God is not dead, and in fact ...

... not even feeling poorly.

In a most interesting article at Christianity Today, philosopher William Lane Craig points out that the recent "village atheist"genre of cool books is behind the curve.

Modern philosophy takes God seriously. For example,

The teleological argument. The old design argument remains as robust today as ever, defended in various forms by Robin Collins, John Leslie, Paul Davies, William Dembski, Michael Denton, and others. Advocates of the Intelligent Design movement have continued the tradition of finding examples of design in biological systems. But the cutting edge of the discussion focuses on the recently discovered, remarkable fine-tuning of the cosmos for life. This finetuning is of two sorts. First, when the laws of nature are expressed as mathematical equations, they contain certain constants, such as the gravitational constant. The mathematical values of these constants are not determined by the laws of nature. Second, there are certain arbitrary quantities that are just part of the initial conditions of the universe—for example, the amount of entropy.

These constants and quantities fall into an extraordinarily narrow range of life-permitting values. Were these constants and quantities to be altered by less than a hair's breadth, the life-permitting balance would be destroyed, and life would not exist.

Accordingly, we may argue:

1. The fine-tuning of the universe is due either to physical necessity, chance, or design.
2. It is not due to physical necessity or chance.
3. Therefore, it is due to design.

Of course one can argue against that, but one must argue - not rant, or explain how miserable Sunday School was.

I must reserve a ticket for the Canuck comics' rally for freedom

Guy, please assure me that there will be a seat for me, even if it is under the garlic chef's armpit .... (By the way, here's Kathy Five Feet of Fury Shaidle's introduction to Guy Earle.)

Last night, I stayed up late reading Jonah Goldberg’s revealing Liberal Fascism, and I recommend it for summer reading. It's spooky because Goldberg spells out clearly what I only viscerally sensed: Fascism is not about khaki and jackboots; it is about identity politics. He writes,

Today we unreflectively associate fascism with militarism. But it should be remembered that fascism was militaristic because militarism was "progressive" at the beginning of the twentieth century. Across the intellectual landscape, technocrats and poets alike saw the military as the best model for organizing and mobilizing society. (p. 106)

Some brands of fascist identity feature khaki and jackboots; others feature hurt feelings and assignments of guilt - the sort of thing that appeals to people who grew up in TherapyWorld.

No wait, they didn't grow up in TherapyWorld. No one ever grows up there. They just grow older and more aggrieved.

I will write more on this later.

Meanwhile, someone wrote to one of my community blogs that he was a Canadian trying to become a US citizen. He had some advice for the rest of us - be nice:

... for Christians living in Canada, it seems that there is this government enforced exercise in being gracious in their speech, which might have some positive benefits. If they have to watch their words under close eye of the government or of complainants who have a tendancy to feel offended, graciousness should be a welcome discipline for some. There is still no law against Galatians 5:22.

And I replied ,

There is a cosmic difference between gracious words flowing from gracious thoughts and the “little police station in the head” that fascist government (the Nanny Monster) implants.

What we are undergoing in Canada does not lead to graciousness; it leads to a resentful, servile, dependent, and stupid population punctuated here and there by heroes who are quickly disowned by their fellows and forgotten.

For example, even though white, Christian Protestant males have been overwhelmingly more likely than anyone else to be Nanny’s victims, they have been as silent as the grave, too frightened to defend each other.

Right now, it has been mostly Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim journalists, (and disproportionately women) who are doing the serious fighting - and not because they are safer (quite the opposite, they have been singled out for exemplary attacks as a result).

So many people who might surprise you just sit around, passively waiting for the number for their government-funded ‘otomy to come up in the computer. If they’re religious, they claim that, after all, some Yankee evangelist predicted that the End Times would be like this and yada yada yada.

Trying to explain the problem to a friend, I said, “The Nanny Monster likes to play tennis without a net. Some people here have a different problem - all the balls are locked in the storage shed and they don’t know where the key is.”

Anyway, good luck with sorting out the citizenship thing. And please, please do your new country a favour by opposing your local Nanny Monster while she is still easily controllable.

Think she doesn’t exist? Visit your local U campus where, chances are, she is happily hatching her eggs.

Meanwhile, the Fire. Them. All. theme seems to be picking up a head of steam.