A new poll from Gallup shows a sharp decline in Americans who believe in creationism and specifically the “Young Earth” view that the Earth is less than 10,000 years old. Only 38 percent of those polled now embrace creationism while 57 percent accept the theory of evolution as well as scientific data uniformly showing life existed millions of years ago.
Continue reading “New Poll: Support For Creationism Falls To Record Low”
There is a curious ruling this week from the Vatican after Cardinal Robert Sarah informed bishops that the Eucharist during must not be gluten-free. It can however use genetically-modified organisms.
Continue reading “Vatican: The Body of Christ Is Not Gluten Free”
The giant replica of Noah’s Ark built by Creationist Ken Ham appears to be a failure on a truly biblical proportion. Built with contributions from public funds, Ham is blamed the dismal sales of “intolerant secularists” and the media who have spread lies about the attraction. It is a curious excuse since the Ark is symbol of ignoring doubters and critics to prevail with divine intervention.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been denounced worldwide for this attack on the free speech, free speech, and democratic traditions in Turkey. He is viewed as a leader with a highly limited intellect who has used Islamic values to get Turks to give him unchecked power. Now he has fittingly rejected the concept of evolution after his government announced that the subject will no longer be taught to children because it is unproven and too controversial. Instead, Turkish children will be raised with the type of distorted, uninformed perspective of their President.
The Iranians have given the world another absurd application of its brand of Islamic faith. The government has declared that Zumba exercises classes are effectively banned in Iran because the dance “contravenes Islamic ideology.” The “rhythmic movements” of Zumba appear to be anti-Islamic. There is no room for rhythmic dance in the Islamic Republic.
We have been discussing the rapid erosion of free speech in Great Britain with expanding criminalization of speech deemed insulting or offensive to any group or person. The most recent case involved a couple shown in a videotape burning a copy of the Koran. As offensive and hateful as this act is, it is still an exercise of free speech in my view.
Continue reading “Couple Criminally Charged After Burning Koran On Videotape”
We have previously discussed how woman magically disappear in Saudi Arabia, including ads for companies like IKEA. (We have seen the same vanishing in Orthodox Jewish publication). Now Saudi Arabia is accused of replacing a picture of a mother with a beach ball in this advertisement to protect Muslim sensibilities. At least these kids can say “Mom was a real ball on vacation.”
We previously discussed the crushing abuse and discrimination faced by Muslims in Myanmar. The Rohingya are denied basic rights and face continued violence in the country. The most recent outrage was the arrest of three Muslims for holding Ramadan prayers in the street. Recently, their local school was closed by a nationalist mob.
Continue reading “Muslims Arrested For Praying In Myanmar After Closing Of Muslim Schools”
The sister of Manchester bomber Salman Abedi came to the defense of her dead brother. The words of Jomana Abedi fell considerably short of reassuring the public about her family and its association with Islamic extremists. It is now known that Abedi spoke to his brother only 15 minutes before he savagely murdered dozens of young girls.
In Oryol, Russia, Orthodox Bishop Nektary (Nikolai Seleznev) has declared that he is entitled to a new form of manna from heaven in the form of a new top of the line, fully loaded luxury Land Cruiser. When confronted by the ethical questions over the gift from a local agribusiness, Seleznev insisted that Jesus would have definitely taken such a sweet ride if it were offered.
For those of us who have long wondered where ISIS and other terrorist groups find people willing to commit atrocities of unspeakable brutality, one answer appears to be white supremacists willing to trade one extremist lifestyle for another. That is what Devon Arthurs, 18, is accused of doing when he gave up a life as a neo-Nazi and became a radical Muslim. He then proceeded to kill two of his roommates, 22-year-old Jeremy Himmelman and 18-year-old Andrew Oneschuk, for blasphemy after they mocked Islam.
Continue reading “Neo-Nazi Converts To Islam and Then Allegedly Murders Two Roommates for Blasphemy”
Last weekend we featured two articles (HERE and HERE) describing a controversy involving the forced use of chemical herbicides on an organic farm that according to County officials was out of compliance in controlling noxious weeds that were threatening neighboring farms and crops.
The 2,000 acre organic farm in North Central Oregon is facing what could be an existential threat to its operations after county weed control authorities sent notice mandating that the farm use chemical herbicides to eradicate weed growth.
I attended the public hearing held at the Sherman County seat located in Moro, Oregon. Due to a very high volume of interest expressed by residents and those outside the community, the venue was changed from the County Courthouse to a gymnasium at the Sherman County High School. There was a great deal of uncertainty manifest in this hearing with strongly held opinions on many sides and one can say with near certainty that the publicity generated caused turmoil in this small community. In fact, the concern was so great, that a number of law enforcement officials were dispatched to the area to provide security to address a worry that things might get out of hand. But in the end the two sides reached an agreement that precludes the forced use of herbicides–and offered both a carrot and stick for both parties to strongly consider.
Most IT specialists tend to avoid mixing water with computers, but Russia pulled out their biggest gun this week to combat the WannaCry ransomware attack targeted Microsoft Windows systems. Orthodox Church’s Patriarch Kirill went to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and sprayed holy water on the computers. It could be a new approach to stopping malware. If you trigger an electrical failure with water, the malware is technically stopped with the now dead computer. Continue reading “The Patriarch Patch: Orthodox Leader Called Into To Combat WannaCry With Holy Water At Russian Ministry”
Televangelist Rick Joyner appears on the brink of ruining Sunday football for all of us. Joyner said that the world needs prophets who will be able to predict the future, including sports scores. More importantly, Joyner revealed that he already has that ability and knew the actual score of the World series games before the games were actually played.
Continue reading “Televangelist: Bob Jones And I Got The Final Score Of World Series From God”
We have previously discussed how some of our closest allies like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Egypt routinely deny both free speech and free exercise of religion to citizens through the application of Sharia law or Islamic moral codes. The latest outrage comes from Indonesia where a court convicted Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, the Christian governor of the country’s capital, Jakarta, of blasphemy for challenging Islamic extremists. He was sentenced to two years in prison in a disgraceful assault on basic civil liberties and principles of both religious tolerance and free speech.
Continue reading “Indonesian Court Unanimously Convicts Christian Governor of Jakarta Of Blasphemy”