Atheists Are Whinging Whiners

Anyway, this Wisconsin-based Christophobic group was pouting about a nativity scene in Texas and was demanding that it be taken down because Jesus was an “insult to human nature” because He taught that “men were sinners” and would one day be held accountable for their sins if they didn’t repent and would be sent to a slow roast in Dante’s House of Pain.

Dan and his ilk represent the “we will sue you” nuevo atheists who go after our nation’s Christian holidays and symbolism—but not Islam’s—because it bashes their ideas. Waah. Frickety. Waah.

--Nora

Defender of the Faith

Which leading British identity said the following:

‘We are a Christian country and we should not be afraid to say so.

'The Bible has helped to give Britain a set of values and morals which make Britain what it is today. Values and morals we should actively stand up and defend.

‘Whether you look at the riots last summer, the financial crash and the expenses scandal or the on-going terrorist threat from Islamist extremists around the world, one thing is clear, moral neutrality or passive tolerance just isn’t going to cut it any more.

‘Put simply, for too long we have been unwilling to distinguish right from wrong. “Live and let live” has too often become “do what you please”.

‘Bad choices have too often been defended as just different lifestyles. To be confident in saying something is wrong is not a sign of weakness, it’s a strength.’

Your choices are:

• Head of the Anglican Church Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury
• British Prime Minister David Cameron
  

Bonus question:

Which of the above leading British public figures ought to have spoken out in defence of Christianity?

-- Nora

Not Ashamed

Author and columnist hits another one right out of the park:

That’s right. When Brees talks about faith, he is talking about faith in Jesus Christ. J for J, esus for esus, Jesus. Was that so hard for Layden to say out loud? The answer, apparently, is yes. He reminds me of no one so much as the reporter anti-hero of my novel True Crime, who says, “Whenever someone… says Jesus as if they really mean it… it makes my skin crawl, as if they’d said squid or intestine…”

--Nora

Fall For Anything

Quick! Bring out the smelling salts!

A Hervey Bay mother swoons when she discovers that her Year 8 daughter has brought home... a 32 year old boyfriend?... Drugs?... A busload of OWS protestors?... Syphillis?

Quelle horreur, what could possibly cause her to go on a "crusade" right up to Education Queensland's head office?

Birgette Linding said she was mortified when her daughter came home earlier this year and recounted how Gideons Bibles had been handed out to students at the end of a Year 8 assembly at Urangan State High School.

How shocking.

And how quickly the anti-religious haters come out in comments, but also adhering to the law of unintended consequences John of Townsville's comment is a revelation: "Good, religion and the bible have no place in Queensland schools." So it would seem.

"Religion (by which they mean Christianity) is unscientific," they cry - ignoring the fact that modern science owes a significant debt to Christianity which provided most of the founding principles of science with the acknowledgement that a rational God created the world rationally and that those rational principles could be observed, repeated and understood.

These anti-Christian bigots are equally as sanctimonious as the religiousfolk they decry, smug as they are in their rigid belief system that all life evolved from nothing and that the reason we're here is because 'gravity did it'.

"We're far to logical, smart, clever, rational to believe in a sky fairy," they argue.

And yet, unmoored by the Christian belief system to use as a framework for rationality or as a foundation for ethics, these same people become easy prey for other gods - particularly Gaia The Earth Fairy who got a shout out this week at the United Nations Climate Change conference in Durbin, South Africa at which our own Climate Change Minister Greg Combet attended (carbon-neutrally, of course).

From the conference manifesto:

Rights of mother earth
74. Ensure respect for the intrinsic laws of nature.
75. The recognition and defence of the rights of Mother Earth to ensure harmony
between humanity and nature, and that their will be no commodification of the functions of nature, therefore no carbon market will be developed with that purpose.

Compare this to the instruction given to man in Genesis to have dominion over the earth.

That not is to say that we trash the planet, anymore than a logical, rational human being would trash their own house. But what it does mean, as generations of people before us knew, we are to use the resources it contains to improve our lives and the lives of those around us.

This Gaia-mad, quasi-scientific, pseudo-religion demands the opposite. And if you're poor, and life is a today-to-today struggle keeping body and soul together, you're less likely to consider helping others or have the resources to do so even if you were inclined.

And any propensity to charity (particularly one which cannot be reciprocated) makes no sense within a Darwinian framework in which survival of the fittest is the only law.

