» Random Thoughts Current RT's RT Archives		March 20, 2008- Quick Thoughts #1        When I link to external articles from EbbWorld, many times I have more thoughts on the matter then the one-liners I usually add.  Because I want to express those thoughts more, I'm starting 'Quick Thoughts' where I'll add more substantial blurbs related to the external articles I link to.  Hope you find it a bit more thought-provoking. 'A Quote Against Theocracy' by C.S. Lewis - RichardDawkins.net        -This post is a bit unorthodox for EbbWorld, considering my unabashed theism as well as my dislike non-interest in superhero atheist Richard Dawkins, but I found it oddly intriguing and insightful.  Not so much the C.S. Lewis quote itself (which I somewhat agree), or that he considering himself a democrat (C.S. Lewis died before Roe v. Wade mind you, and the democratic platform was way less liberal than it is today), but more the responses from his fellow atheists below the article; so much past pain and hurt from the "church" or "church people".  It's like that one girl says, she likes the idea of an Aslan-like Jesus, but just never saw that in reality.  The more I know about this particular type of pain, the more compassion God gives me for atheists/agnostics deconverted because of it.        Is that Richard Dawkins standing next to a safari Land Rover at the top right (hit F5 till you see it)?  Hmm, perhaps he's cooler than I thought. Boom-years borrowing hits churches hard Loans dry up, foreclosures and delinquencies rise for houses of worship        -I don't know, perhaps I should be more opposed to the mega-church movement than I am (maybe I'm somewhat jaded because I live in the midst of a handful of them?) but something about this article just doesn't reverberate the book of Acts or the early Christian church.  I'm not saying it's wrong to have a fully-functioning, up-to-code building for worship, classes, etc., but shouldn't there be a church "salary cap" or something?  Why is a bigger one-church better than a lot of small churches?  I don't see that principle in the Bible.  Shouldn't we be spending these copious amounts of money on church planting and discipleship/spreading out, not on upgrading the headquarters?  Just doesn't sound Christian when you tell a person, "Yeah our $30 million mega-church is getting foreclosed."  Maybe it's a control issue…and pastors don't want to give up control of what they've built up by spreading it out and sharing the wealth. Pope: Condoms not the answer in AIDS fight Pontiff greeted by crowds in Cameroon amid criticism by AIDs educators        -The issue of condom promotion in high-risk areas of Africa, at the marginalization of abstinence education, etc., has always perturbed me a bit.  It's speculation and generalization, but I sometimes think an underlying premise, whether conscious or not, is that the Africans in these high-risk, third-world areas are not "civilized" enough to understand/achieve the self-control required by abstinence.  Yeah, basically a covert form of complete racism.  Ironic theory eh? Is Fraud Contagious? New research on the reasons people cheat and why some can resist temptation.        -Oh geez.  It's almost comical the extent society and mainstream media will go to explain away such absolutely and morally relevant core human issues that really only a religiously-motivated foundation (Christian worldview being the best IMO) can explain.  When are we just gonna be honest with ourselves and blame the very thing that is the catalyst to this sort of abject behavior; our inherent human disease called sin? Other articles of interest: Single, pregnant and panicked Why so many smart women botch their birth control Unwed birth rate reaches all-time high in U.S. Report: Record number of babies born in 2007; 40 percent to single moms

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