Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

Australopithecus

2009-03-23T12:57:20Z

Iamkay: New page: Australopithecus is a kind of extinct apes which evolutionists believe to be the ancestors of present day human beings. Evoltuionists believe that they walked upright and used tools. Two o...

Australopithecus is a kind of extinct apes which evolutionists believe to be the ancestors of present day human beings. Evoltuionists believe that they walked upright and used tools. Two of the Australopithecus would have been taken in Koah's ark. Auataralopthicus had sub species A. afarensis, A. africanus, A. anamensis, A. bahrelghazali and A. garhi.

Baraminology

2009-03-23T12:32:02Z

Iamkay: /* Further Information */

'''Baraminology''' is the study of '''baramins''', also known by the Biblical term '''kinds'''.

A baramin is a lineage of earthly [[life]] which is believed by [[Young earth creationism|Young Earth Creationists]] to be created by [[God]] during the [[creation week]], and corresponds in some functional aspects to the secular concept of [[species]]. However, unlike species concepts that are based on Darwinian thinking, the baraminic barrier is inviolable, as other baramins do not [[Theory of evolution|evolve]] from earlier baramins.

[[Jonathan Sarfati]] writes regarding the Biblical kinds of organisms:

<blockquote style="background: #F9F9F9; border: 1px solid #AAAAAA; padding: .3em;">
Based on the Biblical criterion for kinds, creationists deduce that as long as two creatures can [[Hybrid|hybridize]] with true fertilization, the two creatures are (i.e. descended from) the same kind. Also, if two creatures can hybridize with the same third creature, they are all members of the same kind. The [[hybridization]] criterion is a valid operational definition, which could in principle enable researchers to list all the kinds. The implication is one-way—hybridization is evidence that they are the same kind, but it does not necessarily follow that if hybridization cannot occur then they are not members of the same kind (failure to hybridize could be due to degenerative mutations). After all, there are couples who can’t have children, and we don’t classify them as a different species, let alone a different kind.<ref>http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/3855/#kinds</ref>
</blockquote>

Baraminology, as a model of origins, complements the [[Linnaean taxonomy | Linnaean taxonomic system]], which is also based on the Biblical view of origins. Baraminology is seen as an alternative to the evolutionary system of [[cladistics]], which is generally considered incompatible with Linnaean taxonomy since cladistics proposes an unfixed hierarchy.<ref>[http://www.palaeos.com/Systematics/Cladistics/incompatable.html The impracticality of reconciling the Linnean and the cladistic systems]</ref>

==History==

The term ''baramin'' was coined in 1941 by [[Frank Marsh]] from the [[Hebrew]] words ''bara'' (create) and ''min'' (kind).

It was resurrected in 1990 by [[Kurt Wise]] for use as the unit of creation in his discontinuous biosystematical system. From this came the term ''baraminology''. That same year at the Second International Conference on [[Creationism]] in [[Pittsburgh]], [[Walter ReMine]] introduced additional sub-terms to help clarify baraminological discourse: ''holobaramin'', ''monobaramin'', ''apobaramin'', and ''polybaramin''.<ref name="frair">[http://www.christiananswers.net/q-crs/baraminology.html "Baraminology -- Classification of Created Organisms"], by Wayne Frair, Ph.D, Originally published in ''CRS Quarterly'', Vol. 37, Num. 2, Sept. 2000.</ref>

==Baraminological Terms==

* '''Holobaramin''': A Holobaramin is a grouping that contains all organisms related by descent, not excluding any. For example, Humans are a holobaramin, meaning all members of our species (Homo sapiens) are descended from a singular creation event (i.e. the creation of Adam and Eve) and will always be fully and completely human. Culturally, many racial ideas and myths still stubbornly linger on, but recent research regarding genetic diversity in humans, has convinced a great majority of scientists that "race" is no longer a useful concept in understanding our species) An example would be [[dog]]s, which form a holobaramin since [[wolf | wolves]], [[coyote | coyotes]], domesticated dogs and other [[canid | canids]] are all descended from two individuals taken aboard the [[Noah's Ark | Ark]], and there are no other creatures that are genetically continuous with them. This term is synonymous with the use of "baramin" above and is the primary term in baraminology.

* '''Monobaramin''': A monobaramin is an ''ad hoc'' group of organisms who share common descent. Any group of specific members of a holobaramin such as wolves, poodles, and terriers or the humans Tom, Dick, and Harry are monobarmins. Holobaramins contain monobaramins; for instance, wolves are a monobaramin of the Dog holobaramin.

* '''Apobaramin''': An apobaramin is a group of holobaramins. Humans and Dogs are an apobaramin since both members are holobaramins. A group containing [[Caucasian]]s and wolves is not an apobaramin since both members are monobaramins.

* '''Polybaramin''': A polybaramin is an ''ad hoc'' group of organisms where at least one of the members must not be a holobaramin and must be unrelated to any or all of the others. For example: Humans, wolves and a [[duck]] are a polybaraminic group. This term is useful for describing such hodgepodge mixtures of creatures.

Three additional terms introduced by Wise:<ref name="frair"/>

* '''Archaebaramin''': An archaebaramin is the originally-created individual(s) of a given holobaramin. For instance, Adam and Eve form the archaebaramin of the holobaramin of Humanity.

* '''Neobaramin & Paleobaramin''': A neobaramin is the living population of a given holobaramin, whereas a paleobaramin represents older forms of a given holobaramin. Neobaramins have undergone genetic degradation from their perfectly created forms (archaebaramin) and so may differ from their paleobaramins in notable ways. For example, the neobaramin of Humanity has a much shorter lifespan and greater prevalence of genetic diseases than the Human paleobaramin (e.g. Adam lived for 930 years<ref>Wieland, Carl, [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/805/ "Living for 900 years"], ''Creation'' 20(4):10–13, September 1998.</ref> and his children could interbreed without fear of deformity<ref>[http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/tools/cains_wife.asp "Cain's wife -- who was she?"], Answers In Genesis</ref>).

==Baraminic Demarcation==

In order to determine the baraminicity of a given group of organisms, '''baraminic demarcation''' must be evaluated. This process involves four foundational concepts<ref>[http://www.bryancore.org/bsg/opbsg/003.pdf "A Refined Baramin Concept"], Wood ''et al.'', 2003, Baraminology Study Group.</ref>:

* '''Biological Character Space''' (BCS): A theoretical multidimensional space in which each character (e.g. height or color) of an organism comprises a dimension, and particular states of that character occupy unique positions along the dimension. A single organism is therefore precisely defined by a single point in the multidimensional space.

* '''Potentiality Region''': A region of that biological character space within which organismal form is possible. Therefore, any point in the biological character space that is not within a potentiality region describes an organism that cannot exist.

* '''Continuity''': describes the relationship between two organisms which are either in the same potentiality region, or linked to each other by a third, such that transmutation between the two is theoretically possible.

* '''Discontinuity''': describes the relationship between two organisms which are in disconnected potentiality regions, such that transmutation between the two is impossible.

Thus, organisms that are found to be continuous in a BCS potentiality region form a holobaramin or monobaramin (depending on if all organisms within the potentiality region are considered), whereas those that are discontinuous form a polybaramin or apobaramin (again, depending on completeness of the organisms considered).

== Evolutionist view ==

Evolutionist scientists criticize Baraminology. These people claim Baraminology lacks rigorous testing and fails to produce any peer reviewed scientific research.{{fact}} It is regarded as pseudoscience by evolutionist scientists. However their claim has been rejected by creation scientists who described it as a young field still in development and stated that criticism can be resolved with further research<ref>[http://www.creationresearch.org/crsq/articles/43/43_3/baraminology.htm The Current Status of Baraminology, Todd Charles Wood, CRSQ Vol 43 No 3, December 2006]</ref>.

No creature has ever been observed changing from one Baramin into another. Evolutionist [[Richard Lenski]] claims to have observed a bacteria evolving, but even if the unproven claim<ref>Batten, Don, [http://creationontheweb.com/content/view/5827 Bacteria ‘evolving in the lab’?], 14th June 2008 (Creation Ministries International)</ref> is true, the bacteria is still bacteria, it has not left its Baramin.
{{Creation vs. evolution}}
==Further Information==
* [http://www.christiananswers.net/q-crs/baraminology.html What are the Genesis “kinds”? Baraminology—classification of created organisms]
* [http://www.bryancore.org/bsg/ Baraminology Study Group]
* [http://www.creationresearch.org/crsq/articles/43/43_3/baraminology.htm The Current Status of Baraminology, Todd Charles Wood, CRSQ Vol 43 No 3, December 2006]
* [http://www.creationresearch.org/crsq/abstracts/sum34_4.html A Quantitative Approach to Baraminology With Examples from the Catarrhine Primates]
* [http://objectiveministries.org/creation/baraminology.html Objective Ministries Creation education Baraminology]

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Bible]]
[[Category:Biology]] 
[[Category:Creationism]]

Angelina Jolie

2009-03-22T11:12:16Z

Iamkay: She is an atheist

'''Angelina Jolie''', born June 4, 1975 (age {{age|1975|6|4}}), is an [[United States of America|American]] [[actor|actress]] who has appeared in many movies, including:

* Wanted (2008)
* A Mighty Heart (2007)
* The Good Shepherd (2006)
* Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2007)
* Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)
* Girl, Interrupted (1999)

One of her best known roles was as Lara Croft in the film "Tomb Raider"

She has won many awards including [[Golden Globe]] awards in 1998 and 1999, [[Screen Actors Guild Awards]] in 1999, 2000, and 2008, and an [[Academy Award]] for best supporting actress for her role in "Girl, Interrupted".

In 2001 Angelina became a Goodwill Ambassador for the [[United Nations]] High Commission for Refugees.

She was born Angelina Jolie Voight, to actor [[Jon Voight]] and actress [[Marcheline Bertrand]]. Her father also appeared in the movie Tomb Raider with her. Her mother died of cancer on Jan 29, 2007.

