GlobalEnglish Corporation named Les Schmidt, a professional formerly with Adobe Systems, as its chief operating officer. In total, GlobalEnglish hired four new executives.

Santosh Jha, previously of Hewlett-Packard and other companies, became vice president of product development and technology.

For the position of vice president of product management and user experience, GlobalEnglish appointed Michelle Haag, who worked at Yahoo! Inc. and IBM.

Last, Richard Taylor was named director of learning and performance. Taylor’s professional background includes Reuters and Cargill.

GlobalEnglish is heaquartered in Brisbane, California.

The job of an MP is a fairly poorly defined one, but I think most MPs would agree that it is hard work, involving 6 days a week and very long and unsociable hours. That is why it is so surprising that our own MP, Dr Richard Taylor, announced in public at the Local Democracy Conference 2009, an event for about 70 young people from Worcestershire high schools, at County Hall on the 16th October, that being an MP was “the best possible retirement job you could have.”

I was stunned at this comment and rather annoyed by it. I am told he went on to say that as an Independent, he had very little influence anywhere. For that, I respect his honesty and openness.

Let’s be perfectly straight about this: representing the interests of close to 100,000 people at Westminster is not now, nor has it ever been, a retirement job. It is an incredibly important job that needs support and it needs the MP to be able to exercise influence. That is why MPs get paid £64,000 a year, with allowances to pay for an office to help them support their constituents.

That our MP regards his position as a “retirement job” is, I feel, an insult to us all. Whilst local residents are having their homes repossessed, crippled under mounting personal debt, our MP is enjoying a taxpayer funded flat in London. Whilst unemployment rises 105% in Wyre Forest in the last year, our MP collects £64,000 for what he considers a very much part time job.

MPs are paid a very good salary, with help for out of pocket expenses and support for their offices, for the very good reason that being an MP is about taking positive action for their constituents. It is not about restricting themselves to being a single issue campaigner. It is not about standing for election in Wyre Forest on the platform of trying to save A+E services in Telford. It is about working their socks off to deliver all public services – not just health – to their constituents. It is about making sure they are helped through the recession and through tough times. It is about taking a lead on all the issues that are facing us all.

I don’t know why Richard Taylor is standing again, but maybe he thinks being an MP is just a jolly nice freebie and why shouldn’t he have another go? But this is where Richard and I are poles apart. Whilst Richard sees being an MP as a nice part time job, I see it as an incredible challenge to help Wyre Forest. Whilst Richard has made it perfectly clear he has no interest in any issue other than health, I will use all the resources available to me to tackle all the issues facing Wyre Forest. And when Richard has, on many occasions over the last 6 years that I have been the Conservative Candidate, let down his constituents who have gone to him for help, I (and I know many others) have been there to pick up the pieces and help where he has ignored. And for doing that, we are paid nothing.

Here’s a slightly more literate Halloween share.

What could be more seasonably appropriate than the works of Edgar Allan Poe? Here are a few choice cuts from my collection of some amazing Poe dramatizations by some of the true horror masters. Included in the zip file you’ll find:
-A 1941 episode of the radio thriller anthology, Inner Sanctum, featuring Boris Karloff in The Tell-Tale Heart
-A Vincent Price reading of The Raven
-Christopher Lee’s readings of The Cask of Amontillado and The Pit and the Pendulum for the BBC’s Edgar Allan Poe’s Gothic Tales
-John Carradine reading The Raven
-Three LPs worth of Poe stories from Richard Taylor’s series of horror records. (These recordings were available for sale, mail-order, in the pages of horror mags like Famous Monsters and Vampirella in the 60s and 70s. They’re bare-bones readings, but lots of spooky fun.)
-And finally, a promotional single for Roger Corman’s 1963 adaptation of The Raven, starring Peter Lorre, Vincent Price and Boris Karloff.

DOWNLOAD CLASSIC READINGS OF EDGAR ALLAN POE FROM THE MASTERS OF HORRORS (Megaupload)

The Health Concern website has published an interesting news announcement. It appears that Dr Taylor has announced he will definitely stand again for re-election to parliament.

However, this time his campaign platform is not about local services at the hospital; it is not about local people suffering under the recession; it is not even about other local services. No, this time round, Dr Taylor wants to stand to save A+E services in…………. Staffordshire.

Readers of my comments will know full well that I have no argument with Dr Taylor at all and that I both like and respect him – he is a decent man who stood up for us in 2001 trying to save A+E services at Kidderminster. But being an MP is all about looking after your local constituents and working for them on all issues that matter. It is not about focusing on just one single issue and it is certainly not about campaigning for services in a different constituency.

