Life / Religion / Philosophy / Science / Polictics

Category: Science

Discussion about SCIENCE and ENGINEERING – All SCIENCE and all ENGINEERING. If there is a SCIENCE or ENGINEERING discipline that interests me, you will find it here.

  • Are Electronic Voting Machines A Danger to American Elections?

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    Perhaps you have seen this story in the news. FOX News and Dominion Voting Systems Corporation came to an agreed upon settlement over an alleged defamation of Dominion Voting Systems Corporation by FOX News. FOX News has another potential lawsuit looming in their future from Smartmatic, another electronic voting machines company.

    And with one lawsuit now settled the American populace might very well believe that the issues are settled and that whatever the outcome, they will just have to live with whatever voting mechanism their local precinct provides.

    However, the question still remains, are electronic voting machines a danger to elections? This question has not been definitely answered in the arena of public debate. And given that free, open, and trustworthy elections are a bedrock to any democracy, it would seem important that we answer that question.

    In order to answer that question, we should understand what a ‘voting’ machine does. Perhaps you have experienced the tables with the guides built into them that you slide your paper ballot into. The guides cause certain blocks to align with a voting booklet anchored within the guides of the table. You vote by either checking or filling in a box, or by using a small punch pin to puncture a hole in the ballot paper. These ‘voting machines’ assist the voter with casting a ballot during an election. And they are not without problems. Who can forget the hanging chads of the 2000 U.S. Presidential election? And one need not look very far in order to discover horror stories of ballots that ended up misaligned in the table guides resulting in invalid or wrong votes being recorded.

    You may have also encountered the aforementioned electronic voting machines made by Dominion or Smartmatic. These machines also record your vote, and they may also transmit votes or a tally of votes.

    Voting machines are thus used to either aid in votes being made efficiently and easily, and then counting those votes, or both. And at the end of the day, they are nothing more than capture and tabulating machines. They do not even require the sophistication of a desktop calculator (such as the Texas Instruments TI-84) which contains far more processing power than any voting precinct would require.

    And when you introduce computers into a process that only requires a modest amount of simplicity, you introduce inherent risks. Technologies such as touchscreens, digital vote capture, and digital transmission of votes all bring risk to our election cycles unnecessarily. Dan Wallach has been a leading researcher of the use of electronic voting systems for several years (and full disclosure here, Dan is the son of Steve Wallach, the former VP of Engineering at Convex Computer Corporation. I worked for Convex in the early 1990’s. I do not know Dr. Wallach, I only worked in the organization his dad was the head of) and has led teams to study their vulnerabilities and strengths. Here are a couple of articles pertaining to his work: Texas 2020 Elections, and A Texas County Clerk’s Bold Crusade to Transform How We Vote | WIRED.

    I would encourage every voter in the USA to read Dr. Wallach’s work on voting machine security and listen to some of the professional testimony he has given (linked here) in order to help educate ourselves on risks we may, or may not be accepting within our voting processes.

    So, are these machines a danger to American Elections? From my perspective, I believe they absolutely are. And I also believe the American voting populace should be very concerned about them.

    Cyber Security experts the world over will attest to the many vulnerabilities of digital equipment/software. Computers, cellphones, even modern-day cars may be hacked. And digital voting machines have the potential to be hacked and have digital results altered. And why would we risk our National elections upon machines that while they bring some convenience to the voter (which is also debatable in all circumstances), also brings greater security risks along with it?

    Elections, no matter how they are conducted, are subject to fraud and abuse. The introduction of digital media into the process simply adds another avenue for the potential fraud and abuse to take place within.

    One possible solution to this problem might be to build the machines as tabulators only. They should be completely hardwired, contain no digital storage, and be completely open source. These tabulation machines could read a bar code or QR code off of a printed ballot along with a voter marking. Set bar codes or QR codes could be permanently assigned to parties. Thus, the Democrat Party would have a well-known bar code, the Republican Party would have a well-known bar code, along with the Libertarian Party, the Green Party, even write-in sections would have their own unique bar codes. Voters would mark their ballots with an indelible ink or a magnetic ink. The tabulation machines would then simply read the barcodes/QR codes that had been marked. Dual marked ballots would be rejected. All others would advance a counter as appropriate.

    At least with this method, the paper ballot would remain the voting mechanism as well as the voting record. Election disputes would be handled by the examination and recounting of the paper ballots. Only the number of ballots for registered voters in each precinct would need to be printed. Early voting and mail-in ballots should be eliminated completely. Military voting could be handled as its own district.

    These methods will not eliminate election fraud/voter fraud, but they might help reduce it. The American people need to make some hard and fast decisions concerning election practices moving forward. Decisions to secure our elections, reduce voter fraud, eliminate illegal alien voting (eliminate any non-citizen voting), and return trust and faith in our elections. And we need to do this in order to preserve the honor and integrity of our democracy.

    But these things will not come from our leaders. These changes will only come from the people. We must let our elected officials know that we require change, and then hold them accountable to that.

