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I've been reading Michael Dowd's Thank God for Evolution, and at the same time reading about what's going on at the Altenberg 16. It is pretty clear where the next wave of science and theology is going, and sadly, it looks like its going to be another 150 years of chasing our tail. As is starting to be admitted, Darwinism got us nowhere. The point of Darwinism was to remove God entirely from the process of diversification of life, and perhaps even from Creation itself. The hope of Darwinism has always been the three pillars of natural selection: * Heredity...

This item is available on the Apologetics Press Web site at: http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/3740 - it was originally published in Reason & Revelation, 28[7]:49-55 AP Content :: Reason & Revelation The Bitter Fruits of Atheism [Part I]by Kyle Butt, M.A. [EDITOR’S NOTE: For several decades now, evolution has received preeminent exposure throughout American culture via public schools, natural history and science museums, television programming, national parks guide booklets, popular magazines, children’s toys and clothing, movies and cinema, and the list goes on. What have been the results of such widespread, unilateral propaganda? Has the teaching of evolution exerted a positive influence...

PRINCETON, NJ -- There is a significant political divide in beliefs about the origin of human beings, with 60% of Republicans saying humans were created in their present form by God 10,000 years ago, a belief shared by only 40% of independents and 38% of Democrats. Between 43% and 47% of Americans have agreed during this 26-year time period with the creationist view that God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so. Between 35% and 40% have agreed with the alternative explanation that humans evolved, but with God...

Gonzalez tenure case: University admin’s credibility in shreds as truth emerges O'Leary UPDATED! Well, the jig is up now, re the Guillermo Gonzalez case. I’ve just seen the whack of documents Discovery Institute is releasing. 1. It appears that the decision had been made to turn Gonzalez down for tenure at Iowa State University before he had actually applied for it, and the reason was his advocacy of intelligent design. Read this story in the Des Moines Register last week by Lisa Rossi ISU President Gregory Geoffroy said in June that Gonzalez’s advocacy of the “intelligent design” concept was not...

Lizards Show Proof Of Adaptive Change By STAN FREEMAN   Italian wall lizards placed on a tiny island in the Adriatic Sea evolved over three decades to adapt to their surroundings.     AMHERST, Mass. — In 1971, five pairs of Italian wall lizards were transplanted by biologists from their home island of Pod Kopiste, in the South Adriatic Sea, to the neighboring but subtly different island of Pod Mrcaru, where none lived, as an experiment in evolution.How, if at all, would these creatures change?Largely insect eaters, the half-foot long reptiles would find themselves on an island where insects were...

While uninformed laymen erroneously believe the theory of evolution to be a product of Charles Darwin in his first major work of 1859 (The Origin of Species), the historical records are exceedingly clear that the evolution-creation-intelligent design debate was largely formulated well before the birth of Christ. Numerous famous writings have appeared on the topic for almost two thousand years; in fact, our Founding Fathers were well-acquainted with these writings and therefore the principle theories and teachings of evolution – as well as the science and philosophy both for and against that thesis – well before Darwin synthesized those centuries-old...

Sixteen percent of all U.S. science teachers are creationists, according to a recent national survey. In one of the most authoritative studies ever carried out, the results revealed that creationism – despite being challenged and dismissed by courts as an unconstitutional endorsement of religion – continues to be a staple in many science classrooms. Michael Berkman, a political scientist at Pennsylvania State University in University Park and who conducted the survey with a group of colleagues, said that teachers, ultimately, held the final word when it comes to what is taught in the classroom. "Ultimately, they are the ones who...

WORKING-CLASS students have lower IQs than those from wealthier backgrounds and should not be expected to win places at top universities, an academic has claimed. Bruce Charlton, an evolutionary psychiatrist at Newcastle University, has written a paper asserting the reason why fewer students from poor families are admitted to Oxford or Cambridge is not because of social prejudice, but lack of ability. He suggests that low numbers of working-class students at elite universities is the "natural outcome" of "substantial" IQ differences between classes.... His claims could trigger an outcry similar to that faced by the Nobel prize-winning geneticist James Watson,...

This is a short video of an animated morning dove standing on a branch and it's coo.

John Derbyshire finds a rather disturbing comment from Ben Stein in an interview he did with TBN earlier this month, promoting his new film Expelled: The Movie. In explaining his reaction to researching the Holocaust by visiting Dachau and Hadamar, Stein railed against the distortions of Darwinian theory that led to the systematic eugenics murders and genocide of the Nazi regime. However, Stein misses the target by a mile...

