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Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Courageous Movie




I may be too late for a review on Courageous, but I can't let a movie like that come out without at least saying something; despite how late I may be.  All I have to say is that if you have not seen Courageous yet, please do!  I wish there were more movies like Courageous.  It made me cry and laugh (which is quite unusual for me when I watch movies!), and its powerful and passionate message is one our culture desperately needs. 

The acting was good; the aesthetics were good; the story was action-packed, dramatic, and intensely moving.  Courageous just felt like a "movie", and not the low-budget, amateur, stereotypical "Christian" film you might expect. 

It is amazing to see how Sherwood Pictures (the makers of Courageous) has improved exponentially with every film: beginning with Flywheel, then Facing the Giants, then Fireproof, and now Courageous.  The money they make with one film allows them to improve with the next.  We must support their films, so they can make their next ones even better!

To my surprise, some Christians have had some negative reviews on the film.  In response, I would say that perhaps Courageous isn't perfect, but please support the movie so Sherwood Pictures can continue to improve; and maybe their next film will be perfect!  Considering how far they've come, this movie is impressive.

As I understand it, some of these negative reviews said that parts of Courageous were not realistic, in regards to how the police force behaves, or how crime is dealt with.  Personally I wouldn't have known if it was realistic or not, because I don't know anything about the police force; so, for me, it was perfectly believable.  But their point stands; if you are part of the police force, maybe the movie would seem unbelievable to you.  I don't know.

To me, however, the movie seemed perfect.  All in all, it felt like a "real movie".

Conclusion:  I give Courageous 5 out of 5 stars.  If you want to see more quality Christian films made, watch Courageous and support Sherwood Pictures!

View the official trailer below:


Sunday, December 11, 2011

The Truth About Global Warming


This post is from a speech given on December 8, 2011.

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Rising sea levels! Savage storms! Starvation! Disease, extinction, death! The world is going to end soon, and it's all our fault. Or is it? 

We have been taught that if we don't stop global warming, the world will quickly burn to a crisp, and it will become uninhabitable for the billions of people and animals that call it home. But is global warming really all that our political and scientific authorities portray it as?

The book Climatism! by Steve Goreham states: "..the scientific evidence for man-made global warming is thin and… global warming has become a political agenda driven by fear." While the propaganda for global warming is all around us, little-circulated evidence shows that global warming is not what authorities are telling us it is.

Today, we're going to look at three things: First, evidence that CO2 does not cause global warming; second, evidence for a naturally-caused climate cycle; and third, evidence that authorities portray global warming deceptively in order to grab power.

To begin, let's look at the evidence that CO2, or carbon dioxide, does not cause global warming. CO2 is allegedly one of the largest "greenhouse" gases; a gas emitted by humans that is causing global warming. 



First, CO2 has risen over the past decade, but the earth has not. As stated in a dailytech.com article by Jason Mick, published last month: "… researchers are struggling to explain why warming has stalled in the last decade even as levels of carbon dioxide -- supposedly the most important greenhouse gas have [risen]."

Second, according to Unstoppable Global Warming by environmental scientists S. Fred Singer and Dennis T. Avery, the current warming has been ongoing since 1850, long before human-generated CO2 was entering the atmosphere.

Third, CO2 levels do not explain the many warming/cooling cycles in earth's previous history, when humans were not emitting CO2 (which I'll get to in a second.)

Fourth -- and this one is important -- in August 2009, MIT Professor Richard Lindzen published a paper proving that CO2's affect on global temperatures is less than 1/6th of what the UN says it is. His research showed that CO2 is escaping into space, like it always has before levels began rising, and it is not causing the greenhouse affect. His work was peer-reviewed, and no one argued with it.

Fifth, evidence shows that CO2 has been a lagging indicator, not a cause, of global warming during earth's past warming periods, which I'll explain momentarily.


Now that we've seen some evidence that CO2 is not the cause of global warming, let's explore some evidence that global warming is part of a natural climate cycle.

According to the book Unstoppable Global Warming, new yet convincing evidence indicates that the earth has been experiencing a warming/cooling cycle for thousands of years. Evidence for this cycle has been retrieved from ice cores, tree rings, seabed sediments, stalagmites from caves, coral reefs, and many other sources. It appears that this cycle repeats itself about every 1500 years. From 600 BC to the present, there have been at least six major warming/cooling periods, including the modern "global warming" (see the image below). 

Slide from my speech's PowerPoint. (Data from Unstoppable Global Warming.)

What causes these climate cycles? In a word, the sun. 

In 2001, Gerard Bond and a team from Columbia University published a report in the journal Scientist. This report revealed a solar cycle that corresponds to earth's climate cycle. In other words, as the sun's power waxes and wanes, the earth's temperature warms and cools. This link between earth's climate and the sun has actually been known for over four centuries, so this is not new science; it is just that scientists finally know how this link works.

Now, you're hearing me say all this -- that CO2 does not cause global warming, that it's part of a natural cycle -- and you're maybe wondering: But, what about the UN's climate change body, AKA the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)? Didn't they make some official report, saying there was a consensus worldwide among scientists that human-caused global warming was a fact? The answer is yes; but this leads us into our third point: that authorities portray global warming deceptively in order to gain power

First, there was false science in IPCC's report. Now, listen to this: According to Unstoppable Global Warming, IPCC's 1996 report was edited to include the statement about a "human fingerprint" on global warming. The original scientific summary said specifically, in five different statements, that no such "human fingerprint" had been found, but these statements were removed. 

Why? The author of this document publicly admitted making these changes; he was under pressure from U.S. government officials to do so.

