On November 4 and Dec 2, we will be watching a DVD by Ralph Muncaster, “Creation vs. Evolution.”

Many of the brief segments of this video are available on YouTube if you are interested in watching them. The group had a lively discussion, as we don’t necessarily agree with this video on all details, but found many of the facts presented extremely helpful and interesting.

The December meeting will include the “Appendices” which are more technical and in-depth.

For the meeting on November 18, we’ll be reading a short article from the Journal of Creation.

The article is only a page long (although it prints out onto 2 pages). It is available on the Web, “The FOXP2 gene supports Neandertals being fully human“  and also as a PDF of the original publication which might print out better.

Feel free to bring other perspectives you might have on humanoid fossils and “early” human civilizations for discussion.

SEPTEMBER FIELD-TRIP:

DRAO Open House: A New View of the Universe

Date: 2009/09/26 – 2009/09/26

Time: 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM

Venue: NRC Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory 717 White Lake Road Penticton, BC

Several of us took the morning down at the Observatory, checking out the equipment and listening to lectures by the scientists who work there. Good geeky fun.

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.

Our first meeting since the spring: Wed, Sep 16, at Troy & Jody’s house.

We have two readings on the table. Please read either one or both before Wednesday and come with your comments, critiques, and responses.

Both of these are short briefings from the Journal of Creation.

First, ‘Migrating Planets and Migrating Theories (Spencer 2007).

http://creation.com/images/pdfs/tj/j21_3/j21_3_12-14.pdf

This article summarizes theories of planet formation, and some of the problems with those theories.

Second, “Youngest and Brightest Galaxy … or Is It?” (Hartnett 2008)

http://creation.com/images/pdfs/tj/j22_2/j22_2_11-12.pdf

Reported observations of the Hubble telescope are put into context and explained, while pointing out that the new data is still hardly understood — so grand pronouncements either by secular or Christian astronomers are maybe premature.

These two are really short, but if you don’t have time to read them both, please at least skim the one which interests you the most! That will give us all something to share and discuss on Wednesday.

If anybody needs a paper copy of the articles before Wednesday, please get in touch with us (kristac at shaw dot cee eh will do). I did make spares.

This Friday night lecture is part of the UBC-O “Dean’s Series.” Of all the ones offered this autumn, this seemed perhaps of the most interest to our group. For one thing, it would certainly provoke thoughtful prayer for our community.

Oct. 23

Dr. Marvin Frank, Dean, Graduate Studies

Adolescence and Substance Abuse – Why Prevention Fails Despite the best of intentions, prevention programs fail to protect many of our youth from the dangerous path ahead of them.  In this talk I will review some of the recent findings that explain why so many miss the point.  The answer lies in individual differences in personality, social context, current activities, and cognitive capacity.  The prevention approach that might work for one person would not work for another.  Individual differences in risk require targeted messages.  Classic universal prevention approaches inundate youth with too many messages many of which are not relevant and some of which are counterproductive.  Fortunately, new web technologies will allow us to ask, assess, and advise on an individual basis.

New Life Church is hosting a series of seven lectures this winter. Our group has no affiliation with them. However, for the month of February, it might make a nice alternative (since our usual Wednesdays are cancelled this month).

The fifth lecture (Feb 9th) will be:

Complexity and Design

Increases in functional complexity of organisms needed for the theory of
evolution to be true is shown to violate the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
The concept of “irreducible complexity” is examined in detail with
examples from structures in unicellular organisms. Incredible design
features from various animals are presented to illustrate the necessity
for an intelligent designer.

Address:

New Life Church
“The Fridge” (Outside access on West side of building)
2041 Harvey Avenue
Kelowna, B.C.

No charge for admission. (Opportunity will be made for a donation.)

For more information contact Greg at 250-868-0532 or email cfmin@telus.net

The poll below is my first attempt within WordPress. I think you can only answer once, you will not be able to change your answers. If you want to look at the reading choices, use the links below the poll to go there, before voting.

These are articles from the Journal of Creation (see the Go There links in the right hand sidebar for the journal homepage).

Astronomical troubles for the astronomical hypothesis of ice ages (4 pages + references). Planetary wobble, kilo-year cyles, and north-south pole out-of-phase cooling cycles. How much change is there in how solar radiation affects the earth? How many ice ages have taken place? Can deep-sea cores be trusted, and what do their sediments show of ice age history?

Migrating planets and migrating theories (3 pages) If planets coalesce from proto-solar discs, then why are planets in our system significantly different than those around other stars? Did planets in our system form with different methods from each other? Do planets migrate in to collapse in the sun, or migrate outward to stable orbits? Or both?

Days 1–4 : Viewpoint on Genesis (7 pages + references) This article is the longest, but much less technical than the first two. Provides a stripped down outline of the first four days of creation Biblically, with some scientific perspective on the implications of the separate projects on each day. The viewpoint takes some radically different definitions than the ‘classical’ literal model, but still attempts a literal application.

I am looking through the Journal of Creation (formerly TJ: Technical Journal) for an article to read as a group.

Christabelle & I would like to have a discussion about this:

Mammal-like reptiles:major trait reversals and discontinuities, by John Woodmorappe.

http://creationontheweb.com/images/pdfs/tj/j15_1/j15_1_44-52.pdf

This article examines the evidence for a fossil-based line of descent from reptiles to mammals, analyzing whether the observed differences support the evolutionary case or otherwise. Although it is technical, detailed, and specific, the author frequently summarizes his findings in clear language. Those of us who are not trained in biology should still be able to follow along, maybe with the help of a highlighter!

There are lots of other good articles in this journal, but it is not indexed, so searching is a little taxing. Haha.  Let’s pick another one for the next meeting, too, on Jan 28th.

January 7th is in the middle of our church’s ‘Week of Prayer.’ The group will not be meeting that week.

Please go to the church around 6:30 pm for a prayer time.