Of course, I may have got the wrong end of the stick and that Richard will, in fact, be standing for election in Stafford itself where his campaign will have an impact and that his cause will be listened to. But if I am not mistaken, and Richard intends to stand to represent the people of Wyre Forest, I will be very interested indeed to see how he proposes to persuade people that whilst the entire work of their local MP will be directed away from the constituency, this will be a good thing.

Time will tell, but I suspect that this move signals that Health Concern, so welcome all those years ago when they stood up for us all against the Labour Government, have rather run out of ideas for Wyre Forest residents.

Wellington, NZ by GothPhil on Flickr

It’s been a long time dream of mine to move to New Zealand to walk the path to Mordor. Now, as I am sure that I am going to fail out of Smith this semester (it’s inevitable, really) I have decided to plan out my career on the other side of the earth.

FIRST, I will become a bartender in Wellington and cater to the likes of Peter Jackson, Guillermo del Toro, Fran Walsh, and Phillipa Boyens. NEXT, after we all become best friends and get matching necklaces/bracelets/socks, I will become the official Weta Workshop bartender and hang out with Richard Taylor all of the time. The lolz will follow as I am put into orc makeup &tc every weekend.

Sheep by SwissCan on Flickr

GUHHHH by SwissCan on Flickr

Of course, this is all of the silly fun times I will have. My life on the other side of the world will not be without duty, however, as I am called to serve one of the most important tasks in Middle Earth New Zealand: to light the beacons that serve as a call for help between Rohan and Gondor, and to help reunite these two great kingdoms of men. I will stand watch over my beacon as I serve drinks to some of the most creative and brilliant minds of our time, during an hour of wolves and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down but it is not this day! THIS DAY WE FIGHT. BY ALL THAT YOU HOLD DEAR ON THIS GOOD EARTH, I BID YOU STAND, MEN OF THE WEST!!!!!!!!

Yeah. I can’t wait to get to New Zealand.

“The (Dis)appearance of Purpose” is dedicated to the significance of teleology in the study of human-computer behaviour by tracing the disappearance of the concept purpose. To demonstrate how we can think of purpose in order to understand our contemporary media ecology, I will draw on the cybernetics-Taylor dispute published in the journal Philosophy of Science in 1950. This dispute, I will argue, illuminates how our contemporary thought is haunted by an imaginary ideology of purpose. By reconstructing the socio-historical context of 1940’s America, in which purpose for the study of inanimate behaviour appeared, I will place purpose back into discussion. Rather than obscuring the topic in intellectual discussions, I propose to rethink and redefine purpose. By enmeshing cybernetic and Taylorian purpose (while not disregarding their obstacles), I will conceptualize purpose as affective fold. This reappearance of purpose will release the computer as technology and the computer as science from its hidden functional ideology. It will create a guideline to imagine a critical perspective on the study of (in)animate acts, performances and interactions.

Continue Reading

(notice: the file is quite large, so it may take some time to download)

Afgelopen zondag zijn Erin en ik (Natasja) naar het Storylines Festival geweest in het Aotea Centre in Auckland. De hele week was het al “boekenweek”, en zondag was het de beurt aan de kinderen. Het Storylines Festival is een gratis familiedag waar vanalles en nog wat wordt georganiseerd voor kinderen van 0 tot 18 jaar.

Het Aotea Centre is een conferentie en theater in het centrum van de stad Auckland. Het bestaat uit 5 verdiepingen waar van alles werd georganiseerd. We waren er al voordat de deuren opengingen en dat was maar goed ook, want het werd binnen de korste keren berendruk.

Ik ben eerst met Erin naar een muziekvoorstelling geweest, speciaal voor de allerkleinsten. Daarin werd er gezongen en gedanst en konden de kinderen natuurlijk ook zelf meedoen. StarFish Magic hadden we al eens eerder gezien in het winkelcentrum van Papatoetoe, maar nu was het wel wat leuker, want Erin is natuurlijk nu een stukje ouder.

Daarna gingen we naar boven, waar een kleine tentoonstelling werd gehouden van Weta Workshops, het bedrijf wat ook verantwoordelijk is voor het maken van alle decor en modellen voor Lord of the Rings en Narnia. De belangrijkste mannen achter dit bedrijf zijn ook verantwoordelijk voor de creatie van het nieuwe Nieuw Zeelandse kinderprogramma, de Wot Wots, wat een beetje op de Freggles (even ver in het geheugen zoeken….) lijkt. Erin kreeg een mooie ansichtkaart met de handtekeningen van de mannen (een daarvan is Richard Taylor, die al verschillende oscars heeft gewonnen voor LOTR) en toen ging ze nog even de Wot Wots bekijken op tv en spelen met de andere kinderen.

