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In the media, Catholicism is the religious tradition most frequently, and misleadingly, held up for approbation as having no problem reconciling Darwinism with theistic faith. The tradition next most often cited as Darwin-friendly is my own, Judaism. You can bet a new Rabbis’ Letter in support of evolution will garner the usual uncomprehending applause. Boasting 305 signatures so far, the letter holds that "It is possible to be inspired by the religious teachings of the Bible while not taking a literalist approach and while accepting the validity of science including the foundational concept of evolution." The Open Letter Concerning Religion...

One of the world's leading biologists, who is also an ordained Anglican priest, has sparked uproar in both religious and scientific circles by campaigning to teach creationism, along with evolution and the "Big Bang" theory in science classrooms. Creationism, an issue that has triggered furious debates in churches, schools and even courts in the United States, rejects Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and holds that God created the universe and all that goes with it - most of all, man - in six days. The Rev. Michael Reiss has truly stirred the pot - and the fury of his fellow...

The Brunswick County school board is looking for a way for creationism to be taught in the classroom side by side with evolution. "It's really a disgrace for the state school board to impose evolution on our students without teaching creationism," county school board member Jimmy Hobbs said at Tuesday's meeting. "The law says we can't have Bibles in schools, but we can have evolution, of the atheists." When asked by a reporter, his fellow board members all said they were in favor of creationism being taught in the classroom. The topic came up after county resident Joel Fanti told...

The 21st century is plagued by wild speculation and fantasies dressed up in graphs and tables and diagrams to look like independently verifiable fact. For example, Muslim lobbyists are currently pouring millions of pounds into producing bogus "atlases of creation", lavishly decorated with photographs and charts "proving" that every living species was created at the same time. This material is currently being delivered free of charge to schools all over Europe. If it emanated from fundamentalist Christian America, I suspect it would be dumped in the wastepaper basket. But schools are more wary of offending the views of Muslim or...

BERLIN (Reuters) - German biologists have discovered a new species of ant they believe is the oldest on the planet, dating back around 120 million years. Researchers from Karlsruhe's Natural History Museum found the 3-millimeter-long (0.118 inch) insect in the Amazon rainforest in 2007, and hope it will shed light on the early evolution of ants. "It's by far the most spectacular find of my 26-year career," said museum biologist Manfred Verhaagh on Tuesday. A new species of Martialis heureka, a blind, subterranean, predatory ant, in an undated photo. German biologists have discovered a new species of ant they believe...

Prof. Thomas Nagel, a self-declared atheist who earned his PhD. in philosophy at Harvard 45 years ago, who has been a professor at U.C. Berkeley, Princeton, and the last 28 years at New York University, and who has published ten books and more than 60 articles, has published an important essay, "Public Education and Intelligent Design," in the Wiley InterScience Journal Philosophy & Public Affairs, Vol. 36, issue 2, on-line at http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118493933/home (fee for access US $29.95). Prof. Nagel's paper is a significant and substantial opening, at America's highest intellectual level, that encourages all intelligent, educated, informed individuals — particularly...

Creationism should be taught in schools as a legitimate point of view to stop religious children losing interest in science lessons, a leading Royal Society scientist has urged. Rev Professor Michael Reiss, director of education at the Royal Society and a biologist, said teachers should discuss Creationism openly in science classes. He said one in 10 pupils have Creationist beliefs and he maintained it would be self-defeating to dismiss them all as wrong and misguided. Far better, he told the British Association conference, to treat Creationism as a “world view” rather than a “misconception”. His comments, however, provoked a vociferous...

Sept 10, 2008 — Astrobiologist David Deamer believes that life can spontaneously emerge without design, but he thinks lay people are too uneducated to understand how this is possible, so he gives them the watered-down version of Darwin’s natural selection instead, which he knows is inadequate to explain the complexity of life. That’s what he seemed to be telling reporter Susan Mazur in an interview for the Scoop (New Zealand). Is the lay public really too dense for the deeper knowledge of how evolution works?...

New research by Ingemar Jönsson and colleagues published in the September 9 issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press journal, shows that some animals —the so-called tardigrades or 'water-bears'— are able to do away with space suits and can survive exposure to open-space vacuum, cold and radiation.

