Free Republic

ScienceDaily: “Slowing Evolution to Stop Drug Resistance” --snip-- For years, evolutionists have pointed to antibiotic resistance as proof of evolution in action. The argument often amounts to this (in simplified form): the fact that certain organisms grow resistant to certain antibiotics is evidence for the evolutionary idea that all animals must have descended from a single ancestor. Collapsing the argument does make it seem a bit silly, but that’s our point. We certainly don’t want to belittle the very real threat of dangerous organisms becoming immune to the best drugs we now have (though the vast majority of microbes are...

The intention of postmoderns to destroy real people, with their natural loyalties, traditional morality, and inherited cultural preferences, is the same everywhere. Its specific manifestations may be different in the United States and Serbia—the homes of our two interlocutors and my good friends—but the underlying motivation is identical. It is Christophobia, the incubator of countless secondary pathologies that are imposed and celebrated on both sides of the Atlantic under the label of diversity. Having suffered countless disasters and progressive disintegration during the modern era, how may Christian civilization be effectively revived? “For true-blooded Western conservatives, this is the overarching question...

Western policymakers and elites in government, academia, and the media suffer from an extraordinary ignorance about the true nature of Islam. This ignorance was on display following the murder of thirteen American troops at Fort Hood, Texas by Nidal Hasan, a devout Muslim who held the rank of Major in the U.S. Army. Hasan is said to have shouted "God is Great" in Arabic as he gunned down his unarmed fellow troops. Gen. George Casey opined that if Hasan's actions caused "diversity" in the Army to suffer, it would be a greater tragedy than the murders of his troops. President...

It has always amazed me how unconcerned evolutionists seem to be about entropy and the problems it poses both for a natural origin of life and for macroevolution. The argument from entropy is one of the most powerful arguments against the spontaneous formation of life from a random association of non-living chemicals...

We, as Orthodox, Catholic, and Evangelical Christians, have gathered, beginning in New York on September 28, 2009, to make the following declaration, which we sign as individuals, not on behalf of our organizations, but speaking to and from our communities. We act together in obedience to the one true God, the triune God of holiness and love, who has laid total claim on our lives and by that claim calls us with believers in all ages and all nations to seek and defend the good of all who bear his image.... While the whole scope of Christian moral concern, including...

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...

Not to mince words - the modern synthesis is gone --snip-- "The discovery of pervasive HGT and the overall dynamics of the genetic universe destroys not only the tree of life as we knew it but also another central tenet of the modern synthesis inherited from Darwin, namely gradualism. In a world dominated by HGT, gene duplication, gene loss and such momentous events as endosymbiosis, the idea of evolution being driven primarily by infinitesimal heritable changes in the Darwinian tradition has become untenable." ...

The 15-year-old daughter of well-known Egyptian convert Maher el-Gohary has written a letter appealing to President Obama to help her father who is in danger of being murdered or imprisoned for becoming a Christian. Dina el-Gohary, who also converted from Islam to Christianity, has been on the run and living in hiding with her father, who is the second Egyptian to legally request to change his religious status. In her handwritten letter in Arabic, posted on Coptic Web sites, she writes: “Mr. President Obama, we are a minority in Egypt. We are treated very badly. You said that the Muslim...

A poster from the atheist billboard campaign. Photograph: Public Domain This week, the final phase of the atheist bus campaign will appear in London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast – not on buses, but on billboards. Due to the amazing sums donated to the campaign fund by many Cif readers at the end of last year, we raised enough for a second wave of adverts – and the above posters will launch today. When, in this Cif piece back in October 2008, we asked how the extra funds should be spent, one of the issues which came up repeatedly in the...

Creationists are ‘liars' (?): Geologist Donald Prothero doesn’t like the fact that we don’t agree with his ideas on evolution. I love the attitude some evolutionists have toward professional, scientific debate. Because creationist scientists do not agree with their biased, subjective and unsubstantiated ideas they spit the dummy and call us liars. The latest tirade from geologist Donald Prothero is in an opinion piece in NewScientist entitled ‘Evolution: What missing link?’1 I like that title. His article was picked up by the Telegraph newspaper in the UK which reported, ‘Creationists “peddle lies about the fossil record�.’2 Lies? Are creationists really...

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Half a million people from Serbia and neighbouring countries attended the funeral on Thursday of Serbian Orthodox Patriarch Pavle, who presided over the revival of the faith after decades of communist rule. Pavle's departure could pave the way for a more moderate leader, although many bishops take a hard line on Kosovo, the cradle of their medieval Orthodox Christianity which declared independence last year. Pavle died at the age 95 on Sunday. Serbian police estimated at least 500,000 people lined the streets and main church along the 11 km (7 miles) route to the final resting place...

