Evidence Based Faith

Entries categorized as ‘Debate’

30 Sep 2009 Christianity Space and Aliens

September 13, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Oooooooh, now you really want to come to our group, don’t you?

I found this article on the BeThinking.org website. Be warned that I had a little trouble with the pdf file, so I’ve got some copies of the handout you can get from us if you aren’t able to print your own.

Christianity, Space and Aliens (Williams 2004)

http://www.bethinking.org/culture-worldview/christianity-space-and-aliens.htm

This intriguing article which addresses a variety of secular and Christian views about alien intelligence, makes use of popular culture references from books and film to illustrate how we can have a godly and rational discussion about non-human created life. Personally, as I have become increasingly frustrated with conspiracy theories, reactionary responses, and gullible folks of both Christian and non-Christian types, I think this is a really important position piece.

Let’s talk about aliens. Wednesday Sept 30, 7 pm, at Troy & Jody’s place. If you need a copy of the article or instructions to their place, get in touch with us.

Categories: Astronomy · Debate · Design · Readings · Universe

Nov 5 : Science and Genesis

October 22, 2008 · Leave a Comment

On Nov 5th, we’ll meet at our place again to listen to this lecture from the BeThinking website:

http://www.bethinking.org/science-christianity/advanced/scientific-perspectives-on-genesis-1-3.htm

In addition to having a lot of great content and thought-provoking ideas, Loen & I were interested in the diverse approaches of the three presenters. Simply listening to the three should inspire us all about how to present our thoughts and beliefs.

Note that this is about an hour and a half long, so we’ll want to start right away.

Please bring cookies.

Categories: Astrophysics · AudioFile · Bible reliability · Debate · Earth's Age · Evolution · Science and society

Aug 29: INTELLIGENT DESIGN. Lecture by Frank Sherwin

August 22, 2008 · 4 Comments

SCIENTIFIC CASE FOR INTELLIGENT DESIGN. Lecture by Frank Sherwin,
science editor at the Institute for Creation Research (www.icr.org).

This lecture will discuss the issues raised in the recent documentary film, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (www.expelledthemovie.com)

Date: Friday, Aug. 29
Place: New Life Church, 2041 Harvey Ave, “Oak Room”.
Time: 7 p.m.

Suggested donation: $5.00
===================================================

Scientific discoveries continue to erode Darwinism, says zoologist

From August 24- 31 Frank Sherwin, Science Editor at the Institute for Creation Research (Dallas, Texas), will be lecturing in four Okanagan communities. He is the author of “The Ocean Book” (2004) and co-author
of “The Human Body: An Intelligent Design” (2001).

Sherwin has a B.A. in Biology from Western State College in Colorado (1978 ) and an M.A. in Zoology from the University of Northern Colorado (1985). He discovered a new species of parasite, a nematode of the family Acuariidae, and published his research in the Journal of Parasitology with the late Dr. G. D. Schmidt. Before his appointment to the Institute for Creation Research (www.icr.org) Sherwin taught Human Physiology & Anatomy, Medical Microbiology, Parasitology, General Biology I & II and Cell Biology for 9 years at Pensacola Christian College. He is a member of the American Society of Parasitologists and the Helminthological Society of Washington.

Sherwin says one of the more spectacular discoveries that has done much to dispel the myth of dinosaurs living many millions of years ago is the unearthing of soft dinosaur tissue by Mary H. Schweitzer of North
Carolina State University; Schweitzer discovered flexible blood vessels inside the fossilized thighbone of a “68-70 million year old” Tyrannosaurus rex in eastern Montana. (Science, vol. 307, no. 5717, pp. 1952-1955, 25 March 2005.) Sherwin asks, “How could dinosaur tissue remain soft for 70 million years?”

Sherwin writes in his July 2008 article, “Tiny Bacteria’s Big Challenge to Darwin” (Acts & Facts magazine): “Secular scientists have no credible idea how the DNA molecule may have evolved from non-life–especially without the aid of proteins (which must be coded by DNA) or the critical DNA repair system.”

Web articles by Sherwin include:

“The Devastating Issue of Dinosaur Tissue” (www.icr.org/article/2033/), “Stalling over Transitional Forms”
(www.icr.org/article/3148/), “Scientific Discoveries Continue to Erode Darwinism” (www.icr.org/article/3191/), and “Optimism in Evolution?” (www.icr.org/article/4031/)

Summerland: On Saturday, Aug. 30 he will be giving two lectures at
Summerland Pentecostal Church (9918 Julia Street): “Dinosaurs and the
Flood” (9:30 a.m.) and “Wonders of the Human Body” (11:00 a.m.) which
will discuss the body’s 11 interacting systems.

