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PHUKET, Thailand (AP) ― Buddhist monks chanted on white-sand beaches in Thailand and thousands prayed at mosques in Indonesia to mark the fifth anniversary of the Asian tsunami that left 230,000 people dead. The devastating Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami struck a dozen countries around the Indian Ocean rim. Its towering waves wiped out entire coastal communities, devastated families and crashed over tourist-filled beaches the morning after Christmas. Survivors waded through a horror show of corpse-filled waters. In Thailand, hundreds of residents and foreigners returned to the beaches on the island of Phuket to recall one of the worst natural disasters...

"It is often assumed by the anti-God brigade, though unvoiced, that the designer created everything as we see it today. Within the biblical model, degeneration is expected because of the Fall. The Fall subjected the Creation to bondage to decay (Romans 8:18–25), of which mutational degeneration is one example." Vestigial arguments: remnants of evolution by Shaun Doyle The coccyx (tailbone) has long been wrongly thought to be vestigial by evolutionists ‘Vestigial’ organs have been used as an argument against a designer for many years, and have been used as a major ‘proof’ of evolution. The ‘vestigial organs’ argument is merely...

Problems with Evolutionary Theory Why is there a problem with evolution in the first place? Someone once asked you, "What should I believe?" Remember what you told them? Basically I said you should only believe what there is evidence for. After spending years studying evolution in bachelor's, master's, and doctoral programs, I can tell you that, first of all, there is evidence for small changes in organisms as they adapt to small environmental fluctuations. Second, there is evidence that new species do arise. We see new species of fruit flies, rodents, and even birds. But when the original species is...

For the past 150 years archaeologists have been verifying the exact truthfulness of the Bible's detailed records of various events, customs, persons, cities, nations, and geographical locations. Dr. Nelson Glueck probably the greatest modern authority on Israeli archeology, has said, “No archeological discovery has ever controverted [overturned] a Biblical reference. Scores of archeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or in exact detail historical statements in the Bible. And, by the same token, proper evaluation of Biblical descriptions has often led to amazing discoveries.” In every instance where the Bible can be, or has been checked out...

"As long as people believe in absurdities, they will continue to commit atrocities." —Voltaire "Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true." —Demosthenes A long, long, long time ago, many people believed the Earth was flat, but for more than the last 2,000 years few educated people have subscribed to this delusion. The story (included in some textbooks used in American schools) that Christopher Columbus' 1492 voyage was the first proof that the Earth is round and not flat is deceitful historical revisionism, nothing more. For (literally) thousands of years, people...

(Reason #)8. A right-wing blogosphere that is almost universally dominated by raging hate speech (see: Hot Air, Free Republic, Ace of Spades, etc.)

Faith and science: UAB professor's book helps teachers present evolution without offenseUAB education professor Lee Meadows grew up in love with science, but his conservative Southern Baptist upbringing left him somewhat conflicted.Lee Meadows Meadows has written "Missing Link," a textbook on how to teach evolution without offending religious beliefs. "It's a book for teachers to help them deal with the issue of evolution with middle and high school students," he said. Meadows said he knows the student's perspective from experience. "Biology is my favorite subject," he said. "But evolution scared me off as a student. I was afraid of evolution...

Red hot Sarah Palin must gird herself to confront the barrage of questioning sure to come her way from the rabidly frothing darwinists of the left wing media concerned about her christian belief that biblical history, including the book of Genesis, is truly accurate history, thus a golden opportunity for the populist hero to school the skeptics on the science of the Bible, achievable after a few tweeks of her message, such as her mistaken notion that the many created biblical kinds of animals were “species” of animals (wrongly using Darwin’s term), which actually is scientifically meaningless, that’s right you...

NASA scientists studying the origin of life have reproduced uracil, a key component of our hereditary material, in the laboratory. They discovered that an ice sample containing pyrimidine exposed to ultraviolet radiation under space-like conditions produces this essential ingredient of life. Pyrimidine is a ring-shaped molecule made up of carbon and nitrogen and is the basic structure for uracil, part of a genetic code found in ribonucleic acid (RNA). RNA is central to protein synthesis, but has many other roles. "We have demonstrated for the first time that we can make uracil, a component of RNA, non-biologically in a laboratory...

