Dr Paul Allen

English: Kaaba at the heart of Mecca. As the night goes on pilgrims visiting the Holy House. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Islam is the second largest religion in the world. In 1995 about 1,122,661,000 Muslims inhabited this planet. Count the commas, folks—that’s a billion plus a hundred million. That means of every living person, one in five is a Muslim. As citizens of what is yet a superpower, we tend not to notice the worldwide Islamic population, of which merely sixteen percent are Arabs. But this blindness to our situation needs to change, not only so we can be more aware of the need for foreign missions, but so we can be aware of the needs of our neighbors. Islam is moving to where you live. And it looks like it is here to stay. Islam and Early America After the United States was founded, Islam had more influence than many would expect on certain segments of the population. For example, after being converted to Christianity, the Virginia statesman John Randolph of Roanoke

Folio 4v of the Rabbula Gospels showing the canon tables, harmonization of the four gospels, with marginal miniatures. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Skeptics often charge that the Bible ’s historical books hopelessly contradict each other. And if that’s the case, they charge, then the Bible cannot be trusted in anything it says. Take, for example, 1 Chronicles 2:13–15 , which states that Jesse had seven sons, while 1 Samuel 17:12 indicates Jesse had eight sons. On the surface, the Bible’s historical books can appear to disagree. These range all the way from very minor variations in wording to the most famous apparent contradictions. But once you allow for paraphrase, abridgment, explanatory additions, selection and omission—acceptable techniques even in many of today’s writing styles—the books are extremely consistent with each other by ancient standards, which are the only standards by which it’s fair to judge them. As in the case of Jesse’s sons, it’s important to realize that th

The Aleppo Codex is a medieval manuscript of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), associated with Rabbi Aaron Ben Asher. The Masoretic scholars wrote it in the early 10th century, probably in Tiberias, Israel. It is in book form and contains the vowel points and grammar points (nikkudot) that specify the pronunciation of the ancient Hebrew letters to preserve the chanting tradition. It is perhaps the most historically important Hebrew manuscript in existence. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Skeptics often charge that the Bible 's historical books hopelessly contradict each other. And if that's the case, they charge, then the Bible cannot be trusted in anything it says. Take, for example, 1 Chronicles 2:13-15 , which states that Jesse had seven sons, while 1 Samuel 17:12 indicates Jesse had eight sons. On the surface, the Bible's historical books can appear to disagree. These range all the way from very minor variations in wording to the most famous apparent contradictions. But o

Image via Wikipedia Are Chinese mothers superior? Amy Chua clearly believes so, and her argument has just as clearly caught the attention of the American public. Chua’s book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother , has made  The New York Time s bestseller list for the past ten weeks. This mom struck a raw nerve. Chua, the John M. Duff Professor of Law at Yale Law School , fired her first shot with a column published in the  Wall Street Journal   entitled, “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior.” It was a shot heard around the world — especially by other moms. The uproar followed immediately — and no wonder. Chua accused Western mothers of being lax and undemanding, and therefore producing underachieving children. She began her column with these incendiary lines: “A lot of people wonder how Chinese parents raise such stereotypically successful kids. They wonder what these parents do to produce so many math whizzes and music prodigies, what it’s like inside the family, and whether they could do it