Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

RECENTLY RELEASED FROM UNDER A DEATH SENTENCE IN A SUDANESE PRISON, MARIAM IBRAHEEM HONORED WITH THE "COST OF DISCIPLESHIP" AWARD

Mariam Ibaheem is the heroic, courageous 27 year old Sudanese Christian woman imprisoned for her faith and sentenced to death because of her faith in Christ.  With her in prison was her 20 month old little boy, Martin, and while in prison she gave birth to a baby girl.  Thanks to the hard work of many individuals and organizations, the Islamist Sudanese government finally released her.  The Family Research Council celebrated her release with a stunning gala program last Saturday.  You won't regret watching all (or even just part) of the video below.  You especially won't want to miss Mariam Ibraheem's appearance at around the 57:00 point in the video.  Her elegant, regal bearing makes it hard to recall and imagine the suffering she underwent for her refusal to renounce Christ which would have meant her immediate release and freedom.

 

If you listen to the whole video, you will be inspired by short talks by Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.  7:40), Rep. Chris Smith (R - NJ  25:25) and Rep. Mark Meadows (45:00 R - NC) who all worked hard to secure Mariam's release.  These three stalwart, hard-working conscientious Congressmen deserve our gratitude and continued prayers.  Tina Ramirez of Hardwiredglobal.org (37:20) works hard to train local nationals in how to advocate for human rights and challenge legal systems.  Her organization's work proved crucial in Mariam's release.  Nachmeh Abedini appears and talks of her husband Saeed's continuing two year imprisonment in Iran (17:20).  The persecution of Christians in the world today may be the worst ever in history.  Who cannot fail to be inspired by Mariam Ibraheem's courage and steadfastness in remaining true to her Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ?

 

FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN JEWISH, MUSLIM & CHRISTIAN KIDS IN A TEL AVIV SCHOOL

Heartwarming.  From CBN News:

 

SEN. TED CRUZ CAPTIVATES VALUES VOTERS SUMMIT

Ted Cruz's fire and pizzaz set him apart from others.  

  

From Politico:  By KATIE GLUECK 

Rand Paul talked foreign policy. Rick Santorum decried flagging family values. Michele Bachmann called for war on radical Islam.

But it was Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas who captivated the crowd of social conservatives in Washington Friday, again showcasing his appeal with that critical part of the GOP should he run in 2016.

PRAYER VIGIL FOR PASTOR SAEED IMPRISONED IN IRAN

PRAYER VIGIL

SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

It has been two years since Pastor Saeed Abedini was imprisoned in Iran for preaching his Christian faith.  Naghmeh Abedini, Pastor Saeed’s wife, invites us to join her in remembering Pastor Saeed Abedini and others who are persecuted for their faith by participating in prayer vigils across the world.  

"The kids and I are longing to see Saeed returned home safely to us," Abedini said in a release. "The kids have been suffering for too long. Our family is ready. It is time. We are praying for a miracle. My hope is that, as thousands gather together on September 26, our governments and leaders will be reminded of the importance of religious freedom for all and continue to pressure Iran to secure Saeed’s release.”

 Vigils in 27 countries will be held on September 26th, the anniversary of Saeed’s imprisonment.  Click here for a list of churches in the USA holding prayer vigils.

- Elizabeth Kendal writes of the situation in Iran - 

VALUES VOTER SUMMIT IN WASHINGTON, D.C. LIVE-STREAMED FRIDAY AND SATURDAY

Update: Also live-streamed here.

**

Original post:  Email from the American Family Association:  (Bolding is AFA's)

AFA will offer a free stream the Values Voter Summit 2014 (Sept. 26-27), the largest meeting of social conservatives this year, live on the internet.

The event begins this coming Friday morning and ends on Saturday evening. The entire conference will be streamed live at ATimeToSpeak.com and AFR.net.

Participants include Senator Ted Cruz, Glenn Beck, Gov. Mike Huckabee, Sen. Rand Paul, Governor Bobby Jindal, and a host of others. The line-up is a virtual who's who of social conservatives. . . 

A complete schedule of when each participant will be speaking can be found here. You can pick and choose which speakers you want to listen to live, or watch the archived video on the streaming page shortly after they finish. . .

Watch the Values Voter Summitt 2014!

Schedule follows:

CAN MEN FORM DEEP BONDS WITH OTHER MEN WITHOUT BEING LABELED HOMOSEXUAL?