The Great Rift Valley extends some 4,000 miles southward from Syria north of Israel, through the Gulf of Aqaba, through Ethiopia, and all the way to Mozambique in southeast Africa. It harbors a giant fault, which has been under investigation as a model for sea floor spreading. A recent geologic event rent a gaping crack through the desert of Ethiopia, causing safety concerns for locals. These crustal plate motions may foreshadow rifting events further north in the Great Rift Valley...

New Scientist magazine is generally regarded by the secular community as one of the top-ranked science magazines in the world. However, a published opinion by a regular columnist demonstrated how “unscientific” and anti-God some of their articles have become—something we have documented before (see Refutation of New Scientist’s Evolution: 24 myths and misconceptions). Amanda Gefter wrote an article discussing multiverse theory, or the idea that our universe may be only one of many that currently exist. Such speculations attempt to explain away the appearance of design in the universe, because of, as we shall see, the spiritual implications. In an...

Volcanic activity in 2005 accompanied the formation of a deep, wide rift in Ethiopia on part of the 4,000-mile-long north-to-south trending Great Rift Valley fault. Studies show that the injection of mantle material that “unzipped” the earth along the fault operated the same way as similar material does in less-accessible undersea rifts. Scientists knew that rifts were formed in this manner, but the suddenness of this one’s formation astonished them...

LISTEN TO THE REAL REVEREND JESSE ON THE INTERNET OR A RADIO STATION IN YOUR AREA......BOND Action, Inc...Educating, Motivating and Rallying Americans! The Jesse Lee Peterson Radio Show Streamed live online from 6-9 a.m. PST / 9-12 a.m. EST. Call in the same times usually. For Live Questions or Comments Call 1-888-77-JESSE(5-3773) You can email comments and questions to radio@bondaction.org For more information on getting The Jesse Lee Peterson Show picked up on a station in your local area call Ermias Alemayehu at 1-877-WE ACT77 (932-2877) Go to HERE and order a truckful of these bumper stickers as Jesse says.....

Darwinizing Everything --snip-- The Darwinians, who took over biology in the 19th century, are still busily engaged in mythmaking, comforting the feebleminded who accept their explanations as wisdom, denouncing the heretics who call their bluff. They wear S on their chests: Science, the equivalent of Superman in intellectual circles. They are phonies. Bring out the kryptonite of critical analysis. It scares them to death, even though they never had special powers to begin with...

When the man destined to become the 44th Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church was conceived in the the winter 1913-1914, horses and steam moved the world. That world appeared ordered and stable. The calamities of the 20th century – two world wars, revolutions and civil wars, genocides and expulsions, and the suffering of tens of millions of Christian New Martyrs – could not be foreseen. In the Old World the Serbian nation, although divided into two small kingdoms and two mighty alien empires, the Habsburg and the Ottoman, appeared vigorous and full of hope for the future.....

According to Thomas Bouchard, a US psychologist famous for his research on twins raised apart,[1] even scientists with good reason to believe that the majority are wrong can be silenced. The reason is...

Signature in the Cell makes 2009 list of top ten bestselling science books Today Amazon.com announced their bestselling books of 2009 and Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design (HarperOne) by Dr. Stephen C. Meyer made the top ten in the science category. According to Amazon.com, books on its 2009 list of best sellers are “[r]anked according to customer orders through October. Only books published for the first time in 2009 are eligible.” The book's publisher, HarperOne, reports that the book is entering its fifth printing in as many months, and continues to sell strongly both...

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 irreducibly complex. Both creation scientists and intelligent design proponents highlight examples of irreducible complexity in their studies. The very structure of these systems--with their interdependent parts working all together or not at all--demands design, not chance. Nevertheless, a team of evolutionary molecular biologists think they may have refuted irreducible complexity. They recently studied the parts of a particular cellular machine involved in protein transport, claiming that it was actually reducible to its component parts...

Out of the Closet; Into the Church Homo McGreevey Finds Higher Calling thelastcrusade.org What does a gay governor do after he resigns from political office in disgrace? He becomes an Episcopalian and enters the priesthood. Jim McGreevey, the former New Jersey love gov, has gone from Turnpike truck stops to All Saints Church in Hoboken, where he is known as “Father Jim.” Last Sunday, the ex governor administered the sacrament of baptism to a bevy of babies, blessed the Eucharist, and carried the cross during the processional. In 2004, Mr. McGreevey resigned as Governor of New Jersey after revealing...

