There has been a fair bit of hoo-ha in the media of late with the recent release of the papal encyclical on supposed "Climate Change".
The encyclical, titled 'A Cry for the Poor' is actually about the needs of the poor and only very briefly touches on environmental degradation issues (which includes climate as a potential issue) which have the capacity to effect the poor the most. That the Pope is concerned about the poor of the world is of no surprise, as the poor have been on his heart for his entire Catholic ministry.
So what did the Pope write in his encyclical?
Well a very balanced and brief enough article about the encyclical has been posted on Anthony Watts site Wattsupwiththat. The article is entitled 'Thoughts on the papal encyclical on environment' written by Joe Ronan and contains a link the an English translation of the encyclical.
The article is well worth a read no matter what side of the Climate Change divide you sit on, and at the RTB Sydney Chapter here members hold very different positions on this issue but discuss the science, moral and economic issues of possible impacts from anthropogenic induced climate influences with respect towards one another, following the Golden Rule (Luke 6:31).
Its interesting to note, for example, that the Pope is on to those wishing to become billionaires through pushing carbon credit trading on the world. So check out the links and have a read of the encyclical for yourself. Don't just rely on media outlets to tell you what they want you to think and know. Be informed for yourself. We have nothing to fear from the truth.
Anthony
21 June, 2015
11 June, 2015
July meeting for the Sydney Chapter for Reasons to Believe - Friday 3rd July
The July meeting for the Sydney Chapter for Reasons to Believe will be on Friday 3rd July.
We will dive into the fourth session of the Navigating Genesis small group study.
Details are:
Date: Friday, 3rd July
Time: 8:00pm
Subject: Navigating Genesis – session 4
To find out more, contact us at Sydney.Australia@reasons.org
07 June, 2015
Morling College - John Stackhouse - Apologetics for Postmodern Times - 13th July
Public Forum Day
“Why don’t my friends or family members want to talk with me about the most important things in life? What makes modern (and postmodern, and post-postmodern) culture so resistant to the gospel? How can I compel people to confront Jesus—or should I even try to do so?" Join us as we explore what we’re up against, and what we ought to be striving for, in defending and commending the gospel.
Location:
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Morling College
120 Herring Road, Macquarie Park, NSW, 2113. |
Presenter:
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John Stackhouse
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Date:
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Mon, 13/07/2015 - 09:00 to 16:00
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Please note: All attendees should read "Humble Apologetics: Defending the Faith Today" by John Stackhouse prior to this Forum Day. Copies are available through online retailers in both print and e-book editions.
Professor John Stackhouse joins us from Regent University in Canada where he lectures in Theology and Culture. He has a BA (Queen’s), MA (Wheaton), and PhD (Chicago). He has given lectures at leading universities, including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Edinburgh and Fudan, as well as at institutions as varied as Seoul Theological University, the Elijah Institute in Jerusalem, Tyndale House in Cambridge, Brigham Young University, and the ACTS Institute in Bangalore.
11 May, 2015
The GENESIS of LIFE is now available from Koorong
Alan Marshall, one of our Sydney Chapter members here, has just published a book called The Genesis of Life. It's a friendly and easy read so if your not scientifically minded, you will still very much enjoy it. Alan has gone to a lot of trouble to make this work very accessible.
I highly recommend this book to add to your list of apologetics reading. All the details are below.
Friends,
My new book, THE GENESIS OF LIFE: A PATHWAY FOM SCIENCE TO FAITH,
can now be ordered through the Koorong website. The price for the paperback edition is $21.99. If you have enjoyed reading the book, you might like to now recommend it by forwarding this email, with the attachments, to friends you think may be interested. (Koorong don't yet have any stock on their shelves, but I have ample to stock to fill their orders.)
God Bless,
Alan Marshall
Click here to find the book in the Koorong online store: https://www.koorong.com/search/product/the-genesis-of-life-alan-marshall/9781628716184.jhtml
Synopsis
The book aims to engage anyone with an interest in science and faith as it explores not only the origin of life, but the full range of nature's "big questions".
My starting point is that all life is based on information. By quantifying the amount of information needed for the simplest possible organism to grow and reproduce, I demonstrate that this is vastly more than could conceivably arise by random chance. Just as a computer program infers the existence of a programmer, so the elegance and mind-boggling complexity of DNA, and the biochemical machinery it creates, point to a creative intelligence.
Who is this creator? My book suggests he is the one known in the Bible as "I AM who I AM". I seek to lead the reader, assisted by scientific evidence and a series of logical propositions, down a pathway to a deeper faith. How far that pathway is travelled is up to each reader to decide.
