From Christianity Today: Darwin Divides -- Christian college professors split on Texas science standards. The state of Texas is working on revising its science education standards, and one of the proposals is to remove a requirement that teachers include weaknesses in the theory of evolution. Christian biology/science professors in the state are divided on this …
Category: Origins
Vatican to sort of include discussion of ID in evolution conference
From AP/FoxNews: Vatican to Discuss, but Not Endorse, Intelligent Design VATICAN CITY — The Vatican will include discussion of intelligent design in a conference marking the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species," officials said Tuesday. "The committee agreed to consider ID as a phenomenon of an ideological and cultural nature, thus …
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Darwin’s Birthday
Charles Darwin was born on February 12, 1809; two hundred years ago today. Darwin's theory of evolution, obviously, has been an extremely divisive topic. Has Darwinism made the world safe for atheism, as the "New Atheists" would claim? Is Darwinian evolution really EVILution; a doctrine of the devil? Or are evolution and Christianity perfectly compatible? …
Charles Lyell: geologist, Christian believer
Here's the frontispiece from Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology. The book was first published in three volumes in 1830 to 1833, but this is from an 1857 edition. This cross-section shows an amazing understanding of the basic geologic processes that form the Earth's crust: plutonism, volcanism, metamorphism, sedimentation, and folding. Like most geologists (at least …
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All truth is God’s truth
Does the Bible take priority over science, or are science and scripture complementary? Here's the approach I take: All truth is God's truth. I'm not the first to use this phrase by any means, but I think it is a good summary of how I view the relationship between science and my Christian faith. Sometimes …
Darwin, evolution, and God
This may be new to some of you, but Charles Darwin did not reject God because of evolution, but because of other factors, such as anger over the death of his 10-year old daughter. Darwin was more of an agnostic than an atheist, and he certainly was no anti-God crusader like Richard Dawkins is today. …
Martian methane
From LiveScience.com: Mars Methane: Geology or Biology? Plumes of methane gas detected over certain locations on Mars in 2003 could point to active geological processes on the red planet, or perhaps even to methane-burping microbes deep below the Martian surface, a new study reports. There is no firm evidence for life on the red planet, …
UK Darwin coin
February 12, 2009 will be the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin (as well as being the 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln). The Royal Mint is producing a 2 pound circulating coin in commemoration of Darwin: I expect to see lots of fireworks from all sides of the creation-evolution debate …
Following more wrong footprints
The speaker at the young-Earth creationist seminar I'm attending also referred to the Robledos Mountains human footprint, allegedly found in Permian rocks of New Mexico. Again, I'm highly skeptical. Here it is: If this were genuine, it would be the most precious fossil in the entire world. It would be in a glass case in …
Following the wrong footprints
I've been attending a seminar presented by a smaller young-Earth creationist organization. I respect the speakers for their commitment to the inerrancy of Scriptures, and their proclamation of the gospel. I share their trust in the Bible, and my heart is lifted any time I hear Christ proclaimed as God's sacrifice to take away our …
Science and faith in the UK
From USA Today: Science and faith, the British way, an opinion piece by Mark I. Pinsky. Some of the most prominent researchers in England enjoy a vibrant religious life that coexists with their immersion in the scientific world. Indeed, these evangelicals might give American believers, and scientists, something to think about. Pinsky, a Jewish journalist …
Batty Arguments
This item was originally posted in September 2007. I have added it to my blog recycling program. Because I have new readers of The GeoChristian, I will occasionally go back and re-use some of my favorite blog entries. One way for me to have my faith strengthened is to get in discussions with skeptics. They …
Evolution/Religion stories in the news
Some news stories in the past week that have to do with religion and evolution: Vatican official, professor dismayed by Christian groups that reject evolution A professor at a Vatican-sponsored university expressed dismay Tuesday that some Christian groups reject the theory of evolution — implicitly criticizing the literal interpretation of the Bible. Church Owes Darwin …
Batty Arguments
One way for me to have my faith strengthened is to get in discussions with skeptics. They usually think they know it all and that Christians are a bunch of idiots, but when they speak they expose their ignorance and poor reasoning. Last year I reported on a discussion I had via World Magazine Blog …
Creation Museum Open in Kentucky
At the risk of getting myself in trouble... Today is the grand opening of the Creation Museum in northern Kentucky. For the record, I think this is a bad idea. I could write a rather long critique of the philosophy and "science" behind this museum, but I'll save that for some other time. Here's my …
Creationist earns PhD
A man named Marcus Ross recently earned his PhD in geology from the University of Rhode Island. The unusual thing about this is that he is a young-earth creationist. With his views on the age of the earth, I was very surprised that the university awarded him his doctorate, and there are secularists out there …
The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy
The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy is a standard Evangelical statement of what is—and what is not—meant by the term "inerrancy." In regards to science and the scripture, the statement has article XII, which says: We affirm that Scripture in its entirety is inerrant, being free from all falsehood, fraud, or deceit. We deny that …
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The Language of God
Francis Collins was the director for the Human Genome Project, which sequenced all of the base pairs for human DNA. He recently spoke as the keynote speaker at the annual conference of the American Scientific Affiliation, and that speech can be found as a video or mp3 audio file at http://www.asa3.org. The speech is entitled …
Evolution on the Galapagos Islands
From livescience.com: For the first time scientists have observed in real-time evolutionary changes in one species driven by competition for resources from another. In a mere two decades, one of Charles Darwin's finch species, Geospiza fortis, reduced its beak size to better equip itself to consume small sized seeds, scientists report in the July 14 …
The ID “Debate”
There was a debate/panel discussion over intelligent design at Biola University on May 12th. The ID side was represented by Michael Behe , Paul Nelson, Guillermo Gonzales, Jonathan Wells, and Steve Meyer; all prominent ID-ers. The opposition included a philosopher, journalist, biochemist (the only scientist on this side), and a state university religion professor. I …
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