So what purpose does it serve to condemn humanity to a hell it can avoid? There's a question for another day.

Such a world governed as the Gaian adherents would have it would not be a nice place to live - but get used to it folks, without the Christian world view and the compassion and grace it teaches, your world is about to get even uglier.

Oh, and a final comment to Our Lady of the Perpetually Offended, Birgette Linding - you are under no obligation to read the Bible yourself, neither is your daughter. If you don't like it, don't look.

And a few questions: Why are you so afraid of the Bible? Are you afraid that if your daughter reads it that she will find something wonderful and life changing? Are you usually so narrow minded?

-- Nora

Seeing Red

Nice piece from Andrew Bolt recognising the work of the Red Frog Crew volunteers.

So I’d be in despair if my son hadn’t also told me of dozens of other young Australians up in Byron last week. About 150 of them, as I found out.

They were volunteers who patrolled the beach at all hours; checking on the drunk and troubled, and doing everything that some parents would have prayed for, had they known.

If God Did Not Exist, We Would Have To Invent Him

How cute, News.com.au's contrarian blogger Jack Marx wants to ban Jesus.

Okay, lets say society had expunged everything to do with Christendom.

What might that society look like? In some respects not a lot different to secular society today. The pagans are gaining the lions share of publicity (like AGW believers) along with Islam which has spread aggressively to the four corners of the world.

There's widespread slavery across all of the world because there was no William Wilberforce.

There would be no hospitals because they were developed by the Hospitaliers of the Crusades. There are no orphanages, no social welfare.

Many of the finest works of art by the likes of Da Vinci, Michaelangelo, Mozart, Handel, Tolkein, Dostoevsky do not exist. Lamentably there is no champagne because there is no Dom Perignon.

The world of science is all the poorer for the non-existence of Christians: the research of Bede the Venerable, Roger Bacon, Johannes Kepler, Blaise Pascal, Charles Babbage, Gregor Mendel, Sir Robert Boyd and Michal Heller.

In Australia, because there are no 'God botherers', you can say goodbye to the Salvation Army, Lifeline, The RFDS, Blue Nurses, World Vision.

How's the world looking now?

-- Nora

UPDATE: One might have left the subject above alone, however Jack Marx writes an extracurricular column on Friday to rather ham-fistedly explain that he likes Christians - just not Christ and one of Jack's acolytes writes in comments on this post.

Ya see, Jack likes all the good stuff that Christians do - like the charity and stuff - but he doesn't like the reason why they do it.

He'd rather religious people and Christians in particular keep their trap shut and not disturb his self-indulgent and self-righteous cocoon, so you can see why the joyous public celebration World Youth Day offends him no end.

Jack, having to grudgingly acknowledge the benefit Christians have brought to society, tries a different tack and fares no better.

He picks up on the Michael Newton/Christopher Hitchens/Richard Dawkins meme - the Bible is horrible because it's full of violence. Well, yes, unredeemed human history has been ever thus.

As Sam Shamoun, the Christian apologist points out: "First, the wars and violence found within the OT are descriptive, not prescriptive. They are describing events as they occurred, commandments God had given a specific people for a specific purpose."

In other words, they're historical not instructive.

Jack fires up his Google and goes hunting, picking the oft cited command to kill the Amalekites decribed in the book of Joshua.

The mindless slaughter continues verse after verse, chapter after chapter, book after revolting book, with God’s blessing when not his help.

For me, the only historical text that comes close to it for sheer murderous outrage is William Shirer’s The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, a book we read today as something of a warning, a parable on how humanity must always be on guard against organised fanaticism.

Well, I'm glad Jack brought up the Third Reich because there is a parallel, but one he is obviously unaware.

The problem with cherrypicking is you tend to miss some of the facts.

The Amalekites were savage, violent and opportunistic. Like others during that time, they engaged in child sacrifice. They also attacked Israel first.

It is the equivalent to hating the Allies for bombing Dresden and marching through Germany without acknowledging that Nazi Germany invaded Czechoslovakia and Poland or loathing the United States for dropping the bomb on Nagasake and Hiroshima without acknowledging that the Imperial forces bombed Pearl Harbour.

To describe the act of the Israelites (and by extension the command by God) as immoral, hateful, irrational and genocidal is as emotive as it is inaccurate.