    Additional Research/Reading Material:

    Why paper is considered state-of-the-art voting technology (brookings.edu)

    Texas voting machines aren’t switching votes | The Texas Tribune

    The voting machine hacking threat you probably haven’t heard about – POLITICO

    Electronic voting machines security risk | InfoWorld

    New Study Reveals Concerns with Electronic Voting Machines (spectrumlocalnews.com)

    Dan Wallach – Voting Machines – ProCon.org

    Dan S. Wallach | Faculty | The People of Rice | Rice University

    Dan Wallach / Home Page (rice.edu)

  • What Will Wisdom Gain You?

    I come from a family of fairly well-educated individuals. My paternal grandfather was a public-school administrator, my parents, an aunt, and my sister all hold (or held) advanced degrees from well-known accredited universities. My father graduated from Purdue University with a degree in Electrical Engineering.

    I, on the other hand, failed to graduate from High School. I did acquire a General Equivalency Diploma (G.E.D.) from Seminole Community College later on.

    And yet, right before my father’s death in 2018, he pulled me aside and told me I was the smartest person in the room. It was Christmas time. And what family members could, were gathered at my parents’ house in Tennessee all knowing that it was very likely my dad’s last Christmas as he had been battling cancer for quite some time. My wife and I had arrived late and were to stay in the camper out in the barn. The family was taking the time to walk us through all of the particulars of staying in the camper when all I wanted was to just crawl into bed and sleep. As some of the instructions seemed to drag out and contain little relevance to sleeping in the camper (at least in my opinion) I insisted on cutting them short and just allowing my wife and I to be able to sleep. Needless to say, this was not received well and as everyone was tired and worried about dad, some arguments ensued.

    I quickly reached a point where I decided that the 7-hour drive back home was preferable to arguing and not getting any sleep and I went into the house to tell my ailing father that my wife and I would indeed not be staying but rather were going to head back home (which we did the following morning).

    It was during this conversation, where I actually thanked my dad for the invitation, and attempted to explain that from my point of view all we wanted to do was just go to sleep and that we would be happy to sort out all of the particulars of the camper rules in the morning, when my dad looked at me and asked a question he had never asked before. Ever. He looked and me and said, “Who is the smartest person here?” Which I immediately thought was a trick question as I tried to think of just what the correct answer could be. The sister with the PhD was the immediately obvious choice. But mom, with a Masters Degree certainly had to be considered. And of course, I’m sitting there talking to the one person the whole family considered the smartest person there, my dad. Dad worked for NASA his entire career and had a t-shirt that said, “Well yes, I actually AM a Rocket Scientist” (which was true). And while I was sitting there with all of this running through my head, dad said the most surprising thing he ever said to me, “You are.” Dad had said a lot of things to me about education, academia, studies, and learning over the years, but never had they included the words “smartest person in the room” when referring to me. But dad was not finished talking just yet. Because he had a point in saying what he said. And so, he went on to say, “And being the smartest person in the room can be both a blessing and a curse.”

    It was at this point I instantly knew that dad was telling me to ‘Man up’, ‘be the bigger person’, and that sometimes you had to take a few hits in order to walk the path of serenity. And yes, that may sound a little New Age and sappy, but the truth of the matter is that sometimes you have to be the person that takes the path that maintains peace in a relationship. And dad was telling me, in a very diplomatic way, that he understood my argument, and that I was tired and just wanted to go to sleep, but that he also understood that there were other people in the family that had considerations also. He was asking me, politely, to be the one to take the steps to peace.

    And so, of course this was a life defining conversation, right? And I instantly did the right thing, correct? Well while dad’s words did have an impact, and while they did calm me down during the moment, my wife and I still left for home the next morning.

    But what dad (whom the whole family really did consider to be ‘the smartest person in the room‘) demonstrated at the moment was not great intelligence, but rather wisdom. And perhaps a little political savviness as well.

    And as Dennis Prager has pointed out numerous times, they are not the same.

    Intelligence may define your capacity for learning or understanding, but it does not encompass all learning. A medical doctor may be quite accomplished in the field of medicine while not being very learned (having acquired much knowledge) in the field of quantum physics. At the same time a Quantum Physicist may not be very accomplished in the field of medicine. But no one would argue that both the doctor and the scientist are not quite intelligent individuals. A smart person on the other hand, may demonstrate the capacity for intelligence without having the learning behind it.

    Wisdom, however, is the ability to discern knowledge and truths and use them to take correct actions. And wisdom begins with the Lord (Psalms 111:10, Proverbs 1:7, Proverbs 9:10). In order to correctly discern all that we observe in the world around us, we need to first start with a world view that begins with the Lord God. It is only then that we can then put into practice what our intelligence brings to the table in order to effect good outcomes.

    Unfortunately, we have a lot of intelligence in our leadership today. But it lacks wisdom. Our President, Vice President, Senators, and Congressmen are all applying intelligence to their job of running our country. But very few are applying wisdom. And it is simply because they don’t begin with the Lord God.

    What will wisdom gain you? Peace. Peace in the family, peace in your life, peace in your country, and peace in the world. And the really great thing is, you don’t have to take out a student loan in order to obtain it. Wisdom is free for the asking: James 1:5. A really smart person would ask for some today.

  • When Do We Commit to Life?

    Here is something I penned some 17 years ago concerning Terri Schiavo and her husband’s decision to remove her from life support:

    The-Murder-of-Terri-Schiavo.docDownload

    The question then, as it is today, is when do you commit to life (or not)? When we realize that life is a gift from God, and that it is He who grants it and He who takes it away, we begin to understand how precious it is to Him and what our responsibility should be to it.

