Off Topic

Over at Respectful Insolence, Dr. David H. Gorski (a.k.a. Orac), goes off on a rant about how medical doctors, in this case Uncommon Descent contributor and surgeon Dr. David A. Cook, aren’t qualified to evaluate claims made by evolutionary biologists. Yet Dr. Gorski, also a surgeon, somehow believes himself qualified to evaluate evolutionary claims made by other medical doctors. Spare me. Practice what you preach, Dr. Gorski. If medical doctors aren’t qualifed to evaluate evolution claims then YOU should STFU too. Got that? Write that down. 🙄

Over at ATBC one of our brightest detractors Altabin (banned here, natch, because he’s just too smart for us) suggested an experiment. He misquoted the bible of course. It’s wolf and lamb or lion and calf. But we get his drift.

Quote
53. Were all the animals friendly to man before the Flood? Idea: raise several baby animals like snake and mouse together to see if they remain friends as they are older.

That one may not have such a happy ending. Next time try it with a lion and a lamb.

As it just so happens… Read More ›

After mulling over the recent blasphemy challenge brouhaha, I have a concern I’d like to express. Spiritual matters aside, I want to draw attention to the potential psychological ramifications of committing such an act as the challenge requires. As long as the person remains an atheist (or at least a non-Christian), I see no problems. However, what if he or she were to come to believe later in life that Christianity is true and that he or she had committed a sin for which no forgiveness can be attained and for which the penalty is eternity in hell?
Read More ›

Some internet gossip is going around suggesting that I am about to start a “new job.” My job, and one I intend to keep for a long time, is as Research Professor in Philosophy at Southwestern Seminary. This is where I teach and this is where I derive my salary and benefits. I very much enjoy my students and colleagues. I recently spoke in chapel there, and, for the good of your soul, you do well to look at the text of my message: http://www.designinference.com/documents/2006.10.the_reach_of_the_cross.pdf. In addition to this “day job,” I have formal and informal affiliations with many groups and organizations. Because of some health issues in my family, we continue to live in the Waco area (Ft. Worth Read More ›

Received from a dear childhood friend and fellow Marine. Farewell

From the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works… Renowned Scientist Defects From Belief in Global Warming – Caps Year of Vindication for Skeptics Washington DC – One of the most decorated French geophysicists has converted from a believer in manmade catastrophic global warming to a climate skeptic. This latest defector from the global warming camp caps a year in which numerous scientific studies have bolstered the claims of climate skeptics. Scientific studies that debunk the dire predictions of human-caused global warming have continued to accumulate and many believe the new science is shattering the media-promoted scientific “consensus” on climate alarmism. Claude Allegre, a former government official and an active member of France’s Socialist Party, wrote an editorial on Read More ›

A news brief in Scientific American (subscriber only, no link) alerted me to the following article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/06/060601091313.htm Summarized: Core sediments retrieved by three icebreakers recently analyzed reveal the following: -North Pole’s temperature 55 million years ago: 23C/73F (today it is -20C/-4F) -Concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere 55mya was 2000 ppm (today it is 380 ppm) -Global average temperature 55mya under above conditions was 5C/9F degrees C higher than today (in Sciam News Brief only, Science Daily says tropics remained liveable). Obviously, the earth recovered, if it was even “harmed”. I post this because so-called global warming is blamed on human activities by the worst kind of consensus pseudoscience (Darwinian evolution is consensus pseudoscience as well) and is projected Read More ›

www.uncommondescent.com no longer comes up on Google searches, though it still comes up on Technorati searches. No action was taken on this blog to block search engines from indexing our content. This is all very curious.

America and the Barbary Pirates:
An International Battle Against an Unconventional Foe
by Gerard W. Gawalt

Gerard W. Gawalt is the manuscript specialist for early American history in the Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.

Ruthless, unconventional foes are not new to the United States of America. More than two hundred years ago the newly established United States made its first attempt to fight an overseas battle to protect its private citizens by building an international coalition against an unconventional enemy. Then the enemies were pirates and piracy. The focus of the United States and a proposed international coalition was the Barbary Pirates of North Africa.

Pirate ships and crews from the North African states of Tripoli, Tunis, Morocco, and Algiers (the Barbary Coast) were the scourge of the Mediterranean. Capturing merchant ships and holding their crews for ransom provided the rulers of these nations with wealth and naval power. In fact, the Roman Catholic Religious Order of Mathurins had operated from France for centuries with the special mission of collecting and disbursing funds for the relief and ransom of prisoners of Mediterranean pirates. Read More ›

Read More ›

I finally broke down and this morning added one of those pictures that appear with Blogger comments. As many of you know I proudly served 4 years in the United States Marine Corps and consider that a defining period in my life. The USMC motto is “Semper Fidelis” which means “Always Faithful”. This describes (in order of importance) where our faith is placed: What do y’all think of it?

For those of you enjoying the antics of those bungling buffoons over at the PT circus (I know I am!), I’d like to warn you that too much of that stuff will rot your brain. Never fear, however. I’ve got just the thing to remedy that. Bill Vallicella (aka the Maverick Philosopher) has a blog on which he posts and discusses his philosophical ruminations. It’s a place I like to go when in need of some good mental excercise. Check it out!

Eryn Brown of The New Republic contacted Bill in regards to whether “there been much other talk about the game[Spore] in ID circles”. Except for the post made here on UD I have not heard much mention of it although that’s most likely due to the game not being available yet. In my reply to Eryn I did note that I thought “there were some comparisons that could be made with Spore. For example, the modular design mentioned by Marc Kirschner can be compared to the animation system of Spore, where various sub-components will dynamically adjust to fit together and function as a new whole.” Read More ›

I received this today from a dear friend that I’ve known and loved since kindergarten. We’re only a month apart in birthdays, were in every grade together through high school, and served together in the Marine Corps in the 1970’s. Just last year summer while I was on vacation in upstate New York and staying at his home for a couple days after our 30th high school reunion, we were struck by lightning at the same time as he was changing the front disc brakes on his wife’s SUV. The lightning hit a power line near the house, travelled into the garage and to the vehicle through the cord on a trouble light, and knocked the crap out of both of us as we were in contact with the vehicle. It might have made him a bit more religious all of a sudden as he had both hands on bare metal whereas I was just touching a painted surface with one hand.

What’s wrong with this picture?

Read More ›