Creation vs. Evolution Again

I figured out what it is that bothers me about the whole evolution vs. creation/intelligent design debate. What bothers me about it is that I think people make up their minds what they believe about that based on whether they believe in God or not, but yet the creationist side tries to argue that they can use science to prove that there must be a God, which is something that science can’t do. I wouldn’t have a problem if they were really exploring science, and talking about scientific problems with evolution. The problem is, both sides go in with an agenda, a belief that they’re trying to prove, and just try to use science to prove their own beliefs. That doesn’t really help anything that much, it just amounts to an “I’m right and your Continue reading →

Wrestling with the Big Questions

I was thinking again last night about the question of origins. I thought about how crazy complex the universe is, from subatomic particles to clusters of galaxies. The big problem with naturalism is the idea that anything at all came from nothing. But it’s quite a stretch to think that all this came from nothing.

Then I thought about the idea of intelligent design, of a higher power having created everything. I thought about the complexity, and how much that entity would have to know and how much power it would have to have in order to create everything. I thought, wow, that’s about as much of a stretch to believe as everything coming from nothing. I guess I never thought about it quite like that before, but in a way it does seems like Continue reading →

Passing of Christian Music Legend Larry Norman

Yesterday, Larry Norman passed away. Larry is considered to be the first CCM and Christian rock artist. Larry inspired generations of Christian musicians from the ’60s up to the present, as well as countless fans. While he is best known for the music he wrote during the ’70s and early ’80s, he had continued performing well into this century. I was fortunate enough to have seen Larry perform live once or twice. It really was quite an experience. In addition, Larry was a friend to a friend of mine. The guitarist of one of my former bands played for Larry for a while, and was a personal friend of his. For these reasons, I am sad to see Larry go. I hope I’ll have an opportunity to meet him in heaven. Beyond being an inspiring songwriter, from Continue reading →

So What Ought To Be Done?

“President Bush put in tax rate cuts. This boosted the economy and tax revenue is up. So it wasn’t a “tax cut”, because tax revenue increased. It was a tax rate cut and it worked perfectly.” (http://www.federalbudget.com) So just increasing taxes doesn’t necessarily help—in fact it could actually hurt. Cutting spending is the only solution. There are a few major areas of government spending, which are far ahead of the rest (according to http://www.federalbudget.com). Those areas are Defense, Health and Human Services, Treasury (mostly the interest on the debt that we’ve been talking about), and Social Security. Defense is surely the first place we ought to look, because as mentioned we ought to be able to provide quite adequate defense Continue reading →

Economics: So What’s the Problem For Me?

Just a couple of weeks ago, the Federal Reserve called a special meeting in order to cut the interest rate by three-quarters of a percent. (I won’t explain here, but the Fed’s interest rate is the primary controllable variable which has a significant impact on the economy.) While that may well not mean much to most people, I’ve never heard of the Fed holding a special meeting, and never heard of them changing the interest rate by more than a half-percent, and that only rarely. The economy may or may not be in trouble, but the problem is that it’s a delicate balancing act. It has proven resilient against some crises, but again, it’s not invincible. If one part breaks, the whole thing could come crashing down hard.

So combine an economy Continue reading →

The Federal Deficit: Making It Worse

To make matters worse, our government is spending at an extraordinary rate. Though officially the budget deficit (the amount spent beyond what is brought in each year) is in the hundreds of billions of dollars, according to experts, it’s actually much higher:

“Congress uses “cash accounting” — an accounting practice that would be illegal for any U.S. corporation — in order to report a lower deficit publicly… Congress has not been accounting for outflow to programs such as Medicare and Social Security. Without these omissions, the U.S. budget deficit is well over $3 trillion.”

“We’ve been hiding the bottom line from the American people,” says Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., “It’s not fair to them, and it’s delusional on our part.” (from Continue reading →

The Problem of National Debt

If money were no issue, while these numbers on defense spending might seem amazing, we might also just shrug and say no big deal. But this all has to be paid somehow, and has to be paid by us eventually. The problem is, I believe, that government spending and borrowing are a mystery to most of us. I didn’t understand until recently how it was the government was able to spend more than it brought in. I basically thought that the federal government essentially pulled money out of thin air. However, that’s not the case. Most of us are probably vaguely aware that our government has a debt that is some staggering number. And yet having that debt doesn’t seem to be a problem. But it is.

Currently, the federal debt stands at $9.2 trillion. The Continue reading →

Extraordinary Defense Spending

I am troubled and seriously concerned by a news story I heard this morning on NPR. This isn’t exactly a surprise, because it’s no real secret that things have been getting out of control. Nonetheless the actual figures are staggering. While the story was about defense spending, the real issue is runaway government spending, and the serious economic trouble we may be getting into. I don’t like to be one to run around saying the sky is falling. There hasn’t been any really serious economic depressions since the great depression, and while there are a number of economic stabilizers now that didn’t exist then, that doesn’t mean the economy is never going to crash.

Anyhow, no matter what your political stance or stance on the war on terror, Continue reading →