Trying to Show a Little Intelligence

Well, the month of May is just almost over, and I need to write at least one post about something more substantive than gasoline.

Imagine a newspaper that covered one particular issue, and for a while it only covered one side of this issue. Then the proponents of the other side began to feel like this situation was a little unfair, and the newspaper and the proponents of the first side acknowledged that maybe they should let the other side get a say in. Time passes, and eventually the newspaper is only covering the second side. So the first side begins to feel like this situation is a little unfair, but when it raises its concerns to the newspaper and the second side, they both laugh in the first side's face.

That's the situation that Ben Stein's documentary film "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" presents - that both science and education have shut the door on non-Darwinian theories of origins or even criticism of the Darwinian theory of evolution. That doesn't sound like what science or education would do, you say. But both science and education are stuck defending Darwinism, because there are really only two possibilities for how we all got here. Either we came to be as the most recent in a very long and, frankly, unbelievable series of natural occurrences, or some more powerful, more intelligent designer created us and put us here. Neither science nor education can tolerate a designer operating above nature. But the funny thing is, Darwinian evolution requires more "magical" thinking (more "faith"?) than intelligent design - starting with the violation of the law of biogenesis, which states that life only arises from existing life.

Congratulations to Ben Stein on this film that opened on April 18. Box Office Mojo lists it as the twelfth highest grossing documentary. And at least in part as a result of this film, six states (including Missouri) have introduced "academic freedom bills."

Gas Price Break, Part 2

Gas prices are on the minds of a lot of people, I suspect. And there doesn't seem to be much we can do about them, despite the encouragement of those e-mails that suggest a one-day "boycott" from buying gas or a boycott of certain brands of gas. But the fact that the price of a gallon of gas does have such a direct (as well as indirect) impact on so many of us has caused many churches to think about ways to use gasoline as something of an attention-getter, as I pointed out in my last post. But here is a different approach that seems to be a little more Christ-honoring.

I Could Use the Gas Price Break, But...

First of all, gas prices are RIDICULOUS! That pretty much goes without saying. And I know it is affecting many of us quite seriously - it almost costs more to drive to work than we'll make once we get there. So, I guess it is only natural that churches would want to try to help some of the people affected. But I'm thinking this is probably not the way to go about it.

It seems to me that publicity is not something that is completely off-limits for churches. A yellowish-colored pages advertisement in the phone book, a web page, or a listing in the local newspaper - those would all be excellent ways to let people know that you exist, where you're at, and maybe a little bit about you. But isn't the church's only "marketing gimmick," the only way we are given to add to a church's membership, by presenting the Gospel, which is very likely going to be seen not as compelling but as offensive?