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"John Ray's Diary" is an attempt to bring Ray's Christian principles to the fore when commenting on contemporary issues in science. This is in two parts: first some comments on contemporary issues and secondly Pick of the Web

John Ray's Diary

British Humanists campaign to restrict academic freedom
This week has seen the launch of a new website, registered by the British Humanist Association. The issue relates to education and the way the subject of origins is handled. The organisations in the campaign are the ... Read more here

Creationism, Intelligent Design and Darwinism this week on Channel 4
4thought.tv is a Channel 4 project has the goal of encouraging conversations about religious, spiritual and ethical subjects within our society. This week, the issues of Creationism, Intelligent Design and Darwinism are being aired.
Each day at 7.55pm Channel 4 will broadcast a different 2-minute film in which someone answers the question 'Is it possible to believe in God and Darwin?' The films will then be posted on the project vwebsite www.4thought.tv, with spaces for viewers to leave their comments and thoughts on the piece, and respond to other viewer's comments.
The full series will run from Monday 6 June - Sunday 12 June, and the first video will appear online on Monday night after it has been broadcast on television.
Monday 6th June: Dr Sandré Fourie Christian and creationist
Dr Sandré Fourie is a veterinary surgeon who thinks that Darwin's theory of evolution is Satan's attack on God. She believes that the word of the Bible is literally true in explaining that God created the world in six days.
Wednesday 8th June: Dr Alastair Noble
Dr Alastair Noble does not believe that Darwin's theory of random mutations is a full explanation for the existence of life. He believes that there is clear evidence of design in nature and that science needs to take the theory of Intelligent Design seriously.
Thursday 9th June: Alanna Maltby Atheist and evolutionary biologist,
Alanna Maltby thinks that science has no room for creationism and that humans are arrogant if they believe that they have not evolved from animals.
Sunday 12th June: Dr Stephen Lloyd
Stephen Lloyd has worked in science research and in Christian ministry. He is working part-time with Paul Garner within Biblical Creation Ministries and has had many opportunities to discuss these issues with theistic evolutionists and show the importance and relevance of the biblical creation message.

Please use this opportunity to join in the debate online at www.4thought.tv.

On Darwin anniversaries
(This text is the Editorial in Origins 50-51, December 2009)
In this bicentennial year of Darwin's birth and the 150 th anniversary of the publication of “On the Origin of Species”, it is appropriate to reflect on the way occasions for celebration have been marked.
First we look at a lecture delivered by Thomas Huxley to the Royal Institution on March 19, 1880. This was to mark 21 years since the publication of Darwin's magnum opus and it establishes a standard for rhetoric and polemic for all subsequent celebrations. From our vantage point of history, we have to interpret Huxley's words as a combination of wishful thinking and spin. He passes over those aspects of evolutionary theory that were problematic (Darwinism had no theory of inheritance, natural selection as a creative force was still controversial, the fossil record provides evidence of animal radiations from an ancestral population - but this does not confirm Darwinian gradualism nor does it explain the origin of those ancestral populations). Huxley's willingness to elevate evolution to “historical fact” should be interpreted as a deduction from his own atheistic worldview, which makes evolution a necessity. Read more

Has the Royal Society’s rough handling of Michael Reiss backfired? On 11 September 2008, Professor Michael Reiss, then Director of Education of the Royal Society, addressed a British Association Festival of Science meeting and suggested that science education must incorporate respect for the individual and teachers need to recognise that creationists have a worldview which differs in significant ways from our secular culture. Read more ...

'How to live with Delusion - a response to The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins" If matter is all there is, governed by the laws of physics and chemistry, what becomes of personality, consciousness, morality and free agency? What has Richard Dawkins to say on these issues that are central to our thinking about who we are and what is our place in the world?  Read more ...

'Truth in Science' deserves our appreciation! Outrage and alarm was the media greeting for the launch of the ‘Truth in Science’ initiative on 20 September 2006.  Schools up and down the country were sent two DVDs with a study guide helping teachers to utilise these materials in biology lessons.  Instead of welcoming a constructive and stimulating input to the educational process, the denunciations were almost universal. Read more ...

Recolonisation and Earth History. The Committee of the Biblical Creation Society have noted a web page on the Answers in Genesis web site which refers to several members of BCS (who are also contributors to Origins) as "compromisers" who have "allowed their 'science' to lead their understanding of the Bible, rather than the reverse." The AiG authors are referring to the Recolonisation approach to understanding geology and the fossil record. To find out what the Committee thinks about this, click here ...

