As I type this blog, Dr. Phil is holding forth on “Larry King Live.” He’s saying that there was no way that anyone could have predicted that the troubled Cho Seung-Hui would have perpetrated the awful massacre at Virginia Tech on Monday. Dr. Phil makes his case as controversy has already erupted over the University’s failure to prevent this tragedy by failing to respond to early signs that Seung-Hui was a troubled, depressed person. Dr. Phil advises, “There is no answer to ‘why,’ so the question becomes ‘what.'” What ought survivors to do now to cope with this meaningless catastrophe?
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Injured Virginia Tech Student Describes the Attack
VIDEO: Interview with Injured Student – MSNBC.com VIDEO: Interview with Eyewitness – MSNBC.com
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Lesbian Conception
This chilling report comes from the U.K. Independent: Women might soon be able to produce sperm in a development that could allow lesbian couples to have their own biological daughters, according to a pioneering study published today. Scientists are seeking ethical permission to produce synthetic sperm cells from a woman’s bone marrow tissue after showing that it possible to produce rudimentary sperm cells from male bone-marrow tissue. I wish that we could agree that not everything that can be done should be done. Not all scientific advances are moral. But that doesn’t seem to bother these researchers or even the broader culture. Is there any question that we are living…
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Does a right to privacy equal a right to incest?
When the Supreme Court handed down its infamous Lawrence v. Texas decision (which banned anti-Sodomy laws) in 2003, opponents of the decision argued that this precedent would lead to attempts to legalize all manner of aberrant sexual practices. It looks like these critics turned out to be right. Time magazine reports:
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Dallas Tent Revival
The Dallas Morning News reports that layman Kyle Martin has organized an old fashioned tent revival for Dallas, Texas. Sam Hodges describes the line-up of preachers who are slated to speak:
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Evangelicals and Divorce in America
David Instone-Brewer contributes an interesting piece in the opinion section of today’s Wall Street Journal. The article uses Rudy Guiliani’s multiple marriages as a springboard for discussing American evangelicalism’s attitudes about divorce. He writes,
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Rick Warren on Inerrancy
John Meacham of Newsweek magazine moderated an informal debate between Southern Baptist Pastor Rick Warren and atheist Sam Harris. The conversation was wide-ranging and free-wheeling.
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Gays at Southern Seminary?
There were indeed some gays at Southern seminary yesterday, but none who were matriculating. They were all protesters from the homosexual activist groups Soulforce and the Fairness Campaign (pictures below). Soulforce is known for holding demonstrations at colleges and universities that have policies against homosexuality. They brought their movable feast to Southern yesterday because of Dr. Albert Mohler’s recent, controversial essay, “Is Your Baby Gay?” The Associated Press has the report:
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American Paganism
“The evidence that a culture is descending into paganism is always manifest in the body count. A pagan culture is always a culture of death. This was true in the ancient Near East and it is true in modern America. . . Today the unborn, the partially born, and the handicapped newly born are daily sacrificed to the false gods of ‘choice,’ ‘autonomy,’ ‘self-fulfullment,’ ‘compassion,’ and ‘liberation,’ on stainless steel altars, by priests robed in surgical whites, in storefront temples, run by the keepers of the cult, like Planned Parenthood.” —Robert P. George, “Un-American Idols: on the Foolproof Test for Paganism” Touchstone (March 2007), p. 15 The rest of Robert…
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The Atheist Debate
Thanks to Justin Taylor for alerting us to the video of a debate between Alister McGrath (theist) and Peter Atkins (atheist). Alister McGrath is Professor of Historical Theology at Oxford University, and Peter Atkins is Professor of Chemistry at Oxford University. Debate: “Darwin and humanity: Should we rid the mind of God? (2007)”