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Dec 4, 2009 — The facility with which some evolutionary biologists appeal to almost magical powers of evolution to explain anything and everything is revealed in some recent science articles. Whatever needs explaining is due to evolution – evidence or not. These four examples can be considered representative of the genre...

Need evidence for Darwinian evolution? Just make it up. That’s the lesson of Donald Prothero’s book, Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007). Prothero is a professor of geology at Occidental College in Los Angeles. On November 30, he teamed up with atheist Michael Shermer (founding publisher of Skeptic Magazine) to debate Stephen Meyer and Richard Sternberg of the Discovery Institute. Shermer wrote the foreword to Prothero’s book, calling it “the best book ever written on the subject.” In fact, “Don’s visual presentation of the fossil and genetic evidence for evolution is...

Amateur fossil hunters Jamie and Jonathan Hiscocks were looking for dinosaur remains in East Sussex, UK, when they instead found tiny spider webs trapped inside a piece of ancient amber. Oxford University paleobiologist Martin Brasier inspected the amber, which was assigned an age of over 100 million years. He concluded that spiders back then were able to spin webs just like today’s garden spiders.The amber-encased webbing formed concentric circles like those that contemporary orb-weaver spiders manufacture. Also evident were “little sticky droplets along the web threads to trap prey,� Brasier told the Daily Mail. He added, “You can match the...

Charles Darwin published his “Origin of Species” in 1859. There he presented the classic formulation of his theory of evolution. Lady Ashley, reacting to the theory at the time, remarked, "Let's hope that it's not true; but if it is true, let's hope that it doesn't become widely known." Lady Ashley's second hope has failed: Darwin's theory is everywhere and has now become textbook orthodoxy. This year, universities around the globe are celebrating the 150th anniversary of Darwin's “Origin of Species” as well as the 200th anniversary of his birth. But what about Lady Ashley's hope that Darwin's theory is...

In August 2009, retired University of Liverpool marine biologist Donald Williamson officially challenged the standard Darwinian interpretation of caterpillar origins. His paper was fast-tracked to publication by a “high-placed advocate,”[1] but shortly afterward his ideas were rebutted in the very same journal. While this back-and-forth exchange has sparked intense criticism over the submission and review processes that were used, the situation also reveals core problems with broad-scale evolution...

The Bible tells us that God made mankind—male and female—“in His image” (Genesis 1:26, 27). This gives us humans a special significance in the cosmos. However, modern secular (godless) thinking minimizes this significance. As Voyager 1 reached the edge of our solar system in 1990, astronomer Carl Sagan asked NASA to instruct Voyager to turn around and take a picture looking back towards Earth. The grainy image showed our home as a tiny pale blue dot. In a book written soon after, atheist Sagan wrote, “our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are...

(See all these news nuggets and more by clicking the excerpt link below): 1. BBC News: “Darwin Teaching ‘Divides Opinion’” Darwinism is a controversial topic, and many believe creation should be taught in the classroom. But why is that news? 2. ScienceDaily: “Junk DNA Mechanism that Prevents Two Species from Reproducing Discovered” Has the U.S. government finally supported creationist research? Alas, no, but the results of a National Institutes of Health study fit squarely within the young-earth creation framework. 3. PhysOrg: “Charles Darwin Really Did Have Advanced Ideas about the Origin of Life” Charles Darwin was convinced that life’s origin...

News to Note, October 17, 2009: A weekly feature examining news from the biblical viewpoint (fascinating STEM CELL piece in story #5!)...

