John Lennox challenges Stephen Hawking on God denial

Renowned Christian mathematician, John Lennox, has taken issue with Stephen Hawking’s recent assertion that the creation of the universe happened without God and has released a book challenging him. Lennox is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford and Fellow in Mathematics and Philosophy of Science, and also Pastoral Advisor at Green Templeton College.

Hawking renewed the science versus faith debate a few months ago when he asserted in his book, The Grand Design, that the law of gravity proves it is unnecessary for a Being to be the cause behind the Big Bang which led to the formation of the universe.

Lennox’s book, God and Stephen Hawking: Whose Design is it Anyway?, challenges Hawking’s viewpoints on a number of different fronts.

Lennox is convinced that it is possible to believe in the creation of the universe, and multiuniverses as Hawking believes in, and still believe in God, as he states in an interview with The Times.

“You can have both,” he said. “What’s to stop God creating a multiverse?”

Nor does Lennox believe the Big Bang renders God obsolete but rather that it was a “singularity,” or a moment in time when “God did something special.”

Lennox also related to The Times of his student years at Cambridge University, where he actively sought out students with differing perspectives from the Christian belief his parents taught him and that despite reading carefully the works of atheists such as Bertrand Russell and Camus, he still came to conclude that the beliefs he had been raised with were true.

“I believed then, and I still do believe, that Christianity is falsifiable. It’s not believing in spite of the evidence; it’s believing because of it. In fact, what I discovered at Cambridge was the more I exposed my faith to the opposition, the stronger it held up.”

Lennox also stressed that science would never be able to help people to understand God as a being of love.

“God is a person, not a theory,” he concluded.

Christian teens trained to help prevent anti-gay bullying

A psychology professor has helped put together a new youth curriculum that looks to develop young Christians as leaders in situations where they see others, including gays, being bullied.

Warren Throckmorton is the co-creator of the Gold Rule Pledge – a program that promotes respect and concern toward GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender) persons without necessarily compromising personal religious beliefs.

"A middle school student who is bullied daily doesn’t care about religious differences. He needs help,” said Throckmorton, who teaches psychology at Grove City College in Pennsylvania, USA.

Throckmorton affirms that Christians could assist bullied youth if only they followed the golden rule – do unto others as they would do unto you.

“There’s much controversy around homosexuality. There should be no controversy around practicing the golden rule,” he emphasised.

“I’d like to see Christian kids, youth group kids become leaders against bullying.”

Gay bullying has dominated headlines recently after a series of gay youth suicides that have generated tremendous concern.

The five-page Golden Rule Pledge curriculum attempts to address these concerns by designing specific discussion material to be used within church youth groups. For example, teens must participate and pick sides in a skit entitled, “The Freshman in the Lunchroom,” in which a gay student is bullied.

After the skit, the teens then discuss questions such as “What roles should teens take in a situation where someone is getting bullied?” and “Should our helping depend on the reason someone is getting bullied?” and study the biblical accounts of Zacchaeus, the tax collector, and the Samaritan woman at the well. In both accounts, Jesus socializes with people considered social outcasts.

“Jesus transcended groupings,” Throckmorton highlighted. “He didn’t do it with philosophical rhetoric. He transcended them in a very personal way.”

Through the curriculum, Throckmorton said he hopes “to see the elimination of anti-gay name-calling.”

Condemned Pakistani woman to appeal death sentence for 'blasphemy'

People from around the globe were shocked recently when a Pakistani woman, Asia Noreen, was sentenced to death by a judge in the Nankana Sahib district for blasphemy. It is believed the judge was placed under fierce pressure from Muslim extremists to deliver this decision. The verdict was delivered under Pakistan’s controversial “blasphemy” statute, which carries a death or life imprisonment sentence, yet research has shown that up to 80 percent of blasphemy charges filed are used to settle personal scores.

Noreen is the first woman to be sentenced to death under this law for allegedly defaming Islam. Among other allegations, Noreen was accused of denying that Muhammad was a prophet.