Angelina was married twice: British actor Jonny Lee Miller, from March 1996 to February 1999, and to actor Billy Bob Thornton, from May 2000 to May 2003.

She currently lives with actor [[Brad Pitt]]; they have three biological children together, daughter Shiloh Jolie-Pitt (born May 27, 2006), and twins, a boy, Knox Leon, and girl, Vivienne Marcheline born in July 2008 in [[France]]. They also have 3 adopted children: sons Maddox and Pax, and daughter Zahara Jolie-Pitt.

==References==

* http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001401/ - movie site
* http://celebrities.adoption.com/famous/angelina-jolie.html -celebrity adoption
* http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800019275/awards - awards
* http://www.un.org/works/goingon/refugees/angelina_story.html -United Nations work

{{DEFAULTSORT: Jolie, Angelina}}

[[Category:Actresses]][[Category:Atheists]]

Kangaroo

2009-03-22T03:44:07Z

Iamkay: /* Creationism */

{{Taxonomy
|name=Kangaroo
|image=Redkangaroo1.png
|caption=
|superkingdom=
|kingdom= Animalia
|subkingdom=
|superphylum=
|phylum=Chordata
|subphylum=
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'''Kangaroos''' are the largest [[marsupial]]s alive today. Excluding specimens sent overseas, they are only found on the continent of [[Australia]] apart from some species in some areas of [[Papua New Guinea]]<ref>[http://www.dfat.gov.au/facts/kangaroos.html Australia's kangaroos], Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.</ref>. There are at least sixty-nine [[species]] of kangaroo <ref name="kangbio">[http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/trade-use/wild-harvest/kangaroo/biology.html "Kangaroo Biology"], Australian Government</ref>, which include [[wallabies]] and tree-kangaroos.

==Description==

Kangaroos have large ears on top of their small heads, a long snout, and short arms with clawed fingers. Their legs are strong, powerful, and are made for leaping. Their feet have four toes at the end of elongated metatarsi that they rest on when standing. They also have a powerful, thick tail that is used as support when standing, a third-leg when walking slowly, and for counterbalance while leaping. Like all Marsupials, female kangaroos have a pouch on their stomachs in which they carry their young.

===Diet===

Kangaroos are [[herbivore]]s, eating grass, roots, and shrubs. They have a chambered stomach similar to [[sheep]] and [[cattle]]. They are able to regurgitate their food, chew it again as [[cud]], and then swallow it for digestion.

===Social Order===

Kangaroos travel in [[mob | mobs]] of about ten or more males and females. The leader of the mob, called a "boomer", is a male determined by age and size. The boomer has access to females in his mob for mating and will wander around the mob intimidating any other males who try to mate with his harem.

===Reproduction===

Female kangaroos usually only have one baby kangaroo (called a "joey") at a time. The newborn joey weighs as little as 0.03 ounces when first born, after which it crawls into its mothers pouch where it will nurse, grow, and develop. Red Kangaroo joeys will stay in their mothers pouch for about eight months and Grey Kangaroo joeys stay in there for about one year.

==Origins==

===Creationism===
Consistent with their view that the fossil record as a whole does not support the evolutionary position<ref>[http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/faq/fossils.asp "Fossils Questions and Answers"], Answers In Genesis</ref><ref>[http://members.iinet.net.au/~sejones/fsslrcrd.html Creation/Evolution Quotes: Fossil Record]</ref>, creationists state that there is a lack of transitional fossils showing an evolutionary origin of kangaroos. Rebecca Driver writes:

{{QuoteBox|The Macropod family is alleged to have evolved from either the Phalangeridae (possums) or Burramyidae (pygmy-possums)... However, there are no fossils of animals which appear to be intermediate between possums and kangaroos. ''Wabularoo naughtoni'', supposed ancestor of all the macropods, was clearly a kangaroo (it greatly resembles the potoroos which dwell in Victoria’s forests). If modern kangaroos really did come from it, all this shows is the same as we see happening today, namely that kangaroos come from kangaroos, "after their kind." <ref>Driver, Rebecca, [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/755/ Kangaroos: God's amazing craftsmanship], ''Creation'' 20(3):28–31, June 1998.</ref>}}

According to the [[origins theory]] model used by [[young earth creation scientists]], modern kangaroos are the descendants of the two founding members of the modern kangaroo baramin that were taken aboard [[Noah's Ark]] prior to the [[Great Flood]]. It has not yet been determined by [[baraminology | baraminologists]] whether kangaroos form a [[holobaramin]] with the [[wallaby]], [[tree-kangaroo]], [[wallaroo]], [[pademelon]] and [[quokka]], or if all these species are in fact [[Baraminology|apobaramin]]ic or [[Baraminology|polybaramin]]ic.

After the Flood, these kangaroos, bred from the Ark passengers, migrated to Australia. There is debate whether this migration happened over land<ref name="cab17">[http://www.creationontheweb.com/images/pdfs/cabook/chapter17.pdf "How did animals get from the Ark to places such as Australia"], Chapter 17, of ''The Creation Answers Book'', by Don Batten (Ed.)</ref> with lower sea levels during the post-flood [[ice age]], or before the super-continent of [[Pangea]] broke apart.<ref>[http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/2808 "Pangea and the Flood"], Apologetics Press</ref>. There is some evidence to suggest that kangaroos lived in the Middle East.<ref>[http://objectiveministries.org/creation/kangaroo.html Creation Education Kangaroos in the Middle East], </ref>

The idea that God simply generated kangaroos into existence there is considered by most creation researchers to be contra-Biblical.

===Evolution===
The [[Evolution|evolutionary]] view is that kangaroos and other marsupials evolved from a common marsupial ancestor which lived hundreds of millions of years ago.<ref>[http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEPC/WWC/1995/australia.html "Australian Mammals: Evolutionary Development as a Result of Geographic Isolation"]</ref> While it was once felt that "modern" placental mammals also descended from a marsupial lineage this view has been challenged by new findings in the fossil record, pushing the date at which the Human lineage diverged from the Kangaroo lineage back to before 125 million years ago. <ref>Benton, Michael J. (1997). Vertebrate Palaeontology. London: Chapman & Hall. p. 306. ISBN 0-412-73810-4.</ref>

===Dreamtime===
Some [[Australian Aborigines]] believe that kangaroos were sung into existence by their ancestors during the [[Dreamtime]].<ref>[http://www.painsley.org.uk/RE/signposts/y8/1-1creationandenvironment/c-abor.htm "An Aborigine Creation Story"]</ref>

== External Links ==
*[http://www.exzooberance.com/virtual%20zoo/they%20walk/kangaroo/kangaroo.htm Kangaroo facts]
*[http://www.christiananswers.net/kids/kangaroos.html Answers About Kangaroos]
*[http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/faq/migration.asp How did animals get from the Ark to places such as Australia?]

== References ==
{{reflist|2}}

[[Category:Marsupials]]
[[Category:Australia]]

Kangaroo

2009-03-21T15:11:14Z

Iamkay: /* Creationism */

{{Taxonomy
|name=Kangaroo
|image=Redkangaroo1.png
|caption=
|superkingdom=
|kingdom= Animalia
|subkingdom=
|superphylum=
|phylum=Chordata
|subphylum=
|infraphylum=
|microphylum=
|superdivision=
|division=
|subdivision=
|superclass=
|class=Mammalia
|subclass=Marsupialia
|infraclass=
|superorder=
|order=Diprotodontia
|suborder=Macropodiformes
|infraorder=
|superfamily=
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|subfamily=
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|subtribe=
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|subgenus=
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}}
'''Kangaroos''' are the largest [[marsupial]]s alive today. Excluding specimens sent overseas, they are only found on the continent of [[Australia]] apart from some species in some areas of [[Papua New Guinea]]<ref>[http://www.dfat.gov.au/facts/kangaroos.html Australia's kangaroos], Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.</ref>. There are at least sixty-nine [[species]] of kangaroo <ref name="kangbio">[http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/trade-use/wild-harvest/kangaroo/biology.html "Kangaroo Biology"], Australian Government</ref>, which include [[wallabies]] and tree-kangaroos.

==Description==

Kangaroos have large ears on top of their small heads, a long snout, and short arms with clawed fingers. Their legs are strong, powerful, and are made for leaping. Their feet have four toes at the end of elongated metatarsi that they rest on when standing. They also have a powerful, thick tail that is used as support when standing, a third-leg when walking slowly, and for counterbalance while leaping. Like all Marsupials, female kangaroos have a pouch on their stomachs in which they carry their young.

===Diet===

Kangaroos are [[herbivore]]s, eating grass, roots, and shrubs. They have a chambered stomach similar to [[sheep]] and [[cattle]]. They are able to regurgitate their food, chew it again as [[cud]], and then swallow it for digestion.

===Social Order===

Kangaroos travel in [[mob | mobs]] of about ten or more males and females. The leader of the mob, called a "boomer", is a male determined by age and size. The boomer has access to females in his mob for mating and will wander around the mob intimidating any other males who try to mate with his harem.

===Reproduction===

Female kangaroos usually only have one baby kangaroo (called a "joey") at a time. The newborn joey weighs as little as 0.03 ounces when first born, after which it crawls into its mothers pouch where it will nurse, grow, and develop. Red Kangaroo joeys will stay in their mothers pouch for about eight months and Grey Kangaroo joeys stay in there for about one year.