Nature has recently published an interesting paper which places severe limits on Darwinian evolution. The manuscript, from the laboratory of Joseph Thornton at the University of Oregon, is titled, “An epistatic ratchet constrains the direction of glucocorticoid receptor evolution.” The work is interpreted by its authors within a standard Darwinian framework, but the results line up very well with arguments I made in The Edge of Evolution. This is the second of several posts discussing it. Using clever synthetic and analytical techniques, Bridgham et al (2009) show that the more recent hormone receptor protein that they synthesized, a GR-like protein,...

boom in affordable housing in the 1950s was helped by the invention of a distinctive multifunctional piece of equipment: the backhoe. Its strong yet relatively slender articulated arm allowed precise yet rapid placement for digging or lifting. The manipulative device is trim and fast, since hoses transfer power to it from a powerful hydraulic pump within the main chassis. The "arm" of the backhoe makes many people think the equipment design is similar to a human arm, but what makes it so versatile is that it is actually more like a giant human finger. If a valuable piece of equipment...

Are humans born to cheat? What do Americans think about marital infidelity? Those who oppose the practice of adultery often base their arguments on religious prohibitions. Others, confident that religion is worthless, or worse, turn to science to support their contentions that monogamy is not biologically “natural.” The ABC News television program Nightline is currently running a series on the Ten Commandments that “explores the biblical commandments from [a] modern-day perspective.”[1] The fourth installment of the series looked at...

I like Glenn Beck, but what the h--- is he thinking on this one? He told Katie Couric that John McCain would have been a worse president than Barack Obama. He also stated that he may have voted for Hillary Clinton had she been the Hypocratic nominee. Huh?!?!?!? Glenn, were you afraid of getting Palinized by Katie? (That's the only explanation I can come up with after such mind-boggling remarks...)

After 100 years, automobiles still need engine oil, transmission fluid, brake fluid, antifreeze, power-steering fluid, and so on. Wouldn't it be great if just a single multipurpose fluid could be circulated from a central reservoir? Each part would use only the needed properties of the fluid, exclude detrimental properties, and then send it back. The new system’s worldwide impact would ensure a huge market--and academic honors--for the clever developers. This lucrative breakthrough, however, would not be pioneering. Just such a brilliant integration of fluid properties to the diverse needs of the physical body has already been achieved in human blood--in...

The launch of Ida, alias Darwinius masillae, in May this year was unprecedented. It raised eyebrows across the whole range of media-savvy people. Whilst scientists have learned how to capture the interest of the media and promote their work, this particular indulgence was a shock and it was quickly recognised as hype...

Sept 8, 2009 — Visualize a cartoon of Charles Darwin as Hippocrates.  It accompanies a book review in Science by Peter T. Ellison (Harvard).1  Ellison realizes that the mass of material doctors need to master is formidable, but thinks that “Evolutionary biology, however, is no longer an expendable topic in medical education...”

Molecular biologist Michael Behe described a system made of several interacting parts, whereby the removal of one part would disrupt the functioning of the whole, as being irreducibly complex. Both creation scientists and intelligent design proponents highlight examples of irreducible complexity in their studies, because they argue against evolutionary hypotheses. The very structure of these systems—with their interdependent parts working all together or not at all—demands a non-Darwinian, non-chance, non-piecemeal origin. A team of evolutionary molecular biologists thinks it may have refuted this concept of irreducible complexity. In a recent study, the researchers focused on a specific cellular machine involved...

Evolutionary Logic About Functions of the Appendix: Using Darwin to Disprove Darwin Proves Darwin Almost two years ago, I blogged about how conclusive evidence of function had been discovered for the appendix. Now function has been discovered for the appendix. Again. A recent news article on Yahoo.com actually frames the issue fairly well: The body's appendix has long been thought of as nothing more than a worthless evolutionary artifact, good for nothing save a potentially lethal case of inflammation. Now researchers suggest the appendix is a lot more than a useless remnant. … In a way, the idea that the...

In recent decades, soft, squishy tissues have been discovered inside fossilized dinosaur bones. They seem so fresh that it appears as though the bodies were buried only a few thousand years ago. Since many think of a fossil as having had the original bone material replaced by minerals, the presence of actual bone--let alone pliable blood vessels, red blood cells, and proteins inside the bone--is quite extraordinary. These finds also present a dilemma...

