Rom 5:19 For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.

According to the Bible, he does. This doctrine is called the agency of Adam. A brief explanation may be in order:

The Bible tells us that "all have sinned" (Rom. 3:23). It is a pillar of Christian teaching that every last human being has or will succumb to temptation and sin. Now, if something is 100% certain in the entire human population, past, present and future, one cannot say that individuals within the population have any choice in the matter. In essence, you cannot not sin. You do not have the power not to sin.

But this was not always the case. In Adam's case, he did have a choice. He did have the power not to sin. As we all know, the dweeb chose to sin.

Now, since Adam chose to sin, he and the rest of humanity lost that power. That's right. You and I and everyone else became sinners.

So if you feel that it is unfair of God to punish you for doing what you have no possibility of avoiding, you must understand that Adam was your representative, your agent. And as any watcher of Judge Judy knows, you are liable for the actions of your agent.

For example, if you hire a tree guy to take down the pine tree in your front yard, and said tree guy messes up the operation and brings said tree down upon your neighbor's new Jag, well, you are responsible. (Of course you can sue the tree guy, but the neighbor will come after you.) Because the tree guy was acting as your agent.

But, you say, I hired the tree guy! I never asked Adam to represent me! Well, that's too bad, because God chose Adam to represent you. Doesn't matter what you wanted. It's just the way it is.

How do you feel about that? Once again we come to the might makes right argument, the one that shuts us up but good. As Paul said (and I paraphrase): Who the hell are you to talk back to God?

But many Christians will then say, yes, but God also made Jesus your agent. He didn't sin, and you can switch reps and be a non-sinner. Potentially. Only if you do everything he says.

So, Adam you got whether you want him or not. To get Jesus, you'll have to do some major sucking up.

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After Adam and Eve provoked God to the extent that he cursed all of humanity (the same humanity that he designed and built, mind you), and booted the silly, sinning couple out of Eden, the scriptures say this:

So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. (Gen. 3:23-24)

So God evicted them without notice and put security guard cherubs, armed with a sword-flambe, at the entrance just in case they tried to sneak back in.

Then humanity goes about its business.

So what happened to the Garden? With Google Earth around, should we be able to see it?

Of course literalistic Christians will say that just because God didn't tell us how he got rid of it doesn't mean he didn't. Or better yet, they'll opine that God has the power to hide it from our satellites if he chooses. Yes, yes, but explanations that make such frequent use of God's alleged superpowers ring hollow. Much simpler and more rational to conclude that the thing never existed in the first place, don't you think?

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NewScientist - May 28, 2009, by Amanda Gefter

The Discovery Institute – the Seattle-based headquarters of the intelligent design movement – has just launched a new website, Faith and Evolution, which asks, can one be a Christian and accept evolution? The answer, as far as the Discovery Institute is concerned, is a resounding: No.

The new website appears to be a response to the recent launch of the BioLogos Foundation, the brainchild of geneticist Francis Collins, former head of the Human Genome Project and rumoured Obama appointee-to-be for head of the National Institutes of Health. Along with "a team of scientists who believe in God" and some cash from the Templeton Foundation, Collins, an evangelical Christian who is also a staunch proponent of evolution, is on a crusade to convince believers that faith and science need not be at odds. He is promoting "theistic evolution" – the belief that God (the prayer-listening, proactive, personal God of Christianity) chose to create life by way of evolution.

It sounds like a nice idea, but to my mind any time you try to reconcile science and religion by rejecting Stephen Jay Gould's notion of "non-overlapping magisteria" and instead try shoehorning them into a single worldview, something suffers. My concern is that science will take the hit – and Collins's speculative arguments about divine intervention via quantum uncertainty seem dangerously poised for the punch. The Discovery Institute's concern, on the other hand, is that Christianity will take the hit. "For Christians," they write on their website, "mainstream theistic evolution raises challenges to traditional doctrines about God's providence, the Fall and the detectability of God's design in nature." For them, reconciling evolution and religious faith is simply a hopeless endeavour.

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There's a particular time of the week when a sizable chunk of the population just kind of,,, disappears. The breakfast eateries have no lines. The grocery store aisles are clear. Traffic on the streets is almost post-apocalyptic. Peace and quiet and ease of travel abound. Just like in the classic, Omega Man, when Charlton Heston found himself alone in the world. Ah, the joys of a Sunday morning!

Sure, many of us like to use these Sunday hours to chip away at our sleep deficit, but even after getting up late, it can be a sweet pleasure to experience the world with a large percentage of our fellow travelers safely out of the way in their churches. Try it sometime.