Eric Metaxas has written a timely article that piggy-backs on other observations concerning the fear of men being accused of being gay if they form tight bonds with other men.  Metaxas writes:

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 In January 1944, German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer sat in a Gestapo prison. He passed the time by writing, and in one of many letters to his dear friend Eberhard Bethge, Bonhoeffer tenderly reflected on what Bethge meant to him.

Back then his missives didn’t raise eyebrows. They sounded like those of so many before him who, in moments of triumph and trial, had taken their greatest joy in the love of a friend of the same sex.

Of course, times have changed. Years after Bonhoeffer’s death, while speaking publicly about their friendship, Bethge found himself facing an awkward question:

Surely, said one audience member, your friendship with Dietrich “must [have been] a homosexual partnership.” How else could Bethge explain the startling affection Bonhoeffer had for him?

Bonhoeffer and Bethge’s friendship was not an isolated victim of this kind of revisionism. Modern readers seem to be on a virtual crusade to open every closet in history.

Thus, we’re told, the bachelor Abraham Lincoln was obviously gay because he shared a bed with his best friend (a practice that was common with both sexes at that time). Ditto William Shakespeare, who wrote love sonnets for an unnamed male friend. The biblical David, who lamented Jonathan’s death, calling his friend’s love “finer than the love of women” was plainly gay, too, the reasoning goes. And the Apostle John, “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” has sparked speculation of his own.

You see, to the modern eye, all close love is sexual love. Deep friendship, especially between men, gives us an uneasy feeling. This leaves modern men with a tough choice: They can risk being pegged as gay for forming deep friendships with each other, or they can give up on making friends and just have “bros.”

UN PANEL RAPS IRAN OVER IMPRISONMENT OF CHRISTIAN PASTOR SAEED ABEDINI

Many of us have been praying for Pastor Abidini and his family for a long time.  May this UN report add pressure on Iran to release Saeed Abidini immediately.

Lisa Daftari of Fox News reports:

A United Nations panel this week blasted Iran's continued imprisonment of American citizen Saeed Abedini, who is serving an eight-year prison term in the Islamic republic for practicing his faith.

Abedini, 34, of Boise, Idaho, "has been deprived of his liberty for peacefully exercising the rights to freedom of religion, belief, and association,” said the report, from United Nations Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. The report comes just a week before leaders from around the world, including Iran, gather for the annual UN General Assembly in New York, and ahead of the Sept. 26 two-year anniversary of Abedini's jailing.

The six-page document detailed Abedini's plight and called for his immediate release. His wife, Naghmeh Abedini, who remains home with their two children, has pleaded with lawmakers and the White House to pressure Iran. She told FoxNews.com she believes the UN stance could go a long way toward bringing Saeed Abedini home.  [more . . .]

RUSH LIMBAUGH INTERVIEWS HIS BROTHER DAVID ON HIS NEW BOOK: "JESUS ON TRIAL -- A LAWYER AFFIRMS THE TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL"

Earlier today a friend sent me a message recommending I try to find the transcript of Rush Limbaugh's interview with his brother, David, who had just published a book, Jesus on Trial.  My friend said it was a great interview.   I checked it out and think so, too.  The transcript  follows:

RUSH: We welcome back to the program my brother, David, well-known author and agent for many highfalutin personalities and celebrities, as well as lawyer, and he's the author of... This is probably the book that he was intended to write his whole life. This is the one he's been building up to. Jesus on Trial: A Lawyer Affirms the Truth of the Gospel. This is a pretty risky subject. You're dealing with people's faith here, and, in many cases, faith is all people have to sustain them. And you know, one of the refrains is that it can't be proved. That's the test. So why'd you decide to do it? Why'd you decide to write the book?

DAVID: Well, thanks for having me on. It's a big honor. I have been studying the Bible, theology, and Christian apologetics -- which means the defense of the Christian faith -- on and off for years. And it just so happens that two of my grade school friends (you know their names, I can't mention them on the air) and they also were high school friends, of course, and I were having dinner, our annual dinner.

And one of these two made a provocative statement to me. He knows I'm a Christian, and I don't know if he was testing his faith by challenging mine or just being playful and provocative. But he made the statement that he didn't believe a rational person could believe in Christianity. And I've studied this stuff a lot, and I tried to respond to him in a brief time. This wasn't the purpose of our meeting.

