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News:
July 27, 2003
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Religion in the News
Bill Bright Dies at 81
Bill Bright, founder of
Campus Crusade for Christ and one of
the most successful evangelists of the 20th century, fought pulmonary fibrosis
since his
diagnosis in late 2000—but he never feared it. Bright took his
last breath Saturday at his Orlando home, surrounded by his family. See
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2003/129/11.0.html
Carmen Renee Berry's Unabashedly Consumerist Handbook to Ecclesiology
The author of The Unauthorized Guide to Choosing a Church helps
seekers find their best congregational fit. See
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2003/129/21.0.html
Traditional Values Coalition, accused of lying and bribery, is banned
from Capitol Hill for a year
Is Lou Sheldon's
Traditional Values Coalition (TVC) involved in bribery and extortion?
Those are just some of the accusations being leveled against it this week.
What's more, those accusations are coming from prolife conservatives, furious
over the
organization's campaign to stop
a bill allowing the
importation of prescription drugs from Canada and Europe. See
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2003/129/22.0.html
Robertson's role in GOP questioned
The televangelist's stands often seem extreme. Some wonder if they hurt
party outreach efforts. See http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/nation/6391336.htm
Abuse scandal far deeper than disclosed, report says | Victims of clergy may exceed 1,000, Mass. Attorney General estimates. See http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/205/metro/Abuse_scandal_far_deeper_than_disclosed_report_says+.shtml
Ft. Worth's Tyndale Theological Seminary ordered to pay $173,000 fine
for awarding diplomas, calling itself a seminary
Concerned about diploma mills, the Texas Legislature in 1975 passed a law
barring unaccredited schools from using the word "seminary" in
their titles and from using "bachelor, master, and doctor" in
their degree titles. See
http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/local/6377512.htm
Turning the Mainline Around
New sociological studies show that evangelicals may well succeed at renewing
wayward Protestantism. See
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2003/008/1.34.html
Breakthrough Dancing
A look at the one of the most creative youth ministries in Hong Kong—if
not the world. See
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2003/007/6.54.html
Is the Babywise method right for you? | What you should know about Babywise and Growing Kids God's Way by Gary Ezzo(TulsaKids). See http://www.tulsakids.com/july-1.html
Challenging the Qur'an | A German scholar contends that the Islamic text has been mistranscribed and promises raisins, not virgins (Newsweek International). See http://www.msnbc.com/news/940974.asp
A view from the experts: Modern society still needs spirituality (Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette)
See
http://www.post-gazette.com/neigh_washington/20030720waexpert5.asp
Science in the News
Creation/Evolution
Hydrothermal Vent
Systems Could Have Persisted Millions Of Years, Incubated Life
The staying power of seafloor hydrothermal vent systems like the bizarre
Lost City vent field is one reason they also may have been incubators of
Earth's earliest life, scientists report in a paper published in the July
25 issue of Science. See
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/07/030725080845.htm
NASA Research Seeks To Discover If Comets Seeded Life. Greenbelt - Jul 18, 2003 - NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center will lead the effort to discover if comets supplied the raw material for the origin of life on Earth, and if they could do so for alien worlds, as part of its participation in NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) research. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-03zh.html
New clues to identity of first genetic molecule
TNA resembles DNA and RNA in almost every respect, but is simpler - now
researchers show it can be assembled by natural enzymes. See
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993972
An Evolutionary Fast-Track In Which The Hunted Outwit Their Hunters. Ithaca - Jul 18, 2003 - In the fishbowl of life, when hordes of well-fed predators drive their prey to the brink of extinction, sometimes evolution takes the fast track to help the hunted survive -- and then thrive to outnumber their predators. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-03zg.html
Teaching creationism muddies the waters of science education | When a school district teaches a pseudo-scientific theory espoused by a religious community as scientific fact, it crosses a line (Art Coulson, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.). See http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/news/editorial/6335792.htm
