Are the Genesis Creation Days Literal or symbolic? I received the material posted below from Dr. Sean Pitman, a talented young physician whose hobby is religion. He was contacted by Zach Armstrong, who believes that the story of creation, as recorded in Genesis, should be interpreted in a symbolic manner. He argued his case using certain biblical texts allegedly suggesting that each day of creation might have been long seasons instead of literal 24 hours as interpreted by young creationists. Dr. Pitman answers each argument with reasons why he rejects this manner of reading the story of origins. This exchange is followed by Pitman's response to Desmond Ford interpretation of the Genesis record of Creation. ... Read more? Click Here!

The difference "Expelled" will make. Ben Stein's new movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed opened April 18 in theaters. It explores the widespread persecution " destruction of livelihoods, careers and reputations" of scientists who doubt Darwin's theory of evolution and think intelligence is needed to explain life's origin and development. Controversy surrounds this film. Reviews tend to be extremely positive or extremely negative. ... Expelled, by contrast, points up the unhealthy state of contemporary science regarding biological origins. Our intellectual elite have insulated Darwinian evolution from scientific scrutiny. Moreover, they have institutionalized intolerance to any criticism of it. Expelled documents this institutionalized intolerance and thereby unmasks the hypocrisy of an intellectual class that pretends to value freedom of thought and expression, but undercuts it whenever it conflicts with their deeply held secular ideals. ... Read more: http://www.onenewsnow.com/Journal/commentary.aspx?id=116184

Can Computers Mimic Evolution? Darwinism holds that new genes can evolve blindly out of old genes by gene duplication, mutation and recombination under the pressure of natural selection. The strong version of panspermia holds that they cannot arise this way or any other way in a closed system. If a computer model could mimic the creation of new genes by the Darwinian method, it would establish that the process works in principle and strengthen the case for Darwinism in biology. Here we briefly discuss some evidence and arguments for the Darwinian mechanism and some for panspermia. Then we consider three well-known computer programs that undergo evolution, and one other proposal. None of them appears to create new genes. The question remains unanswered. ... Read more: http://www.panspermia.org/computr2.htm [Link provided by Sean Pitman]

Anthony Flew - The Honest Ex-Atheist. Anthony Flew, a renowned British defender of atheism, decided that the undeniable evidence for the complexity of life, its mysterious origin, and the fine tuning of the universe, was too much for him to hold to his atheistic philosophy, and prompted him to accept the notion the there must have been an Intelligent Designer who is responsible for both life and the universe that makes this possible. Watch this interview with and hear him describe his  180 degree turn in his view about the origin of life. Click on ====> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqFXducCkdo&NR=1

No Intelligence Allowed Reviewed. Stein interviews several scientists who have lost their jobs and been "black balled" from mainstream science because of minor admissions of the plausibility of design. Richard von Sternberg, former editor of The Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, was fired by the Smithsonian Institute after he authorized the inclusion of a paper by Stephen Meyer that was supportive of intelligent design. Stein interviews two professors who each lost their jobs (from separate universities) after supposedly sympathizing with intelligent design. In addition, several more scientists are interviewed but their appearance is distorted because they fear repercussions from the scientific community. Overall, the conclusion appears clear that if you are a scientist you best never (publicly) discuss intelligent design. ... Read more: http://www.spectrummagazine.org/reviews/film_reviews/2008/05/07/expelled_no_intelligence_allowed

Can You be an Adventist and an Evolutionist? So, my dear friend, Ervin, please put aside all the talk about "the great variability in how Christian theologians over the last 2 millennia have attempted to comprehend these complex topics" and so forth, and answer one simple question, nothing else; How does one explain the cross, which is to eliminate death, with the evolutionary schema, in which death, and lots of it, was needed in order to create us? ... In any evolutionary schema, death is the means to create life. So God still used death in order to finally create the first moral beings, who, then "because of sin" had to die, had to face the very horrible thing that God, in His love and wisdom, used to first create them? Doesn't seem logical. ... Read more: http://www.atoday.com/magazine/2008/01/debate-can-you-be-adventist-and-evolutionist

Did Francis Collins Interpret "The Language of God" Correctly?  You may not be aware that there is an ongoing discussion on the Spectrum Blog dealing with a recent book authored by Francis Colling, the renowned scientist in charge of the Human Genome Project. He claims to be a convert to Christianity, but I wonder how can a convert to the Christian faith sill hold to his beliefs in evolution, which ignores what the Bible teaches about creation, the original sin, and the plan of redemption. I want to share with you one of the comments I submitted to Spectrum in response to the many comments from participants. I am including a couple of links at the botton of this page in case you want to read those blogs. ... Read more: ==>