Evening lectures by Frank Sherwin at the Faith Mission Centre (4690
Hoath Road, Falkland, BC.)
7:00 p.m. $5.00 per person per lecture.
Sunday, August 24: Scientific Evidence for Creation/Design in Nature
Monday, August 25: Wonders of the Human Body
Tuesday, August 26: Evolution is Against the Law
Wednesday, August 27: Mount St. Helens
Thursday, August 28: The Mighty, Wonderful Oceans

The tour is being sponsored by the Creation Science Association of British Columbia (www.creationbc.org)

Categories: Debate · Design · Earth's Age · Events

July 9 : Expelled No Intelligence Allowed

June 13, 2008 · Leave a Comment

Plot Twist!

The movie on Intelligent Design, ‘Expelled‘ will be playing in Kelowna this week. If the group agrees, I think we should have a field trip on Wednesday! Showtime 7 pm, at the Grand10.

http://expelledthemovie.com/home.php

Slight change from our previous plan, but it’s still an ID movie!

Categories: Biochemistry · Complexity · Debate · Design · Events · Evolution · Movie Night

June 25 : Misunderstanding ID

June 13, 2008 · Leave a Comment

Further reading on Intelligent Design. After last week’s discussion on how various terms such as ID and the Anthropic principle are being confused and misconstrued, I think that a critique of the BBC television special may be interesting. Note that there are tons of references and links within this article.

http://www.bethinking.org/resource.php?ID=251

I think it might be easiest to read in PDF format (or print and write on it), but use the links in the online version to explore related materials.

Categories: Debate · Design · Evolution · Readings

Apr 9 : Resurrection

March 21, 2008 · 3 Comments

I’ll be researching something to read on the evidence related to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Edit:

Apr 9 : Resurrection. See the comment and link associated with that page, read through the “debate” blog there, and make a few notes on your thoughts about both sides.

Categories: Bible reliability · Debate · Readings · Resurrection of Jesus

Feb 27 : Debate video : Craig vs. Zindler part 2

February 17, 2008 · Leave a Comment

With a little overlap, we will finish watching this YouTube published video of W.L.Craig versus Zindler on the topic of Christianity versus Athiesm. We may also have some open discussion of questions, as the group has a couple of new members joining us, and we’d like to take time to find out their interests.

Categories: Apologetics · Athiesm · Bible reliability · Debate · Meetings · Movie Night · Resurrection of Jesus

Feb 13 : Debate video : Craig vs. Zindler part 1

February 4, 2008 · Leave a Comment

Okay, I did find a debate on YouTube but we’d like to be able to watch it as a group. What we’re after is a substantial debate, on video, between an athiest and a Christian. We can watch it and then discuss. Once I’ve got something that will play on our system for us to watch together as a group, I’ll post all the details in this space….

edit:

Kudos to Darcy W. for downloading & reformatting the entire Craig – Zindler debate so that the group could watch it! We covered the first 20 min. speeches plus 12 minute second sections this week. At the next meeting (Feb 27) we’ll watch the remainder and continue discussing it.

Categories: Apologetics · Athiesm · Bible reliability · Debate · Movie Night · Resurrection of Jesus

Jan 30 : God & Dawkins (audio)

January 9, 2008 · Leave a Comment

I know that R. Dawkins’ name comes up over and over in our discussions. He’s made himself a bit of a target.

Jeff pointed me towards this talk by Dr. John Lennox entitled ‘God and Richard Dawkins,’ available as a downloadable or streaming audio file. The lecture is about an hour and a half.

http://www.bethinking.org/resource.php?ID=290

Please listen to this talk and note down any observations you might have before our meeting on Wed Jan 30. Arrival anytime after 7:00, meeting to begin by 7:30pm.

Categories: Apologetics · Athiesm · AudioFile · Bible reliability · Debate · Design

Oct 10: Last Days of Jesus (video)

September 28, 2007 · Leave a Comment

On Wed Oct 10th, we will be meeting at 7:30 to watch the NBC News “investigative report” titled The Last Days of Jesus, followed by a discussion.

We don’t know a lot about this TV special from 2004, except that it came out when there was a lot of popular media attention to the movie, “The Passion.” Because NBC is mainstream, we rather expect to see some non-Christian presence in it, or at least some diversity of opinions. It will be interesting to view and then discuss how the news media views Jesus Christ.

Categories: Bible reliability · Debate · Movie Night · Resurrection of Jesus