Second, other evidence exists that fraud and deception exists in the climate science community. For example, in the infamous "Climategate" email leaks, in 2009 and again just two weeks ago, thousands of emails showed climate scientists manipulating data and covering up information. In one such email, scientist Tom Wigley said to a colleague:

"Mike, The Figure you sent is very deceptive… there have been a number of dishonest presentations of model results by individual authors and by IPCC." 
Here's another interesting quote:

"Observations do not show rising temperatures throughout the tropical troposphere unless you accept one single study and approach and discount a wealth of others. This is just downright dangerous. We need to communicate the uncertainty and be honest. Phil, hopefully we can find time to discuss these further if necessary. I also think the science is being manipulated to put a political spin on it which for all our sakes might not be too clever in the long run." - Peter Thorne of the UK Met Office
(Read more email quotes here, and download a torrent of the emails here.)

Now, please note: there is much, much more I could say, in regards to evidence for deception among the climate science community, but I don't have time or room here. I recommend looking it up yourself; you may be surprised what you find. Here are a few resources to get you started:



What disturbs me is how much political power, on a national and international scale, could be gained in the name of "fighting global warming". Politicians are asking for power to regulate this and control that. It looks like a good cause on the surface, absolutely, but when we see evidence that the science might be skewed, doesn't it make you just a little suspicious about why they are so adamant about getting this power? We need to be careful and check our politicians' sources, and never let them grab power on the base of a lie.

In the words of Al Gore: 

 "I believe it is appropriate to have an over-representation of factual presentations on how dangerous it is."

Conclusion

Today, we have looked at three things. First, CO2 does not cause global warming. Second, global warming is part of a natural, sun-caused climate cycle. And third, there are authorities who portray global warming deceptively in order to gain power. 

As you can see, global warming is not what authorities are telling us it is. So, next time you see a policymaker asking for you to vote or support something to give him or her more power to "fight global warming", be careful. Check to see if his or her motives are pure. Because while it's good to be green, beware of when green becomes greed.

Slide from my speech's PowerPoint

Works cited

Cotter, Dianna.  "Carbon Dioxide irrelevant in climate debate says MIT Scientist."  Examiner.com.  18 August 2009.  Web.  3 December 2011.



"Global Warming 101."  Ucsusa.org.  27 January 2011.  Web.  30 November 2011. 



Goreham, Steve.  Climatism!: Science, Common Sense, and the 21st Century's Hottest Topic.  New Lenox:  New Lenox Books, 2010.  Print.


Horner, Christopher C.  Red Hot Lies: How Global Warming Alarmists Use Threats, Fraud, and Deception to Keep You Misinformed.  Washington, DC:  Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2008.  Print.

"Is there a connection between the ozone hole and global warming?"  Ucsusa.org.  
13 July 2009.  Web.  30 November 2011.

Mick, Jason.  "Climatologists Trade Tips on Destroying Evidence, Evangelizing Warming."  Dailytech.com.  25 November 2011.  Web.  30 November 2011.

Singer, S. Fred and Dennis T. Avery.  Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years.  Lanham:  Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 2007.  Print.

"Unstoppable Solar Cycles."  Youtube.com.  13 March 2008.  Web.  1 December 2011


More recommended reading/viewing







Multi-Million Dollar Christian Film - Needs Your Prayers!


© In Jesus' Name Productions, from www.IJNP.org


I am thrilled beyond words about this upcoming Christian film, "THE MESSIAH". With a budget of $100 million, and the professionalism of Hollywood, it could become the next big name in Christian films, with a potential to impact global audiences like no Christian film has done in years. This could go beyond "The Passion of the Christ."

I copied and pasted the following from an email newsletter. (You can get newsletters about "THE MESSIAH" here.)

URGENT PRAYER REQUEST FOR THE MESSIAH MOVIE

For the past 3 1/2 years, a team of Christian filmmakers in Hollywood have been working diligently on developing plans for a feature film that has the potential to be the most spiritually significant movie ever made. The film is called The Messiah and it picks up where The Passion left off (planned release Christmas 2013 or Easter 2014). It naturally and powerfully communicates the Gospel message of Jesus Christ -- from the Cross, through the Resurrection, to Pentecost.

Budgeted at an estimated $100 million USD, with state-of-the-art special effects, including being shot in 3D, The Messiah will be an epic film that will wow audiences (by comparison The Passion's budget was $30 million USD). And for the first time in history, the born-again experience, what it means to have a personal relationship with God, will be shown on screen. This means the Gospel message will be communicated in a way that everyone can understand regardless of education or language, and because it will be a mainstream blockbuster movie, it truly will reach everywhere in the world.

The Messiah is in the final stages of funding. A number of investors are currently reviewing our plans and making their final decision on whether to fund the movie.

We are calling on Christians throughout the world to pray for The Messiah and this unprecedented opportunity to leverage a state-of-the-art feature film to take the Gospel to the ends of the Earth.

PLEASE PRAY FOR THE FOLLOWING:

  • God would move the hearts of the potential investors to fund The Messiah.
  • God would lead the team involved to make the highest quality, God-honoring, God-glorifying, feature film ever made.
  • God would leverage The Messiah once it is released to take the Gospel message to the ends of the Earth and 100’s of millions of people would be saved, and would trigger a worldwide Revival.
  • God would raise up more than a million people to pray regularly for The Messiah.


  • To learn more, please see The Messiah movie page at www.IJNP.org. We also encourage you to read the quotes from Christian leaders and prominent Hollywood filmmakers who have read the script and have been involved with guiding the project.
    "And the gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." (Matthew 24:14)


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