==Origins==

===Creationism===
Consistent with their view that the fossil record as a whole does not support the evolutionary position<ref>[http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/faq/fossils.asp "Fossils Questions and Answers"], Answers In Genesis</ref><ref>[http://members.iinet.net.au/~sejones/fsslrcrd.html Creation/Evolution Quotes: Fossil Record]</ref>, creationists state that there is a lack of transitional fossils showing an evolutionary origin of kangaroos. Rebecca Driver writes:

{{QuoteBox|The Macropod family is alleged to have evolved from either the Phalangeridae (possums) or Burramyidae (pygmy-possums)... However, there are no fossils of animals which appear to be intermediate between possums and kangaroos. ''Wabularoo naughtoni'', supposed ancestor of all the macropods, was clearly a kangaroo (it greatly resembles the potoroos which dwell in Victoria’s forests). If modern kangaroos really did come from it, all this shows is the same as we see happening today, namely that kangaroos come from kangaroos, "after their kind." <ref>Driver, Rebecca, [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/755/ Kangaroos: God's amazing craftsmanship], ''Creation'' 20(3):28–31, June 1998.</ref>}}

According to the [[origins theory]] model used by [[young earth creation scientists]], modern kangaroos are the descendants of the two founding members of the modern kangaroo baramin that were taken aboard [[Noah's Ark]] prior to the [[Great Flood]]. It has not yet been determined by [[baraminology | baraminologists]] whether kangaroos form a [[holobaramin]] with the [[wallaby]], [[tree-kangaroo]], [[wallaroo]], [[pademelon]] and [[quokka]], or if all these species are in fact [[Baraminology|apobaramin]]ic or [[Baraminology|polybaramin]]ic.

After the Flood, these kangaroos, bred from the Ark passengers, migrated to Australia. There is debate whether this migration happened over land<ref name="cab17">[http://www.creationontheweb.com/images/pdfs/cabook/chapter17.pdf "How did animals get from the Ark to places such as Australia"], Chapter 17, of ''The Creation Answers Book'', by Don Batten (Ed.)</ref> with lower sea levels during the post-flood [[ice age]], or before the super-continent of [[Pangea]] broke apart.<ref>[http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/2808 "Pangea and the Flood"], Apologetics Press</ref>. Thereis some evidence to suggest that kangaroos lived in the Middle East.<ref>[http://objectiveministries.org/creation/kangaroo.html Creation Education Kangaroos in the Middle East], </ref>

The idea that God simply generated kangaroos into existence there is considered by most creation researchers to be contra-Biblical.

===Evolution===
The [[Evolution|evolutionary]] view is that kangaroos and other marsupials evolved from a common marsupial ancestor which lived hundreds of millions of years ago.<ref>[http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEPC/WWC/1995/australia.html "Australian Mammals: Evolutionary Development as a Result of Geographic Isolation"]</ref> While it was once felt that "modern" placental mammals also descended from a marsupial lineage this view has been challenged by new findings in the fossil record, pushing the date at which the Human lineage diverged from the Kangaroo lineage back to before 125 million years ago. <ref>Benton, Michael J. (1997). Vertebrate Palaeontology. London: Chapman & Hall. p. 306. ISBN 0-412-73810-4.</ref>

===Dreamtime===
Some [[Australian Aborigines]] believe that kangaroos were sung into existence by their ancestors during the [[Dreamtime]].<ref>[http://www.painsley.org.uk/RE/signposts/y8/1-1creationandenvironment/c-abor.htm "An Aborigine Creation Story"]</ref>

== External Links ==
*[http://www.exzooberance.com/virtual%20zoo/they%20walk/kangaroo/kangaroo.htm Kangaroo facts]
*[http://www.christiananswers.net/kids/kangaroos.html Answers About Kangaroos]
*[http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/faq/migration.asp How did animals get from the Ark to places such as Australia?]

== References ==
{{reflist|2}}

[[Category:Marsupials]]
[[Category:Australia]]

Kangaroo

2009-03-21T15:10:38Z

Iamkay: /* Creationism */

{{Taxonomy
|name=Kangaroo
|image=Redkangaroo1.png
|caption=
|superkingdom=
|kingdom= Animalia
|subkingdom=
|superphylum=
|phylum=Chordata
|subphylum=
|infraphylum=
|microphylum=
|superdivision=
|division=
|subdivision=
|superclass=
|class=Mammalia
|subclass=Marsupialia
|infraclass=
|superorder=
|order=Diprotodontia
|suborder=Macropodiformes
|infraorder=
|superfamily=
|family=Macropodidae
|subfamily=
|supertribe=
|tribe=
|subtribe=
|genera=
|genus=Macropus
|subgenus=
|species=
|binomialname=
|sub=
|alt=
}}
'''Kangaroos''' are the largest [[marsupial]]s alive today. Excluding specimens sent overseas, they are only found on the continent of [[Australia]] apart from some species in some areas of [[Papua New Guinea]]<ref>[http://www.dfat.gov.au/facts/kangaroos.html Australia's kangaroos], Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.</ref>. There are at least sixty-nine [[species]] of kangaroo <ref name="kangbio">[http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/trade-use/wild-harvest/kangaroo/biology.html "Kangaroo Biology"], Australian Government</ref>, which include [[wallabies]] and tree-kangaroos.

==Description==

Kangaroos have large ears on top of their small heads, a long snout, and short arms with clawed fingers. Their legs are strong, powerful, and are made for leaping. Their feet have four toes at the end of elongated metatarsi that they rest on when standing. They also have a powerful, thick tail that is used as support when standing, a third-leg when walking slowly, and for counterbalance while leaping. Like all Marsupials, female kangaroos have a pouch on their stomachs in which they carry their young.

===Diet===

Kangaroos are [[herbivore]]s, eating grass, roots, and shrubs. They have a chambered stomach similar to [[sheep]] and [[cattle]]. They are able to regurgitate their food, chew it again as [[cud]], and then swallow it for digestion.

===Social Order===

Kangaroos travel in [[mob | mobs]] of about ten or more males and females. The leader of the mob, called a "boomer", is a male determined by age and size. The boomer has access to females in his mob for mating and will wander around the mob intimidating any other males who try to mate with his harem.

===Reproduction===

Female kangaroos usually only have one baby kangaroo (called a "joey") at a time. The newborn joey weighs as little as 0.03 ounces when first born, after which it crawls into its mothers pouch where it will nurse, grow, and develop. Red Kangaroo joeys will stay in their mothers pouch for about eight months and Grey Kangaroo joeys stay in there for about one year.

==Origins==

===Creationism===
Consistent with their view that the fossil record as a whole does not support the evolutionary position<ref>[http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/faq/fossils.asp "Fossils Questions and Answers"], Answers In Genesis</ref><ref>[http://members.iinet.net.au/~sejones/fsslrcrd.html Creation/Evolution Quotes: Fossil Record]</ref>, creationists state that there is a lack of transitional fossils showing an evolutionary origin of kangaroos. Rebecca Driver writes:

{{QuoteBox|The Macropod family is alleged to have evolved from either the Phalangeridae (possums) or Burramyidae (pygmy-possums)... However, there are no fossils of animals which appear to be intermediate between possums and kangaroos. ''Wabularoo naughtoni'', supposed ancestor of all the macropods, was clearly a kangaroo (it greatly resembles the potoroos which dwell in Victoria’s forests). If modern kangaroos really did come from it, all this shows is the same as we see happening today, namely that kangaroos come from kangaroos, "after their kind." <ref>Driver, Rebecca, [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/755/ Kangaroos: God's amazing craftsmanship], ''Creation'' 20(3):28–31, June 1998.</ref>}}

According to the [[origins theory]] model used by [[young earth creation scientists]], modern kangaroos are the descendants of the two founding members of the modern kangaroo baramin that were taken aboard [[Noah's Ark]] prior to the [[Great Flood]]. It has not yet been determined by [[baraminology | baraminologists]] whether kangaroos form a [[holobaramin]] with the [[wallaby]], [[tree-kangaroo]], [[wallaroo]], [[pademelon]] and [[quokka]], or if all these species are in fact [[Baraminology|apobaramin]]ic or [[Baraminology|polybaramin]]ic.

After the Flood, these kangaroos, bred from the Ark passengers, migrated to Australia. There is debate whether this migration happened over land<ref name="cab17">[http://www.creationontheweb.com/images/pdfs/cabook/chapter17.pdf "How did animals get from the Ark to places such as Australia"], Chapter 17, of ''The Creation Answers Book'', by Don Batten (Ed.)</ref> with lower sea levels during the post-flood [[ice age]], or before the super-continent of [[Pangea]] broke apart.<ref>[http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/2808 "Pangea and the Flood"], Apologetics Press</ref>. Thereis some evidence to suggest that kangaroos lived in the Middle East.<ref>[http://objectiveministries.org/creation/kangaroo.html Creation Education Kangaroos in the Middle East], Apologetics Press</ref>

The idea that God simply generated kangaroos into existence there is considered by most creation researchers to be contra-Biblical.

===Evolution===
The [[Evolution|evolutionary]] view is that kangaroos and other marsupials evolved from a common marsupial ancestor which lived hundreds of millions of years ago.<ref>[http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEPC/WWC/1995/australia.html "Australian Mammals: Evolutionary Development as a Result of Geographic Isolation"]</ref> While it was once felt that "modern" placental mammals also descended from a marsupial lineage this view has been challenged by new findings in the fossil record, pushing the date at which the Human lineage diverged from the Kangaroo lineage back to before 125 million years ago. <ref>Benton, Michael J. (1997). Vertebrate Palaeontology. London: Chapman & Hall. p. 306. ISBN 0-412-73810-4.</ref>

===Dreamtime===
Some [[Australian Aborigines]] believe that kangaroos were sung into existence by their ancestors during the [[Dreamtime]].<ref>[http://www.painsley.org.uk/RE/signposts/y8/1-1creationandenvironment/c-abor.htm "An Aborigine Creation Story"]</ref>

== External Links ==
*[http://www.exzooberance.com/virtual%20zoo/they%20walk/kangaroo/kangaroo.htm Kangaroo facts]
*[http://www.christiananswers.net/kids/kangaroos.html Answers About Kangaroos]
*[http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/faq/migration.asp How did animals get from the Ark to places such as Australia?]