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Have you ever purposely pushed someone's buttons? You know, saying or doing things you know will annoy them? Sure you have. Did you know that God has buttons, too?

You may not normally think about God's buttons, but he sure has them. Take a look at some of the many references to how human beings, who really shouldn't have such a profound effect on the mood of a perfect, completely-self-contained deity, can easily provoke the bible god to fits of uncontrolled rage...

Exo 23:21 Be on guard before Him, and obey His voice. Do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions. For My name is in Him.

Num 14:11 And Jehovah said to Moses, How long will this people provoke Me? And how long will it be before they believe Me, for all the signs which I have shown among them?

1Ki 14:9 But you have done evil above all who were before you, for you have gone and made yourself other gods, and molded images, to provoke Me to anger, and have cast Me behind your back;

Eze 16:26 You have also whored with the Egyptians, your neighbors great of flesh, and have multiplied your fornications to provoke Me to anger.

1Co 10:22 Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?

So be careful out there. Step lightly. Don't want to push God's sensitive buttons.

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You have surely heard it said (and if you haven't heard it said, you should hear it now), extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. The claims of Christianity are certainly extraordinary; one might reasonably call them absurd. Therefore, it stands to reason, if reason is your guide, that its claims should be buttressed and proven by overwhelming evidence.

But for me, there is another reason to demand extraordinary evidence. I need such evidence, not merely because Christianity's claims are so preposterous, but because its claims on my life are so total and all-encompassing. Christianity demands that I lay down my life, that I suffer for Christ, that I give up everything for him and for his cause.

I can see why a certain mentality would find this calling attractive. Someone yearning for a purpose and meaning for his life, someone wanting to have his personality subsumed into a larger entity, for example. I was particularly vulnerable to this enticement at 17, with my unformed and uprooted life. Not anymore.

You want me to give my life for something, it had better be true. If you cannot demonstrate conclusively that it is true, I won't waste one minute or one calorie on it.

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SkyNews - May 19, 2009, by Alex Watts

Scientists have unveiled a 47-million-year-old fossilised skeleton of a monkey hailed as the missing link in human evolution.

The search for a direct connection between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom has taken 200 years - but it was presented to the world today at a special news conference in New York.

The discovery of the 95%-complete 'lemur monkey' - dubbed Ida - is described by experts as the "eighth wonder of the world".

They say its impact on the world of palaeontology will be "somewhat like an asteroid falling down to Earth".

Researchers say proof of this transitional species finally confirms Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, and the then radical, outlandish ideas he came up with during his time aboard the Beagle.

Sir David Attenborough said Darwin "would have been thrilled" to have seen the fossil - and says it tells us who we are and where we came from.

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From Epiphenom...

Every few years, a group based at Hertford College at Oxford puts together a statistical analysis of all the studies conducted to date that have looked at whether praying for sick people helps them get better (or at least stay alive).

The latest has just been published, and it contains something pretty radically new in their conclusions: the evidence is now so clear cut that they think that no more studies should be done. The book is shut. Praying for sick people simply doesn't work.

Now, the odd thing is that there haven't actually been any new studies on this since their last report, back in 2007. So why the change of heart? There are a couple of reasons.

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Footsteps In The Sand

One night a man had a dream.
He dreamed he was walking along the beach with the LORD.
Across the sky flashed scenes from his life.
For each scene, he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand:
one belonging to him, and the other to the LORD.

When the last scene of his life flashed before him
he looked back, at the footprints in the sand.
He noticed that many times along the path of his life
there was only one set of footprints.
He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times of his life.

This really bothered him and he questioned the LORD about it:
"LORD, you said that once I decided to follow you,
you'd walk with me all the way.
But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life
there is only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why when I needed you most you would leave me."

The LORD replied:
"My son, My precious child, I love you and I would never leave you,
During your times of trial and suffering,
when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you."

Author unknown

I asked myself, What is this poem meant to do? It seems unambiguous: The poem is meant to encourage Christians who feel that God was not there to help them during the most difficult and painful periods of their lives. Why is this needed? Simple: Because it feels like, looks like, works out like, he isn't.

Even the most pious and saintly souls have experienced the absence of God. Mother Teresa said this:

Jesus has a very special love for you. As for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great that I look and do not see, listen and do not hear.

— Mother Teresa to the Rev. Michael Van Der Peet, September 1979

A recent book by a Christian apologist asks the question, Why does God hide? My answer: He doesn't. There's no one there. There never was.

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