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Is God’s existence compatible with Darwinian evolution?

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Report on a new book from Evolution News.

Excerpt:

Can you be an orthodox Darwinist and an orthodox theist? The plain answer is “no,” according to God and Evolution, an important new book coming out this fall. The book provides a thorough examination of the conflict between belief in God and Darwin’s theory of unguided evolution.

[…]”As the arguments in this volume make clear, to the degree that theistic evolution is theistic, it will not be fully Darwinian,” adds Richards. “And to the degree that it is Darwinian, it will fail fully to preserve traditional theism.”

God and Evolution includes chapters by William Dembski, author of The Design Revolution; Stephen Meyer, author of Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design; Denyse O’Leary, co-author of The Spiritual Brain; David Klinghoffer, author of The Discovery of God: Abraham and the Birth of Monotheism; Jonathan Wells, author of Icons of Evolution; John West, author of Darwin Day in America; Jonathan Witt, co-author of A Meaningful World; Casey Luskin, co-author of Traipsing Into Evolution; and Logan Paul Gage, whose articles have appeared in Touchstone, First Things, and other publications.

The book is a response to growing efforts by some Darwinists to enlist the support of the faith community by downplaying Darwinism’s core principles. Chapters of the book detail the failures of theistic evolution, address the problem of evil, and explain how intelligent design is consonant with orthodox belief.

“Our main focus remains on the science,” says John West, a contributor to the book and a senior fellow with Discovery’s Center for Science & Culture. “But it’s important to set the record straight about the broader implications of Darwin’s theory.”

I agree with the thesis of the book. Without the pre-supposition of materialism, the evidence for Darwinian evolution is not sufficient. With the pre-supposition of materialism, evolution has to be true. But then, God doesn’t exist, since he is not material.

News

Is MTV pressuring its employees to attend anti-Tea-Party rallies?

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Story from Big Hollywood. (H/T ECM)

Excerpt:

Now that the establishment’s favorite comedian, Jon Stewart, has the state-sanctioned approval of no less than the President of the United States for his upcoming “Mock-The-People” rally on October 30th, it only makes sense that Comedy Central’s state-enamored sister company, Barack-The-Vote MTV (both MTV and Comedy Central are owned by Sumner Redstone’s Viacom) would team up to do everything possible to help President Obama’s party in these dire final campaign days when the only question about the coming Republican wave is just how large it will be.

[…]An internal email reveals that MTV is investing heavily in making a success of Jon Stewart’s counter-rally to Glenn Beck’s incredibly successful August event. But the music network’s tactics give the whole affair a taint similar to October 2nd’s “One Nation” rally, where all that Big Labor-SEIU astro-turfing still wasn’t able to reproduce Beck’s grassroots success. Below is a portion of an email that I’m told just went out to some, and maybe all, MTV employees.

You have to click through for the e-mail from MTV to its employees.

This should come as no surprise, however. MTV is, after all, the same network that just held a “casting call” for the 250 young people needed for a townhall meeting the network was kind enough to arrange for the President just a few weeks before the midterm elections.

Also adding to the whole Stewart astro-turf vibe is Arianna Huffington, who just announced that she’s donating a cool $250k to bus in those who apparently wouldn’t go otherwise…

Compare that to Tea Party rallies where people drive their own cars and park them, no buses are used. And the signs are all hand-made, not manufactured by some union.

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U.S. cities face half a trillion dollars in public pension deficits

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Story from CNBC. (H/T ECM)

Excerpt:

Big US cities could be squeezed by unfunded public pensions as they and counties face a $574 billion funding gap, a study to be released on Tuesday shows.

The gap at the municipal level would be in addition to $3,000 billion in unfunded liabilities already estimated for state-run pensions, according to research from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and the University of Rochester.

“What is yet to be seen is how this burden will be distributed between state and local governments and whether the federal government will be called upon for bail-outs,” said Joshua Rauh of the Kellogg School.

The financial demands of unfunded pension promises come as state and local governments grapple with years of falling tax revenue related to the recession.

The combination has raised concern that defaults, which are historically rare in the $2,800 billion municipal bond market where local governments obtain money, could now rise.

“The bondholders would be competing with the pension beneficiaries for scarce government resources,” Mr Rauh said.

Current pension assets for plans sponsored by Philadelphia can only pay for promised benefits through 2015, while Boston and Chicago would deplete their existing funds by 2019.

Cincinnati, Jacksonville, Florida and St Paul have current pension assets that can only pay for promised benefits through 2020.

Local governments use unique accounting methods that many, such as Mr Rauh, believe understate obligations. Based on his estimates, which use US Treasuries as the benchmark, each household already owes an average of $14,165 to current and former municipal public employees in the 50 cities and counties studied.

“Philadelphia has the most immediate cause for concern, as the city can pay existing promises with existing assets only through 2015,” Mr Rauh said, assuming an 8 percent annualized return, the most common benchmark for municipal plans.

In New York City, San Francisco and Boston the total is more than $30,000 a household and, in Chicago, it tops $40,000.

Taxpayers in these areas risk not only local tax increases and service cuts to pay for benefits, but potentially some of the bill for the $3,000 billion unfunded obligations at the state level, the researchers say.

Notice how all the worst offenders are Democrat strongholds. They don’t know how to manage their finances!