== References ==
{{reflist|2}}

[[Category:Marsupials]]
[[Category:Australia]]

International Flat Earth Society

2009-03-21T13:05:01Z

Iamkay: cat

International Flat Earth Society is an [[organization]] that furthers the belief that the [[Earth]] is flat rather than a sphere. The modern organization was founded by Englishman Samuel Shenton in 1956.

== External Links ==
*[http://www.theflatearthsociety.org/ Intenational Flat Earth Soceity]
[[Category:Pseudoscience]]

International Flat Earth Society

2009-03-21T12:31:15Z

Iamkay: New page: International Flat Earth Society is an organization that furthers the belief that the Earth is flat rather than a sphere. The modern organization was founded by Englishman Samuel S...

Hinduism and evolution

2009-03-21T03:40:24Z

Iamkay: New page: Hindus do not actively oppose evolution like other religions. International Society for Krishna Consciousness is a Hindu organisation that oppose evolution.

Hindus do not actively oppose [[evolution]] like other religions. [[International Society for Krishna Consciousness]] is a [[Hindu]] [[organisation]] that oppose evolution.

Religion of Barack Hussein Obama

2009-03-20T21:13:17Z

Iamkay: /* Obama and Atheism */

'''[[Barack Hussein Obama]]'s religious beliefs''' are currently the subject of intense speculation. It is believed that he is either a Muslim, an Atheist or a Christian. There is a significant body of evidence that supports he has a faith in each.

==Obama and Atheism==

*When he initially took the oath of office on Tuesday, January 20, 2009, Obama misspoke (possibly due to [[Chief Justice Roberts]] not being prepared) and out of an "abundance of caution" the oath was retaken the next day. CNN.com noted, "Though a Bible was used in Tuesday's oath, one was not used for Wednesday's." <ref>CNN.com, ''Obama retakes oath of office after Roberts' mistake'', January 22, 2009[http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/21/obama.oath/#cnnSTCText]</ref>
*Since assuming office Obama has not attended a single church function. <ref>[http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1108/15902.html|Obama has not attended a Church service since winning the White House] </ref>
*Obama has appeared in a video praising [[Charles Darwin]]. But majority of Americans(and the world) deny evolution. It is acccepted only by Godless atheists. <ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFsB1Jk1OQ0] </ref>

==Obama and Islam==

*[[Barack Hussein Obama#Obama_will_likely_be_the_first_Muslim_President|Article on Obama]]

==Obama and Christianity==

Barak Obama and his wife (who was raised a Baptist) were members of the [[United Church of Christ|Trinity United Church of Christ]]<ref>www.tucc.org, Trinity United Church of Christ web site[http://www.tucc.org] ''We are a congregation which is Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian... Our roots in the Black religious experience and tradition are deep, lasting and permanent. We are an African people, and remain "true to our native land," the mother continent, the cradle of civilization. God has superintended our pilgrimage through the days of slavery, the days of segregation, and the long night of racism. It is God who gives us the strength and courage to continuously address injustice as a people, and as a congregation. We constantly affirm our trust in God through cultural expression of a Black worship service and ministries which address the Black Community.''</ref> in Chicago, led by Pastor Jeremiah Wright, for twenty years. The church embraces [[black liberation theology]] and its emphasis on empowering oppressed groups against establishment forces.<ref>www.mcclatchydc.com, ''Obama's church pushes controversial doctrines'', by Margaret Talev, March 20, 2008 [http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/31079.html]</ref> This denomination was the first in America to ordain gays, women and blacks as ministers.{{fact}} According to his sister, Obama was baptized at this church in 1988, when he was in his late 20's.<ref>International Herald Tribune, ''Barack Obama's search for faith'', by Jodi Kantor, April 30, 2007 [http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/30/america/30obama.php?page=2]</ref> Obama describes his conversion in his book, ''The Audacity of Hope'', the title of which is taken from one of Pastor Wright's sermons.

In April 2008, Obama disavowed Pastor Wright's views. In May 2008, Obama left his church after twenty years of membership. His response blamed the media , stating “It's not fair to the other members of the church who seek to worship in peace, so our faith remains strong and I suspect we will find another church home for our family."<ref>FoxNews.com, ''Obama Drops Church Membership in Chicago'', May 31, 2008[http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/05/31/obama-resigns-church-membership-in-chicago/], </ref>. He also called Wright's rhetoric "a bunch of rants that aren't grounded in the truth."<ref>USA TODAY, ''Obama breaks with former pastor, Candidate cites rants on U.S. role in terror, AIDS'', by Kathy Kiely and David Jackson, no date given [http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20080430/1a_offlede30_dom.art.htm]</ref><ref>U.S. News and World Report, ''Obama Says He Is Outraged By Wright's "Rants"'', April 30, 2008[http://www.usnews.com/usnews/politics/bulletin/bulletin_080430.htm]</ref>

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

{{stub}}

Landover Baptist Church

2009-03-16T05:15:26Z

Iamkay:

Landover Baptist Church is an [[atheist]] [[organisation]] that mocks [[Christianity]]. It was founded by a [[satirist]] named [[Chris Harper]]. He regularly speaks in atheist gatherings as Pastor Deacon Fred Smith. The website claims that the church is located on Freehold a fictional town in [[Iowa]]. Many people confuse Landover Baptist Church for a real [[church]].

== External Links ==

* [http://www.landoverbaptist.org Landover Baptist Church]
[[Category:Atheism]]
[[Category:Organizations]]
[[Category:Websites]]

Landover Baptist Church

2009-03-15T14:29:37Z

Iamkay:

Landover Baptist Church

2009-03-15T14:28:42Z

Iamkay:

Landover Baptist Church is an [[atheist]] organisation that mocks [[Christianity]]. It was founded by a satirist named [[Chris Harper]]. He regularly speaks in atheist gatherings as Pastor Deacon Fred Smith. The website claims that the church is located on Freehold a fictional town in [[Iowa]]. Many people confuse Landover Baptist Church for a real [[church]].

== External Links ==

* [http://www.landoverbaptist.org Landover Baptist Church]

Landover Baptist Church

2009-03-15T14:28:10Z

Iamkay:

Landover Baptist Church is an [[atheist]] organisation that mocks [[Christianity]]. It was founded by a satirist named [[Chris Harper]]. He regularly speaks in atheist gatherings as Pastor Deacon Fred Smith. The website claims that church is located on Freehold a fictional town in [[Iowa]]. Many people confuse Landover Baptist Church for a real [[church]].

== External Links ==

* [http://www.landoverbaptist.org Landover Baptist Church]

Landover Baptist Church

2009-03-15T14:27:30Z

Iamkay: New page: Landover Baptist Church is an atheist organisation that mocks Christianity. It was founded by a satirist named Chris Harper. He regularly speaks in atheist gatherings a s Pasto...

Landover Baptist Church is an [[atheist]] organisation that mocks [[Christianity]]. It was founded by a satirist named [[Chris Harper]]. He regularly speaks in atheist gatherings a s Pastor Deacon Fread Smith. The website claims that church is located on Freehold a fictional town in [[Iowa]]. Many people confuse Landover Baptist Church for a real [[church]].

== External Links ==

* [http://www.landoverbaptist.org Landover Baptist Church]

The Pirate Bay

2009-03-14T17:24:36Z

Iamkay: New page: The Pirate Bay is a Swedish website that indexes and tracks BitTorrent (.torrent) files. It bills itself as "the world's largest BitTorrent tracker". The Pirate Bay is the larg...

The Pirate Bay is a [[Swedish]] [[website]] that indexes and tracks [[BitTorrent]] (.torrent) files. It bills itself as "the world's largest BitTorrent tracker". The Pirate Bay is the largest illegal download site in the internet.

== External Links ==

* [http://www.thepiratebay.org The Pirate Bay]

The Naked Ape

2008-04-07T04:29:38Z

Iamkay:

'''''The Naked Ape''''' is a popular [[science]] book by [[Desmond Morris]]. Dr. Morris stunned the 1967 [[universe]] by writing a pop [[anthropology]] [[book]], first serialized in London's Daily Mirror tabloid, in which he described humans in the same objective, analytical way that zoologists describe [[animals]]. Dr. Morris was the [[curator]] of mammals at the [[London]] [[Zoo]], a specialist in primates, and his particular slant on the nature of man was that our species is best viewed as a very complicated [[primate]]. The title of the book is derived from the fact that there are 193 species of monkeys and apes on the [[planet]], of which man is the only one not entirely covered in fur and is, therefore, the only naked [[ape]]. Scientific critics of the book pointed out that Dr. Morris was a zoologist, not an anthropologist, and as such was making partially formed and unscientific speculations by defining man in purely zoological terms, because while man is an animal, he also stands apart from the animals in many ways. The book made for a livelier-than-expected read because it focused on [[sex]] and mating rituals. Morris pointed out that man is "the sexiest [[primate]]" and noted that [[Homo Sapiens]] not only has the biggest [[brain]] of all primates, but also the largest [[penis]]. The [[film]] version of The Naked Ape is somewhere between a documentary and a series of anecdotes, which is to say that it's an odd film and very hard to watch. The scientific arguments are presented in a heavy-handed way.

A 1973 movie directed by Donald Driver — based on the book — was made starring Johnny Crawford and Victoria Principal.

In 2006 an independent [[movie]] was made based loosely on the book, written and directed by Daniel Mellitz, starring Josh Wise, Chelse Swain, Sean Shanks, Amanda MacDonald, Tony LaThanh, Corbin Bernsen.

== External Links ==
*[http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/12/newsid_3116000/3116329.stm BBC news item at the 1967 book launch]
*[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070433/ 1973 film The Naked Ape ]at the Internet Movie Database, and [http://www.scoopy.com/nakedape.htm review]
*[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0381053/ 2006 film The Naked Ape] at the Internet Movie Database
*[http://www.thenakedapemovie.com/ Official site for 2006 movie ]

[[Category:Books]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Science]]

The Brick Testament

2008-04-06T10:11:06Z

Iamkay: /* External Links */

The Brick Testament is a project created by [[Brendan Powell Smith]] in which Bible stories are illustrated using still photos of dioramas constructed entirely out of Lego bricks. The storie are told using verses and chapter cited.

