| Site Map | Contacts | Links | Newsletter | |
News:
June 20, 2004
Note: Due to the archiving policies of the various news Websites some links on this page may no longer be valid. All links will take you away from the IBSS Site - use your browser's "back" button to return to this page.
Religion in the News
Supreme
Shocker—'Under God' Stays Because of a Technicality
Supreme Court says Michael Newdow doesn't have authority to speak for his
daughter. Plus: Reactions from conservative Christian advocacy organizations.
Compiled by Ted Olsen. For more reactions see http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/124/21.0.html.
Southern
Baptists reject resolution on schools
A resolution calling on members to abandon public schools was declined
by a committee of the Southern Baptist Convention on Wednesday -- the same
day church "messengers" voted to support a federal marriage amendment.
(The Indianapolis Star).
SBC Annual Meeting Ends: Summary of Approved and Rejected Resolutions.
Talk
of witches at Vatican Inquisition conference
Talk of trials, burned witches and forbidden books echoed in the Vatican
on Tuesday as Pope John Paul asked forgiveness for the Inquisition, in which
the Church tortured and killed people branded as heretics (Reuters).
USA
Today for Christians
Christian Times Today attempts long shot amid soured business deals.
By Rob Moll
How Christian
Times Traded Its Good Name—Twice
Kingdom Ventures deal is the second attempt to take Christian Times national.
By Rob Moll
Do Americans
Want a Religious Government, or Just a Spiritual One?
The link between the Pledge decision and Time's cover package on religion
and the presidential campaign. Compiled by Ted Olsen.
Speaking
in Code
A roundup of the many anti-Da Vinci Code books from Christian publishers.
Compiled by Ted Olsen.
A
Christian Harry Potter?
Shadowmancer, Britain's hit fantasy novel, conjures darkness so the light
will shine brighter. Reviewed by Greg Taylor.
The Dick
Staub Interview: G.P. Taylor, Dracula's Former Vicar
The author of Shadowmancer talks about his early interest in the
occult, and his later transformation into a clergyman.
IVF-prayer study
raises doubts
Journal withdraws study involving psychic researcher under house arrest
from Web site.
Science in the News
Archaeology/Anthropology
Pool
of Siloam found
Ancient Pool of Siloam found near Gihon Spring in Jerusalem.
Date
of Dead Sea Scroll cache at Qumran in error?
Greg Doudna, in his article "Redating the Dead Sea Scroll Deposits
at Qumran: The Legacy of an error in Archaeological Interpretation,"
calls into question the dating of the Qumran text deposits to the time of
the First Jewish Revolt against Rome in 70 AD.
Egyptian
tombs reveal a complex society.
Twenty previously unexcavated tombs, which are several hundred years
older than the great pyramids of Giza, are shedding light on the first complex
societies on Earth.
Ancient
"Highway" Still Shows Chariot Tracks June 16, 2004
A plain in Tuscany destined to become a dump has turned out to be an archaeologist's
dream, revealing the biggest Etruscan road ever found.
Trove of ancient artifacts in way of Blair road project.
Ancient
Maps And Corn Help Track The Migrations Of Indigenous People. MADISON
Maps are tools to show you where you are going, but they can also show you
where you came from. That principle drives the work of Roberto Rodríguez
and Patrisia Gonzales, who study ancient maps, oral traditions and the movement
of domesticated crops to learn more about the origins of native people in
the Americas.
Astronomy
Cassini Shows
Off Its Stuff With Phoebe Extravaganza. Pasadena (JPL) Jun 15, 2004
Images collected during Cassini's close flyby of Saturn's moon, Phoebe,
have yielded strong evidence that the tiny object may contain ice-rich material,
overlain with a thin layer of darker material perhaps 300 to 500 meters
(980 to 1,600 feet) thick.
On
Earth, as it is on Mars?
The small spheres of haematite, nicknamed blueberries, that litter the Mars
landing site of NASAs rover Opportunity might have an analogue on Earth,
formed from groundwater in southern Utah.
Spirit
Finds Its Pot Of Gold. Moffet Field CA (SPX) Jun 17, 2004
Some of the first things the scientists noticed about the Columbia geology
were small round nodules that looked very similar to the hematite "blueberries"
previously found on Mars. Many of the blueberries on Columbia Hills are
more football-shaped than spherical, however, so these nodules might not
be hematite concretions.
Researchers
Show Io Vaporizing Rock Gases Into Atmosphere. St. Louis MO (SPX) Jun
16, 2004
The hottest spot in the solar system is neither Mercury, Venus, nor St.
Louis in the summer. Io, one of the four satellites that the Italian astronomer
Galileo discovered orbiting Jupiter almost 400 years ago, takes that prize.
Weighing Ultra-Cool
Stars. Garching (SPX) Jun 16, 2004
Using ESO's Very Large Telescope at Paranal and a suite of ground- and space-based
telescopes in a four-year long study, an international team of astronomers
has measured for the first time the mass of an ultra-cool star and its companion
brown dwarf. The two stars form a binary system and orbit each other in
about 10 years.
NASA
Spacecraft Reveals Surprising Anatomy Of A Comet
Findings from a historic encounter between NASA's Stardust spacecraft and
a comet have revealed a much stranger world than previously believed. The
comet's rigid surface, dotted with towering pinnacles, plunging craters,
steep cliffs, and dozens of jets spewing violently, has surprised scientists.
Did Comets
Flood Earth's Oceans? Paris (ESA) Jun 17, 2004
Did the Earth form with water locked into its rocks, which then gradually
leaked out over millions of years? Or did the occasional impacting comet
provide the Earth's oceans? The Ptolemy experiment on Rosetta may just find
out…
Biology
Cure hoped
for Huntington's sufferers
Gene therapy succeeds in mice with brain disease.
Molecule
That 'Blocks' Key Bacterial Enzyme May Lead To New Antibiotics
Rutgers scientists have deciphered the complex mechanics of microcin J25
(MccJ25), a tiny, natural molecule that acts like a cork in a bottle to
block a key bacterial enzyme – potentially leading to a new generation
of antibiotics.
Old dog learns
new tricks
Mutt's memory feats aid studies of language development.
Creation/Evolution
Revealed:
Tony Blair's link to schools that take the Creation literally
Critics voice serious doubts over Christian academies run by millionaire
car dealer and backed by Prime Minister.
Natural
selection and speciation
Formation of new species (Answers in Genesis).
Ancient
Molecules and Modern Myths
In Dino-blood and the Young Earth Dr. Gary Hurd debunked false creationist
claims that dinosaur blood proved the Earth is young. In this article, he
deals with a similiar claim by creationist John R. Baumgardner. Dr. Baumgardner
claims that osteocalcin in dinosaur remains could not have survived for
millions of years. Dr. Hurd shows why Baumgardner is wrong.
Is the Earth's Magnetic
Field Young?
by Joe Meert.
Setting the record
straight: Creationist Claims examined
Edited by Mark Isaak.
Gained in Translation: Expanding the Genetic Code
Evolutionblog
Commentary on developments in the endless dispute between evolution
and creationism.
A review of
"Creationism’s Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design"
by Barbara Forrest and Paul R. Gross.
Dembski, Darwin,
and Devils
by Jason Rosenhouse.
First
Person
Richard Dawkins
Teaching
Science in the Schools.
One reason for the deficiency of science education in many of our schools
is the decentralization of education. A second reason is the conviction,
common among biblical literalists and other Christian fundamentalists, that
certain teachings of science—concerning the origin of the universe,
the living world and humans—are contrary to biblical texts and the
Christian faith.
Earth Science
Two Billion
People Vulnerable To Floods By 2050 New York - Jun 14, 2004
The number of people worldwide vulnerable to a devastating flood is expected
to mushroom to 2 billion by 2050 due to climate change, deforestation, rising
sea levels and population growth in flood-prone lands, warn experts at the
United Nations University.
Marine Sediments
Shed Light On 50,000 Years Of Climate Changes New York NY (SPX) Jun
11, 2004
For years, researchers have examined climate records indicating that millennial-scale
climate cycles have linked the high latitudes of the Northern hemisphere
and the subtropics of the North Pacific Ocean.
