The debacle surrounding the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, is a case study in the fallacious argument that government can do things better than the private sector. But the way it has been presented and the public promises made by the president about the law also indicate an intentional and willful decision to deceive the American people. Several thoughts:

At the center of the Postmodern worldview is the doctrine of personal autonomy–the idea that as free humans we are a law unto ourselves. In Postmodernism, the self defines reality. There are virtually no boundaries for behavior and there are few authority figures that matter anymore. Autonomy impacts all aspects of culture?entertainment, business, law, leisure and religion. The autonomous self defines reality because there is nothing transcendent to do so. If there is a god, he is a deistic god, who is more therapeutic than sovereign, and who serves at the behest of the human. Such a claim has a haunting ring of familiarity to it, for the book of Judges has as its refrain, ?Every man did what was right in his own eyes.?

In 2005 David Barton was named by Time magazine as one of the 25 most influential evangelicals. Presumably, this recognition resulted from the organization he leads, WallBuilders, a ministry committed to championing the proposition that America was founded as a Christian nation and that the separation of church and state as defined today is wrong. He also advocates conservative political views that reflect conservative Republicanism or those posited by the Libertarian movement in the United States.

Modern technology is changing the definition of fatherhood and the rights that go with it. Consider two cases: (1) A pregnant woman wants an abortion. Her husband does not. Should he have a say in her decision? (2) A woman wants to become pregnant with frozen embryos. Her ex-husband opposes the decision. Should he have a say in the decision? Legally, the answer is no to the abortion case and yes to the frozen embryo case.

As a result of the 18th century Enlightenment, Western Civilization began an intellectual journey to develop, in the words of philosopher David Hume, a ?science of man.? The Enlightenment leaders sought for the social sciences a level of certainty achieved by Sir Isaac Newton during the previous century for the hard sciences. Hence, the modern social sciences of psychology, sociology, anthropology, etc. were born. Have we achieved a ?science of man?? Have we achieved as a civilization an ability to attain a level of certainty about human behavior? The US government often operates on the basis of social science in its public policy programs. This applies to how the government funds prison reform policies, criminal behavior policies, economic policies, federal housing policies, etc. Has this connection between social science and public policy in western civilization been successful?

Gregory Berns, professor of neuroeconomics at Emory University, argues that ?dogs are people, too.? He bases this rather stunning conclusion on brain scans of dogs he and his colleagues at Emory have conducted. . . How should we think about Berns, his work and his conclusions? Should dogs be granted personhood? Should they have rights equivalent to humans? Is there a Creation-Order difference between dogs and humans? What is the fundamental difference between a dog and a human being?

Over the years, one of the major themes of Issues in Perspective has been that God created the human race in two grand streams?male and female?and that each stream is totally different. Any attempt at a unisex movement or any attempts to make boys behave like girls or girls like boys are doomed to failure. God?s design for the human race is clear; we ignore this design to our peril as a civilization.

With all the other crises currently on the world?s front burner, we have heard little about climate change of late. But there is an important amount of confusion about this issue right now. What is the source of this confusion? Is there or is there no evidence of climate change, especially global warming? What about some of the solutions being proposed to deal with the perceived causes of global warming? A few thoughts about this provocative topic:

Last week, the concept of “American exceptionalism” got attention through an exchange between Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin. Both employed the term to define something about American society. What was most particularly disturbing was Vladimir Putin?s statement in an op-ed essay in the New York Times: ?And I would rather disagree with a case made on American exceptionalism, stating that the United States? policy is ?what makes America different. It?s what makes us exceptional.? It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation. There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy. Their policies differ, too. We are all different, but when we ask the Lord?s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.?. . . Two important observations about Putin?s essay and Obama?s response:

President Obama?s actions on Syria have been puzzling and difficult to assess. He declared that he would hold Syria accountable for crossing the now famous ?red line? he drew a year ago. Under his orders, the military moved all the necessary equipment?planes and ships?into place, ready to strike Syria. Major Arab nations, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, especially, supported his efforts. Secretary of State John Kerry issued several qualifiers about the nature of the US strike, even stating it would be ?unbelievably small.? The US then continued to issue a series of forewarnings that enabled Syria to move its WMD stockpiles to more secure areas.