== External Links ==
*[http://www.thebricktestament.com The Brick Testament]
*[http://www.thereverend.com/ Brendan Powell Smith's personal website]

[[Category:Bible]]

Percy Bysshe Shelley

2008-04-06T10:05:37Z

Iamkay: /* References */

'''Percy Bysshe Shelley''' was born August 4, 1792 in [[Sussex]], [[England]]. He drowned in a storm while traveling from Livorno to Lerici in his schooner on July 8, 1822. Shelley was one of six great early nineteenth century British poets later dubbed the High Romantics (the others being [[William Blake|Blake]], [[William Wordsworth|Wordsworth]], [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge|Coleridge]], [[George Gordon, Lord Byron|Byron]] and [[John Keats|Keats]].)

Shelley was anti-religious and a skeptic his whole life and promoted a poetic program where--like [[William Blake|Blake]]--the individual imagination is the sole authority on matters of truth. His play ''Prometheus Unbound'' explores his interest in a renewed imagination/creative life in the story of Prometheus. In critic Harold Bloom's reading, the plays characters Prometheus, Asia, Jupiter and Demogorgon bear resemblances to the psychic constructs of other writers including Blake, [[William Butler Yeats|Yeats]] and [[Sigmund Freud|Freud]]. <ref>(Harold Bloom, The Visionary Company: A Reading of English Romantic Poetry, Cornell University, New York 1971, p. 90-91)</ref>

Shelley's major poems include: ''Alastor'', ''Hymn to Intellectual Beauty'', ''Mont Blanc'', ''Ode to the West Wind'', ''Prometheus Unbound'', ''The Witch of Atlas'', ''Epipsychidion'', ''Adonais'', and the ''Triumph of Life''.

He also wrote an "Essay on Christianity" which attempts to read Jesus as an ethic philosopher whose great teachings have been corrupted by the institutional religion called Christianity.
== References ==
<references />

[[Category:Poets|Shelley, Percy Bysshe]]
[[Category:Atheists]]

The Brick Testament

2008-04-06T09:53:27Z

Iamkay: New page: The Brick Testament is a project created by Brendan Powell Smith in which Bible stories are illustrated using still photos of dioramas constructed entirely out of Lego bricks. The stor...

Aquatic ape theory

2008-04-04T11:53:16Z

Iamkay: New page: The '''Aquatic Ape theory''' argues that in the past, humanity's primate ancestors dwelt in shallow waters for the sake of safety and food supply. The German biologist Max Westenhõfer...

The '''Aquatic Ape theory''' argues that in the past, humanity's [[primate]] ancestors dwelt in shallow waters for the sake of safety and food supply. The German biologist Max Westenhõfer was perhaps the first to publish the idea in an evolutionary context. The theory seeks to explain human traits such as hairlessness, salty tears, fat tissue, [[bipedalism]] and sweat glands. It also explains why human body is streamlined and why apes quickly drown when put in water while humans do not. Using the principle of [[convergent evolution]], it says that life in an aquatic environment explains these features, and that a transition from ape to hominid in a non-aquatic environment cannot.

The theory is somewhat out of favor because several key pieces of evidence fail to support the theory. For example, hairlessness, while found in several aquatic mammals, is not indicative of aquatic mammals (see aardvarks and rhinoceros).

==External Links==

*[http://www.primitivism.com/aquatic-ape.htm Aquatic Ape Theory]
*[http://www.aquaticape.org/ Aquatic Ape Theory--Elaine Morgan]

Skeptics Annotated Bible

2008-04-04T11:18:54Z

Iamkay: /* External Links */

The '''Skeptics Annotated Bible''' is an online text of the [[Bible]] containing annotations intended for for skeptics and [[atheism|atheists]]. It is edited by Steve Wells, and also contains an annotated [[Quran]] and [[Book of Mormon]].

== Contents ==
The ''Skeptics Annotated Bible'' contains the text of the Bible (King James version), with comments alongside many of the Bible verses. Most of these comments are designed to draw attention to alleged absurdities and inconsistencies in the text, according to the viewpoint of the authors. The areas of perceived difficulties are broken down into various 'tags'. There is also an index by topic that only shows selected verses also designed to be inflammatory.

==Refutation==
The founder of [[Christian apologetics]] site [[Tektonics]] has described the quality of argument of the Skeptics Annotated Bible (SAB) as follows:
{{QuoteBox|Editorial commentary in the form of pictures and one-sentence comments are not arguments. SAB is the internet equivalent to a brick wall scribbled with graffiti, or arguing by saying, "nanny nanny boo boo." It performs no analysis of the social background, the literary data, or context. It is merely "instant reaction" from angry Skeptics, and that sort of arguing isn't arguing at all. ... By estimate perhaps 40-50% of SAB's comments are either "argument by outrage" or places where SAB takes moral offense, usually against a cultural norm. ... SAB also demonstrates the sort of provincialism we would expect of the impenetrably ignorant, as for example, they will insert a "laughing head" icon next to verses which describe some Bible social custom with which they are unfamiliar. Imagine what kind of credibility someone would deserve if they read a history of feudal Japan and put a "laughing head" next to descriptions of people taking their shoes off before they enter a home. That is the level of ignorance to which SAB regularly stoops."<ref>James Patrick Holding [http://www.tektonics.org/sab/sab.html ''Commentary on the Skeptics' Annotated Bible'']</ref>}}

== External Links ==
*[http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/ Skeptics Annotated Bible]
*[http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/christian.html Christian responses to Skeptic's Annotted Bible]

==References==
{{reflist|small}}

[[category:Atheism]]

Skeptics Annotated Bible

2008-04-04T11:18:13Z

Iamkay: /* External Links */

The '''Skeptics Annotated Bible''' is an online text of the [[Bible]] containing annotations intended for for skeptics and [[atheism|atheists]]. It is edited by Steve Wells, and also contains an annotated [[Quran]] and [[Book of Mormon]].

== Contents ==
The ''Skeptics Annotated Bible'' contains the text of the Bible (King James version), with comments alongside many of the Bible verses. Most of these comments are designed to draw attention to alleged absurdities and inconsistencies in the text, according to the viewpoint of the authors. The areas of perceived difficulties are broken down into various 'tags'. There is also an index by topic that only shows selected verses also designed to be inflammatory.

==Refutation==
The founder of [[Christian apologetics]] site [[Tektonics]] has described the quality of argument of the Skeptics Annotated Bible (SAB) as follows:
{{QuoteBox|Editorial commentary in the form of pictures and one-sentence comments are not arguments. SAB is the internet equivalent to a brick wall scribbled with graffiti, or arguing by saying, "nanny nanny boo boo." It performs no analysis of the social background, the literary data, or context. It is merely "instant reaction" from angry Skeptics, and that sort of arguing isn't arguing at all. ... By estimate perhaps 40-50% of SAB's comments are either "argument by outrage" or places where SAB takes moral offense, usually against a cultural norm. ... SAB also demonstrates the sort of provincialism we would expect of the impenetrably ignorant, as for example, they will insert a "laughing head" icon next to verses which describe some Bible social custom with which they are unfamiliar. Imagine what kind of credibility someone would deserve if they read a history of feudal Japan and put a "laughing head" next to descriptions of people taking their shoes off before they enter a home. That is the level of ignorance to which SAB regularly stoops."<ref>James Patrick Holding [http://www.tektonics.org/sab/sab.html ''Commentary on the Skeptics' Annotated Bible'']</ref>}}

== External Links ==
*[http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/ Skeptics Annotated Bible]
*[ Christian responses to Skeptic's nnotted Bible]

==References==
{{reflist|small}}

[[category:Atheism]]

Richard Stallman

2008-04-04T10:57:25Z

Iamkay:

'''Richard M. Stallman''' ('''RMS''') is the founder of the [[Free Software Foundation]] and the brains behind the [[GNU]] General Public License (GPL) and the [[GNU/Linux]] operating system. Stallman was part of MIT's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in the 1970s, where he did a lot of creative computer programming (which he and his friends called "[[hacking]]").

He conceived of the notion of "[[free software]]" where the software is free as in "free speech", as opposed to "free beer". It is formally licensed as an alternative to the [[public domain]]. He as actively promoted forming a worldwide community of programmers and software users who can all equally share the benefits of new and improved software donated to the community.

== External links ==
[http://www.stallman.org Stallman's website]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stallman, Richard}}

[[Category:Computer Science]]
[[category:biographies]]

Skeptics Annotated Bible

2008-03-20T15:31:33Z

Iamkay: /* Contents */

The '''Skeptics Annotated Bible''' is an online text of the [[Bible]] containing annotations intended for for skeptics and [[atheism|atheists]]. It is edited by Steve Wells, and also contains an annotated [[Quran]] and [[Book of Mormon]].

== Contents ==
The ''Skeptics Annotated Bible'' contains the text of the Bible (King James version), with comments alongside many of the Bible verses. Most of these comments are designed to draw attention to alleged absurdities and inconsistencies in the text, according to the viewpoint of the authors. The areas of perceived difficulties are broken down into various 'tags'. IT also contain a section on what [http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/says_about/index.htm Bible says about different things].

