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Choose This Day Who You Will Serve October 25, 2012

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In our current confrontation with Radical Islam the battle lines are portrayed as those between a secular society, us and a religious society, them.  I reject this portrayal as a betrayal of the faith of our Founders and of those patriotic Americans who still hold fast to Jesus as God and Savior, we too are a religious people.

America was founded as a Christian country.  Anyone who denies that has not studied enough History or has been sadly misled.  Columbus accentuated his desire to spread the Christian faith to his patrons the King and Queen of Spain and in his log.  The first thing the English did upon landing at Jamestown was set up a cross to dedicate their endeavor to Jesus their Savior.  Were these early explorers and colonists always true to their faith?  Did they always operate under principles derived from God’s Word?  Sadly they did not.  However, to say that the Christian faith was not an integral part of their motivation and worldview is simply not true.

In the latter part of the twentieth century Progressive leaders pushing a collectivist agenda decided to declare us a pluralistic society.  They sought to detach the heavily Bible influenced Constitution into the dustbin of History by substituting what they call a living constitution for the rock-solid one the Framers bequeathed us.   Mr. Obama, the quintessential Progressive in his speech to the Muslims of Egypt, Turkey, and many places spices up his apology tours by asserting that America is not a Christian country.  This statement of his belief and goal does not make it true.

All of these recent changes aside, most Americans still believe in God and the majority consider themselves Christians.   As a Christian, an Historian, and a Political Scientist in response to numerous questions I would like to share my beliefs concerning government, economies, and the rights of man.

As far as a government goes the only Biblically correct one is that God is God and we are His people.  He is the King and we are the sheep of His pasture.  As concerning an economic system God’s economy knows no lack and is exceedingly abundantly provisioned by the owner of the cattle on a thousand hills.

This being true I do not believe that God mandates any type of human government or economic system as pre-ordained, sanctified, or holy.  However, I do believe that humanity as God has created it does require certain governmental and economic conditions to develop and thrive as God intended.

God created us in His own image.  He gave us the power to create and to choose.  He gave us a mind open to learning and ever eager to improvise.  He also gave us what I believe is the most crucial aspect of our make-up: our free will or the power to choose.  We can choose to follow Him and do what He desires, or we can choose to follow the leadings not only of our thoughts but of our emotions also.  In other words we can dwell within the Kingdom of God wherein He is our King and we are His people or we can choose to live in the Kingdom of man and become the subjects of either our own designs or of whoever manages to gain control of the physical world around us.

If God wanted slaves or robots He could have created slaves or robots.  Instead He created us and gave us a mind to think and a will to choose because He wanted us to decide to love Him and follow Him freely without compulsion.  Therefore I believe that since free thought and free choice are the foundation of man’s nature freedom is necessary if man is to live as God designed.  This being the case I believe that any governmental or economic system that denies man’s freedom interferes with and attempts to supplant God’s plan, which is the definition of evil.

There are of course limits to freedom as expressed in the Ten Commandments.  Beyond this we should be free to choose our own way.   Will we follow God or will we follow man.  Within these limits and building on the moral framework the Bible provides I believe that a republic based upon the commitment to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness using democratic principles is the governmental structure which most closely matches man’s God-given nature.  I also believe that free market capitalism is the economic system which best allows man to develop and live as God intended.  Conversely, when man rejects God and seeks to create his own utopia he builds some sort of centrally-planned command economy and the intrusive government needed to impose it upon others.

A free economy and the free government it requires allows the independent choices of many to produce the greatest prosperity for all as everyone seeks to do the best they can because they reap the rewards.  In a socialist or any type of hybrid economy between capitalism and socialism bureaucrats make the decisions and stagnation is the inevitable result.  As Gary North, a Christian economist expresses it, “The essence of democratic socialism is this re-written version of God’s commandment: ‘Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote.’”  Or as Winston Churchill observed, “Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”  And that is not life as God intended.

If we look at History it is an outworking of the initial fall of man.  In the beginning God created the world including man and it was all good.  Then at the dawn of our existence we choose to go our own way instead of following God.  We chose to follow the siren song of “You shall be like God” and ever since we have attempted to create heaven on earth.  All we have succeeded in doing is to open the gates of Hell instead.  A case in point would be the age-old question, if God is good why is there evil in the world followed by the age-old answer God gave us free choice and we chose evil.

With the help and guidance of those who seek to play god themselves humanity has often been convinced to surrender their freedom for security, to bargain away their God-given nature and assume the subservient nature of slaves.

In America the purveyors of socialism cloak their designs in the language of populism.  They loudly proclaim that they seek a fair deal for everyone, except of course for the people they intend to loot.  They want fair elections as long as nothing is done to stop fraudulent voting.  They want equality enforced by unequal treatment.  In other words they seek to build the kingdom of man where they can be king.

We have a mind to think and the capacity to make a free choice.  As the day of reckoning draws near all I can recommend is, think and choose.  We can choose to follow the path of redistribution, class warfare, and collectivist dependency or we can choose to at least attempt a return to limited government, personal liberty, and economic freedom.   Don’t be fooled by the progressive media and their obvious bias.  To be free is God’s design.  For us to be a slave to dependency is man’s.

One of America’s most beloved troubadours told us, “The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenement halls” and one of those secular prophets he was referring to reminded us “You’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed You’re gonna have to serve somebody, Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.”

Or as my favorite book says it, “And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion.  He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2012 Robert R. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com  Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens

 

 

Why Does Affirmative Action End at the Gridiron? October 19, 2012

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Have you ever pondered the fact that everyone being endowed with equal rights by our creator works out so naturally while the equality of outcome that our Progressive would-b-masters seek to impose is impossible to achieve without treating people differently?  Have you ever noticed that whenever the government wishes to give anyone anything they have to first take it from someone else?

Since everyone obviously has different skills, talents, and ambitions people inevitably perform and produce at different levels.  Therefore to make everyone end up in the same place it is necessary to hold some back and artificially advance others.

For example if we wanted to treat everyone equally with regard to taxes we would have a flat tax with no deductions as in everyone pays 10%.  If you make one million dollars or one thousand dollars you pay 10%.  That would be equal treatment before the law and in my opinion that would be fair.  However in the Progressives version of a fair tax system designed to promote equality, people who earn different amounts are taxed at different rates.  If you earn more you pay more.  That may sound good to some, but how is it fair?