Figures that I would learn this from my wife (who heard it from another woman): A little girl asked her mother, "How did the human race appear?" The mother answered, "God made Adam and Eve and they had children, and so all mankind was made." Two days later the girl asked her father the same question. The father answered, "Many years ago there were monkeys from which the human race evolved." The confused girl returned to her mother and said, "Mom, how is it possible that you told me the human race was created by God, and Dad said they...

Adnan Oktar, who as Harun Yahya isTurkey's best-known and most assertivecritic of evolution, says he is"following the path of Allah."(Marc Kaufman/the Washington Post) ISTANBUL -- Sema Ergezen teaches biology to Turkish students interested in teaching science themselves, and she has long struggled with her students' ignorance of, and sometimes hostility to, the notion of evolution. But she was taken aback when several of her Marmara University students recently accused her of being an atheist, or worse, for teaching anything but the doctrine that God created the Earth and everything on it. "They said I was a liar if I called...

AMHERST, Mass. — Creationism is growing in the Muslim world, from Turkey to Pakistan to Indonesia, international academics said last month as they gathered here to discuss the topic. But, they said, young-Earth creationists, who believe God created the universe, Earth and life just a few thousand years ago, are rare, if not nonexistent. One reason is that although the Koran, the holy text of Islam, says the universe was created in six days, the next line adds that a day, in this instance, is metaphorical: “a thousand years of your reckoning.” By contrast, some Christian creationists find in the...

Much has been made of the piety, or rather the lack thereof, of Charles Darwin. He has repeatedly been characterized on FR as an atheist, a fool, a demon, an agent of devil, and one on a vendetta to drive believers away from God. Some go so far as to declare him a false God and the science he suggested to be a false religion. Those that profess this are either grossly ignorant or intentionally deceiving so as to reinforce their personal beliefs and conclusions. Diminishing the messenger is often easier than diminishing the message. The Myth that Darwin was...

More than half of adults in a survey of 10 countries thought school science lessons should teach evolutionary theories alongside creationism.

What Do Americans Believe About Creationism and Evolution? After spending time on some of the recent discussions here at FR about Young Earth Creationism (YEC) and other points of view (which I will call Old Earth Creationism (OEC) and Naturalistic Evolution), I found myself wondering: how many FReepers (and how many Americans) hold each particular view? Obviously, there aren't any statistics on FReepers. But there are on Americans as a whole, and on certain groups of Americans. The best general resource I've found so far on people's viewpoints is located here. I will summarize some of those here. (Note: This...

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. Given the fact that organic materials like blood vessels and blood cells rot, and the rates at which certain proteins decay, how could these soft tissues have...

As the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin's landmark book on evolution approaches, a brouhaha has erupted in Los Angeles County over a planned series of events exploring the conflict between his theories and "intelligent design" advocates. A group that favors "intelligent design" had planned to premier a new documentary film at the California Science Center in Los Angeles later this month, but the center later canceled the event. The group claims the cancellation was an act of censorship, made after the center was pressured by the Smithsonian Institution, but the center chalked it up to a contract issue, without elaborating....

NASA’s recent rocket launch into the south pole of the moon to see if water was underneath the surface moon. This little fact finding mission has cost the American tax payers roughly 79 million dollars. A 79 million dollar search for the answers that Almighty God’s Word states for absolutely free. One of the key reasons for this extravaganza was for the search of water for supporting a colony on the moon. NASA and its followers believe if water can be found on the moon or on any planet, that they can prove that “life” can existed in other worlds....

Denver, Colo., Sep 30, 2009 / 03:35 pm (CNA).- Contemporary astrophysics hold the scientific key to prove the existence of God, but unfortunately very few know the scientific facts, said Fr. Robert J. Spitzer, S.J, PhD, during a conference delivered on Sunday at the John Paul II Center for the New Evangelization in Denver, Colorado. The Honolulu-born Jesuit is the past president of Gonzaga University and is also well-known philosopher and physicist who is involved in bringing science and theology together. Fr. Spitzer is currently engaged in an ambitious project to explain the metaphysical consequences of the latest astrophysical discoveries,...

For nearly two centuries the debate of how life was formed has raged. Did it occur through evolution or by creation? For many the debate is a theological one. Many Christians reject evolution holding that this theory is contrary to the Bible. Evolutionists often cite their theory as one refuting the existence of God. But can one believe in a creator while simultaneously accepting evolution?