==Refutation==
The founder of [[Christian apologetics]] site [[Tektonics]] has described the quality of argument of the Skeptics Annotated Bible (SAB) as follows:
{{QuoteBox|Editorial commentary in the form of pictures and one-sentence comments are not arguments. SAB is the internet equivalent to a brick wall scribbled with graffiti, or arguing by saying, "nanny nanny boo boo." It performs no analysis of the social background, the literary data, or context. It is merely "instant reaction" from angry Skeptics, and that sort of arguing isn't arguing at all. ... By estimate perhaps 40-50% of SAB's comments are either "argument by outrage" or places where SAB takes moral offense, usually against a cultural norm. ... SAB also demonstrates the sort of provincialism we would expect of the impenetrably ignorant, as for example, they will insert a "laughing head" icon next to verses which describe some Bible social custom with which they are unfamiliar. Imagine what kind of credibility someone would deserve if they read a history of feudal Japan and put a "laughing head" next to descriptions of people taking their shoes off before they enter a home. That is the level of ignorance to which SAB regularly stoops."<ref>James Patrick Holding [http://www.tektonics.org/sab/sab.html ''Commentary on the Skeptics' Annotated Bible'']</ref>}}

== External Links ==
*[http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/ Skeptics Annotated Bible]

==References==
{{reflist|small}}

The Naked Ape

2008-03-19T15:55:50Z

Iamkay:

'''''The Naked Ape''''' is a popular [[science]] book by [[Desmond Morris]]. Dr. Morris stunned the 1967 [[universe]] by writing a pop [[anthropology]] [[book]], first serialized in London's Daily Mirror tabloid, in which he described humans in the same objective, analytical way that zoologists describe [[aimal|animals]]. Dr. Morris was the curator of mammals at the London [[Zoo]], a specialist in primates, and his particular slant on the nature of man was that our species is best viewed as a very complicated [[primate]]. The title of the book is derived from the fact that there are 193 species of monkeys and apes on the [[planet]], of which man is the only one not entirely covered in fur and is, therefore, the only naked [[ape]]. Scientific critics of the book pointed out that Dr. Morris was a zoologist, not an anthropologist, and as such was making partially formed and unscientific speculations by defining man in purely zoological terms, because while man is an animal, he also stands apart from the animals in many ways. The book made for a livelier-than-expected read because it focused on [[sex]] and mating rituals. Morris pointed out that man is "the sexiest [[primate]]" and noted that [[Homo Sapiens]] not only has the biggest [[brain]] of all primates, but also the largest [[penis]]. The film version of The Naked Ape is somewhere between a documentary and a series of anecdotes, which is to say that it's an odd film and very hard to watch. The scientific arguments are presented in a heavy-handed way.

A 1973 movie directed by Donald Driver — based on the book — was made starring Johnny Crawford and Victoria Principal.

In 2006 an independent movie was made based loosely on the book, written and directed by Daniel Mellitz, starring Josh Wise, Chelse Swain, Sean Shanks, Amanda MacDonald, Tony LaThanh, Corbin Bernsen.

== External Links ==
*[http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/12/newsid_3116000/3116329.stm BBC news item at the 1967 book launch]
*[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070433/ 1973 film The Naked Ape ]at the Internet Movie Database, and [http://www.scoopy.com/nakedape.htm review]
*[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0381053/ 2006 film The Naked Ape] at the Internet Movie Database
*[http://www.thenakedapemovie.com/ Official site for 2006 movie ]

[[Category:Book]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Science]]

The Naked Ape

2008-03-19T14:47:10Z

Iamkay: /* External Links */

The Naked Ape is a popular [[science]] book by [[Desmond Morris]]. Dr. Morris stunned the 1967 universe by writing a pop [[anthropology]] book, first serialized in London's Daily Mirror tabloid, in which he described humans in the same objective, analytical way that zoologists describe animals. Dr. Morris was the curator of mammals at the London Zoo, a specialist in primates, and his particular slant on the nature of man was that our species is best viewed as a very complicated primate. The title of the book is derived from the fact that there are 193 species of monkeys and apes on the [[planet]], of which man is the only one not entirely covered in fur and is, therefore, the only naked [[ape]]. Scientific critics of the book pointed out that Dr. Morris was a zoologist, not an anthropologist, and as such was making partially formed and unscientific speculations by defining man in purely zoological terms, because while man is an animal, he also stands apart from the animals in many ways. The book made for a livelier-than-expected read because it focused on [[sex]] and mating rituals. Morris pointed out that man is "the sexiest [[primate]]" and noted that [[Homo Sapiens]] not only has the biggest [[brain]] of all primates, but also the largest [[penis]]. The film version of The Naked Ape is somewhere between a documentary and a series of anecdotes, which is to say that it's an odd film and very hard to watch. The scientific arguments are presented in a heavy-handed way.
A 1973 movie directed by Donald Driver — based on the book — was made starring Johnny Crawford and Victoria Principal.
In 2006 an independent movie was made based loosely on the book, written and directed by Daniel Mellitz, starring Josh Wise, Chelse Swain, Sean Shanks, Amanda MacDonald, Tony LaThanh, Corbin Bernsen.

== External Links ==
*[http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/12/newsid_3116000/3116329.stm BBC news item at the 1967 book launch]
*[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070433/ 1973 film The Naked Ape ]at the Internet Movie Database, and [http://www.scoopy.com/nakedape.htm review]
*[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0381053/ 2006 film The Naked Ape] at the Internet Movie Database
*[http://www.thenakedapemovie.com/ Official site for 2006 movie ]

[[Category:Book]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Science]]

The Naked Ape

2008-03-19T14:42:20Z

Iamkay:

The Naked Ape

2008-03-19T14:37:45Z

Iamkay: New page: The Naked Ape is a popular science book by Desmond Morris. Dr. Morris stunned the 1967 universe by writing a pop anthropology book, first serialized in London's Daily Mirror ta...

Biblical criticism

2008-03-16T03:52:08Z

Iamkay: /* See Also */

[[Biblical criticism]] is any examination of the [[Bible]] for accuracy, authenticity, authorship, dating, or anything else that bears on the Bible's reliability as a [[history|historical]] source against which one might legitimately judge other sources.

The traditions of the last century or more have divided Biblical criticism into two main areas, called the ''higher'' and the ''lower''. While the ''lower'' criticism (including textual criticism) deals with the provenance of the text and the faithfulness of the present text to the lost originals, the ''higher'' criticism deals with the heart of the Bible itself: whether it is, in fact, historical, and if not, exactly how ought one to read it.

== Higher criticism ==
The ''higher'' or ''historical criticism'' of the [[Bible]] (not the criticism of the Bible ''throughout'' history, but rather the criticism of the Bible ''as'' history) deals with whether the Bible is, or is not, a valid source of history. The German higher critic Johann Gottfried Eichhorn coined the term.<ref name=CathEn>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04491c.htm Biblical criticism (higher)] in the Catholic Encyclopedia (1908)</ref>

Higher criticism asks whether the Bible is consistent with extra-Biblical [[Archaeology|archaeological]] finds and with what is known of the [[language]]s in which it was written. Inevitably higher criticism must face squarely the question of whether Divine inspiration exists or not, and whether supernatural causes or events are admissible or not. These can only be [[presupposition]]. For that reason, at least two divergent schools of thought have always existed in higher criticism. Their differences are irreconcilable, because one school believes that anything supernatural is to be rejected out-of-hand, and the other school is not so sure of that. These "non-rationalistic" thinkers tend to divide between [[Protestantism|Protestant]] and [[Roman Catholic Church|Catholic]] schools of thought. Higher criticism ''also'' claims to examine the internal evidence of the Bible and whether certain parts of the Bible are properly consistent with other parts.

The combined problems detailed above militate against the various schools of thought ever agreeing on common principles or rules of evidence--a situation quite similar to that prevailing in the debate between [[Theory of evolution|evolution]] and [[creation]].

=== History of higher criticism ===
Arguably the first person to use the Bible seriously as a historical document, and to integrate the history it records with other recorded histories, was [[James Ussher]]. His work was so influential that for three and a half centuries most editions of the [[King James Version]] of the Bible carried top-margin dates derived from Ussher's magnum opus, [[The Annals of the World]].

[[The Catholic Encyclopedia]] includes<ref name=CathEn/> an excellent treatment of the full state of higher criticism until 1908. It shows that higher criticism, as such, began earlier than the Enlightenment. The [[Constantine]]-era bishop [[Origen]] holding, for example, that [[Paul]] was not the same man who wrote the Epistle to the [[Hebrews (book)|Hebrews]]. Origen's student [[Dionysius]] held on linguistic grounds that the man calling himself "John" who wrote [[Revelation]] was not the same man as the [[Apostle]] named [[John]]. Higher criticism contemporary to Ussher explored such questions as whether [[Moses]] was the true author of the first five books of the Bible, called the "Books of Moses" in the [[King James Version]].

Then in the early nineteenth century a group of [[France|French]] and [[Germany|German]] scholars began to test the Bible against other historical documents and [[Archaeology|archaeological]] finds. They drew their inspiration from the [[Rationalism|Rationalist]] school of philosophy and other schools of thought that developed during the [[Enlightenment]] period. But at that point the criticism of the [[Old Testament]] and the [[New Testament]] tended to have vastly different emphases, with Old Testament criticism centering on questions of language and competing historical records, and New Testament criticism directly attacking the Divinity of its Central Character, [[Jesus Christ]], and the authenticities of the various Letters of [[Paul]] and the general epistles of [[John]], [[James]], and others.

The claims made in the field of [[Assyrian chronology]], and specifically as regards alleged synchronies between [[Assyria]]n rulers and certain kings of the [[Northern Kingdom]], became popular toward the end of the nineteenth century. This is the criticism that informed [[Edwin R. Thiele]]'s thesis that the writers of the Kings and Chronicles books used reign synchronies and lengths that were incomplete.

=== Current state of higher criticism ===
Modern higher criticism (since 1908) is informed chiefly by the principle of [[atheism]]--the proposition that no such Person or Thing as [[God]] exists. By no coincidence, [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]], one of the most prominent higher critics in the German school, was one of the two major philosophers (the other was [[Immanuel Kant]]) who provided the greatest influences on [[Karl Marx]], the originator of [[Communism]]. The no-God principle received further impetus in more modern times from [[Friedrich Nietzsche]], who famously said that "[[God]] is dead."

