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June 1, 2010
The hero of the story unwittingly encounters a high energy magnetic field and is forever transformed by it. Though this scenario sounds like it’s straight out of a comic book, it is not science fiction, but science fact.
A team of neuroscientists from MIT made headlines recently when they reported that they could alter a person’s capacity to make moral judgments by sending magnetic pulses into the brain, temporarily disabling a region called the right temporoparietal junction (RTPJ).1
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June 1, 2010
The world changed dramatically in 1972, as the U.S. forged diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China and NASA inaugurated the space shuttle program. Meanwhile, in a quiet corner of the scientific community, astronomers Carl Sagan and George Mullen first brought to light a previously unrecognized, world-changing puzzle called the faint Sun paradox.1 After nearly 40 years of intense research, this enigma continues to defy natural explanation.
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June 1, 2010
At the time these words were written (~sixth century B.C.), Greek philosopher Thales, often called “the Father of Science,” had just begun to consider the possibility that intrinsic “rules” rather than capricious forces governed matter and motion. Aristotle said any patterns observed in Earth’s changeable elements (earth, air, fire, and water) had no bearing on the one totally different and unchangeable heavenly element (aether). Such was the state of “science” when the “I Am” of Israel, speaking through Jeremiah the prophet, proclaimed that the entire physical universe operates according to unchanging laws.
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Constants of Physics
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Biblical Inerrancy
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June 1, 2010
This line—from my favorite book in C. S. Lewis’s remarkable children’s series—makes it clear that Aslan, the Christ figure in the story, is no tame lion. But his being dangerous does not rule out his profound benevolence.
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June 1, 2010
A recent 60 Minutes broadcast provided an illuminating glimpse into the global “war on terror.” The April 25 episode included a provocative segment on Islam entitled “Jihadists and the Narrative.” The episode highlighted Pakistani-British citizen Maajid Nawaz, a former Muslim extremist who now works to combat Jihadist ideology.
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Religious Pluralism
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Worldviews
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World Religions/Cults
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Conspiracies
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June 1, 2010
Hugh Ross launched his career at age seven when he went to the library to investigate why stars are hot. Physics and astronomy captured his curiosity, and they never let go. At age seventeen he was the youngest person ever to serve as director of observations for Vancouver’s Royal Astronomical Society.
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Educators/Homeschoolers
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Testimonies
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Scientists
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April 1, 2010
Christian educators, including homeschoolers, frequently ask me whether they should avoid using secular biology textbooks because of the evolutionary content. Here are five reasons why I think a sound biology education must include the use of mainstream (secular) textbooks.1
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April 1, 2010
Among the world’s great religious leaders, only two had such a profound impact that contemporaries inquired as to the very nature of their being.1 People wondered whether Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) and Jesus of Nazareth (the Christ) were more than mere human beings. While both are known as great teachers and profound souls, the identity, mission, and message of these two men couldn’t be more different.
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World Religions/Cults
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Religious Pluralism
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April 1, 2010
As a kid growing up in Missouri, I would’ve said the best way to get down a hill depends on the season. A sideways roll worked well during the summer when the ground was dry, but winter called for a speedy trip on a Flexible Flyer sled with steel runners. The bumpy, dizzying nature of the roll technique meant only a couple of trips down the hill. In contrast, the smooth ride on a snow sled provided hours of entertainment—until it got too dark or cold outside.
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March 1, 2010
“How are flesh-eating bacteria consistent with an all-powerful, all-loving God?” This question was posed to me on a recent episode (January 19, 2010) of our I Didn’t Know That! podcast.
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March 1, 2010
If you know about the relationship between flowers and bees, you know the basics of symbiosis—two dissimilar species living together interdependently. To account for the occurrence of symbiosis, some biologists have developed a theory of “coevolution” wherein increasingly cooperative interaction between two species supports their mutual competition for survival.
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March 1, 2010
A few years ago, I attended a rather provocative production of Shakespeare’s Othello at a nearby college. Although the performers stuck to the original script, they wore modern military garb. A few months later I saw Othello performed in London at the Globe Theater. It was a “bucket list” experience for me and as close as anyone could come to viewing Othello as first presented to audiences in England.
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March 1, 2010
Too much water, for example, or too much carbon would destroy Earth’s ability to support advanced life. On the other hand, too little of certain “bad” things, elements generally considered poisonous to life, would also ruin Earth’s chances to serve as a life site. Many of these elements must be present on Earth in “just right” quantities or we wouldn’t be here.
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Extrasolar Planets
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Earth/Moon Design
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March 1, 2010
Since life first appeared on Earth, the size of the largest organisms increased in size by a factor of 10 quadrillion (1016 or 10,000,000,000,000,000). Two sudden bursts, each showing an organism volume increase by a factor of one million (106), account for most this growth.1 Both bursts occurred after a significant change in the quantity of oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere. The latter oxygenation event occurred just prior to the Cambrian explosion. Research into the timing and stability of the first oxygenation event provides more evidence supporting RTB’s creation model, which predicts that complex life would appear suddenly and early in Earth’s history.
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March 1, 2010
An already impressive body of evidence demonstrates the fine-tuning Earth exhibits to support life. Yet continued investigation of our neighboring planets––including water on Mars––adds to the evidence.
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March 1, 2010
Among the world’s great religious leaders, only two would found religions whose adherents now number well beyond a billion people—Muhammad and Jesus Christ. As of 2005 researchers estimated world totals of approximately 1.5 billion Muslims and 2.1 billion Christians. Therefore, combined, Muslims and Christians make up approximately 54 percent of the world’s population.
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World Religions/Cults
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Religious Pluralism
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March 1, 2010
You’ve heard of these conspiracies. You know, the ones involving clandestine plots of the United States government. It appears that a lot of Americans believe high-level members of the government have been involved in assassinations, cover-ups, secret societies, etc. What are some of the major conspiracy theories and what are we to make of them?
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March 1, 2010
Dr. Fazale Rana unveils an exciting new feature of RTB’s testable creation model: an explanation for the origin of human diseases (see his article “Did God Create Flesh-Eating Bacteria?”). This topic has traditionally been placed under the broader heading of “natural evil.”
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Problem of Evil
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Parasites & Diseases
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March 1, 2010
Considering that life depends on liquid water, it seems natural from a biblical perspective to assume that only Earth manifests this life-essential fluid. After all, the Bible speaks of God fashioning life on only one planet. However, such reasoning misses a few key inferences of the creation narrative found in Genesis 1.
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January 1, 2010
The ubiquitous bumper sticker featuring a fish sprouting legs has symbolized a sometimes rancorous contemporary debate: Does evolution or creation better explain life’s history? Recent fossil finds have put literal and figurative legs on the controversy by challenging Charles Darwin’s paradigm-shifting theory.
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Fish-to-Amphibians Transitions
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