Genes alone don’t make the man — after all, humans and chimps share roughly 98 percent of their DNA. But where, when and how much genes are turned on may be essential in setting people apart from other primates. A stretch of human DNA inserted into mice embryos revs the activity of genes in the developing thumb, toe, forelimb and hind limb. But the chimp and rhesus macaque version of this same stretch of DNA spurs only faint activity in the developing limbs, reports a new study in the Sept. 5 Science. The research supports the notion that changes in...

Darwinism is ultimately the creation story of naturalism and atheism...

Fundamental Evolution: a Biologist reads Genesis Everybody should read the Bible. Several times. When I was a child, I had to: my mother insisted. So I read. But soon I became so entangled with who begat unpronounceable who, I lost interest. For a time I struggled with seemingly endless tales of pillage, rape, massacre, genocide, and tedious ritual, but eventually I put the book on the shelf, and there it remained for thirty years. The Jehovah's Witnesses drove me back to scripture. My wife and I were living in the Florida Keys. Every so often a group of earnest ladies...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Monkeys can experience the joy of giving in much the same way as humans do, U.S. researchers reported on Monday. Tests in capuchin monkeys showed the animals consistently chose to share food with another monkey if given the option, suggesting they are capable of empathy, the team at the Yerkes Research Center at Emory University in Atlanta found. "They seem to care for the welfare of those they know," Frans de Waal, director of the Living Links Center at Yerkes, said in a statement. His team tested eight female brown capuchin monkeys in pairs. They could choose...

The introduction of the article states, “Having moved to the United States in 1961, he [Francisco Ayala] was shocked when, in the mid-1970s, California sought to introduce an antievolution curriculum into its public schools. How could this be, in the most scientifically advanced country in the world? His bewilderment led Ayala to a lifelong study of how evolution is, or is not, taught in public schools.” In The New York Times article, “Roving Defender of Evolution, and of Room for God,” it is said, “Dr. Ayala, a former Dominican priest, said he told his audiences not just that evolution is...

What Darwin Didn't Know an RTB conference in our nation's capital. February 12, 2009 marks Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday and the 150th anniversary of his book, On Origin of Species. People worldwide will engage in Darwin Day celebrations honoring Darwin’s influence on science and culture. The Reasons to Believe, Washington D.C, Network and Christ Church on Embassy Row are proud to announce an RTB Regional Conference addressing this all-important event. Hear RTB scholars Fuz Rana, Kenneth Samples, Jeff Zweerink and Hugh Ross present the latest evidence that challenges Darwinism and supports the Christian faith. October 24-25 2008 Register at http://www.cconembassyrow.com/rtb.html...

Dinosaurs helped build the pyramids, school director says Raphael Vassallo Far from becoming extinct 65 million years ago, the dinosaurs actually co-existed with early humans, and even helped in the construction of the pyramids. This is the word of Vince Fenech, Evangelist pastor and director of a fully licensed, State-approved Creationist institution which admits children aged between four and 18. “Of course the ‘dinoceros’ existed (as Fenech pronounces the word). It is mentioned in the Book of Job. They were used to help build the pyramids,” he says, adding that this latter observation is only “his personal belief”, and that...

Few things seem so silly as a peacock preening its gaudy tail or an elk clanking through the trees with its cumbersome antlers or even a male human displaying his hairy chest, but now we know that these secondary sexual characteristics have evolved because they attract mates, and in the animal kingdom, procreation leads to better odds of survival. These days, the study of evolution has shifted from the question of why such male traits exist to what makes them work and where they came from. In Thursday's edition of the science journal Cell, a team lead by world-renowned University...

With five seats on the State Board of Education up for grabs this year, education advocates say how children learn about evolution hangs in the balance -- and who voters choose could affect Kansas' national reputation. A frequent flip-flop between moderate and conservative majorities on the 10-member board has resulted in the state changing its science standards four times in the past eight years. Conservatives have pushed for standards casting doubt on evolution, and moderates have said intelligent design does not belong in the science classroom. In 2007, a new 6-4 moderate majority removed standards that called evolution into question....

Public confidence in the "constants" of nature may be at an all-time low. Recent research has found evidence that the value of certain fundamental parameters, such as the speed of light or the strength of the invisible glue that holds atomic nuclei together, may have been different in the past. "There is absolutely no reason these constants should be constant," says astronomer Michael Murphy of the University of Cambridge. "These are famous numbers in physics, but we have no real reason for why they are what they are." The observed differences are small — roughly a few parts in a...

