| 2012 Web Sites of the Month |
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| Web Site of the Month - January 2012 |
| by Lothar Janetzko |
| “Religious and political gripes with evolution are intensifying” |
This month’s web site review looks at an article found in the article collections of Philly.com which features award-winning news, sports and commentary from the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News newspapers.
Since we are approaching another presidential election year here in the United States, the views of presidential candidates regarding creation and evolution are again making headlines. Republican runners are viewed as being hostile to evolution. Only Jon Huntsman is viewed as being “science-positive.”
What makes this article interesting reading is that it shows how people who believe in evolution try to portray those whose views may differ. This article asks “why should this debate (about creation and evolution) rage in the political sphere when there’s near universal acceptance among scientists that Darwin had the basic idea right 150 years ago?”
The article continues to talk about the issue of teaching evolution in public schools and whether the religious picture should be taught as well. You will have to judge for yourself if you believe a proper presentation is made on how creationism should be taught in public schools.
As the 2012 presidential election approaches, you will find many more articles in the mainstream press that try to portray evolution as the only reasonable world view of origins. Just be aware that often you are only given part of the picture. Very few articles will present a fair view of both sides regarding questions about creation and evolution.
| Web Site of the Month - February 2012 |
| by Lothar Janetzko |
| Various Opinions on the Subject |
This month’s web site looks at a question asked on Answers.com. This is a web site where a user can ask questions or search through other people’s questions. Questions can be either answered or unanswered. The web site operates as a wiki whose users can add, modify, or delete its content via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a rich-text editor. Questions are also placed in categories that makes searching for similar content easier.
The question for our discussion is “Can evolution and creation coexist?” The answers found in the wiki make for interesting reading. Some people answer yes and others no. The reasoning for the answers is what makes things interesting. You will find the usual comments about the “theory” of evolution versus the “Creationist Theory”. Many people believe that evolution is “testable, falsifiable and makes accurate predictions and has been proved”, while Creationism is not testable and is based solely on faith.
One answer points out that “there is a growing group of scientists that believe that one can accept evolution as scientific fact and still believe in a creator God, because science and faith are different and distinct aspects of life”. Not all agree and still believe that faith and reason are not mutually exclusive and that “it takes just as much faith to believe in evolution as God”.
Another answer states that Creation and Evolution are the same thing. The argument is made that we really don’t know how long one of God’s days compared to ours is. This allows for long periods of time for evolution to have occurred.
One answer provides an extensive chart that tries to make the case that evolution and creation are not compatible. The chart points out that many aspects of creation are observable while corresponding aspects for evolution are not observable.
Many more ideas are presented in the various answers that a web site reader might find of interest.
The many opinions expressed (which are often contradictory) point out that the debate regarding creation and evolution is by no means resolved.
| Web Site of the Month - March 2012 |
| by Lothar Janetzko |
| What if Darwin’s theory of natural selection is inaccurate? |
This month’s web site review looks at an article I discovered while searching the Internet. The article appeared in The Guardian under the heading of News, Science and Evolution. The Guardian is a newspaper that has been published in England for over 100 years. As with newspapers in the US, The Guardian also has an online presence on the Internet.
The article begins by discussing a story that in the 1960’s astronomers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland by using cutting-edge computers to recreate the orbits of the planets thousands of years in the past, discover a missing day in history.
This story of the NASA astronomers is pointed out as being a legend and is used to illustrate how “doubters are so deluded or dishonest that one needn’t waste time with them.” The question is then asked “What if Darwin’s theory of evolution – or, at least, Darwin’s theory of evolution as most of us learned it at school and believe we understand it –is, in crucial respects, not entirely accurate?” This question is being asked in light of recent studies and several popular books.
The article continues to discuss the “youthful field of epigenetics, which primarily studies the epigenome, the protective package of proteins around which genetic material – strands of DNA – is wrapped.” Two Swedish studies, one dealing with chickens and another with research involving humans, point out that not only can the environment alter the epigenome, “what’s news is that those changes can be inherited”.
You will have to read the complete studies to gain more insight into how they impact what has been previously taught about the “awesome power of natural selection”.
The article then discusses a number of books that I am sure will be of interest to readers desiring to learn more about what is being published regarding questions about evolution.
The books discussed include The Natural History of Rape, Why Everything You’ve Been Told About Genetics, Talent and IQ is Wrong and What Darwin Got Wrong.
