Free Republic

Jeremy Seal on an Epic History BATH, England, DEC. 20, 2005 (Zenit.org).- The modern persona of Santa Claus is a far cry from its origins: St. Nicholas, bishop of Myra. So how did he go from a charitable saint to an icon of Christmas consumerism? Travel writer Jeremy Seal embarked on an international search to answer that question and recorded his findings in "Nicholas: The Epic Journey from Saint to Santa Claus" (Bloomsbury". Seal told ZENIT what he discovered tracking the cult of Santa Claus across the globe and why he thinks St. Nicholas and his charism of charity still...

Why are physicists taking the idea of multiple universes seriously now? First, there was the discovery in the past few years that inflation seems right. This theory that the universe expanded spectacularly in the first fraction of a second fits a lot of data. Inflation tells us that the universe is probably extremely big and necessarily diverse. On sufficiently big scales, and if inflation lasts long enough, this diversity will produce every possible universe. The same process that forged our universe in a big bang will happen over and over. The mathematics are rickety, but that's what inflation implies: a...

No Safe Ground For Life To Stand On During World's Largest Mass Extinction The world's largest mass extinction was probably caused by poisonous volcanic gas, according to research published today.

When President Bush declared his support for the teaching of Intelligent Design (ID) theory in public schools along with Darwinian evolution, both he and the theory itself drew a lot of criticism. Among the many lines of attack the critics launch, one theme remains strikingly constant: the notion that ID is a Trojan Horse of Christian fundamentalists whose ultimate aim is to turn the U.S. into an theocracy. In a furious New Republic cover story, "The Case Against Intelligent Design," Jerry Coyne joins in this hype and implies that all non-Christians, including Muslims, should be alarmed by this supposedly Christian...

In an election in Pennsylvania this week, voters tossed out eight members of the Pittsburgh school board who wanted Intelligent Design theory to be taught alongside evolution in school. But should Intelligent Design -- the theory that living organisms were created at least in part by an intelligent designer, not by a blind process of evolution by natural selection -- be taught in public schools? In one way, the answer to this question is simple: if it's a scientific theory, it should; if it's not, it shouldn't (on pain of flaunting the Establishment Clause). The question, however, is whether Intelligent...

The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed on from generation to generation, says that, "When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount." However, in government, education, and in corporate America, more advanced strategies are often employed, such as: 1. Buying a stronger whip. 2. Changing riders. 3. Appointing a committee to study the horse. 4. Arranging to visit other countries to see how other cultures ride dead horses. 5. Lowering the standards so that dead horses can be included. 6. Reclassifying the dead horse as living-impaired. 7. Hiring outside contractors to...

SNIP..... While the Democrats and their base now think that finally the elected Democrats have stood up on their hind legs and they're showing some guts and they're showing some backbone, they're now happy. Are they not? The base is happy, and this is another thing that's difficult to comprehend. Unless you realize these people are whacked-out. They are happy over nothing. They are happy over rhetoric. They think shutting down the Senate has changed the momentum. They're as out of touch with what's happening in this country as they are out of touch with the war and the whole...

An international group of scientists have filed a "friend of the court" brief with federal Judge John E. Jones III advising him that "the identification of intelligent causes is a well-established scientific practice" and asking him to allow "the freedom of scientists to pursue scientific evidence wherever it may lead." Jones is presiding over the Dover intelligent design trial. The 24-page brief — carrying the names of 85 scientists in fields including chemistry, molecular biology, mathematics, neurological surgery and environmental science — states "the definition of science and the boundaries of science should be left to scientists to debate." "Any...

A headline on the UK’s Guardian today reads, “Age cannot wither him,” referring to Gore Vidal. The author, Emma Brockes, pays homage at the feet of Vidal, praising him as an “aristocrat, intellectual and prolific novelist, playwright, and essayist,” flattering “his ongoing radicalism,” and gleefully exclaiming that he “is as outspoken as ever.” But Vidal’s left-wing hubris and insanity does not completely escape the awe-struck Brockes… sort of. Brockes interviewed Vidal at his “grand old palazzo” in Italy. She notes that Vidal just sold this palace for “£9.5m” ($17,173,147.00) so that he could move to another house he owns in...

Video @: rtsp://s96wm.castup.net/server12/60169184-61.wmv?s=&rid=509100539523751&ct=US&rg=US&aid=214 9-11 was a show, a production to gain 'international legiticimy' J00z all called off that day 150 Congressmen asked for inquires Bush knew of bombings and let them happen (Washington Post Quoted) Towers fell 'like a movie production' or 'play', not real. J00s control Osama, and used to go into Afganistan and Iraq (proof is that it "was broadcast live", and that Bush said "Oh, what a wonderful pilot" while at the Elementary School And thats just the 1st 10min of this clip (which runs over an hr)

LONDON - A new theory proposes that mad cow disease may have come from feeding British cattle meal contaminated with human remains infected with a variation of the disease. The hypothesis, outlined this week in The Lancet medical journal, suggests the infected cattle feed came from the Indian subcontinent, where bodies sometimes are ceremonially thrown into the Ganges River. Indian experts not connected with the research pointed out weaknesses in the theory but agreed it should be investigated. The cause of the original case or cases of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is unknown, but it belongs to...