Claims of American exceptionalism tend to evoke either knee-jerk patriotic fervor or “intellectual” bemoaning of unwarranted arrogance. Either reaction misses the point. America does stand exceptional among the nations of Earth. This is not a rhetorical claim without substantiation, but an indisputable historical fact. What makes America exception is no cause for arrogance, pride, or self-adulation. It is the unique source of philosophical pillars which have contributed to an unlikely continuity of government for nearly two and a half centuries. Knowing the secret to our success, which has been made secret through concerted effort by domestic enemies of our Constitution,...

“Do we regard the Christian way as the only way, so that salvation is not to be found outside it; or do we regard the other great religions of mankind as other ways of life and salvation?” - Religious Philosopher John Hick Pluralism, the belief that all religions are equal, contradicts the entire premise of religion. If all religion is equally true, what is the point of subscribing exclusively to one? People initially believe in a certain doctrine or religion because of faith and conviction that it is true. Likewise they reject other doctrine as false. Within respective faiths, most...

Should the “greatest good for the greatest number” be the guiding principle behind health care? As I have said before on Breakpoint, much of the hype and even hysteria surrounding the H1N1 flu strain is unwarranted. That’s not to say that the swine flu’s potential impact isn’t devastating—it is, but not in the way cable news would have us think. And now the Florida Department of Health has issued a set of guidelines that instructs hospitals on what to do “if the state is overwhelmed by [H1N1] cases.” The guidelines recommend that hospitals bar “patients with incurable cancer, end-stage multiple...

The Ice Age has been a longstanding problem for uniformitarian thinking, with many unsolved mysteries. No mere tweaking of today's climate conditions would cause such a catastrophe. A creationist model based on the revealed events of Scripture, however, offers a possible answer...

What was once venerated is now, in many ways, dismissed and even despised. Matthew Arnold, the great Victorian poet, marked the turning moment. He had early intimations of “the way we live now,” a way largely evacuated of its Christian allegiances, certainly – in the public sphere – evacuated of the regard and respect that the profession of Christianity once automatically evoked. “The Sea of Faith/ Was once, too, at the full,” he wrote, before going on in lines of immense power to record: But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, Retreating, to the breath Of the...

A Reason to Rally Malcolm A. Kline, November 13, 2009 One piece of hope and change on the campuses that voted overwhelmingly for the party in power is that anti-war rallies centered on the American occupation of Iraq have virtually disappeared. Ironically, there are developments worth protesting in the nascent democracy. For example, the plight of Iraq’s Christian population should be of concern to anyone who claims to be energized by human rights concerns. By all accounts, Iraqi Christians account for less than 10 percent of the country’s population but a much greater proportion of its refugees and internally displaced...

Ibn WarraqTu Quoque On Islam and the Crusades Autumn 2009 Often, when I am criticizing crimes inspired by Islamic extremism, I am interrupted by the remark that Christianity was once culpable of similar abuses. That Christianity may have been intolerant in the past, however, does not make criticisms of Islam’s present-day intolerance any less valid. Also, Islamic intolerance is an immediate danger, whereas Christian intolerance is generally a historical phenomenon and no longer a threat to civilization. And Christendom’s crimes were recorded by Christians themselves—a stark contrast to our politically correct climate, in which many, especially Muslims, are reluctant...

Is Christianity the new whipping kid? Ok … now they’re just sounding stupid. The media. Specifically, the Atlantic. From the Morning Joe, author Hanna Rosin tries to link the housing crisis with Mega church preaching … “Just go out and seize that house, the money will come … and this kind of intersected with the housing crisis.” I have not read the article, not sure I need to, but at least in this interview she quantifies nothing, as in the number of foreclosures vs the number of people who attend these churches. We sort of. Her proof is the location...

Objectively, Ayn Rand Was a Nut [Peter Wehner] According to Politico.com, Ayn Rand — the subject of two new biographies, one of which is titled Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right — is “having a mainstream moment,” including among conservatives. (Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina wrote a piece in Newsweek on Rand, saying, “This is a very good time for a Rand resurgence. She’s more relevant than ever.”). I hope the moment passes. Ms. Rand may have been a popular novelist, but her philosophy is deeply problematic and morally indefensible. Ayn Rand was, of course,...

While Muslims are constantly playing the victim card, they are the ones that continue to stir up trouble in the name of Islam. Man arrested for 'anti-Christian' mall disturbance Kiosk employee allegedly tore a crucifix from someone's neck by Emily West Police arrested 22-year-old Abdul Walid Hamid of Hayward on the evening of Wednesday, Nov. 4, after he reportedly tore a crucifix from a person's neck and scared others at Stoneridge Shopping Center.