In the summary of the article, the author states that “Darwin, writing before the discovery of DNA, knew very well that his work heralded the beginning of a journey to understand the origins and development of life. All we may be discovering now is that we remain closer to the beginning of that journey than we’ve come to think”.
| Web Site of the Month - April 2012 |
| by Lothar Janetzko |
| Story found on the Creation News Website (TCN) |
This month’s website review looks at a story found on the Creation News Website (TCN). The story states that Cambridge University “has announced they will begin offering a degree in Creation Science. Creationists from all over are touting this as a huge victory in their fight against Evolution. One of the biggest knocks against Creationism has been the claim by Evolutionists that Creation is not science; with the offering of this course, it is a claim that can no longer be made.”
The story goes on to report that Cambridge is “being accused of being bought off by Creationist organizations.” It is reported that the University received donations in excess of 666 million dollars from the Institute for Creation Research, The Discovery Institute, Creation.com, Answers in Genesis, and from individuals such as Ken Ham, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, Ted Haggard and Billy Graham.
The University has stated that the course curriculum will include subjects such as
This story tells the class goals for the various subjects. For example, the Redefining Science course is “considered the most important course in the curriculum; Students learn how to define just about every scientific law, theory, and term to fit Creationism. This class is so vital that a student must receive a grade of above 90% to be able to earn their degree.”
Of course, the story is just an April Fool joke; but the funny thing is that the joke works better when applied to the theory of evolution. It is the evolutionists who have redefined science to make evolution appear to be scientific. Evolution is full of fallacies that confirm their biases. Evolutionists are the ones who move the goal posts with every new discovery. Evolutionists are the ones who need to learn about thermodynamics.
As with most articles and stories found on the Internet, you are encouraged to post your own comments on this story. Reading other people’s comments can often be very interesting.
| Web Site of the Month - May 2012 |
| by Lothar Janetzko |
| “Exposing the public to just the scientific facts without the spin” |
This month’s web site review looks at a site that seeks to educate and inspire the reader with factual scientific research about the debate regarding creation and evolution. The site has many links to the actual scientific research and numerous audio and video clips.
The site is actually a blog and is organized into two primary parts when viewing with your web browser. The site recommends that you use the Opera browser to view the information of the site. Other browsers might not work.
On the left part of the blog post, about two-thirds of the web page, you will find a fairly linear discussion of numerous topics. Here you find an introduction section that outlines why the blog author has written and collected all the material for this site. The right side of the blog post is a more interactive part of the presented web page that provides scrolling links to many different topics under captions such as INTRIGUING LINKS and NOW LISTENS TO the latest RESEARCH FROM an ever growing number of MODERN SCIENTISTS.
There is much to explore on this site. If you follow just some of many links presented you could spend many days trying to absorb all the material. Just scrolling through all the material on the web site will take quite a bit of time.
Some of the topics presented include:
You just have to explore both parts of the blog and I am sure you will find much material that can help you to better understand why the controversy and debate between creation and evolution is still very active today. The many video and audio clips are very interesting and you could spend many days just viewing and listening to them.
| Web Site of the Month - June 2012 |
| by Lothar Janetzko |
| Naturalism and the Theory of Evolution |
This month’s web site review looks at a site recommended by a reader of our newsletter. This website “is a rough draft collection of my own notes and thoughts as well as the thoughts of many others concerning the theories of evolution and design.” The web site author is Sean Pitman, who is a medical doctor.
The web site is organized around an introductory article by the author where he describes his views regarding the theory of evolution. He points out that “the theory of evolution has become so popular and so pervasive that it is difficult for anyone to question it without being branded as, ‘ignorant, stupid, or insane’”. He also questions, “So why don’t I get it? What is wrong with me?”
He then presents a discussion about the scientific method and how it should be used to detect truth. He also points out that the “power of the scientific method comes from its ability to detect error.”
The web site author makes many more interesting points in his introductory article and in his summary he states that “a number of very highly educated men and women of science have and are openly questioning the sacred status of the theory of evolution.”
Above the introductory article of the web site you will find links to
Most of these links will direct the web reader to the right side bar of the main web page where you will find more detailed information.
By following links of interest you will find a great deal on information in a variety of formats including Word Files, Power Point Presentations and Video Files. As with most web sites there is much to explore and learn.
