Magic Statistics

This is one university the StatDaughter will not be applying to when she graduates high school. The Times of London reports:

Edinburgh University is set to ban Bibles from its student halls of residence amid concern that the Holy Book is "discriminatory" and makes students of other faiths feel unwelcome.

Another university in Scotland showed some sense when confronted by the same issue.

This year Stirling University was forced to abandon plans to remove 6,000 Bibles from its student halls after a storm of protest from offended Christians. As a compromise the university instead invited all religious groups to supply copies of their holy texts.

The Reverend John Munro, a former chaplain at Stirling University, said at the time that withdrawing any book from a place of study smacked of intolerance. "I think there’s an agenda here, seemingly politically correct, but there’s actually a hostility towards faith by those who have none. This is repeating the worst errors which the Christian faith used to have," he said.

Quite so.

via CaNN.

I have no idea what this means or how it's calculated. I just followed the link from CaNN.

What I want to know is: Where can I sell my blog for this amount? I could use the cash.

Today marks the bicentenary of Nelson's victory at the Battle of Trafalgar. But the word "victory" is not one that the Labour government wants to use.

In the event, the bicentennial celebrations of the Battle of Trafalgar have proved curiously muted. Nelson's victory over French vice-admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve and Napoleon's First Empire seems a long time ago, of course. Yet given how it laid the basis for the British Empire, the Sterling Area and thus the world's first extensive round of globalisation, Trafalgar hasn't really had the fanfare that is its historical due.

The Royal Mint has issued £5 crowns; the Royal Mail, six stamps. Tomorrow the Royal Family will light beacons, beginning with the Queen at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, alongside HMS Victory. In the House of Commons, however, there is silence.

Read the whole thing to find out why.

Here is John Keegan's tribute to Admiral Nelson. I blogged this important event about two weeks ago.

This photo of Nelson's column, Trafalgar Square, was taken in August 2004.

A new blog run by Rick and Nancy Pearcey that will be of interest to Christians everywhere. Just launched today, it's already full of great stuff. Check it out.

via Mere Comments.

Quote of the day from Roy Clouser:

Proving is actually an inferior way of coming to know something, a way we resort to when we can't directly experience what we want to know.

Prof Clouser is Professor Emeritus of philosophy and religion, College of New Jersey.

I found that intriguing quotation in this review of Clouser's 1999 book, Knowing with the Heart: Religious Experience and Belief in God. Another book by Prof Clouser, The Myth of Religious Neutrality: An Essay on the Hidden Role of Religious Belief in Theories, has been described as one of the most liberating books of philosophy.

Both of these books were recommended by Paul Robinson, Novice Philosopher. His blog is definitely worth a look, if you're interested in neo-Calvinist philosophy.

UPDATE (30 Dec.): Here's something I learned by reading Knowing With the Heart.

Mark Morford, columnist for the San Francisco Gate, throws an unholy fit because Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar just had their 16th child, and they're already talking about having some more. Morford lists a whole bunch of reasons for his apoplexy, like the Duggar family is "white", "hyperreligious", "spotless", and they all have "alarmingly bad hair". Oh, and Jim Bob aspires to be a "Republican senator". Horrors!

Mr Morford calls this "weird pathological protofamily breeding-happy gluttony". The Duggars hit a nerve, apparently. What's he so afraid of? He forthrightly admits the reason: he and his oh-so-liberal buddies are being outbred by conservative Christians.

I hope this doesn't upset Mr Mordford too much: My maternal grandfather was the youngest of sixteen children born to a staunch Salvation Army couple. Thank God for them, I say, 'cus if it weren't for them, I wouldn't be here. And God bless the Duggars.

via LifeSite News.