Free Republic

Francis Collins, former head of the National Human Genome Research Institute and seminal player in sequencing the human genome, has launched a foundation that seeks to reconcile Christian faith with science. The Washington-based foundation, BioLogos, is funded by the John Templeton Foundation and aims to promote "the search for truth in both the natural and spiritual realms, and seeks to harmonize these different perspectives," according to its website. The BioLogos website also lists several questions (eg. "How does the harshness of evolution align with the idea of a loving God?" and "Can scientific and scriptural truth be reconciled?" and "What...

Galapagos: Showcase for Creation by John D. Morris, Ph.D.* This year evolutionists are celebrating Charles Darwin's 200th birthday and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his book The Origin of Species. In preparation for this celebration, last December ICR sent Dr. Steve Austin to the Santa Cruz River Valley in southern Argentina to follow up on Darwin's trip on the Beagle. On board, Darwin read Charles Lyell's new book on uniformitarianism, advocating that today's "uniform" processes had dramatically sculptured the earth over long ages, accomplishing much geologic work.The Santa Cruz River was the Beagle's first major stop, and thus...

Read all these stories and much more at the excerpt link below: 1. ScienceDaily: “Dinosaur-Bird Link: Ancient Proteins Preserved in Soft Tissue from 80 Million-Year-Old Hadrosaur"An incredible discovery that shocked the “millions of years” camp is back—with further verification. 2. BBC News: “Africa’s Genetic Secrets Unlocked” Africa may be the most genetically diverse place on earth. Is that evidence of evolutionary origins?3. National Geographic News: “New, Fast-Evolving Rabies Virus Found—and Spreading” An “evolving” virus is in the news again—but this time, skunks and foxes are at the center, not swine. 4. Weizmann Institute of Science: “True Grit” An element of...

Using “Evolutionary Algorithms” by Intelligent Design May 8, 2009 — Evolution can’t be all bad if scientists can use it to optimize your car.  Science Daily said that scientists in Germany are “simulating evolution” to come up with ways to optimize difficult problems.  Using “Evolutionary Algorithms”, they can discover solutions for engineering problems like water resource management and the design of brakes, airbags and air conditioning systems in automobiles.  The simulated evolution program searches through a large number of random possibilities to make numerous successive slight improvements. “The algorithms are called ‘evolutionary’ because the characteristics of evolution – mutation, recombination...

The Stunning Stability of Salmonella by Brian Thomas, M.S.* Salmonella bacteria became a health threat relatively recently, when chicken eggs were infected by the migration of the bacteria from chickens’ digestive organs to their reproductive organs. Geneticists are working to characterize differences between the harmful and innocuous strains of Salmonella. Although they have termed these dissimilarities “evolutionary,” the genetic differences are very minor and involve a breakdown rather than a gain of genetic information, which actually contradicts an evolutionary scenario...

State of the Moon Titan Addressed --snip-- We’ve reported these mysteries about Titan for years (insert Titan in the search bar above and see). This paper is important because it shows that the leading Titan experts have still not been able to come up with credible answers to their falsified predictions despite 5 years of unprecedented data. Recall the observational facts: no global ocean. Very little surface ethane. No plausible supply of methane, which is currently insufficient to account for a perpetual methane cycle. Indications that methane is being depleted. Dunes covering 20% of a relatively dry world. Few impact...

Chris Matthews apparently thinks the GOP is just one big bag of crazy. MSNBC's "Hardball" host challenged Rep. Mike Pence (R-Indiana) on the Republican Party's commitment to addressing climate change during the May 5 broadcast. Matthews claimed to Pence that the GOP is not passionate about environmentalism because, "There are people that really are against science in your party who really do question not just the science behind the climate change but the science behind evolutionary fact, that we were taught - you and I - in our biology books. They don't accept the scientific method. They believe in belief...

Planetary Quandaries Solved: Saturn Is Young by Brian Thomas, M.S.* NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has been on a mission to gather information on the structure and composition of Saturn, its rings, and its moons. Conventional cosmology holds that the planets of the solar system are billions of years old. But the more that scientists learn about Saturn’s systems, the more they uncover evidence of a young planet...

Here is video of Chris Matthews yesterday continuing his inquisition of Republicans on the question of, "Do you believe in evolution?" This time it was Tom Tancredo's turn. Yesterday, he did the same thing to GOP Congressman Mike Pence. Matthews should ask the question differently. He should be asking, "Do you reject the Biblical account of Creation?" That's what he seems to be trying to get Republicans to say. Matthews is trying to make a distorted argument that people who believe in the truth of the Bible reject all science. He kept trying to make the link to "Climate Change"...

