Defending "Science" Against the Yahoos

The secular humanists are made as hornets and they're not going to take it any more. They've decided to set up a think tank in Washington D.C. from whence they will sally forth when necessary to defend Truth, Justice, and Scientific Naturalism from the Christian fundamentalists who have the impertinence to seek to undermine the latter by insisting on a wall of separation between genuine science and speculative metaphysics.

What the humanists are trying to protect, of course, is not science, because science is not under assault. What is under assault is the philosophical assumption of many scientists that, to paraphrase Carl Sagan, physical, material nature is all there is, all there ever was, and all there ever will be. This assumption is an article of faith among secularists, and they are mobilizing to launch a crusade against the infidels who have emerged from the intellectual backwaters of American society to challenge it.

Meanwhile, Back in Iraq

Here's more on the war in Iraq that you'll never hear on the evening news. Whenever the insurgents try to take on our troops they just get walloped. Bill Roggio gives some details.

The Times Online also has a good feature on how the people of Ramadi are taking up the fight against al Qaeda and the insurgents. Michael Fumento has been to Ramadi recently and files an excellent report on his experiences in that city here.

The impression the average person in the U.S. gets of Iraq from the evening news is of a land torn by a hopeless civil war raging throughout the country, with American troops hunkered down to avoid the bullets. The facts are a lot different. The real picture isn't rosy, certainly, but it's a lot brighter than most of us have been led to believe.

Carter v. Campolo

Joe Carter takes Bart Campolo, son of Tony Campolo, to the woodshed for what he perceives to be a wimpish, even heretical view of God. Carter once or twice comes across as uncharacteristically nasty, but the post is pretty interesting. So are the comments.

Here's what Campolo said that elicited Carter's chastisement:

Some might say I would be wise to swallow my misgivings about such stuff [like God's sovereignty, wrath, hell, etc.], remain orthodox, and thereby secure my place with God in eternity. But that is precisely my point: If those things are true, then God might as well send me to Hell. For better or worse, I simply am not interested in any God but a completely good, entirely loving, and perfectly forgiving One who is powerful enough to utterly triumph over evil. Such a God may not exist, but I will die seeking such a God, and I will pledge my allegiance to no other possibility because, quite frankly, anything less is not worthy of my worship.

Please, don't get me wrong. I am well aware that I don't get to decide who God is. What I do get to decide, however, is to whom I pledge my allegiance. I am a free agent, after all, and I have standards for my God, the first of which is this: I will not worship any God who is not at least as compassionate as I am.

Read Carter's response to Campolo at the link.