The son of imprisoned evangelist Kent Hovind says a judge's order to seize Creation Science Evangelism properties actually helps clear the path for a fresh start – free of legal trouble – if the Florida-based ministry can raise $170,000 in the next two weeks. Eric Hovind, who now leads Creation Science Evangelism, or CSE, told WND the federal government has given the ministry notice that the properties – which include the popular theme park Dinosaur Adventure Land – must be vacated by Sept. 15 if the forfeiture amount of $380,000 is not paid. The properties also include three homes. As...

<p>Two years ago, I interviewed Vaclav Smil, the prolific author and energy thinker. I asked Smil, a distinguished professor at the University of Manitoba, why Americans are so easily swayed by politicians and others when it comes to energy matters. His response: scientific illiteracy and innumeracy. “Without any physical, chemical, and biological fundamentals, and with equally poor understanding of basic economic forces, it is no wonder that people will believe anything,” he told me.</p>

Imagine that you are a teacher of Roman history and the Latin language, anxious to impart your enthusiasm for the ancient world — for the elegiacs of Ovid and the odes of Horace, the sinewy economy of Latin grammar as exhibited in the oratory of Cicero, the strategic niceties of the Punic Wars, the generalship of Julius Caesar and the voluptuous excesses of the later emperors. That’s a big undertaking and it takes time, concentration, dedication. Yet you find your precious time continually preyed upon, and your class’s attention distracted, by a baying pack of ignoramuses (as a Latin scholar...

Did your high school biology teacher tell you that evolution is a fact because, after all, species are observed to adapt and evolve in nature? At the time it may not have occurred to you that moths changing color and the beaks of birds changing shape hardly demonstrate that entirely new forms and designs can appear without a trace of evolutionary history. It also may not have occurred to you that those examples of adaptation, observed in the field, occur suspiciously quickly. Wasn't evolution supposed to take millions of years? But even if those problems did occur to you, what...

Thanks to Baron Scarpia for alerting us to this website, which outlines the rigorous academic standards [Quote-miners, please note: this is sarcasm] which William Dembski’s students have to achieve in his courses on Intelligent Design and Christian Apologetics at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary: http://www.designinference.com/teaching/teaching.htm If you follow the links, you will see that it is full of gems: we won’t spoil them for you by flagging them all up, but – just to whet your appetite – you will notice that, at both undergrad and masters level, there are courses for which 20% of the final marks come from having...

I first heard of PZ Myers when he became known for being the man who was literally expelled from a screening of the creationist mockumentary Expelled. . .despite not doing anything wrong and actually being one of the stars of the film. Now he can add being expelled from the Creation “Museum” to his resume. Well, actually he wasn’t expelled; it was some of the atheists he was with that were expelled from the “museum” and another atheist he was with that was harrassed by the “museum’s” security staff. It all began several weeks ago when PZ Myers along with...

...according to Myers and at least one of my other sources that attended, aside from joking to each other about the ridiculous nonsense in the “museum”, no one misbehaved. But that didn’t seem to stop “museum” officials from harassing individuals and eventually kicking a few people out of the “museum” for imaginary infractions. Essentially, it seems the “museum” feels that merely disagreeing with its “science” and mocking it to one’s friends is grounds for having visitors removed from the property. This is absurd. Could you imagine if the American Museum of Natural History ejected visitors for being creationists? Or if...

In a bit of random news, a federal judge ruled last week that Dinosaur Aventure Land, a creationism theme park in Pensacola, Florida, would be seized. The park's owners were convicted of tax fraud and the land the park inhabits and the two bank accounts associated with it will be expropriated to satisfy $430,400 owed to the federal government in taxes. The seizure of the property is the result of 17 years of the park's owner, Kent Hovind, fighting the federal government over $470,000 in employee taxes owed. Hovind claimed he was employed by God and his "ministers" -- I'm...

...Like Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and almost every other so-called GOP “frontrunner,” Pawlenty is a creationist, who’s in favor of teaching “intelligent design” creationism to children as science...

Signature in the Cell by: Emily Kanyi, August 21, 2009 Stephen Meyer’s book, Signature in the Cell does not attempt to unravel the age-old mystery of the origin of life. Instead, Meyer explicitly moves from the known to the unknown and draws from historical and scientific theories that seek to explain the origin of life, including Charles Darwin’s natural selection and James Watson and Francis Crick’s “revolutionary discovery” of the Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) mystery. Based on his exploration of the science, Meyer concludes that the formation of life can be explained by the process of intricate design found in DNA...