Since then, most higher-critical efforts have been directed at destroying the foundations, not only of the Divinity of [[Christ]], but also of the story of the creation of the world. This is the intellectual environment that allowed the widespread acceptance of the theory of [[evolution]] and all its corollaries, even by churches. Yet not all who reject the original creation story, as stated, are evolutionists. [[Old Earth Creationism|Old earth creationism]] takes as its central premise that the Biblical account, while not literal, has an enduring symbolic importance--and that in any case, classical [[Darwin]]ian evolution cannot adequately explain the "[[first cause]]s" of the [[universe]] or of life.

In 1994, a group of forthright atheists started the Journal of Higher Criticism<ref name=JHC>[http://www.atheistalliance.org/jhc/index.htm Journal of Higher Criticism] at the Atheist Alliance. Has multiple additional links.</ref> and billed it as "a forthright attempt - in a time of scholarly neo-conservatism - to hark back to the bold historical hypotheses and critical interpretations associated with the great names of F. C. Baur and Tübingen." The phrase "scholarly neo-conservatism" is probably an attempt to link an apparent renewal of belief in [[God]] with a resurgence of ''political'' conservatism in the [[United States]] that culminated in a sharp reversal-of-fortunes of the two major political parties in the Federal Election of 1994. This Journal ceased publication in 2003, but the original site is still an active domain and has a recent (2007) copyright notice.

== Textual criticism ==
The ''lower'' or ''textual'' criticism of the [[Bible]] starts with the premise that the Bible ''is'' reliable history. Unhappily, none of the original [[Hebrew]] texts of the [[Old Testament]] remain. (Even the [[Dead Sea scrolls]] do not qualify, though they come close.) The situation with the [[New Testament]] is arguably worse, in that no agreement has been possible as to which of the many manuscripts of various New Testament books is actually original. Hence, textual criticism strives to determine which copies of the Old Testament are the most faithful to the original, and which manuscripts of the New Testament are either original (if such can ever be found) or at least faithful and correct.<ref name=CathEnNT>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04497a.htm Biblical criticism (textual)] in the Catholic Encyclopedia</ref>

=== History of textual criticism ===
Again, possibly the first person to undertake any form of textual criticism for a practical reason was [[James Ussher]]. He needed a reliable text to serve as an anchor for a unified treatment of ancient history. Ussher rejected the [[Septuagint]] for various reasons, chief among which was that the Septuagint was a translation into a language foreign to that in which the originals were written, and that the translation was a work by consensus. (Its very name, which translates as ''Interpretation According to the Seventy'', so indicates.) Ussher selected the [[Masoretic Text]], which was an attempt by second-century [[Hebrew]] scholars to reproduce a text in its original language.

In addition to Ussher, the Royal Commission on Bible Translation, in the reign of King [[James I]] of [[United Kingdom|Great Britain]], had to determine a proper text from which to produce a translation of the Bible into [[English]]. They worked largely from the Masoretic Text, but consulted the Septuagint occasionally when the meaning of the Hebrew was difficult to discern.

Textual criticism gained new impetus in the nineteenth century with the work of Brook Foss Westcott and Fenton John Anthony Hort. The questions they have raised remain today the subject of great and often bitter controversy.

==== The Old Testament ====
No modern scholar claims to have original texts of Old Testament books. [[Ptolemy II Philadelphus]] had them translated into the [[Greece|Greek]] of his day to produce the famous [[Septuagint]] at the [[Great Library of Alexandria]]. What happened to the originals from which the Seventy Interpreters worked has never been established. Tragically, much of the collections of the Great Library were lost in one or more fires that struck the Library at various times in its history. As a result, the New Testament writers quote the Septuagint, because that was all that was available.

The Masoretes would later correct that lack with their production of the [[Masoretic Text]]. That text remained for centuries the best extant [[Hebrew]] copy of the Old Testament. However, this text proved quite vulnerable to higher critics who doubted the authenticity or the dating of some of its books. Chief among these was the book of [[Daniel]], which some alleged to have been written after the fact.

In 1947, in the midst of the War for the Independence of the Republic of [[Israel]], came the discovery, at [[Qumran]], of the [[Dead Sea Scrolls|Dead Sea scrolls]]. These scrolls have largely backed up the accuracy of the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint, with rare exception.

Among the principles that aided the Masoretes (and presumably the [[Essene]] scribes who wrote the Dead Sea scrolls) was the elaborate procedures that the original scribes had used. This included checksumming of each line and the insistence that the making of a single mistake required throwing out the entire scroll and starting over.<ref name=Williams>Williams, Fred, [http://www.bibleevidences.com/transmission.htm Meticulous Care in the Transmission of the Bible], retrieved March 25, 2007</ref>

==== The New Testament ====
The situation with the New Testament is much less settled, because no checksumming was ever done with any manuscript of any of its books. In 1611, King James' Royal Commission had available to it a [[Majority Text]], which may or may not be the same as the [[Textus Receptus]], of manuscripts of which more copies existed than any others. This largely included the [[Byzantine Text]] family of manuscript copies that, strikingly, seem to agree in every particular with one another.

But Westcott and Hort pointed out the existence of many more manuscripts, including the [[Codex Alexandrinus]] and the [[Codex Sinaiticus]], that disagree with the Majority Text in many key areas. Among the points of disagreement are:

* The authenticity of the ''Pericopa Adultura''<ref>{{Bible ref|book=John|chap=8|verses=1-11|version=NIV}}</ref>
* The person of the verb endings used in the Song of the Twenty-four Elders<ref>{{Bible ref|book=Revelation|chap=5|verses=9-10|version=KJV}}</ref><ref>{{Bible ref|book=Revelation|chap=5|verses=9-10|version=NIV}}</ref>
* The true length of the Gospel According to [[Gospel of Mark|Mark]]

The reception of Westcott and Hort's has varied from cordial to hostile.<ref>[http://www.foundationsforfreedom.net/Topics/Bible/Bible_Reliability.html The Reliability of the Bible Texts] at FoundationsforFreedom.net</ref> Many Bible defenders roundly condemn New Testament textual criticism, because they see in it the same kind of compromise of the truth that they decry on the part of the ''higher'' critics. This led the writers of the Catholic Encyclopedia, in 1908, to despair of ever having a fully reliable New Testament in the [[Greek]] language of its original authorship.

== Footnotes ==
<references/>

== Additional References ==

== See Also ==
* [[Atheism]]
* [[Skeptics Annotated Bible]]

[[Category:Bible]]
[[Category:Bible Study]]

Skepdic

2008-03-15T10:27:54Z

Iamkay:

Skepdic is The Skeptik's [[dictionary]]. It is a collection of "cross-referenced" skeptical essays by Robert Todd Carroll, published on his website skepdic.com and in a printed book. The skepdic.com site was launched in 1994 and the book was published in 2003 with nearly 400 entries. The website has continued to grow after the publication of the book and contains more than 500 entries

== Robert Todd Carroll ==
Robert Todd Carrroll the author of Skepdic considers himself a militant atheist and hardened skeptic. He is in fact what we can call an atheist fanatic.

== Contents ==
The catagories in skepdic are [http://www.skepdic.com/tialtmed.html alternative medicine], [http://www.skepdic.com/ticrypto.html cryptozoology], [http://www.skepdic.com/tialien.html ETs and UFOs], [http://www.skepdic.com/tifraud.html frauds and hoaxes], [http://www.skepdic.com/tijunk.html junk science], [http://www.skepdic.com/tilogic.html logic and perception], [http://www.skepdic.com/tinewage.html new age], [http://www.skepdic.com/tipara.html paranormal], [http://www.skepdic.com/tiscience.html science and philosophy] and [http://www.skepdic.com/tisuper.html supernatuarel]. The encyclopedia also conatins articles attacking the fundamentals of Christianity like [http://skepdic.com/noahsark.html Noah's Ark].

== External Links ==
*[http://www.skepdic.com Skepdic The Skeptic's Dictionary]
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Skeptic%27s_Dictionary Skepdic Wikipedia]
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Todd_Carroll Robert Todd Carroll]

Skeptics annotated bible

2008-03-14T16:19:42Z

Iamkay:

Skeptics Annotated Bible is the [[Bible]] of skeptics and [[atheism|atheists]]. It is edited by Steve Wells. It also contains an annotated [[Quran]] and book of Mormons. It particularly attacks the [[King James Bible]].

== Contents ==
The Skeptics annotated bible contains the Bible with snide remarks next to most of the Bible verses. The Skeptic's Annotated Bible uses tags to highlight issues including injustice, absurdity, cruelty and violence, intolerance, contradictions, family values, women, science and history, prophecy, sex, language, interpretation, homosexuality, and "good stuff". They have even degraded to [http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/sex/long.htm look for porn in Bible]. They also contain a section on what [http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/says_about/index.htm Bible says about different things]. But these skeptics forget one thing. Bible is the word of God and is literal. How can the word of God contain absurdies and unethical contents?

== External Links ==
*[http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/ Skeptics Annotated Bible]

Pro-life

2008-03-14T16:05:52Z

Iamkay: /* Other Links */

'''Pro-life''' is the name given to people or organizations who defend the rights of the unborn child, and who oppose [[abortion]].

While "pro-abortion" seems to be an accurate term for those who support [[tax]]payer-funded abortion, [[pro-choice]] is the term that describes the feelings of the majority of [[liberal]]s, and by which they would prefer to be called.

Due to rulings by the [[U.S. Supreme Court]], the [[United States]] allows abortions at virtually any time in pregnancy. Many state [[government]]s even pay for abortions using taxpayer dollars, usually due to a court order rather than the will of the people.

In [[America]]n politics, the [[Republican Party|Republican]] and [[Constitution Party|Constitution]] Parties are strongly opposed to abortion and believe it should be illegal. The [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] Party supports abortion and opposes legal restrictions. Leaders in the Democratic Party, such as its presidential candidates, also support taxpayer-funded abortion.

The phrase "pro-life," especially in the [[Catholic Church]], may include other issues relating to human life, such as [[euthanasia]].