America’s mainstream religious denominations used to teach the faithful that they would be rewarded in the afterlife. But over the past generation, a different strain of Christian faith has proliferated—one that promises to make believers rich in the here and now. Known as the prosperity gospel, and claiming tens of millions of adherents, it fosters risk-taking and intense material optimism. It pumped air into the housing bubble. And one year into the worst downturn since the Depression, it’s still going strong. Like the ambitions of many immigrants who attend services there, Casa del Padre’s success can be measured by upgrades...

While Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species has been described as “a grand narrative—a story of origins that would change the world”,1 ironically his book very pointedly avoided the question of the origin of life itself. This ought not be surprising. Darwin’s theory of the origin of species “by means of natural selection”2 presupposes self-reproduction, so can’t explain the origin of self-reproduction. Unfortunately, many proponents of evolution seem unaware of that. They don’t acknowledge that natural selection requires pre-existing life. As leading 20th century evolutionist Theodosius Dobzhansky lamented: ...

Nov 10, 2009 — There’s a move on to get Darwin’s ideas taught to tots. Britain is giving a “birthday present to Darwin,” wrote Andrew Copson for The Guardian, in the form of national curriculum for primary schools that will mention evolution for the first time – and prohibit teaching of creationism or intelligent design in science lessons. The addition of evolution to elementary school curriculum was in response to a letter promoted by the British Humanist Association and signed by “scientists and experts.” Copson was obviously delighted with what he perceived as a long-overdue smackdown against intelligent design –...

When history imitates game show . . . Those old enough to remember TV in the late 1950s through the 60s will recall a delightful game show, “To Tell the Truth.� As a kid I fondly recall trying to figure out along with the celebrity panelists which of the three contestants was the “real� person to be identified. It was a challenging game; the three contestants would all introduce themselves as “I am Mr./Miss /Mrs. [the generic Ms. hadn't come along yet] X� and, after the announcer read a brief description of the featured guest, the panelists would begin...

TAMPA - A U.S. Marine reservist attacked a visiting Greek Orthodox priest he believed to be a terrorist, Tampa police say. When the priest tried seeking directions from Jasen D. Bruce, 28, of Tampa, on Monday, Bruce struck the priest with a tire iron and chased him. Police say he attacked the Rev. Alexios Marakis, 29, of Crete, Greece, who was visiting St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Tarpon Springs and wound up lost in Tampa. Marakis had performed a blessing of another retired Greek priest in the West Shore area and then accidentally exited Interstate 275 north into downtown...

"EMPTY REPETITION. You see, I majored in religion. Had eyes, but no vision. And men? Men let me graduate. And I listened to you, as if you held the key to my fate. I listened to you as if you died on the cross for me. And I listened to you as if you truly care, where I spend eternity." "PLAGIARIZED SPIRITUALITY. A mask of glitter. Holding scriptures and plaster. You see, it was men I had my faith in. I was deceived by the thief near the Tree of Education. Flattery trapped me, rocked me to sleep. And I...

Where is the hardest place in the world to be a Christian citizen? North Korea, perhaps? Saudi Arabia? According to Lars Widerberg of Intercessor's Network, it is the nation of Somalia. There are thought to be no more than a thousand Christians in a resident population of 8 million people, with perhaps a few thousand more in the diaspora. The Islamist Shabab militia, which controls most of southern Somalia, is dedicated to hunting these remaining Christians down and eliminating every one of them. Christian men attend mosques on Fridays, so as not to arouse suspicion. Bibles are kept hidden. There...

This update is Italy's reaction to the "European Court: No Crucifixes in Italian Schools" article. Way to go guys! Italy, Vatican in uproar over court crucifix ruling By Philip Pullella ROME (Reuters) – The European Court of Human Rights ruled on Tuesday that crucifixes should be removed from Italian classrooms, prompting Vatican anger and sparking uproar in Italy, where such icons are embedded in the national psyche.

Once again we see Christianity under attack in Europe. The question is, will the pro-Christianity, anti-Islamic government of Italy put up with this? European court: No crucifixes in Italian schools By ALESSANDRA RIZZO ROME – Europe's court of human rights said Tuesday the display of crucifixes in Italian public schools violates religious and education freedoms, prompting an angry reaction from the Catholic Church and government officials in Rome.

