A Defense of Absolute Truth

4/30/2013 note: If you are coming here from Google, here is the update to this post. I tried to make use of some editing skills to make it more readable.

Reposted from what seems like a now-defunct Garage Scholars blog (argh!). A very good recap of a Ravi Zacharias message, “A Defense of Absolute Truth”, which details why secularism fails to provide a coherent set of answers to the problems of the world (part 1 | part 2).

An interesting anecdotal defense of this point is in the second result of this Google search.

Here’s a gem: Secularization = no shame. Relativism = no reason. Privatization = no meaning. [All three have occurred to varying degrees in Westernized civilizations.]

Original post has been reposted below.

[note: in case you missed it, this is a recap which has taken on a kind of bullet-point form. I’ve reformatted parts of it for readability. If you don’t get parts of it, feel free to comment.

note #2: thread available at Newsvine. I’m thinking about manually importing it.]

On Saturday, March 12, the Garage Scholars, named that day by Robert Grange, held their second meeting and listened to a talk by Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias. This talk was given the day before Ravi’s talk at the Mormon Tabernacle.

Ravi Zacharias
A Defense of Absolute Truth
11/13/05
The University of Utah

Sexuality, marriage, stem-cell research, genetics—“these things are getting very, very complex.” It’s hard to know “how to address this tangled subject with meaning and coherence.”

Tsunami rebuilding is largely a failure

This post will be serving as a complement to a future post I’ll be doing on the failure of foreign aid. That’s right. So if you think your almsgiving has been helping people, think again. It might just have been funnelled to a terrorist agency, who knows.

The point is, don’t give blindly. Look at the financial breakdown of agencies you’re prospectively giving to in order to avoid scams (see Steve Irwin scam). Also, especially for churches – if your church is planning on building a multimillion-dollar new structure to incorporate new bells and whistles, while the main complex has proven to be relatively structurally sound, don’t go building it. If you really want to renew your city and impact the world, start a homeless sponsorship program or support a native missionary!

(BTW for you non-Christian readers, I’m going to argue a thesis that sponsorship of native-missionaries is becoming more effective as a medium for positive social change than traditional means).

The purchasing power of the US dollar in undeveloped countries could mean the difference between your sponsorship of Bill Missionary on a 6-week term from the US vs. support of Rajasekhar, Khagendra, Shen, and 16 others like them full-time and year-round, willing to risk all for Jesus.

Which is the better “investment”?

http://tinyurl.com/hd75d

Associated Press

Originally published September 24, 2006

KAMPUNG JAWA, Indonesia // The tsunami of 2004 triggered the biggest humanitarian response in history, feeding the hungry, heading off epidemics and engendering the hope that out of a calamity that took 216,000 lives, a better Indian Ocean rim would emerge.

But 18 months later recriminations are rife, with aid agencies standing accused of planning poorly, raising unrealistic expectations and simply being incompetent.

video: Fox News with Bill Clinton (Chris Wallace Interview)

US Conservatives really need to be educated on spin. It’s too bad for liberals, too, that lack of representation in the Senate and House has led to such sycophancy.

In any case, let’s hope the video stays for awhile before Fox takes it down:

Part I:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-649761639290777197&q=clinton+fox

Part II:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6620818158935418334&q=clinton+fox

[update: Google took it down. Probably due to Fox hounds (pun intended). Download the torrent here.]

Also at Crooks and Liars. Firefox users, I suggest DownloadHelper to rip the video.

Comments (on Part II) by the timestamp of this post included:

I love the smell of Fox napalmed in the morning.
posted 10 hours ago by Hillaryious

Clinton whipped Chris Wallace’s a**ssss!!!! Yeee haw!
posted 10 hours ago by Billdiggity

Rich nations seek stable global path

The problem with economics educations these days is that the most important points – such as market failure (e.g., failure to account for the cost of polluting mutually beneficial community space) – become so marginalized they eventually become tossed by the roadside of free-marketeerism. [google: environmental economists]

And so we fall into the sheeple mentality where “our leaders” will do something about it. “Our leaders” will stand for us. “Our leaders” will protect us, etc.

Leaders can include all types of people, and they’re not necessarily evil. But when people such as the President or pastors are looked at as “lifelong” or even just “life” leaders, we’ve got a big problem.

That is why I write this blog. I want to challenge you to think independently, think logically (e.g., why trust the government vs. “just don’t trust the government”), and to seek God’s guidance and Jesus’ example in thinking correctly (or alternatively, with moral responsibility).