And, in the end, I think I failed to even marshal much evidence at all. It wasn't at the top of my mind. I wasn't prepared to do it. So I resolved after that that I'd do a better job. I'd study this stuff, get it on my mind. And then within a few days I got a call from Regnery publishing, Harry Crocker, who is a converted Catholic, and he and I have had discussions over the years.

He's a strong believer, and he invited me to write a book on this very subject -- a lawyer looks at the truth of Christianity -- and just do a book on it. And I said, "Well, Harry, I'm really not equipped. I'm not a trained theologian." So I balked at first, and I finally agreed to do it for two reasons. One, I thought I might be getting providential promptings with those two events occurring in such close proximity.

I don't know that to be true, but I'm open to the possibility.

And the second thing is, I think coming to this as a skeptic, as a former skeptic I can relate to those who are currently skeptics perhaps better than a pastor or a trained theologian. I might be able to reach some of these people. Also, I have a secular platform. Not as vast as yours, admittedly, but somewhat of a platform. So that if I can reach people, maybe I can reach people in the secular world and produce some of this evidence to them and make a slight bit of a difference in their lives.  

RUSH: How is your book different from other books on, if not this specific subject, Christian apologetics? I mean, this is quite an undertaking. I mean, God... Another question would be, "Why...?" People ask this all the time in their own way. Pascal, the Pensées, he was driven nuts trying to find proof. "Why does God make it so hard?"

DAVID: Well, the reason I decided to -- or the reason my book is different is the normal classical Christian apologetics approach looks at Christianity through its claims. It looks at the reliability of the Bible, biblical prophecy, the various philosophical proofs of God, the arguments for the possibility of miracles and all that stuff.

And I did all that, but I also added my own unique take to it, which is my own spiritual journey. Because I was a skeptic and I wanted to trace how I evolved from doubter to believer, and I also structured the book that way. I didn't just structure it as a lawyer looks analytically at the evidence, but as an experiential book, relating my experiences and saying how the Bible itself worked as its own apologetic to me.

A MESSAGE TO PRESIDENT OBAMA FROM A FORMER MUSLIM

Brother Rashid (below) articulates what everyone should know about Islam, including President Obama. It is well worth spending 8 1/2 minutes to hear this former Muslim's words, as he includes quotations from the Quran and the Hadith and speaks from personal experience.

 

Introduction:

Brother Rachid, the son of a Moroccan imam, and a convert to Christianity, explains in a “message” to president Obama that ISIL or ISIS, along with all terrorist organizations are products of Islam. There is something so straightforward and compelling in what he says, that you can’t help agreeing. This is a man who was in his words “brainwashed” to hate all non-Muslims and chose to leave that world because he believed that G-d represents love.

MISSOURI LENGTHENS WAITING PERIOD FOR ABORTION TO 72 HOURS

From Family Research Council:

 A majority of states require that a woman seeking an abortion wait a specified amount of time before she can have the abortion. Typically the state mandated waiting period is for 24 hours. Missouri, however, took additional steps yesterday to lengthen their mandatory abortion waiting period to 72 hours, overriding Governor Nixon's veto with a 2/3rds majority vote in both Chambers of the legislature.

Mandatory waiting periods are important for a variety of reasons, but they provide women with time to learn their options, research alternatives to abortion and save lives of unborn children. The action taken by the courageous lawmakers in Missouri to override Governor Nixon's veto will undoubtedly save countless lives. Missouri now ranks second in the nation in terms of the length of mandatory waiting periods before a woman can have an abortion. South Dakota ranks first in the nation with a 72 hour-waiting period, which includes weekends or holidays. A Missouri woman who regrets her abortion and supports the Missouri law recently said, "A 72-hour timeframe is compassionate for women."

Pro-abortion advocates categorize measures such as mandatory waiting periods as "extreme," unnecessary, and anti-woman. However, these desperate claims ignore the growing pro-life consensus in this country and the fact that states have been passing measures such as mandatory waiting periods at record rates. States that do not have laws requiring mandatory waiting periods for women seeking abortions should follow the example of Missouri. Mandatory waiting periods are a reasonable common-sense approach to ensuring true informed consent, which helps women and ultimately will save lives.