Na even wat gegeten te hebben gingen we nog naar een andere voorstelling van StarFish Magic, en toen gingen we wat lunchen in de foodcourt. Nog even de lift van binnen bekeken (glazen lift, wat er uitziet als een raket) en naar de 8ste verdieping heen en weer gesjoeft (vond ze reuze interessant!).

Daarna was het alweer tijd om naar huis te gaan. Een hele leuke dag, waar we volgend jaar zeker weer terugkomen.

I am delighted to see that Dr Taylor has come off the fence regarding his decision to stand again at the next general election – especially given that there will be a decent time to debate the pros and cons of his position.

There is no doubt at all that Richard was the man of the moment in 2001 when he stood up against the decision to downscale Kidderminster Hospital. Conservatives, after his election, were the first to step in to help him by giving him one of our influential seats on the Health Select Committee – a seat that has given him a voice in Parliament ever since.

But since 2001, Wyre Forest has been represented by a single issue MP; an MP who concentrates on health issues alone. I know that he would argue that he is multi issue because people bring a whole range of different issues to him and he deals with them, but he leads on just one: health. All other subjects he deals with are simply reactions to someone else’s call for help. A quick look at his speaking record will demonstrate a huge bias towards health.

The truth is, in the small hours of the morning, people across Wyre Forest are waking up in a cold sweat worried about household debt, negative equity, their jobs, their children’s education, the return they are getting on their savings, their pensions. The one thing on which a great many agree is that a single issue, health campaigning MP is not the answer to their problems.

The business community is desperate for an MP who can help drive forward the district, supporting the district council to make Wyre Forest more competitive. The tourist industry is desperate for an MP who can provide the political leadership to take it to the next stage. There are many interest groups who are desperate for a voice that is listened to in Westminster. Even some members of the health community are rather fed up with being used to political ends.

Although we have yet to be told his manifesto, Richard Taylor will have to tell the local electorate why his limited agenda is so important that it comes above all the other issues that are affecting us all at the moment. He must explain how he is sure that keeping Wyre Forest outside the main political spectrum will be an advantage and not the disadvantage it has been. He must explain that even by his own admission he has virtually no influence in Westminster, why this will be an advantage to Wyre Forest. He must explain how he is able to be able to assess the staggering quantity of issues that come through Parliament, and then make a decision on every one based on the context of the 98,500 people who live and work in Wyre Forest, and he must explain how he does this unaided, without the support of teams of experts gathered by political parties. And he must explain how, when there is a possibility of a new government, he will be able to get his voice heard above all the new MPs arriving, fighting for delivery of their own personal manifestos already having the ear of any new Government.

These points are not ones I have plucked out of thin air: they are issues that people have been telling me since January 2004 when I first came to Wyre Forest to help the district find a voice in Westminster through the Conservative Party, filling a void left by Richard. Richard says that people will be disappointed if he didn’t stand again; yet I know of many, many people who have come to me in the last five years who will be utterly dismayed at the prospect of another 5 years for Wyre Forest in the political wilderness.

Richard is a thoroughly decent individual, who I both like and respect. But if he expects a third term, he will have to accept that ‘enthusiastic amateur’ is no longer good enough for Wyre Forest. Richard, after nearly a decade, is now a professional politician and he must be answerable as such.

Richard has declined invitations for a public debate with me in the past, but now that he has stated his position, I look forward to him agreeing to a good, old fashioned, Town Hall debate where all can come and see both him and I discussing the pros and cons of our positions. He might also use it to explain something that has perplexed many people for years: Why does he call himself “Independent” when he stands under the banner of a political party – Independent Community and Health Concern?

Some years back the EU notoriously left Wales off a map of the UK. But the London-based BBC is just as bad. Professor Jones-Evans will not be pleased; nor will I, as an Irishman who is also British and therefore a fellow Celt, because I am fed up with the metropolitan elite forgetting about us folk on the ‘fringe’ (except when it comes to the Edinburgh festival, or where they can send their children to university, e.g. Cardiff, Edinburgh, Queen’s).

So the BBC, as I just tweeted, thinks that the Wyre Forest MP Dr Taylor is the only current MP elected as an Independent.

My immediate reaction was, “What about Blaenau Gwent’s Dae Davies? Doesn’t Wales count?”

Doesn’t his 2,488 majority over Labour count? What is worse is that I could understand if the BBC had checked the 2005 election results only (which they clearly haven’t as the late Independent MP Peter Law was elected for the constituency then) and forgotten about the by-election results. They clearly haven’t checked either Wales or Scotland, and wouldn’t even had my home country of Ulster on their radar (after all, it’s not even part of GB).

Excuse me for saying this, but I thought it was the British – not the London or English – Broadcasting Corporation. Clearly not any more.

Film critics around the world love it, and so does the US box office.