In education if equality was really the desired result everyone would be judged by the same standards for admission regardless of race, creed, color or any other mitigating factor.  Everyone would take the same tests and everyone would be graded exactly the same with admission based upon the score.  In the world of American Academia as administrated by the Progressives categories of people are judged by different standards and they call this fairness.

Look at the bewildering array of social programs that have been implemented to ensure equality and fairness in the Progressive utopia.  From food stamps and free cell phones to state subsidized education in criminal justice for convicted felons, these ill-conceived and often abused programs turn the safety net into a hammock  that beg the question Ayn Rand was known to ask, “At whose expense?”  If someone gets free food, free education; free anything the question we should ask is, at whose expense?   The next question should be, do those who are paying the freight for this pleasure cruise do so voluntarily or are they being coerced?  If they are being coerced into paying for someone else’s benefits what makes this any different than theft?

It’s as if the Progressives have tried to change our original national motto from” E Pluribus Unum” to “Stand and Deliver” or have they changed our present national motto “In God We Trust” to “You Can’t Fight City Hall.”  Or as if the new national anthem should be, “Happy Days Are Here Again – Unless You Work For a Living.”

One of the most often quoted and misquoted statements concerning History tells us, those who do not learn from History are doomed to repeat it and today we are seeing the fruits of this truism.  The two great revolutions of the eighteenth century, the American and the French, were mirror images of each other in several important ways.  The American Revolution made a declaration to the entire world that the rights they sought were endowed upon all men by their creator.  The French in the Declaration of the Rights of Man placed government as the source of these rights.  The American Revolution sought to rid themselves of an all-powerful government with a limited government so that individuals could be free to prosper on their own.  The French sought to replace an all-powerful government based upon birth with an all-powerful government based on merit believing that where the former one wanted to maintain the status quo with elites on top while the latter one would promote equality with elites on top.

The American experiment created the freest, richest, most powerful country in the History of the world.  In France after the Terror, after the Triumvirate, and after the Empire the people saw that they had merely replaced one elite group with another.  Then the Kings came back.

In America today our federally controlled education has led to generations of people who have never learned History or Civics.  Now the progressive Pied Pipers are leading the uninformed to exchange the equality of opportunity our Founders established for the equality of outcome Europe has chased after since the French Revolution.  With a public not knowing enough to know the difference these bait and switch tactics seem to be working, and after one hundred years of a living constitution the Constitution is nearly dead.

We have one more election to stem the tide as we look for a chance to reverse the flow and return America to limited government, individual freedom, and economic opportunity.  If we miss this opportunity we may soon experience the equality of mediocrity as we descend into the collectivist pit of self-immolation.  This pit is typified by big government programs meant to redress some perceived inequality.  Redressing inequality sounds good.  The problem lies in the fact that to do so you need a big enough government to enforce the desired result, and governments are made up of fallible people who all have their own prejudices and desires.

James Madison, in Federalist 51 reflected that, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.”  Men aren’t angels.  Which is why he continued, “In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.”

One program which serves as a fitting example of the impossibility of living a consistent life when trained, framed and constrained by the attempts to impose an artificial man-made, government enforced equality is Affirmative Action.  Which some may argue has now reached the White House.

Why Does Affirmative Action End at the Gridiron?

Even the Colleges that are the most rapid in their interpretation and enforcement of Affirmative Action seem to forget these artificial standards when it comes to their sports teams.  Have you ever wondered why that is so?  Because they want the best players on the field no matter what the ratios of black, white, yellow, red, straight, gay or other.

Don’t fall for the siren song of something for nothing, for affirmative this, and equality that.  Don’t let the perpetually re-elected hucksters fool you with their promise of a fair shot, a square deal, or of making someone else pay their fair share.  When everything is put in one pot and it is supposed to be divided equally it always seems that those who do the dividing get the fairest share of all.

Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion.  He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2012 Robert R. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com  Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens

 

 

Without Hope You’re Hopeless October 12, 2012

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Listening to the lies of the politicians as presented by the prattle of the biased it is easy to lose hope in a secular sense.  My hope in an eternal sense is founded on the rock of an unshakable faith in Jesus, and so it cannot be shaken.  However, in the secular resting, as it must upon the shifting sands of man in America today, hope as a measured commodity is all too often hopeless.  Seeking for hope in current events, a diamond among the discards and a point of light in a sea of darkness, is seeking something positive among the gathering gloom of an empire in eclipse.

I don’t know about you, but I cannot focus on the negative trends of our current situation for long without at least contemplating depression and I don’t mean the economic kind.  I am thankful I have a peace that passes all understanding and a hope that cannot be taken away, and I am also glad that I have a sense of History which gives me a context to frame the Now.  For if all we have is the Now it can always be changed with the next headline, the next news bulletin, or the next press release.  Having a historical context brings things into focus fitting the events of today into flow of time from yesterday to tomorrow.

Truth often becomes the victim of expediency.  For what seems true at the moment may end up as the lie of the hour.  Politicians bend truth like gravity bends light: the heavier the perceived need the greater the unperceived distortion.  Lies can become so widely believed that truth is swallowed in truism. Lies become the accepted wisdom of professional pundits chattering endlessly, supporting that which ultimately must fall for those who seek to surf a tsunami into a safe harbor.  The news is filled with half-truths and as my second favorite philosopher, Anonymous, once said, “Beware of half-truths, you may have gotten the wrong half.”

We live in a twilight time.  Twilight by definition is a time when two sources of light pierce the gloom. It is that quivering moment when both the sun and the moon hold back the darkness.  The darkness of confusion is dispelled by the brightness of the sun of truth, but it is disputed by refracted light of the moon of opinion masquerading as truth.

Casting about for something solid in the midst of the swirling fog of conflicting facts, shifting observations, and contradictory visions in the secular sense I must focus on one thing: the people.  I trust the American people.  I trust them to make the right choice when presented with unvarnished reality.  I trust them to do what must be done to preserve the bequest of our forefathers for the inheritance of our posterity.

The Declaration of Independence was written to proclaim the righteousness of the actions of “One people” with the courage to declare to a world sold into bondage that our liberty was founded upon truth. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

We the People wrote the Constitution in order to perfect that which had been founded upon the truth.  “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

It is to this one people, this “We the people” that I look for secular hope, political peace, and the eventual solution to our current cultural conundrum. The popular definition of a conundrum is a problem without a solution.  However it also has another meaning: a riddle whose answer is or involves a pun.  Since I am referring to the second meaning I will present the riddle, “How is liberalism the solution to the problem of liberalism?”