    Unfortunately, there is little regard for the sanctity of life today whether it be unborn children being aborted, murders throughout our country, euthanasia, physician assisted suicides, or senseless acts of war crimes.

    But God’s position on life hasn’t changed since the beginning of time. It is He who grants life and sustains it. God, being a infinite omnipotent, and omniscient being, expresses himself through his creation. His entire creation from the expanses of the universe to the creatures that crawl, walk, fly, and swim in the seas of the planet Earth.

    However, mankind is the one creation made in his image. We are the one creation meant to have a lasting and loving relationship with Him as part of His family. When God created humans, He created family. And when we are caviler with life, we are being irresponsible with that which was made in God’s own image.

    Our society needs to return to a sanctity for life. Human life. It is the disrespect for human life (or cheapening of human life) that leads us down the path of disregard for others and to begin to make ourselves as gods. We cannot create, Satan and the angelic hosts cannot create, only God can create life where there was no life, and we should respect that and do everything we can to cherish and preserve it where possible.

    The movie Lifemark is a great true-life story about what happens when someone chooses life. I’d highly encourage everyone to go see it. It is based on the real-life documentary I lived on Parker Avenue which you can watch on YouTube:

    Seventeen years ago, and beyond, I chose life. And today I still choose life. Hopefully, life will be a part of your consideration when voting this year.

  • Rush Limbaugh Passed Away Today

    Rush Limbaugh finally succumbed to lung cancer and passed away this morning. And I cannot tell you of the wave of grief that swept over me upon hearing the news.

    Many people are paying tribute to Rush and many are telling what Rush meant to them.

    And I just want to take a moment here and record what, and who Rush Limbaugh was to me.

    First of all, if you do not know who Rush Limbaugh is, well then let me say you should. It most parts of the world it would be hard not to know who Rush Limbaugh is and was. You should know who Rush Limbaugh is because of the great light of truth he let shine forth from his life and his work. You should know who Rush Limbaugh is because of the transformational way he approached his chosen profession and because of the astounding changes he was able to make within that profession over the course of his career.

    But many, many others are, and will, heap accolades on Rush for all of these things and what he meant to his community. And I’ll let them do that as they can handle it much better than I can.

    What I’d like to do is tell you who Rush Limbaugh was to me in a way that I don’t believe anyone else will.

    Rush Limbaugh was the greatest Pastor to ever live (and probably ever will live). And I am a Pastor, so I can say that with all sincerity and meaning. But here is why:

    Rush Limbaugh had the largest flock of any Pastor I’ve ever known. Some 25 to 30 million people tuned in to his broadcast every single weekday and sometimes on Sunday. He had a huge congregation. Bigger than anyone else, probably in all of history. And that is completely astounding when you think about how effortlessly he pulled it off.

    Rush Limbaugh captured the attention of his audience almost every single day. Most Pastors have difficulty retaining the attention of our congregation 2 or 3 times a week. Not Rush. Every time Rush began his broadcast, millions and millions were waiting to tune in to hear what he had to say. And for every listener he lost, he gained two more. He was constantly adding to the fold.

    Rush Limbaugh had the longest sermons at the greatest retention rate. Rush would sit behind the golden EIB microphone and preach for three hours a day. Now to be fair, most preachers out there can preach for three hours (although I doubt they can sustain it for five days a week on an ongoing basis). But most preachers preaching for three hours usually find themselves preaching to empty pews.

    Rush Limbaugh preached the truth. He coined the term Truth in Broadcasting and referred to himself as the Truth Detector. And isn’t that what Pastors do? Preach truth. Now I can just hear the screams of heresy shouted my way. But hold on a minute. The Truth of the Gospel is the Truth of conservatism. Lets face it, Rush was hugely Pro Life. Christians are (or should be) Pro Life. The Bible teaches a Pro Life message. Rush was all about Freedom. And the Bible teaches true Freedom. But Paul! Rush didn’t teach from the Bible! He didn’t expound upon Scriptures. He didn’t … Let me tell you something, Rush Limbaugh has been more of a shining light than all of the Pastors in this country combined.

    Rush Limbaugh changed lives. And isn’t that the goal of Pastors? At least in their preaching? To change lives? I am pretty sure that some people who listened to Rush over the years actually were prompted by the Holy Spirit and sought out Salvation. So yes, I think it very likely that Rush Limbaugh led come people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. But here is something Rush did that may have been more impactful than that. He changed Christian lives. Rush changed peoples minds. Where people were stuck in darkness and untruth, Rush shone the light of truth and people actually switched over to the other side. And that is even more astounding because those changed lives will go out and change more lives and those will go change even more. Rush helped spread the message. And that is something we so often fail to do.

    Rush Limbaugh mastered all mediums. I can’t tell you how many Pastors I’ve heard talk about throwing the seed by any means possible. Well Rush Limbaugh mastered Talk Radio, Printed Word, Television, Live gatherings with stadiums full of people. Rush was a master at whatever method was available for getting the message out. And he was better at it than any Pastor on the radio I know, or TV, or Evangelist, or author. Rush knew how to communicate. He knew how to connect. And that is a trait that every single Pastor should aspire to.