Clues To
Ancient Earth Chemistry From Cretaceous Sediments. San Diego CA (SPX)
Jun 11, 2004
It's not a scene from the latest Hollywood disaster film, The Day After
Tomorrow, but the Earth as it appeared during the mid- to late-Cretaceous
geological period, 135 million to 65 million years ago, when the largest
dinosaurs ruled the planet.
Perfect pterosaur
found in fossil egg
Find sheds light on prehistoric flying reptiles.
Sea change for
first shells
Calcium glut may have hardened marine life. Sea-shells might be the product
of a geological accident that flooded the oceans with calcium, say US researchers.
And this could have helped to drive the extraordinary diversification of
species and body shapes known as the Cambrian explosion.
Radiocarbon
evidence of mid-Holocene mammoths stranded on an Alaskan Bering Sea island
R. DALE GUTHRIE. See also http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/06/040618070946.htm.
T.Rex's
Killer Bite Recreated. June 15, 2004
Tyrannosaurus rex's head served as a giant shock absorber to withstand
the dinosaur's bone-crushing, flesh-tearing eating habits, according to
a new study that suggests the dino might have had the world's most deadly
bite. "In the Denver Museum of Natural History there is a hadrosaur
(vegetarian dino) called Edmontosaurus that appears to have survived a T.rex
attack," Rayfield said. "It has a chunk of bone missing from its
tail — the shape of the missing chunk matching the jaws of T.rex. We
know the animal survived to live another day as the ends of the bitten bones
have begun to heal.
Physics
Test May
Confirm Strings As Basic Constituent Of Matter, Energy. Santa Barbara
CA - Jun 14, 2004
According to string theory, all the different particles that constitute
physical reality are made of the same thing-tiny looped strings whose different
vibrations give rise to the different fundamental particles that make up
everything we know.
Top Quark Measurements
Give 'God Particle' New Lease On Life. Rochester NY (SPX) Jun 10, 2004
Researchers from the University of Rochester have helped measure the elusive
top quark with unparalleled precision, and the surprising results affect
everything from the Higgs boson, nicknamed the "God particle,"
to the makeup of the dark matter that comprises 90 percent of the universe.
Surprise:
Fermilab's SELEX Experiment Finds Puzzling New Particle. BATAVIA, Illinois
Scientists at the Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
will announce on Friday, June 18 the observation of an unexpected new member
of a family of subatomic particles called "heavy-light" mesons.
The new meson, a combination of a strange quark and a charm antiquark, is
the heaviest ever observed in this family, and it behaves in surprising
ways -- it apparently breaks the rules on decaying into other particles.
Psychology
Researchers
Make Promiscuous Animals Monogamous By Manipulating Genes. ATLANTA
Researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center of Emory University
and Atlanta's Center for Behavioral Neuroscience (CBN) have found transferring
a single gene, the vasopressin receptor, into the brain's reward center
makes a promiscuous male meadow vole monogamous. This finding, which appears
in the June 17 issue of Nature, may help better explain the neurobiology
of romantic love as well as disorders of the ability to form social bonds,
such as autism. In addition, the finding supports previous research linking
social bond formation with drug addiction, also associated with the reward
center of the brain.
Emory
Researchers Study The Effects Of Zen Meditation On The Brain
Zen meditation is an ancient spiritual practice that promotes awareness
and presence through the undivided engagement of mind and body. For thousands
of years, many religious traditions have made meditation a common practice.
Now, researchers at Emory University are looking at the effects of Zen meditation
and how the brain functions during meditative states. By determining the
brain structures involved in meditation and whose activity is gradually
changed in the course of long-term meditative practice, researchers hope
this training could one day be used as a complementary treatment for neurological
conditions, such as Parkinson's disease and attention deficit and hyperactivity
disorder (ADHD).
Death
by Theory
According to attachment theory, certain children must be subjected to physical
"confrontation" and "restraint" to release repressed
abandonment anger. The process is repeated until the child is exhausted
and emotionally reduced to an "infantile" state. Then the parents
cradle, rock and bottle-feed him, implementing an "attachment."
This is pseudoscientific quackery masquerading as psychological science
and, put into practice, it can be deadly.