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Remembering Battle of Britain Day, Sunday Sept 15, 1940 . . . when a few stood in the gap [+ lessons on the significance of a force- in- being strategy]

I looked at the date and thought, quite a lesson from history, and a follow up from those of 9/11. Summer, 1940, when  The Few in their Hurricanes (mostly!) and Spitfires stood between civilisation, however flawed, and a nightmare of aggressive barbarism, with the peak being Sunday, Sept 15, 1940. (That day and date thing caught my eye.) Vid: [youtube Td8bF6Xgb_Y] (And while the narrator has a point on broader themes, if Fighter Command had been knocked out, the Germans would have been able to dominate the battle from the air, and would have won. More thoughts here.) A lesson for us as we stand in the gap today, against fairly long odds. And, coming off a shower, let me Read More ›

9/11 Miracle — the story of Trinidadian Genelle Guzman-McMillan, last WTC 9/11 survivor to be pulled from the rubble

Trinidadian Genelle Guzman-McMillan, the last WTC 9/11 survivor to be pulled from the rubble of the collapsed towers, has a story of miraculous survival, complete with her angel, Paul, who held her hand as she awaited rescue. In summary: [Genelle] was a Port Authority worker, working on the 64th floor of one of the WTC towers, on September 11, 2001 when she felt the building shake and heard the noise of the first impact. A look out the window showed papers floating in the sky, but it was not clear what had happened until she saw news reports on a TV in a conference room. Strange as it seems today, she and her co-workers were instructed to stay in the Read More ›

Col. Rick Rescorla, the UK-born Vietnam Vet and Morgan-Stanley Dean-Witter security chief who predicted BOTH WTC attacks, and sacrificed his life saving 2,700+ others . . .

Today, let us reflect on Col. Rick Rescorla, the man who saw it coming TWICE, and then sacrificed his life saving over 2,700 lives on September 11, 2001: [youtube w9jUEp_l7cE] I cannot but pause and show a video still of the Col on that fateful day as he rallied his people, bullhorn in hand:   It is easy to be wise after the fact, but so hard to have foresight and persistence in the face of inevitable misunderstanding and skepticism from those who don’t see things that way — and who will too often blindly oppose and frustrate. So, it is important to learn from case studies of insight and foresight, lest we fall to the mad march of folly Read More ›

Gene gun inventor John Sanford on what Darwin got wrong

A key difficulty with evolution theories based on Darwin (and make no mistake, that’s the majority*) is that such theories are based on an outdated view of how things work, but millions of people now make their living, in whole or in part, fronting such a view. Read More ›

VIDEO: Jon Rittenhouse’s BB ST 450 course lecture on Scientism

Ran across this Biola video lecture (in course BB ST 450) on scientism in a thread from a few months back, HT BA77 as usual. I think it is well worth pondering: [youtube lnxrmF9O1ko] So, thoughts? END

They said it dept: ID objector JLA inadvertently underscores the absurd logical/worldview consequences of evolutionary materialism . . . QED

One of our frequent objectors, JLA, has listed the consequences of evolutionary materialism, by way of objecting to BA’s further reply to the current crop of remarks at TSZ. (NB: I at first thought he might be being satirical, but, sadly, he is actually playing a straight hand. {Let me make this plain: FULL MARKS for sheer raw honesty. That needs to be respected and JLA must be treated with dignity. From what he says below, he is exposing what he sees as the too often unacknowledged consequences of evolutionary materialism, as what we could call an agnostic in transition.} ) I excerpted his list, and added some remarks on what the points reveal about evolutionary materialism. Not, because JLA Read More ›

TSZ explodes in anger and mischaracterisations over BA’s recent post at UD: “If My Eyes Are a Window, Is There Anyone Looking Out?”

(In case you think this is about a strawman, cf. here) A few days ago UD President, BA, posted on the topic, “If My Eyes Are a Window, Is There Anyone Looking Out?” Reaction at objecting blog TSZ has been explosive. For just one instance — a slice of the cake reveals its ingredients, we can see ME asserting in a newly set up sandbox: Your clear implication, William, is that no one here knows anything about “centuries of philosophical debate.” We are not ignoramuses here. What you and Arrington attribute to “materialists” is simply false; you have no clue what “materialism” is. Here again you stumble because of your choice to remain profoundly ignorant of science while attempting to Read More ›

VIDEO: Guillermo Gonzalez lectures at UC Davis on the Privileged Planet thesis

WK has pointed out a vid sequence at YouTube, in which Dr Gonzalez lays out a good summary of the privileged planet thesis. Here is the start: [youtube inUlX0oWHbw] WK (what, you haven’t bookmarked and speed-dialled this blog yet? tut, tut!  . . . ) summarises on points of significance for reflection: What is the Copernican Principle? Is the Earth’s suitability for hosting life rare in the universe? Does the Earth have to be the center of the universe to be special? How similar to the Earth does a planet have to be to support life? What is the definition of life? What are the three minimal requirements for life of any kind? Requirement 1: A molecule that can store Read More ›

Journal of Medical Ethics, the ghosts of Francis Schaeffer and C Everett Koop have somewhat to say to you regarding “post-birth abortion” . . .

(In case you imagine this to be purely academic, cf. here) UD News has recently highlighted a  debate on how the academy has reacted to objections to a bioethics paper that advocated “post-birth abortion.” (Cf. a noteworthy objection, here.) Including, “post-birth abortion” of the healthy but undesirable. A telling clip from the JME paper: we claim that killing a newborn could be ethically permissible in all the circumstances where abortion would be. Such circumstances include cases where the newborn has the potential to have an (at least) acceptable life, but the well-being of the family is at risk. Accordingly, a second terminological specification is that we call such a practice ‘after-birth abortion’ rather than ‘euthanasia’ because the best interest of Read More ›