Free Republic

In 1943 during WW2, an army Sgt., Ed Davis, was working in Iran near the Turkish border, in charge of locals hired by our army to build a road through Iran to the Soviet border, which would carry supplies to the Soviets instead of flying them in. In short, Ed did a tremendous favor for a little Kurdish village near Ararat. His workers were mostly Kurds and the chief of the village came to Ed and asked if he would like to see Noah's Ark. He said the summer on the mountain had been hottest in many years and the...

Marriage No. 3 was no day in paradise for Phil Collins, whose latest failed one cost him nearly $46.7 million - believed to be a record for a celebrity divorce. Collins, 57, had to pony up the huge sum to Orianne Cevey, 35, to end their six-year union, according to Britain's Daily Mirror. The soft rocker's settlement tops the Paul McCartney deal with Heather Mills, which was estimated to be worth about $45 million.

ROME, JULY 4, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI will kick off a Bible-reading marathon organized in the lead up to October's synod on the word of God. On Oct. 5, the Pope will be broadcast reading the first chapter of Genesis on Italy's RAI television station. The reading will take about an hour. He will be followed by some 1,200 other readers, who over the course of six days and six nights, will read the Bible in various languages. The Pontiff's secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, will conclude the marathon Oct. 10, reading the last chapter of Revelation. It is...

What is Life/Non-life in Nature? by Jean F. Drew Everywhere we see the “behavior” of life/non-life (death) in nature; but that doesn’t tell us what life/non-life IS. Darwin’s theory of evolution doesn’t help with this question. It presupposes the existence of life axiomatically, and then proceeds to speak of the origin and evolution of species. Its fundamental assumption is that biological evolution is a wholly naturalistic, material process governed by the laws of physics and chemistry, with random variation and natural selection as the principal drivers of the system. Central to the Darwinist view is that life forms — species...

The world's biggest cruise liner is to have a New York-style "Central Park" on the ship, its owners have revealed. Royal Caribbean is building the 220,000-tonne liner with the working name Project Genesis and the announcement is the latest salvo in the intensely competitive global cruise market. The company said the park would be "a revolutionary design in which the centre of the ship opens to the sky and features lush, tropical grounds spanning the length of a football field".

Can the Genesis Record of Creation be Valuable to Academia?: From the View of Astronomy, Biology, Physics, and Social Sciences     Christian Student Fellowship will host a symposium on the development of an integrative science consistent with the Genesis account on April 5th, 2008, at Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, Kentucky.   Entitled A Scientific Theory of Genesis, the lecture will demonstrate how the Scientific Method can be used in connection with the Genesis account of creation to establish a Unified Creation Theory. By using experimental results from the most respected laboratories in the U.S., this lecture will...

Old Testament Challenge 5 - The Most Famous Story of the Old Testament From a book By John Ortberg with Kevin & Sherry Harney On line links: Northwoods Community Church http://www.nwoods.org/storyWithChart.asp?storyid=393 Willow Creek Church http://www.willowcreek.com/resources/courses/otc/ 10/6/07 Old Testament Challenge -

Old Testament Challenge 4 - God Is With Us From a book By John Ortberg with Kevin & Sherry Harney On line links: Northwoods Community Church http://www.nwoods.org/storyWithChart.asp?storyid=393 Willow Creek Church http://www.willowcreek.com/resources/courses/otc/ 9/29/07 Old Testament Challenge - Sermon Tim Riest “God is With Us” Genesis is very real—almost too raw. Genesis is exactly like today. There is murder, polygamy, favoritism, sibling rivalry, lies, stealing, war, incest, and homosexuality. Sometimes we feel alone. We need assurance of God’s presence. Kids want stuffed animals at night because they don’t want to be alone. Adults are the same way. God is: Transcendent – beyond...