In our through-the-looking-glass world, politicians use actual truth to obscure the obvious truth.  Congressman Joe Early (D-Mass) at a press conference to answer questions about the House Bank scandal said, “They gave me a book of checks. They didn’t ask for any deposits.”  While I’m sure it is true he was given a book of checks, obviously one needs to make deposits if one is to honestly write checks.  In this same manner the leaders of our free country promote socialism as the solution to the problems socialism has caused knowing that you cannot honestly write checks if you don’t make deposits.  Capitalism makes the deposits and socialism wants to write the checks.  As Churchill said “Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”

We are awash in polls.  Every campaign and every major news source constantly trumpet polls many of which contradict each other.  No matter what the polls say I believe that the American people still believe in freedom.  I believe they still believe in the equality of opportunity and the opportunity of equality.  We all aren’t the same.  Each of us is born with a particular set of talents and each of us uses those talents in a certain way.  It is my belief, that given the level playing field of individual liberty and economic freedom, the vast majority of Americans will work hard to earn what they deserve.  This is my secular hope. Heaven on earth is not possible but given individual liberty and economic freedom inherently promised in the perfect union we the people sought to create we can at least avoid remaining in the hell of socialism the Progressives are currently foisting upon us, as Churchill also said “If you’re going through hell, keep going.”

Oh, by the way, the answer to the riddle is that Classical Liberalism promotes the general welfare by promoting the limitation of government and the liberty of the individual in order to better serve the whole. Welfare Liberalism erodes the general welfare by expanding the government at the expense of the individual in order to better serve the individual.  Thus Classical Liberalism is the solution to the problems caused by Welfare Liberalism.  And that’s the truth which brings me to one last Churchill quote for the day, “The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it. Ignorance may deride it. But in the end, there it is.”

Hope and change may have convinced our fellow citizens to sell their birthright of freedom for the savory red stew of give me more; however, November is coming and things may change. At least we can hope.  For without hope we are hopeless and we are a hopeful people.

Don’t be discouraged by the blather of the pontificating politicians or confused by the conflicting ruminations of the professional talkers. When all is said and done we can trust us.  We the people will eventually come down on the side of truth, justice, and the American way.

Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion.  He is the author of the History of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2012 Robert R. Owens. Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens  You can contact Dr. Owens at drrobertowens@hotmail.com

Did He Do What Needed to be Done October 4, 2012

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In last night’s first presidential debate of 2012 nothing had the dramatic impact of Ronald Reagan’s spontaneous and memorable quips, “There you go again!” when attacked by Jimmy Carter in 1980 and in 1984, when asked about his age by an obviously mature and experienced Walter Mondale, he replied naturally, “I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” Nothing had the visual impact of a haggard looking Nixon with poor makeup next to the Hollywood good looks of John Kennedy.  And neither politician made a mistake as bad as Ford forgetting that Eastern Europe was under Soviet domination.

Nothing as dramatic as in these game changing debates however, Mitt Romney did do what needed to be done.  He came out swinging and he didn’t stop until the bell rang.

Immediately after the debate Neil Cavuto, in my opinion one of the best anchors on TV, called it a draw and quipped that draws always go to the champ, meaning that Obama came off with a TKO.

On the Networks usually devoted to advancing the agenda of the Democratic Party however it was different story.  The Progressive media was wringing its hands over Mr. Obama’s lackluster performance.  And a CNN poll conducted Wednesday night found that 75% of people thought Romney had won the debate.  Even in California, the bluest of blue states the plurality of those watching thought Romney won.  Most telling of all Chris Matthews, the MSNBC anchor who is famous for the thrill running up his leg when he listens to Obama said, “I don’t know what he was doing out there. He had his head down, he was enduring the debate rather than fighting it. Romney, on the other hand, came in with a campaign. He had a plan, he was going to dominate the time, he was going to be aggressive, he was going to push the moderator around, which he did effectively, he was going to relish the evening, enjoying it,”

When your opponents say they believe they lost you might as well claim it as a win.  Romney may not have convinced conservatives that he is the reincarnation of Ronald Reagan and they may still have to close their eyes or hold their nose when they vote for him at least he might have opened a window to defeat the Progressives’ fearless leader and at least slow down America’s bullet train to bankruptcy.  With a delay we may be able to turn this train around and head back to limited government, individual liberty and economic freedom.

Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion.  He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2012 Robert R. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com  Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens

 

Don’t Surrender Without a Fight September 28, 2012

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With the economy staggering on the edge of a cliff, our foreign policy collapsing, our empire crumbling, and our embassies under attack the big question is why isn’t Romney up by 25 points in the polls?

The Republican side of the Washington-based perpetually re-elected party of power has a habit of nominating candidates whose main qualification is that “It’s my turn.”  Look at Dole, McCain,  and now Romney.  These three may have slugged it out in the trenches and proven themselves to be reliable workhorses and adequate fund raisers, but they don’t inspire anyone.

The most memorable speech Dole gave was in a Viagra commercial.  McCain spends more time reaching across the aisle to his Progressive comrades then he does trying to do anything even vaguely conservative.  The best move he made was to nominate Sarah Palin, and then his team spent all their time trying to put a muzzle on a momma bear intent on going rogue.  The most memorable event in his campaign was when he theatrically suspended his campaign to fly to Washington to deal with the financial collapse.  Once there he blended into the background and whispered a meek, “Me too.”

Now along comes Romney.

By nominating him the Republicans threw away one of the most potent differences they had between themselves and Mr. Obama: Obamacare.  During the rough and tumble of the primaries and immediately thereafter Governor Romney proclaimed he would end Obamacare on Day One.  Now he says he likes parts of it and will only get rid of the parts he disagrees with.  Coming from the man who passed and not only defends, but also says he’s proud of the mandatory program known as Romneycare, how will he credibly attack Obamacare in the debates when all his opponent has to say is your plan was the template for mine?

In the primaries the former governor from Massachusetts who has been running for President since he was elected Governor in 2003 was relentless in his negative attacks against his more conservative rivals.  In the general election against the hard hitting Chicago machine bent on doing whatever it takes to retain power Mr. Romney seems to have lost his edge.  It’s like watching a boxer with oversized gloves constrained by the Marquis of Queensberry Rules fighting a gang banger from the South side in a cage match.

