| 2018 Web Sites of the Month |
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| Web Site of the Month - January 2018 |
| by Lothar Janetzko |
| Raising Doubts about Evolution … in Science Class |
This month’s website review looks at a recent article posted on November 19, 2017 in the New York Times. This article reveals how the mainstream press views the current ongoing controversy regarding creation versus evolution, especially as to how various views should be expressed in classrooms.
The article begins by providing a 10-minute video which has a caption stating, “A growing skepticism of science has seeped into the classroom, and its revived attacks on one of the most established principles of biology – evolution.” Just watch the video and judge for yourself if there is a bias in how the views of creationists and evolutionists are presented.
The article itself starts out by injecting politics into a discussion of Darwinism. It states, “Darwinism has long been under siege in parts of the United States, even if its critics have practiced their own form of evolution, adapting their arguments to accommodate altered legal circumstances.” As usual, the claim is made that some creationists reject broad scientific consensus and even question issues like climate change and stem-cell research. The Seattle-based Discovery Institute is called a science skeptic and is said to feel emboldened in the era of President Trump.
The article continues by talking about the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925, and the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District case of 2005 in Pennsylvania.
What follows is an interesting discussion of the Louisiana Science Education Act of 2008. “The Louisiana law permits public schoolteachers to use materials critical of established scientific thought, with ‘evolution, the origins of life, global warming and human cloning’ singled out as targets. No blatant advocacy of creationism or intelligent design is authorized.” In the views of the New York Post writer, “Those concepts make their way into classrooms all the same, as a means of fostering ‘critical thinking skills, logical analysis, and open and objective discussion of scientific theories.’ ” In Louisiana it’s O.K. to teach the controversy.
The claim is made that “as more mainstream scientists see it, Louisiana has disingenuously slipped creationism into schools through the back door (with perhaps an added advantage of being able to cast the law’s opponents as nothing more than intellectually intolerant of countervailing thought).”
It is interesting to learn that Tennessee has passed a comparable law in 2012. Other states including Mississippi, Alabama, Indiana, South Dakota, Missouri, Florida and Oklahoma have made similar legislative moves.
| Web Site of the Month - February 2018 |
| by Lothar Janetzko |
| First stop of a blog series entitled “Evolution and Christian Faith Around the World.” |
The website review for this month looks at a blog post that traces the complex history of science and religion in the Netherlands since Darwin.
From the introduction to the blog post you learn that, “Today, although the Netherlands is one of the most secular countries in the world, young-earth creationists are still very active. Young-earth creationism has made surprisingly large inroads into orthodox Protestant circles in the Netherlands and it has proved difficult to promote evolutionary creationism as an alternative.”
To explain why this is happening in the Netherlands, the blog author presents the complex history of science and religion in this country. The time periods he discusses and his views of what was happening at the time regarding the creation and evolution debate are presented in sections of the blog with the titles:
I found it interesting to learn that in the Netherlands, “orthodox Protestants have been well-organized since the late nineteenth century. They have their own schools, political parties, broadcasting corporation within the public broadcasting system, etc.” I believe this really is the reason why there is still so much support for young-earth creationism in the Netherlands. When you have your own schools that do not constantly bombard students with so-called facts of evolution, and foster belief in God, you create a group of people that are able to resist the invasion of evolutionism.
How views regarding creation and evolution have changed over the years in the Netherlands is quite interesting. From the blog you can learn about the influence that American writers such as George McCready Price and Morris & Whitcomb have had in the past.
How the publication of books introducing Intelligent Design influenced beliefs regarding evolution is also quite informative.
From the general tone of the reporting by the author of the blog, you can sense that he holds to the tenants of BIOLOGOS. On the About Us tab on the blog post you learn the mission of this organization: “Biologos invites the church and the world to see the harmony between science and biblical faith as we present an evolutionary understanding of God’s creation.”
| Web Site of the Month - March 2018 |
| by Lothar Janetzko |
| Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia |
In the February newsletter, we looked at the history of the creation and evolution debate in the Netherlands. For this month’s website review, we will look at an article found in Wikipedia that focuses on creation and evolution in public education around the world.