Jack, having done this intellectually dishonest exercise about the Old Testament, turns his attention to Jesus:

Of course, Jesus Christ was a “new improved” God, the Christian New Testament considerably more mellow than its prequel. Christ was no warlord – he spoke of love and turning the other cheek. Nevertheless, he walked in the name of his father, the occasional fit of punchy conceit loitering in his blood

“Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:34-37).

Subtlety is not Jack's strong suit, so it's no surprise that he fails to understand the meaning of this passage. But ask anyone who has left Islam for Christianity, whether Jesus' words hold truth.

Indeed, what if one of Jack's children turned around one day to say they had become a Christian? What would venom-filled invective would dear ole dad spew?

Whether I believe in God or not I won’t say, but I will say that I despise him. I call him “Super***t”

Ah yes, that would be right.

Lies, Damned Lies and Hilali

Sheik 'Cat Meat' Hilali indulges in some taqiyya:

OUTSPOKEN Muslim cleric Taj al-Din al-Hilali says the Bible "mandates" the wearing of the veil by Christian women.

Writing in a new book, Sheik Hilali, who lost his job as mufti of Australia after comparing scantily clad women to uncovered meat, argues that the Bible and the Koran make similar demands of a woman's modesty.

No it doesn't and Anglican Bishop of South Sydney, Robert Forsyth quoted in the story calls it right:

(Forsyth) challenged Sheik Hilali's comments about the veil being "mandated" in the Bible, saying they were misleading.

"The New Testament does call upon people to dress modestly," he said. "But there is no understanding that women are commanded to wear the veil. But it is mandated that you should dress appropriately for your social context."

Could this be the start of a new PR offensive by Islamists?

Hilali seems to be working from the same playbook the the Muslim leaders who wrote "An Open Letter and Call from Muslim Religious Leaders", published late last year which appeared to highlight the similarities between Islam and Christianity.

An Open Call is a text book example of dissimulation and it is incisively dissected in this essay:

While addressed to a specific group of Christian leaders, the fact that it is an open letter widely disseminated by the world media means that world public opinion is another intended audience. Furthermore, certain terminology in the letter, as well as the choice of Qur`anic quotations cited, suggest that the letter is also intended for the global Muslim audience. It is not unusual in Islamic discourse for different messages to be delivered to the different audiences. This is permitted by the Islamic doctrine of taqiyya (dissimulation) which allows Muslims to practise deception in certain circumstances. It appears that the Christian vocabulary of the letter is intended to guide Christian readers to the erroneous conclusion that Islam and Christianity are basically identical religions, focusing on love to God and to the neighbour. The hidden messages for Muslims are contained in the many polemical quotations from the Qur`an.

Another example of the apparent use of taqiyya is the fact that some of the words in the Arabic version of the letter differ in meaning from those in the English version. For example, the word used for "neighbour" in the Arabic version of the letter is jar, a term which carries only a geographical meaning. It is not equivalent to the Biblical Hebrew word for neighbour, which is re`a (denoting kinship, even as close as a brother or sister). Yet there is another word for "neighbour" in Arabic which is closer to the meaning of the Hebrew re`a and which could have been used. This is the word qarib, which is used in Arabic Bibles and which more closely translates the Biblical original. It is also worth noting that Jesus Christ is not given the name used by Arabic Christians (Yasu` al-Masih), but the Islamic version (`Isa al-Masih).

Do read all of it.

The essay is from The Barnabas Fund, which provides aid and other support to persecuted churches around the world, and is an excellent primer on how taqiyya works and how to cut through the subtext to get at the real meaning of propaganda like An Open Call and Cat Meat's latest deception.

-- Nora

Exposed: How TV Current Affairs Shows Are Ripping YOU Off

On Nick and Nora's passionate affair, we expose the hypocrisy of one of Australia's leading television networks with an insider's view of how news and controversy are manufactured - all in the name of ratings.

Hello, I'm Nora Charles.

Tonight, an exclusive look at how an industry's integrity is for sale by journalists whose own code of ethics state that no commercial consideration should influence their work.

This show, Today Tonight and others like it, fleece advertisers of hundreds of thousands of dollars each night by holding you, the television viewer, hostage with stories on snake-oil weight loss cures, hysterical panic stories and, at times, downright lies.

And all for the lucrative ratings that determine the price paid by advertisers.