Microbial biologists, including the University of Oregon's Jessica L. Green, may not have Jimmy Buffett's music from 1977 in mind, but they are changing attitudes about evolutionary diversity on Earth, from oceanic latitudes to mountainous altitudes. In two recent National Science Foundation-funded papers in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Green and colleagues show that temperature, not productivity, primarily drives the richness of bacterial diversity in the oceans, and that life, both plant and microbial, by altitude in the Rocky Mountains may be close, but not exactly, to what biologists have theorized for years. Swedish naturalist and botanist...

This publication marks the 150th anniversary of the joint presentation of Darwin and Wallace of their thinking about evolution by natural selection to the Linnean Society. The book is a blockbuster because it claims that "Darwin perpetuated one of the greatest crimes in the history of science". It concludes that Darwin plagiarised Alfred Russel Wallace, deceived the world about the maturity of his own ideas before 1858, and, to satisfy his personal need for glory, failed to give credit to scholars who influenced his thinking...

By viewing evolution as the motion of energy flows toward a stationary state (entropy), evolution can be explained by the second law of thermodynamics, a law which conventionally describes physical systems. In this view, a cheetah serves as an energy transfer mechanism, and beneficial mutations allow the animal to transfer more energy within its environment, helping even out the energy.

Big Science has expelled smart new ideas from the classroom. What they forgot is that every generation has its rebel! Attacked by pro-evolution scientists and others, this film, Expelled exposed the prejudice leveled against scientists who reject Darwinian thinking, and took almost $8 million at the box office at around 700 theaters earlier this year, making it the 12th most successful documentary of all time.

Last November, radio host Michael Medved was made a Senior Fellow at the anti-evolution “think tank” known as the Discovery Institute, and he has some rather interesting things to say about “intelligent design:”

Gods, fairies, magic and the like are ways of saying "we don't know," and one simply can't base a scientific theory on a set of assumptions that includes "and something we don't know, but you can imagine it to be anything you like, happens here." Science is a discipline, a rewarding endeavour to understand things in relation to other things and their interactions. The theory of evolution is not a belief; it is a scientifically useful model. As more data support it, it might be a threat to certain beliefs, but it is not a threat to belief in a...

ScienceDaily (Aug. 8, 2008) — Prevailing theoretical models attempting to explain the formation of the solar system have assumed it to be average in every way. Now a new study by Northwestern University astronomers, using recent data from the 300 exoplanets discovered orbiting other stars, turns that view on its head. The solar system, it turns out, is pretty special indeed. The study illustrates that if early conditions had been just slightly different, very unpleasant things could have happened -- like planets being thrown into the sun or jettisoned into deep space. Using large-scale computer simulations, the Northwestern researchers are...

The commonly cited case for intelligent design appeals to: (a) the irreducible complexity of (b) some aspects of life. But complex arguments invite complex refutations (valid or otherwise), and the claim that only some aspects of life are irreducibly complex implies that others are not, and so the average person remains unconvinced. Here I use another principle autopoiesis (self-making)-—to show that all aspects of life lie beyond the reach of naturalistic explanations...

Goldilocks isn’t the only one who demanded everything to be “just right.” The Earth and its fellow seven planets also needed perfect conditions to form as observed, and those right conditions occur rarely, a new computer simulation shows. The new simulation, described in the Aug. 8 Science, is the first to trace from beginning to end how planetary systems form from an initial gas disk encircling a baby star. “The really striking result of the new model is how chaotic and even violent the average story of a planet’s birth is,” says Edward Thommes, an astrophysicist now at the University...

A DUP MLA has sparked controversy calling for creationism to be taught alongside evolution in science classes. Education Committee chair Mervyn Storey's demand comes amid fresh debate over the origins of mankind, in the run-up to the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin's famous work On the Origin of Species

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Roughly three-in-five adults in Canada side with the theory of evolution, according to a poll by Angus Reid Strategies. 58 per cent of respondents believe human beings evolved from less advanced life forms over millions of years. Conversely, 22 per cent of respondents think God created human beings in their present form within the last 10,000 years, while 20 per cent are not sure. Charles Darwin’s "The Origin of Species" was first published in 1859. The book details the British naturalist’s theory that all organisms gradually evolve through the process of natural selection. Darwin’s views...

