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current affairs rey's a point

Retrospective Lessons From Four Hard Teachings

In agile, there’s this thing we do at the end of a sprint (which is a period of one to four weeks) called a retrospective. We look back at the sprint and think about what went well, what could we do better, and what actionable steps are we taking to get better for the next sprint.

This article isn’t going to be about Trump, Biden, COVID, Black Lives Matter, George Floyd, police brutality, implicit bias, Supreme Court justices, or a church splitting. This article isn’t going to be about how we as a nation can do better.

This is just me doing a retrospective before the next sprint. Feel free to read over my shoulder.

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current affairs history philosophy

Did Nye and Ham Really Debate Creation?

Screen Shot 2014-03-29 at 7.13.29 PM

I recently watched a debate, aired from the Answers in Genesis Creation Museum in Kentucky, between Ken Ham (degreed in Applied Science with an emphasis in Environmental Biology) and Bill Nye (degreed as a Mechanical Engineer and pupil of Carl Sagan).  The topic for the debate was “Is Creation a viable model of origins in today’s modern scientific era?” This is important.

To make his case, Bill Nye would have to show that creationism is not a viable model at all; Ken Ham would have to show that creationism is just as viable as any model because the scientist is working in God’s world.

Mind you, right off the bat, I’m surprised that Bill Nye would agree to this topic. Any debater would simply have to show that there was no inconsistency between science and any creationist religion to win the debate.

Indeed, Bill Nye, during the Q and A session, admits that there is absolutely no inconsistency between modern science and the belief in a creator God. He does make claims about how you don’t need God for the process of evolution (calling it a process that leads to complexity from the bottom up instead of a process that leads to complexity from the top-down) but he admits no inconsistency.

On that ground, Nye would have lost the debate.

Unfortunately, from the start, the debate had nothing to do with the debate topic. Indeed, the topic strayed so far that proponents (on either side) would clamor that their position won. 

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current affairs eschatology human

Rainbows, Promises, and Holiness

bow

Today I saw a rainbow.

We’ve had heavy rain the last couple of days. I had stopped at a traffic light as I was driving down from Farmington into Bristol. The radio (and friends) had reported that another cell was moving slowly through Bristol. Farmington was still bright with the shining sun but right across the street everything was out of focus in a haze of rain.

Every now and then, during these days of rain, there was a calm where you would look outside and see that wall of clouds blackening the sky except where you are standing.

It really is a weird feeling if you happen to be aware of the conditions.

You transform into this tiny, insignificant speck in danger of any of the forces all around you. The wind, if it gets strong enough. The water, if there is enough of it. The lightning, if it crashes down.  A tiny speck against that power doesn’t stand a chance.

But today, during one of these heavy blasts of rain and momentary pauses, the sun broke through the wall of clouds.

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current affairs

Should Christians Support Guns?

guns

Some Christians, especially after a horrible incident—like the Newtown shooting at Sandy Hook public elementary school or the Aurora Movie Theater, or Columbine or Virginia Tech—wonder if it’s right for them to support guns. They ask things like “Shouldn’t Christians love their enemies? Why should they support guns at all?” and “why are American Christians so violence craved that they are adamant supporters of guns?”

What I want to do in this article is highlight what I think is a Biblical position regarding guns. I’m sorry that I can’t deal with the question directly. With so many unspoken assumptions, I have to get to the text through the fog of misinformation.

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current affairs

What Christians Should Know (And Do) About the Gosnell Case

This post will be gruesome and depressing.  Not because I am making it more gruesome or more depressing but because the case just is that evil.

I’ve lost sleep reading about the Grand Jury report. I’m crying. It’s probably the most evil thing I’ve read or seen.

Why am I writing about this?

The Gosnell case has been ignored by the national media (both liberal and conservative) except for the first day of the trial so the stuff you might read here could be for the first time (unless you’re a follower of Breitbart which has been following the story).  I’m not a reporter. I’m a guy who has tried to follow the local news story and has worked through the Grand Jury Report. So can you.

What is this about?

This is a case about a doctor who killed babies and endangered women.  Gosnell regularly delivered live babies in the third trimester of pregnancy then proceeded to murder the newborn babies by cutting their spinal cords with scissors. He also managed to kill adult women. What’s worse is that people found out what was going on in the place but no one stopped it.

The previous paragraph is almost copy-pasted from the overview section in the Grand Jury Report.

What happened?

Gosnell ran an abortion clinic since 1979 (40 years) that used dirty instruments and filthy practices to ensure that the most money could be made in the name of women’s health. Not only did several women die at his hands, he also made sure to sure to lie to patients about the age of their babies to ensure that they would go through with the abortion. Tthey would put these women into labor, deliver the babies and then—when he would arrive (or if he was running late)—they’d take scissors and cut the spinal cords of the babies. Afterwards they would throw the bodies in the fridge or the basement waiting for trash day—unless it was a really big baby in which case Gosnell would destroy any evidence. That’s not to say that Gosnell didn’t keep a token: he sometimes collected the feet of babies in jars and there are photos that prove it (pg 73).

The police had gotten report of illegal prescription drug sales at the clinic so they raided the place (pg 9). There they discovered confused patients and the gruesome conditions. When they were finally able to come back with warrants to seize everything, loads of paperwork had gone missing.