"Shows like Today Tonight are particularly notorious in using these tricks," says Nick Charles, one time journalist and now media commentator.

"They deliberately play on people's mistrust, fears and greed to maximise profits. In fact, it would be fair to say that current affairs shows have deliberately ruined lives in the quest for sensationalism and money."

When Australian rock legend Angry Anderson wanted to raise awareness of a fund raising rock concert tonight, he faked the ambush of members of bands The Choir Boys, The Angels and The Party Boys.

"Oh look - you can see here that all of this has been pre-arranged," says Nick. "What are the chances of all the members of The Angels just casually walking down the street?

"It might seem like a little bit of harmless fun but, once again, it shows how Today Tonight deliberately misleads the public."

And it gets worse.

Companies regularly approach Today Tonight for publicity and receive air time worth tens of thousands of dollars for free, for goods and services which may or may not work.

"Many journalists will do this kind of advertorial type of story and claim that it has news value, but in reality the news value of the free publicity is spurious," says Nick.

"News value is often limited to how well the company's publicist has pitched the story to the presenter or the researchers. They don't do any of their own independent research for stories."

In fact a Today Tonight journalist was 'bought' today by publicists for the company Etech Group who are targeting one of the most vulnerable groups in society - middle class parents with teenage children.

"That was an out and out plug for a company product," said Nick, "I'm not saying the reporter, in this case, was offered, say, free software for running the story, but in many cases journalists receive what's known as payola, bribes in effect, to promote and publicise a product or event. The payola takes the form of free product, free tickets to events, stuff like that.

"These people wield significant influence."

And what happens if companies don't play by Today Tonight's rules?

"Some of these reporters - personally I think it's a misnomer to call them 'journalists' - will go as far as to demand payola in exchange for favourable coverage," says Nick.

"If the organisation doesn't come across, then they don't get the coverage."

But it's not always personal gain which motivates these parasites.

"One of the worst things you can do, from a public perception point of view, is not play ball with these people," says Nick.

"If you refuse an interview, no matter how rude the reporter or inconvenient the timing, they will quite happily spread lies and deliberate misinformation.

"The worst thing of all is there is no real remediation or redress if a show like Today Tonight has it in for you. Network lawyers are held on retainer and these organisations will quite happily spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees.

"If you're an ordinary Aussie there is very little you can do to stop them."

When Today Tonight made the claim on Wednesday night that Sydney church Hillsong was 'stacking' Australian Idol, they offered no evidence except that up to half of the contestants go to church - not to Hillsong specifically but to any number of churches around the country.

Surely not surprising when, according to the latest census, 64% of Australians call themselves Christian and that Christians sing at church on a regular basis.

"It's very interesting that Today Tonight tends pick on Hillsong," says Nick. "It's not the first time they've done it.

"What they failed to point out in their story was that other Australian Idol contestants benefit from the support of their communities and social groups to generate interest and votes on the show.

"Last year an Australian Idol contestant from Albury-Wodonga had the local pub raising money to pay for phone votes. Today Tonight didn't do an expose on that."

But the show's producers, including host Anna Corin, were stung by the response of Hillsong that issued a one-line statement saying the church didn't endorse any singers and wished all the contestants the best.

They also endured the derision of Australian Idol fans:

"I think they should stick to uncovering the dangers of old microwaves, food additives and the latest plastic surgery bungles instead."

"LOL Grape, they just keep re-hashing the same pathetic stories over and over."

"Yea i saw the last bit of this add today...ITS SO FREAKING LAME sirsly Today Tonight have nothing better to do with there lives =.=*"

And rehash they do, finding two disaffected former members of the church to back their claim.

But our media insider smells a rat.

"The couple said that Hillsong kept asking them to 'do things', but they didn't specify what. Surely as a real journalist that's the question to be asking, but they don't. It's likely that the answer doesn't meet their agenda, which is to knock the church," Nick says.

"It's also quite possible that the couple are little more than volunteer 'cast members' - you only have to look at these shows' web sites to see how they advertise for people with an axe to grind to come and tell their story on air or pretend they're ordinary members of the public reacting to events or talking about their experiences with some of the payola products we mentioned earlier.

"Anyway, as I said before, so what if Hillsong ends every service by saying 'don't forget to vote for so and so'? That's what everyone else does, Today Tonight included whenever it runs a thinly veiled promo for network shows like Dancing With The Stars.