This weekend, District 9, the pretty much ignored, low budget – by Hollywood standards, sci-fi movie was #1 at the US box office with US$37 million in ticket sales, ahead of GI Joe: The Rise of the Cobra (US$22.5 million), and The Time Travellers Wife (US$19 million).

I wrote about Peter Jackson and the amazing Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 and earlier short films, at the beginning of May 2009   – and predicted it would be the sleeper sensation of the year. Happily it seems I was right.

District 9 is an amazing social yarn – gritty and gory, but a great story that raises lots of  ‘real world’ questions about our treatment of refugees and minorities, and the role of governments and the UN, amongst others.

What’s really terrific is that the movie has achieved its accolades with virtually no mainstream hype, but good on Sony Pictures – they got the distribution rights to the movie and created a cool, quirky advertising campaign that included street posters, billboards and bus ads, asking people to call a toll-free number to report nonhuman activity. Also, check out the campaign website!

Apparently this resulted in thousands of calls.

Congrats to Neill Blomkamp, Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor and the special effects wizards at Weta Workshop for another amazing cinematic experience!

Weta Workshop

Erik Even – J.R.R. Tolkien Examiner

Weta Workshop, the special effects company based in Miramar, New Zealand, has acquired a new license from Warner Bros. Consumer Products to create a new line of fine art collectibles and memorabilia based on The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy.

It has been four years since Weta last released new collectibles from The Lord of the Rings.

The new high-end collectibles will designed and created by the same Academy Award-winning artists who worked on the movie trilogy.

Four of the new items were announced at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con:

A limited-edition run of authentic swords from movie trilogy. Each sword is individually hand-crafted by Peter Lyon, the Master Swordsmith from Weta Workshop, who created the original swords used in the movies. The first sword to be released is Anduril, in a limited-edition of only 10 worldwide.

A full scale replica of Gollum, cast in bronze or in faux bronze fiberglass, and sculpted by the original artists.

A new range of cast metal miniature shields, built by Weta’s senior model maker, Dave Tremont, who built Grond (the orcs’ giant battering ram at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields) and many of the miniatures used in filming the trilogy.

An exact replica of the Gandalf the Grey’s original cloak worn by Ian McKellen in the movie trilogy, using the same woollen material, produced from the same farm in New Zealand, and woven on the same 19th century looms.

The new items will be available from WetaNZ.com.

Weta Workshop was founded in 1987 by Richard Taylor and others, to produce creatures and makeup effects for the TV series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess, and effects for films such as Peter Jackson’s Meet The Feebles and Heavenly Creatures. A digital division, Weta Digital, was formed in 1993.

 Read More about Gino Acevedo, Award winning Senior Visual Effects Prosthetics Supervisor and Visual Creature Effects Art Director, Gino Acevedo, at WETA Workshop in New Zealand, click HERE

Esther Rantzen has thrown her hat in the ring and will stand as an Independent candidate for Luton South at the next general election. Ms Rantzen is expected to stand on an anti-sleaze ticket, but with disgraced local MP Margaret Moran out of the picture, one wonders why she has decided to stand in Luton South rather than find a disgraced MP trying to hold onto his or her seat.

Needless to say, Martin Bell and Wyre Forest’s Richard Taylor have been invited to comment on this. Richard has been very much in his element of late, excited by the prospect of finding a new cohort of playmates in the next Parliament if he decides to run again and if Wyre Forest decides to stick with an independent MP for a third term. Richard has even been styling himself as the ‘senior independent’ of late, and this has prompted me to examine the other independent MPs in the House of Commons.

On looking at the independents, one is immediately struck by the confusion surrounding the term. In 2005, four MPs were elected as individuals. However, all but one stood on party tickets and the one genuinely independent candidate was Peter Law in Blaenau Gwent, protesting at the all female Labour Party candidate list. He won, but died shortly after. In the by-election, Dai Davies stood as leader of the Blaenau Gwent People’s Voice Group, Peter Law’s supporters group, and won. He now styles himself ‘Independent’.

Then we have George Galloway. He stood as the Respect candidate, but he still labels himself Respect and so does not include himself in Richard Taylor’s so called “independent group”. Likewise Lady Silvia Hermon, Ulster Unionist MP for North Down, who found herself as the sole Ulster Unionist after the last election. Finally is Richard Taylor himself, who stood on the Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern ticket, but abandoned his party title after getting to Westminster – perfectly acceptable, but an interesting approach when compared with Galloway and Hermon and interesting when looking at the Health Concern groups in Wyre Forest.

But there are nine ‘independents’ in total, so who are the other five? The answer is a fairly disparate bunch.

We start with Claire Short, former Labour cabinet minister who flounced off after falling out with her party. She is now Independent Labour.

