The 50th anniversary of the 1969 Woodstock Music Festival prompts many to reminisce about the extraordinary gathering of musical talent and idealism associated with that event. It more than lived up to its promotional billing as “three days of peace and music.” Woodstock featured 32 of the most iconic artists in American music history, establishing a high point of outdoor concert Read More ›
On Sunday, the Twitter user “⫷ † SavedGrace† ⫸” complained that since she couldn’t find Lent mentioned in the Bible, she doesn’t observe it. To which the Catholic website Rorate Caeli replied, “Cannot find ‘bible’ in the Bible either.” I piled on by noting that “Trinity” and “Incarnation” aren’t in the Bible either. It’s a silly argument. Just because something Read More ›
Many Americans — Christian, Jewish and secular — find Thanksgiving to be their favorite holiday of the year. And for good reason beyond the joy of a feast. Thanksgiving was the first holiday of the Pilgrim forefathers, who spoke of their voyage to the New World in terms of a flight from persecution to freedom, much like the Israelites’ exodus from …
Michael Medved and long-time friend Randall Wallace discuss the fortunes of the once robust business of movie entertainment and the current exodus of writers and directors toward television. The ensuing conversation revisits the birth of the idea of Braveheart in Edinburgh Castle, the initial meeting with Mel Gibson, and the importance of having the conviction to be faithful to one’s Read More ›
Of all holidays, Easter is the one that celebrates a single event that transformed the world forever. There are many religions with different founders, prophets, and teachers going back thousands of years, but only one of them has a founder who professed to be the messiah – the son of God who could save mankind. Jesus was born in a Jewish Read More ›
The Valentine’s Day massacre at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida was the latest in a series of mass school shootings dating back to the Columbine, Colorado shooting in 1999. Evoking shock, these tragedies inevitably prompt a call to pray for the victims and their families. Calls for prayer are natural and appropriate after such wanton evil Read More ›
What happens when an up-and-coming European bioscientist flips from Darwin disciple to Darwin defector? Sparks fly. Just ask biotechnologist Matti Leisola.
It all started when a student loaned the Finnish scientist a book criticizing evolutionary theory. Leisola reacted angrily, and set out to defend evolution, but found his efforts raised more questions than they answered. He soon morphed into a full-on Darwin skeptic, even as he was on his way to becoming a leading bio-engineer.
Heretic is the story of Leisola’s adventures making waves—and many friends and enemies—at major research labs and universities across Europe. Tracing his investigative path, the book draws on Leisola’s expertise in molecular biology to show how the evidence points more strongly than ever to the original biotechnologist—a designing intelligence whose skill and reach dwarf those of even our finest bioengineers, and leave blind evolution in the dust.
In 2000, biologist Jonathan Wells took the science world by storm with Icons of Evolution, a book showing how biology textbooks routinely promote Darwinism using bogus evidence—icons of evolution like Ernst Haeckel’s faked embryo drawings and peppered moths glued to tree trunks. Critics of the book complained that Wells had merely gathered up a handful of innocent textbook errors and blown them out of proportion. Now, in Zombie Science, Wells asks a simple question: If the icons of evolution were just innocent textbook errors, why do so many of them still persist? Science has enriched our lives and led to countless discoveries. But now, Wells argues, it’s being corrupted. Empirical science is devolving into zombie science, shuffling along unfazed by opposing evidence. Discredited icons of evolution rise from the dead while more icons—equally bogus—join their ranks. Like a B horror movie, they just keep coming! Zombies are make believe, but zombie science is real—and it threatens not just science, but our whole culture. Is there a solution? Wells is sure of it, and points the way. Read More ›
In this provocative history of contemporary debates over evolution, veteran journalist Tom Bethell depicts Darwin’s theory as a nineteenth-century idea past its prime, propped up by logical fallacies, bogus claims, and empirical evidence that is all but disintegrating under an onslaught of new scientific discoveries. Bethell presents a concise yet wide-ranging tour of the flash points of modern evolutionary theory, investigating controversies over common descent, natural selection, the fossil record, biogeography, information theory, evolutionary psychology, artificial intelligence, and the growing intelligent design movement. Bethell’s account is enriched by his own personal encounters with some of our era’s leading evolutionary thinkers, including Harvard biologists Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Lewontin; British paleontologist Colin Patterson; and renowned philosopher of science Karl Popper.