With the Corporations Once Known as the Mainstream Media solidly in the Obama camp and using every opportunity to boost one side to the detriment of the other, Romney has to depend solely on paid advertising to counteract ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and MSNBC.  Everyday every network except FOX masquerades as news outlets as they work tirelessly to re-elect their Fearless Leader.  The thrill running up and down their leg energizes them enough to advance their agenda day and night turning the worst debacle in American Foreign policy since the hostage crisis into Romney’s gaff or Obama raiding Social Security for hundreds of Billions into Romney wants to throw Grandma off the cliff and starve her dog.

This is like watching a slow motion train wreck.  Wake up Mr. Romney!  If you want to win this thing you are going to have to win this thing.  They may be starting to vote in many places but in Chicago they’re already counting the pre-marked ballots.  The Republicans are starting out with the cards stacked against them, and if Romney doesn’t come out swinging in the debates he may join the ranks of also rans even if he has been running for ten years.

A little free advice.  Instead of running away from your 47% comment embrace it.  You were correct. You don’t have a chance to gain the vote of those who are dependent on government.  However, unless this express to the poorhouse is turned around soon this might be the last election before the dependent class becomes the majority.  And if that ever happens, the Democrats will never lose a presidential election again.   Mr. Romney don’t equivocate about your wealth and your personal success. Hold it up as something anyone has a chance to achieve in a free society.  Lead the way back to capitalism before we totter over the entitlement cliff into a nanny state nightmare of cradle-to-grave regulations guaranteeing a mediocre future.

Come on!  You fought like a brawler to get this opportunity don’t through it away because you’re afraid of being called a racist, a vulture capitalist, or a tool of the elite.  You’re being called those things anyway.  In that first debate you had better punch Mr. Obama’s ticket back to Chi-Town or this train is going to leave the station and you’ll miss the boat.

If Mr. Obama is re-elected on his platform of using executive orders to take everything from the producers and give it to the non-producers everyone who votes for him should remember elections have consequences and every once in a while you get what you vote for.  And as sweet as the “I told you so” might be it doesn’t have to happen.  Anyone who will stand up and offer to lead America back to America should be able to beat the worst president in living memory.  Don’t equivocate. Don’t pander. Make a straight forward case for limited government, personal freedom, and economic opportunity.

This may be the last chance we have to turn this thing around before we hit the dustbin of History.  The 47% are going to vote for “Give me more!” no matter what you say, so you might as well say what might motivate the undecided to finally decide and vote for freedom.

Mr. Romney could say that after spending trillions of dollars to revive the economy, recession is the new normal.  He could point out that after years of apologizing and bowing to others, Mr. Obama has succeeded in changing us from the world’s sole superpower to the world’s punching bag.  His campaign spots could remind everyone the workforce is shrinking, the lines for food stamps, welfare and disability are growing, and all the opposition offers is more of the same.

Since anyone who has lived in the Obama nation knows all these things, what should be the most effective campaign slogan Mr. Romney could use is “I’m not Obama.”  He’s already using that; however, to win he needs to appeal to the hearts and the minds of those whose votes haven’t been put on layaway by the federal benefits machine.  This election will be won or lost in the debates.  If Mitt Romney will stand up and say what he means and mean what he says, and if he will make a case for returning to Constitutional government he will win. If he soft pedals for fear of making a mistake or offending someone he will deliver the Republic to the fate of all past republics: financial collapse and ruin.

Mr. Romney you need to show the people of this country that you are in it to win it.  Show some passion and fight the good fight for truth, justice and the American way.  And whatever you do, don’t surrender without a fight!

Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion.  He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2012 Robert R. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com  Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens

No One Wins September 21, 2012

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Sometimes the unknown can be turned to good.

In Athens Paul of Tarsus the Apostle to the Gentiles encountered the altar to an unknown god.  In a city of 10,000 with approximately 30,000 alters, temples, and statues to gods this only made sense.  As people obsessed with making sure they didn’t insult their temperamental and vengeful gods they had to cover all their bases just in case they’d left one out.  To a man dedicated to spreading the Good News that the one true God of all creation had come to Earth as a man and paid the price for our sins, this flock of gods and their multitude of altars culminating in an altar to an unknown god could have been the cause of anxiety.

Instead Paul saw it for what it was: the emblem of a people who did not know God. And he used it as a launching pad for a teaching moment.  He stood in the market place of ideas and expounded upon the salvation message, “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things.”  Thus an unknown was turned to good.

In Arlington National Cemetery stands the Tomb of the Unknowns.  This monument to heroes holds the remains of American soldiers who gave their lives and the last full measure of those lives, their identity, to protect our nation from foreign enemies.  These unknown sons, brothers, and husbands stand forever as the anonymous symbol of American bravery and self-sacrifice.  In their loss we have gained much: freedom, independence and inspiration.  The unknown heroes still guard and protect the last best hope of man.  Thus the unknown is turned to good.

On December 7, 1941 airplanes from the navy of the Japanese Empire struck without warning against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.  The next day an enraged America cheered as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt asked and received a declaration of war against Japan.  Please note that he did not ask for a declaration of war against sneak attacks.

On September 11, 2001 the World Trade Towers in New York City were hit by two hijacked jets in what has been and will hopefully remain the largest and most deadly attack against the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave by a foreign enemy on American soil.  The next day was there a declaration of war sought by our president?  Was the enemy ever determined?  Has a declaration of war ever been sought by our leaders or passed by our Congress?

President G. W. Bush did not ask for a declaration of war.  Of the 19 hijackers fifteen were citizens of Saudi Arabia while the rest were one Egyptian, one Lebanese, and two from the Union of Arab Emirates.  All of them were followers of Osama bin Laden the founder of al-Qaeda. All of them were radical fundamentalist Muslims.  No declaration of war was ever sought against al-Qaeda. Instead we were told that America was no in a War on Terror.

Yes, President Bush did seek and obtain the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) from Congress which was passed on September 14, 2001.  While this gave the president the authority “to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons” it was not a declaration of war.

According to Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, only Congress has the power to declare war.  It also has the power to pass laws and the AUMF is a law and thus it is valid and binding yet after eleven years perhaps we should ask ourselves why hasn’t a war ever been declared?  And if it was who should we declare war upon?

America has not declared war since December 8, 1941, and yet we have fought the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the First Gulf War, and now the War on Terror.  We are also fighting a War on Poverty, a War on Drugs, a War on Illiteracy, and even a War on Obesity.   Ask yourself, are we winning any of these wars?

When you fight against a general opposed to a specific enemy it is like trying to herd snakes or nail jello to the wall. You might expend quite a bit of effort and you might feel like your accomplishing something; however, in the end the snakes go where they want and the jello ends up on the floor.