SHAME ON you for publishing two creationist op-eds in two years from the Discovery Institute, a well-funded propaganda factory that aims to sow confusion about evolution. Virtually no scientist takes “intelligent design’’ seriously, and in the famous Dover, Pa., trial in 2005, a federal court ruled that it is religion in disguise. The judge referred to the theory’s “breathtaking inanity,’’ which is a fine description of Stephen Meyer’s July 15 op-ed “Jefferson’s support for intelligent design.’’ Well, yes, Thomas Jefferson died 33 years before Darwin published “The Origin of Species.’’ And Meyer’s idea that the DNA code implies a code...

Modern glaciers, such as those making up the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, are capable of undergoing periods of rapid shrinkage or retreat, according to new findings by paleoclimatologists at the University at Buffalo... The proof of such rapid retreat of ice sheets provides one of the few explicit confirmations that this phenomenon occurs. Should the same conditions recur today, which the UB scientists say is very possible, they would result in sharply rising global sea levels, which would threaten coastal populations...The researchers used a special dating tool at UB to study rock samples they extracted from a large fjord...

An exam board has scrapped a GCSE biology question about creationism after admitting it could be misleading. The Assessment and Qualifications Alliance paper asked pupils how the Bible's theory of creation seeks to explain the origins of life. AQA stressed that pupils taking its biology GCSE were not required to study creationism as a scientific theory. But it admitted that describing it as a "theory" could be misleading, and said it would review the wording of papers. The review was prompted by a complaint from teachers and a university lecturer. 'Misleading' In a statement, AQA said: "Merely asking a question...

"You have no notion of the intrigue that goes on in this blessed world of science," wrote Thomas Huxley. "Science is, I fear, no purer than any other region of human activity; though it should be." As "Darwin's bulldog," Huxley would himself engage in intrigue, deceit and intellectual property theft to make his master's theory gospel truth in Great Britain. He is quoted above for two reasons. First is House passage of a "cap-and-trade" climate-change bill. Depending on which scientists you believe, the dire consequences of global warming are inconvenient truths -- or a fearmongering scheme to siphon off the...

When I wrote my article “ Why Young People are Leaving the Church” I knew it would generate some response. I was taken to task by a few Young earth Creationists (YEC) because I did not point out the dangers of Old Earth Creationist (OEC) arguments and how they create serious theological problems such as disease and death before the fall. Some OECs have attempted to answer this objection exegetically. YECists can and do disagree with OEC arguments, but they can’t accuse OECists of not appealing to the Bible to make their case (see here). My point, however, was to...

Homosexual behavior seems pointedly un-Darwinian. An animal that doesn't pass along genes by mating with the opposite sex at every, well, conceivable opportunity, seems to be at an evolutionary disadvantage. So what’s in it for the 450-plus species that go for same-sex sex? Two evolutionary biologists from University of California, Riverside, set out to answer that question in a paper published today in Trends in Ecology and Evolution. "It's been observed a lot," says Nathan Bailey, a post-doctoral researcher at U.C. Riverside and lead study author, of same-sex sexual behavior in animals. "But it took people a long time to...

While celebrations are on-going this year to mark Charles Darwin's bicentenary, there's at least one place that won't be toasting his memory - a creationist museum in Kentucky, US.

A 55-year-old laboratory technician visiting Loch Ness has reportedly captured on video ‘the finest footage ever taken of the elusive mythical creature reputed to swim beneath the waters of Scotland’s most mysterious lake.’1,2 Gordon Holmes, from Yorkshire, UK, recalls the moment he sighted and videoed the creature: ‘I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw this jet black thing, about 45 feet (15 metres) long, moving fairly fast in the water,’ he said. ‘My initial thought is it could be a very big eel, they have serpent-like features and they may explain all the sightings in Loch Ness over the...

The controversial Creation Museum in Petersburg, Ky., marked its second anniversary this past week with slightly lower numbers than its first year but with much excitement. “We enter our third year excited about the growing opportunities the museum provides for reaching people with the creation gospel message,” commented Ken Ham, the founder and president of the 70,000-square foot museum. “We believe God is using us to make a difference in our post-Christian culture, and we will continue to do everything we can to help believers defend the Word of God, from the very first verse,” he added. When the museum...