Me:  I'm impressed that Missouri legislators were unified enough to override the governor's veto.  The pro-life movement in the United States is becoming more and more robust.

UNTANGLING THE FICTION THAT "MODERATE ISLAMISTS" EXIST

Few write more insightfully and authoritatively on Islam and Islamists than Andrew C. McCarthy, the man who led the 1995 terrorist prosecution against Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and eleven others.  The  defendants were convicted of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and planning a series of attacks against  New York City landmarks.  [Wikipedia links]

Observers will note that the Obama administration has decided to create a fiction that there are "moderate Islamists," a falsehood examined and dissected by McCarthy in two recent articles, one published last week in "It's Not a Misnomer: The Islamic State has everything to do with Islam" and the second in a follow-up article published today, "In Search of the 'Moderate Islamist.'"

In addition to being in control of historical and contemporary facts (including Muslim theology) and the tricky use of language employed by Islamist apologists, McCarthy has the virtue of writing excellent, readable prose.  He is the author of The Grand Jihad: How Islam and the Left Sabotage America.  

PATRICK J. BUCHANAN WRITES ON SECESSIONIST MOVEMENTS ALL OVER EUROPE

As Scotland votes on Thursday for or against independence, Buchanan writes:  [HT: Drudge]

. . . Cheering for the breakup of the U.K. are Catalans and Basques, Bretons and Corsicans, Tyroleans, Venetians, Flemish, all dreaming of nations of their own carved out of Spain, France, Italy and Belgium.

Europe’s secessionists have waxed ever stronger since the last decade of the 20th century when the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia splintered into 22 nations and Czechoslovakia broke in two.

Abkhazians and Ossetians then broke from Georgia as Transnistria fought free of Moldova. Chechnya went to war twice to escape from Russia. Secessionists now battle Russia in Ingushetsia and Dagestan.

The decomposition of the nations of Old Europe is the triumph of tribalism over transnationalism. The heart has reasons that the mind knows not, said Pascal. And the wild heart is winning.

The call of blood, history, faith, culture and memory is winning the struggle against Economism, the Western materialist ideology that holds that the desire for money and things is what ultimately motivates mankind. . . [more. . . ]

PAKISTANI CHRISTIAN WOMAN'S BLASPHEMY COURT APPEAL SCHEDULED OCT. 16, 2014

The story of Asia Bibi is very troubling.  This lady has been kept in prison since June 29, 2009 leaving her children and husband without a mother and wife.  Here's the story with the latest update:

Asia Bibi, a 37-year-old Pakistani woman from the village of Ittanwali, was arrested by police on Friday, June 19, 2009. Asia (also called Asia Noreen) is the wife of 50-year-old Ashiq Masih, and their family is one of only three Christian families in a village of 1,500 families.

Many of the local women, including Asia, work on the farm of Muslim landowner Muhammad Idrees. During their work, many of the Muslim women have pressured Asia to renounce Christianity and accept Islam. In June, the pressure became especially strong.

On Friday, June 19, 2009,V there was an intense discussion among the women about their faith. The Muslim women told Asia about Islam. Asia responded by telling them about her faith in Christ. Asia told the Muslim women Christ had died on the cross for sins, then asked them what Mohammad had done for them, according to VOM sources. She told them Jesus is alive, but Mohammad is dead. “Our Christ is the true prophet of God,” she reportedly told them, “and yours is not true.”

Upon hearing this, the Muslim women became angry and began to beat Asia. Then some men took her and locked her in a room. They announced from the mosque loudspeakers that she would be punished by having her face blackened and being paraded through the village on a donkey. Local Christians informed the police, who took Asia into custody before the Muslims could carry out their plan. She was held at the police station in Nankana city. Christians there urged the police not to file blasphemy charges, but police claimed they were under pressure from local Muslim leaders.

MOVIE RECOMMENDATION: "WHEN THE GAME STANDS TALL"

Email from a mom of teenagers [I haven't seen the movie yet] - 

We went to see "When the Game Stands Tall" tonight, a movie about the De La Salle High School football team, their coach, and their amazing winning streak.  I wondered if I'd enjoy a football movie, but the dynamics running throughout the story kept everyone of all ages engaged.  Even my teen girls loved it (and of course, the men and boys who were with us were totally attentive)!