The introductory paragraph makes the statement that “The status of creation and evolution in public education has been the subject of substantial debate and conflict in legal, political, and religious circles. Globally, there is a wide variety of views on the topic. Most western countries have legislation that mandates only evolutionary biology is to be taught in the appropriate scientific syllabuses.”
Following this, you will find an overview of the current views from many countries from around the world including:
As you would expect, “Internationally, evolution is taught in science courses with limited controversy, with the exception of a few areas of the United States and several Islamic fundamentalist countries.” It makes for interesting reading to learn about how the various countries have arrived at how evolution should be presented in scientific education classes. In many countries, education in general is influenced by the political parties currently in power. The debate in Europe in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) resulted in the passing of a resolution titled “The dangers of creationism in education”. How the resolution finally passed, and the recommendations contained in it are quite interesting.
How the teaching of evolution is treated in Islamic countries such as Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey provides interesting insights on how these countries have struggled with the teaching of evolution in their schools. In 2017, the education ministry of Turkey “announced the removal of evolution from the secondary school curriculum, as of that date the only other Muslim majority country where evolution is challenged in the education system was Saudi Arabia, where the concept is briefly named and heavily criticized in the curricula.”
Typical of Wikipedia articles, you will find numerous footnote links throughout the article that provide more detailed information about the topics under discussion. Also, on the main web page you will find that this article is a part of a series on Creationism and many links are available to explore.
| Web Site of the Month - April 2018 |
| by Lothar Janetzko |
| Information from the hoaxes.org website |
Since April begins with April Fools’ Day, this month’s website review looks at a site which presents a great deal of information about this day of the year. The links on the main page of the site will guide the reader to the following topics:
You will also find links to About and Forum which provide more details about the Museum of Hoaxes.
The Museum of Hoaxes was established in 1997 in San Diego, CA. “It explores deception, mischief, and misinformation throughout history, playing host to a variety of humbugs and hoodwinks – from ancient fakery all the way up to modern schemes, dupes, and dodges that circulate online.”
You may wonder how April Fools’ Day relates to the ongoing controversy between creation and evolution. Just by reviewing some of the many April Fools’ Day Science Hoaxes you will find that many directly seek to make fun of the views of creationists while trying to maintain that only evolution can truly present credible arguments that explain what we see in the natural world. One example of this is an article from Scientific American from 2005.
On the website you will find brief descriptions of Science Hoaxes dating from 1901 to 2014. Below the descriptions you will find that all the information of the site has been organized into More April Fool Categories. Here you will find links to:
Also, you will find links to The April Fool Archive dating from 1500s to 2015, Top 100, Origin and FAQ.
This site really has a wealth of information about April Fools’ Day. The FAQ will answer many of the questions you may have about the origin of the day. Just explore the many links to find topics of interest. Most of all, don’t be fooled into believing everything you read either in books or online regarding creation vs. evolution.
| Web Site of the Month - May 2018 |
| by Lothar Janetzko |
| Religious Attitudes in Evolutionism |
This month’s website review looks at a site recommended by a reader of our newsletter. The link for the site will direct the reader to the home of “The Question Evolution Project. Presenting information demonstrating that there is no truth in minerals-to-man evolution and presenting evidence for special creation.” The article begins with an introduction to the topic of Religious Attitudes in Evolutionism. An interesting church sign is presented that displays the message “ST. DARWIN’S EVOLUTION CHURCH ‘NOW EVOLUTION IS THE SUBSTANCE OF FOSSILS HOPED FOR, THE EVIDENCE OF LINKS NOT SEEN.’ – DUANE GISH”. The observation is made that, “Using presuppositions that evolution happened, proponents use that as their starting point when attempting to interpret evidence – especially anthropologists.” You will then find a discussion about the dogma used by anthropologists when trying to explain fossils.
After this introduction you will find a link to “Evolutionary Anthropology as Religion”. Here you will find an interesting discussion about how the upright body plan of great apes evolved. “For more than a century, the belief was that the posture, known as the orthograde body plan, evolved only once, as part of a suite of features, including broad torsos and mobile forelimbs, in an early ancestor of modern apes.” A new fossil of the hipbone of an ape is challenging that belief.
Next you will find a discussion of what evolution gamers are doing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Gamers play with animats on their computers. “That’s animats, not animals. These are creatures of their own design that they reward when they solve problems, like Tetris. As the mythical creatures evolve, the gamers decide that “Complex environments push ‘brain’ evolution.”