"The real question is why Today Tonight and A Current Affair too, are against a church the young congregation of which is more likely than the average population to be happy, not on drugs, not getting drunk every weekend, not sexually promiscuous and more likely to be caring, socially active people.

"These powerful, multi-million dollar media outlets are trying to portray Hillsong as a cult, when it is nothing of the sort - it's just a large, active Christian church."

Speaking of questions to be asking, maybe someone needs to ask these reporters and producers what their interest is in steering young people away from positive behaviour.

Perhaps they're after a 'good' story.

Or perhaps their interest is a little more unnatural.

-- Nora Charles reporting

UPDATE: Hillsong toys with Today Tonight, hinting that it could take legal action against the show.

A Conceited Affair

Jealousy is such a curse isn't it?

The latest outrage filled episode of the reality TV series A Current Affair was heavily promoted as "Australia's Richest Religions - And How They're Targeting Your Kids".

But the real agenda was revealed in the "report" and confirmed on A Current Affair's own web site - "Hillsong Expose".

For those not in the know, Hillsong is what the Americans would describe as a "megachurch" based in Sydney, filled with that most terrifying demographic - young evangelical Christians.

Worse than that, they've done the unthinkable - filled stadiums with people - when everyone knows that churches are supposed to virtually empty on Sunday because we're enlightened folk who know the real 'truth' is in Sunday trading hours and hangover recovery time.

Not only that, they've also embraced 'teh interweb' and multimedia thingie to the point they do their own TV and music stuff - including more than 30 gold and platinum album sales worldwide.

John Lennon may have famously said The Beatles were more popular than Jesus, but on the strength of those sales numbers Hillsong appears to be making Jesus more popular than The Beatles.

Awful isn't it.

And that's just the beginning of shocks as the church leadership says quite openly that it needs money to carry on its work which includes bulkbilling medical centres in poor local communities, micro-enterprise development funding, counselling services for victims of sexual assault and drug/alcohol abuse.

And why not, research has proved time and again that regular church-goers are far more generous with their time and money than the irreligious.

A Current Affair thinks all of this is a bad thing - bad religious people: how dare they do good things in the community, have fun and earn a quid?

These nutters should be more like them. You know, like Ray Martin who earns $2million a year for... well, who knows what he does for the money or maybe like the Big Brother slappers who are willing to strip for a quid.

Just like all reality TV shows, A Current Affair can't do anything original. The story concept used footage ripped off from the little watched, taxpayer funded sheltered workshop known as Andrew Denton's Enough Rope in which the ABC breaks its own taboo of spruiking commercial product in order to interview a disaffected former Hillsong member.

Gee, no agenda to see here, is there?

-- Nora

Overcome Evil With Good

Spot the difference:

Christian martyr - 42-year-old pastor Bae Hyung-kyu killed for bringing aid and hope to people in Afghanistan.

The South Korean church that the abductees attend has said it will suspend at least some of its volunteer work in Afghanistan. It also stressed that the Koreans abducted were not involved in any Christian missionary work, saying they provided only medical and other volunteer aid to distressed people in the war-ravaged country.

Muslim martyr - 20-year-old Andaleeb Takafka killed by her own hand in order to murder six and wound 104 Israelis.

In in (sic) an interview prior to her suicide mission, Andaleeb Takafka said "when you want to carry out such an attack, whether you are a man or a woman, you don’t think about the explosive belt or about your body being ripped into pieces. We are suffering. We are dying while we are still alive."

Tell me now which is the religion of peace?

Romans 12 14:21
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay,"[1]says the Lord. On the contrary:
"If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."[2]

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

-- Nora

[1]Deut. 32:35
[2]Prov. 25:21,22

Tossed By Every Wind

If anyone had any doubts of some Anglican/Episcopal communicants commitment to Christianity, then take a look at this story from The Seattle Times:

Shortly after noon on Fridays, the Rev. Ann Holmes Redding ties on a black headscarf, preparing to pray with her Muslim group on First Hill.

On Sunday mornings, Redding puts on the white collar of an Episcopal priest.

She does both, she says, because she's Christian and Muslim.

Riiiiight.

She says she felt an inexplicable call to become Muslim, and to surrender to God — the meaning of the word "Islam."

"It wasn't about intellect," she said.

Damn straight.