99.9% of our “leaders” lack this attitude, and that is why the continued exploitation of the poor, among many other injustices, will continue to the very end of the Age.

New York Times via International Herald Tribune.

By Steven R. Weisman The New York Times
SEPTEMBER 17, 2006

SINGAPORE Even before the conclusion of the annual gathering of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, a striking swing in the global order has been obvious. China and other fast-growing developing countries are demanding a bigger say in the aging institutions that superintend the world economy.

IMF’s fears over [world] economy must be heeded

A long-argued thesis of mine, here is yet more support. It’s too bad there’s no mention of Peak Oil or Global Warming/Climate Change here, though. These are no doubt the two greatest challenges (or, to be more specific, apocalyptic calamities) that will grind civilization either to dust (population-wise) and destroy much of the technology and information we’ve accrued during the Age of Oil.

And it should be obvious to most of you that not too many people are doing anything about it.

The Six Stages of Job Loss
Stage 1: Shock and Denial
Stage 2: Fear and Panic
Stage 3: Anger
Stage 4: Bargaining
Stage 5: Depression
Stage 6: Temporary Acceptance

You ready for it? Who or what will you stand for, in the end? What message will your life and death be sending out to those around you?

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Sorry about the delay in posting, for those of you who were on my feed; I’m now back in school to finish my bachelor’s. I’m also hoping to get Part 2 of the “Second Coming” series out by today. [update: okay, maybe by Saturday]
http://tinyurl.com/s3dm5
[note: taken from google news, where it seems the actual fears are far from the dominating header, as would be expected]

You can’t expect the International Monetary Fund to come out and say the world is headed for a global financial crash. And it isn’t saying that.

But what it is saying, in its own careful way, is that the risk of such a calamity is increasing.

The Second Coming, part 1 – Intro

The “Beast” found in Revelation has long been the center of much eschatological speculation over the years, and I’ve decided to focus this series of posts to the proper analysis and criticism of various theories available on the internet and elsewhere.

Before I get started, though, it’s important to first understand the perspective John (author of Revelation) was coming from, and the mindset of the audience he was writing to – one of expectation of the imminent return of Jesus Christ as supreme conquerer of the world, even in spite of the many who had “fallen asleep” before his return by AD 66-68.

Scarcity, the mother of invention

Yet another argument for human innovation and ingenuity. Ladies and gentlemen, look no further than Japan for a realistic perspective on human innovation for the last 30 years.
Moreover, if there have been wars over salt, why be so quick to rule one out over oil? Granted, there are far more NWO/secret-society complications with the onset of the current nation-state arrangement, but the pattern of the rape and pillaging of defenseless countries and their peoples continues, doesn’t it?

found at Energybulletin: http://energybulletin.net/19220.html

by Stephen L. Sass, NY Times via International Herald Tribune

In the wake of the closure of a BP oil field in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, oil prices shot up to $77 a barrel on Wednesday, and the chorus of doomsayers concerned about the dire consequences of our fossil fuel dependency has reached a crescendo. If oil hits $100 a barrel, the impact on the economy could be catastrophic, the handwringers warn. But while such a specter seems novel and terrifying, it is in fact familiar and useful.

Throughout history, shortages of vital resources have driven innovation, and energy has often starred in these technological dramas. The search for new sources of energy and new materials has frequently produced remarkable advances that no one could have imagined when the shortage first became evident.

China’s economy is out of control (and that’s not a good thing)

I love how everyone says “China is gonna be the next superpower” without actually sitting down, beer in hand, and crunching some numbers. Yes, they do have a million-man standing army. Yes, they do hold a massive amount of the US’ import debt. Yes, they do have nukes. But is that enough to ensure a 21st-century USA-style global domination? Maybe. Then again, probably not.Why not, you ask? Here are some reasons:

1. “Chinese people” don’t all speak “the same language”. They can read the same language – but that doesn’t quite come off the same when you want to pull off a Nuremberg rally. A recent poll showed that only around 50% of people had learned Standard Mandarin, the official government-sanctioned second language, despite a recent massive ad-blitz advocating proficiency.

We Must Preserve The Earth’s Dwindling Resources For My Five Children

I know I haven’t posted in a very, very long time. My apologies. In truth, I’ve been circling around it like a vulture, trying to figure out what to do with it. However, that doesn’t change the fact that we are quickly changing this place to a hell-on-earth, Malthus-style.

Note: For the uninformed, the Onion is a satirical newspaper.