Free Republic

Apparently, the briefs were written by the ICR’s own James J.S. Johnson, whom FindLaw describes as a “family lawyer.” Mr. Johnson is not listed in Martindale-Hubbell (which is where you should go to read peer reviews on anyone you’re thinking of hiring as a lawyer), but he does write some crazy, crazy stuff for ICR’s website. (ICR’s local counsel in Texas seems to be the firm of Adams, Lynch & Loftin, P.C., but they do not appear to be actively involved in the litigation so far.) I should add that “family law” generally means as “divorce law,” and in general,...

Scientists say they've found a "missing link" in the early evolution of seals and walruses — the skeleton of a web-footed, otter-like creature that was evolving away from a life on land. Those feet and other anatomical features show an early step on the way to developing flippers and other adaptations for a life in the sea, the scientists said. One expert called it "a fantastic discovery" that fills a crucial gap in the fossil record....

ScienceDaily (Apr. 22, 2009) — During the summers of 2006 and 2007, an international team of researchers from China and the United States excavated a treasure trove of dinosaur skeletons from Early Cretaceous rocks in the southern part of the Gobi Desert near the ancient Silk Road city of Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China. Two of their discoveries represent new species of theropod dinosaurs. The new species are described in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The papers will appear in print later this year in a special volume entitled "Recent advances in Chinese palaeontology."

ScienceDaily (Apr. 19, 2009) — New evidence gleaned from CT scans of fossils locked inside rocks may flip the order in which two kinds of four-limbed animals with backbones were known to have moved from fish to landlubber. Both extinct species, known as Ichthyostega and Acanthostega, lived an estimated 360-370 million years ago in what is now Greenland. Acanthostega was thought to have been the most primitive tetrapod, that is, the first vertebrate animal to possess limbs with digits rather than fish fins. But the latest evidence from a Duke graduate student's research indicates that Ichthyostega may have been closer...

Special Earth Day Issue  Arpil 22, 2009   UFOs and AGW The Next Ice Age Green up, Man! It's Freaking Earth Day! Saving Our Planet, One Guilt Trip at a Time A Lenin's Birthday Story As Earth Day again brings forth disciples of the religion of inanimate matter, we would do well to examine just how little we know about our world.  Doubtless a prominent theme in this Earth Day will be the great peril of global warming.  Our planet is growing warmer because of sinful man, and if government does not take drastic steps to curb our activities, then...

Anti-creationists: do they fear an overthrow of Darwin in the U.S.? by Russ Humphreys Published: 16 April 2009 This year, as has been happening every year for several decades, various U.S. states are introducing legislation encouraging public-school students to examine scientific evidence against Darwinism. And again, anti-creationist lobby groups, such as the National Center for Science Education,[1] are pushing the panic button, claiming that such efforts aim to introduce Christianity into government-run schools. This year, however, the anti-creationists seem to be pushing the button harder, saying that such bills “are multiplying out of control”.[2] Perhaps that is because more states...

The common thread throughout Darwin’s life was his continual struggle with the issue of death and suffering. He was never able to reconcile the existence of death, disease, and struggle with the character of a loving God: I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidae with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of Caterpillars, or that a cat should play with mice.[1] Darwin was unable to understand why a loving Creator God would allow the horrible things he witnessed in nature and everyday life. Animals fed on one...

Art as Propaganda for Evolution April 10, 2009 — Should a scientific theory be propagated by appeal to scientific evidence, or by appeal to emotions through visualization?  Nature this week contained two articles that shamelessly praised art as propaganda for evolution.  Surprisingly, one of them mentioned Charles Darwin as someone “at the cutting edge of visualization.” Endless Forms:  Carl Zimmer reviewed an exhibit currently at the Yale Center for British Art, Endless Forms: Charles Darwin, Natural Science and the Visual Arts.1  The title is taken from the last sentence in the Origin where Darwin said that endless forms most beautiful...

Anti-God Ads Hit Dallas by Christine Dao* In the heart of the Bible belt, billboards stating “Don’t believe in God? You are not alone” have been posted in parts of Dallas, home of the Institute for Creation Research. The boards are sponsored by the Dallas-Fort Worth Coalition of Reason (DFWCoR), an atheist nonprofit group which joins together smaller local anti-theistic organizations to “increase the growth, visibility and acceptance of nontheists throughout the Metroplex.”[1] Two ads have been posted in the D/FW area, one just a few miles from ICR headquarters, and will remain up through April. According to Fred Edwords...

Tail-gliding Bugs Are Not Evidence for Flight Evolution by Jeffrey Tomkins, Ph.D.* Researchers recently announced that they have unlocked some of the mystery surrounding the evolution of insect flight.1 Their observance of a certain wingless insect led them to hypothesize that its “directed aerial descent” might be an important stage in flight evolution. But is it?...

Do these mysterious stones mark the site of the Garden of Eden? By TOM COX For the old Kurdish shepherd, it was just another burning hot day in the rolling plains of eastern Turkey. Following his flock over the arid hillsides, he passed the single mulberry tree, which the locals regarded as 'sacred'. The bells on his sheep tinkled in the stillness. Then he spotted something. Crouching down, he brushed away the dust, and exposed a strange, large, oblong stone. The man looked left and right: there were similar stone rectangles, peeping from the sands. Calling his dog to heel,...

Atheists strategize against book on God Online plot reveals plan to give Christian writing low rating The Christian author whose book "You Can Lead an Atheist to Evidence but You Can't Make Him Think" bumped atheist Richard Dawkins' "The God Delusion" on Amazon.com's best-seller list says he's uncovered a conspiracy to attack his work...

For the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth (February 12, 2009), National Geographic News asked leading scientists for their picks of the most important fossils that show evolution in action ...

Conservative groups are rising to the defense of America's Christian heritage by fighting an atheist who wants to remove the motto "In God We Trust" from the nation's currency. Michael Newdow told the ACLU of Oklahoma that he would file a lawsuit against the national motto this week on the grounds that it is an unconstitutional endorsement of religion and "excludes people who don't believe in God." An earlier lawsuit filed by Newdow seeks to remove the phrase "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance, and in that case, the liberal Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Newdow....

Tired of all the frivolous Establishment Clause lawsuits being filed over one individual being offended by a religious symbol without ever having to show any merit or proof of actual injury? Well the ACLJ are hoping to stop that special privilege so often abused church-state separation advocates. There are people who, just because they pay taxes, file suit challenging federal government actions that supposedly give unconstitutional support to religion. In no other area of the law does the Court allow this kind of legal standing to bring challenges. For years, atheists and others who are antagonistic to religion and who...

Tuesday, December 14, 2004 State-imposed atheism Posted: December 14, 20041:00 a.m. Eastern By Joseph Farah © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com This whole church-state debate is being miscast. The degenerates at the American Civil Liberties Union will tell you they are trying to make sure government doesn't favor one religion over another when they hunt down Boy Scouts meeting on public property like they were war criminals. Meanwhile, the other side in this debate makes a pathetic defense of the Scouts and other victims of his radical secular jihad. This isn't a conflict over whose view of the First Amendment is correct. It's a conflict...

A federal court of appeals ruled yesterday Wisconsin prison officials violated an inmate's rights because they did not treat atheism as a religion. "Atheism is [the inmate's] religion, and the group that he wanted to start was religious in nature even though it expressly rejects a belief in a supreme being," the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals said.