 

Main characters were played by Jim Caviesel (Jesus in "The Passion of the Christ"), Michael Chiklis (Curly in "The Three Stooges") but there was a large cast of characters, portrayed vividly.  The film had all the right elements to keep you watching.  

 

There were multiple issues left unresolved, yet many heroes.

 

The cinematography in this film was incredible.  You will feel like you're watching MondayNight Football from the field.   This is a date night or family night worth doing.

 

 

VIDEO: TED CRUZ BOOED OFF STAGE BY MIDDLE EASTERN CHRISTIANS

David Brody of CBN News reports:

 

Broody:

Well, Senator Ted Cruz had an interesting night in Washington DC Wednesday night and our Brody File camera crew was there to capture it all.

Middle Eastern Christians booed Cruz off the stage during his speech at a summit in Washington DC. It was sponsored by a group called, ‘In Defense of Christians.” Cruz came to speak about Christian solidarity with Israel but some in the crowd were Palestinian Christian supporters of the Syrian government and even the terrorist group Hezbollah. Things got rowdy. Watch the video below to see how it unfolded. Partial transcript below as well.

Senator Ted Cruz: “Those who hate Israel hate America. Those who hate Jews hate Christians. If those in this room will not recognize that, then my heart weeps. If you hate the Jewish people you are not reflecting the teachings of Christ. And the very same people who persecute and murder Christians right now, who crucify Christians, who behead children, are the very same people who target Jews for their faith, for the same reason.”

Senator Ted Cruz: “My heart weeps that the men and women here will not stand in solidarity with Jews and Christians alike who are persecuted by radicals.”

BUSH PREDICTED EXACTLY WHAT HAS HAPPENED IN IRAQ

Former President Bush has every right to say to President Obama:  "I told you so!"  No one takes pleasure in that fact.  It's disheartening that America acted so foolishly as to elect a "community organizer" not just once, but twice!  

 

Mark A. Thiessen writes in the Washington Post:  (HT: Wintery Knight)

. . . In the summer of 2007, Bush warned of the dire consequence of pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq against the advice of our commanders on the ground. All of Washington was telling Bush that the surge he had launched would fail and that the time had come to withdraw from Iraq and accept defeat.

At a White House news conference on July 12, 2007, Bush declared: “I know some in Washington would like us to start leaving Iraq now. To begin withdrawing before our commanders tell us we’re ready would be dangerous for Iraq, for the region and for the United States. It would mean surrendering the future of Iraq to al-Qaeda. It would mean that we’d be risking mass killings on a horrific scale. It would mean we’d allow the terrorists to establish a safe haven in Iraq to replace the one they lost in Afghanistan. It would mean we’d be increasing the probability that American troops would have to return at some later date to confront an enemy that is even more dangerous.”

. . .  In 2010, Obama did precisely what Bush warned against and withdrew all U.S. forces from Iraq — overruling his commander on the ground, Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, who had recommended that Obama keep 24,000 troops. And since then, everything that Bush warned would happen has come to pass.

Bush warned that withdrawing against the advice of our military commanders would result in “mass killings on a horrific scale.” Check. We’re now seeing mass killings on a horrific scale — summary executions, women and children buried alive, people being crucified, the attempted genocide of the Yazidis and two American journalists beheaded.

AMERICAN EMPIRE DYING... CHINA RISING

Sam Ro at Business Insider reports:  "America Is On The Verge Of Losing Its Place In The World As No. 1" (HT: Drudge)

 

The U.S. economy is the largest economy in the world.

 But it wasn't always the largest.

And it's unlikely to remain the largest economy for much longer.

The chart above comes to us via Deutsche Bank's Jim Reid.

"As Alexander, Rome and Britain fell from their positions of absolute global dominance, so too has the US begun to slip," Reid writes in a new note to clients. "America’s global economic dominance has been declining since 1998, well before the Global Financial Crisis. A large part of this decline has actually had little to do with the actions of the US but rather with the unraveling of a century’s long economic anomaly. China has begun to return to the position in the global economy it occupied for millennia before the industrial revolution."

One look at the chart and it's pretty clear that it may not be very long before we start saying the U.S. is No. 2.

"Based on current trends China’s economy will overtake America’s in purchasing power terms within the next few years," Reid continued. "The US is now no longer the world’s sole economic superpower and indeed its share of world output (on a PPP basis) has slipped below the 20% level which we have seen was a useful sign historically of a single dominant economic superpower. In economic terms we already live in a bi-polar world. Between them the US and China today control over a third of world output (on a PPP basis)."