Derek Conway comes next, who was very unceremoniously booted out of the Conservative Party after paying his son taxpayer’s money for work never undertaken. He is now Independent Conservative and, like Claire Short, he appears to be outside any independent group.

That leaves just three MPs who join Taylor and Davies labelled as Independent on the House of Commons website.

We start with Andrew Pelling, MP for Croydon Central. He was suspended from the Conservative Party after being arrested for assaulting his pregnant wife. Charges were dropped, but he announced last year that he would stand down as an MP, suffering clinical depression, and now sits as an independent.

Bob Spink, MP for Castle Point, had a run in with his local Conservative council group after putting out dubious adverts. This subsequently resulted in a row with his local association and he now sits with the independents (although he is occasionally wrongly credited with being UKIP).

Finally, Robert Wareing, MP for Liverpool West Derby was deselected by his local party in 2007 and resigned the Labour whip thereafter. He is, apparently, a hard line left-winger.

So of the nine MPs who are in a position to call themselves Independent under the House of Commons labelling system, two have chosen to stick with their party groups-of-one, two have chosen to call themselves independent whilst still (presumably) taking a party whip, and the remaining five have fallen out with their parties and now find themselves in the wilderness.

Despite Bell and Taylor’s protestations that being independent is wonderful, the fact is that all 646 MPs elected in 2005 stood on a party ticket. There is a reason that MPs, and politicians in general, sit in groups and join parties and that is because they all know that as a truly independent politician you have absolutely no influence whatsoever. Being in a party may have its disadvantages, but leveraging one’s influence by being part of a group is the only way to get things done.

Sin mucho brillo y CASI desapercibido,  se realizó el panel  THE HOBBIT, presentado por TORN [The One Ring. Net]. The Hobbit, es la precuela a The Lord of the Rings, basado en los libros de J.R.R. Tolkien. En el Hobbit, nos cuentan la historia de Bilbo Baggins, tío de Frodo, y su gran aventura junto al mago Gandalf y un grupo de enanos,  dónde encuentra el tan preciado Anillo Único.

Los chicos de TORN y Richard Taylor

Se había corrido el rumor que en el panel se revelaría el actor quien interpretará a Bilbo Baggins, pero no hubo  ninguna revelación,  sólo nos confirmaron lo que ya sabíamos. El invitado del panel fue Richard Taylor, supervisor de Weta Workshop,  son los encargados de los efectos en la saga de  Lord of the Rings, y ha ganado en reiteradas ocaciones el premio de la Academia.

Richard Taylor

Desde el principio anunció que no se presentarían videos. Se dio a conocer algunos detalles técnicos cómo,   Peter Jackson en la producción, Guillermo del Toro en la dirección, Howard Shore regresaría como compositor de la música. En la adaptación trabajarían Philippa Boyens, Fran Walsh, Peter Jackson y Guillermo del Toro. Otros colaboradores John Howe, Alan Lee, Mike Mignola, Wayne Barlowe, Oscar Chichoni, Fracisco Ruiz Balasco, WETA y Spectral Motion.

Confirmó que será en dos partes y el guión esta cerca a un primer borrador. La historia se partirá justo en  la mitad del libro. Agregó que habrá algunas historias de los apéndices, pero que han encontrado  partes dónde pueden ser incluidas sin perder el hilo de la historia principal.  El rodaje se llevará acabo en el 2010 y la primera parte del Hobbit se estrenará en Navidades del 2011.

Una ilustración de Bilbo y el dragón Smaug

Sobre el cast, mencionaron que hay un 95% de probabilidad que Ian McKellen, Hugh Weaving y Andy Serkis estarían de regreso en sus  respectivos papeles. Richard Taylor, pasó un mensaje de Ian McKellen“Sólo diles, que estoy esperando la llamada de la Tierra Media”.

No se puede decir más sobre el Hobbit, ya que aún está en pre-producción y su futuro es incierto debido a varias demandas. Por ahora, les dejó las primeras imágenes de la reconstrucción de Hobbiton para la película.

The Wintery Knight Blog strongly condemns all abortion-related violence, whether it’s committed against the born or the unborn.

The news story is linked here by Stop the ACLU, Sweetness and Light, Patterico’s Pontifications, Michelle Malkin, Hot Air and Gateway Pundit.

Can Christians condemn the murder of George Tiller?

Yes, Christians can, and yes, Christians do, condemn any and all violence against abortion doctors. And so do I. I believe that murder is objectively wrong, whether it is performed against born or unborn victims.

Morality is rational on Christianity because Christianity grounds the minimal requirements for meaningful morality. (The post also contains arguments and evidence for Christian theism and responses to the arguments against Christian theism)

The Bible says: “You shall not murder”.