Stem Cells from Blood Render Embryonic Sources Obsolete by Brian Thomas, M.S.* On the heels of President Barack Obama’s March 9 order to use public monies to support embryonic stem cell research,[1] another source of stem cells has become available—blood. Blood would be an ideal supplier for stem cells because it is a renewable tissue and harvesting blood components does not end life. These reengineered cells would also be patient-specific and avoid immune system difficulties, unlike embryonic sources which are derived from another person entirely. A recent study discovered a way in which blood could generate stem cells.[2] The researchers...

Thank God for. . . Scorpion Venom? by Brian Thomas, M.S.* The vast majority of modern medicines are toxic at high concentrations or when misused, but they can promote health at low concentrations and when they are carefully applied. Thus, the very same compound can confer both beneficial and deleterious effects, depending on how it is utilized. Illustrating this, a new medicine to slow brain cancer is on its way—and it comes from scorpions!...

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

Deep inside the single leg bone of an 80-million-year-old duck-billed dinosaur, scientists have found a hoard of proteins and blood cells providing the first clear biochemical evidence that dinosaurs are indeed the ancestors of modern birds - linked by evolution. Until now those links had been based mainly on physical evidence - on feathers from dinosaur fossils, on their fossil eggs, on their fossilized birdlike nestlings and on the close resemblance of dinosaurs and birds like the famed "flying dinosaur" called archaeopteryx. Now the same team of scientists, which found similar biological material in a 68-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex two years...

Gravity: A Theory in Crisis May 5, 2009 — Note: This is **not** a joke. How could gravity be a theory in crisis? Isn’t gravity one of the best-understood facts of nature? Don’t we all avoid jumping off cliffs because of the law of gravity? Gravity is doing just fine, thank you. It’s our theory of gravity, and the cosmology built on it, that is in crisis – according to a report on PhysOrg today: “Study plunges standard Theory of Cosmology into Crisis.”...

Dinosaur soft tissue and protein—even more confirmation! Mary Schweitzer announces even stronger evidence, this time from a duckbilled dino fossil, of even more proteins—and the same amazingly preserved vessel and cell structures as before...

Steve Doocy interviews a rep from Discovery Institute.

EVO-ATHEIST DISCLAIMER MESSAGE WARNING: (No genetic material were harmed in the posting of this response) The sole purpose of this comment is to offend Star-Trek-Lovin’, Monkey-Huggin’, Marvel-Comic-Readin’ evil-utionist wackos, as well as Christian-Bashin’, Pope-slammin’, pocket-protector-wearin’, nerd-bucket, Atheists. This poster not responsible for so-called moderate evo-atheists feelings who feel they’ve been caught in the crossfire (there’s no crossfire here… you can’t “half” believe in God). This response posted by a God-fearin’, Church-goin’, 6-Literal-Day-Creation-believin’, Bible-thumpin’, Pew-jumpin’, Jesus-freak. Any Atheist interested in worshipping the Flying-Spaghetti-Monster will have to consult Little Dickie Dawkins for instruction. NOTE: MY OPINION IS SUBJECT TO STAY THE SAME...

In the Beginning was Information: Some Quantitative Evaluations of Semantics (Ch 10) by Dr. Werner Gitt We can now begin to evaluate semantic information quantitatively, after having considered the essentials at the semantics level in the preceding chapters...

“Charles Darwin and his followers have shown how all life on the planet evolved from a single source. The mechanism they call evolution by natural selection means competition, extinction and the emergence of new life forms without the need for a director or conductor. The Creator shimmers and vanishes like a mirage.” So says political pundit Andrew Marr, one of the BBC’s most senior journalists, in the first of his three BBC2 programmes celebrating evolution and its legacy during the last century and a half. While there was much to agree with in this thought-provoking series, Marr is careful to...

The Myth of Vestigial Organs and Bad Design: Why Darwinism Is False by Jonathan Wells Note: This is Part 5 in a series reviewing Jerry Coyne's Why Evolution Is True. Read Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, and Part 4 here. Darwin argued in The Origin of Species that the widespread occurrence of vestigial organs — organs that may have once had a function but are now useless — is evidence against creation. “On the view of each organism with all its separate parts having been specially created, how utterly inexplicable is it that organs bearing the...