Asaf Wohl calls on rabbis to replace horrifying gay-bashing with social acceptance of homosexuals Asaf Wohl Published: 02.21.08, 15:30 / Israel Opinion The issue of religious homosexuals is a serious test case for leaders of the so-called God-fearing public. With the exception of very few people, the leaders of this community fail time and again in handling this question. The miserable anti-gay expressions uttered by Orthodox Knesset members are especially concerning, and in fact horrifying. Had I been God, I would immediately sue those Knesset members for making pretenses to represent me in such a deficient manner. The argument that...

Dogubayazit (Turkey’s Iran-Armenian Border) • For the first time in the seven decade-long history of the search for the legendary Noah’s Ark, a Turkish-Hong Kong exploration team on Tuesday came out with “material evidence”, to prove that the Ark was nestled on Mount Ararat, Turkey’s highest mountain peak bordering Iran and Armenia. A panel of experts, comprising Turkish authorities, veteran mountaineers, archaeologists, geologists and members of Hong Kong-based Noah’s Ark Ministries International, also displayed an almost one-metre-long peice of petrified wood before the media and specially invited international experts. The experts claimed it to be a part of a long...

Old Testament Challenge 3 – Covenants From a book By John Ortberg with Kevin & Sherry Harney On line links: Northwoods Community Church http://www.nwoods.org/storyWithChart.asp?storyid=393 Willow Creek Church http://www.willowcreek.com/resources/courses/otc/ Genesis 12 Abram begins a covenant with God. There are a variety of covenants in the Bible. There is a bilateral covenant; that is one made between equals. An example is between David and Jonathan. There are marriage covenants. There are unilateral covenants. These are made between unequal parties, between a king and his subjects. Covenants occur 285 times in the Old Testament. Genesis 15:18 The Lord cut a covenant. When people...

Lesson Passages: Genesis 1:27, 9:6; Matthew 5:21-22, 22:36-40; Mark 10; 46-52 Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. Genesis 9:6 Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man. Matthew 5:21 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: 22 But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without...

The Creation Museum has met and exceeded its inaugural year attendance goal, less than six months after it opened its doors. Officials at Answers in Genesis, the apologetics ministry that opened the museum in May, anticipated 250,000 visitors the first year. However, the northern Kentucky-based museum met that goal last week. Melany Ethridge, a spokesperson for the museum, says the big crowds indicate that many are interested in the biblical explanation of creation. "The museum is drawing not only Christians who already believe in the biblical view of Creation, but it's drawing those who are just more curious to learn...

Approaching the end of our study of Giants in the Earth, we have discovered so far that our ancient history is not quite what he have been taught in school — or even in Sunday School. From very ancient times, giants have played a dominant role in Earth's history, determining the fate of nations, and even of mankind itself. Yet, our schools have reduced the critical role of the giants to that of a fairytale, lumping them in with religion, folklore, mythology, and everything else that does not fit their sterile secular worldview. And even the church, once the champion...

Attacking "God" has become a lucrative book business. But there's not much substance behind the latest atheist tracts. There is nothing new under the sun," proclaims the Book of Ecclesiastes. The rise of the new new atheism confirms this ancient biblical wisdom. Of course the famous words of Ecclesiastes should not be taken in a slavishly literal sense, a technique that is all-too-common among those who think they can refute belief in God by showing that the Bible abounds in demonstrably false and self-contradictory statements.

Do you take the Biblical account of creation literally or figuratively? Two local ministers take firm stances on the book of Genesis account in the Old Testament. "I am of the belief that the opening chapters of Genesis are not optional, but they in fact establish the foundation for all we believe as Christians," said Brady Cooper, pastor of New Vision Baptist Church in Murfreesboro. "If Genesis 1-3 doesn't tell us the truth, why should we believe anything else in the Bible?" Without a right understanding of our origin, Cooper said, we have no way to understand anything about our...

RTB Perspective on the Creation MuseumThe RTB scholar team With the Answers in Genesis (AiG) Creation Museum opening on May 28, 2007, people have asked Reasons To Believe (RTB) for comment. RTB has always advocated that the proponents of various creation and evolution models put their best case forward for all to evaluate, and we see the opening of the museum as the public presentation of AiG’s model. One might expect mutual hostility between AiG and RTB since we fall into two different and disparate creationist camps. For instance, we believe the universe started in a big bang creation event...

