| 2017 Web Sites of the Month |
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| Web Site of the Month - January 2017 |
| by Lothar Janetzko |
| Answers in Depth |
This month’s website review looks at an article found in 1:1 Answers IN GENESIS about what the popular media is proclaiming to be a new evolutionary breakthrough. Here are just some of the headlines.
Here is some background about this new discovery:
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“The feathered tail specimen known as DIP-V-15103 was discovered by Chinese paleontologist Lida Xing while shopping in an amber market in Myanmar (formerly Burma). He purchased a piece of Myanmar Mid-Cretaceous amber that contained a tiny feathered tail piece as well as various insects. Without knowing its in situ origin, right away, 'he knew he had something special' and declared it to be the tail from a 99-million-year-old feathered theropod (bipedal) dinosaur. Had it merely been a piece of bird tail with feathers, it would have been of only passing interest. But a real dinosaur with undisputed feathers clearly attached to the tail is a very different matter.” The fossil in the amber is not a whole dinosaur tail, but a small piece of a tiny feathered tail measuring about 1.4 inches in length and contains 8 vertebrae. Xing says, “It is estimated that this would make this presumed relative of T.rex about the size of a sparrow.” |
The article then critically examines the findings published by Xing, et al. in Current Biology (December 8, 2016). You can find a link to these published findings in the article and links to articles about this discovery published in Science and Nature Communications.
The article first discusses osteology, which is the study of the structure and function of the skeleton and bony structures of an organism. Here you will find a discussion about tail vertebrae and Archaeopteryx believed by some to be a fossil of an extinct bird and others as a transitional fossil between dinosaurs and modern birds. The author points out that “the presence of several tail vertebrae in a fossil is not necessarily evidence that the fossil is a dinosaur rather than a bird.”
The next topic discussed in the article is plumage. Xing, et al., refer to the feathers found in amber as “primitive plumage”.
Myology and balance are the final topics discussed in the article.
Whatever it is that is found in the amber purchased Lida Xing, it certainly has generated a lot of press and interest by both evolutionists and creationists. Just search the Internet about this discovery and you will find a wealth of information that makes for interesting reading.
| Web Site of the Month - February 2017 |
| by Lothar Janetzko |
| Wiki How tells you how to do anything. |
This month’s website review looks at an article that describes methods evolutionists should use to defend evolutionism against creationism. From the introduction, you can gain basic insight into how evolutionists should deal with issues raised by creationists. “The idea of evolution has been around since the 1800s and is widely accepted around the world. Still, there are many people who hold religious explanations for the origins and growth of life. Some take a literal reading of scripture (called Young Earth Creationists) while others use more complex, pseudo-science (Intelligent Design). If you find yourself in a debate, be sure to anticipate these groups’ claims. Try to reconcile religious arguments while defending the science behind evolution.” What follows in the article are three methods that evolutionists are encouraged to use.
Method 1: Reconciling Religious Claims
This method recommends that you should
Method 2: Defending Science
This method suggests that evolutionists
Method 3: Dealing with Intelligent Design
This final method points out that evolutionists should
The details provided when discussing the three methods make for interesting reading and really show how evolutionists are encouraged to try and refute any claims made by creationists regarding the validity of the theory of evolution.
| Web Site of the Month - March 2017 |
| by Lothar Janetzko |
| TrueNews.org - Be Informed. Make a Difference. |
This month’s website review looks at an article about creation vs. evolution found on the TrueNews.org website. Since the outcome of the 2016 Presidential election, the subject of fake news has made headlines. I find it interesting that a site like TrueNews.org exists and that it provides insight into topics such as
The article provides a summary of the current ongoing debate between creation and evolution. It starts out by stating that “The subject of origins, or how we got here, is one of the most fundamental questions that can be asked. Why we are here is a question science cannot answer, but is just as important. How we answer these questions provides the basis for how we think about things – it defines our ‘world-view’”.
The article continues by contrasting the world-view of creationists and evolutionists. At the heart of creationism is the belief that people were created by God, while evolutionists believe people exist because of many random, chance events.
