Recent Viewpoints

Kerby Anderson The Bible describes many miracles, but we also have other literature and even modern claims of miracles. Is there any way to evaluate these claims in a rational way? Dr. Timothy McGrew (Chairman of the Department of Philosophy at Western Michigan University) was recently on my radio program. He has developed a six-part test that uses the acrostic DOUBTS. The resurrection of Jesus Christ passes the filter while many other miracle claims quickly fail. D is for distant…

Kerby Anderson Whenever there is a mass shooting we read headlines or hear commentators describe it as a random shooting. While it is true that many times the victims are chosen at random, the locations for their carnage are rarely random. When Dr. John Lott was on my radio program I asked him about this. I had heard that the shooter at the Aurora, Colorado movie theater bypassed many other theaters and venues because those locations had security. John Lott…

Kerby Anderson Professor Mike Van Biezen begins his article on global warming with these three words: “It made sense.” He is talking about the original charts most of us saw years ago. The amount of CO2 was increasing and so was global temperature. When I was in graduate school, I looked at those graphs and made the natural assumption that CO2 was causing the earth’s temperature to rise. The correlation seemed too obvious to ignore. Only years later did it…

1. Infants show racial bias toward members of own ethnicity, against those of others (Science Daily) “In the first study, “Older but not younger infants associate own-race faces with happy music and other-race faces with sad music,” published in Developmental Science, results showed that after six months of age, infants begin to associate own-race faces with happy music and other-race faces with sad music. “In the second study, “Infants rely more on gaze cues from own-race than other-race adults for…

Kerby Anderson Everyone agrees that we need government to regulate various parts of our society. In fact, the Constitution sets forth some of the vital functions for the government. But I also think that most of us believe there are too many government regulations. Peter Roff, writing in U.S. News and World Report, put it this way. “Existing regulations are sometimes unnecessary, frequently in conflict, and are enforced by bureaucracies that have lost sight of their original mission. Instead they…

In past Viewpoints when I have talked about poverty, I usually point to the importance of marriage and family. In some of my Viewpoints, I even quote from William Galston, who served in the Clinton administration. He talks about how important it is for young people to graduate from high school and to wait to have children until they get married. In a recent op-ed he put it this way: “Want to know the best poverty cure? Get married. Single…

Penna Dexter The U.S. Congress and the Trump Administration have taken three significant actions to prevent American taxpayer dollars from being used to fund or promote abortion. All three are reversals of Obama Administration policies. One involves domestic policy. Some states prefer to direct Title X funds toward health clinics that provide family planning services to poor women, but not abortions. The Department of Health and Human Services, wanting to keep the money flowing to Planned Parenthood clinics, issued regulations…

Kerby Anderson Today is Good Friday. On this day, believers around the world commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. We all understand that. What most of us don’t understand is why this dark day in which Jesus suffered and died is called “Good Friday.” Why isn’t it called Bad Friday or Dark Friday? Over the years, people have put forward various theories. Some argue that it is called Good Friday because something good came about because of the death, burial,…

1. White House Accuses Russia of Cover-Up In Syria Chemical Attack “A four-page report drawn up by the National Security Council contains declassified United States intelligence on the attack and a rebuttal of Moscow’s claim that insurgents unleashed the gas to frame the Syrian government. Instead, the White House asserted that Damascus and Moscow had released “false narratives” to mislead the world. “The release of the dossier at a White House briefing on Tuesday marked a striking shift by President…

Kerby Anderson What makes a society successful? With all the talk this last year about trying to Make America Great Again, the focus has been on individual political and economic policies. As important as those are, we need to step back and ask the bigger question about what makes for successful societies. Harvard historian Niall Ferguson has an answer to that fundamental question. His book, Civilization: The West and the Rest, puts so much in historical context: “For 500 years…

Kerby Anderson When President Trump published his proposed budget cuts, many media outlets focused on cuts to public broadcasting. Writers for USA Today newspaper wondered if the proposed budget would kill Big Bird. Others wondered if this might be the end of programs like Sesame Street. Frankly, I don’t think members of Congress will actually cut funds to public broadcasting. So I want to talk about a more important issue: media manipulation. For the last two years, Sesame Street has…