The last topic discussed is Non-Religious Religion. Evolutionists have struggled to explain how morality fits into Darwinian evolution of the fittest. What a philosopher and evolutionary biologist is suggesting is that “the universe naturally produces complexity … Life seems to exhibit its own pattern of increasing complexity, with simple organisms getting more complex over evolutionary time until they eventually develop rationality and complex culture.” Of course, this is a religious belief. “It need not imply that the universe was created by a God … it’s just some force built into the nature of matter that drives it to produce minds over ‘evolutionary time.’”
There is much more to explore on this website. The main page provides many tabs to topics and links that ask the reader to question evolution.
| Web Site of the Month - June 2018 |
| by Lothar Janetzko |
| This site provides numerous links to the topics of Creation Science and Creationism. |
This month’s website review looks at www.creationism.org. From the Brief Editor’s Bio link (found at the bottom of the main page) you learn that “Paul Abramson is the founder and editor of: www.creationism.org which now has introductions to Creation Science in about 90 languages, about 350 creation theory articles, over two dozen complete books and direct links to over 140 other major creation theory websites (along with a few main evolutionism sites).” Paul’s interest in providing information about creationism in so many languages probably stems from the fact he has lived in Europe for about three years and in Japan for five years.
The main page of the site serves as the launching point to the many topics usually discussed on creation and evolution websites. Here you find links to:
Selecting any one of these links will guide the reader to a brief discussion of that topic by providing definitions and often links to additional related information found on other websites and in PDF files of the Creation Research Society “Creation Matters.”
Following the introductory links, you will find additional links to:
You might think it is easy to get lost following the many links on this site. Just remember that a link to Main will return you to the top page of the main site.
The next set of links on the main page of the site provides information about creation organizations found around the world and the various states of the U.S. Just select the country or state of interest.
Next you will find links to Creation Newsletters, Magazines & Journals. I found it interesting to learn about the many different publications about creation science.
Next you will find links to Creation Science Centers & Museums found around the world and the United States.
Near the bottom of the main web page you will find even more links covering more topics and providing more resources in the form of articles, books, MP3 audio teaching, stuff for kids and more.
This website indeed provides a wealth of information about creation science. There are many links you can follow that should provide interesting topics to explore.
| Web Site of the Month - July 2018 |
| by Lothar Janetzko |
| The American Controversy over Creation and Evolution |
This month’s website review is about a book by Edward J. Larson, who is a Pulitzer-winning author. The book was first published in 1985 by Oxford University Press, Inc. and first issued as an Oxford Press paperback in 1989. A third edition was made available in 2003.
As with most books found on amazon.com, there is a “LOOK INSIDE!” link which allows a reader to obtain a good overview of the topics covered by the book. On the page describing the book you can select either a Kindle Book link or a Print Book link to preview the material of the book.
Following the Kindle Book link you will find the Preface to the Third Edition, Preface to Paperback Edition, Preface to First Edition, Contents, Introduction and a portion of the first chapter of the book. More sample content from the book is available if you follow the Print Book link.
From the Preface to First Edition you learn about the purpose of the book. “What legal rights and restrictions have applied to the teaching of evolution and creation in American public schools since the advent of Darwinism? What do the granting of those rights and the imposing of those restrictions indicate about the place of science and religion in modern American society? How has the legal system coped with conflicting demands for such rights and restrictions? To address these questions, I have chronicled the American legal controversy over creation and evolution.”
From the Preface to the Third Edition you learn that the book has evolved over two decades.
The Contents of the book are as follows:
Although you can get a great deal of information from the sample content of the book on the web, you can buy the Kindle Edition of the book for $27.99, or a hard book copy for $40.95, and be able to access all the material.
| Web Site of the Month - August 2018 |
| by Lothar Janetzko |
| Exploring the debate about teaching evolution at La Sierra University, a Seventh-day Adventist Institution |
This month’s website review looks at the website of Dr. Sean Pitman, “Educate Truth”. The main page of the site and other pages present the following navigation links that allow the reader to explore all of the information available on the site:
The main page also presents selected information from other parts of the website.