    So Rush Limbaugh had a larger congregation, for more times a week, for longer periods of time each time than any other Pastor alive today or in recent memory. Rush Limbaugh was highly successful in Talk, Print, Video, Face-to-Face, large gatherings, small gatherings, any gatherings. More so than any Pastor anywhere in the land today. And he did it with ease and made it look like he was having fun.

    And here is the saddest part of it all. We Pastors, for the most part, refused to learn a single thing from him. Oh, I know Pastors from all over tuned into Rush’s show and I’m sure we all learned a lot about the topics of the day from that. What I mean is we never learned how to be a Pastor from Rush. We never learned how to preach the way Rush preached. We never learned how to share the way Rush shared. We never learned how to connect to people the way Rush Limbaugh connected to people. And that is very, very sad.

    Who was Rush Limbaugh to me? A great Pastor, a great Communicator, a talented giant greatly blessed of God who kept half of his brain tied behind his back just to make it fair to the rest of us.

    “Where never lark, or ever eagle flew –
    And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
    The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
    Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.”

    High Flight – John Gillespie Magee

    Go in peace Rush Limbaugh and may God bless your soul. You will be greatly missed.

  • Have You Voted On An ElectroniC Voting Machine?

    Have you ever voted using an electronic machine? Did you vote in the last US Presidential Election using an electronic voting machine?

    If you have, what assurances do you have that your vote was counted as cast?

    Whether Republican or Democrat, Libertarian or Green Party, or even if you just voted with a write in, you should be concerned with the integrity of elections, And if you voted on an electronic machine you should be very concerned as to how that machine is processing your vote.

    In the recent US Presidential Elections at least 28 US States certified and used Dominion Voting Machines. There has been a lot in the news about these machines, their use, and their integrity within the voting system. And I believe a public debate on the subject is worthwhile and especially timely.

    Today I’d like to share some of my thoughts concerning that debate and hopefully further the discussion on what should be expected as we move forward.

    First of all it is my assertion that any voting system should be developed, maintained, and deployed by the country conducting the election. Countries around the world consistently and continually seek to influence the governments of other countries to include their election systems and how they place people in positions of leadership and power. This includes the United States of America and every other developed nation in the world. Countries always look out after their best interests and having like minded allies or world partners willing to work with them toward common goals is always sought after. And this influence extends to countries that choose their leadership via a public voting mechanism. It only stands to reason that at some point countries will try and manipulate the voting mechanism as well if they are given the opportunity. If a voting system is developed outside of the country using that system it is much more suspect and control is lost. Dominion Voting Systems states they are a private US owned entity that started in Canada on their WEB site. They also state their systems are used by several countries. However, in my opinion it would be much more palatable to have a not for profit entity that published its architecture and code.

    Secondly, what the voting machine itself does is important as to how it should be treated or trusted. By this I mean that there are different stages to a voting process that should not be combined into a single step or handled by a single machine in order to maintain the integrity of the election. Think about how elections are generally conducted. Candidates for an office usually have to file with an Agency that they intend to run in a particular election. Those candidates that meet the criteria for that election then campaign against their opponents in order to sway public opinion and gain their votes. At election time, qualified voters need to be vetted and authorized to vote in the election. This usually occurs through a voter registration system. On Election Day, the voters are then verified against the voter registration as they cast their vote. This system is intended to verify that a voter only casts one vote in the election and that unqualified votes are not cast. The voter then has to vote through some mechanism. Either by marking a paper ballot, punching a card, or even selecting an option on an electronic machine. The cast votes then need to be counted and tabulated. The results then need to be certified and reported. All of these steps are checks and balances within the system and should not be combined. For example, if an electronic machine is used to record the voters intended vote, that same machine should not be the mechanism whereby those votes are counted. And throughout the process you should have total transparency and verification of the actual intent. Meaning that the voter should have every confidence that their vote is treated and counted exactly as they cast it.

    Thirdly, the mechanisms used at each step should be repeatable and produce the exact same set of results each and every time. Think of the process of the voter casting a vote. If paper ballots are used, those paper ballots should have a strict chain of custody and we should be able to count those ballots repeatedly with the exact same results each and every time. The protections within the system should never allow for ballots to be added in or taken away from the set of actual qualified votes that were cast. We should be able to preserve the integrity of the election to the point that even years later, if one were to count the ballots, the same results would be returned as they were on election day.

    Lastly, the machines used at varying stages within the process should not be alterable in any form. By this I mean they should definitely not be programable or accessed by any outside means (such as a network, digital media, or any device meant to enter data into the machine for the purpose of altering its intended behavior). Think of a basic desktop calculator (such as this model). Desktop calculators are generally hardcoded machines. Meaning that you should always be able to enter 2 + 2 and get the answer 4. And the machines are such that no one should be able to access that unit once its been manufactured and alter it in such a manner as to cause a different operation (such as causing 2 + 2 to return the answer 48). Any electronic (or electromechanical) machine used within the voting system should operate in exactly the same manner as the desktop calculator. It should be unalterable at the point of manufacture, and it should produce the exact same results for an operation each and every time, and it should be easily verifiable for correct operation.