PETERSBURG, United States (AFP) - Dinosaurs frolic with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and an animatronic Noah directs work on his Ark in a multimillion dollar creationism museum set to open next week in Kentucky. Designed by the creator of the King Kong and Jaws exhibits at the Universal Studios theme park, the stunning 60,000 square foot (5,400 square-metre) facility is built for a specific purpose: refuting evolution and expanding the flock of believers in a literal interpretation of the Bible. "You'll get people into a place like this that you can't get into a church with...

The Archbishop of Canterbury has admitted that he fears losing control of the worldwide Anglican Church, which is on the brink of schism over homosexuality. In a surprisingly frank assessment of the crisis, Dr Rowan Williams said that he feared anything that set Christians more deeply at odds with each other. "And because I am an ordinary, sinful human being, I fear the situation slipping out of my control, such as it is," he said. "I fear schism, not because I think it's the worst thing in the world but because, at this particular juncture, it's going to be bad...

"By coming to understand intelligent design and its subsidiary views, we can see that empirical study in academic research applications and commercial research and development is already underway and more is currently developing. Here we will explore empirical research applications of intelligent design, also known as ID-empirics." More on Emprical ID Research

If you want to predict on which side an American will line up in the Culture War wracking America, virtually all you have to do is get an answer to this question: Does the person believe in the divinity and authority of the Five Books of Moses, the first five books of the Bible, known as the Torah? ("Divinity" does not necessarily mean "literalism.") I do not ask this about "the Bible" as a whole because the one book that is regarded as having divine authority by believing Jews, Catholics, Protestants and Mormons, among others, is not the entire Bible,...

Ever since astronauts returned from another world, scientists have been mystified by some of the moon rocks they brought back. Now one of the mysteries has been solved. "We learned a great deal about the sun by going to the moon," said Don Burnett, Genesis principal investigator at California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif. "Now, with our Genesis data, we are turning the tables, using the solar wind to better understand lunar processes." Ansgar Grimberg from ETH Institute of Astronomy in Zurich and coworkers analyzed the composition of neon in a metallic glass exposed on NASA's Genesis mission. The team's...

It was the first Holocaust. Nothing before or after rivaled its devastation. Only one man and his immediate family survived. For forty days and nights the rains fell and submerged the world. For 150 days the waters prevailed over the land before they began to recede. For 365 days Noah and his family survived aboard the ark, with the animals they had saved, before they emerged to walk again beneath the sunlight. It was the 27th day of the Hebrew month of Cheshvon that the Great Flood came to an end and the survivors disembarked to set foot upon a...

On Saturday, October 28, Bishop Okoro presided over a Catholic creation seminar, having encouraged all of his priests, religious, and lay leaders to attend. Like a good shepherd, he led by example. He presided at the opening Mass, and attended the entire seminar from beginning to end. At his request, we set forth the traditional Catholic doctrine on creation and the early history of mankind. We then showed how this magisterial teaching was challenged in the nineteenth century by Lyellian geology and Darwinian biology, only to be confirmed by cutting edge natural science at the dawn of the third millennium.

Title: Creation As Science: A Testable Model Approach to End the Creation/Evolution Wars Topic: Evolution vs. Creation—New book takes old debate to all new level—science vs. science Program: The Michael Medved Show Station/Network: Salem Radio Network This will be a debate between astronomer Hugh Ross and Nick Matzke from the NCSE and will air on Friday, November 23rd.

Reasons To Believe's third in a series of books proposing a testable creation model takes on the origin and design of the universe. Previous books, Origins of Life: Biblical and Evolutionary Models Face Off and Who Was Adam?: A Creation Model Approach to the Origin of Man, examined the origin of life on earth and the origin of mankind, respectively. Creation As Science develops a biblical creation model and compares the predictions of this model compared to a naturalistic model, young earth creationism, and theistic evolution. This biblical creation model is divided into four main areas, the origin of the...