God's Guide to Sex Everyone knows about the similarities between animal and human sexuality, but what about the differences? And what are the implications of those differences? by David Treybig God cares deeply about your sex life. What? You've got to be kidding, right? After all, doesn't God say don't do it while most people do? Does He know what we've been doing? Surprising to many, God is quite concerned about our sexuality and wants us to have the best sex possible. And yes, He does know what each of us has been doing. And He's disappointed that so many...

After centuries of trying to uncover the fundamental laws of the universe, science is still no closer to answering some of humanity’s biggest questions about the meaning of life, the existence of God and the evolution of the human mind and societies. Is that because science is not sufficiently advanced to tackle such problems" Or is it because the traditional approach to science is incapable of answering humanity’s deepest wonders" It is the latter, according to University of Calgary physicist, biologist and philosopher Stuart Kauffman, who argues in his forthcoming book that nature’s infinite creativity should become the basis for...

An evolutionist professor from Antelope Valley College on Wednesday conceded the strong probability of intelligent design in life's earliest forms. The announcement came at the end of a 3-hour presentation at the LPAC by scientists from Reasons to Believe, a Christian ministry that creates and tests scientific models based on the Bible. Matthew Rainbow, a biology professor with a Ph.D. in molecular biology and biochemistry, told a crowd of several hundred that he had been persuaded to change his view of the origins of life about six months earlier, after reading books by the evening's two Reasons to Believe presenters,...

Don't Believe Everything You HearIf you have heard of the new documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, opening April 18, chances are you have heard all kinds of distortions and myths about it. So let me set the record straight about some of the most common myths. Myth #1: Darwinists interviewed for this film were tricked into participating. Not so. Each scientist interviewed for Expelled, on both sides of the evolution debate, knew who would do the interview and what it was for. Each of them signed a release, allowing the producers to use the footage of their interviews. Myth #2:...

Darwinism is a specific evolutionary theory that excludes everything but material processes in the design of all life forms. No Intelligent Design allowed. "What's driving it is Darwinism is a foundational principle – scientific validation of secularism, atheism, liberalism – and that it strikes at the core of who they are," said Mathis. "Secondarily, these scientists are the high priests of the biggest question ever asked. They have all the authority, knowledge, power, funding," continued Mathis. "This is ground they own exclusively. They look down their elitist noses at the unwashed ignorant religious masses and scoff. That's why they respond...

Grand Canyon Gorge Is 9 Times Older Than Thought Hope Hamashige for National Geographic NewsApril 9, 2008 New research on the Grand Canyon challenges the long-held belief that the canyon was carved by the mighty Colorado River about six million years ago. Parts of the canyon were formed more than 50 million years earlier than previously thought, according to the new study. The newfound evidence, which will be presented in the May issue of the Geological Society of America Bulletin, shows that part of the canyon known as Upper Granite Gorge formed more than 55 million years ago. The history...

Pelosi helps launch green DNCBy David Montero, Rocky Mountain News Originally published 05:33 p.m., April 7, 2008 House Speaker Nancy Pelosi came to Denver this afternoon to help launch a green Democratic National Convention this summer, calling the effort a "moral responsibility." "We believe this planet is God's creation," she said. "We have a moral responsibility to protect it and this initiative does just that." The initiative is the Democratic National Convention Committee's Green Delegate Challenge. DNCC Chief Executive Officer Leah Daughtry said they set up a contest for all of the states sending delegates to the convention Aug. 25-28...

THE scientist who led the team that cracked the human genome is to publish a book explaining why he now believes in the existence of God and is convinced that miracles are real. Francis Collins, the director of the US National Human Genome Research Institute, claims there is a rational basis for a creator and that scientific discoveries bring man “closer to God”. His book, The Language of God, to be published in September, will reopen the age-old debate about the relationship between science and faith. “One of the great tragedies of our time is this impression that has been...

The $1.6 million Templeton Prize, the richest award made to an individual by a philanthropic organization, was given Wednesday to Michael Heller, 72, a Roman Catholic priest, cosmologist and philosopher who has spent his life asking, and perhaps more impressively answering, questions like “Does the universe need to have a cause?”... Much of Professor Heller’s career has been dedicated to reconciling the known scientific world with the unknowable dimensions of God. In doing so, he has argued against a “God of the gaps” strategy for relating science and religion, a view that uses God to explain what science cannot. Professor...

Over the years, many people have challenged me with a question like: ‘I’ve been trying to witness to my friends. They say they don’t believe the Bible and aren’t interested in the stuff in it. They want real proof that there’s a God who created, and then they’ll listen to my claims about Christianity. What proof can I give them without mentioning the Bible so they’ll start to listen to me?’ Briefly, my response is as follows. Evidence Creationists and evolutionists, Christians and non-Christians all have the same evidence—the same facts. Think about it: we all have the same earth,...