    These machines should be open architecture. Meaning there should be no proprietary components or software contained within them. One of the biggest problems with Dominion Voting Systems is their claim that they need to protect company proprietary information. That is all any authority needs to know to immediately disqualify their systems. Any electronic or electromechanical system used within the voting process should have all schematics publicly posted and any code (to include firmware) publicly posted. Any registered voter should have complete access to this information and the machines should be easily verifiable as deployed.

    Dominion Voting Systems violate so many of these rules as to make them totally untrustworthy and they should not be used within the US electoral system. It is my hope that enough of a public outcry will be generated as to force those who oversee the election process in our country to stop using these systems and to secure our election process for future generations.

  • Are You Affected by the Global Pandemic?

    If you are online today you are obviously aware of the global pandemic. Have you been affected by it in some way, shape, or fashion? It would seem that despite the sickness, loss-of-life, and health impacts to others, the greatest impact has been in economic and social realms.

    This impact leads to the question of whether or not there can or should be restitution for the affects on peoples lives. This question has been asked in the news and indeed some governments have moved this question into the legal arena within the courts.

    To answer this question we would first need to determine culpability. Was this an “act of god”? Or was it under the control of human intervention and could it have been prevented?

    Most people are probably aware that the COVID-19 impact started in Wuhan China. But was it a natural outbreak from animals like bats (as some have suggested) or were humans involved? Today, I’d like to share with you a paper researched and written by a friend and colleague of mine, Dr. Ray Miller, PhD. that addresses this very question. Let me add my own comment to the discussion here. I firmly believe that China is culpable in the worldwide pandemic of COVID-19. I do not believe that they did anything maliciously or aggressively. But nation states (all nation states) delve into areas that are dangerous on a global scale when not treated properly. In this case, I believe that China was conducting viral research (for whatever reason, medical, military) and there was an accident that released the virus under research from the lab. And the rest is history. But you can decide for yourself. Here is Dr. Miller’s paper for your consideration:

    COVID19-bw-20200419-1Download

  • What is your cause?

    Pastor’s are not supposed to have a “cause” other than preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I was always taught that you preach TO the people not AT the people. Unfortunately, even preaching TO the people (or just being a prophet in your own time) is more often than not interpreted as preaching AT the people. But fortunately we have the Holy Spirit and it is between you and him as to what you do with the Holy Word of God. My calling is simply to expound on the Word of God and leave the rest up to him (and of course you – of which I am included). The Word of God is the Word of God and it stands for all of eternity. I’ve actually had people come up to me in the past and say “give us a word from God”. As if people cannot get their own word from God. It doesn’t exactly work that way. God gives a word (wisdom) to those whom he chooses. Even with the prophets of old (Biblical times) God rarely gave a personal word for an individual to a prophet (unless it was to another prophet).

    And don’t believe for a minute that I do not believe in preaching Hell Fire and Brimstone. I do. People need to understand that there is a great destiny in life. And you can either spend that destiny in Heaven or in Hell. But it is not my place to preach AT the people. Even Jesus Christ himself made it clear that God sent his Son into the world to save the world not to condemn the world (John 3:17). Which is why I try to be careful not to care about your sin, but only to point out that there is sin and that I am included. Indeed, I am chief amongst sinners.

    But I must confess that indeed I do have a cause. I’m only human (which is just a fact not an excuse) and there are a couple of things that raise my ire more than anything else. And the biggest cause that gets under my skin is ABORTION.

    I just do not accept that abortion is a woman’s right to choose. It is not their right to do with their body as they see fit. That fetus is a human life. It is not some forming mass of tissue. It is a life formed by a Holy and Righteous God that has all power and authority over life and death. And the reason we (humanity) fall into this trap is because of my second top cause – the lie of evolution. The lie of evolution has tried to teach us that there is no God and that everything we see and experience is just happenstance without any Devine providence or guidance. And I’m sorry, but that is just a lie. I believe possibly the biggest lie ever told. The lie of evolution allows us to believe that God does not form a life in the womb and that a woman has a choice over her body and the life that it contains. Which simply is not true and I’m sorry, if you believe that a woman has a right to choose you are just wrong.

    Abortion is murder. It doesn’t matter what any of us believe. The simple truth (and it is simple) is that there is a God and he does hold all power and authority over all of human life. And when we unjustly take a life, including through abortion, it is by definition murder.

    And this bothers me greatly. US President Ronald Regan said that if you could not state for certain when human life begins (and I can, it begins when a Holy and Righteous God forms it in the womb. On day one.) then we owed them the benefit of the doubt. And we should give this cause the respect that it is due. None of us can definitely prove when human life begins. Neither science nor religion nor philosophy can definitively prove the start of human life. Science struggles with the conundrum of human life and denial of God. They can’t explain the miracle of life to begin with let alone Define the exact start of it. Religion obviously defaults to a God creating that life and has no choice but to accept the moment of conception as the definitive start of that human life. Philosophy tries to find a happy medium that fails on both fronts. On all fronts humanity has no choice but to accept human life beginning at conception. And by not doing so we allow for the murder of hundreds of millions of unborn babies worldwide every year.

