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Epigenetics Rising in Consciousness of Geneticists, Embryologists --snip-- Epigenetics is poised to mount another major assault on evolutionary theory. One of the points made in the upcoming film Darwin’s Dilemma* is that epigenetic factors pile difficulty upon difficulty for Darwin, because evolutionary theory needs to account not only for genetic information in DNA, but the epigenetic information that controls development. There are many factors beyond the gene library that determine a body plan. What orchestrates and choreographs the orderly localization of cell types in a developing embryo? What manages their differentiation? What commits them to the roles they will play?...

A new life is started the moment a human sperm cell unites with a human egg. Sounds simple, doesn't it? A person can decide for himself, but he will need to follow along very closely to catch all of the details and carefully piece them together, just as he would follow a skillful mystery...

An Open Letter to President Obama Regarding the Appointment of Science Advisor John Holdren Dear President Obama, I note with dismay your appointment of Dr. John Holdren as Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, and Co-Chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Although Dr. Holdren’s experience in academia and administration may be adequate, his publicly expressed views regarding population control disqualify him from holding office. I will set aside objections to Dr. Holdren’s scientific competence. Despite his strong scientific credentials, he advanced theories...

The fatal flaw with radioactive dating methods --snip-- This illustrates the problem with the radioactive dating of geological events. Those who promote the reliability of the method spend a lot of time impressing you with the technical details of radioactive decay, half-lives, mass-spectroscopes, etc. But they don’t discuss the basic flaw in the method: you cannot determine the age of a rock using radioactive dating because...

The remains of a dinosaur found in the Hell Creek Formation of North Dakota are so well preserved that some scientists are just “gobsmacked.” The mummified remains belong to a hadrosaur nicknamed “Dakota” and were the subject of a recent study that appeared in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.[1] About the size of a hippo, the dinosaur is supposedly 66 million years old. But its skin says otherwise, a find that paleontologist and the study’s co-author Phil Manning called “absolutely gobsmacking.”[2] Like many other young-looking dinosaur remains,[3,4,5,6] this specimen was “extremely well preserved” and contained “soft-tissue replacement structures...

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP)--John Holdren's appointment as President Obama's new science czar is emblematic of the abuse of science that we can increasingly expect in our secularized political environment. Holdren, in 1977, coauthored a book with environmentalists Paul and Anne Ehrlich titled “Ecoscience” in which they entertained the sterilization of humans by everything from surgical procedures to doping the water supply. Now that Holdren’s words are coming back to haunt him, his office denies that he ever meant to "coerce" people into being sterilized. (Who, though, in their right mind would voluntarily consent to being sterilized by having their water...

Man 678. Of more interest to me are the dogmas concerning the formation of man. Why not admit that man has evolved out of the past? Out of the past what? Man has evolved in many things. God meant him to do so. But he did not evolve out of nothing. Evolution supposes something evolving. We are forced to admit a Creator. If you will not admit that, you will have nothing turning its non-existent self into something. 679. May not Catholics believe in creative evolution, or emergent evolution? Creative evolution is a contradiction in terms. Evolution supposes an existent...

How Evolution Can Allow for Trivial Developmental Leaps Some evolutionary-development researchers must be taking cues from the PR team that overhyped “Ida.” A recent article on ScienceDaily was titled, “How Evolution Can Allow For Large Developmental Leaps,” but the article documents nothing of the kind. It begins by discussing a long-recognized problem in evolution: “when it comes to traits like the number of wings on an insect, or limbs on a primate, there is no middle ground. How are these sorts of large evolutionary leaps made?” I appreciate the author’s acknowledgment that functional intermediate forms can be a problem for...

Dawkins Supports First UK Atheist Kids' Camp by Christine Dao* The God Delusion author Richard Dawkins has sponsored a week-long summer camp geared towards making atheists out of children...

When we daydream about the future, we tend to focus on the fabulous belongings we're going to have. Jet packs, flying cars, weapons to kill aliens, cell phones that make today's sleek models look clunky -- you name it, we're going to have it. We don't tend to focus, however, on who we'll be in the future. Most of us probably picture ourselves exactly the same, though maybe thinner, as surely we'll all have robot personal trainers by then. While we see the world's technology evolving to meet our needs, we may not think about how we ourselves might be...