Man of the Year: John Sanford Progressive Farmer, January 2001 http://www.progressivefarmer.com/issue/0101/sanford/default.asp (thanks to HANU PAPPU for this alert to Agbioview) From a simple BB gun, this scientist fired the shot heard around the world-the promise of biotechnology to feed the hungry. The revolution of agricultural biotechnology came to be through the business end of a Crossman BB gun-a dime-store toy wielded by many a rambunctious youth. This is the pistol that powered the first gene gun, a low-tech, "laughable" idea, mocked in the scientific community. It will never work, they said. But it did. And it transformed agriculture in a...

Million-Degree Plasma Found in Orion 01/19/2008 The Orion nebula, an object of beauty to stargazers (picture, Hubble view) is pervaded by plasma heated to two million degrees Kelvin, reported astronomers in Science.1 Two funnel-shaped regions of x-ray emitting plasma in the extended nebula were observed by astronomers using the X-Ray Multi-Mirror (XMM)-Newton satellite. “The energy requirement to heat the large-scale x-ray emitting plasma is severe,” they said. What could heat up gas to emit 55 billion trillion trillion ergs per second? Not the molecular flows of gas in the nebula. Not the microjets from numerous young stars. Their suggestion: “The...

DALLAS (AP) — A Texas museum that teaches creationism is counting on the auction of a prehistoric mastodon skull to stave off extinction. The founder and curator of the Mt. Blanco Fossil Museum, which rejects evolution and claims that man and dinosaurs coexisted, said it will close unless the Volkswagen-sized skull finds a generous bidder. "If it sells, well, then we can come another day," Joe Taylor said. "This is very important to our continuing." Heritage Auction Galleries says the skull is estimated to be 40,000 years old, and projects it will fetch upward of $160,000. The artifact discovered in...

Intelligent design theory, or ID, is opening new doors of scientific research, particularly in cancer and other disease research, according to its adherents, but a new movie, "Expelled" starring Ben Stein explores how an "elitist scientific establishment" is apparently muzzling and smearing scientists who publicly discuss ID. The First Amendment is under brutal attack in the scientific community, Ben Stein, a former presidential speechwriter-turned-actor and commentator, says in the film, which opens in theaters on Feb. 12. "I always assumed scientists were free to ask any question, pursue any line of inquiry without fear or reprisal," he says. "But recently,...

It is now clear that genetics won’t be able to answer all of our questions about human development and disease. These basic biological processes rely heavily on epigenetics – the ability to ‘fine-tune’ the expression of specific genes. This regulation of gene expression is essential for defining cellular identity and the dysregulation of these processes results in a variety of human diseases. Therefore, understanding these mechanisms will not only enhance our basic knowledge but will also lead to the improved detection, therapy and prognoses of several human diseases. ... The histone code hypothesis predicts that the post-translational modifications of histones,...

Science teachers are not allowed to teach creationism alongside evolution in Texas public schools, the courts have ruled. But that's exactly what the Dallas-based Institute for Creation Research wants them to do. The institute is seeking state approval to grant an online master's degree in science education to prepare teachers to "understand the universe within the integrating framework of Biblical creationism," according to the school's mission statement. Last week, an advisory council made up of university educators voted to recommend the program for approval by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, sparking an outcry among science advocates who have fended...

The DNA code is protected by another code, and is read with a machine that reads a third code. This is an emerging picture from ongoing research into DNA translation, as reported in Science...

DES MOINES, December 6, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - An intelligent design think tank has revealed a conspiracy to deny an Iowa State University astronomer tenure on the basis of his belief that God created the universe. Dr. Guillermo Gonzalez, a member of the Iowa State faculty and author of the book The Privileged Planet, was decried as an "idiot" and "religious nutcase" in private faculty e-mails made public by the Discovery Institute, an intelligent design think-tank based in Seattle. The e-mails brought to light a secret campaign among the other Iowa State faculty to deny Gonzalez tenure because of his belief...

New science standards up for public comment through state Web page. The committee has spoken. Now it’s the Florida public’s turn—and, when it comes to evolution, there’s a lot to say. The state’s first revision of its public school science standards in a decade is now up for public comment. For the first time, the draft standards refer explicitly to evolution and, adhering to scientific consensus, describe the theory as a “big idea,” crucial to students’ understanding of the natural world. In an attempt to make the process as open as possible, officials are encouraging people to submit comments online,...