August 6th marked the 60th anniversary of America’s use of an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. While some still argue that President Truman’s decision to use the A-bomb was “controversial,” they are afflicted with the scourge of our time, the loss of a sense of moral proportion and certainty. Unfortunately, those with relativistic morals will lead us to see the day when nuclear weapons are used again – this time to end once and for all the barbaric savagery of Islamism. Green Left Weekly (GLW) calls the U.S. putting a swift end to WWII – using atomic...

A new analysis of 'cool' spots in the cosmic microwave background may cast new doubts on a key piece of evidence supporting the big bang theory of how the universe was formed. Two scientists at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) looked for but couldn't find evidence of gravitational "lensing" where you might expect to find it, in the most distant light source in the universe -- the cosmic microwave background. Results of this research by Dr. Richard Lieu, a UAH physics professor, and Dr. Jonathan Mittaz, a UAH research associate, were published Monday in the "Astrophysical Journal." In...

A genetic study helps confirm the theory that Polynesians, who settled islands across a vast swathe of ocean, started out in Taiwan, researchers reported on Monday. Mitochondrial DNA, which is passed along virtually unchanged from mothers to their children, provides a kind of genetic clock linking present-day Polynesians to the descendants of aboriginal residents of Taiwan. Samples taken from nine indigenous Taiwanese tribes -- who are different ethnically and genetically from the now-dominant Han Chinese -- show clear similarities between the Taiwan groups and ethnic Polynesians, Jean Trejaut and Marie Lin of Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taipei and colleagues reported....

If you went back in time and met your teenage parents, you could not split them up and prevent your birth - even if you wanted to, a new quantum model has stated.Researchers speculate that time travel can occur within a kind of feedback loop where backwards movement is possible, but only in a way that is "complementary" to the present. In other words, you can pop back in time and have a look around, but you cannot do anything that will alter the present you left behind. The new model, which uses the laws of quantum mechanics, gets...

(RNS) "The God Who Wasn't There" is a feature-length documentary exploring the theory that Jesus Christ never existed. It begins its theatrical screenings in New York and other cities throughout the United States on Friday, June 17. Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times says the film is "provocative -- to put it mildly." Christianity Today called it "an irreverent, Michael Moore-like documentary." The film claims that Jesus is a fictional character, a legend never based on a real human being. Directed by former Christian Brian Flemming the film includes interviews with liberal religious leaders and non-believers. "Many Christians believe...

Flying skywhales brought down by giant hornetlike creatures hunting through a shared intelligence ... trees stretching upward of half a mile and 40-foot fan-shaped plants that undulate toward the never-setting sun. Science fiction or science fact? Well, a little of both, according to the National Geographic Channel's captivating special Extraterrestrial, airing at 8 p.m. Sunday. This show has nothing to do with movies by Steven Spielberg or with studying possible clues that aliens are visiting planet Earth. It is far more fascinating. The show informs us that within a few years, in the lifetime of most of us now living,...

Berkeley - The bizarre plates and spikes that lined the backbones of the long-extinct stegosaurs were probably extreme examples of the often elaborate and colorful displays developed by animals to recognize fellow members of their species, according to an international team of paleontologists. The team's analysis of stegosaur plates lends support to a growing consensus among paleontologists that the weird adornments of many dinosaurs - the horns of triceratops, the helmet-like domes of the pachycephalosaurs, and the crests of the duck-billed hadrosaurs - likely served no function other than to differentiate species, akin to birds' colorful feather ornamentation. "Our studies...

I've got a quick question that I'm sure several here will have a answer to. Yesterday our flaky pastor decided to preach on creation. He hit some of the high spots of old earth vs young earth.... then as he got into the sermon he revealed his view. He believes that in Genesis 1...days 2 through 5 .... the text describes God "preparing" just the area of earth where he would put man. (presumably the garden although he didn't say garden). And that he prepared this area of earth in 6 literal days. That day 3 wasn't really the creation...

Behold the giant Galapagos tortoise! It weighs 700 pounds, lives God-only-knows how long and a couple of weeks ago when I was on the Galapagos Islands, could not be beholden at all. The tortoise we wanted to see, Lonesome George, so called because he is apparently the last of his subspecies, was in hiding. In a sense, that's appropriate because almost half of America cannot see any of the Galapagos for what they are: the home office of evolution. This is where Charles Darwin got his bright idea. It is odd to amble around the Galapagos and see the handiwork...