"John Ray's Diary" is an attempt to bring Ray's Christian principles to the fore when commenting on contemporary issues in science. This is in two parts: first some comments on contemporary issues and secondly Pick of the Web
|
John Ray's Diary On Darwin anniversaries Has the Royal Society’s rough handling of Michael Reiss backfired? On 11 September 2008, Professor Michael Reiss, then Director of Education of the Royal Society, addressed a British Association Festival of Science meeting and suggested that science education must incorporate respect for the individual and teachers need to recognise that creationists have a worldview which differs in significant ways from our secular culture. Read more ... 'How to live with Delusion - a response to The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins" If matter is all there is, governed by the laws of physics and chemistry, what becomes of personality, consciousness, morality and free agency? What has Richard Dawkins to say on these issues that are central to our thinking about who we are and what is our place in the world? Read more ... 'Truth in Science' deserves our appreciation! Outrage and alarm was the media greeting for the launch of the ‘Truth in Science’ initiative on 20 September 2006. Schools up and down the country were sent two DVDs with a study guide helping teachers to utilise these materials in biology lessons. Instead of welcoming a constructive and stimulating input to the educational process, the denunciations were almost universal. Read more ... Recolonisation and Earth History. The Committee of the Biblical Creation Society have noted a web page on the Answers in Genesis web site which refers to several members of BCS (who are also contributors to Origins) as "compromisers" who have "allowed their 'science' to lead their understanding of the Bible, rather than the reverse." The AiG authors are referring to the Recolonisation approach to understanding geology and the fossil record. To find out what the Committee thinks about this, click here ... Rod Liddle on the New Fundamentalists. Rupert Kaye writes: "I tuned in to watch this edition of Dispatches (screened on Channel 4 at 8pm on Monday 6 March 2006) in eager expectation that Rod Liddle would visit a number of new Christian schools to find out if, how and why they are distinctive. After all, there was plenty for him to have got his teeth into." To read more, please click here ... How should Christians assess Intelligent Design? ID should be welcomed by Christians. It is far from being an intrusion into our intellectual heritage. ID leaders are expressing clearly and incisively an understanding of the created order that is essentially biblical. Our forefathers held similar views, but their thoughts lacked maturity and were expressed in a less rigorous way. In essence, ID is the view that intelligent design is manifested in the created order. Design is not an aesthetic response to creation or a subjective feeling. Design is really there. Concluding that life is designed is not a matter of faith, but a matter of physical evidence. . ... Click here for more Intelligent Design - Science education and design in the natural world: Judging by media interest, the concept of Intelligent Design (ID) is having a major impact in the USA.. ... Click here for more The Amazing Shrinking Humans from Flores: On 28th October 2004, something genuinely novel appeared in the pages of Nature and hit the front pages of newspapers around the world.. ... Click here for more Pope Benedict XVI and his challenge to evolutionary theorists: Pope Benedict XVI says "We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution." ... Click here for more Questioning Orthodoxy: Dr. Alan Feduccia Speaks on the Origin of Birds A Report by Casey Luskin Click here to read more ... High Priests of Evolution: . ... Click here for more Teaching that does justice to the data about origins: In early September 2004, the media carried... Click here to read more ... Just-so stories and Design Explanations: the Elephant’s Trunk. On Monday 9 August 2004, BBC Radio 4 ... Click here to read more ... The BBC Floats with Noah– but not the biblical one! On March 21st, the BBC showed a “drama documentary” on Noah’s ark. Click here to read more... |
 |
January 2010 The Darwin Show, by Steven Shapin, The London Review of Books , 32(1), 7 January 2010, 3-9. Reflective thoughts on history's biggest birthday party. Survival of the fittest theory: Darwinism's limits, by Jerry Fodor and Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini ( New Scientist , 3 February 2010). The authors point out that much of the vast neo-Darwinian literature is distressingly uncritical – and show that Darwinism is in urgent need of criticism. Building a Cell: Staggering Complexity, by David F. Coppedge, Creation-Evolution Headlines (Feb 2, 2010). The living cell is a self-organizing, self-replicating, environmentally responsive machine of staggering complexity . December 2009 Christian Geologists Influential at GSA Meeting, by Steven A. Austin, Acts & Facts. 38 (12): 8-9. Flood geology research presented at the Geological Society of America meeting in October. Get with the Program, by Heather Zeiger. Salvo 11 (Winter 2009) A Review of “Signature in the Cell” by Stephen Meyer The Party's Over, by Jonathan Wells (The American Spectator, 22 December 2009). Reflections on the Darwin Bicentennial - what has been celebrated? November 2009 My Life with Darwin, by Martha Hutchens, Touchstone (November/December 2009). A Report on Evolution from the Laboratory Bench Getting Over Our Love for Darwin, By William A. Dembski, Southern Baptist Texan (3 November 2009). On why reconciling Christianity with Darwinism is a vain exercise. Darwinists, Moral Relativism, and Hitler, by Richard Weikart, The Church Report (4 December 2009) For some, Darwinism is the basis for a secular worldview that rejects theism and promotes moral relativism. . October 2009 150 Years On - Did Darwin get it right? A talk by Stephen Lloyd at