Has science left Darwin so far behind that it is a complete red herring for creationist writers to analyze, discuss or rebut his views? When creationists do that, does it, as one email put it, show that such authors must be “out of touch”? We often hear such comments from our detractors in this “year of Darwin”, but with an increasing frequency the last few weeks. Hence this weekend’s feedback will respond to such charges in general. The usual emailed comments one sees about this seem to imply not only that referring to Darwin’s views is completely inappropriate, but that...

Nathaniel Jeanson, a Harvard-trained medical researcher, was recently awarded his doctorate degree in molecular biology. He has made significant contributions to adult stem cell research, and in September he will join the Institute for Creation Research (ICR) as its newest research associate. Recently, Dr. Jeanson gave a lecture at Calvary Chapel in Boston titled “Evolution: Bankrupt Science. Creationism: Science You Can Bank On.” A number of people from the Boston Atheists organization, including at least one P. Z. Myers groupie, attended the morning talk and evening Q&A forum, which were sponsored by Calvary Chapel...

Will 'Better Science Education' Convince Americans They Came from Fish? A recent poll revealed that many Americans believe public school students should be taught all sides of Darwin’s theory of evolution, its weaknesses as well as its strengths.[1] Evolutionists, in the face of this data, reason that if only the American public had more “education” on evolution, the poll numbers would reflect in their favor...

With the advent of modern biotechnology, researchers have been able to determine the actual sequence of the roughly three billion bases of DNA (A,T,C,G) that make up the human genome. They have sequenced the genomes of many other types of creatures as well. Scientists have tried to use this new DNA data to find similarities in the DNA sequences of creatures that are supposedly related through evolutionary descent, but do genetic similarities provide evidence for evolution?...

There seems to be something about evolutionism that generates arrogance in many of its spokesmen. The concept is so wide-ranging that it purportedly can explain everything scientifically, from the origin of the cosmos to the origin of religion. Perhaps because it seems to eliminate the need for God, science itself becomes "god," and some evolutionists think they have become its official prophets and priests. One of their communicants, in fact, calls them its "shamans." He says: We show deference to our leaders, pay respect to our elders and follow the dictates of our shamans; this being the Age of Science,...

July 24, 2009 — Richard Dawkins proposed in his book The Selfish Gene that a gene, being the target of natural selection and unit of replication, is the entity most likely to get passed on to posterity; as such, it is “selfish” in that the rest of the organism is really only incidental to its immortality. Dawkins expanded this into the “extended phenotype” – the idea that the gene extends its influence over the rest of the organism to ensure its own survival. Fern Elsdon-Baker, writing an opinion piece called “The Dawkins dogma” in New Scientist, called this the most...

Facilitated variation is the first comprehensive theory of how life works at the molecular level, published in 2005 by systems biologists Marc Kirschner and John Gerhart in their book The Plausibility of Life: Resolving Darwin’s Dilemma. It is a very powerful theory, is supported by a great deal of evidence, and the authors have made it easy to understand. It identifies two basic components of heredity: (a) conserved core processes of cellular structure, function and body plan organization; and (b) modular regulatory mechanisms that are built in special ways that allow them to be easily rearranged (like ®Lego blocks) into...

Rising Animal Cancers Point to a Dying World by Brian Thomas, M.S.* Cancer affects many humans and their loved ones, and a new report has found that certain animals are also suffering from higher cancer rates. Sadly, this is what is to be expected in a dying and decaying world.The technical results of the study are slated to appear in the July edition of Nature Reviews Cancer. Lead author Denise McAloose, Chief Pathologist for the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Global Health program, said in a WCS press release that “we now understand that cancer can kill wild animals at similar rates...

Foiled Forever by Fossil Finding Last January, Scientific American declared 2009 as “the year of Darwin” in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of the revolutionary evolutionist who turned man into a monkey. The celebration is understandable. No thinker has accomplished more to create a cleft between science and religion. No writer has done more to undermine the claim of scripture that man was made in the image and likeness of God. No scholar has forged greater support for moral relativity and modern materialism. His theories are treated as laws; his notions as knowledge; his speculation as science....