Maybe Ms Redding needs to do a bit of reading to find out what it is she really believes in.

-- Nora

Contradictions

AN Iraqi Muslim man allegedly raped a Muslim woman as "punishment" for her reading the Bible, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Campbelltown District Court in Sydney's west yesterday heard Abdul Reda Al Shawany twice sexually assaulted the woman, a practising Muslim, and then said to her: "Let your Jesus help you."

The heinous act speaks for itself but there are four things to note:

1. I thought a hajib was supposed to protect women from rape?

2. Muslims are encouraged in the Koran to read The Bible.

3. Jesus is supposed to be a revered prophet in Islam.

4. Al Shawany's barrister Chris Pike told the court his client was a hardworking businessman with close ties to the community who strenuously denied the charges.

"My client is not a zealot," Mr Pike said.

Oh yes he is. And he's not alone.

-- Nora

I'll Drink To That

If yet another example were needed to illustrate the difference between Christianity and another religion which has been in the news a lot, then this story is it:

AN Italian film showing Jesus Christ drinking Coca-Cola sparked such strong protest from...

Who? The Vatican? Ordinary Catholics? Those 'nutty neo-cons from the US religious right'?

Nope:

"...the soft-drinks giant that it blocked the film's Easter weekend premiere.

The film, 7km from Jerusalem, is about an Italian advertising executive who is soul searching after losing his job and marriage. He flies to Jerusalem, where he runs into Jesus.

According to local press reports, he offers the returned Christ a can of Coca-Cola and, seeing Jesus drinking the beverage, thinks: "What a testimonial!"

Apparently Coca-Cola disagreed.

"The multinational's Italian unit sent a legal letter forcing the elimination of the scene in which Jesus drinks the well-known beverage," the producers said on the film's website, http://blog.7kmdagerusalemme.it/dblog/.

Italian media reported that the company felt that the use of its brand was unacceptable and could get the company a bad image."

In whose eyes is not made clear in this story.

Certainly not for many Christians I would hope because 7km From Jerusalem is a parable and Jesus' three year ministry was replete with them.

The story of a man searching for truth, meaning and comfort and finding it in Christ is something we see too little of in today's entertainment and a story that helps us look at this in a fresh way is to be applauded not protested.

This point is made clear by Eric Hogue's column on the web site Crosswalk:

This scene (and I'm hoping the movie) is filled with metaphors. The dusty, determined trail to Jerusalem and Jesus' destination - a location that would lead to his ultimate sacrifice - with a driver who is seeking the answer for life's empty promises. Who is hitching for a ride in this man's mid-life Jeep, the answer to life entirety himself.

Like the untouchable woman at the well, Jesus asks for a drink and the mid-lifer offers what he has, a Coke. As Jesus takes a swig, some humor hits the script with an honest mention of intended 'product placement', as the providers of life's living water takes a gulp. Here is Jesus, the 'real thing', drinking the world's temporary, thirst quenching 'real thing'. What a gift, who is writing this stuff?

Indeed.

Hollywood used to be capable of doing the same thing, although sadly the big studio's wellspring of inspiration has run dry, leaving it independent filmmakers to quench our thirst for something more substantial.

-- Nora

The Glass Darkly

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountain green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?

Who knows if He did.

But one thing is for certain, if He had, he wouldn't recognise the place now.

-- Nora

Summer Reading

One might have noticed Nick undertaking much of the posting duties over the past few weeks.

I've not been idle, but instead using the summer break to catch up on some reading.

I had always wondered about the claim that it was Muslims that brought Greek and Roman philosophy to the ignorant, pre-Enlightenment Christendom of Medieval Europe. It appears to be accepted as 'the common sense' but had never really rung true.

If it were so - that Muslims were progressive, enlightened folk who could show those Christians a thing or two about science and philosophy - then what happened?

Apart from some architecture, little appears to remain, historically or contemporaniously, of such academic ventures.

So was it actually true?

It would appear not.

The opinion web site American Thinker has run a series of outstanding articles that critically examines the role Islam has played in spreading science and philosophy. I'll link to each of these sites and give a little foretaste of the arguments you'll find.