Everyone in America knows who attacked us on 9-11, and everyone knows who we are at war with: radical fundamentalist Islam.  Not the religion of Islam but one virulent branch of it that has declared war on us and is straining every resource to bring about our destruction.  Some may say this is a broad-brush statement; however, it can be easily made more specific.  Our perennial negotiation partners, the Islamic Republic of Iran, declared war on America in 1979 and has been at war with us ever since even if we haven’t bothered to notice. Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda declared war on America twice, once in 1996 and again in 1998.  And our new friends and allies the Muslim Brotherhood declared war on America in 2010.

If everyone knows who we are at war with why can’t our leaders say so?  Why doesn’t our government declare war and marshal the vast power of the United States and its people to win?

The Bible tells us “The rich rule over the poor and the borrower is servant to the lender.”  America under the rule of the Progressives and their Environmental Religion have decreed that we cannot use our own energy and so we are eternally destined to stand in line for the oil of the Mideast.  Saudi Arabia is one of our largest suppliers of oil so we couldn’t blame the Saudis just because the founder of al-Qaeda, the majority of the hijackers, and most of their funding are Saudi in origin.  We can’t blame the Afghans even though they harbored bin Laden and provided him with a base to launch his attacks.

President Bush couldn’t bring himself to name our attackers or declare war on our enemies.  Instead he followed in the footsteps of Truman who called the Korean War a police action and Johnson who said we could have guns and butter as he sent hundreds of thousands of America’s finest to fight a war based on a resolution not a declaration.

Then along came Barack Obama.  He began the foreign policy of his administration with a ritual prostration before Islam in his Cairo speech which began the process of our surrender in a war against no one.  He followed up by going to Turkey, an Islamic nation, and declaring America is not a Christian nation.  Then he went to Saudi Arabia where he bowed to their king.   Although this is just one in a series of bows he regularly makes to world leaders it is significant because we are supposedly at war with the very people the Saudis support.

After Navy seals killed Osama bib Laden the Obama Administration did make a declaration.  They declared that the War on Terror is over.  Of course they hadn’t been able to see acts of Islamic Terrorism since arriving in Washington.  His Secretary of Homeland Security wasn’t even able to say the word terrorism instead she replaced the word with man-caused disaster.  And although he calls the murders in Aurora, Colorado terrorism when Army Maj. Nidal Hasan climbs on a table and shouts “Allah Akbar!” as he methodically killed thirteen people and wounded forty three, Mr. Obama instead says Hasan  cracked under stress.  He explained, “everybody understands how outstanding the young men and women in uniform are under the most severe stress. There are going to be instances in which an individual cracks.”  At the memorial speech at Fort Hood he refused to call this obvious terrorist attack what it was saying, instead, “hard to comprehend the twisted logic that led to this tragedy.”

Now the attacks on our embassies and consulates throughout the Islamic world are not terrorism they are instead a vocal movie review.  The preplanned and coordinated attack that killed our Ambassador and three others in Libya is spontaneous.   Iraq has been liberated and it now funnels Iranian men and material to support the Syrian regime.  Afghanistan has also been liberated and hundreds chant anti-American slogans in the street, as their U. S. trained military use our soldiers for target practice and everyone in the world knows they will kick out the corruptocracy of Kahrzai and welcome back the Taliban the day we leave.

Unless and until you admit you have a problem there is no hope for a solution.  You can’t wrestle the fog.  If we fight a war against no one we expend our most precious treasure: the lives of our heroes chasing rumors and killing time.  And if we aren’t careful, if we don’t call our so-called leaders to account, this might end up as a war no one wins.

Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion.  He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2012 Robert R. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com  Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens

 

Reap the Whirlwind September 14, 2012

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In 1219 the Shah of the Islamic Khwarezmid Empire (present day Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan), Ala ad-Din Muhammad had the ambassadors of Genghis Khan killed.  This affront to diplomatic convention led to a devastating invasion and the total destruction of the Khwarezmid Empire.

No-one would advocate the slash and burn/take no prisoner response of the Mongols in the thirteenth century.  However, to allow the first murder of an American ambassador since the Carter debacle to go unanswered is beyond the pale of poor leadership straying towards the realm of either complete ineptitude or dereliction of duty.

President Obama reminds us at every turn that Islam is the religion of peace.  He also goes out of his way to teach us about the many contributions Muslims have made to world civilization.  He even told NASA Administrator Charles Bolden that his most important mission as the head of America’s space agency is to improve relations with the Muslim world.  There is a pattern here.  Mr. Obama is using the Bully Pulpit and every avenue available to him as the most powerful man in the world to sow the wind with the seeds of Islam’s rise and America’s decline.

Being a Christian I obviously have an opinion concerning the theological truth of Muhammad’s answer to the need all people feel for God.  I confess Jesus as my Lord and believe that God raised Him from the dead.  That is enough to say I believe the fundamental tenets of Islam do not match reality as I perceive it.

Being a Historian I have an opinion on the peaceful History of Islam.  It is fiction.  Islam has been a religion of war since its invention.  Over and over Islamic powers and movements have attacked those who choose not to follow their prophet.  They also forbid the free exercise of religion in any land unfortunate enough to fall under their power. They deny human rights, political rights, and economic rights.  They oppress women making them possessions of their fathers, husbands, or brothers in a legal code based upon the very foundation of the religion: the Koran.

Have Christians done things wrong?  Yes.  Every Christian Historian, Theologian, and Preacher has branded the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the Encomienda System of forced labor and conversion in Spanish America as aberrations and a blight upon the faith.  Were these horrendous crimes as terrible as those of Islam?  Yes.  The difference is that they were all clearly contrary to the Bible which forms the basis for Christian faith while the depredations of Islam are the logical expressions of the Koran.

According to his school records in Indonesia Mr. Obama was listed as a Muslim.  He attended Islamic education during the six years he lived there which was mandatory in all schools in Indonesia at that time.  He tells us that the morning call to prayer is the most beautiful sound on earth.  A Pew Research study finds that 17% of registered voters believe Barak Hussein Obama (the name he used when he was sworn in to be our president) is a Muslim.  Thirty one percent said they weren’t sure.  What evidence has not been sealed by presidential order is conflicting and confusing.  He says he isn’t.  He says he is a Christian, and I cannot know his heart.  We can judge his actions.  For over twenties years he was a member of the church of Reverend Jeremiah Wright whose brand of racist Black Liberation Theology is a branch of the worldwide Liberation Theology movement which has been branded as a heresy by the Catholic Church where it was born as well as by leaders of most other denominations.  It is widely regarded as the Christianized version of Marxism.