    Rush Limbaugh wrote that his problem with abortion is that it cheapens human life. And this is an excellent argument. Abortion takes a human life created by a Holy God and formed in his perfect image and reduces it to an inconsequential event of less than the miracle it truly is. And this is having severe consequences on our societies worldwide. It is tearing our world apart.

    However my reason for carrying abortion as my cause is that it brings evil incarnate into our world. If a Holy God is the author of life, then the undeniable enemy of life is none other than Satan. Life is the gift of God and that makes Satan it’s number one enemy. Satan is the antithesis of life and his hatred would have him destroy it at all cost. And abortion is a huge lie that allows him to further his cause.

    And if I’m not being plain spoken here, let me just state that the people that participate in this industry are godless, evil people driven by the forces of darkness to include Satan himself.

    And if you think I’m being overly dramatic here, may I bring your attention to this story that recently emerged in the news. An abortion (so called) doctor (the irony of referring to these individuals as medical professionals makes my blood boil) for years stacked up human remains at his home and he wasn’t found out until his death. If this isn’t an atrocity on a par with the actions of the Nazis during WWII, I don’t know what you could use to make an argument for what is.

    Planned Parenthood and the (once again so called) doctors that practice under their umbrella are the agents of Satan and they represent evil manifested in our world. An abortionist who collected over 2,000 human remains and kept them at his personal residence is sick, evil, and disturbing on all levels. As an ambassador of Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry this doctor shows us to what depths of human depravity we’ve allowed to grip the world. It is horrifying to realize that we have come to accept this culture in our societies and the world.

    Obviously my desire is that your cause would be that all would be saved and come to know Jesus Christ as Lord of their life. But if there were one (or two) causes that you had to take up, how about carefully considering the lies of abortion and evolution? I truly believe that if anything could make a dramatic change on our societies and bring the world closer to a Holy God, it would have to be honestly and ethically dealing with the lies of abortion and evolution. With the evil that abortion manifests in the world (as demonstrated by this recent story) I pray you would join me in my cause (and that you would forgive me for having a cause).

  • What is the status of your unbelief?

    “20 And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.”

    There are many things in the world that we believe in.  And there are many things that we do not believe in.  And these beliefs and unbelief’s permeate every one of our lives.  From social, to political, to science, and even our theology.  But have you ever stopped to consider how much easier it is to not believe than it is to believe?

    I personally believe that the USA sent men to the moon and that they walked upon its surface.  This is as much a fact for me as the house that I live in or the clothes that I wear.  But there is an entire subculture that does not believe this.  No matter the evidence put before them.

    I personally believe the earth is round, like a ball, hanging in space.  But there is a considerable subculture today that believes the earth is flat and not round.

    I personally do not believe in Global Warming, Man Made Climate Change, or the data and extrapolations that come from such theories.  But there is a considerable number of people who do find this line of reasoning credible.

    I personally do not believe that the current US administration colluded with Russia to alter the 2016 election results. But there are many people who do believe this.

    I personally believe that abortion is murder and takes the life of a living human spirit.  But there are many that do not believe that and view abortion as an acceptable practice.

    I personally believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God and that He came to earth to die for the sins of the world and that on the third day He rose from the dead proving his deity and solidifying His claims.  But there are a vast number of people who do not believe that.

    In all of these, my belief is much harder than my unbelief.  It is easy to not believe something. But it is hard to actually believe something.  This is because our nature, our very human nature, is bent towards questioning and a need for proof.  And what I may require as proof is probably different than what you may require as proof.  We all want to be masters of our own destiny.  We want to be the ones in control.  And we all want to be our own judges of what is true and what is not.

    Oftentimes we blame our skepticism on lack of faith.  We say that we have a problem with something because we do not have any faith in it.  We lack faith in our political systems.  We lack faith in our in our scientific methods.  We lack faith in our society.  And we certainly lack faith in our theology.

    But how much faith does it take to effect changes in these areas in the world around us?  How much faith do we really need to make a difference in the world?

    The disciples had this problem when they tried, on their own, to accomplish a task.  That of casting out a demon.  And when they failed, they came to Jesus and he told them that if they had but a very small amount of faith, that of a single mustard seed, they could move mountains.  At least that is what we usually focus on.

    What we miss is the reason why they failed.  Jesus told them the reason they failed right up front.  See it there?  He told them the reason they were not successful is because of their unbelief.  Unbelief is a powerful thing in our lives and it will weigh heavy on our beliefs, dragging them down.  And then he told them that if they had a very small amount of faith they could move mountains.

    From this we can learn that it is not the size of our faith that hinders us, it is the size of our unbelief that is important.  We are way too busy running around trying to increase our faith when what we should really be doing is working on our unbelief.

    As further evidence of this I would submit God’s one requirement for entering into the Kingdom of Heaven, that of belief on the person of His Son, Jesus Christ.   God did not require us to first have great faith.  That naturally follows once we take care of our unbelief. Rather God requires us to believe.  Belief is where we must start and dealing with our unbelief is a foundational piece of that.

    When a troubled father came to Jesus asking for healing for his child, Jesus asked him if he believed (Mark 9:23-24).  The father emphatically proclaimed that he believed and then immediately asked for help with his unbelief.  Jesus had just told him that all things were possible to those that believed, and the father so desperately wanted to believe.  But he knew that there were still doubts that were in his heart and he asked Jesus to help him with his unbelief.

