar’s Gallic Wars? The problem is not a lack of historical […]
Posted inPhilosophy & Religion
The Most Important Event in History
by ProfDave, ©2021 (Apr. 6, 2021) — What do you think was the most important event in history? The Exodus of Israel from Egypt? The Resurrection of Jesus? The Hegira of Muhammad? Darwin’s publication of Origin of the Species? Your answer depends on your worldview, doesn’t it? They represent three of the great world religions […]
Posted inPhilosophy & Religion
Who Killed Jesus?
by ProfDave, ©2021 (Apr. 2, 2021) — Over the centuries, there has been more heat than light on this subject. Yet the historical facts are reasonably plain, so long as medieval ignorance is laid aside. We do not blame the Greeks for the judicial murder of Socrates or the Americans for the assassination of Lincoln. […]
Posted inPhilosophy & Religion
Maundy Thursday
by ProfDave, ©2021 (Apr. 1, 2021) — Wait a minute. It’s Thursday. It’s not Monday. Well, no. It is a middle English corruption of the Latin mandamus – “commandment.” As in “a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another.” John 13:34. The evening before he was betrayed, Jesus celebrated the Seder […]
Posted inPhilosophy & Religion
Why Did Jesus Have to Die?
by ProfDave, ©2021 (Mar. 29, 2021) — Why did Jesus have to die? It is clear from all four gospels that Jesus had expected to die on a Roman cross from the beginning. While his followers stubbornly refused to believe it, he was certain the prophets had foretold it centuries before. He did nothing to […]
Posted inPhilosophy & Religion
Passover and Holy Week
by ProfDave, ©2021 (Mar. 25, 2021) — Sunday is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week for Christians. It coincides this year with the Passover for our Jewish friends. Christians celebrate a spiritual deliverance; Jews a national deliverance. Both are based on historical events. Passover starts Saturday at sundown. It commemorates the night that God […]