Fossil hunter digs up climate clues. Johnson grew up in Washington state, in an observant Seventh Day Adventist household. The religion, probably more than any other Christian sect, latched itself onto paleontology, with the aim of discrediting a host of emerging scientific fields offering theories about an Earth that was much older than the roughly 6,000 years Seventh Day Adventist teachings believed. ... By the time he was a teenager, he had started questioning discrepancies between his religion and everything he was learning about fossils and geology. One day, around age 17, he stood in a fossil lake bed in British Columbia and calculated about 30,000 layers. If each layer took even just a year to form, it would make the lake bed 30,000 years old. That day, he says, he realized that his religion's fixation upon a 6,800-year-old world conflicted with what he now believed. Eventually, he unhinged himself from his faith. ... Full story: http://www.denverpost.com/snowsports/ci_7612851

Dinosaur graveyard may unearth new reasons for their extinction. Spanish scientists have unearthed what could be Europe’s largest dinosaur boneyard, finding the remains of 65ft plant-eaters never before discovered on the continent. The palaeontologists believe they have found eight different species amid the 8,000 fossils discovered so far. The range of species they are finding at the 80 million-year-old site and their state of conservation is virtually unparalleled in Europe and challenges long-held beliefs about the way in which dinosaurs became extinct. ... Full story: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2963586.ece [Link submitted by Sean Pitman and by Roger Seheult]

"Noah's Flood" May Have Triggered European Farming. New research suggests the biblical story of Noah's flood may have been inspired by a catastrophic flood more than 8,000 years ago. Around this time the North American ice sheet melted, raising sea levels and flooding the Black Sea. ... The geologists based their controversial claim on sonar maps, which showed old shorelines buried beneath the mud, 295 to 328 feet (90 to 100 meters) below the surface of today's Black Sea. They also found perfectly preserved dunes, suggesting that submergence had been quick, as well as freshwater and marine shells in mud cores. ... Full story: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/11/071120-noah-flood.html

Biologist fired for beliefs, suit says. The battle between science and creationism has reached the prestigious Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where a former researcher is claiming he was fired because he doesn't believe in evolution. Nathaniel Abraham filed a lawsuit earlier this week in US District Court in Boston saying that the Cape Cod research center dismissed him in 2004 because of his Christian belief that the Bible presents a true account of human creation. Abraham, who is seeking $500,000 in compensation for a violation of his civil rights, says in the suit that he lost his job as a postdoctoral researcher in a biology lab shortly after he told his superior that he did not accept evolution as scientific fact. Full story: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/12/07/biologist_fired_for_beliefs_suit_says/ [Link submitted by Roger Seheult]

Understanding Genesis. Adventist Today published a book entitled Understanding Genesis in 2007 containig material dealing with origins previously written by the following authors: Richard Rice, Brian S. Bull, Dalton D. Baldwin, Ivan T. Blazen, Fritz Guy, Richard Bottomley, Douglas R. Clark, Ervin Taylor, Warren H. Johns, and Lawrence T. Geraty. The editors of the same magazine asked Dr. Sean Pitman to write a book review of said book. This generated comments from other individuals, which in turn prompted Pitman to respond to those comments and questions. I thought that the readers of this forum might be interested in reading said exchange of electronic communication, since Pitman has delved into this topic with an unusual intensity and devotion over the years. ... Read more? Click here ===>

Why Evolution is Impossible. Complex organisms arose spontaneously from a primordial soup of chemicals that randomly came together in the beginning of what we now define as “life.” No one saw these processes take place, and no scientist or group of scientists has ever replicated the primordial beginning of life from pure chemistry to biology. There is no way to get life from non-life. Something from nothing is mathematically, scientifically, and logically impossible. The impossibility of spontaneous generation is one of the first fundamental tenets of science that a child learns, and yet it is a basic tenet of the evolutionary scientist whether he cares to admit it or not. ... Full story: http://www.americanvision.org/articlearchive2007/12-04-07.asp#_edn3

Creationist stumps Evolutionist in Dothan Debate—overflow crowd turned away. An opening statement by Gary DeMar, president of American Vision and moderator of the debate, briefly outlined the history of the Creation-Evolution conflict and pointed out that both sides in the controversy evaluate the evidence in terms of their operating assumptions. Evolutionists begin with “in the beginning matter,” while creationists start with “in the beginning God.” ... Full story: http://www.americanvision.org/articlearchive2007/11-30-07.asp

A Multiverse Scientific Fiction? Science clings as dogmatically to its metaphysical materialism as Orthodox Jews do their prayer shawls and yarmulkes. According to the scientific mind-set, the universe and all it contains must be sufficiently self-explanatory. To look outside it, to speculate that something could exist outside it, is superstition or, even worse, religion—the unpardonable thought crime. Of course, with everyday research science should deal only with the immediate material evidence (reverting to the god-of-the-gaps phenomenon wouldn't be wise here). When, however, confronting the biggest question, that of cosmogony, science's a priori materialistic presuppositions have forced it into the goofiest speculations. ...  Read more: ==>