The topic of Natural Selection (Survival of the Fittest) is then discussed. The point is made that there is no evidence that a species has ever turned into another species.
The area of science education is discussed in detail. Many educators insist that evolution must be taught as fact and creationists’ views have no place in the classroom. “However, there is no place in science or education for indoctrination, dogmatism or authoritarianism from either side…there is no justification for teaching that the evolutionary view of nature is the only one which is admissible for scientists.”
Throughout the article, you will find links to additional material and at the end there is a list of links to “excellent sites for scientific information about creation”.
On the main page of the site you will also find links to books that you may find interesting in learning more about the ongoing debate between creation and evolution.
| Web Site of the Month - April 2017 |
| by Lothar Janetzko |
| “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution. April Fool!” |
For this month’s website review about creation and evolution, I decided to search the Internet for articles about this subject and April Fool jokes and pranks. I found it interesting that many articles and even videos can be found that cover this subject. Just search the Internet with your favorite search engine and I’m sure you will find many interesting articles.
The article featured in this review is found on the CREATION EVOLUTION HEADLINES website. It points out that “You have to be careful what you read today, because normal-looking articles may end up with ‘April Fool’ at the end”. This is especially true when looking at articles on April 1. The article, however, chooses to look at “serious claims by evolutionists”.
The first topic that is discussed is that humans are related to corn. This was reported on in Science Daily. It is reported that “four stranded DNA-protein is conserved in plants and animals”. The conclusions reached by evolutionists about how long it has been since plants split from animals, and the resulting implications are discussed. You can find a link to the Science Daily article should you desire to learn more about the claim that “When it comes to plants and animals, sometimes the two are more alike that you’d think.”
The next topic discussed also comes from a Science Daily headline which reads: “Language of gene switches unchanged across evolution.” Here you learn all about the language of gene switches and that the author of a study observed “in spite of more than 600 million years of evolution, almost all known DNA words found in humans and mice were recognized by fruit fly transcription factors.”
Survival of the weakest is discussed next about a headline on PhysOrg: “‘Most attractive’ male birds don’t have the best genes.” This headline reports on new UCL research conducted by geneticists. Just click on the link to the article and learn how these geneticists arrived at the results reported in the headline. It certainly makes for interesting reading.
The final headline discussed is one about the Coelacanth as reported on The Conversation. “This prank goes back 77 years. Evolutionists had been saying that the Coelacanth, an extinct bony-finned fish, was an evolutionary missing link to a land creature.” In 1938, however it was re-discovered living in South Africa. From the article on The Conversation you learn that the fish which “has been spotted in the waters of East Africa, including South Africa, Madagascar, Comoros and Tanzania, also lives in Indonesian waters.” Also, in Indonesia they are planning to build a center for Coelacanth research. What’s interesting is that the researchers in Indonesia say they are “curious to learn more about Coelacanth’s reproductive system, feeding habits, growth, genetics and migration, because all that information can reveal more about the evolution of living species” despite the fact that “this fish has retained its features for 400 million years” and has not evolved.
| Web Site of the Month - May 2017 |
| by Lothar Janetzko |
| Why is there so much interest in dinosaurs? |
Since the primary focus for the Science Against Evolution newsletter this month is about dinosaurs, this Web Site of the Month is about dinosaurs. When searching the Internet on this topic, I found this Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page on the Creation Ministries International website. It provides links to questions and answers the reader may have about dinosaurs.
The FAQ page first provides links to Key articles. Next, the following questions are considered:
As you can tell from the above list of questions, there is much that is known and unknown about dinosaurs. Under the questions that are listed above you will find numerous links to articles that consider the question. Also in the articles you will find links to Related Articles and References and notes. There really is a lot of material to explore just by following links that you may find of interest.