Promoting Creationism as Revealed in the Book of Genesis, in Six 24-Hour Days Refuting Darwinian Evolution, Theistic Evolution, Gap and Age-Day Theories, and Progressive Creationism by Greene Hollowell and Evan Moore Virginia Christian Alliance Introduction Creationism and evolution have been in opposition ever since the latter's introduction by Charles Darwin in 1858. Their conflicting views come as no surprise since creationism is derived from Christianity, while evolution is claimed to be derived from science. Christianity revolves around the concept of faith in Jesus Christ, and science revolves around the pursuit of evidence in nature. In light of today's growing focus...

In the latest act of media hyped pseudo-science, aka liberal/conventional science, the discovery of the crushed and flattened fossil of a lemur monkey, that while alive had a shattered left wrist, is being touted as the needed “proof” of Darwinian theory. For the first time, all scientists interviewed freely admit that the theory of evolution had gaping holes in it. They just claim that all of the answers lie in the packaged, crush fossil that spent the last 20 years hanging on someone’s wall. In other words, they admit that until yesterday, anyone who claimed that there was anything close...

In The Bible, Rocks and Time (IVP Academic), geologists and Reformed Christians Davis Young and Ralph Stearley try to convince young-earth creationists (YECs) to abandon their position. First, they argue that the Creation account in Genesis 1 need not be understood as a historical narrative documenting the creation of the universe and its inhabitants in six normal (rotational) days. Second, they argue that the data from geology point unwaveringly to a planet of exceedingly ancient age. I particularly appreciated Young and Stearley's historical overview of church beliefs on Genesis and Creation. Their careful documentation puts to rest the claims of...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Now, I got some sound bites here with Chris Matthews and Mike Pence last night.  I want to play these for you because it's very instructive about what the liberal media is attempting to do to Republicans: portray Republicans as anti-science; portray Republicans as not believing in evolution, only believe in creationism; blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.  I play this Matthews stuff for you because I don't think it's just Matthews.  Normally I won't give a hoot, but I think this is a template that the left has come up with and that they're going...

SANTA ANA, Calif. — A federal judge ruled that a public high school history teacher violated the First Amendment when he called creationism "superstitious nonsense" during a classroom lecture.

SANTA ANA, Calif. — A federal judge has ruled that a history teacher at a Southern California public high school violated the First Amendment when he called creationism "superstitious nonsense" during a classroom lecture.

Listening to the Today programme this morning, I was irritated once again by yet another misrepresentation of Intelligent Design as a form of Creationism. In an item on the growing popularity of Intelligent Design, John Humphrys interviewed Professor Ken Miller of Brown University in the US who spoke on the subject last evening at the Faraday Institute, Cambridge. Humphrys suggested that Intelligent Design might be considered a kind of middle ground between Darwinism and Creationism. Miller agreed but went further, saying that Intelligent Design was nothing more than an attempt to repackage good old-fashioned Creationism and make it more palatable....

Is theoretical physics becoming the next battleground in the culture wars? Not according to some theologians and scientists.People have long sought after a theory of everything, even when they had nothing but their five senses as tools of measurement. In the 6th century BCE Thales asserted that all matter is made of water; Anaximenes responded that itÂ’s all air. Parmenides a century later concluded with exacting proofs that everything we see is an illusion and that reality really consists of a single, unchanging sphere. Today, scientists are once again looking beyond the pale of measurable time and space to answer...

Affirming the reality of an intelligent design for the creation and development of the universe is not a scientific theory, but a statement of faith, said the preacher of the papal household. Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, offering a Lenten meditation to Pope Benedict XVI and top Vatican officials March 13, said the controversy that has arisen between scientists supporting evolution and religious believers promoting creationism or intelligent design is due mainly to a confusion between scientific theory and the truths of faith. The intelligent-design theory asserts that the development and evolution of life is such a hugely complex process that...

Do these mysterious stones mark the site of the Garden of Eden? By TOM COX For the old Kurdish shepherd, it was just another burning hot day in the rolling plains of eastern Turkey. Following his flock over the arid hillsides, he passed the single mulberry tree, which the locals regarded as 'sacred'. The bells on his sheep tinkled in the stillness. Then he spotted something. Crouching down, he brushed away the dust, and exposed a strange, large, oblong stone. The man looked left and right: there were similar stone rectangles, peeping from the sands. Calling his dog to heel,...

For the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth (February 12, 2009), National Geographic News asked leading scientists for their picks of the most important fossils that show evolution in action ...