Creation-Evolution Public Debate. American Vision will host a public debate on the topic of Creation vs. Evolution in Dothan, AL. The debate will be held at the Dothan Opera House from 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM on Tuesday, November 27th between Rick Pierson and Dr. Robert Carter. Questions from the public will be answered in a special 30-minute session following the debate (8:30 PM – 9:00 PM). Mr. Rick Pierson will take the affirmative position and defend the Theory of Evolution as the only explanation for human origins. ... Full story: http://www.americanvision.org/articlearchive2007/11-23-07.asp

Sean Pitman Responds to "In Defense of Evolution."  Dr. Kenneth Miller is as familiar as anyone in the scientific community with the intelligent-design movement and its attempts to undermine the theory of evolution. A professor of biology at Brown University and coauthor (with Joe Levine) of the standard high-school textbook Biology, Miller testified at the Dover trial as an expert witness for the plaintiffs, the Dover parents who brought suit against their town's school board. Here, Miller, who stresses that he is also a man of faith, talks about why evolution matters, what flaws he sees in the intelligent-design argument, and why the Dover decision hardly means the end of the controversy. ... Full story: ==>

"Feathered" Dinosaur Was Bald, Not Bird Ancestor. A shadow of doubt has been thrown over the widely held theory that dinosaurs had feathers and that they gave rise to modern birds. In a new study, researchers examined the fossil of a 140-million-year-old turkey-size dinosaur called Sinosauropteryx. Other experts had previously concluded that distinctive patterns found on the skin of a Sinosauropteryx fossil were remnants of downy protofeathers, making the species the most primitive feathered dinosaur. But the new team says that their analysis shows that the creature was actually bald. ... Full story: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/06/070601-dino-feathers.html [Link sent by Sean Pitman]

Atheist Scientists in Uproar over Movie Showing Intolerance of Evidence for Intelligent Design. LOS ANGELES, October 5, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) -  Atheist scientists who have become famous for attacking those who disagree with them are now loudly complaining about supposedly being mistreated in a film they haven't seen. Oxford zoologist, Richard Dawkins, has made a lot of money and fame calling people who believe in God "delusional." Yet he is now grumbling that the producers of EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed "tricked" him into doing an interview. EXPELLED exposes the intimidation, persecution and career destruction that takes place when any scientist dares dissent from the view that all life on earth is the mere result of random mutation and natural selection. ... Full story: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/oct/07100505.html

Darwin challenged, research censored

Creation museum exceeds expectations. PETERSBURG, Ky. — Less than two months after opening, a northern Kentucky museum dedicated to promoting creationism has drawn 100,000 visitors, causing some growing pains, museum officials said. The milestone visit — the honor went to a Buffalo, N.Y., family — means the $27 million museum is on pace to easily shatter the first-year attendance projection of 250,000 visits, officials said. The 60,000-square foot museum's first weeks have been highlighted by packed parking lots, long lines to get in and — from critics — skepticism about the museum's claims about science, religion and the origins of the Earth. ... Full story: http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20070728/NATION/107280051/1002

Ben Stein Confronts Dominance of Darwinian Thought in New Film. For example, one biologist who allowed a peer-reviewed research paper describing the evidence for intelligence in the universe to be published in a scientific journal was the target of a smear and intimidation campaign by National Center for Science Education and the Smithsonian Institution, where he was a fellow, to get him expelled from his position. Flagged as egregious, the attack prompted a congressional investigation. ... “If you just stand up and question Darwinism – that’s it – your career is over,” Crocker said the film’s trailer. ... “Scientists are supposed to be allowed to follow the evidence wherever it may lead, no matter what the implications are. ... Full story: http://www.christianpost.com/article/20070928/29497_Ben_Stein_Confronts_Dominance_of_Darwinian_Thought_in_New_Film.htm

How to Interpret the Fossil Record. The standard approach to looking at fossils in the geological column is to assume that lower is older. Since the geologic column represents millions of years of Earth's history, then obviously the fossils in each of the layers must be the same age as the layer that they are found in. What is especially interesting is that the fossils do appear to show a progression from the most "simple" of organisms, such as single celled creatures like bacteria, to the most "complex" organisms, such as vertebrates, mammals, and of course humans. ... Read more ==>

Adventist Educators Ponder Impact of Intelligent Design. "First, it is a misleading exaggeration to claim that mere mention of an alternative hypothesis of intelligent design in the origin of life represents an establishment of religion," Gibson said. "Second, it is hypocritical of the scientific establishment to claim that intelligent design is unscientific because it is untestable, while at the same time failing to acknowledge that many aspects of evolutionary theory are untestable."  Read also an exchange about Intelligent Design between an avowed atheist and Dr. Sean. ... Read more ==>