One area that I found interesting asked the question, “Did a meteor wipe out the dinosaurs?” Here you learn about “The current ‘glamour’ theory proposed by the geologist Walter Alvarez in about 1980, that a meteor strike 66.4 million years ago caused dramatic climatic changes like ‘nuclear winter’. This caused the extinction of the dinosaurs and many other species.” This theory is based on the discovery of an allegedly world-wide layer of clay with a high iridium content. Although there are many problems with the ‘great impact’ theory, “it is now accepted as ‘proven fact’ in many circles, and popularized in ‘documentaries’ such as Walking with Dinosaurs.”
In addition to the ‘glamour theory’ of dinosaur extinction, you will also find a wealth of material to consider about how the extinction of the dinosaurs may have occurred.
| Web Site of the Month - June 2017 |
| by Lothar Janetzko |
| Rethinking the Evidence from Science and the Bible |
This month’s website review looks at a book I recently discovered while searching the Internet for topics relating to creation and evolution. The book has the title, Creation and Evolution, by Alan Hayward. It is found on the website of WIPF and STOCK PUBLISHERS. The website provides the following summary of what the book is about: “Even non-Christian scientists are attacking the traditional evolutionary theory still taught in many schools as fact. In ‘Creation and Evolution’ British physicist Dr. Alan Hayward draws evidence solely from these non-Christian researchers to discredit gradual evolution and Darwin’s mechanism of natural selection. Hayward also examines in detail young earth theories, flood geology, and geological testimony to an ancient earth…Bowing neither to theistic evolution nor scientific creationism, Hayward writes from the perspective of a Christian physicist committed both to a high view of Scripture and rigorous honesty with scientific data.”
On the website describing the book you will find a picture of the book and a LOOK INSIDE link that allows the reader to view the Contents of the book, which is organized as follows:
The Contents of the book are presented as links so you can read the Introduction and Part I, and a single page from Part II of the book. In total, you can read the first 69 pages of the book on the website.
I found it interesting to read about how Dr. Hayward viewed the ongoing debate about creation and evolution and why he chose to write the book in the manner he did. “My first aim is to present facts, so that a thoughtful Christian can reach an informed decision as to where he stands. At the very least the book might help him to appreciate that there are other points of view besides his own.” He also states the reason why in Part I of the book his “arguments and quotations have been drawn exclusively from the writings of evolutionists who oppose Darwinism.”
Part I of the book also covers a lot of the history of how the views of Darwinists have changed over the years since Darwin’s publication of Origin of Species.
If you want to order a paperback copy of the book, all the information can be found on the website. I certainly found that the book made for interesting reading.
| Web Site of the Month - July 2017 |
| by Lothar Janetzko |
| Best books about Creation (not just the six 24-hour day variety) and Evolution |
The website review for this month looks at a list of books about Creation and Evolution found on the Goodreads.com website. From the home page of “goodreads” you learn that this site will help you to “meet your next favorite book”. All you need to do is, “Tell us what titles or genres you’ve enjoyed in the past, and we’ll give you surprisingly insightful recommendations.” On the site, you can search and browse for books and explore lists about many different topics. You can also create a free sign-in account on the site, or download apps for either Apple or Google.
Since summer is a good time to spend reading books while on vacation or just traveling, if you are interested in finding a good book to read about the Creation versus Evolution controversy, then the list of 84 books on the website should help you find a book.
The list of books is organized by score. “A book’s total score is based on multiple factors, including the number of people who have voted for it and how highly those voters ranked the book.” By clicking on a book’s title, you will find a brief description of the book’s content and some information about the book’s author. Also, you will find Community Reviews of the book by various readers, a rating of one to five stars and a link to open a preview of the book using a Kindle reader.
Space does not permit providing a complete list of all the books on the Goodreads list. The first ten books ranked by score are:
If you are familiar with the Creation versus Evolution debate then you probably have heard of many of the books on the Goodreads list. Some, however, may be new to you. Just click on the title of the book that you find interesting and explore to see if you would like to add it to your own personal book library. Details on how to purchase a book can be found on the website.
| Web Site of the Month - August 2017 |
| by Lothar Janetzko |
| Discovering Intelligent Design |
In last month’s website review we looked at a list of books that discuss the ongoing controversy between creation and evolution. I recommended that the reader should obtain one of the books he or she found interesting and read it this summer. Taking my own advice, I decided to obtain an eBook Kindle copy of the first book called The Case for a Creator – A Journalist Investigates Scientific Evidence That Points Toward God by Lee Strobel. In this book, the author describes the evidence of cosmology, physics, astronomy, biochemistry, and biological information. Also, you will find interesting interviews the author had with various scientists that all pointed to intelligent design.