Bringing the intelligent design debate to high-def, Vivendi Visual has announced an October Blu-ray release for Ben Stein's controversial documentary 'Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.' Drawing lines in the intelligent design versus evolution debate (with Stein falling squarely on the side of the former), 'Expelled' was praised by religious leaders and condemned by scientists in equal measure. Released through the Vivendi Visual Entertainment label, the company has set a October 21 Blu-ray release for the incendiary doc, day-and-date with the standard DVD.

Imagine a form of life so unusual that we cannot figure out how it dies. That’s exactly what researchers are finding beneath the floor of the sea off Peru. The microbes being studied there — single-celled organisms called Archaea — live in time frames that can perhaps best be described as geological. Consider: A bacteria like Escherichia Coli divides and reproduces every twenty minutes or so. But the microbes in the so-called Peruvian Margin take hundreds or thousands of years to divide. “In essence, these microbes are almost, practically dead by our normal standards,” says Christopher H. House (Penn State)....

The debate about what counts as a living thing is fuelled today by the discovery of the first virus that is able to fall "ill" by being infected with another virus. Viruses are glorified scraps of genetic code that are exquisitely designed to pirate a host to reproduce: the common cold virus needs cells in the nose and respiratory tract to reproduce, before being spread with a sneeze. But the discovery of a giant virus that itself falls ill through infection by another virus seems to suggest they too are alive, highlighting how there is no watertight definition of what...

"Most devout Muslims are creationists so when you go to schools, there are a large number of children of Islamic parents who trot out what they have been taught," Prof Dawkins said in a Sunday newspaper interview. "Teachers are bending over backwards to respect home prejudices that children have been brought up with. The Government could do more, but it doesn't want to because it is fanatical about multiculturalism and the need to respect the different traditions from which these children come." Prof Dawkins, professor for the public understanding of science at Oxford University, is author of books including the...

Shubin, who is Provost of the Field Museum and Robert R. Bensley Professor and Associate Dean of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago, is one of the discoverers of Tiktaalik, the 375-million-year-old fossil believed to be a "missing link" between fish and the first land vertebrates, or tetrapods. The book is a strange brew that combines his professional interests- developmental biology, human and comparative anatomy, molecular biology and paleontology-with a memoir of his career. Nevertheless, it goes down well, leaving the reader thirsty for more.

Posted on Saturday, August 02, 2008 8:44:19 AM by Soliton don't remember when I first learned about the theory of evolution, but nowadays I find myself reading of it a great deal in the popular press and hearing it discussed in the media. As my daughter enters elementary school, I find myself anxious to discuss with her teachers what they will cover in science class and where in their curriculum they plan to teach evolution. OUR COUNTRY HAS LAWS THAT SEPARATE church and state. Public institutions like schools must be neutral on the subject of religion, as required by the...

Rock-solid proof? July 28, 2008 09:49 am — By David May editor@mineralwellsindex.com A slab of North Texas limestone is on track to rock the world, with its two imbedded footprints poised to make a huge impression in scientific and religious circles. The estimated 140-pound stone was recovered in July 2000 from the bank of a creek that feeds the Paluxy River near Glen Rose, Texas, located about 53 miles south of Fort Worth. The find was made just outside Dinosaur Valley State Park, a popular destination for tourists known for its well-preserved dinosaur tracks and other fossils. The limestone contains...

A slab of North Texas limestone is on track to rock the world, with its two imbedded footprints poised to make a huge impression in scientific and religious circles. The estimated 140-pound stone was recovered in July 2000 from the bank of a creek that feeds the Paluxy River near Glen Rose, Texas, located about 53 miles south of Fort Worth. The find was made just outside Dinosaur Valley State Park, a popular destination for tourists known for its well-preserved dinosaur tracks and other fossils. The limestone contains two distinct prints – one of a human footprint and one belonging...

Ask Republican candidates for the Kansas State Board of Education about the issues they think are most important and you will hear about the teacher shortage or engaging students with vocational education. On the campaign trail, however, many voters are using evolution as their litmus test.

Feedback archive → Feedback 2008 Christopher Hitchens—blind to salamander reality A well-known atheist’s ‘eureka moment’ shows the desperation of evolutionists In a recent article in the leftist online magazine Slate, prominent atheistic journalist Christopher Hitchens (b. 1949) thinks he has found the knock-down argument against creationists and intelligent design supporters. Fellow misotheist Richard Dawkins (b. 1941) and another anti-theist Sir David Attenborough (b. 1926) agree. Not surprisingly, there have been questions to us about this, so Dr Jonathan Sarfati responds. As will be seen, their whole argument displays ‘breathtaking inanity’ and ignorance of what creationists really teach, and desperation if...