To possess a memory is to be blessed with a priceless good. It is our link to the past, our guidepost to the present and our passport to the future. It is who we are, what we believe and how we fit in. It is that fixed vantage point in a world of confusion that gives us a degree of security, stability and moral direction. One need not tell us what would happen if we were to sever the cord that connects a man, a family, or a nation to who he is and what he has learned. Such a...

Is it possible to finally end the war between creationists and evolutionists? Hugh Ross, acclaimed apologetic speaker and founder of Reasons to Believe, brings his scholarly wisdom and biblical insights to this issue. Through careful research, a testable model has been developed that seeks to reconcile the goals of the scientific and the Christian community. These pages take a thorough look at this model, while detailing its foundation and future application. The information in the book is exhaustive, yet comprehensible. A logical progression of ideas is presented, beginning with the strategies and principles behind both perspectives of the earth’s origin....

There have been a couple books that have been turning points in the development of design theory. Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, Darwin's Black Box and The Creator and the Cosmos are all such books. From what I have seen, Creation as Science is the next groundbreaking book. It does what other design books have failed to do, formulate a testable scientific model for design. The author began this in Origins of Life and Who Was Adam?, but here it is the focus of the book. **** Creation As Science: A Testable Model Approach to End the Creation/Evolution Wars Development...

Many of the bitter controversies in every corner of the globe inevitably raise the same ancient question: why does the world hate the Jews? Whether it’s the angry international reaction to Israel’s efforts to defend itself in Lebanon, or Mel Gibson’s drunken rant in Malibu, the age-old specter of anti-Semitism refuses to disappear. With only 13 million Jews in the world – less than one fourth of one percent of the earth’s population – why does this tiny group inspire such bitter, widespread and often violent animosity? The answer is obvious to anyone who monitors anti-Semitic propaganda from all its...

With trouble brewing in Kansas again, this new book from "Icons of Evolution" author is timely: ***** The latest in a series of cogent and provocative reference books to the current controversies of our age. The Politically Incorrect Guide series (or, as we like to call them, the PIG books) have dealt with—in order—American History, Islam and the Crusades, Science, and Women, Sex, and Feminism, and later on this year we’ll see a guide to English and American Literature. Each of the books contains clear, no-nonsense explanations of these important subjects—each and every one free of the usual academic cant...

PETERSBURG, Ky. - Like most natural history museums, this one has exhibits showing dinosaurs roaming the Earth. Except here, the giant reptiles share the forest with Adam and Eve. That, of course, is contradicted by science, but that's the point of the $25 million Creation Museum rising fast in rural Kentucky. Its inspiration is the Bible — the literal interpretation that contends God created the heavens and the Earth and everything in them just a few thousand years ago. "If the Bible is the word of God, and its history really is true, that's our presupposition or axiom, and we...

The orbiting of the privately-bankrolled Genesis-1 expandable spacecraft by Bigelow Aerospace is a step forward in the company’s vision to provide a low-cost, low Earth orbit human-rated space complex that is accessible to the commercial sector. The general concept for "inflatable" space habitats was initially developed by NASA for use in a proposed mission to Mars, hence the name, "Transit Habitat" or "TransHab" as it was commonly referred to. That work was curtailed in 2000, falling victim to NASA budget cuts. Since that time, Bigelow Aerospace took the basic concept, redefined it, moved the technology generations ahead and in many...

Yesterday President Bush vetoed a bill that, had it become law, would have deeply eroded respect for human life. It was a courageous act because there was enormous pressure on him to agree to fund more embryo-destructive research. After vetoing this bill, the president signed one for funding research into methods of creating pluripotent stem cells—the kind that can be turned into many types of body tissue without creating or killing human embryos. Not surprisingly, there was an outpouring of vitriol directed not only against the president but also against conservative Christians. A full-page ad in the New York Times,...