So, anyone who murders the born or the unborn is not a Christian and is not being moral. I am a Christian, and therefore I strongly condemn any violence against doctors who perform abortions, including George Tiller. The murderer of George Tiller was wrong, had no justification for what he did, and he should get the death penalty.

UPDATE: My pro-life friend Neil from 4Simpsons reacts:

I subscribe to over 100 blogs.  Well over a dozen have commented on this.  I’ve yet to see one that didn’t condemn the murder, though I’m sure the MSM will ignore the clear and consistent principles of the pro-live movement and try to demonize and broad-brush us with this.

Now let’s see whether murder is wrong on the atheist worldview…

Can atheists condemn the murder of George Tiller?

The goal is to see whether humans ought to adopt the moral point of view, on atheism. Does atheism ground the the minimal requirements for morality? Is it rational to do the right thing on atheism?

Requirement 1) Objective moral values: NOT GROUNDED

On atheism, moral values have no mind-independent existence. In other words, they are purely subjective. Either you invent your own personal standard or you adopt the standards of the majority of your herd, in the time and place in which you live. Those herd standards change over time and in different places, of course. They are arbitrary conventions. And there is no reason why your preferences are better than anyone else’s preferences, even a murderer’s. On atheism, a murderer and a non-murderer just have different preferences.

Requirement 2) Objective moral duties: NOT GROUNDED

On atheism, there is no such thing as objective moral values, and so there can be no objective moral duties either. Atheism is committed to materialism, and objective moral values and moral duties are non-material. Atheists can only ground subjective moral values and moral duties. But a duty owed to oneself can be canceled when things get difficult. Even a social contract is arbitrary. There is no reason to limit your happiness because of an arbitrary social contract, so long as you can escape the social consequences of disobedience.

Requirement 3) Moral accountability: NOT GROUNDED

On atheism, there is no accountability after death for the decisions we make in life. So long as we can avoid the consequences for violating the arbitrary fashions of the time and place where we live, nothing will happen to us if we put our happiness above the needs of our feelings of “empathy” for others.

Requirement 4) Free will: NOT GROUNDED

On atheism, there are no minds or souls independent of the material that makes up the body. Therefore, everything that humans do is fully determined by the genetic programming and the sensory inputs. To expect moral choices or moral responsibility on atheism is like expecting the same from a computer. Physical systems don’t have free will. There is no “ought to do” for lumps of matter that are not designed by anyone for any specific purpose.

Requirement 5) Ultimate significance: NOT GROUNDED

On atheism, life ends in the grave for them. Scientists have discovered that in the future, the amount of usable energy, such as the heat and light emitted by stars, will run down to zero, the “heat death of the universe”. What this means is that the entire universe will become cold and lifeless at some point. Humans are therefore doomed to extinction. It doesn’t matter ultimately how an atheist acts – they end up the same no matter what they do. The only action that is rational on atheism is the selfish pursuit of pleasure and happiness.

Can atheist scholars ground morality rationally?

Let me cite the views of atheist scholars from a previous post. These are the people who are the most committed, authentic atheists, and who have thought through what it means to be an atheist at the highest level.

The idea of political or legal obligation is clear enough… Similarly, the idea of an obligation higher than this, referred to as moral obligation, is clear enough, provided reference to some lawgiver higher…than those of the state is understood. In other words, our moral obligations can…be understood as those that are imposed by God…. But what if this higher-than-human lawgiver is no longer taken into account? Does the concept of moral obligation…still make sense? …The concept of moral obligation [is] unintelligible apart from the idea of God. The words remain but their meaning is gone. (Richard Taylor, Ethics, Faith, and Reason (Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 1985), p. 83-84)

In a universe of blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won’t find any rhyme or reason in it, or any justice. The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference… DNA neither knows nor cares. DNA just is. And we dance to its music. (Source: Richard Dawkins)

The position of the modern evolutionist is that humans have an awareness of morality because such an awareness of biological worth. Morality is a biological adaptation no less than are hands and feet and teeth. Considered as a rationally justifiable set of claims about an objective something, ethics is illusory. I appreciate when someone says, ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself,’ they think they are referring above and beyond themselves. Nevertheless, such reference is truly without foundation. Morality is just an aid to survival and reproduction, . . . and any deeper meaning is illusory. (Michael Ruse, “Evolutionary Theory and Christian Ethics,” in The Darwinian Paradigm (London: Routledge, 1989), pp. 262-269).

The late atheist philosopher J. L. Mackie said that moral properties are “queer” given naturalism “if there are objective values, they make the existence of a god more probable than it would have been without them. Thus we have a defensible argument from morality to the existence of a god.”