For this month’s website review, we will look at the website of the Discovery Institute, particularly the Center for Science and Culture. As you can tell from the link to the site, the primary focus of the site is intelligent design. An About link states that “The mission of Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture is to advance the understanding that human beings and nature are the result of intelligent design rather than a blind and undirected process. We seek long-term scientific and cultural change through cutting-edge scientific research and scholarship; education and training of young leaders; communication to the general public; and advocacy of academic freedom and free speech for scientists, teachers, and students.”
To assist in fulfilling their mission, the website provides a great deal of information organized under the headings of Research, Education, Academic Freedom, and Resources. These links seek to inform the reader on the many facets of the theory of intelligent design. At the bottom of the About link on the main page of the site, you will find a link to Frequently Asked Questions you may have about the Discovery Institute itself.
Interesting information about intelligent design can be found on the Education link. Here you will find resources such as
There is much to explore on this website. One tool you can use is the Intelligent Design Navigator which allows one to view Top Links, News, Events, Subscribe, and Donate. This site really does provide all the information about questions a reader may have regarding the theory of intelligent design.
| Web Site of the Month - September 2017 |
| by Lothar Janetzko |
| Learn why the Theory of Evolution fails the test of being scientific. |
This month’s website review looks at an article that seeks to present many reasons why the theory of evolution is not really science. If you read articles about evolution on the Internet, you will find that the claim is made that only evolution is scientific and creationist views are considered to be based solely on religion.
The article begins by pointing out that there are “several fundamental characteristics that identify a field of study as being ‘Scientific’”. The characteristics mentioned are
What follows is the observation that “On all three counts, the commonly-accepted ‘Theory of Evolution’ fails the test of being scientific…Evolution is a doctrine which, (1) from its unproven philosophical underpinnings, denies any possibility that God created the living world with purpose and design, (2) whitewashes this philosophical/religious dogma with spurious claims of supporting scientific evidence, and then (3) markets this lie to the world as though it were a proven fact, accepted by all ‘reputable scientists’”.
The author expresses his frustration with the attacks that are often made by evolutionists against their critics. These attacks include heaping scorn and ridicule on critics and calling them stupid, insane, or evil.
In the article, you will find quite a lengthy discussion of what the author believes to be genuine science, his views on naturalism, and the artificial dichotomy between Religion and Science. He also presents his ideas about the mechanisms of evolution including
At the end of the article you will find recommended resources consisting of books and websites and a total of 65 footnotes, many of which include links to additional articles the reader may find of interest.
| Web Site of the Month - October 2017 |
| by Lothar Janetzko |
| INSECTS Incredible and Inspirational |
This month’s website review looks at the website of Karl Priest, THE INSECTMAN. When you first look at the main page of the site you will encounter numerous links which provide information about Karl Priest and his views about evolutionism. On the left side of the main page, you will find that the information Karl seeks to present is organized by vertical tabs to the following topics:
To gain insight into the message Karl is presenting on the website, I recommend that you start by reading the information on the Testimony tab. Here you will learn about the life experience of Karl, his fascination with insects and his personal involvement in the Textbook War of 1974 held in Kanawha County, West Virginia.
On the Get Bugged tab you learn about the PowerPoint presentation Karl has developed called “Insects: Incredible and Inspirational”. He is available to come to your church or organization and present this hour-long program. He also does an “Instructional Lab, Hands on Program, Booth Display, and Pre-Presentation Special.” You can get a lot of information about this and other presentations he has developed over the years.