Evolution: hacking back the tree of life 13 June 2007 NewScientist.com news service Laura Spinney If you want to know how all living things are related, don't bother looking in any textbook that's more than a few years old. Chances are that the tree of life you find there will be wrong. Since they began delving into DNA, biologists have been finding that organisms with features that look alike are often not as closely related as they had thought. These are turbulent times in the world of phylogeny, yet there has been one rule that evolutionary biologists felt they could...

Darwinism; Too Old-Fashioned To Be True By Marvin Olasky Thursday, October 25, 2007 New York Times columnist John Tierney recently offered a materialist version of "intelligent design": All of us are actually characters in a computer simulation devised by some technologically advanced future civilization. Fanciful to the extreme, sure, but the growing number of such theories -- life comes from the past (Mars, when it was theoretically livable) or future (Tierney) -- is one more indication that Darwinism no longer satisfies. Reporters pretending to referee the origin debate used to have it easy: slick evolutionists vs. hick creationists, progress vs....

How old is the world? Most people would say: "Nobody knows." But the author of the book frequently described as the greatest history book ever written, said the world was created Oct. 23, 4004 B.C. – making it exactly 6,010 today. In the 1650s, an Anglican bishop named James Ussher published his "Annals of the World," subtitled, "The Origin of Time, and Continued to the Beginning of the Emperor Vespasian's Reign and the Total Destruction and Abolition of the Temple and Commonwealth of the Jews." First published in Latin, it consisted of more than 1,600 pages. The book, now published...

Research shows Neanderthals may have talked By Michael Kahn Thu Oct 18, 4:06 PM ET Neanderthals, often portrayed as grunting, club-carrying brutes, may have been capable of sophisticated speech, researchers said on Thursday. A DNA analysis shows Neanderthals share with humans two key changes in the FOXP2 gene known to be involved in speech, raising the possibility the species possessed some prerequisites for language, the researchers said. "From the point of this gene at least the Neanderthals could have had language like we do," said Johannes Krause, a biochemist at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, who led the study....

Greetings. Many of you reading now know that Free Republic has played host to a great many debates on the scientific, philosophical and theological significance and viability of origins. The debates bandy back and forth the theories of naturalistic evolution and divine creation. After a few caustic crossfires on YouTube, a fellow named Ryan proposed a semi-formal debate. To be fair, I suggested we hold it on a public forum like Free Republic. FR is no stranger to these debates, and that way any moderating of the discussion remains objective. To distinguish quotes, any time I quote Ryan, it will...

Creation Cosmologies Solve Spacecraft Mystery by D. Russell Humphreys, Ph.D.* A groundbreaking new technical paper1 shows that several creationist cosmologies can explain the "Pioneer anomaly," a decades-old mystery about distant spacecraft. Big Bang theorists cannot use this solution, yet they have found no alternative explanation they can agree upon. Thus the Pioneer data are evidence against the Big Bang and for a biblical, young universe....

The opening of a new creation museum in Winnipeg should cause people to stop and think and, hopefully, question their long held assumptions about the origins of life. Although the museum is small and opened without much fanfare, it represents a very small part of a much wider debate that should be occurring in society, but is clearly not. Nestled in the basement of Oxford Bible Church -- a local evangelical Christian congregation -- the museum showcases exhibits outlining the scientific case for what many call young earth creationism, drawing from modern geology and paleontology. John Feakes, founder of the...

Abstract Background Major transitions in biological evolution show the same pattern of sudden emergence of diverse forms at a new level of complexity. The relationships between major groups within an emergent new class of biological entities are hard to decipher and do not seem to fit the tree pattern that, following Darwin's original proposal, remains the dominant description of biological evolution. The cases in point include the origin of complex RNA molecules and protein folds; major groups of viruses; archaea and bacteria, and the principal lineages within each of these prokaryotic domains; eukaryotic supergroups; and animal phyla. In each of...

... Showing – not telling – is the point of “Evolution and Creation,” Hofmann's long-running seminar on one of science's hairiest debates: evolution vs. “intelligent design.” The first theory – which says that all life evolved from a common ancestor – is the scientific equivalent of the Magna Carta, a guiding principle that undergirds mainstream debate about the origins of man. The second theory, advanced by Christian academics and advocates, argues that life appears to have a purpose for which an intelligent creator – God – is the only possible explanation. Hofmann makes no bones about where he falls. “Intelligent...

In the telephone interview after the speech, Mrs. Clinton also tacitly criticized opponents of evolution. Some of the 2008 Republican presidential candidates have said flatly that they do not believe in evolution, while other Republican contenders have said they support teaching evolution, intelligent design and creationist ideas. “I believe in evolution, and I am shocked at some of the things that people in public life have been saying,” Mrs. Clinton said in the interview. “I believe that our founders had faith in reason and they also had faith in God, and one of our gifts from God is the ability...