In the past three + years Barak Obama has done everything imaginable to advance the cause of radical Islam by giving major speeches in Egypt and Turkey where he assured the world America is not a Christian nation,  Supporting a Mosque at Ground Zero, approving and supporting the so-called Arab Spring that toppled regimes supportive of America and installed Islamist ones.  Now paraphrasing his pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright who was quoting Malcolm X, Barack’s chickens are coming home to roost.  Only it is our brave Foreign Service workers and representatives who are paying the price.

As Americans are shocked by the violence in the Mideast because of a movie, does anyone in the media reflect on the fact that American Christians don’t behave this way when their religion is insulted and denigrated even when it is done at taxpayers’ expense?  No, the Corporations Once Called the Mainstream Media drank too much Kool-Aide and are too far in the tank for the Progressives to mention anything like that.  Instead they defend an administration whose well-worn socialist slogan, “Forward” should be, “Obama – Biden Hey! It Could Be Worse” and whose answer for everything is “It’s somebody else’s fault.”

One day after radical Islamists in a country Mr. Obama sent America to war to free kill an American ambassador all the Media can talk about is that Mitt Romney reacted poorly.

How does Obama’s failure to protect America, its prestige, and its interests become Romney’s gaff?  It is through the collusion of a complicit media that is nothing more than the communication arm of the DNC.  No matter how the communication commissars seek to deny that they are purveyors of a tainted product the obvious bias and advocacy of the Progressive agenda is visible for all to see as reporters unaware of an open microphone coordinate what questions to ask Romney to steer a question and answer session in the direction that fits their play book.  They fall over themselves to accuse Mr. Romney of politicizing events and undermining American foreign policy as they conveniently forget that Mr. Obama used the deaths of American servicemen to attack McCain and Bush in 2008.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the Ottoman Empire which had once ruled from India to Morocco and from Arabia to Vienna was known as the Sick Man of Europe.  It was still vast in extent, rich in trade and natural resources, but its economy was in a shambles and consequently it was no longer able to maintain its military power and was now the victim of continuous attacks and invasions by neighbors who wanted a little plunder or territory.  Britain took Egypt.  Spain took Morocco.  Italy took Libya.  Serbia, Greece, and Romania first gained their independence and then started chewing off piece after piece as the Turks blustered and pretended that they were still a great power long after the national will to do what was necessary to remain a power had vanished.

Under the pro Islamist, anti-colonial leadership of Barack Obama America is careening towards a foreign policy of defeat and shame.  His domestic agenda is spending us into oblivion and the poor house.

The recent tragic events in Egypt and Libya, the on-going turmoil throughout the Islamic world and its violence against Americans all ostensibly over a movie shows the religion of peace for what it really is: a religion of intolerance, hatred, and war.  These same events and our reaction to them show the Obama administration for what it is too: the Sick Man of American History.

This November let’s take the cure and let America be America again or we will learn that if you sow the wind you reap the whirlwind.

Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion.  He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2012 Robert R. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com  Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens

 

Is There Any Hope of Change September 7, 2012

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The two major political parties have a lock on power in the United States.  The election laws, the media and family voting patterns all collude to make the election of a third party candidate to the Presidency a near impossibility.  The closest in the lifetime of anyone reading this happened in 1992 when Ross Perot garnered 18.91% of the vote and not one electoral vote.  He has long been blamed for causing the defeat of Bush the Elder and the election of Clinton the Last.  Whether Mr. Perot did have such a dramatic effect on the presidential election is still debated.  Just as in most theological debates both sides offer well-constructed arguments supported by what they consider irrefutable scripture references or in this case, the life’s blood of political statements: statistics.

One certainty that cannot be debated is that Perot did not have an honest man’s chance in Washington to be elected.

Consequently either Barak Obama will continue as America’s president or he will be unseated and Mitt Romney will replace him.  There may be others running.  There may be better qualified people.  There may be someone who could inspire and lead us all into a second century of American ascendance; however, despite whomever else there may be it will be either the Democrat Obama or the Republican Romney.  Life may not be fair but it usually is predictable, and this is as predictable as the sun rising in the East and setting in the West.  One of the two parties of power will win.

Given this preordained outcome is there really any hope of change?  Or will we continue to watch helplessly as the perpetually re-elected parties continue to spend us into oblivion?

With Mr. Obama’s second term there is no doubt that all we can expect is more of the same, on steroids.  Mr. Obama has said, “I think that after this election, we’ll be in a position to once again reach out to Republicans and say that the American people have rendered a judgment, and the positions we’re taking are well within what used to be considered bipartisan centrist approaches.”

A divided government, if the Republicans maintain control of the House, might slow things down, however Mr. Obama has shown he is ready, willing and with the silence of Congress able to rule by decree.  If Congress won’t pass the Dream Act he imposes it.  If Congress won’t pass Cap-N-Trade he regulates it into being.  So we know that if he wins a second term it will be his way or the highway.   His agenda will continue to be the national agenda and four more years might be enough to sink the ship of state in a Cloward–Piven Strategy overwhelming the system scenario.

Four more years of the Obama led Democrat Progressives and we may be fundamentally transformed beyond recognition.  The heritage of our Founding Fathers may become the lost cause of a failed experiment in individual liberty and economic freedom as America descends into the morass of a welfare state based on re-distribution and political correctness.  In other words, the dream of Obama’s father.

That is one side of the coin.  What about the other?

If we get Tweedledee instead of Tweedledum will it be morning in America again?  Will the ghost of the Gipper lead us from the government’s shovel-never-ready Great Recession into a new era where things are made in America again and everything’s coming up roses?

There is no way from where we are: 16 trillion in debt, a decimated industrial base and a large proportion of our population addicted to government handouts, back to being the largest creditor in the world, the largest manufacturer, a land of self-reliant patriots without major dislocations, and dare I say it, austerity.

Mr. Romney’s fifty nine point plan to save the economy is a well-crafted and well-presented plan to revitalize America’s economy through a pro-capitalist free market approach.   It is however not as easy to explain or present as tax the rich and give everyone else free stuff.  Since it is better known and has been more widely and perhaps more eloquently presented the Republicans appear to be fronting with Paul Ryan’s plan to save America.  Both the Romney and the Ryan plan are a clear step away from the plunder policies of Mr. Obama and his Progressive shock troops.