    I can assure you today that I have great faith that God is upon His throne.  He is in control, whether I believe that or not.  Faith that could move mountains and that I will stand for even though I walk in the Valley of the Shadow of Death.  And yet mountains are not moved, lives are not changed, and there seems to be little difference in the world around me.  Why?  Probably because I’ve been asking God for great faith when I should be asking him to help me with my unbelief.

    How about yourself?  Are mountains not moving in your life?  Are you failing to make a difference?  And do you double down on your efforts because of your great faith only to no avail?  Perhaps it’s time for us to work on our unbelief.  Jesus, help me with my unbelief so that the faith you have given me in my life may move mountains for Your glory.

  • Is Abortion Murder?

    I know I have made my opinion known on the topic of abortion within this blog in past posts, however, some topics are important enough, worth enough, to be revisited again and again.

    2018 National Right To Life March Washington D.C.

    January 22nd is the anniversary of the 1973 Roe Vs. Wade U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion as a “Constitutional” right in the United States of America.  During those 45 years since that ruling, there have been (conservatively) 60 million abortions in the United States alone.  To put this into perspective, six million people of Jewish decent were murdered by Nazi Germany between 1941 – 1945 during World War II.  If you are generous and allow a full 5 years across WW-II for the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany (in reality, they were slightly more compressed), you would achieve nearly the same rate of 1.33 million deaths per year for both Jewish people killed in the Holocaust and abortions in the U.S. since 1973 (1.20 million/year vs. 1.33 million/year for the Holocaust and Abortions in the U.S. respectively).

    2018 National Right To Life March Washington D.C. – march participants

    While both abortions in the U.S. and the Holocaust are (were) state sponsored events (the U.S. Supreme Court sanctioned abortion in the Roe vs. Wade decision in 1973 as well as Government funding of Planned Parenthood – using taxpayer dollars – which sponsors abortions), the justifications that each hide behind are quite different (presumably to make one sound less horrifying than it really is).

    2018 National Right To Life March Washington D.C. – Marchers were of all ages, gender, and race.

    While the reasoning used by Nazi Germany to justify the murder of millions of Jewish people all across Europe are completely indefensible by any right thinking individual, the subtlety used to justify abortions within the United States are more cunning and deceiving.  Within the abortion argument in the United States we hide behind words like embryo and fetus.  By using these words to describe a phase of human life, we tend to isolate the subject of the abortion and make it sound less human and thus perfectly acceptable to remove and throw away.  We simply state we are terminating the pregnancy (vice acknowledging we are terminating a human life) and having safely justified our actions to ourselves, we move on.

    2018 National Right To Life March Washington D.C. – united in cause.

    But the question still remains: Is Abortion Murder?  Just because we have justified it to ourselves does not mean that it is OK.  Nor does it mean that we will not be held accountable for our actions just because we’ve excused ourselves of them.  Have we fooled ourselves into believing that the termination of a pregnancy (vis-à-vis abortion) is OK because we are not actually taking a human life, when in reality, we actually are?

    2018 National Right To Life March Washington D.C. – pause and think.

    I suppose if you are Atheistic in your world view, it doesn’t really matter.  After all, there is no God, no Moral code, and definitely no purpose or meaning to life.  Given the foundation the Atheist builds their world view upon, they really shouldn’t mind killing of any kind.  After all, with no God to answer to, and everything in existence being meaningless, it wouldn’t matter one way or the other if abortions were murder or not.  But if you are Atheistic in your world view and you are intellectually honest with yourself, then why do you care how the morals get defined?  There is no more control over which process wins here than there is with stars burning out in the heavens.

    2018 National Right To Life March Washington D.C. – marching together.

    If you are Agnostic in your world view you shouldn’t have an opinion unless you are directly affected by the issue.  And even then you should pick your friends carefully.  After all, if you had one influence in your life that favored abortion and another, equal influence, that opposed abortion, it would be pretty confusing for you.  The Agnostic would have to flip a coin in order to decide.

    However if you are Theistic in your world view, then you must believe that all life emanates from a God, a Creator.  And if you cannot definitively define the exact moment in time when that God-given, Creator induced life begins, then you had better err on the side of caution and treat all credible instances as human life.

    This is essentially what President Ronald Regan said during his time in office.  President Regan argued (from a Theistic point of view, without stating it explicitly) that if one could not determine the point that human life began (we may all agree that the individual cells are life), that you could not act responsibly in terminating that life without being potentially guilty of murder.

    So is abortion murder?  Consider that the fetus stage appears human in form.  We have hands, feet, a head, a torso.  A face.  Consider that at the fetus stage that we have a human heartbeat (~6 weeks), at the fetus stage we can measure brain waves/activity (~6 weeks.  Indeed the brain needs to be developed enough at this stage to govern organs such as the heart).  Consider at the fetus stage you can begin to see rudimentary facial expressions.  There are ultra-sounds of a fetus even sucking their thumb.  At the fetus stage you may even determine the biological sex of the child.

    Some have argued as to whether or not the child is sentient at the fetus stage.  We know that at the fetus stage the child reacts to stimuli such as pain.  Very early on the child can even react to the voices of its mother and father.

    These are what we know, in a rudimentary way, through both science and medicine of today.  Who knows what we will be able to discover or discern in the future?