David Sloan Wilson says plankton can tell us a lot about God and human morality. By Andrew Brown. David Sloan Wilson's career as a biologist started with zooplankton in the depths of the ocean and has ascended to God. He is convinced the same theoretical tools can be used to analyse the patterns of animal behaviour and human belief; and that the kinds of equations that tell you whether fish will be brightly or dully coloured, depending on the part of a river they live in, will also tell you why Calvinism thrived in 16th-century Geneva but the church of England is in decline today. See http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/interview/story/0,12982,1004403,00.html
Darwin and the Barnacle: The Story of One Tiny Creature and History's Most Spectacular Scientific Breakthrough by Rebecca Stott. See http://xml.amazon.com/onca/xml2?t=darwinanddarwini&dev-t=D2C43HO9U0XYC0&AsinSearch=0393057453&type=heavy&f=http://human-nature.com/web-services/asin-data-to-html2.xsl
Darwin and Design : Does Evolution Have a Purpose? by Michael Ruse. See http://xml.amazon.com/onca/xml2?t=darwinanddarwini&dev-t=D2C43HO9U0XYC0&AsinSearch=067401023X&type=heavy&f=http://human-nature.com/web-services/asin-data-to-html2.xsl
Deeper Than Darwin: The Prospect for Religion in the Age of Evolution by John Haught. See http://xml.amazon.com/onca/xml2?t=darwinanddarwini&dev-t=D2C43HO9U0XYC0&AsinSearch=0813365902&type=heavy&f=http://human-nature.com/web-services/asin-data-to-html2.xsl
Archaeology/Anthropology
James Ossuary Owner Arrested on Fraud and Forgery Charges. Israeli police arrest owner of the James ossuary and Joash tablet. After a six-month investigation, Israeli police on Monday arrested antiques collector Oded Golan on charges of fraud, forgery, using forged documents, and perverting the course of justice. In recent days, investigators searched Golan's home and storerooms, including a workroom on his roof where they say he forged antiquities. "A number of other 'antiques' in various stages of production were uncovered," reports the Tel Aviv newspaper Ha'aretz. Also on Golan's Tel Aviv roof, "without any security or protection from the elements," was Golan's most famous possession—an ossuary that apparently once held the bones of "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus." Is this treatment of the ossuary another indication that the ossuary is a fraud, or that Golan is merely careless? After all, when he shipped the ossuary for display and testing at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, he packed it so poorly that it cracked—right in the middle of the inscription. Now even the ROM's Ed Keall, who has been one of the main scholars saying the ossuary is authentic, says Golan might have intentionally damaged the bone box to make testing harder. "I'm afraid at this stage I can't discount anything," he told The Ottawa Citizen. "The story's so bizarre." See http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2003/129/31.0.html
Jesus ossuary' promoters unfazed by forgery arrest | Jewish filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici, Gabi Barkai of Bar-Ilan University stand by the authenticity of the ossuary inscription (The Jerusalem Post). See http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/A/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1059022251164
DNA used in attempt to solve Christian mystery | Genetic fingerprinting might soon clear up an ancient Christian mystery—the origins of medieval parchments and even the Canterbury Gospels, thought to have arrived in Britain in 579AD (The Guardian, London). See http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1002142,00.html
Scientists prepare to excavate Black Sea | Scientists also are interested in the ruin, because it could finally clinch the Noah flood theory that has gained the most attention for the trip — and the most criticism (Associated Press). See http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=624&ncid=753&e=10&u=/ap/20030721/ap_on_sc/exp_black_sea_expedition
Scientists explain the burning bushes in the Bible | Norwegian geologists found burning layer of turf under soil in Mali (Nettavisen, Norway). See http://www.nettavisen.no/servlets/page?section=1706&item=277123
In the crossfire | Real-life archaeology is getting more dangerous than in the movies (ABCNews.com). See http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/Primetime/archaeology030720.html
Texas puts Gutenberg Bible on Internet | Ransom Center edition is not the first to go digital (Associated Press). See http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030723/ap_on_hi_te/digital_scripture_1
Human genetics (25 Jul) - Scientists studying the genetic signatures of Siberians and American Indians have found evidence that the first human migrations to the New World from Siberia probably occurred no earlier than 18,000 years ago. See http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/25/science/25HUMA.html
After the Ice: A global human history 20,000-5000 BC
By Steven Mithen. See a review at
http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opbooks.jsp?id=ns24032
Astronomy
Heavy Metals Rich Stars Tend To Harbor Planets. Sydney - Jul 20, 2003 - EMBARGOEDA comparison of 754 nearby stars like our sun - some with planets and some without - shows definitively that the more iron and other metals there are in a star, the greater the chance it has a companion planet. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/extrasolar-03m.html also http://www.nature.com/nsu/030721/030721-1.html
