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Science vs. scientism: a necessary distinction J. Daniel McDonald — December 1, 2015 We all have those TV shows that define our childhood - shows that captured our little minds and imaginations. For me, it was Sesame Street (don't laugh; some of you watched Barney), Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, and Dukes of Hazzard. While I have no interest in these shows now, I look upon them with a sense of nostalgia because they represent, in part, may days as a young tike whose greatest concerns were snack time and Hot Wheels.A show that many of our Boyce students (and Southern students?)...

A Fight for the Soul of Science String theory, the multiverse and other ideas of modern physics are potentially untestable. At a historic meeting in Munich, scientists and philosophers asked: should we trust them anyway? Laetitia Vancon for Quanta MagazinePhysicists George Ellis (center) and Joe Silk (right) at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich on Dec. 7. By: Natalie WolchoverDecember 16, 2015 Comments (17) Share this: facebooktwitterredditmail PDF Print Physicists typically think they “need philosophers and historians of science like birds need ornithologists,” the Nobel laureate David Gross told a roomful of philosophers, historians and physicists last week in Munich, Germany,...

The entrance to the Mary of Nazareth International Center in central Nazareth doesn't look like much. It's just a simple doorway off narrow Casa Nova Street, a few hundred yards from the Basilica of the Annunciation. Yet inside this recently built Catholic evangelism center lies an amazing discovery that has sent shockwaves through the world of Biblical archaeology: the remains of a first-century stone house reliably dated to the early Roman period in Palestine. The Nazareth excavations are the first concrete archaeological proof that Nazareth was settled in the time of Jesus - and, judging from the limestone cups found...

....The legend behind Santa Claus is Saint Nicholas, the fourth-century bishop of Myra. His hat was the bishop’s mitre. Nicholas was born in modern day Turkey to a rather wealthy family. Losing his parents at a young age, Nicholas dedicated both his fortune and his life to the Christian church. Very quickly he was appointed the bishop of Myra, on the southern coast of modern day Turkey.

The Arab Conquest of Egypt was largely complete by the summer of 642 AD, and on the 17 September the Romans of the Byzantine Empire evacuated Alexandria, the capital of the Egyptian Province, and handed it over to the invading Arabs and Muslims. The Arab occupation of Egypt had started a little more than three years earlier. The first time the invading Arabs touched with their feet the sacred Egyptian soil was in 639 AD. Arab chronology of the Arab Conquest of Egypt is generally not to be trusted as prominent historians have more than once observed; however, there is...

* The oval piece of clay bears the symbol of a winged sun and hieroglyphs * Archaeologists said it was the private seal of the biblical King Hezekiah * During his rule, the Kingdom of Judah saw its power rise dramatically * The seal has provided new clues about Hezekiah's life and politics ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ A 2,700-year-old royal seal bearing the mark of the biblical King Hezekiah has been unearthed in Jerusalem. The tiny oval piece of clay bears the impression of a sun with two wings turned downward, flanked by two ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs that symbolise 'life'. King Hezekiah's rule...

You could have bought an ancient religious text online for less than $100. That text was an ancient Greek papyrus fragment of the Gospel of John (likely John 1:50-51), and was listed on eBay with an opening bid of $99, according to The New York Times. The papyrus -- called the "Willoughby Papyrus" since it belonged to Harold Willoughby, a University of Chicago professor, according to the eBay listing -- didn’t stay there for long. Dr. Geoffrey Smith, who researches Christianity at the University of Texas, contacted the seller and asked if he could research the fragment, The Times reported....

BEIT SHEMESH, Israel — The carved stone block is about the size of an occasional table. It has held its secrets for two millenniums. Whoever engraved its enigmatic symbols was apparently depicting the ancient Jewish temples. But what makes the stone such a rare find in biblical archaeology, according to scholars, is that when it was carved, the Second Temple still stood in Jerusalem for the carver to see. The stone is a kind of ancient snapshot. And it is upending some long-held scholarly assumptions about ancient synagogues and their relationship with the Temple, a center of Jewish pilgrimage and...

Full title: Did a blind Bulgarian clairvoyant predict the rise of ISIS? ‘Nostradamus of the Balkans’ who died 20 years ago said there would be a ‘great Muslim war’ in 2016 A Bulgarian clairvoyant who died 20 years ago warned of the rise of ISIS by claiming there would be a 'great Muslim war' in 2016, it has been reported. Baba Vanga died in 1996 at the age of 85 and was known as the 'Nostradamus of the Balkans' because of her success rate which was supposedly as high as 85 per cent. The blind pensioner, who has previously been...

Did a blind Bulgarian clairvoyant predict the rise of ISIS? 'Nostradamus of the Balkans' who died 20 years ago said there would be a 'great Muslim war' in 2016 A Bulgarian clairvoyant who died 20 years ago warned of the rise of ISIS by claiming there would be a 'great Muslim war' in 2016, it has been reported.Baba Vanga died in 1996 at the age of 85 and was known as the 'Nostradamus of the Balkans' because of her success rate which was supposedly as high as 85 per cent.The blind pensioner, who has previously been credited with predicting the...

