The Questioning Librarian

Or at least that is what it would seem given a recent post by Mr. Craig, famed debater and apologist for Christianity. No one doubts that he is an able debater, but this line of reasoning by him makes me question not just his morality but his sanity. In a post responding to a question about God and the infamous genocides (yes, they were genocides, by any definition) of the Old Testament, Craig defends the senseless slaughter of men, women, children (and occasionally animals, just to prove they were serious). Craig asserts that critics believe the following; if God truly issued the commands to massacre the inhabitants of Canaan, which He certainly did, then God cannot be moral at all and thus the entire foundation is undermined. This doesn't deter the Great Debater, however, and he defines the moral argument to defend the concept of God. 1. If God does not exist, objective moral values do not exist. 2. Objective moral values do exist. 3. Therefore, God exists. Such are his three ...

There is just no correcting some people who refuse outright to accept evolution. Today's "Creation Moment" extols the ability of some to make music, and they assert that, were evolution true, there would be no reason to have musical ability. "Even evolutionists appear to be puzzled by this [musical ability development." Well, this is one evolutionist who doesn't stand stunned before the fact of humanity's musical ability. Obviously the anonymous author of this post (found here:  http://www.creationmoments.com/radio/transcripts/musical-memory ) has not the least bit of knowledge about evolution in that he ascribes to evolution a kind of forward thinking and planning that it does not have ("they would have no reason to do so"). Evolution is not God, it is not some self-aware entity outside the natural world that chooses and plans. The author later reverts back and seems to be unable to understand why "mindless evolution" would even be...

Yesterday I finished reading Charles L. Mee's White Robe, Black Robe , a duel biography of Pope Leo X and Martin Luther from birth up until Leo's death in December 1521. It was a fascinating study, and well worth reading for anyone interested in either man, or understanding the causes of the Reformation. The beginnings of the Reformation are not only about Luther, who struggled for years and years with feelings of guilt over his perceived sins (though it is hard to think just what a man in a monastery could do that was so terrible), but it is also about Leo, the man who lead the Church at the time. Leo ultimately failed in dealing with Luther, but he never knew it, and when he died in late 1521 Luther was far from his mind. The Diet of Worms was over, Luther was in hiding and in the pope's mind he had been effectively dealt with. Mee does an excellent job in playing up aspects of both men's cultures that prevented them from being able to understand each other. How cou...

It's no secret that Earth Day is one of the very few holidays that I actually like, in no small part because Corporate America hasn't really figured out a way to commercialize it to no end (don't worry, I'm assured that they're working on it). For one day, we are asked to look at the world around us, see the very real environmental problems, and do something about it. But of course, one day isn't enough, not by a long shot. If we are to make a difference, we must begin to fundamentally change the way we view ourselves and our relationship to the Earth. For too long have we considered ourselves separate from nature, outside and above it, given dominion to do as we wish. Many are now beginning to realize that this cannot be so, that as humans we are inextricably linked to nature and what we do to it will eventually affect us. The days of easy energy and endless productivity of goods, all done while raping the environment, are coming to an end because they must, ...

There is no satisfying the creationists, it seems, nor making them see reason and logic, for these are apparently concepts with which they are unfamiliar. http://www.answersingenesis.org/get-answers/features/never-assume?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=neverAssume First of all, they employ the familiar tactic of conflating evolutionists with atheists, when this is demonstrably not true. I refuse to argue it any more, but they hope that it comes to be perceived as true if they repeat it enough. Jason Lisle argues that in using reason and logic you assume the existence of God because He created reason and logic. This shows exactly that Lisle has no grasp of the concept, as he's just demonstrated the idea of circular reasoning. The author also makes the false assertion that evolutionists believe in absolute moral standards that should not exist in a world supposedly created by chance. Certainly a roomful of "evolutionists" wouldn't agre...

New Zealand ambient composer Rhian Sheehan is one of my personal favorites. His body of work is prodigious, and he's composed for numerous soundtracks and his own releases. My only regret is that all his events are, naturally, in New Zealand and Australia. Something relaxing for the day; sit back and enjoy...

It seems likely now that at least some dinosaurs were able to hunt at night. Several paleontologists have developed a model based on a number of factors, including the scleral ring, a bone that reinforces the eye in a number of birds and reptiles. Taking into account evolutionary relationships, this model was tested on living animals species and was demonstrated to be accurate; given that knowledge it was then applied to extinct animals, whose habits are, rather understandably, harder to figure out. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2011/04/14/dinosaurs-around-the-clock-or-how-we-know-velociraptor-hunted-by-night/ It seems that, like modern animals, the predators largely hunted at night. This new information, exciting and fascinating new information, is a demonstration that, while we know so much more than we once did about the dinosaurs, there always remains work to be done. While many seem to think that the great age of learning about dinosaurs belonged to Marsh ...