Remembering the first NZ Christmas
Christmas is a unique time. For some it is a time for family and friends, festive cheer, gifts and a good excuse for a holiday. For others, it is a time of sadness as they remember lost loved ones, or face deprivation and abuse. For yet others, it is regarded as just a fairytale. For Christians, Jesus is the reason for the season - a precious time when believers all over the world pause,... read full blog post...
Sex, alcohol, drugs and youth
A Timaru gynaecologist wants a campaign against promiscuity after encountering a shocking number of pregnant patients who cannot remember whom they had sex with. Dr Albert Makary, who has been in Timaru for 20 years, called on national leaders, sports stars, schools and the media at a Forum on the Family in Auckland yesterday to "stigmatise" both promiscuity and the binge drinking... read full blog post...
Amazing facts about Israel
Israel is the 100th smallest country, and has about 1/1000th of the world’s population. It is only 62 years old. Only 62 years old, 7 million people strong (less than Virginia), and smaller in size than New Jersey, surrounded by enemies, under constant threat and possessing almost no natural resources, and yet… Relative to its population, Israel is the largest... read full blog post...
The stigma of being illegitimate...
My adoptive parents told me I was "chosen," but the kids at school told me I was a "bastard." The recent headlines about Arnold Schwarzenegger's infidelities and the son he fathered out of wedlock have stirred many old memories and emotions. I was four years old when I learned I was adopted. It was just before my sister Maureen's eighth birthday. I told her, "I know... read full blog post...
Human Brain has more switches...
The human brain is truly awesome. A typical, healthy one houses some 200 billion nerve cells, which are connected to one another via hundreds of trillions of synapses. Each synapse functions like a microprocessor, and tens of thousands of them can connect a single neuron to other nerve cells. In the cerebral cortex alone, there are roughly 125 trillion synapses, which is about how many stars... read full blog post...
Abusing alcohol - Who's responsible?
So who's responsible - the drink or the drinker? A member of Alcoholics Anonymous once sent columnist Ann Landers the following: We drank for happiness and became unhappy. We drank for joy and became miserable. We drank for sociability and became argumentative. We drank for sophistication and became obnoxious. We drank for friendship and made enemies. We drank for sleep and... read full blog post...
Town code bars religious assemblies in private homes!
GILBERT, Arizona, USA. — The national Alliance Defense Fund says a town code that bars religious assemblies in private homes in the Arizona community of Gilbert is unconstitutional. The Oasis of Truth church began meeting at Pastor Joe Sutherland's house in November and rotated homes several times a week for Bible study and fellowship. A Gilbert code compliance officer hit the church... read full blog post...
There's probably no God - oh really?
Plans are afoot to mount a bus advert campaign with the message "There's probably no God - enjoy your life". It's a copy of a similar London campaign. But is it a true statement? Is there in all probability no God? Can we account for the physical universe, the biological world and the nature of humankind without any recourse to a Creator? What is the likelihood that we are here... read full blog post...
Christian Church in China suffers violence
Towering eight stories over wheat fields, the Golden Lamp Church was built to serve nearly 50,000 worshippers in the gritty heart of China's coal country. But that was before hundreds of police and hired thugs descended on the mega-church, smashing doors and windows, seizing Bibles and sending dozens of worshippers to hospitals with serious injuries, members and activists say Today, the... read full blog post...
Down's syndrome children being aborted
A rise in older women becoming pregnant has led to a big jump in Down's syndrome diagnoses in Britain, but fewer babies are born with the condition because more than 90% are aborted, researchers said. Scientists found that diagnoses of Down's syndrome rose by 71% between 1989 and 2008, largely due to a sharp rise in the number of women wanting to become mothers later. But the number of... read full blog post...
Religious signs barred
In response to the Sept. 11 attacks, the football cheerleaders at a public high school here wanted to make the Bible a bigger part of Friday night games. So, to the delight of fans, they painted messages like “Commit to the Lord” on giant paper banners that the players charged through onto the field. That eight-year-old tradition ended last month after a parent expressed concern... read full blog post...
The young divorcees
Christy Stead was 20 when she met Mark. They started dating when she was 23. Six months later, she was engaged. "It was all terribly romantic to have the big proposal and the big diamond ring," says Stead. "My expectations were that it was going to be perfect. It was all a bit of a fairytale and we were always going to be in love and I could never imagine disagreeing. I... read full blog post...
Sex teaching fails in Britain
Good motive, bad law
Pay by touch and John P. Rogers
Justice Ginsburg - "...unwanted populations".
Going cashless in a moving world
DNA - The alphabet of life
Foreshore and seabed debate
Hooker for Jesus