Another couple of images from the world's first private-sector space station were released today, signaling that we could expect a stream of fascinating snapshots from orbit, just as the company behind the Genesis 1 inflatable spacecraft promised. And it's just as fascinating to read the stream of reports about Genesis 1 and Bigelow Aerospace, including claims that the company could be seen as privately funded "mini-Skunk Works" for NASA's exploration efforts. Today's images are still not quite ready for prime time, but one of them does show the blue curve of Earth in the background for the first time. That's...

The July 12th launch on a Russian Dnepr (SS-18) rocket of Bigelow Aerospace’s experimental Genesis module is another step in the ongoing evolution of the space tourism industry. One has to give the Russians credit for turning what were once their most feared ICBMs into moderate to low-cost space launch vehicles. The Genesis module was delivered into the right orbit with an accuracy of about 400 meters, which suggests that the old US estimate of the SS-18’s accuracy was correct. It seems that the launch took place from an operational silo; the implications of this are a subject for a...

Flood of claims for 'Noah's Ark' Legendary vessel of Genesis story goes from nowhere to everywhere -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: July 16, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Joe Kovacs -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © 2006 WorldNetDaily.com After centuries of scouring the Earth for Noah's Ark, claims are now flooding in that the legendary vessel of the Bible has been found. Last month, headlines screamed that a Texas team of archaelogists believed they had possibly located the biblical boat in Iran. But hang on to the "Hallelujah!" chorus a little longer. There are numerous claims about the final resting place, from Ararat to Armenia. With modern...

Do people have a fundamental right to genetically and biotechnologically enhance their bodies and brains? That question was central to the "Human Enhancement Technologies and Human Rights" (HETHR) Conference held over the Memorial Day weekend at Stanford University's Law School. The conference was sponsored by the Stanford Center for Law and the Biosciences along with a number of technoprogressive groups including the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics, geneforum, and ExtraLife. Far from there being a "right" to enhance oneself and one's progeny, some institutions and activists currently aim to outlaw various biotech...

I often hear skeptics point to the belief in the global flood as a reason to not believe Christianity. I also see "Christian" creationist groups condem other Christians who believe the local flood is the literal interpretation. It's time we start telling "Christian" groups like ICR and AIG to stop turning people away from the Bible and tell them to stop their childish, immature attacks on other Christians (AIG recently refused to be subject to review, now there's the making of a cult!). And it's time for Christians to stop blindly believing everything they are told, just because it comes...

BELIEVING that God created the universe in six days is a form of superstitious paganism, the Vatican astronomer Guy Consolmagno claimed yesterday. Brother Consolmagno, who works in a Vatican observatory in Arizona and as curator of the Vatican meteorite collection in Italy, said a "destructive myth" had developed in modern society that religion and science were competing ideologies. He described creationism, whose supporters want it taught in schools alongside evolution, as a "kind of paganism" because it harked back to the days of "nature gods" who were responsible for natural events. Brother Consolmagno argued that the Christian God was a...

Charles Darwin was fascinated by snakes — in particular, by the tiny hip and leg bones nestled inside boa constrictors and other species. They were some of the most striking cases of evolution's imprint. Snakes descended from walking ancestors, and as they adapted to slithering, their legs dwindled to a few vestiges. It took more than a century after Darwin's death for paleontologists to find fossils of snakes with legs. In the last decade, they have found four species. The fourth, known as Najash rionegrini, was unveiled in the April 20 issue of the journal Nature, and it has reignited...

The new 10th Anniversary edition of the book that still has Darwin Fundies running scared. With a new afterword. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743290313/ "A persuasive book. It will speak to the layman and perhaps even to professional evolutionists as well, if they are able to suspend for a little while their own judgment about origins, the ultimate black box." -- The Washington Times "An argument of great originality, elegance, and intellectual power. . . . No one can propose to defend Darwin without meeting the challenges set out in this superbly written and compelling book." -- David Berlinski, author of A Tour of...