However, neither Republican plans adequately addresses the entitlement time bomb.  Neither projects a balanced budget in any timely fashion and neither proposes any way to ensure that future Congresses live by any restraints imposed.  Both promise to preserve our imperial defense spending needed to support two wars and more than 100 foreign bases.  Both rattle sabers in the direction of Syria and Iran.  What we have is an effort to slow the growth of the debt by reducing the yearly deficits.

Slowing the growth is decidedly better than accelerating but the debt keeps growing and the abyss that looms ahead of us is the unsustainability of the debt.  A future rise in interest rates will sink the ship as the service on the debt wipes out the government’s ability to keep its promises or meet its obligations.  This is the very scenario the Progressives have been progressing towards.  The people who tell us never to let a crisis go to waste have long worked incrementally to lead us to the crisis at the end of the Constitution.  A final crisis when limited government will be completely unshackled and the central planners will triumph.

If Romney wins he and his administration may put a speed bump on the expressway to the poor house, but unless they are ready to shut down the gravy train and turn off the spigot of re-distribution we will merely postpone the day of reckoning.  Slower is better than faster when it comes to assuming room temperature; however, unless we turn this ship around we’re headed for the shoals of bankruptcy and the reefs of insolvency either way.

Even though Mr. Obama makes the Carter Administration look like the good old days don’t count out the machines ability to pull an election out of their hat.  From no voter IDs and Black Panthers patrolling the polls, from polling places in cemeteries, to every obstacle imaginable in the way of people in our armed forces voting this will be a no-holds-barred Chicago-style campaign by the Democrats.  The Progressives know this is the one they need.  This is the election that will seal the deal and finally transform America into a re-distribution center with them picking all the winners and losers.  They win…America loses.

As one example of how the institutions the Progressives have built over the years will line up to re-elect Barack Obama, look at the recent moves of the Federal Reserve.

The Federal Reserve is moving to inject massive amounts of money into the economy, while keeping interest rates near zero, before the election in a clear move to help re-elect President Obama.  How are they going to do this?  Will they just print more money?  No, they wouldn’t do anything so crude or easy to see as that.  Instead, they will announce an open ended mandate to purchase Treasury Bonds and mortgage backed securities.  This is QE (Quantitative Easing) 3 in all but name.  In QE1 the Fed bought $2.3 trillion of securities and in QE2 $600 billion of Treasuries.  How big will this round of pump priming be?  According to San Francisco Fed President John Williams, since this is an open ended authorization it  could eventually be, “at least as large as QE2 or arguably even larger again.”  The casino stock market will soar, and the Fed, through its Chairman, will continue to assure us inflation is small, negligible, and nothing we won’t be able to handle.  Then again, what’s a little inflation if it helps re-elect a president whose goal is to swamp the system.

Expect an October surprise such as action against Iran or Syria.  Expect an encouraging jobs report right before the election that will be revised lower later.  Expect the Obama Administration to do whatever it takes to win.

Romney’s road may still lead to the poor house but Obama’s is a bullet train to nowhere.  Is there any hope for change?  Not with what we’ve heard so far.  Maybe there is a chance to switch from the certainty of near term collapse to the promise of at least a few more stations and a few more track changes before we hit the wall.  Who knows with enough time maybe enough people will get up off the couch, turn off the game, and pay attention to make a difference.  At least that would be a change we could all hope for.

Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion.  He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2012 Robert R. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com  Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens

Socialism is as Socialism Does August 31, 2012

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Ronald Reagan taught us, “How do you tell a communist? Well, it’s someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It’s someone who understands Marx and Lenin.”

Barack Obama’s mentor as a young man was communist party member Frank Marshall Davis.  As a community organizer he was a follower and promoter of the communist fellow-traveler Saul Alinsky’s methods and goals.  As a professional in Hyde Park he associated with socialist radicals such as Bill Ayers.  As an up-and-coming Chicago Politician he attended the church of Reverend Jeremiah Wright, an outspoken proponent of the socialist Black Liberation Theology. As president he appointed communist Van Jones to be one of his many Czars.  Mr. Obama says he is not a socialist.  However, simple logic tells us if it looks like a duck and walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck you can be relatively certain it’s a duck.

Mr. Obama has told us that he seeks to be a transformational president like his idol FDR.  He was bold enough to tell us just days before the election in 2008 that he would fundamentally transform America.  In just one term he has accomplished much along the way to changing us from what we have always been into what the Progressives have always wanted us to be.

How has Barak Obama transformed us?  Into what is he transforming us?  A look at his impressive *list of firsts as president of these United States points in the direction he is herding us:

 

Mr. Obama is leading us from being the first among nations to being just another vote in the United Nations.  Now there’s a level playing field for you.  And now it’s time for another election, some say our most important, some say perhaps our last.

In many ways this election cycle is refreshing.  For generations the Progressives have pretended to be something they are not to win elections.  They have pretended to be dedicated to the American dream of personal liberty, economic freedom and the belief that America was different from other nations, that as the world’s first and most enduring modern experiment in a republic based on limited government we were exceptional.  Although the policies of the Progressives have always been at odds with this assumed identity at least every election cycle they would tip their hat to the America of our fathers and portray themselves as a Thomas Jefferson or an Andrew Jackson.

Therefore, 2012 is shaping up to be the election where the Progressives cast aside their mask and run as who they are: the American version of socialism promising to tax the rich and spread the wealth around, from each according to their ability to each according to their need.

If Mr. Obama wins re-election on this platform the Progressives will finally have their chance to give Americans the same kind of cradle-to-grave utopia the happy people of Russia, China, North Korea, and Hitler’s Germany have had the fortune to endure.  If Mr. Obama wins re-election espousing the true intentions of the Progressives, to change the constitution from a rock solid foundation for freedom into a living document that is a dead letter, he will succeed at his vow to fundamentally transform America.

He will fundamentally transform the dreams of our fathers for a land of liberty and opportunity into the dreams of his father who was a pro-communist social engineer and America will become just another country trying to build heaven on earth by plundering some to benefit others.

As to his  utopian beliefs and aspirations President Obama has said, “I am confident we can create a Kingdom right here on Earth”

President Reagan also told us, “Socialism only works in two places: Heaven where they don’t need it, and hell where they already have it.”

*Lists of Mr. Obama’s firsts are found numerous places.  The sources referenced for each first are merely representative of the many available for each.

Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion.  He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2012 Robert R. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com  Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens

The god Particle I Don’t Think So August 23, 2012

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Arrogance is a funny thing. Not Ha Ha funny, but funny none-the-less.  I was watching one of America’s leading physicists the other day, a man made famous by his co-authorship of String Theory and made popular by his ability to make people without a scientific education believe they understand what he’s talking about.  He repeatedly made the statement that today physicists understand 99.9%of how the Universe works and that the .01% that was missing is the never before seen but previously postulated Higgs Boson particle popularly known as the god particle.

The reason he was on a popular news show was because other scientists in Switzerland had announced that they had found the ever elusive god particle by producing a mini-Big Bang in the world’s largest cyclotron by smashing atoms together.  The Big Bang is what atheist scientists have to call creation because all their evidence proves that the universe, just started.  They have come to believe that at one moment there was nothing and then a split nano-second later there was everything.  Since they find it impossible to believe that God merely said, “Let there be” and it was they instead have mentally manufactured the Big Bang Theory, which along with the Theory of Evolution is taught to every school child as if it were established fact.

The Big Bang Theory goes like this: once upon a time there was nothing except the tiniest of points that contained the essence of everything.  They even say there was no time because time itself was nonexistent before the Big Bang.  Then spontaneously this tiniest of points exploded and in a flash it expanded into gases and stars and planets and galaxies.  Using rooms full of chalk boards these highly educated scientists prove that all of everything came from something: a teeny tiny point of compressed something.

They piously tell us all their observations prove this is so.  All their chalk filled blackboards prove this is so.  All their experiments prove this is so.  And now after they have discovered 99.9% of the truth the production of the missing god particle absolutely proves it is so.  Just give them a little more time and they will be able to tell us exactly how the universe created itself.

How nice.

Luckily there are these eloquent popularizers who are able to act as a verbal interface allowing the scientifically and mathematically challenged masses peek behind the curtain.  It’s a good thing because it is our tax money that pays for all their orbiting telescopes, cyclotrons, and blackboards.  And since the majority of us are Christians who believe God created the world it’s convenient to have someone to explain to us why all the money we spend proves we are actually deluded provincials with a quaint faith in an unseen Father who created and upholds everything with His word, wrote a book to tell us about it, and then sent His only Son to die at our hands for our redemption.

Now that is money well spent.  Pay billions and billions to have scientific shamans to tell us that what we believe are fables and what they believe is fact.  Maybe we should spend our billions on magic beans instead, and then we could climb up to heaven and find out what really happened.  Or maybe we should build a tower that reaches into heaven so our priest-king-scientist could give God a physical, and then tell us all about why He isn’t there.

Our super smart highly educated and well financed scientists tell us they don’t operate on faith; instead they operate on logic and objective evidence.  Yet when you examine their chain of thought and peer into their evidence it is a fabric of conjectures based upon one leap of faith after another.  They have convinced themselves the air castles they have constructed are more than science fiction, but why should we believe them?  They do sound sincere and they do act as if they know what they are talking about, but so does the flim-flam man who tries to sell us the Brooklyn Bridge or the politician who tells us they can manage the debt and give everyone everything.

For one thing their very confidence that they have the universe 100% or even 99.9% figured out ought to tell us these wizards aren’t ever going to really give us a heart, or courage, and certainly not a brain.  They may give us a medal or a degree and then explain how they are just what they promised when they aren’t but they can’t deliver on the real thing.  When Toto finally pulls the curtain back will we then realize we have spent billions upon billions to supposedly prove fantasies labeled as truth when we have had the truth all along: God created the universe, and we are here because of Him, in Him, and for Him.  That may be too simplistic for the wizards to believe but their flights of fancy ought to be too fantastic for us to swallow.

For instance all these grand theories of everything never tell us where the incredibly compressed point comes from.  They never tell us how long the point was in a state of perfect equilibrium just hanging there in the nothing.  They never tell us what would have caused the point to explode.  Yet they try to tell us they have it all figured out. Go figure.

I find it comical that believing in an all-knowing all-powerful God who created everything and everyone is too hard for people to believe but when a highly educated, highly financed, and media savvy spokes model tells us that everything created itself millions of people nod their heads and stand in line to give them more money for more experiments and blackboards so that we can expand our knowledge to what 110%?

This all reminds me of two things.

One:

There have been other times when societies and their wizards thought they knew everything.

A man named Ptolemy once proved that the whole universe revolves around the earth.  Eventually a complicated model was constructed by dedicated mathematicians and philosophers to demonstrate and prove how it worked.  Galileo among others was arrested, tried, and convicted for saying the Earth revolves around the Sun.  Once the alchemists knew there was a philosopher’s stone that would turn iron into gold.  At one point the leading lights of science knew the world was flat while Columbus knew he could sail from Europe to Asia in a straight line.  In the 1890s scientists assured us we knew everything about everything.  Now the Big Bang explains it all and the god particle is the key to understanding how nothing became everything.

Two:

All these theories of everything that eliminate God remind me of the story about a scientist who when asked where his computer came from didn’t know so he said, “There was a pile of parts laying in a junk yard for billions of years and one day they were struck by lightning and out popped this computer.”  This scientist had a blackboard full of equations that proved he was right.  He had spent billions of tax dollars conducting of experiments that proved he was right.  And he sounded very convincing when he explained it all. His theory was accepted and taught in all the schools, so now our children can come home and tell us where computers come from.

And the cow jumped over the moon.

It also reminds me of the story about a scientist who said to God, “You’re not so much.  I’ve figured out how to create life in my laboratory.”

“You have?” said God.

“Yes I have and I’m willing to have a competition to prove I can create life just like you,” said the scientist as he wrote two rooms full of equations to show God how much he knew.

“Okay,” said God as He stooped down picked up some dirt and started fashioning a man.

The scientist picked up some dirt and started pouring it from one test tube to another when God smiled and said, “Hey!  Get your own dirt.”

Even if we can prove how something happened does that tell us why?  Since every chain of events has to have a beginning our wizards have had to come face-to-face with “In the beginning.”  However, without faith they can’t see the forest for the tree.  So instead of giving God the glory for his creation they try to construct creation without a creator, which reminds me of the atheist who knows there is no heaven and prays there is no hell.

I love to listen to the wizards.  I read their books and watch their shows.  However, I march to the beat of a different drummer, “And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion.  He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2012 Robert R. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com  Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens