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Noel Ambery’s "Mythology Gone Crazy" [March 8] is one of the many good reasons that the readers of The Voice have honored him by voting him the "the best" religious writer. The piece is concise, responsive, and to the point. On the other hand, Jeff Messenger continues to whine about "personal attacks and characterizations" [The Skeptical Agenda, March 8] as though he has some special virtue in creating a dialogue where "people should be able to politely ‘agree to disagree.’" Such a presumptive virtue was apparently absent when Mr. Messenger began our dialogue by suggesting that I am a "prayer hater" [The Old Testament and Archeology, July 13] and requesting that I not respond to his contributions. Evidently, Mr. Messenger’s assessment of what is polite and what is a personal attack and characterization is dependent on whose chain is pulled, or whose ox is gored, or whose knob is burnished, or whose apple is polished. Be that as it may, it is the reader who will be the judge of the validity of the dialogue. More ... Noel Ambery, in his response to Jeff Messenger, made the bold and rather absurd riposte that the doctrine of the Trinity affirms that there are three Gods, and we’ve all put them into one God. That somehow it creates a new math that allows for 1+1+1=1 [Mythology Gone Crazy, March 8]. This is simply a false idea about a very complicated truth. He obviously has misconceptions and presuppositions that blind him from clear critical thinking. Mr. Ambery has presumed an anti-supernatural philosophy; this is a terrible fallacy in logical thinking. There is no legitimate reason to disbelieve in the supernatural, unless one first denies God. And there is no legitimate reason to deny God’s existence. It takes the same (if not more) amount of faith as believing God exists. More ... Noel Ambery claims that current Christian thought seems to have veered away from the avenue of sanity [The Crucifixion, March 29]. If we were to take Ambery’s misleading statements and his understanding of Christian doctrine at face value, then I would agree it appears that Christians have been sadly deceived for centuries. However, when we examine the misconceptions and faulty information that Ambery penned in his article, it becomes clear that someone else has veered from the path of truth. More ... Presently our students’ ranking in international testing of industrialized nations is appalling. Our high-tech industries cannot find enough well educated students to fill their needs, and therefore they are forced to search the world for qualified employees or move the industry to another country. The educational cost per student is increasing at an alarming rate everywhere, including in the Town of Winchester. In 2000-01 the cost per pupil was approximately $10,300. The cost increased by $1,000 per student in 2001-02, boosting the cost to approximately $11,500 per student. Our 2002-03 budget would have us spending over $12,000 per student in our system. Without accountability, the only benefit is higher pay for educators. More ... During my visit to the Republic of China, I had occasion to observe the seriousness and the deep dedication of the Chinese people, in general, toward their government and its cause. We do not have good relations with the government of Fidel Castro of Cuba, but we have trade and economical ties with China, which seems to be our worse enemy. This adversarial behavior was shown very clearly by a Chinese general when addressing high officers of the Chinese military, who said that the U.S. is their number one enemy. I think that Fidel Castro, even if he professes a political ideology contrary to ours, is not, by all means, dangerous to the U.S.—he certainly knows better! But China? Let us think about that. More ... |
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