Conclusion

In my survey of atheist views, none of the ten respondents could oppose slavery on rational grounds, none of the ten respondents could perform self-sacrificial acts on rational grounds, and none of the ten respondents could explain why murder was wrong, on rational grounds. They may have chosen the right alternative, but only based on emotion, not on reason. Morality is not rational on atheism and there is no way to condemn immorality in others.

So long as an person can escape the consequences of his actions, there is nothing wrong with murder, on an atheistic worldview. Atheists can express what they personally like and don’t like, or what the customs are in their society in a certain time and place. There is no “moral ought” on atheism, no principled reason to act any particular way except to be “happy” and to avoid social disapproval from acting unconventionally. So, keep that in mind in the coming days as you discuss the George Tiller story with atheists.

Further study

You can get the full story on the requirements for rational morality in a published, peer-reviewed paper written by William Lane Craig here. You can also hear and see him present the paper to an audience of students and faculty at the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2008. The audio is clipped at 67 minutes, the video is the full 84 minutes. There is 45 minutes of Q&A, with many atheist challengers.

The video of this lecture is the best material you can get on this issue, and the Q&A from the hostile audience is vital to the lesson. More debates on atheism and morality can be found on the debate and lecture page.

You can find a post contrasting the morality of an authentic, consistent Christian with an authentic, consistent non-Christian here. A post examining how atheism is responsible for the deaths of 100 million innocent people in the 20th century alone is here. A post analyzing the tiny number of deaths that religion was responsible for is here. A post examining other ways that the secular-left kills millions of people is here.

The Wintery Knight Blog strongly condemns all abortion-related violence, whether it’s committed against the born or the unborn.

Even though we are in the midst of a crippling recession, all the talk is of 2009 being the year that Hollywood fights back, and with the release of the new StarTrek, Harry Potter etc, they could  be right. It seems that in times of economic recession, people crave escapism from their day to day lives.

However, there’s another movie due to open in August this year – virtually ignored by the mainstream media, but District 9 could become the ’sleeper’ hit of the year.

I had the good fortune to meet the Director, Neill Blomkamp a couple of years ago when he was down in  NZ working with Peter Jackson and Weta Workshops’ Richard Taylor. He was originally here to direct Halo – the movie.

Neill’s showreel included some awesome gritty ‘reportage / documentary’ style, short sci-fi movies including Alive in Jo’burg and  Tetra Vaal,  and from  the trailer for District 9 above, it looks like the movie will be a real treat (Independence Day Vs Alien Nation perhaps?), but in Blomkamp’s gritty, super-realistic style.

Peter Jackson is the Producer for District 9 and although the Halo project didn’t come off this time around, it seems Neill’s time in NZ was not altogether wasted.

Discipline is what moderns need the most and want the least.

- Richard Taylor, The Disciplined Life (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship Inc., 1962), 11.

Theodore Roosevelt said “The things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, safety first instead of duty first, the love of soft living, and the get rich theory of life.”

- Richard Taylor, The Disciplined Life (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship Inc., 1962), 18.

Discipline must be seen as a servant, not a savoir…Discipline unquestionably makes a man superior.  If not watched, it will make him feel superior.

- Richard Taylor, The Disciplined Life (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship Inc., 1962), 40.

Faith can release in a moment powers for holiness that discipline cannot command in a millennium. 

- Richard Taylor, The Disciplined Life (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship Inc., 1962), 54.

The baptism of the Hoy Spirit gives neither a trained mind nor trained hands.  The holiest soul may be ignorant, awkward, and blundering…he may have no trade, skill, art, or profession.  But not for long.

- Richard Taylor, The Disciplined Life (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship Inc., 1962), 60.

Richard Shelley Taylor was born this date (3/30/1912) in Cornelius, Oregon.  He wrote several other books including A Right Conception of Sin.  It was my privilege to sit under his teaching in the Chamberlain Holiness Lecture Series at Wesley Biblical Seminary, Jackson, MS.  Got to meet him and he autographed five of his books for me.

Murdered at the age of 10. Damilola Taylor

Father of murdered schoolboy Damilola Taylor has teamed up with the South London Press for a campaign with school kids.

Damilola Taylor was killed at the tender age of 10 in November 2000 and his father has since launched the Damilola Taylor Trust.

In a bid to reach out to the younger generation, Mr Taylor and editor of SLP, Hannah Walker, have asked pupils across South London to design a new logo for the trust.

The winner will receive a Man-U T-shirt, a signed photo of Rio Ferdinand (footballer from Peckham), a certificate and a day in a digital studio.

The image should not represent anything negative, but should help promote peace and will be unveiled at the Spirit of London Awards in November.

