Prudent Musings » Culture

“Jesus” on American Idol

Richard Smolenski — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:54:03 +0000

Okay, so I’m posting this a few days late: had to catch up on DVR recordings.

My wife and I were very surprised, and quite pleased, to see the song “Shout to the Lord” by Darlene Zschech of Hillsong performed on American Idol by the remaining contestants as a group.

They actually did the song twice, once on their “Idol Gives Back” event (with the word “Shepherd” substituted for “Jesus” and then again on the results show, with the word “Jesus” intact.

Jesus-free version:

Full of Jesus:

Hat Tip: Fred McKinnon.

Where Am I?

Richard Smolenski — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 07:56:30 +0000

I’d like to thank all of my faithful readers. I’ve looked at my statistics and seen that many of you still visit even though I have not posted in a couple of months. I apologize for vanishing for a bit, but I’m coming back and will have a bit more explanation later. In summary, this is what has occurred in the last few months:

Still working on my M.Div.
Learning Ruby On Rails for a new blog and a new project that I think you’ll all like (and I’m sorry for not keeping up with the Bumpzee group. Casey, if you’re still reading, would you like it?).
We had a baby in December. That makes two children each with a December birthday.
Expect more soon, but I’d like your feedback: what is is that you, as Christian bloggers, are missing? What will help you to get your message out?

Also, since I’ve been away, I’ve noticed a lot more blog spam. Is this because this blog became not active, or is it a trend across all blogs lately?

No related posts.

Oprah’s False Religion(s)

Richard Smolenski — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 06:11:04 +0000

Oprah has influence over millions of viewers, but when she gets an important point wrong, some are quick to correct her. Listen to the applause from the audience directed toward the guests attempting to explain the Gospel. Not surprisingly, Oprah chose to disengage from the conversation.

Note that she mentions “generosity” as a virtue. I suppose that’s why she gives her audience members so many gifts.

Moral Relativism Failure #2: A False Assumption

Atheist Book Authors Beware!

Richard Smolenski — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 03:25:13 +0000

I finally watched The 1/2 Hour News Hour which airs late Sunday nights on the Fox News Channel. It’s like the Daily Show, but with a conservative slant. The following was particularly relevant to my recent posts regarding atheist book authors:

Right to Jump, or a Right to Encourage it?

Arguments Against Arguments for Atheism: The Views of Sam Harris

Richard Smolenski — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 19:17:53 +0000

An article refuting many of the claims made by Sam Harris in his books The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reasonand Letter to a Christian Nationcan be found in the latest edition of Biola Connections, the alumni magazine of Biola University. The article, with contributions by Christian scholars Douglas Geivett and William Lane Craig, can be found online here. A pdf of the entire issue can be found here.

Is Science the Only Source of Information?

Richard Smolenski — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 00:10:41 +0000

Because science has introduced the world to a great number of achievements in medicine, technology, and numerous other factors, people have grown to place a high value on the teachings of science. This is a good thing. No one can make a coherent argument against the value of the great number of lives that have been saved due to the scientific advances in medicine. The great problem arises, though, when science becomes not just one of the many ways that we acquire knowledge, but the only way; that if we cannot test something scientifically, it cannot be true. This is exactly the belief that sways people to abandon any information that leads to supernatural beliefs. I must point out here, though, that the core belief (that only things that can be tested and proven by scientific means) cannot itself be tested by science. Even though one might attempt to prove the statement philosophically, philosophy is outside of the realm of science so, by definition, the philosophical defense cannot be accepted.

But just because the belief cannot pass its own test does not mean that it will not be widely accepted. Science has become the only reliable source of information, but what happens when the findings of different scientists conflict with each other? When two different groups of scientists look at the same data and come up with different information, which conclusions are the correct ones? The answer depends on what is being tested. The intelligent design movement has proven to be a worthy adversary to the widely-accepted scientific theory of Darwinian evolution. Work by Phillip Johnson, Michael Behe, William Dembski and numerous others have offered a viable scientific alternative to the popular theory, but their work has been dismissed as “unscientific” not because it does not follow established scientific procedures or accurately report its findings, but because its findings are compatible with the creation account found in the Biblical book of Genesis.

Although intelligent design never claims that the Genesis account is true (aliens or even a machine created by aliens or a past generation of human beings more intelligent than us) could have created the universe, the elite scientists see that it also leaves room for the Judeo-Christian God as well. To risk stating the obvious, scientists are not stupid. They know that culture has defined them as holding the key to knowledge and do not want anyone else to get a copy. If religion is allowed to open the door, then they lose their power; knowledge can be found elsewhere, in the pages of the Bible for example.

Comments about the Creation Museum

Richard Smolenski — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 00:41:53 +0000

In an earlier post, I displayed a video promo of the new Creation Museum. Casey, from Casey’s Critical Thinking, has a very good discussion going on over at his blog regarding this topic.

Contemporary Implications from Comparing the Old Testament with Ancient Near-Eastern Documents

Richard Smolenski — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 01:54:15 +0000

When God created us we were perfect. Then sin entered our lives through our own fault. This caused our nature and the nature of the world to become a perversion of the original perfection. What was once good was good no longer. Evil came to exist as good gone wrong; perfection twisted.

I can remember my pre-salvation days where I did a lot of things that I regret today. These were things that the culture said were okay. Nothing I did was either culturally or socially unacceptable. But they were all perversions of things God intended to be for good. I didn’t want God’s good, but my own. Most culturally-accepted perversions of God’s perfection are this way. Take sexual relations between a husband and wife as an example – one only need to turn on the television to see how culture has perverted this. Like premarital sex is a perversion of God’s intention, these stories from the ancient Near East are perversions of biblical history.

Many of the stories have surface similarities to the biblical accounts, but when examined further the major differences can be easily seen. In the stories there is not one God, but many Gods. Man did not rebel morally to cause a punishment flood, but made too much noise. The stories do not glorify God, but human kings. Some truth is there (superhuman creation of the world and humanity, a flood, etc.), but this truth has been twisted, much like culture has twisted so many other God-determined purposes, morals, or history.

When confronted by cultural differences with the biblical narratives or morals, the Christian can look back at these stories and know that their situation is not the first time in history when culture has twisted the words of God. This has been going on for a long time. Satan is the “god of this world” and this world creates culture. It should not be surprising, but assuring, that these documents exist which seem to so closely match, but really so much corrupt the truth of what really occurred. Through their differences with the Bible, they point out what is the most important in the Bible.

Creation Museum

Richard Smolenski — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 01:42:58 +0000

A museum devoted to scientifically proving the veracity of the Genesis creation account opened recently. This is a Current TV promo to the longer special.

Greg Koukl vs. Deepak Chopra

Richard Smolenski — Mon, 28 May 2007 15:51:44 +0000

This is an older video, but a great one. For those of you who do not know, Faith Under Fire, hosted by Lee Strobel, was a weekly religious-debate show that used to air on the PAX network. It has been off the air for years now, but the material has begun to come out as group studies (see the Amazon link to the right). Enjoy, but disregard the title that says it’s William Lane Craig. It’s really Greg Koukl!