Rod Liddle on the New Fundamentalists. Rupert Kaye writes: "I tuned in to watch this edition of Dispatches (screened on Channel 4 at 8pm on Monday 6 March 2006) in eager expectation that Rod Liddle would visit a number of new Christian schools to find out if, how and why they are distinctive. After all, there was plenty for him to have got his teeth into." To read more, please click here ...

How should Christians assess Intelligent Design? ID should be welcomed by Christians. It is far from being an intrusion into our intellectual heritage. ID leaders are expressing clearly and incisively an understanding of the created order that is essentially biblical. Our forefathers held similar views, but their thoughts lacked maturity and were expressed in a less rigorous way. In essence, ID is the view that intelligent design is manifested in the created order. Design is not an aesthetic response to creation or a subjective feeling. Design is really there. Concluding that life is designed is not a matter of faith, but a matter of physical evidence. . ... Click here for more

Intelligent Design - Science education and design in the natural world: Judging by media interest, the concept of Intelligent Design (ID) is having a major impact in the USA.. ... Click here for more

The Amazing Shrinking Humans from Flores: On 28th October 2004, something genuinely novel appeared in the pages of Nature and hit the front pages of newspapers around the world.. ... Click here for more

Pope Benedict XVI and his challenge to evolutionary theorists: Pope Benedict XVI says "We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution." ... Click here for more

Questioning Orthodoxy: Dr. Alan Feduccia Speaks on the Origin of Birds A Report by Casey Luskin Click here to read more ...

High Priests of Evolution: . ... Click here for more

Teaching that does justice to the data about origins: In early September 2004, the media carried... Click here to read more ...

Just-so stories and Design Explanations: the Elephant’s Trunk. On Monday 9 August 2004, BBC Radio 4 ... Click here to read more ...

The BBC Floats with Noah– but not the biblical one! On March 21st, the BBC showed a “drama documentary” on Noah’s ark. Click here to read more...

Pick of the Web

February 2012

Peer-Reviewed & Peer-Edited Scientific Publications Supporting the Theory of Intelligent Design (Annotated), Discovery Institute (1st February 2012). This body of research is converging on a consensus: complex biological features cannot arise by unguided Darwinian mechanisms, but require an intelligent cause (see here).

Wikipedia and the Sociology of Darwinian Belief, by David Klinghoffer (Evolution News & Views, February 5, 2012) An insight as to why misinformation about creationism and intelligent design is carried by Wikipedia.

Should We Believe the Intellectuals? by Richard Weikart (Credo, 6 December 2011), Two champions of theistic evolution provide an object lesson in the dangers of compromising with secularism.

January 2012

William Dembski Interview, TheBestSchools.org (14 January 2012) A thought-provoking interview with Bill Dembski, who is a leading advocate of intelligent design.

Specious Speciation: The Myth of Observed Large-Scale Evolutionary Change, by Casey Luskin (Discovery Institute, January 2012) Challenging the idea that Darwinian processes can produce large-scale biological change.

Terry Hamblin (obituary)Telegraph Online (24 Jan 2012), Professor Terry Hamblin, a Vice-President of BCS, was a haematologist who delivered the “world’s first cancer vaccine”.

December 2011

The Magic of Reality: Richard Dawkins's Latest Attempt to Produce Young, Angry, New Atheist Clones, by Casey Luskin (Evolution News & Views, 12 December 2011) What do you get when the world's most influential atheist teams up with a tarot card illustrator to write a book for children? Well, you get a book that takes scientism on faith, mocks religion, and is full of occult-like imagery.

Evolution Can't Explain Organic Fossils, by Brian Thomas (ICR Science Update, Dec. 15, 2011) Finding traces of organic materials within fossils has implications that are difficult to reconcile with evolutionary timescales.

On the Origin of Plush Evolution - for Christmas, by Jeffrey Tomkins (Acts & Facts. 2011, 40 (11): 6). It says: “And here's proof that Darwin was right” – but the plushies were designed and sewn by an intelligent agent!

November 2011

Extraterrestrial Intelligence and the Search for God, by Tom Bethell (American Spectator, November 2011). 50 years of SETI - There's got to be life out there, the atheistic view goes, none of it God-caused, of course.

Where are we in the universe?, by John Hartnett, Journal of Creation, 24(2):105–107, August 2010. Our galaxy is located about 125 million light-years from the centre of the largest super-structure of galaxies ever observed. Is this significant?