“How can we expect a Christian to affirm a Muslim belief?” her lawyer, Chaudhry Tahir Shahzad said. He added that he and fellow lawyer Manzoor Qadir had filed an appeal against the verdict in the Lahore High Court.

In an interview with Compass, Asia’s husband, Ashiq Masih, said that his wife has been incarcerated in horrific conditions since June of 2009 after she fell into an argument with fellow field workers in Ittanwali village. These workers were trying to convince her to renounce Christianity and apparently strong words were exchanged. The women told Muslim cleric Muhammad Salim about the June 14 incident, and he filed a case with police on June 19, 2009. On that day (June 19), Masih said, the Muslim women suddenly raised a commotion, accusing Noreen of defaming Muhammad.

“Several Muslim men working in the nearby fields reached the spot and forced their way into our house, where they tortured Asia and the children,” said Masih, who confirmed that his wife is 45 years old and that they have five children – four girls and a boy, the oldest daughter 20.

Police arrived and took his wife into custody, presumably for her own protection, he said.

“They saved Asia’s life, but then later a case was registered against her under Sections 295-B and C [blaspheming the Quran and Muhammad, respectively] at the Nankana police station on the complaint of Muhammad Salim, the local imam [prayer leader] of the village,” he said. “Asia has been convicted on false charges. We have never, ever insulted the prophet Muhammad or the Quran.”

Human rights groups have long been critical of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws as being too easily manipulated to settle grudges or oppress religious minorities. No one has yet been executed for blasphemy in Pakistan, as most are freed on appeal after suffering for years under appalling prison conditions.

Student suicide was my ‘tipping point’ for coming out says pastor

Jim Swilley, the founder and pastor of a megachurch based in Georgia recently told CNN.com that the September suicide of a Rutgers University student was the ‘tipping point’ for his decision to come out of the closet to his congregation.

"For some reason, his situation was kind of the tipping point with me," said Swilley. "There comes a point in your life where you say - how much time do we have left in our lives? Are we going to be authentic or not?"

Tyler Clementi, a Rutgers student of only 18 years of age, threw himself off a bridge after a secretly-taped sexual encounter between him and another man was posted on the internet.

Swilley, who calls himself a bishop, said he has known he is homosexual since childhood, but that he was convinced he would never have the courage to live openly.

Swilley,52, came out after more than 20 years of marriage to his former wife, who continues to work at their church.

"At a certain point, you are who you are," said Swilley, who has four children from two marriages.

He ministers at the Church in the Now, an inter-denominational Christian church in Conyers, Georgia.

"What I told my church is that I was given two things in my life that I didn't ask for... one is the call of God in my life and the other is my orientation. I didn't ever think that those two things could be compatible," Swilley said.

Swilley said that his main concern in sharing his orientation with his community was authenticity, saying that "It's about people being who they are."

Coalition formed to promote Embryonic Stem Cell Research

The Stem Cell Action Coalition for Cures was launched this week by the Genetics Policy Institute in an effort to create support for embryonic stem cell research.

“The way it is designed is for our organizations, and state organizations to have an online presence so that each state organization can use that website to have the information about that state’s fight for stem cell research against unreasonable restrictions,” said GPI Executive Director Bernard Siegel.

GPI details its objective on its website: “Our goal is enlist 1,000,000 people across America and the world.”

In this way, GPI hopes to generate enough “political force” to effect legal, regulatory and funding change in order to promote Stem Center Research into treatments.

“Once you have the strength of those numbers of disease groups or science groups or scientific societies behind you, suddenly you have a different sort of voice in Washington [D.C.],” Siegel explained.

Many Christian medical professionals don’t support embryonic stem cell research because of moral and ethical reservations and instead promote advancement in adult stem cell research.

A few weeks ago Christian Medical Association CEO Dr. David Stevens paid tribute to Children’s Hospital researchers for their development of safe alternatives human embryonic stem cells using RNA.

“This breakthrough validates many other significant proofs of the therapeutic promise of induced pluripotent stem cells and adult stem cells,” declared Steven.