Extracts from selected chapters can be read using the links below:
DNA - The Language of Life<http://thegenesisoflife.info/chapter1.htm>
In the Beginning<http://thegenesisoflife.info/chapter2.htm>
The Genesis of Life<http://thegenesisoflife.info/chapter3.htm>
The Genesis Creation Accounts<http://thegenesisoflife.info/chapter7.htm>
What Does It All Mean?<http://thegenesisoflife.info/chapter8.htm>
Author's website<http://thegenesisoflife.info>
What's the smartest animal on the planet? (excluding humans of course)
Intelligent Bird Solves 8 Step Puzzle
A friend just sent me a video clip of a Crow revealing their amazing abilities to problem solve.
Back in 2009 Reasons to Believe posted a Todays New Reasons to Believe article on the intelligence of Corvids. The Corvid family comprises Ravens and Crews. You can read the original post here: Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore.”
Now a series from the BBC has captured the astonishing capabilities of the Crovids. You can see a short excerpt from the series on YouTube here:
Are crows the ultimate problem solvers? - Inside the Animal Mind: Episode 2 - BBC Two
Corvids: The Birds Who Think Like Humans article from io9 may also help to show the amazing cognitive capabilities of the Corvids.
These are truly remarkable metal capabilities for an animal. Moreover, Chimpanzees are not able to accomplish this feat without significant teaching and training from humans first. Corvids are capable of problem solving like this directly from the wild.
As the TNRB article shows... Caledonian crows [though not quite matching ravens in intellectual prowess] outperform monkeys in their ability to retrieve food from a trap tube–from which food can be accessed only at one end.” They also refer to an experiment demonstrating that “crows can also work out how to use one tool to obtain a second with which they can retrieve food, a skill that monkeys and apes struggle to master.” Evidently, certain bird species exhibit greater powers of the mind than do apes. (See crows’ cognitive powers in action here.).
When it comes to which animal, between the Corvids or Apes, shows the closest metal capabilities to humanity, Corvids win hands (or wings) down.
Now that's a disconnect between Darwinian Theory and reality. Food for thought there!
A friend just sent me a video clip of a Crow revealing their amazing abilities to problem solve.
Back in 2009 Reasons to Believe posted a Todays New Reasons to Believe article on the intelligence of Corvids. The Corvid family comprises Ravens and Crews. You can read the original post here: Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore.”
Now a series from the BBC has captured the astonishing capabilities of the Crovids. You can see a short excerpt from the series on YouTube here:
Are crows the ultimate problem solvers? - Inside the Animal Mind: Episode 2 - BBC Two
Corvids: The Birds Who Think Like Humans article from io9 may also help to show the amazing cognitive capabilities of the Corvids.
These are truly remarkable metal capabilities for an animal. Moreover, Chimpanzees are not able to accomplish this feat without significant teaching and training from humans first. Corvids are capable of problem solving like this directly from the wild.
As the TNRB article shows... Caledonian crows [though not quite matching ravens in intellectual prowess] outperform monkeys in their ability to retrieve food from a trap tube–from which food can be accessed only at one end.” They also refer to an experiment demonstrating that “crows can also work out how to use one tool to obtain a second with which they can retrieve food, a skill that monkeys and apes struggle to master.” Evidently, certain bird species exhibit greater powers of the mind than do apes. (See crows’ cognitive powers in action here.).
When it comes to which animal, between the Corvids or Apes, shows the closest metal capabilities to humanity, Corvids win hands (or wings) down.
Now that's a disconnect between Darwinian Theory and reality. Food for thought there!
04 April, 2015
Happy Easter!
“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” 1 Peter 2:24 (NIV)
Isaiah 53 New International Version (NIV)
Isaiah 53 New International Version (NIV)
Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
4 Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression[a] and judgment he was taken away.
Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was punished.[b]
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression[a] and judgment he was taken away.
Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was punished.[b]
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the Lord makes[c] his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
11 After he has suffered,
he will see the light of life[d] and be satisfied[e];
by his knowledge[f] my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,[g]
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,[h]
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.
and though the Lord makes[c] his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
11 After he has suffered,
he will see the light of life[d] and be satisfied[e];
by his knowledge[f] my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,[g]
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,[h]
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.
Footnotes:
- Isaiah 53:8 Or From arrest
- Isaiah 53:8 Or generation considered / that he was cut off from the land of the living, / that he was punished for the transgression of my people?
- Isaiah 53:10 Hebrew though you make
- Isaiah 53:11 Dead Sea Scrolls (see also Septuagint); Masoretic Text does not have the light of life.
- Isaiah 53:11 Or (with Masoretic Text) 11 He will see the fruit of his suffering / and will be satisfied
- Isaiah 53:11 Or by knowledge of him
- Isaiah 53:12 Or many
- Isaiah 53:12 Or numerous
13 March, 2015
Creation and the Bible course is back - Sign up now!
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March 10, 2015
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Creation and the Bible Course
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