On the Articles tab, you will find numerous articles by Karl about insects. “All articles are approximately on a 7th to 12th grade level unless indicated as (children) or (advanced)”. Following the articles from Karl, you will find an extensive list of articles by other authors organized primarily by different insect types such as Ants, Beetles, Cicadas, Flies, Dragonflies and Damselflies, Mosquitoes, and others.
Space does not permit to describe all the different websites the reader can explore by following the links found on the Links tab. Just click on links that you may find of interest.
I found reading the Exodus Mandate tab to be most informative. From his experience of teaching in the public-school system for over 30 years, Karl now believes that parents should consider sending their children either to a Christian school or home-schooling them. He presents in detail why he believes this is so important.
The Home tab of the site leads the reader back to the main page of the site. This is important because there are so many different links to explore.
| Web Site of the Month - November 2017 |
| by Lothar Janetzko |
| Scientific evidence against evolution – the clash between theory and reality |
The website review for this month looks at an extensive article that I recently discovered while searching for information about scientific evidence against evolution on the Internet. The article I found has the title, “Debunking Evolution.” You can read the complete article on the Internet or download the whole article as a PDF file to read offline. You will also find a link to download a PDF file that contains the main points of the article.
From the main points PDF, the reader can obtain a summary of the topics discussed in detail on the main webpage. The topics include:
One interesting concept discussed on the main page of the article is “It’s Story Time”. When you read the literature, either in books or on the Internet about evolution, you will often find stories that try to explain things we see in the natural world. Rather than using science, storytelling is used to explain topics such as metamorphosis of insects and why giraffes have long necks. Many high school textbooks in biology state that giraffes “got long necks to browse the leaves at the tops of acacia trees”. The late Stephen Jay Gould, one of the most influential biologists of the 20th century, tried to set the record straight by noting that “Giraffes provide no established evidence whatsoever for the mode of evolution of their undeniably useful necks.”
In the article, you will also find a long section on Origin of Life Research. Here you learn about the difficulties researchers have in trying to explain how chemicals assembled themselves into the first living thing.
There is much to explore on this website. Beside the main article you will find links to another article called “No Time for Evolution” and many links to videos which cover many of the topics from the article and additional material (such as, carbon dating of dinosaur bones).
| Web Site of the Month - December 2017 |
| by Lothar Janetzko |
| Have we all been EVOLUTIONIZED? |
This month’s website review presents material which seeks to show that “We have been bombarded with partially true, false, fraudulent and scientific information which, when examined more closely, we discover the real truth about evolution and creation.”
The approach the website takes is to present posts from a variety of publications about various creation facts. At the end of each post, you will find information as to the source of the article and keywords that help the reader in finding related information by using a search box located on the main page of the site. The posts are also placed into different categories that can be searched by links on the main page, which is just a blog post site with archives spanning the dates of July 2009 to May 2010 powered by WordPress.
The top page of the blog post has the title, MORE SCIENTIFIC NON-SENSE. Here you will find posts about many Scientific Hoaxes, including Piltdown Man, the Biogenetic Law Fraud of Ernst Haeckel, the South Korean Stem Cell Fraud and others.
By looking at the archive posts, you will find the theme that evidence of creation facts can be found in many different areas of study including astronomy, earth’s ecology, nature, fossil record, geology, mathematics, anatomy, history and biology.
One post that I found by clicking on the Mathematics category has the title, The Golden Ratio. You have probably heard of the Fibonacci sequence of numbers. Every number in the sequence is the addition of the two that came before it: 0+1=1, 1+1=2, 1+2=3, 2+3=5, 3+5=8, 5+8=13, 8+13=21, and so on. What is interesting is that if you ignore the zero and divide a Fibonacci number into the one before you get 2, 1.5, 1.67, 1.6, 1.625, 1.615, 1.619, 1.617, 1.618, etc. After the first few, the answer is always close to 1.618. This number is a very special number and it has been given the name the “golden ratio.” It’s interesting to learn how often this number appears in art, music, nature and science.
As with most sites discussing creation and evolution, there is much to explore on this site. Just select a category on the main page that you find of interest, or use the search box to serve as a guide to various topics. Also, the references on the various posts can provide more detailed information.
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