GOD AND THE ACADEMIC WORLD

Late one winter afternoon in Chicago during my graduate school days, a terrible blizzard arose. I sat in the classroom along with my fellow classmates listening to a lecture from our professor and watching the snow come down in white sheets. Then about a third of the way into our class, a tremendous thunderclap arose. Very unusual to hear thunder during a snowstorm. The class grew very tense. As is my nature in such a time, I made a joke. "Wow, God must be angry." There were a few snickers, but instead of the Professor moving on or rolling his eyes and dismissing my rude interruption, he stopped his lecture and immediately launched into a very different lecture. He began in his crisp English accent, with an air of condescending self-importance, "You see Steven, what has obviously happened is that a warm air mass has just bombarded this cold air front we are now seeing that is causing both this precipitation..." and on and on and on and on he went for at least 15 minutes talking about all the scientific knowledge he could remember on meteorology and perhaps trying to explain away his own anxiety (and this was supposed to be a psychology course?). After he was finished he smiled and looked at me and said, "What to you think of that Steven?"

"Wow, God must be really smart to know how to do all that." I said as the class burst into uncontrolled laughter.

True story. But it expresses the depth many in the academic world will go to quite those who believe. Ironically, their disbelief is felt with more of a fervent zeal than most religious adherents. Ben Stein, in his movie "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed", has done a great service to all those who feel the same and have experienced persecution or ridicule for their beliefs. The move doesn't ask you to believe, but merely asks, why can't I question? Why are some questions or some lines of thought not allowed in some academic environments and universities? My little story above, is certainly the merest vapor of a hint of what others have experienced. I've been very blessed to have a supportive environment to teach my classes and express my questions as I saw fit. Truly I feel academically free. But many other professors, particularly those who want to ask questions about intelligent design do not have that freedom or luxury. May God be with those who truly believe and those who choose not to.


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BARACK CAN SAY IT, BUT CAN YOU?

It is interesting to listen to Barack Obama discuss a subject that when others have brought it up, they have been called "racist" or "traitors." From the Associated Press:

CHICAGO — Barack Obama celebrated Father’s Day by calling on black fathers, who he said are “missing from too many lives and too many homes,” to become active in raising their children.

“They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men. And the foundations of our families are weaker because of it,” the Democratic presidential candidate said Sunday at a largely black church in his hometown.

Reminding the congregation of his firsthand experience growing up without a father, Obama said he was lucky to have loving grandparents who helped his mother. He got support, second chances and scholarships that helped him get an education. Obama’s father left when he was 2.

“A lot of children don’t get those chances. There is no margin for error in their lives,” said Obama, an Illinois senator.

“I resolved many years ago that it was my obligation to break the cycle — that if I could be anything in life, I would be a good father to my girls,” added Obama, whose daughters, Sasha and Malia, and his wife, Michelle, watched from the audience.

In my first child development class in my Doctoral program we read a terrible book entitled, "There are No Fathers Here" about the plight of two young boys in the intercity Chicago housing projects (now which have been torn down). After reading the book and being a new father I simply asked myself, "Where is their father?" It seemed to me that my own sons would have been in an equally dire situation had I abandoned them at birth. However, through hardwork, family support and committment to my responsibilities, my sons are thriving. When I brought this fact up in class, I was nearly kicked out of school for my obvious "racist" ideas. Wow! It's nice to be proven correct, even if it is 15 years after the fact. What I was saying and what Barack is saying now, are about the same, in fact Barack Obama is even more harsh than I was.

Recently, Juan Williams NPR commentator in his book "Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America--and What We Can Do About It " comments about this issue. Bill Cosby also had much to say on this subject at the NAACP meeting last year and was labeled a "traitor."

So how is it that Obama is now being cheered for his "leadership" on this issue? Sphere: Related Content

DIVERSITY MEANS DIVERSE IDEAS OF THOUGHT

Diversity means diverse ideas and diverse cultural experience (or at least that is what it should mean) not beating you down into guilt-ridden submission. Here is what the President of the University of Pennslyvania & Political Theorist, Amy Gutmann, has to say about Diversity.
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GREAT PROOF THAT THE US JUSTICE SYSTEM WORKS

Kenji Yoshino, Professor, Yale Law School and Author speaks about current Justice system issues and demonstrates through facts and sound reasoning how the rights of the minority are protected.

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FORGOTTEN WISDOM OF THE FOUNDING FATHERS

Earlier this year I was taking a course with a group of fellow Professors for UCF's online teaching program. Dr. Charles Dziuban, Director of the Research Initiative for Teaching Effectiveness at the University of Central Florida, was giving us a lecture on the differences in the American generations and how we had to adapt our teaching styles to accommodate the needs of each generation of student. To exemplify this he asked if anyone knew who had said this quote, "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country." I immediately recognized the quote and knew the author started with "N", I blurted out, "Nathanial Hawthorne." Which was incorrect, "No, it's Nathan Hale" said Dr. Dziuban. He went on to lecture about how in the Depression era generation, this sort of education was mandatory; but now this knowledge is being left behind. Ashamed and sad at not knowing this, I lapsed deep in thought. He was right, we are indeed losing something in our educational system. Due to political correctness and historical revisionism, the wisdom, sacrifice and courage of the Founding Fathers of our great nation is being lost. As penance for my own ignorance (and for great pleasure to my surprise), I've read both 1776 and John Adams both by David McCullough. Both are wonderful historical novels and teach you a bit to boot. For further enlightenment here are my personal favorite Founding Father quotes.

I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.
- Nathan Hale, before being hanged by the British, September 22, 1776

An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy; because there is a limit beyond which no institution and no property can bear taxation.
- John Marshall, McCullough v. Maryland, 1819

Give me liberty or give me death.
- Patrick Henry

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms."
- Thomas Jefferson, Proposal Virginia Constitution

"The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object."
- Thomas Jefferson

"Beer is proof God loves us and wants us to be happy."
- Ben Franklin

"The time is near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be free men or slaves."
- George Washington

"The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms."
- Samuel Adams

"Any people that would give up liberty for a little temporary safety deserves neither liberty nor safety."
- Benjamin Franklin

"Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
- John Adams

"The truth is, all might be free if they valued freedom, and defended it as they ought."
- Samuel Adams

"If we wish to be free, if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending, if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained _ we must fight!."
- Patrick Henry

"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every country in Europe."
- Noah Webster

"Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God."
- Thomas Jefferson

"[T]he people are not to be disarmed of their weapons. They are left in full possession of them."
- Zacharia Johnson

"There are more instances of the abridgement of freedoms of the people by gradual and silent encroachment of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."
- James Madison

"Are we at last brought to such humiliating and debasing degradation that we cannot be trusted with arms for our defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in possession and under our direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?."
- Patrick Henry

"...that standing army can never be formidable (threatening) to the liberties of the people, while there is a large body of citizens, little if at all inferior to them in the use of arms."
- Alexander Hamilton

"A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be your constant companion of your walks."
- Thomas Jefferson to Peter Carr, 1785

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a moneyed aristocracy that has set the government at defiance. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs."
- Thomas Jefferson

"The right of the people to keep and bear...arms shall not be infringed. A well regulated militia, composed of the people, trained to arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country."
- James Madison

"Those who stand for nothing fall for anything."
- Alexander Hamilton

"You have rights antecedent to all earthly governments; rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws; rights derived from the Great Legislator of the Universe."
- John Adams

"When once a republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil."
- Thomas Jefferson

Click here many more Founding Father Quotes

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BILL COSBY ON THE CURRENT STATE OF BLACK AMERICA

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CONDOLEZZA RICE SPEAKS ON OBAMA NOMINATION

After Senator Obama's nomination, Secretary of State Condolezza Rice had the following to say:

...speaking at the State Department, said: "The United States of America is an extraordinary country. It is a country that has overcome many, many, now years, decades, actually a couple of centuries of trying to make good on its principles. And I think what we are seeing is an extraordinary expression of the fact that 'We the people' is beginning to mean all of us."

This is the greatness of this country, that an ordinary person can become the most powerful person in the nation. What other nation provides this opportunity? Sphere: Related Content

THE POWER OF TRUE DIVERSITY

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SUPREME COURT JUSTICE CLARENCE THOMAS on 60 Minutes

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HOW HOLLYWOOD VIEWS A DIVERSE PRESIDENT

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THE POLITICS OF FREEDOM

From the CATO Institute:
"As Americans head into a crucial election year, pundits are coloring everything in red and blue. But according to David Boaz, the old labels of left and right don't tell us much any more. What we are witnessing is a contest of "Big-Government Conservatives" vs. "Big-Government Liberals." In The Politics of Freedom, David Boaz takes on both liberals and conservatives who seek to impose their own partisan agendas on the whole country."

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DIVERSITY TRAINING GONE WILD?

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