The limestone contains two distinct prints — one of a human footprint and one belonging to a dinosaur. The significance of the cement-hard fossil is it shows the dinosaur print partially over and intersecting the human print. In other words, the stone’s impressions indicate the human stepped first, the dinosaur second.

Archaeological experts are divided on a plan to exhume the hominid footprints at Laetoli for public display, some arguing that this could lead to erosion of the rare imprints. The 3.6 million- year old footprints, discovered in 1978, have since the 1990s been reburied for protection while a replica of the original cast is on display at the site. Government authorities recently intended to exhume the oldest known footprints of human ancestors for public view in order to attract more tourists and researchers... With the assistance of scientists from Getty Conservation Institute of Los Angeles in the US, the track-way...

It’s our favorite libertarian-ish anti-idiotarian magicians, with a whole episode of Bullsh*t! devoted to ... yes ... creationism and its repackaged descendant, “intelligent design.” (Screams and pandemonium ensue.) Featuring footage from the Creation Museum, and interviews with some people whose names are often invoked during the LGF Evolution Wars, including Duane Gish of the Institute for Creation Research. The 3-part show carries a mild language warning; if you’ve ever seen Penn and Teller, you know what to expect.

A proposal before the Texas Board of Education calls for including the "strengths and weaknesses" of evolution in the state's science curriculum. This initiative is understood by supporters and opponents to be a strategic effort to get around First Amendment restrictions on teaching religion in science class. The proposal is a new round in an old debate, and, if it fails, creationists will innovate once again, just as they have since the 1920s.

Understanding the origin and extinction of species is of paramount importance to our own existence and survival. Unfortunately, the vast majority of humans understand neither. About 90% of humankind professes to adhere to a religious philosophy that has absolutely no interest or concern in understanding the most fundamental ecological relationships that exist in nature. Human failure to respect this relationship has resulted in human failure in our own stewardship of our own planet.

A non religious or Biblical presentation that gives proof Creation is both logical and reliable. This proof however is right before our eyes ever day. I recently wrote an article commenting on a group of aggressive atheists who I feel were making much ado about nothing. Although many readers misunderstood the point I was making it inspired me to write this article based on the responses of that article.

Creationism is much more specific and much less plausible. Its central claim is that the precise mode of creation has been revealed in the Bible, and follows the pattern set out in the first chapter of Genesis. In thus identifying God’s action with a particular series of events and a particular timetable, rather than as the ultimate mystery underlying all reality, it lays itself open to the possibility of direct conflict with alternative scientific explanations. The main motive for risking this potential conflict has been to uphold belief in the verbal inerrancy of the Bible, and the literal interpretation of...

In the State Board of Education races, simple math could start another round in the long-running fight in Kansas about evolution. Five seats on the 10-member board are up for election this year, and of those, three are held by moderates who are not seeking re-election. Moderates now hold a 6-4 advantage over social conservatives on the board, so flipping one of those moderate seats to a conservative would create a 5-5 tie. Flipping two moderate seats would produce a conservative majority and could renew the battle against evolution that has brought attention to Kansas several times during the past...

On 1st November 2007, Professor Antony Flew’s new book There is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed his Mind was published by HarperOne. Professor Flew has been called ‘the world's most influential philosophical atheist’, as well as ‘one of the most renowned atheists of the 20th Century’ (see Peter S. Williams’ bethinking.org article “A change of mind for Antony Flew”). In his book, Professor Flew recounts how he has come to believe in a Creator God as a result of the scientific evidence and philosophical argument. Not surprisingly, his book caused quite a stir – as can...

New research into inheritance shows we can alter family traits for better or for worse. Jonathan Leake reports For Beatrix Zwart being young means having fun. She works hard, and out of hours she plays hard — including plenty of nights on the town with her friends. “I lead a similar lifestyle to a lot of young professionals in Britain and I don’t intend to have any children until I’m well into my thirties,� said Zwart, a 25-year-old Belgian who lives in London. “I’ve never really thought my lifestyle now could have any effect on my future children or grandchildren.�...