Grace Baptist Church, Stockport (October 2, 2009). (Audio file) When Atheists Believe, by Chuck Colson with Catherine Larson, Christianity Today (22 October 2009). The UK has some prominent atheists that have been rethinking their opposition to Christianity. The More They Know Darwin, The Less They Want Darwin-Only Indoctrination, by Anika Smith, Evolution News & Views (October 27, 2009). A British Council survey shows most people want evolution to have to compete for its place of dominance in their schools. September 2009 Blown Away, by: Dan Peterson, American Spectator (September 2009). Review of “Signature in the Cell, said to be a “defining work” in discussions of life's origin and design in nature. Climbing Mt. Improbable, Illustra Media, September 2009. A clip from the new documentary: Darwin's Dilemma regarding the role of natural selection (also here) More Abundant than Stars: An Introductory Overview of Creation Microbiology, by Joseph W. Francis and Georgia Purdom, Answers Research Journal, 1 (2009): 85-95. A creation-based approach to microbiology. August 2009 Lessons From the Fall: An Overview of Genesis 3, by W. Gary Phillips (Answers, July-September 2009, 24-28). The meaning of Genesis 3: one of the most important chapters in the Bible. How God and Science Mix, by Stephen M. Barr (First Things, Jul 15, 2009). One particle physicist responds to another who had written an essay with the title: “God and Science Don't Mix”. Honoring the President's Council on Bioethics, by Evan Rosa, Centre for Bioethics and Culture (July 2009). Thoughts on the abrupt termination of the Council by the Obama administration because of its philosophical leanings. July 2009 Of Gaps, Fine-Tuning and Newton's Solar System, by Cornelius Hunter, Darwin's God (blog), July 4, 2009. A twist in the tale of solar system instability, as first perceived by Isaac Newton. Jefferson's support for intelligent design, By Stephen C. Meyer, The Boston Globe (July 15, 2009) Thomas Jefferson's demand for a “separation between church and state'' does not conflict with his advocacy of design in nature. . Do Species Change? by Paul Garner (Answers, January-March 2009, 36-39). Where did the belief in the “fixity of species” come from? June 2009 Consensus Science: The Rise of a Scientific Elite, by Randy J. Guliuzza, Acts and Facts (June 2009) Addressing the problems of bias in science communities and a plea for a new emphasis on empiricism. A Creationist Perspective of Beneficial Mutations in Bacteria, by Kevin L. Anderson and Georgia Purdom, Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Creationism, pp. 73-86 (2008) Evidence for beneficial mutations is not evidence that supports evolutionary transformation. What 'Ida' give for a missing link, by Casey Luskin, (Washington Examiner, 8 June 2009) The hype surrounding Ida the primate fossil reveals the sorry state of evolutionary theory (see also here) May 2009 Darwin's Sacred Cause? (Book Review), by Tommy Mitchell (AIG, April 7, 2009) Three significant flaws are identified in the new book by Desmond and Moore. The RNA World Hypothesis Explained and Unexplained, by Kathleen Hamrick and Will Brooks (Reason & Revelation, May 2009, 29(5), 37-39). A critique of the dominant view in abiogenesis studies showing why design thinking is needed. Why the Inverted Human Retina Is a Superior Design, by Jerry Bergman and Joseph Calkins (Creation Research Society Quarterly, 2008, 45(3), 213-224). Reasons why the mammalian eye deserves to be considered an example of superior design. . April 2009 The Genesis of a Debate, by Steve Hendrix (Washington Post, March 11, 2009; A01). Students studying creation-based biology visit the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Phineas Gage: The evolution of the lecture room psychopath, by Denyse O'Leary (Mindful Hack, 25 March 2009). Putting the record straight on the 19th century railroad worker whose personality was said to have completely changed after a tamping rod went through his skull. The New Creationism Blog, by Paul Garner This blog supports the author's recently published book: “The New Creationism” . March 2009 Happy Darwin Day? by Jonathan Wells, (The Washington Times, February 12, 2009) Some challenging thoughts linked to the Bicentennial anniversary of Darwin's birthday. Darwin's First Wrong Turn, by Steven A. Austin (Acts & Facts. 38(2), February 2009, 26). Darwin thought the six-mile-wide valley of the Santa Cruz River in Argentina was formed gradually, but he was wrong. The video presentation is here. Astonishing DNA complexity demolishes neo-Darwinism, by Alex Williams (Journal of Creation 21(3) (2007), 111-117). As information replaces junk in our understanding of DNA, the case for design is robust. Febrary 2009 World's Most Advanced Inter-planetary Probe Meets Biology's Greatest Conundrum, by Robert Deyes, ARN blog (21 January 2009). The Huygens space probe was sent to the Saturnian moon of Titan to explore the potential for abiogenesis. Darwin's Predictions, by Cornelius G. Hunter. A critical analysis of what science has discovered and what Darwin's theory expects. A Brief History of Intolerance in Modern Cosmology, by Jerry Bergman (Answers Research Journal 2 (2009): 1-9). A review of intolerance among cosmologists helps to assess reactions to creationism. January 2009 "Creation or Evolution - do we have to choose?" by Dr. Denis Alexander - A critical review by David Anderson (26 December 2008) Can Darwinian evolution be reconciled with biblical Christianity? Alexander says yes, but Anderson shows why we should say no. Christianity and the Round Planet, by Bruce Walker (American Thinker, January 11, 2009) Revisiting an old chestnut that keeps surfacing - demonstrating that science is not always self-correcting. Darwin in the New World, by Bill Kauffman (Wall Street Journal, January 9 2009, page A11). The father of Social Darwinism is revealed as an idealist who did not have a clue about human nature.
|
Archived Pick of the web (if these links become dead they will be deleted)
