Comments worth emphasizing...

A few excerpted portions from some of the many excellent comments worthy of your atttention under recent posts:

Dan Reuter on Universal claptrap from the Director of Vatican Observatory...

Characterizing intelligent design as "not science" is a long way from proving it. What intelligent design is not, is the Christian doctrine of creation. They are compatible, but by no means identical. Incidentally, Michael Behe (Darwin's Black Box) is a Roman Catholic.

Jack on C. S. Lewis on humbug, perjury, and confusion...

I am with you (and against my hero!) on this one. Lewis considered it a lesser evil that "laws should sink than that all judicial procedure should become a travesty." However, many good laws on the books are inconsistently applied (e.g. abortion laws), but inconsistent is better than not at all. The essay was Lewis's comments on a lawsuit related to the publication of "Lady Chatterly's Lover." The related trial is where the Bishop of Woolwich infamously said that Lawrence "tried to portray this relation as in a real sense something sacred, as in a real sense an act of holy communion."

Gary on The Dangers of Philosophy, Part 3

...what did Jesus look like? What was said to OT Jews could be said to us, "You saw no form." You haven't seen Jesus nor have I. On what basis do we presume to portray his image? Is any portrait of Jesus based upon his true form?

John Callaghan on Ad hominem arguments...

Chesterton's dislike of Calvinism must have started early in his Christian life. It is quite evident in his early book, Orthodoxy, which was written more than a dozen years before he converted. It is considered by many to be one of his best works.... Perhaps germane to the current discussion of images and idolatry would be this passage from the same book: