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November 1, 2011
One of astronomer Carl Sagan’s most popular contributions to the cultural vernacular is the idea that Earth is merely a “pale blue dot,” a seemingly insignificant dust particle in a forgotten corner of the universe. Such a belief has led to a vigorous search for another life-support planet to deliver us from a “desperate feeling of being alone and trapped on a small pale blue dot” (see “The Quest for an Earth-Like Planet” by Hugh Ross).
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August 1, 2011
Living in Missouri, family vacations often took us out west to Colorado and other Rocky Mountain states. After a long, flat drive across Kansas and almost half of Colorado, the Rockies–– almost without warning––pop out of the ground. I still remember the stark contrast of the majestic peaks against the spacious plains. It’s as if some rocks are meant to form mountains and others remain flat. But why? Recent research begins to answer that question and also reveals how finely tuned tectonic activity plays a critical role in Earth’s habitability. Is it all by lucky accident or divine design?
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August 1, 2011
In 1940 Thomas Wolfe’s posthumous novel, You Can’t Go Back Home, explored how brutally unfair the passage of time can be. In the finale, George Webber (the story’s protagonist) concedes, “you can’t go back home” to family, childhood, familiar places, dreams, and old ways of life.
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August 1, 2011
We all experience mood variation, to one degree or another, and that makes life interesting. But for those who experience frequent, extreme mood cycles, daily life presents major challenges. In some cases, the cycles make holding a job or maintaining close relationships virtually impossible.
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August 1, 2011
Years ago when I was teaching philosophy at a public college, a student of mine ended her term paper on the topic of “existentialism and the meaning of life” with the following forlorn assessment.
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August 1, 2011
Though I have often used this quote from eminent cosmologist Sir Fred Hoyle when making the case that God designed the universe to support life, Hoyle made this statement thirty years ago as he reflected on his work related to the carbon nucleus. But the reason he said it warrants deeper discussion.
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August 1, 2011
A favorite episode of The Twilight Zone, titled "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?", features two state troopers in a desolate diner looking for a disguised Martian among seven Boston-bound bus passengers stranded by a snowstorm. As they wait for the bridge to become passable, the travelers become mutually suspicious of each other as they try to guess who among them is the creature from Mars.
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August 1, 2011
For thousands of years medical practitioners have speculated that human health may be impacted in some way by astronomical cycles, perhaps by lunar phases. Decades of research failed to show any correlation—at least not with the Moon. However, it now appears that a correlation does exist between health and the Sun.
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August 1, 2011
The Bible reveals that of all God’s creatures, only man (humankind) was created in the expressed image of God. While Scripture mentions the imago Dei (Latin for the “image of God”) several times (Genesis 5:1, 9:6; 1 Corinthians 11:7; Colossians 3:10; James 3:9), Genesis 1:26–27 is the most important text.
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August 1, 2011
Sending a student to a Christian college involves a maze of decisions. Not all colleges that bear the title of “Christian” require students and faculty to make a profession of faith or to hold personal beliefs consistent with historic Christian doctrines. If you’re looking for a Christian college that adheres to conservative theology, then you’ll need to do some detective work to identify which ones may be on the path to liberalism and which ones are standing firm.
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Educators/Homeschoolers
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Youth
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Learning
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August 1, 2011
Over the few short months I’ve been a visiting scholar at RTB, I’ve noticed the emergence of new terminology in the scientific literature to describe data and observations that don’t fit neatly into the evolutionary paradigm, but do comport with RTB’s creation model.
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TCM - Biochemical Design
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Biochemical Design
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June 1, 2011
The popular Exploring Creation series is the elementary school component for Apologia publishing. Homeschool mom Jeannie Fulbright blends together the Charlotte Mason and classical methods of narration and notebooking to increase retention and aid in record-keeping.
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June 1, 2011
The ancient lore of many cultures includes the story of a lost civilization—a sophisticated society suddenly buried beneath the sea. The biblical story of Noah and the Greek legend of Atlantis may be the best known, but similar stories emerge from the oral traditions of India, Sri Lanka, Spain, and Egypt, for example.
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June 1, 2011
So said the UC-Santa Cruz astrophysicist who discovered an earth-sized planet orbiting a nearby star called Gliese 581. His optimism stemmed from the fact that the planet orbits in the liquid water habitable zone. But new research puts a serious damper on the idea that these types of planets could host life.
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June 1, 2011
When I was a child I always enjoyed school field trips. Now, as an adult and philosopher the conceptual field trips of the mind can be equally satisfying as they offer even greater insights. Join me on two such trips and encounter signposts that direct our attention beyond the cosmos to an ultimate Mind. So let’s take off—hope you packed a bag.
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June 1, 2011
In the shadows cast by the brilliant media spotlight on the Higgs boson, a.k.a. “the God particle,” two previously undetected particles have emerged as contenders for that glamorous title. They bear unglamorous names—sterile neutrinos and axions (light inflatons) but carry remarkable significance.
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June 1, 2011
I did a lot of work with bacterial cultures in graduate school. On occasion the cultures would get contaminated with fungus, ruining the experiment. The only consolation was the opportunity to say, “The fungus is among us, and it’s humongous.”
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June 1, 2011
As any savvy fan knows, Los Angeles Lakers hall of fame shooting guard Jerry West’s silhouette serves as the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) official logo. To encounter West’s image or likeness is to encounter the NBA.
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June 1, 2011
Can a large manufacturing plant save money by studying a tiny ribosome? For any company in such a business, energy costs are critical to the bottom line. If someone could design manufacturing equipment that derived energy for some of its most critical steps from the ambient temperature in the manufacturing facility––a comfortable temperature for the equipment and the workers––their expertise would be in high demand. That’s essentially what the ribosome does when it uses Brownian motion to fuel many of the steps in the process of translation,1 because the temperature at which the cell is maintained is the source of the thermal energy that results in Brownian motion.
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June 1, 2011
Hugh Ross’s flood model––based on his best efforts to interpret the record of nature and the words of the Bible––rests on three distinct biblical beliefs.
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