Revealing The Beast
Within: Deeply Embedded Massive Stellar Clusters Discovered In Milky Way
Powerhouse
Peering into a giant molecular cloud in the Milky Way galaxy - known as
W49 - astronomers from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) have discovered
a whole new population of very massive newborn stars. See
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/07/030723083946.htm
Study Finds Dark Matter Is For SuperWIMPs. Irvine - Jul 16, 2003 - A UC Irvine study has revealed a new class of cosmic particles that may shed light on the composition of dark matter in the universe. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/darkmatter-03g.html
Information in the Holographic Universe By studying the mysterious properties of black holes, physicists have deduced absolute limits on how much information a region of space or a quantity of matter and energy can hold. Related results suggest that our universe, which we perceive to have three spatial dimensions, might instead be "written" on a two-dimensional surface, like a hologram. Our everyday perceptions of the world as three-dimensional would then be either a profound illusion or merely one of two alternative ways of viewing reality. A grain of sand may not encompass our world, but a flat screen might. See http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&articleID=000AF072-4891-1F0A-97AE80A84189EEDF
Supernovae Spawned Universe's First Solid Particles Astronomers have detected a cosmic dust storm surrounding the remains of a supernova, according to new research. The findings suggest that these exploded stars could be a major source of the first solid particles in our universe. See http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=0000808C-A78D-1F15-B4FD80A84189EEDF
Stream of radon There should be plenty of water on Mars. Water vapour has already been detected in the planet's atmosphere, and ice on the surface at the poles. But much of the water may be buried underground. Locating this hidden store is not easy, but radon could be the answer. This gas, produced by radioactive decay, is usually trapped in minerals. But the presence of water or ice allows it to seep up to the surface, providing a wafting signpost. See http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993968
Los Alamos Releases New Maps Of A Martian Ice World. Los Alamos - Jul 25, 2003 - "Breathtaking" new maps of likely sites of water on Mars showcase their association with geologic features such as Vallis Marineris, the largest canyon in the solar system. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-water-science-03k.html
Earth Science
Earth's Birth Date Turned Back: Formed Earlier Than Believed. Boston - Jul 21, 2003 - Our planet is 50 to 90 million years older than previously thought, according to new evidence found in meteorites. Mixtures of radioactive elements, which tick away like clocks, show that most of Earth had formed only 10 million years after the sun was born as a star, which took place about 4,567 million years ago. Previous measurements indicated an Earth birth of 60 million to 100 million years after the sun's nuclear fires began to burn. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/early-earth-03f.html
Dino Fossil Recovered at Loch Ness. July 16, 2003 — A Scottish retiree has discovered a fossil of a 150-million-year-old reptile on the shores of Scotland's mythical Loch Ness, press reports said Wednesday. See http://dsc.discovery.com/news/afp/20030714/nessfossil.html
Search Under Way for Woolly Mammoth. July 17, 2003 — The central Japanese city hosting the Expo 2005 world exposition plans to excavate an entire frozen mammoth and display it at the fair under a multi-million dollar Siberian expedition project, organizers said Thursday. See http://dsc.discovery.com/news/afp/20030714/mammoth.html
Psychology
Gene length predicts depression risk
Some people are hit harder by stressful life events than others. See
http://www.nature.com/nsu/030714/030714-15.html
False memories (24 Jul) - False memories are a common occurrence in the courtroom and in everyday life, and have long been considered by psychologists as a side effect of efforts to boost memory. New research from Tufts University has answered the question of how to increase memory, without also increasing corresponding false memories. See http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-07/tu-tup072403.php
Domestic violence (24 Jul) - Children who witness their parents using violence against each other and who regularly receive excessive punishment are at increased risk of being involved in an abusive relationship as an adult, according to a 20-year study that followed children into adult romantic relationships. In partner violence cases that result in injury, the study finds that being the victim of physical abuse and conduct disorders as a child are also important risk factors. See http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-07/apa-etv072203.php
Tending hungry hearts and unsettled minds | A new crop of popular psychology titles keeps pace with the national malaise (Publishers Weekly). See http://publishersweekly.reviewsnews.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA308250&publication=publishersweekly