The 1994 discovery of the Wollemi pine growing in a remote gorge in New South Wales, Australia, caused a sensation, because it had previously only been known from fossils said to be millions of years old (as we have previously reported—see, e.g., Sensational Australian tree … like “finding a live dinosaur”). While keeping the exact location a secret, the authorities offered up a single licence to propagate the “living fossil” tree, which was won in 1998 by a government department of the neighbouring state of Queensland. Expecting that people worldwide would jump at the chance to purchase their own “dinosaur...

Jesus Fish/Darwin Fish --snip-- Atheists use their Darwin fish to protest against the Christian faith. That they use evolution to counter biblical faith shows how foundational the issue of origins is to the gospel, and that church leaders who dismiss it as a ‘side issue’ have their heads in the sand...

Atheism, for Good Reason, Fears Questions --snip-- That theists and open-minded agnostics and atheists on the pro-Darwinist side of this debate are finally engaging the same fundamentalist atheist dogma that intelligent design proponents have engaged for several decades is a good sign. Fundamentalist atheists are of course fighting back ferociously, because they understand, as perhaps the accomodationists don’t, the profound implications of an understanding of the natural world that is not causally closed. Teleology is obvious in nature. Atheists and materialists intrinsically deny the reality of teleology-- Aristotelian final causation-- in nature, yet nothing in the natural world can be...

Darwin's (Failed) Predictions: An Interview with Cornelius Hunter, Part I The testability of scientific ideas by making predictions about reality is a favorite theme with Darwinists and the atheists who love them. In The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins endorses a new atheist Ten Commandments, whose seventh commandment reads: “Test all things; always check your ideas against the facts, and be read to discard even a cherished belief it if does not conform to them.” Incidentally, that would replace the old seventh commandment, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” Dawkins hails evolution’s “strong prediction that if a single fossil turned up in...

Whitewashing Darwinism's Ongoing Moral Legacy Is it somehow petty, offensive, exploitative, and beyond the pale to point out how the Holocaust Memorial Museum shooter, who murdered a guard on Wednesday, writes about evolution in his sick manifesto? Should it be considered beneath one's dignity to quote the man and let his words speak for themselves?James von Brunn, the suspect in question, is a white supremacist, a bitter anti-Semite, a Holocaust-denier, a wacked out conspiracy theorist, who served more than 6 years in a federal prison for attempted kidnapping. All this is fair game to report. Everyone agrees to that. But...

Gunny G: Question? What’s All This About Glenn Beck and Illuminati? June 12, 2009 Gunny G: Question? What’s All This About Glenn Beck and Illuminati? “These acts of violence are both evil and stupid. They kill innocent people and give Illuminati pawns an excuse to clamp down on free speech. The Illuminati agent Glenn Beck used this event to declare that 9-11 Truthers and the Patriot movement were working with Al Queda to “destroy this country.” Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano has warned against “right-wing extremism” and “anti-Semitism.” These violent acts further the Illuminati’s totalitarian agenda.” Read the rest of...

Junk DNA RoundUp (and Rebuttal): How Neo-Darwinism Creates Junk-Hypotheses, Then Resists Their Demise Sometimes after explaining how the now-defunct junk-DNA mindset was encouraged and fostered by neo-Darwinian evolution, evolutionists respond by asserting that nonetheless some individuals from their camp explored function for junk-DNA. This, they claim, absolves their neo-Darwinian camp from any charges of science-stopping, and shows that the neo-Darwinian paradigm did not hinder research into junk-DNA. But if a 2003 article in Science is any indication, then it seems that the neo-Darwinian paradigm did indeed impose a taboo on research into function for junk-DNA. As the article stated:Although catchy,...

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas welcomed Pope Benedict XVI in Bethlehem in Wednesday morning, where his gift to the Catholic leader was a part of the cement separation-security barrier that Israel built to stop suicide bombers from blowing up soldiers and civilians.