October 2011

Darwinian Logic: The Latest on Chimp and Human DNA, by Jonathan Wells (Evolution News & Views, October 27, 2011). Comments on research showing that the differences between apes and humans may be found more in non-coding DNA than in coding DNA.

Ongoing Telomere Research at Odds with Human-Chimp Chromosome 2 Model, by Jeffrey Tomkins (Acts & Facts. 2011, 40 (11): 6). Evidence is discussed that appears to invalidate the human-ape chromosome fusion model.

Richard Dawkins Takes the Magic Out of Reality, by Deepak Chopra (Huffington Post, 10 October 2011) Why Richard Dawkins is a “one-man society for the suppression of curiosity”.

September 2011

Australopithecus sediba after the hype, by David Tyler (ARN Literature blog, 11 October 2011). Excitement over the latest fossil find has been premature.

It's an Ape. It's a Human. It's. It's. a Missing Link!, by David A. DeWitt (AIG online, September 13, 2011). Detailed analysis of Australopithecus sediba presents problems for evolution.

Did Darwin Believe in God?, by Richard Weikart (American Thinker, 18 September 2011). Traces Darwin's slide into agnosticism and rejection of any divine purpose in his evolutionary scheme.

August 2011

A Turning Point In The Evolution Wars?, by Tom Bethell (New Oxford Review, July-August 2011)<, The complexity of the cell is relentlessly forcing Darwinists to lose their grip of the arguments.

Both Argon and Helium Diffusion Rates Indicate a Young Earth<, by Larry Vardiman (Acts & Facts. 40 (8): 12-13). New results with argon diffusion are consistent with helium diffusion indications of a youthful Earth.

New research on protein folding demonstrates intelligent design<, by Antony Latham (C4ID UK, July 2011). There is no Darwinian explanation for the evolution of proteins which already have chaperone systems in place to ensure proper function.

July 2011

The Doctrine of Creation and the Making of Modern Biology, by Jonathan Bartlett ( Classical Conversations , 28 June 2011)  Creation-based biologists have made noble contributions to the development of biological understanding.

A Scientific Consensus: Darwinism is Dead, by Paul Benedic t, ( War of Words, 2 July 2011)   According to the author, science knows that Darwinism is dead but few openly admit it.

Must Adam Be Historical? An Interview with John Collins, by John Starke ( The Gospel Coalition , 9 July 2011) The author of a new book on the historicity of Adam and Eve explains why the subject is of fundamental importance.

June 2011

New Research Undermines Key Argument for Human Evolution, by Jeffrey Tomkins ( Acts & Facts. June 2011, 40 (6): 6).  A fresh examination of one of the leading arguments for human evolution from a shared common ancestor with apes - the “chromosome 2 fusion model.”

Genetic Entropy Confirmed, by David F. Coppedge ( Creation-Evolution Headlines , June 5, 2011)  It has been suggested that mutations decrease fitness in a process called “genetic entropy” and recent research provides confirmation of this effect.

May 2011

Debating the Historicity of Adam: Does it Matter? By Stephen J. Wellum ( Southern Baptist Journal of Theology , 15.1 (2011): 2-3)  Explains why, until recent times, to deny the creation account as truthful and historical was viewed as undermining the authority of Scripture and undercutting the theological grounding to the entire redemptive plan of God centered in Christ.

The Language of God and Adam's Genesis & Historicity in Paul's Gospel, by A. B. Caneday ( Southern Baptist Journal of Theology , 15.1 (2011): 26-59)  Scripture's evidence for the historicity of the Genesis accounts of creation and the historicity of Adam and Eve, with special reference to recent claims of Theistic Evolutionists.

April 2011

Preface to The Myth of Junk DNA , by Jonathan Wells (Discovery Institute, April 2011)  From a major new book exposing the anti-science emerging from Darwinist biologists.

Archived Pick of the web(if these links become dead they will be marked as such)

John Ray (1627-1705) was a pioneering English naturalist and botanist who contributed significantly to the identification of different species and to making "species" the ultimate unit of taxonomy. He has been called the "father" of natural history in Britain. He was a contemporary of John Newton and Robert Boyle (fellow pioneers in physics and chemistry respectively). Ray was a committed Christian and saw no conflict of interest between his Christian faith and his scientific pursuits. In particular, he argued strongly that the wisdom of God is manifested in his creation, and that design thinking was a natural ally of scientific research.

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