What Islamic Science and Philosophy?
By Jonathan David Carson

If the true cause of events is the will of Allah, and if the will of Allah is inscrutable, then the causes of events are inscrutable and science a vain pursuit. The issue is ultimately whether the universe and its creator are in any way intelligible. The West, with its traditions of natural law and natural theology, agrees for the most part that the universe is astonishingly intelligible and God somewhat so. Islam, at least at its most rigorous, denies any intelligibility whatsoever to either.

Islam and the Problem of Rationality
By Patrick Poole

Occasionalism was rigorously opposed by the two great philosophers of Medieval Europe, Albert Magnus and Thomas Aquinas, along with the great medieval Jewish philosopher, Moses Maimonides (1135-1204), who lived and wrote in Muslim-occupied Spain. The Fourth Lateran Council (1215) also addressed the threat posed by Islamic occasionalism by affirming the ancient Christian truth that God created the universe ex nihilo (from nothing). This prevented the volunteerist view from gaining ground in the West, and thus occasionalism, merely by stating that God had actually created, and that objects in the natural world created by God have an actual inherent existence and do not need to be constantly recreated.

Hyping Islam 's role in the History of Science
By Jonathan David Carson

The 'Islamic scholars' who translated 'ancient Greece's natural philosophy' were a curious group of Muslims, since all or almost all of the translators from Greek to Arabic were Christians or Jews, as were the translators from Arabic to Latin. Consider the astonishing statement of Bernard Lewis in The Muslim Discovery of Europe:

We know of no Muslim scholar or man of letters before the eighteenth century who sought to learn a western language, still less of any attempt to produce grammars, dictionaries, or other language tools. Translations are few and far between. Those that are known are works chosen for practical purposes [philosophy being considered a practical discipline] and the translations are made by converts [who knew western languages before conversion] or non—Muslims.

The not-so-golden age of Islamic philosophy
By Jonathan David Carson

When Islam conquered most of the Christian lands of Asia and the Middle East and all of them on the north coast of Africa, including Egypt and with it Alexandria, part of the spoils of victory were small centers of Hellenistic scholarship, often Nestorian Christian, that continued for a while translating Greek philosophy into Syriac. Eventually most of the extant writings of Aristotle were translated into Arabic, generally via Syriac, sometimes via Hebrew, on rare occasions directly, together with influential pseudo—Aristotelian texts. These translations became the basis of the Aristotelianism of the Islamic world, which was innocent of the Greek of the original and of the originality of its author.

Islam, Christianity, Classical Civilization, and Modernity
By Jonathan David Carson

When it became apparent to the early Church that it might have to wait a long time before the end of world and that it would, as a result, have to develop institutions and a way of life appropriate for a long sojourn on earth, perhaps the most pressing issue was how to respond to the immense legacy of the ancient Mediterranean. With but a few exceptions, Tertullian being the most prominent, the Fathers of the Church took the attitude most succinctly expressed by Saint Ambrose: Christians should "spoil the Egyptians" by using for their own purposes the treasures of the ancient world, including its philosophy.

Despite what opponents of Christianity say and what perhaps most educated people believe, the mainstream of Christianity has always been open to the achievements of the world in which it lives, whether they be the Plato and Aristotle of ancient Greece, the science and mathematics of medieval India and early Islam, the intellectual and political successes of the Renaissance and Enlightenment, or the scientific advances of the modern world.

Understanding what little Islam had to contribute to the understanding of the world and progress was despoiled by Islamic thinking itself, had me wondering about the information sources it twisted for the selfish and murderous impulses of its leader Mohammed.

Fortunately someone else has done the leg work, Craig Winn whose web site Prophet of Doom, contains the full text of his book that goes nearly line by line to explain the origins and flaws of the Koran and its expository Suras and Hadiths.

As Winn summarises in an 'open letter to the reader':

Islam is a caustic blend of regurgitated paganism and twisted Bible stories. Muhammad, its lone prophet, conceived his religion solely to satiate his lust for power, sex, and money. He was a terrorist. And if you think these conclusions are shocking, wait until you see the evidence.

Mix yourself a Long Island Iced, sit back in a comfy lounger and enjoy the read.

Long Island Iced Tea
0.5 Shot Vodka
0.5 Shot White Rum
0.5 Shot Gin
0.5 Shot Tequila
0.5 Shot Triple Sec
1 Dash Coke
1 Teaspoon Caster Sugar
0.5 Shot Lemon Juice
Shake all the ingredients except the coke with ice and strain into a highball. Then pour the coke on the top.

-- Nora