Now a Creationist CMI Ph.D. scientist and author explains to an outside website what turned him to biblical creation How does someone with an essentially secular upbringing and secular education become a staunch supporter of biblical creation? (See also previous Boundless article A Theory of Creation). There was no single reason, but many pieces of evidence that accumulated into an overwhelming case...

News to Note, May 2, 2009A weekly feature examining news from the biblical viewpoint (Read the following stories, and much more by clicking excerpt link at the bottom) 1. LiveScience: “Swine Flu Is Evolution in Action”Swine flu—both the virus itself and the associated paranoia—seems to be sweeping the world. Is it evolution in action? 2. LiveScience: “Some Dinosaurs Survived the Asteroid Impact”The widely taught model of dinosaur extinction doesn’t line up with the latest fossil findings. 3. National Geographic News: “Baby Mammoth CT Scan Reveals Internal Organs”The preserved baby woolly mammoth shows that it died in an “oxygen-deprived environment” that...

[ Glenn as a Populist Glenn has been called a lot of “ists” over the years: Racist and fascist being the two most popular. But the latest batches of people calling him “populist” are particularly amusing. ](Stu's Blog) Reply to Glenn Beck: What about idiotist? That may sound a little harsh, but just enjoyed creating a new word for ya. I have a beef to pick with Glenn, despite the fact that I mostly watch his show when I can, and am a conservative pescetarian, and that is: Why do you go out of your way to make sure every...

My article on the meaning of the Middle East ceasefire and the failure of the Israelis to complete their mission speculated that it could lead eventually to a nuclear weapon being used by the Israelis on Iran. It seems to me that one might conclude from the following opposing article (its author says that the real losers were Syria and Iran (not Israel) that the events of this summer have actually laid the groundwork for the USA to bomb Iran with nuclear weapons.

Top News Story Deterrence Instability: Hizbullah's Fuse to Iran's Bomb Gerald M. Steinberg, The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs analyzes Europe's vain hope that a nuclear Iran will be a responsible nuclear power: In private conversations, many Europeans are increasingly ready to admit the obvious - that without credible threats, Iran will not end its pursuit of nuclear weapons. They then argue that this is not disastrous, and that Iran will, of necessity, act as a responsible nuclear power in order to avoid catastrophic destruction. They point to the history of the U.S. and the Soviet Union as an...

Top News Story Iran Press News While hundreds of thousands of Iranians poured into the streets of cities all across Iran last night to both celebrate the victory of Iran over Japan in Friday 's Soccer match as well as to demonstrate their hatred of the Mullacracy, the regime's television broadcast admitted to the widespread protests calling the celebrants "fools and champions of exhibitionist foreign invaders." The regime's television, in a political analysis fraught with intense distress and exhaustion requisitioned the U.S., saying: "if the U.S. has good intentions and does intend to make a deal with us, then...

Top News Story THE FRIDAY AFTER-SOCCER DEADS IS BAD NEWS FOR THE MULLAHRCHYBy Safa HaeriPosted Saturday, March 26, 2005 TEHERAN, 26 Mar. (IPS) At least six people were killed Friday 25 March 2005 and more than 40 others wounded, some of them critically at the end of a decisive soccer match between Iran and Japan, making it the worst after-soccer incidents in Iran.Though the Iranian clerical ruled authorities said they were killed in “stampede” at one of the smaller gates of the huge Tehran Azadi (freedom) stadium, but eye witnesses said police had fired on happy young boys and...

Top News Story Why Iran wants Cruise Missiles? On 28 January 2005, Ukranian parliamentarian Hryhoriy Omelchenko issued an open letter to President Viktor Yushchenko that Ukraine had illegally sold cruise missiles to Iran. It's was a credible report, which names dates, names, the bank accounts, fictitious shell companies that were set up to extradite the transfer of money from Iran. Plus there was collaborating evidence to this whole affair. He refered to a paper company set up in Cyprus to channel money for the missiles. Anti-corruption lawmaker Omelchenko was a ranking State Secret Services (SBU) officer and a deputy...

