Dear E-Flash Friends;
Imagine going for an ultra sound and during the procedure you hear the technician say, “Wow!?! That’s strange.”
A little bit concerned you ask, “What? What is it?”
The technician responds, “I’ve never seen this before.”
Now, you’re starting to feel a little bit of panic, “What are you seeing? What’s wrong?”
And the technician says, “It’s not anything wrong, it’s just that . . . well . . . I don’t know how to say this, but . . . your child is God.”
After a brief fainting spell, you wake up and realize it was all just a crazy dream. So, you chuckle and then make a quick trip to the bakery to get some Angel Food cake.
I’m bringing this up, because I’d like to encourage us to consider what it must have felt like for a young girl named Mary to hear this strange and perplexing and flattering and scary and utterly unique message from an angel: “Oh, by the way, you’re baby is the Savior and long awaited Messiah, the specially anointed King who will rule FOREVER. He is conceived in you by the Holy Spirit and he is the Holy one. So, that’s all I needed to tell you, I’ll see you later!”
It’s the Greatest Challenge Any Mom Ever Faced, and that’s what we’ll be talking about this Mother’s Day, May 11th.
I invite you to join us and hope that you can bring your mom to church. We will honor the moms and tell them how much we love them. We’ll laugh, we’ll cry, we’ll reminisce, and then we’ll start the service and it will get even better, still.
Mother’s Day 2008: “The Greatest Challenge Any Mom Ever Faced”
God bless and see you Sunday!
Dan
Friday, May 9, 2008
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Are You Ready For Some Verbal Judo?
Review of "The Irrational Atheist" by Vox Day.
Sarcasm? Check.
Witty jabs? Check.
Tender words of warmth and kindness? Check. (Not!)
Vox Day’s “The Irrational Atheist” is a little edgier and a little more aggressive than most books that could be labeled “Christian apologetics”, but that’s part of what makes it interesting to read. And Vox’s logical critique of Dawkins, Harris and Hitchens is sort of like a philosophical straight jab to the solar plexus. Can you tell I’ve been waiting for a long time to be able to throw some martial arts references into a book review?
Day actually extends a little more respect to Daniel Dennett because Dennett’s “Breaking The Spell” is “substantially different than” the books written by Dawkins, Harris and Hitchens. Although Day strongly disagrees with Dennett’s conclusions he feels that Dennett, at least, offers a “reasonable perspective” and that Dennett’s “intellectual honesty” is “refreshing”.
Day gives a strong argument for atheism’s failure as a worldview and particularly it’s failure as a political system by sharing some of atheism’s sad history. Yes, there are some stains in Christianity’s history, as well. That can never honestly be denied and Day addresses that subject. But it’s fair to do a little comparison. Over the course of more than 300 years 3,230 people were killed in the Spanish Inquisition. That’s 3,230 too many and it’s an embarrassment to Christians. But compare that to this: “the total body count for the ninety years between 1917 and 2007 is approximately 148 million dead at the bloody hands of fifty-two atheist [regimes], three times more than all the human beings killed by war, civil war, and individual crime in the entire twentieth century combined. The historical record of collective atheism is thus 182,716 times worse on an annual basis than Christianity’s worst and most infamous misdeed, the Spanish Inquisition.”
Is “The Irrational Atheist” gentle? No. Is it convincing? Yes.
Dan Marler
Oak Lawn, IL
Note: Day uses a few swear words in the book. If that would be offensive to you then you shouldn't read "The Irrational Atheist".
http://www.visitusonline.org/
Sarcasm? Check.
Witty jabs? Check.
Tender words of warmth and kindness? Check. (Not!)
Vox Day’s “The Irrational Atheist” is a little edgier and a little more aggressive than most books that could be labeled “Christian apologetics”, but that’s part of what makes it interesting to read. And Vox’s logical critique of Dawkins, Harris and Hitchens is sort of like a philosophical straight jab to the solar plexus. Can you tell I’ve been waiting for a long time to be able to throw some martial arts references into a book review?
Day actually extends a little more respect to Daniel Dennett because Dennett’s “Breaking The Spell” is “substantially different than” the books written by Dawkins, Harris and Hitchens. Although Day strongly disagrees with Dennett’s conclusions he feels that Dennett, at least, offers a “reasonable perspective” and that Dennett’s “intellectual honesty” is “refreshing”.
Day gives a strong argument for atheism’s failure as a worldview and particularly it’s failure as a political system by sharing some of atheism’s sad history. Yes, there are some stains in Christianity’s history, as well. That can never honestly be denied and Day addresses that subject. But it’s fair to do a little comparison. Over the course of more than 300 years 3,230 people were killed in the Spanish Inquisition. That’s 3,230 too many and it’s an embarrassment to Christians. But compare that to this: “the total body count for the ninety years between 1917 and 2007 is approximately 148 million dead at the bloody hands of fifty-two atheist [regimes], three times more than all the human beings killed by war, civil war, and individual crime in the entire twentieth century combined. The historical record of collective atheism is thus 182,716 times worse on an annual basis than Christianity’s worst and most infamous misdeed, the Spanish Inquisition.”
Is “The Irrational Atheist” gentle? No. Is it convincing? Yes.
Dan Marler
Oak Lawn, IL
Note: Day uses a few swear words in the book. If that would be offensive to you then you shouldn't read "The Irrational Atheist".
http://www.visitusonline.org/
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