    And of course there is the religious argument.  Christianity teaches that the person (the spirit – that part of you that will endure forever) is known by God (the Creator) before you are even formed in the womb.

    Is abortion murder?  How can any reasonable person say that it is not?  And we destroy thousands upon thousands of lives each year in the United States alone.  Isn’t it time that this practice is stopped?

  • What Is Truth?

    In John 18:38 Pilate asked the question of Jesus “What is truth?”  Dr. Del Tackett has referred to this as one of the most important questions of all time in The Truth Project.  Ravi Zacharias has called it the most tragic question of all time in that it was asked of the purveyor of Truth Himself.

    But it is an interesting question.  Truth.  What is it?  Really?  And more importantly, what is our perception of truth?  And how does it shape our lives and affect the outcome of our existence for all of eternity?

    Here is an important consideration: Is there a God?  It is an important question whether you realize it or not.

    Some, like Dr. Stephen Hawking and Dr. Richard Dawkins, state that it is a fact that there is no God.  They have many that join with them in their belief that there is no God.

    I, on the other hand, and many others with me state emphatically that there is a God.

    You have your own beliefs as to whether or not there is a God.  Neither side can prove beyond any reasonable certainty that there is, or is not a God.  I can certainly point to evidence that there is.  But others will build their own case that there is not.

    So what is truth?  In this case the truth may be found to be subjective depending upon your own personal beliefs.  And yet it is the most important question of all time.  This is why I believe it is very important to guard certain principles in our lives.  Because believe it or not, TRUTH can be lost.  For example: lets say for argument’s sake that there really is a God.  Just for a minute let’s all agree that this is an immutable fact.  Now lets divide all the people who believe the truth from those that do not believe the truth.  All of the people who actually believe there is a God are on one side of the room, and all the people who do not believe there is a God are on the other side.  Now suppose we were to have a war between the two groups.  And let’s say that the people who do not believe there is a God win the war.  They completely annihilate those that believe there is a God.

    Question: Does that then make the fact that God exists not true?  No, of course not.  We’ve already established that the existence of God is true for our scenario here.  And the truth does not change.  But would the truth be lost?  I believe it would.  Those who do not believe there is a God would continue to propagate that belief and there would be no reason for any opposing point of view to arise.  The truth would be lost.

    Here is a more realistic example.  How old is the Earth?  You ask this question and about 98% of people today will tell you it is 4.5 billion years old.  But if you really examine the answer you will read words like “scientists estimate …”, or “scientists believe ..”, or even “scientists think …”.

    It IS NOT a proven fact that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old (or that evolution is the mechanism by which we all came to be here on Earth).  It may be a theory or a belief (by some), but not a factual piece of truth.  And yet people treat it as if it were so.  If you say it often enough and loud enough, others around you eventually begin to repeat it.  But that doesn’t make it truth.

    Why?  Because when the question of Evolution seriously first came up, around the time of my grandparents generation, it was not successfully challenged.  And then when my parents generation came along, they began to make compromises and to try to fit an evolutionary world view into their own Theistic world view.  And as a result, in most (if not all) public institutes of education, Evolution is now taught as accepted fact and Creationism or Intelligent Design is not even allowed to be mentioned because they are considered myth or fairy tale.

    As a result it has become a very difficult up hill battle to challenge or countermand the Evolutionary world view.  Most people have abandoned trying to fight it within public institutions and have left those for private schools and home schooling.  But what if Creationism were the truth?  It is not completely lost, but if we continue to indoctrinate new generations in the classroom, it could be.

    And there is another truth we are about to lose today.  That Freedom and Capitalism provide more for any given population than Socialism and Communism.  The number of young people who supported Senator Bernie Sanders during the 2016 U.S. Presidential elections has been placed as high as 56%.  This is very alarming when you consider that these individuals are essentially voting not to be free.  The movement away from Truth, Justice, and the American Way is alarming.  If we do not stand for the principles the United States of America was founded upon, actually built upon, we could lose the greatest nation the world has ever seen.  And we could lose the truth for generations to come.

    This is the reason I have not, and will not, support the NFL until they acknowledge that kneeling on foreign soil while our country’s National Anthem is playing is traitorous and disrespectful.  And then to stand during the National Anthem of a foreign nation (having just knelt for their own) simply adds insult to injury.  And that kneeling during the National Anthem on any occasion is disrespectful and is essentially saying “I stand against the institution that provides me the freedoms to protest”.  You cannot tear down the house you live in and then expect to not sleep out in the rain and the cold.  Kneeling for the National Anthem is not a protest, it is a vote not to be free.

    And I take it even one step further.  For all my life I have been taught (and believed) that sports taught young people how to be good members of society as well as proper values and character.  I would suggest that the evidence today depicts otherwise.  A significant number of athletes are not demonstrating good character and values.  Therefore I do not even support college football.  Because I don’t believe these traits just magically show up when they become attached to the NFL and I do not want them to believe they have a supported path to that end.

    We could be on the verge of losing our country;  Freedom, Capitalism, Democracy.  And if we do not take a very hard stand today, if we are complacent in the matter, as previous generations were with evolution, the truth could change out from underneath us and it would be very, very hard to get back.