Top News Story Several killed and hundreds injured or arrested in Soccer riotsSMCCDI (Information Service) Mar 25, 2005 Several demonstrators have been killed and hundreds have been injured or arrested in most Iranian cities, especially in the Capital, following the clashes which happened after the Soccer game played between Iran and Japan. The biggest number of deaths has been reported from Tehran where officials are admitting three deaths "trampled under the feet of demonstrators".Other reports from Esfahan and Mashad are stating about an unknown number of deaths.Hundreds have been admitted to hospitals and many are missing. Tens of female...

Top News Story EU Studying Iranian Plan For Small-Scale Uranium Enrichment March 24, 2005 AFP Khaleej Times Online PARIS -- The EU is considering an Iranian proposal to allow the Islamic republic to produce enriched uranium on a small scale, despite the bloc’s demand Tehran must abandon the process to guarantee it will not make atom bombs, officials and diplomats said on Thursday. Iran made the proposal to be allowed to run a pilot centrifuge project for uranium enrichment at a meeting in Paris on Wednesday with EU negotiators Britain, France and Germany, according to a European official who...

Top News Story Hadley On Iran Nukes 22 March 2005 The United States has dropped its objections to certain incentives the European Union is offering Iran to stop its uranium-enrichment program. Enriched uranium can be used as fuel in nuclear power plants but can also be a key component of nuclear weapons. Many suspect that Iran's clerical regime is secretly trying to build nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian energy program. The European Union has been negotiating with Iran since December to turn a temporary suspension of uranium-enrichment and related activities by Iran into a permanent ban....

Top News Story Converging U.S. Navy aircraft carrier groups in Middle East send strong message to Iran and Syria Sudhir Chadda, India Daily (thanks to Dan Darling and Rantburg.com):The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt is on the move in Atlantic Ocean and is possibly headed towards the Mediterranean Sea. The convergence of three carrier groups in the corridor of the Middle East will send very strong message to the Syrians and Iranians. There are indications that soon US is moving two more aircraft carrier battle groups to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf. This will...

Top News Story RFERL At first the ear-splitting explosions, blazing bonfires and choking stench of teargas could have been mistaken for the prelude to a new Iranian revolution. In reality the occasion, Chahar Shanbeh Souri, was celebratory. Iranians young and old, male and female, were gathered in Mirdamad Street, in one of Tehran's most affluent neighbourhoods, to mark the opening of festivities for Norouz, the new year in the ancient Zoroastrian calendar. Nevertheless, subversion - along with noise and smoke - hung heavy in the air as fashionably dressed young men lobbed firecrackers and set flame to piles of...

Just In! Dr. Corsi Begins His Book Tour Tomorrow! I just recieved the following from Dr. Jerome Corsi. He begins his book tour, for his new book Atomic Iran.In Atomic Iran, Jerome Corsi, co-author of the best-selling Unfit for Command, uncovers the true intentions and practices of the Iranian regime and gives light to the aid and comfort being supplied by some key U.S. politicians. Here is his book tour schedule: Monday, March 21; 8:20am-10:20am (ET)ABC Radio NetworksKCMO-Kansas City, MO; 8:20am (CT)KFAB-Omaha, NE; 8:50am (CT)KEX-Portland, OR; 6:20 (PT)KFBK-Sacramento, CA; 6:40am (PT)WABC-New York, NY; 10:20am (ET) Monday, March 21; 4pm...

Top News Story LA Times L.A. Is a Den of Iranian Intrigue and Ambition Anne-Marie O'Connor, Greg Krikorian and H.G. Reza, LA Times: Roozbeh Farahanipour was jailed and beaten during student protests in Iran in 1999. Today, he sits in a cramped office above a Persian-language bookstore on Westwood Boulevard, speaking in low tones about the pro-Tehran "agents" he says still dog him. Two years ago, after hostile men confronted his Iranian activist group at public forums, he walked downthe bustling avenue — past Persian restaurants, Persian pop music vendors and the publisher of the 1,200-page Iranian Yellow Pages...