Mr Taylor said: “My family suffered a great loss on the streets of South London on November 27 2000. But since becoming an adopted South Londoner myself, I have been proud to meet so many wonderful people who wholeheartedly support our campaign and want to see an end to the senseless violence.”

I want very few things in my life.

When you’re young you want everything. All the things those tv gods promise you.

If you are lucky enough not to die young or live stupid, you realize the things that are important have very little to do with what everyone has told you. Has very little to do with the bling (street slang for riches– for the uninformed among you).

Though without doubt, without money those higher things in life, those real things in life, are hard to attain.

But money will not give you an appreciation for those things. A fool with money is still a fool. And he will be parted from it and all his things, and he will have missed out on the pursuit of real wealth.

What is real wealth?

I reckon if you’re reading this you know it, and a few of you, a lucky few, may have it. Hold onto it. To real wealth. Hold on to hearth and home, wife and children.

Because that is a wealth… that if you invest in it, endures.

Man, that was awful somber for a Sunday.

Chalk it up to… nostalgia. Yeah, that gets blamed for a lot. .

********************

Leaving on a more up-tempo beat, the real reason I started to post was to share a fantastic find with you.

Well whether you think it’s fantastic depends on two things:

1/ are you a huge fan of Edgar Allen Poe?

and

2/ are you a huge fan of audio dramas?

I happen to be guilty of both of the above vices, so the recent link I stumbled across, and just got finished listening to… made my day.

It happens to be, a combination of both those things.

It is from the 60s, 1960s to be precise. An mp3 of a record created for kids. This particular record is performed by Richard Taylor ( a person I’m not familiar with. I’ve searched and these kids records appear to be his only available work) and on it he tackles Edgar Allen Poe’s THE TELL TALE HEART and THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM.

I don’t know what kids this was aimed at, but it is a frigging UNHINGED performance!

I’ve heard and seen just about every take on THE TELL TALE HEART there is. It is one of my favorite stories, perhaps the favorite. So I’ve heard everyone’s take on it, Christopher Lee, Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, you name em, I’ve heard em. And Filmwise, I’ve seen at least 6 to 8 different versions of The Tell-Tale Heart.

But not in all the ones I’ve come across have I seen anyone give a more kirking, manic performance than Richard Taylor does; in these 4 decade old recordings.

It is such a joy to see someone just throw themselves into a part, that I had a smile from ear to ear while listening to this stuff. And i was roaring with appreciation through most of it.

And I’m not talking about someone just hamming it up, or over acting, as I’ve heard some bad examples of actors doing just that with Poe material (most recently THE STRANGE CASE OF EDGAR ALLEN POE I thought had some poor performances, that said BBC is typically excellent. Their recent TELL TALE HEART, read by Richard Pasco, is brilliant).

Without a doubt Richard Taylor is off the charts, but the difference is, you don’t see the artifice, the acting, you don’t see the wires, he makes you buy that he is in the moment, is— this madness. It is a brilliant performance. So good it impelled me to share it, here, with you.

And we have to thank, for the availability of this otherwise lost gem, the fantastic site: SCAR STUFF. For saving this record from the trashbin of history, he and his site should be applauded.

So go on over there and listen to Richard Taylor’s rendition of Edgar Allen Poe’s THE TELL TALE HEART (The site has a few other Taylor recordings, some great [THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USER], some poor [THE BLACK CAT- Taylor stumbles and fumbles many lines, and the obtrusive music doesn't help, but still well worth a listen] but THE TELL HEART is Richard Taylor’s finest hour).

If you get a 10th as much enjoyment out of it as I did, consider yourself… well paid. You can add it, this really enjoyable performance, to those few things in your life, that you call… real wealth.

Do you like how I tied that up in a bow? Yeah I thought it was pretty nifty.

Oh and if anyone has additional Richard Taylor performances, or is aware of anything else he did, please contact me. And finally, if you guys appreciate this blog and these posts, do me a favor, leave a comment. It helps. It really does. I know you’re looking, cause I can see the stats, but it would be nice if more of you guys left comments or emailed as well.

Thanks, and please enjoy.

Via BBC News

The father of Damilola Taylor – the schoolboy murdered in south London in 2000 – is to be Labour’s special envoy on youth violence and knife crime.

Richard Taylor has been campaigning against the carrying of knives since his son, 10, was killed as he returned home to Peckham after a day at school.

He will liaise with other families who lost relatives in similar circumstances and try to alter teenagers’ attitudes.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Mr Taylor had “worked tirelessly”.

This violence had “ruined so many young lives, families and neighbourhoods”, the prime minister added.

“Richard will be able to share the experiences of families who have directly been affected by youth violence and their thoughts on how young people’s behaviour can be changed.”

Continue Reading…..

Keep up the good work Richard.