My friend Paul Nelson has the patience of Job. He writes that evolutionists, such as PZ Myers and Jerry Coyne, “need to think about [their theological arguments] more deeply.” In one moment evolutionists make religious arguments and in the next they claim their theory is “just science.” Their religious arguments, they explain, really aren’t religious arguments after all. Gee, that was easy. In light of such absurdity, I don’t have much confidence that evolutionists are going to think more deeply about this. But it would be nice if they would stop misrepresenting science. And it would be nice if they...

Eugenie Scott Coaches Scientists to Talk About Evolution Without Revealing Any Weaknesses Eugenie Scott plays many roles in the evolution debate. Now, in a recent enlightening interview in Science News, she offers her wisdom as a media coach for scientists talking publicly about evolution. Her most important piece of advice? Never use terminology that could imply any real weakness in evolutionary biology. Dr. Scott counsels: To put it mildly, it doesn’t help when evolutionary biologists say things like, “This completely revolutionizes our view of X.” Because hardly anything we come up with is going to completely revolutionize our view of...

It is with a measure of heartfelt trepidation that I begin the catechetical lectures for this working year, for the topic with which I have resolved to grapple is creation and evolution. I do not intend to delve into the scientific details; in that domain I would doubtlessly not be qualified. Instead, I shall examine the relationship between belief in creation and scientific access to the world, to reality. Thus, I begin with the first words of the Bible: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1). These should be the first words of instruction...

There seems to be something about evolutionism that generates arrogance in many of its spokesmen. The concept is so wide-ranging that it purportedly can explain everything scientifically, from the origin of the cosmos to the origin of religion. Perhaps because it seems to eliminate the need for God, science itself becomes "god," and some evolutionists think they have become its official prophets and priests. One of their communicants, in fact, calls them its "shamans." He says: We show deference to our leaders, pay respect to our elders and follow the dictates of our shamans; this being the Age of Science,...

The God of Wonders is an absolutely amazing DVD which gives great insight into the multi faceted and complex design of the world in which we live in. The greatest scoffers and doubters will have to conclude after watching this DVD that evolution is the greatest con and fraud of our time. A must see for all! You will come away in absolute amazement! To Almighty God be the glory! (Psalm 19:1) God of Wonders God’s wonders surround us, and these marvels reveal much about our Creator. Learn about the incredible complexity of DNA and the miraculous workings of the...

July 24, 2009 — Richard Dawkins proposed in his book The Selfish Gene that a gene, being the target of natural selection and unit of replication, is the entity most likely to get passed on to posterity; as such, it is “selfish” in that the rest of the organism is really only incidental to its immortality. Dawkins expanded this into the “extended phenotype” – the idea that the gene extends its influence over the rest of the organism to ensure its own survival. Fern Elsdon-Baker, writing an opinion piece called “The Dawkins dogma” in New Scientist, called this the most...

Creation 646. Let us leave these mysterious inner activities of God, and turn to external creatures. How do you view the theories of creation and evolution? Creation is not a theory. It is a fact revealed by God. Evolution is a fact within certain restricted spheres, but a mere theory when made of universal application. We have to admit evolution in knowledge, or in growth from babyhood to manhood. As a universal theory, however, evolution from nothing is absurd. Yet granted that God created something, it is quite possible that God endowed His original creation with power to evolve. Did...

The Evolutionist is "Shocked, Shocked to Find Religion in Here" --snip-- Evolutionary thought is, and always has been profoundly religious. Of course that is nothing new--religious mandates have always been influential. What is remarkable is the denial of evolutionists about their own arguments and convictions...

A new document entitled “How can we answer questions about creation and origins?” recommends teaching both creationism and atheism as part of Religious Education in state schools. There are some benefits to this controversial new document, but there are also some concerns. The UK government has released a controversial new document on the teaching of Religious Education (RE) in state schools.[1] The document is entitled “How can we answer questions about creation and origins?” If schools follow these guidelines, it will be the first time that both creationism and atheism have been specifically recommended for teaching in any subject in...

Life is not a naturalistic phenomenon with unlimited evolutionary potential as Darwin proposed. It is intelligently designed, ruled by immutable laws, and survives only because it has a built-in facilitated variation mechanism for continually adapting to internal and external challenges and changes. The essential components are: functional molecular architecture and machinery, modular switching cascades that control the machinery and a signal network that coordinates everything. All three are required for survival, so they must have been present from the beginning—a conclusion that demands intelligent design. Life’s built-in ability to adapt and diversify looks like Darwinian evolution, but it is not....