It is good to know that there is a great deal of information on the Internet that seeks to present honest answers to questions regarding the theory of evolution. As the web site author points out, “never underestimate the ‘crazy’ or the ‘blind’. History has often shown that those who were crazy and blind in their own day turned out to be right after all.”
| Web Site of the Month - July 2012 |
| by Lothar Janetzko |
| Frequently Asked Questions |
This month’s web site review looks at a site that provides interesting insights into how information about the creation versus evolution controversy has changed over the years. In the introduction you learn that the “Creation Science FAQ” web page “was one of the very first web sites dedicated to creation science on the internet (it started in 1993)”. As you probably know, content on the Internet has grown exponentially in the last few years. If you perform a web search for information about creation and evolution you will find millions of web pages.
The web site author points out that “old style of a ‘lone wolf’ information site created by a single person, especially in the realm of science, no longer seems adequate.” Today we find sites run by dedicated organizations with full-time staff that provide good content. Also he points out that collaborative “Wiki” style web sites also often can be a good resource.
At the conclusion of the introduction to the web site, the author provides links to sites the author believes provide “comprehensive and timely information on the creation subject matter” and also links under the title “In the News”.
After this introduction, the web site begins with a brief discussion of the creation model that he believes provides a viable alternative to evolution and he uses this model to answer frequently asked questions pertaining to creation science.
The description of the creation model is preceded by a Table of Contents with links to the various subject matter and is organized as follows:
Throughout the various categories you will find numerous links to articles that I am sure the reader of this site will find of interest.
As the name of this web site suggests, the reader of this site can use this site as a starting point for answers to questions about Creation Science.
| Web Site of the Month - August 2012 |
| by Lothar Janetzko |
| “The evolution-creation-intelligent design debate was largely formulated well before the birth of Christ” |
This month’s web site review looks at an article found on WallBuilders, which is an organization “dedicated to presenting America’s forgotten history and heroes, with an emphasis on the moral, religious, and constitutional foundation on which America was built.”
The article begins by presenting interesting details pointing out that six centuries before Christ in Greece, Anaximander (610-546 B.C.) introduced the theory of spontaneous generation; Diogenes (412-323 B.C.) introduced the concept of the primordial slime; Empedocles (495-455 B.C.) advocated the theory of survival of the fittest and of natural selection; Deomocritus (460-370 B.C.) taught about the mutability and adaptation of species.
It is interesting to learn that long before the time of Charles Darwin the principle theories and teachings of evolution were published in numerous famous writings.
The article continues by pointing out that “it is a simple fact that countless works for (and against) evolution had been written for over two millennia prior to the drafting of our governing documents and that much of today’s current phraseology surrounding the evolution debate was familiar rhetoric at the time our documents were framed.”
What makes for interesting reading is to learn the views held by our Founding Fathers regarding the question of creation versus evolution.
The views of the following Founding Fathers are presented:
Throughout the article the author provides footnotes that a reader can use to learn more about the topics being discussed.
A longer and more extensive article on the history of evolution and the Founding Fathers that was published for Regent Lawschool on the 75th anniversary of the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial is referenced at the end of the article and a link to it is provided. That article has the title “Evolution and the Law: A Death Struggle between Two Civilizations.”
| Web Site of the Month - September 2012 |
| by Lothar Janetzko |
| Videos that show scientific evidence against evolution |
This month’s web site review looks at a site that provides links to five Creation Videos to watch online for free. As mentioned on the site, “you can watch a few minutes each day so that the amount of information doesn’t overwhelm you.”
On the webpage you will find a Table of Contents which contains a simple table with links to the five videos which show scientific evidence against evolution. The five videos, their lengths and descriptions, are as follows:
As you can tell from this Table of Contents, many different topics are presented in these videos. So far I have viewed three of the videos and I have found them to be very interesting.
The first video, The Privileged Planet, is based on the book with the same title written by Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay W. Richards. The video points out how our place in the cosmos is designed for discovery. It is interesting to learn how important solar eclipses are in our understanding about our own sun and how the relative sizes of the moon and the sun make the viewing of total solar eclipses possible. If you are interested in learning more about this book, a search using Bing yields 10,800,000 results.
At the bottom of the web site you will find comments that various individuals have made regarding these videos. As a web reader, you are also encouraged to add your own comments.