Appendix may be useful after all Seemingly useless organ may produce, protect good germs for your gut The Associated Press Oct 5, 2007 WASHINGTON - Some scientists think they have figured out the real job of the troublesome and seemingly useless appendix: It produces and protects good germs for your gut...

Craig Venter, the controversial DNA researcher involved in the race to decipher the human genetic code, has built a synthetic chromosome out of laboratory chemicals and is poised to announce the creation of the first new artificial life form on Earth. The announcement, which is expected within weeks and could come as early as Monday at the annual meeting of his scientific institute in San Diego, California, will herald a giant leap forward in the development of designer genomes. It is certain to provoke heated debate about the ethics of creating new species and could unlock the door to new...

Ben Stein is back in the classroom in a major motion picture release slated for February 2008. But this time, the actor will be on the big screen asking: "Were we designed, or are we simply the end result of an ancient mud puddle struck by lightning?" That's right. Evolution – and the explosive debate over its virtual monopoly on America's public school classrooms – is the focus of the film "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed."

Ben Stein exposes the frightening agenda of the Darwinian Machine in new movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, coming February, 2008 By Michael Ireland Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA (ANS) -- Ben Stein, the highly recognizable television personality, actor and former White House presidential speech writer, is on a journey to answer one of the biggest questions ever asked: "Were we designed or are we simply the end result of an ancient mud puddle struck by lightning?" EXPELLED movie poster. Stein, who is also a lawyer, an economist, an author and social commentator, is stunned by what he...

“The gene is dead... long live the gene,” announced subtitles to an article in Science News this week.1 Geneticists have come to a striking conclusion over the last few years: genes are not the most important things in DNA, if they even exist as a concept. The “central dogma” of genetics, since Watson and Crick determined the structure of DNA, is that genetic information flows one-way – from the gene to the protein. In the textbooks, a gene was supposed to be a finite stretch of DNA that, when read by the translation process, produced a messenger RNA, which recruited...

From reports that we are getting, starting yesterday a user account on YouTube, called cseministry, began fraudulently claiming that any video which criticized the felon, cheat, liar, fraud, huckster, etc. Kent Hovind violated the copyrights of the Creation Science Evangelism. Under the draconian DMCA, CSE can use such false claims to silence their critics, with little legal risk to themselves. Once a claim has been filed, YouTube is required by US Law to remove the content immediately and without any review. The real copyright holders then have to jump through hoops to get their content back on YouTube, that is...

Darwin dies and has a short conversation with someone guarding the gate. And it isn't pretty.

Hillary Clinton: President Bush Has Launched 'War on Science' Monday , August 27, 2007 CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Sen. Hillary Clinton said Monday that President Bush's approach to health care, including in his spending and research priorities, has resulted in a "war that has been waged by this administration against science." "It's not only in their budget priorities. I mean, think about it: The two priorities of this president have been the war in Iraq and tax cuts for the wealthy, neither of which he's paid for, while he has cut the budgets for the National Institutes of Health and...

The soil on Mars may contain microbial life! Joop Houtkooper of the University of Giessen, Germany, will declare on Friday the Viking spacecraft may have found signs of a weird life form based on hydrogen peroxide on the subfreezing, arid Martian surface. His analysis of one of the experiments carried out by the Viking spacecraft suggests that 0.1 percent of the Martian soil could be of biological origin. That is roughly comparable to biomass levels found in some Antarctic permafrost, home to a range of hardy bacteria and lichen. Developing....

It's a movie that Ferris Bueller would take the day off to go see. What freedom-loving student wouldn't be outraged to discover that his high school science teacher is teaching a theory as indisputable fact, and that university professors unmercifully crush any fellow scientists who dare question the prevailing system of belief? This isn't the latest Hollywood comedy; it's a disturbing new documentary that will shock anyone who thinks all scientists are free to follow the evidence wherever it may lead. Produced by Premise Media, Expelled, in theaters February 2008, is being marketed by Motive Entertainment, the company that has...

The genetic potential to create fingers and toes apparently existed ages before animals even crawled onto land, dating back to the distant common ancestors of sharks and humans, research now reveals. ADVERTISEMENT The research focused on a group of genes that control how and where body parts develop in animals, including people. Scientists investigated the activity of these "Hox genes" in embryos of the spotted catshark. Unexpectedly, they discovered that a spurt of genetic activity that helps digits such as fingers and toes develop in limbed animals was seen in shark embryos as well. "Genetic processes were not simple in...