From the “About” link you learn the site was created to: “1) create awareness within the Seventh-day Adventist Church that the theory of evolution was being promoted at La Sierra University (LSU) and 2) give students and their parents the ability to make informed decisions regarding their education.” You can also learn about the goals the website seeks to achieve. On this page link you also find some biographical information about the webmaster of the site, Dr. Sean Pitman. He is a graduate of Loma Linda University (Class of ‘97) and City of Hope National Medical Center. He is an anatomic and clinical pathologist with a subspecialty in hematopathology. He has long been interested in the topics of evolution and creation. He also has another website that you can view at www.DetectingDesign.com.
The information on the “What we believe” link begins by stating that “The Seventh-day Adventist Church affirms its belief in the biblical account of creation in contrast to an evolutionary explanation for the origin of living organisms and the relationship of humans to other life forms.” You will also find a complete listing of Fundamental Belief #6 of the church. From this information you can tell why Dr. Pitman and others are concerned about what is being taught in the science classes of La Sierra University.
The “SDA Schools & Darwinism” link provides insight into how some other SDA Schools from around the world are addressing the creation versus evolution controversy in their classrooms.
In addition to the La Sierra teaching debate, there is much other material regarding creation and evolution that can be found on this website. The “Scientific evidence” link provides links to many different topics that the reader may find of interest.
As with most websites discussing questions regarding creation and evolution, there is much to explore on this site and it is interesting to read about the ideas expressed by the different parties involved in the current controversy with LSU over the issue of teaching evolution.
| Web Site of the Month - September 2018 |
| by Lothar Janetzko |
| Finding Articles on Creation and Evolution |
This month’s website review shows how you can use a google.com website called Scholar to find articles about creation and evolution. Since I spend some time every month searching for interesting articles on this topic, I just happened to discover scholar.google.com while searching for articles using my iPhone.
If you just enter scholar.google.com into a web browser, you will arrive at the home page of Google Scholar. On this page you can sign in with your Google account, or create one, or configure settings for searches you make by selecting either the Articles or Case Law radio button found under a large search box into which you enter your desired research topic. Under the search box, you will find the caption “Stand on the shoulders of giants”.
Selecting the Articles button and entering “Creation and Evolution” in the search box you arrive at a new webpage that presents the results of your search. For this topic, Scholar reports “About 3,750,000 results (0.04 sec)” and gives you the option to select “Year” where you can choose:
Also, you have the options to include patents, include citations, and view “My profile” or “My library”.
The search results presented on the results page are identified as plain links or [BOOK], [CITATION], [HTML] or [PDF]. Under the brief description of a search result you will find a star icon which allows you to enter the link into your library, “Cited by xxx” link and a link to “Related articles”. Also, on the first results page you will find links to “Related searches”.
Scholar really helps you if you use Google as your search engine to find information on just about any topic. Being able to create a library of search results makes it easy to come back later to read your saved links.
Space does not permit me to discuss any of the links found by Google Scholar on the topic of Creation and Evolution so just perform the search yourself and use the various options available to limit the search results to a more manageable number than 3,750,000. Also, when searching for information using Google, remember it is important how you enter your search criteria, i.e. using quotes and keywords.
| Web Site of the Month - October 2018 |
| by Lothar Janetzko |
| Non-profit organization committed to providing Biblically- and scientifically-based answers to evolution theory taught in public schools (in California) |
This month’s website review looks at a site whose mission is to provide “practical and easy-to-understand web, video, and written products for youth pastors, parents, and students” to answer questions regarding evolutionary theory taught to children during 6th, 7th, and 10th grades in public schools (in California).
At the top right of the main page of the site, the following links are provided:
Below the title of the website, on the main page of the site, you will find the following links:
Following the Junior High link, you learn that the GENESISapologetics ministry “has taken the time to read through some of the most common Junior High textbooks used in California public schools. All of these textbooks contain specific sections and materials that teach evolutionary theory. We provide informative rebuttals that support the beliefs of Christian students, teachers and parents and debunk the ideas presented in these books.” The textbooks covered include books used for Social Study/World History and Life Science.