However, they remain decisively against the use of embryos to supply embryonic stem cells. “The end doesn’t justify the means,” CMA Vice President Gene Rudd has argued.

GPI counters CMA’s arguments by saying that current medical advancements are not enough to cure diseases like Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease or paralysis. It contends that embryonic research opponents are blocking “the great innovations of our time.”

Missionary perishes in attempt to save drowning teenager in Indonesia

Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) pilot and mechanic, Benjamin Uskert, took a group of young people from a local orphanage in Indonesia to the beach on Nov. 7. While they were there, Uskert spied two other youngsters swim too far out and be swept away by a strong current. In an attempt to save them, Uskert was overcome by the waves and current. The missionary was pronounced dead at the scene, along with one of the teenagers he attempted to recover.

"We are profoundly saddened by the loss of our friend and fellow worker in Christ, as well as the young man he was attempting to rescue," said John Boyd, president and chief executive officer of MAF, in a statement.

"Please pray for Ben's wife, Katie, and son, Jeremiah, as well as the other members of the family."

The American missionary graduated Uskert from Purdue University in 2003 with a Bachelor of Science in Aviation Technology. He studied further at Trinity Bible College and Moody Bible Institute. Uskert then worked as an aircraft technician and trainer before joining MAF and being sent to Indonesia where he attended language school for nine months before beginning his service in Sumatra.

In 2005, Uskert married Katie Tucker, and their son, Jeremiah, was born in 2007.

MAF was founded in 1945 as a Christian ministry organization that transports missionaries, medical personnel and supplies, performs disaster relief work, and conducts emergency medical evacuations in remote areas. The ministry also provides distance learning services, as well as telecommunications services such as satellite Internet access, high-frequency radios, electronic mail and other wireless systems.

(Image from MAF and shows Benjamin Uskert and his wife Katie Tucker with their son, Jeremiah).

Cholera continues to wreak havoc in Haiti

Health officials have announced that the death toll for Haiti’s cholera outbreak has risen to 544 people.

Thousands are being treated in hospitals across Haiti for severe diarrhea, vomiting and abdominal pain. Cholera is an intestinal disease that can be fatal if it is not properly treated through rehydration and antibiotics. Unfortunately, even before the January earthquake devastated Haiti, the infrastructure system was inadequate to offer access to clean water for most Haitians. Nor is medical treatment readily available for large sections of the population.

The situation has been further worsened by Hurricane Tomas, which brought extremely heavy rains last week, and has raised fears that the disease could worsen. Cholera spreads through contaminated water and the hurricane resulted in flooding and mudslides in some areas.

Health authorities have also confirmed that cholera has now spread to the capital Port-au-Prince; endangering the 2.5 to 3 million who live in close proximity to each other there. There are at least another 114 suspected cases of cholera in Port-au-Prince being tested.

Compassion International, which has worked in Haiti since 1968, has child development centers that are providing purified water, water sanitation tablets and water filtration systems to the Compassion-assisted children and their families.

“Without access to clean water, inexpensive medical treatments and basic education, the poor in Haiti as well as other countries will continue to suffer and die needlessly from survivable disease,” wrote Mark Hanlon, senior vice president of Compassion U.S., in a recent column. “The only way to effectively beat these ancient enemies that prey on the poor is to defeat poverty.”

Meanwhile, Water Missions International, an engineering relief and development Christian nonprofit, recently sent 20 water treatment systems to Haiti. Each water treatment system can be set up and operational within two hours and provide 5,000 Haitians with their daily water needs for less than a penny per person per day. The water systems being sent will provide 100,000 Haitians with access to sustainable, safe water.

“We have to remember that hundreds of thousands of Haitians are living under pieces of plastic and even small winds could be devastating,” said George Greene III, Water Missions International founder. “The potential for a significant cholera outbreak in these conditions multiplies.”

Water Missions International has previously sent 115 water treatment systems to Haiti. The organization installed 10 additional systems in October in response to the cholera outbreak, providing 50,000 more people in the Artibonite Valley with safe water.

(Image from Water Missions International).