LIBERTY CITY -- Police in this Miami neighborhood are looking for the parents of a child who was abandoned Thursday night, news partner NBC 6. A witness told police that a car dropped the child off at about 11 p.m. in the area of Northwest 15th Avenue and 62nd Terrace. "I've heard of this happening with pets and that's bad, but for this to happen to a child, to be left in the middle of nowhere, that's unbelievable," police spokesman Lt. Bill Schwartz said. Police brought the child to the police department. She was wearing an oversized, multi-colored sweater and...

Real men -- good men -- take responsibility for the children they father. If they get a woman pregnant, they do the right thing: They stand by her. They support their child. They don't try to weasel out of a situation they co-authored. They shoulder the obligations of fatherhood, even if they hadn't planned on becoming a father. Once upon a time, men confronted with news of an unintended pregnancy knew what was expected of them. More often than not, they married the woman who was carrying their child; for those tempted to behave irresponsibly, society devised the shotgun wedding....

Are Humans Still Evolving? -- Leading Biochemist Says Recent Study of the Evolution of Human Genes is Not Evidence for Human Evolution NEWS ADVISORY, Mar. 9 /Christian Wire Service/-- Geneticists from the University of Chicago detected hundreds of regions in the human genome that have been influenced by natural selection over the last 15,000 years. These regions contain genes for taste, smell, digestion, skeletal structure and skin color. But is this recent study of the evolution of human genes evidence for human evolution? “Recent headlines announcing that humans are still evolving should not be misinterpreted as evidence that we are...

Creationists call us to believe the Biblical creation story as a literal account of historical events. However, Genesis contains two distinctly different creation accounts. Which creation story are they calling us to "literally" believe? For generations, serious students of Scripture have noted stark divisions and variations in the age of the Hebrew, its style and language within Genesis. As we have it now, Genesis is actually a composite of three written primary sources, each with its own character, favorite words and distinctly different names for God. Such differences all but evaporate when translated into English, but they are clear in...

Vatican's Evolutionists By Rafael Brom Catholics should wonder why Vatican constanly issuing a stout defence of Charles Darwin's Fraudulent Communist Religion "Theory of Evolution". Now we have Vatican's high ranked Cardinal claiming that the Genesis description of how God created the universe and Darwin's theory of evolution were "perfectly compatible" if the Bible were read correctly. Looks like that 150 million martyrs who were tortured and killed by communists since 1917 in the name of "Theory of Evolution" did not read their Bible correctly. I am sure that Vatican's Evolutionists will one day declare St. Peter as the First Communist...

I wonder why Ken Ham's followers continue to let him lie about other Christians? When will they wake up and take him to task? Old-Earth Creationism:A Heretical Belief?By Greg MooreKen Ham is an ardent young-earth creationist. As president of Answers in Genesis, he generates a steady stream of articles critiquing the old-earth view. Although I disagree with most of his assertions, I respect his right to express them. However, Ham’s article, “The god of an old earth,”1 crosses the line of amicable debate. By declaring “the god of an old earth cannot be the God of the Bible” and “the...

Cosmic Fingerprints: Evidence of Design RTB Regional Conference February 10-11, 2006 Charleston, SC Has a testable Creation Model solved the mystery of cosmic beginnings? Does the theory of evolution conflict with the most recent scientific data? World renowned astrophysicist Dr. Hugh Ross and Internationally respected biochemist Dr. Fazale "Fuz" Rana think so. These two scientists have developed a model for creation that is testable, falsifiable and predictive. For the first time in more than 80 years, this innovative approach catapults the evolution/creation debate from science vs. religion to science vs. science. As currently formulated, popular theories of origins are not...

Militant young-earther Ken Ham debates Old Testament scholar Walt Kaiser and astronomer Hugh Ross on interpreting Genesis. Ken Ham and his propagandists have often accused old-earthers of not believing in the literal bible or believing in evolution (both lies). Here Ham shows his complete lack of bible knowledge against Walt Kaiser, one of the most respected OT scholars and defenders of the accuracy of the OT. Kind of hard to call him an "apostate" or "compromiser." As usual, Ham shows he knows next to nothing about science as compared to Hugh Ross. First in a series of planned broadcasts.