The High School link provides informative rebuttals to the many textbooks used to teach biology in California public schools. The suggestion is made to select the High School Biology book your teenager is currently using so you can answer questions he or she may have regarding the teaching of evolution found in the text. The rebuttals are presented by providing a Topic & Response. The Response is presented by providing a link to a YouTube video that you can watch. Selecting any of the YouTube videos you learn that “THIS VIDEO IS ONE OF TWELVE VIDEOS THAT COMPRISE A SIX-LESSON PROGRAM THAT CONTRASTS EVOLUTION WITH BIBLICAL CREATION and THIS PROGRAM (INCLUDING BOOK AND STUDENT GUIDE) CAN BE DOWNLOADED FREE FROM OUR WEBSITE.”
Not only can you read the information of the website online, you can order a hard copy of various Packages or download the free Genesis Apologetics app from the Apple App Store or Google play.
| Web Site of the Month - November 2018 |
| by Lothar Janetzko |
| Creation Science Network is a non-profit organization dedicated to spreading the biblical and scientific truth of creation and a young earth. |
This month’s website review looks at the website of the Creation Science Network.
The Home page of the site presents the navigation links to all the material that can be found on this site and welcomes the reader to the Creation Science Network’s Online Information Center. The site navigation links include:
From the Radio & Podcasts link you learn about the Creation Science Network’s radio show, “Exploring God’s Creation”. This radio program airs in Portland, OR, Vancouver, WA, Denver, CO, and Phoenix, AZ. The links to listen to previous broadcasts don’t seem to work, but you can order any of 12 CD’s which each contain three shows.
The Library & Info Center link provides links to several articles where you can learn the truth about various topics such as the Creation Day, Fossil Evidence, Dinosaurs, Noah’s Ark, Radio-Carbon Dating and more. Here you also learn about the book and DVD, The Truth About Creation & Evolution, by Bob Knopf. Links provide a sampling of the more than 75 facts found in the book and what book reviewers say about this book.
The About Us link provides the details about the Creation Science Network and includes:
Here you will also find a biographical sketch of Bob Knopf, the founder of the Network in 2004.
Although the site no longer appears to be active, there is much to explore. Just follow links that you find of interest. In following the Facebook link, I did determine that people are still posting comments on the Creation Science Network Facebook site. From an April 24, 2016 post you learn that “we are back from a hiatus, and will be posting here more regularly”.
| Web Site of the Month - December 2018 |
| by Lothar Janetzko |
| -- bonitas non est pessimis esse meliorem -- |
The website review for this month looks at an article found on a UK website with the unique name of DryDeadFish. In the article, the author “examines the theories and methods used in dating the age of rocks and fossils, experiments in evolution through mutations, facts that are ignored, and how a cataclysmic global flood fits perfectly with the facts that we do have.”
The article begins by discussing microevolution and macroevolution. The author points out that these are not scientific terms. “To evolutionists, and to science, there is just ‘evolution’, and the fact that small changes occur are assumed to be proof that the large changes can also occur.” He believes that there is no factual evidence supporting macroevolution and many claims made by evolutionists are pure speculation. A discussion of the fossil record is presented to show that there is not any real evidence of species gradually evolving into other species on a large scale.
Next in the article you will find a lengthy discussion of facts and theories. You often hear evolutionists complain when people call evolution, “just a theory.” They want you to believe in the “fact” of human evolution. “Science is claimed to be the opposite of religion, being fact-based rather than faith-based.” This really is not true. A great deal of faith is required to believe the many claims evolutionists make regardless of the speculation involved in their claims. In the article you will find a discussion of several theories that once were considered factual but now have been proven false.
What follows next is a discussion of the flaws in the theory of macroevolution through mutation. Here you can read about experiments related to evolution made with fruit flies and E. coli bacteria.
The topic of calculating the age of the earth by means of fossils, geological layers and dating methods is discussed next. The problem with most of the different methods is that the assumptions made to determine the age of rocks or organic material have not proven to be accurate.
The last topic discussed is the flood theory. The problem evolutionists have with the occurrence of a global cataclysmic flood is that it suggests that “sedimentary layers are not millions of years old and neither are the fossils within them.” Evolution really requires millions of years of time to allow for macroevolution to take place.
P.S. In case you are wondering. The Latin Phrase “bonitas non est pessimis esse meliorem” means “It is not goodness to be better than the worst.”
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