Ardipithecus ramidus is an extinct primate whose fossilized remains were first found along the Awash River in Ethiopia about fifteen years ago. Many fragments were collected, including shattered bones from a four-foot-tall female nicknamed "Ardi." She was chosen to represent her kind, apparently because of the comparative completeness of her remains. Now Ardi's discoverers believe they have collected enough data to reconstruct her history--but what does their data actually reveal? ...

Fellow Christians can write and encourage Rifqa through her website, follow the link provided for more information. In a previous report on Rifqa Bary—the Ohio teen who had converted from Islam to Christianity, and fled to Florida as she felt her life was in danger from an honor killing by her father—the Florida judge had ordered Rifqa's parents to present immigration documents to the court before the girl could be sent back to Ohio. However, according to a report on Bary's website, a "behind the scenes" deal was said to have been cut where the Florida court would drop the...

As most of the non-Muslim community continues to remain in denial, as to what Islam brings to the world, Muslims of Egypt continue to step up the their campaign of hate against the Coptic Christians there. Egyptian Christians Fear More Muslim Violence Egypt (AINA) -- Egyptian security forces have intensified their presence in the Upper Egyptian town of Dairout, in anticipation of a recurrence of Muslim violence against Christians. Copts expressed their fear over leaflets entitled "These have to Die!" which are being distributed to all Muslims in Dairout and neighborhoods, enticing them to "burn, vandalize and clean the country...

Less than one week ago, Pastor Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center put up an anti-Islam display outside his Church. The display contained a mannequin of Christian man being hung by a Muslim. During the night some coward lit the Christian man on fire and left the Muslim man untouched. Was the arsonist a Muslim or a leftist? My bet is on the leftist.

Our anti-Islamist Christian friends that recently had their freedom of speech denied at a recent Arab festival in Michigan, are taking it to the radio tonight. The subject will be Rifqa Bary, and apostasy in Islam. "David Wood of Acts 17 Apologetics and I are going to be guests on the Aramaic Broadcasting Network show, "Jesus or Muhammad," tonight. We are covering the Rifqa Bary story and more generally, apostasy in Islam. The show is 6:30 to 9:00pm EST and then again at 10:30pm to 1:30am EST. We will have a guest caller, Jamal Jivanjee, a personal friend of Rifqa's...

GRAVE DANGER, OR JUST 'ELEVATED' DANGER FOR RIFQA BARY? (an important update regarding Rifqa Bary's situation in Ohio- 30 Oct. 2009) To all concerned, Let me begin this article by saying THANK YOU! From the beginning of Rifqa Bary's situation, many people from around the country have rallied to stand with her in prayer, and support in numerous ways. When a request for funding was needed, you responded in miraculous ways. When you were asked to email the governor's office in Florida, you responded in miraculous ways. As you know, she was sent back to Ohio last week. After the...

FREE SPEECH DENIED CHRISTIANS SILENCED thelastcrusade.org A British couple is on trial and could lose their business for having a debate with a Muslim about religion. In September police arrested Ben and Sharon Vogelenzang, owners of the Bounty House Hotel in Liverpool, after a woman filed a complaint about her conversation with them concerning whether Jesus is the Son of God or just a minor prophet of Islam. Christian Institute spokesman Mike Judge says the couple has lost 80 percent of their business since the incident. Much of that business came from a local hospital. "As a result of...

Silence of the Lambs - - Part 5,432 Speak of Sin; Land in Jail Welcome to Post Christian America thelstcrusade.org A Christian evangelist who was once arrested, incarcerated, and charged under Pennsylvania's hate crimes law says the federal hate crimes bill that has been signed into law by President Obama is the most dangerous laws in the history of the United States. The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which was signed into law yesterday, creates additional penalties for violent crimes motivated by the victim's "actual or perceived" gender, "gender identity," sexual orientation, or disability....

Kinderen voor Kinderen (Children for Children), the children's choir of public broadcaster VARA, has composed a song in which Islam is praised... In the song, 'Allah Akbar' is chorused 27 times. "The Dutch are in this way humiliated," declares PVV MP Martin Bosma. "The multi-culturalists have no shame any more. The multicultural faith is at death's door in society, but on subsidised public television, it is still alive and kicking." On Tuesday evening, the choir sung its 2009 CD on TV, among which was the Islam song. According to Bosma, the slogan 'Allah Akbar,' which forms the refrain, is "a...

Last Sunday, in "Curb Your Enthusiasm", Larry David's new pill has increased his flow so much it is causing him to splatter, which leads to a misunderstanding about a miraculously weeping Jesus in Maureen and her mothers bathroom. Immediately after the air time Catholic groups came out with disapproving statements...