So, as time permits, I encourage you to watch these videos to learn more about how scientific evidence points to a special creation rather than what the theory of evolution teaches.
| Web Site of the Month - October 2012 |
| by Lothar Janetzko |
| The creation-evolution controversy has evolved on Wikipedia. |
This month’s web site review looks at how the creation-evolution controversy is described on Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia of the World Wide Web.
Wikipedia is “written collaboratively by largely anonymous Internet volunteers who write without pay. Anyone with Internet access can write and make changes to Wikipedia articles, except in limited cases where editing is restricted to prevent disruption or vandalism. Users can contribute anonymously, under a pseudonym, or, if they choose to, with their real identity.” If you are interested in learning about the changes made to an article on Wikipedia you can track recent changes from a link on the main page of the article.
At the top of articles on Wikipedia you will find links to Article, Talk, Read, Edit, View History and Search. From these links you can discover how the article has changed over time. A characteristic of articles on Wikipedia is that you will find numerous links to other related topics and articles also found on Wikipedia. You will find many cross references to other articles on Wikipedia.
The article on the creation-evolution controversy begins with the following definition: “a recurring cultural, political, and theological dispute about the origins of the Earth, humanity, life, and the universe.” This definition is then followed by a brief description which you might view as the executive summary of the article. It tries to briefly discuss the two sides of the creation-evolution controversy.
Following the introduction or summary of the article you will find the Table of Contents for all of the material that has been chosen to be included in the article. For this particular article, Contents include
As you can tell from the Table of Contents, there is a lot of information to explore in this article so just follow links you find interesting. Also remember that people writing about creation and evolution often present their views based on their personal biases.
| Web Site of the Month - November 2012 |
| by Lothar Janetzko |
| Evolution – From the Creationist Perspective |
This month’s web site review looks at an article I found on the Northwest Creation Network. Many different articles can be found on this network by going to the home page located at http://nwcreation.net. Here you will also find videos of the Seattle Creation Conference from 2011 which cover many different topics of interest to creationists, and mp3 files you can download and listen to on your audio mp3 player.
The article under discussion, “Evolution; God’s Greatest Creation,” presents the author’s view that it is important for creationists to study evolution. He believes that intelligently designed genetic recombination is the true source of variability driving the evolution of living organisms. In the introduction section, he states that “evolution occurs not through random reactions, but controlled cellular genetic rearrangements.” He provides more details about genetic recombination in the introduction and ends the introduction by stating that “A study of evolution can give you two things: the ability to challenge evolutionary dogma such as abiogenesis and mutations, but also a better appreciation for God’s creation. Truly the ability of organisms to change themselves into a variety of forms may be one of God’s greatest creations.”
He continues his article by addressing the following topics:
As you can tell, there is much to read about in this article that may give you some new insights into the role evolution plays when you look at the diversity of life found in the world today.
At the end of the article you will find the Northwest Creation Network Webstore. Here you will find a listing of links to books you can order from the store. Clicking on a book link will provide you with details about the cost, author and a brief product description of the book. Once in the online store you will also find links to other materials available for purchase.
| Web Site of the Month - December 2012 |
| by Lothar Janetzko |
| Clear, short answers on creation and evolution |
This month’s web site review looks at an article I found while searching the Internet for information about creation and evolution. The article, which is a pdf file, contains a short Creation Tips four-part course titled Creationology for Beginners. The four lessons are short and should take you only about 15 minutes to read. The lessons cover “some main points in the creation-evolution debate”.
Lesson 1 answers the question “What’s the difference between creation and evolution?” Here you will find definitions for creation scientists and evolutionists and what they believe.
Lesson 2 discusses three fatal flaws in evolution:
Lesson 3 asks the question “Is the evidence for creation better than evidence for evolution?” Here you will find a discussion of how evolutionists and creationists believe living things appeared on earth. Also you will find a discussion of what the fossil record shows.
Lesson 4 makes the point “Small changes don’t prove evolution!” Here you will find a discussion that is often talked about on creation and evolution web sites and that is the difference between microevolution and macroevolution.
At the end of the lessons you will find a link to the Creation Tips website. The link is incorrect. The correct link is http://www.creationtips.com. Just follow the link to “learn more about creation science and more problems with evolutionary explanations.”
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