Hanukkah is the festival when Jews celebrate their victory in the fight for religious freedom more than 2,000 years ago. Tragically, that fight is no less important today, and not only for Jews, but for people of all faiths. The Jewish story is simple enough. In about 165 B.C., Antiochus IV, ruler of the Syrian branch of the Alexandrian empire, began to impose Greek culture on the Jews of the land of Israel. Funds were diverted from the Temple to public games and drama competitions. A statue of Zeus was erected in Jerusalem. Jewish religious rituals such as circumcision and...

It is the ultimate in DIY: a flat-pack building found on the bottom of the sea 1,500 years after it sunk. A Byzantine church is to be reassembled for the first time in its long history, after it was lost in a ship wreck around 550AD. The church is to go on show at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford as part of a new exhibition of treasures found under the sea, as its director says he hopes it is easier to assemble than “an Ikea wardrobe”. It is the most extensive building project of its kind, bringing the church...

The Emmaus Code: The Key to the BibleFrank Turek | Nov 11, 2015 The Bible? How can you believe in an ancient collection of fanciful myths written by a small group of Hebrews thousands of years ago? And why would you think such a collection of ancient writings should have any bearing on our lives today? New York Times best-selling author David Limbaugh has answered those two questions adeptly in his latest two books. In last year's Jesus on Trial, Limbaugh artfully tells of his journey from skepticism about the Bible to his realization that the Bible is actually true....

We all know where priceless ancient manuscripts should be found: somewhere remote, preferably a desert, and we need a good hiding place; caves are perfect. In terms of creating a stereotype, the Dead Sea Scrolls are the model case, followed by the ancient Christian and Gnostic texts found at Nag Hammadi, in Egypt, around the same time. Yet one of the greatest such discoveries in modern times broke all those rules, which might explain why it remains so thoroughly unknown outside quite a narrow specialist world. And we still are only beginning to come to terms with the implications.The...

An atheist professor said Tuesday that it's acceptable to criticize Christians but not Muslims, because he does not "fear" retaliation from Christians. "I know what keeps me from critiquing Islam on my blog is just fear," Phil Zuckerman said at a discussion on religious liberty at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. "I've got three kids. "So I know I can say anything about Christianity or Mormonism, and I'm not living in fear, which is a testament to Christianity and Mormonism, and that's wonderful. Thank you," said Zuckerman, who is a self-described atheist and professor of secular studies at Pitzer College...

Ten years after publication of Who Was Adam? by Fazale Rana and Hugh Ross, 13 new chapters detail the new scientific evidence on the origins of humankind in a second edition.Rana and Ross are scholars affiliated with Reasons to Believe, which also published the new edition of Who Was Adam? RTB works to spread the Gospel by showing how science supports the truths found in Scripture. Rana and Ross both have doctorate degrees in the physical sciences, biochemistry and astronomy, respectively. Unlike most second editions, this one leaves the original edition alone and adds the new chapters onto the original.During an interview...

Our prehistoric forebears are often portrayed as spear-wielding savages, but the earliest human societies are likely to have been founded on enlightened egalitarian principles, according to scientists. A study has shown that in contemporary hunter-gatherer tribes, men and women tend to have equal influence on where their group lives and who they live with. The findings challenge the idea that sexual equality is a recent invention, suggesting that it has been the norm for humans for most of our evolutionary history. Mark Dyble, an anthropologist who led the study at University College London, said: “There is still this wider perception...

Buraq was a flying horse with a woman's head. October 15, 2015 Daniel Greenfield      So the New York Times lapsed into what has been called Temple Trutherism by trying to deny the existence of the Jewish temples on the Temple Mount. Their work was taken down by Liel Leibowitz at The Tablet and others. The Times offered a limited correction. But let's have some equal time here. The Temple Mount is holy to Jews because of the Temples. So the New York Times chose to discuss whether the Temples really existed. It's holy to Muslims because Mohammed...

Someone I know just sent me this extraordinary article, very alarming to say the least: "New research involving a psychologist from the University of York has revealed for the first time that both belief in God and prejudice towards immigrants can be reduced by directing magnetic energy into the brain. Dr Keise Izuma collaborated with a team from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), to carry out an innovative experiment using transcranial magnetic stimulation, a safe way of temporarily shutting down specific regions of the brain. The researchers targeted the posterior medial frontal cortex, a part of the brain...

Here’s the breathless headline: “Scientists claim they can change your belief on immigrants and God — with MAGNETS.” Wait. Attitudes toward God and immigrants? Are these a natural pair? The newspaper thought so. They tell of an experiment which “claims to be able to make Christians no longer believe in God and make Britons open their arms to migrants.” How’s it done? “Using a technique called transcranial magnetic stimulation” researchers can “safely shut down certain groups of neurones” in the brain. It seems to have worked. Volunteers were coaxed into having their brains zapped by giant magnets. And, lo! “Belief...