Reid offered this prescient quote from Napoleon Bonaparte: "Let China sleep, for when she awakes, she will shake the world."

SEN. CRUZ QUESTIONS IRS ABOUT DECISION TO AUDIT BREITBART NEWS

This government is becoming bolder and bolder in its attack on entities that disagree with its policies.   This tyranny must stop.   Breitbart news is a conservative news outlet.  The Obama administration, not embarrassed or intimidated by congressional investigations into its one-sided attack on conservative organizations, is at it again, which prompted Sen. Ted Cruz to send the following letter to the IRS:

Dear Commissioner Koskinen:

I write to express deep concern over the recent announcement by Breitbart News that the Internal Revenue Service recently notified the Breitbart News Network, LLC that it would be subject to a far-reaching, burdensome, and open-ended audit.

As you know, the Breitbart News Network LLC is a conservative-leaning press outlet. It has editors and reporters who cover daily political news and regularly breaks stories that are critical of the Obama Administration's policies. To conduct this audit, Breitbart News Network, LLC was asked to provide the IRS with all of its organizational documents, financial records, W-2s, W-4s, 1099s, and K-1s filed, personal income tax returns for each member of the company, payroll tax forms, information regarding properties and assets acquired by the company, bank statements, and array of other records documenting revenues, expenses, and depreciation costs.

This media audit, coupled with the recent proposal of 49 Senate Democrats to amend the Constitution to give Congress plenary power to regulate political speech, paints a disturbing picture of a coordinated assault on the First Amendment.

 

WATCH TUESDAY - COMMON CORE: THE GOVERNMENT'S CLASSROOM

From the Family Research Council:

Confused by all the talk about the Common Core in education? You're not alone. Join FRC live Tuesday evening via webcast as experts and leaders come together to discuss the coming overhaul in testing and curriculum that is part of the Common Core State Standards Initiative. The entire program will be available to view free online at frc.org/commoncore.

 

Program guests included:

• Neal McClusky (Associate Director of Center for Educational Freedom, CATO Institute)
• U.S. Representative Tom Cotton (R-Ark.)
• Dr. Sandra Stotsky (Professor Emerita, University of Arkansas)
• Governor Bobby Jindal (R-La.)
• Jane Robbins, Esq. (Senior Fellow, American Principles Project)
• Will Estrada, Esq. (Director of Federal Relations, Home School Legal Defense Association)

Highlights from the evening included Rep. Cotton's discussion of the Student Success Act, which seeks to support state and local accountability measures for public education; Jane Robbins's insight regarding data collection and privacy rights; and Will Estrada's assessment of parental rights and the effect of Common Core for homeschoolers and private schools. FRC received many questions and comments from parents, teachers, and citizens - many of which were addressed on the program. Please watch and share to inform your friends, family and community about the government's classroom.

Note: This post has been edited since its original posting

EVOLUTION UNDER SCRUTINY IN TURKEY

A young Turkish student, Enes Kayan, is bucking evolution orthodoxy by staging annual open inquiry symposiums on biological evolution and the origin of life at Turkish universities.  Granville Sewell, a mathematics professor at the University of Texas at El Paso was an invited participant at the May 7, 2014 conference held this year in Erzurum, Turkey.  He published the following report on the conference:

Unsatisfied and unconvinced by what he was being taught about evolution at Marmara University in Istanbul, Turkey, 21-year old student Enes Kayan knew there was another side which was never presented in his courses. So in 2012, Enes, a member of the Marmara Young Vision Student Club, decided to organize a symposium in which he and other Marmara students could hear alternative views on evolution, including intelligent design. The idea that evidence against Darwinism, and even for intelligent design, could be freely presented at a university angered some students and professors, and about 300 of them staged a protest, which Enes said actually worked to his advantage as it brought publicity to the event, which was held on May 16-17, 2012.

The event was such a success that Enes decided to organize a similar event the following year, and invite scientists from outside Marmara University, including some from outside Turkey, and the “First International Conference on Queried Evolution,” was held on May 4, 2013 at Marmara University. I was actually invited as one of the international speakers, but had to decline because the event was in the middle of the last week of classes at the University of Texas El Paso. The meeting was organized by Enes, and run entirely by students from Marmara Young Vision Student Club, who found sponsors to pay the expenses of the visiting scientists, including the Student Council of Turkey, a dependency of the Council of Higher Education of Turkey.

The following year Enes organized a second international conference with the Erzurum Young Vision Student Club, this time it was held at Ataturk University in Erzurum in eastern Turkey, and sponsors included the city government of Erzurum and the university itself. Enes again invited me, this time I decided to accept despite the fact that it was again held in the middle of the last week of my classes, May 7, 2014. And so this year I was able to participate in the event and witness the work he and his fellow students had done in organizing it.

The meeting was held in a large 550-seat auditorium at the Culture and Performance Center building and attended by over 600 students during the day. Since some of the talks were in English while others were in Turkish, simultaneous translation was provided by a student interpreter. I heard (through the interpreter) mentions of “specified complexity,” “the explanatory filter,” “irreducible complexity” and other familiar ID terms during some talks, but other speakers presented a range of different viewpoints, including at least one who defended the traditional Darwinist viewpoint. Most of the speakers discussed the origin of life and biological evolution, but one physicist centered his discussion on the fine-tuning of the constants of physics. Lecturers were invited from Celal Bayar University, Dokuz Eylul University, Yidirim Beyazit University, Ataturk University, Ankara, Edmonton, and London. My talk was entitled “The Common Sense Law of Physics,” here is the video that I created while preparing for the trip, which closely parallels my lecture.

I enjoyed seeing Istanbul on the trip in, Enes and his girlfriend showed me the main tourist attractions, and I was especially impressed by Erzurum, which I found was a winter sports capital of sorts, even boasting a couple of large ski jumps near campus. Ataturk University, founded in 1957, now has over 70,000 students, with an attractive and modern campus. For me, the most amazing thing about this conference, which I hope will be continued next year (with the English translation of the title changed from “Queried Evolution” to “Evolution under Scrutiny” at my suggestion!), is that it seemed to be as well-organized and well-run as any scientific conference I have attended, yet all of the organization and all the work was done by a group of 15-20 students. In fact, other than the invited speakers, I don’t recall seeing anyone who did not seem to be of student age. For a 23-year old student to undertake the task of organizing an international scientific meeting on any topic is quite an accomplishment, but for Enes and his fellow students to successfully organize a conference in which alternative views on evolution are presented is especially impressive.

It has been said that when an old theory is replaced, it is often not because its adherents change their minds, but because a new generation embraces the new theory. I may have seen this principle in action last week in Turkey.

Enes Kayan, organizer of the Congresses

Me:  I wonder if these conferences may well serve as a harbinger of things to come.  The evidential structure of biological evolution as currently taught is becoming increasingly weak and wobbly.   The publication this year of Stephen C. Meyer's Darwin's Doubt with its focus on the unexplained "Cambrian Explosion" is another huge problem for evolutionists.  Today I just read that a vertebrate fish has been found in the Cambrian Explosion!!   Keep reading for more on that new find.

Metaspriggina: Vertebrate Fish Found in Cambrian Explosion 

Evolution News & Views August 29, 2014 4:44 AM

KRAUTHAMMER'S TAKE: PRESIDENT 'A MAN IN DENIAL, ON THE VERGE OF DELUSION'

 From National Review Online:

Charles Krauthammer has no consoling words for President Obama in the wake of a second American journalist beheaded by the Islamic State. Scolding the president’s refusal to call Islamic State terrorists anything but “extremists,” Krauthammer called the president “a man in denial, on the verge of delusion.”

“Here’s a man who comes into office and denies the existence of a war on terror,” said Krauthammer on Special Report. “And what do we see?” Krauthammer then proceeded to list attacks by Islamic jihadists in Somalia, Nigeria, Niger, Libya, Yemen, and, of course, Syria and Iraq. “It’s everywhere.

But “Obama persists in calling them ‘extremists.’ As if they are extremists for — what reason? They are just very upset about a lot of stuff. He will not call it by its name, Islamic radicalism,” said Krauthammer on Special Report. “He will not explain or concede that it is a worldwide movement, and he will not concede that what he’s done for these five years — underestimating, underplaying, and not explaining to the American people the necessity of carrying [the War on Terror] on — is now beginning to bear fruit everywhere in the world as America’s position is collapsing.”