==See Also==
*[[Abortion controversy]]
*[[National Right to Life Committee]]

== Other Links ==
[http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/says_about/abortion.html What Bible says about abortion] from [[Skeptics annotated bible|Skeptics Annotated Bible]]

[[Category:Abortion]]

Pro-life

2008-03-14T16:05:13Z

Iamkay: /* Other Links */

'''Pro-life''' is the name given to people or organizations who defend the rights of the unborn child, and who oppose [[abortion]].

While "pro-abortion" seems to be an accurate term for those who support [[tax]]payer-funded abortion, [[pro-choice]] is the term that describes the feelings of the majority of [[liberal]]s, and by which they would prefer to be called.

Due to rulings by the [[U.S. Supreme Court]], the [[United States]] allows abortions at virtually any time in pregnancy. Many state [[government]]s even pay for abortions using taxpayer dollars, usually due to a court order rather than the will of the people.

In [[America]]n politics, the [[Republican Party|Republican]] and [[Constitution Party|Constitution]] Parties are strongly opposed to abortion and believe it should be illegal. The [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] Party supports abortion and opposes legal restrictions. Leaders in the Democratic Party, such as its presidential candidates, also support taxpayer-funded abortion.

The phrase "pro-life," especially in the [[Catholic Church]], may include other issues relating to human life, such as [[euthanasia]].

==See Also==
*[[Abortion controversy]]
*[[National Right to Life Committee]]

== Other Links ==
[http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/says_about/abortion.html What Bible says about abortion] from [[Skeptics Annotated Bible|Skeptics annotated bible]]

[[Category:Abortion]]

Pro-life

2008-03-14T16:04:55Z

Iamkay:

'''Pro-life''' is the name given to people or organizations who defend the rights of the unborn child, and who oppose [[abortion]].

While "pro-abortion" seems to be an accurate term for those who support [[tax]]payer-funded abortion, [[pro-choice]] is the term that describes the feelings of the majority of [[liberal]]s, and by which they would prefer to be called.

Due to rulings by the [[U.S. Supreme Court]], the [[United States]] allows abortions at virtually any time in pregnancy. Many state [[government]]s even pay for abortions using taxpayer dollars, usually due to a court order rather than the will of the people.

In [[America]]n politics, the [[Republican Party|Republican]] and [[Constitution Party|Constitution]] Parties are strongly opposed to abortion and believe it should be illegal. The [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] Party supports abortion and opposes legal restrictions. Leaders in the Democratic Party, such as its presidential candidates, also support taxpayer-funded abortion.

The phrase "pro-life," especially in the [[Catholic Church]], may include other issues relating to human life, such as [[euthanasia]].

==See Also==
*[[Abortion controversy]]
*[[National Right to Life Committee]]

== Other Links ==
[http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/says_about/abortion.html What Bible says about abortion]] from [[Skeptics Annotated Bible|Skeptics annotated bible]]

[[Category:Abortion]]

Skeptics annotated bible

2008-03-14T15:56:43Z

Iamkay: New page: Skeptics Annotated Bible is the Bible of skeptics and atheism. It is edited by Steve Wells. It also contains an annotated Quran and book of Mormons. It particularly at...

Skeptics Annotated Bible is the [[Bible]] of skeptics and [[atheists|atheism]]. It is edited by Steve Wells. It also contains an annotated [[Quran]] and book of Mormons. It particularly attacks the [[King James Bible]].

== Contents ==
The Skeptics annotated bible contains the Bible with snide remarks next to most of the Bible verses. The Skeptic's Annotated Bible uses tags to highlight issues including injustice, absurdity, cruelty and violence, intolerance, contradictions, family values, women, science and history, prophecy, sex, language, interpretation, homosexuality, and "good stuff". They have even degraded to [http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/sex/long.htm look for porn in Bible]. They also contain a section on what [http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/says_about/index.htm Bible says about different things]. But these skeptics forget one thing. Bible is the word of God and is literal. How can the word of God contain absurdies and unethical contents?

== External Links ==
*[http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/ Skeptics Annotated Bible]

Astronomy

2008-03-14T15:33:16Z

Iamkay: /* External Links */

[[Image:Moooghj.jpg|right|300px]]
'''{{PAGENAME}}''' is "the study of objects and matter outside the earth's atmosphere and of their physical and chemical properties." <ref>http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=astronomy</ref> It has been studied since ancient times, forming a major part of the [[religion]]s of many early [[civilization]]s such as the [[Egypt|Egyptians]] and the [[Aztecs]]. The great stone henge at [[Stonehenge]] in [[England]] is also thought to be an astronomical observatory. The handing down of complex astronomical teachings shows these early [[civilization]]s must have had formalized systems of [[education]].

Astronomy was crucial to the development of [[safe]] and accurate [[navigation]] for ships, and observations of the movement of [[sky|heavenly bodies]] helped lead to the theories we now call [[physics]]. In fact, much of astronomy today relies physics, thus many astronomers are considered astrophysicists. 

== Young Earth Creationism View ==
[[Young earth creationism|Young earth creationist]] hold the [[earth]] and universe is approximately 6,000 years old. Young earth creationist scientists state the following is true: there are multiple lines of evidence pointing to a young earth and universe; the old earth and universe [[paradigm]] has numerous [[anomaly|anomalies]] and uses invalid dating methods, and there are multiple citations in the secular science literature that corroborate the implausibilty of the old earth and universe paradigm (for details see: [[Young earth creationism]]).

==Starlight As An Objection To The Big Bang Theory==
The [[starlight problem]] is an argument against the [[Big Bang theory|big bang theory]] which theorizes a universe of billions of years old. <ref>http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v25/i4/lighttravel.asp</ref> The [[creation science]] organization [[Answers in Genesis]] has stated the following regarding the starlight problem for the Big Bang Theory and the work of [[Charles W. Misner]] is cited who published his work in ''[[Physical Review Letters]]'':
{{cquote|The problem is this: even assuming the big bang timescale, there has not been enough time for light to travel between widely separated regions of space. So, how can the different regions of the current [cosmic microwave background] CMB have such precisely uniform temperatures if they have never communicated with each other? This is a light-travel–time problem.<ref>http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v25/i4/lighttravel.asp</ref>}}

== Starlight As An Objection to Young Earth Creationism ==
Those who propose an old universe assert there is a [[starlight problem]] for the [[young earth creationism|young universe]] model. Two key assumptions for the objection to a young universe model is that the speed of light has been constant and [[methodological naturalism]].

==References==

<references/>

==External Links==
[http://www.nasa.gov The NASA Homepage] 
[http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov The NASA Planetary Photojournal] 
[http://www.aas.org American Astronomical Society] 
[http://www.britastro.org/baa/ British Astronomical Association] 
[http://www.badastronomy.com Bad Astronomy] a website that deals with myths and misconceptions in astronomy. 
[http://www.john-duck.co.uk/html/astronomy.html A guide on how to start] 

[[Category:Science]]

Skepdic

2008-03-14T15:28:10Z

Iamkay:

Skepdic is The Skeptik's [[encyclopedia]]. It is a collection of "cross-referenced" skeptical essays by Robert Todd Carroll, published on his website skepdic.com and in a printed book. The skepdic.com site was launched in 1994 and the book was published in 2003 with nearly 400 entries. The website has continued to grow after the publication of the book and contains more than 500 entries

== Robert Todd Carroll ==
Robert Todd Carrroll the author of Skepdic considers himself a militant atheist and hardened skeptic. He is in fact what we can call an atheist fanatic.

== Contents ==
The catagories in skepdic are [http://www.skepdic.com/tialtmed.html alternative medicine], [http://www.skepdic.com/ticrypto.html cryptozoology], [http://www.skepdic.com/tialien.html ETs and UFOs], [http://www.skepdic.com/tifraud.html frauds and hoaxes], [http://www.skepdic.com/tijunk.html junk science], [http://www.skepdic.com/tilogic.html logic and perception], [http://www.skepdic.com/tinewage.html new age], [http://www.skepdic.com/tipara.html paranormal], [http://www.skepdic.com/tiscience.html science and philosophy] and [http://www.skepdic.com/tisuper.html supernatuarel]. The encyclopedia also conatins articles attacking the fundamentals of Christianity like [http://skepdic.com/noahsark.html Noah's Ark].

== External Links ==
*[http://www.skepdic.com Skepdic The Skeptic's Encyclopedia]
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Skeptic%27s_Dictionary Skepdic Wikipedia]
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Todd_Carroll Robert Todd Carroll]

Skepdic

2008-03-14T15:27:27Z

Iamkay: New page: Skepdic is The Skeptik's encyclopedia. <ref>It is a collection of "cross-referenced" skeptical essays by Robert Todd Carroll, published on his website skepdic.com and in a printed book...

Skepdic is The Skeptik's [[encyclopedia]]. <ref>It is a collection of "cross-referenced" skeptical essays by Robert Todd Carroll, published on his website skepdic.com and in a printed book. The skepdic.com site was launched in 1994 and the book was published in 2003 with nearly 400 entries. The website has continued to grow after the publication of the book and contains more than 500 entries.<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Skeptic%27s_Dictionary Skepdic/ref>

== Robert Todd Carroll ==
Robert Todd Carrroll the author of Skepdic considers himself a militant atheist and hardened skeptic. He is in fact what we can call an atheist fanatic.

== Contents ==
The catagories in skepdic are [http://www.skepdic.com/tialtmed.html alternative medicine], [http://www.skepdic.com/ticrypto.html cryptozoology], [http://www.skepdic.com/tialien.html ETs and UFOs], [http://www.skepdic.com/tifraud.html frauds and hoaxes], [http://www.skepdic.com/tijunk.html junk science], [http://www.skepdic.com/tilogic.html logic and perception], [http://www.skepdic.com/tinewage.html new age], [http://www.skepdic.com/tipara.html paranormal], [http://www.skepdic.com/tiscience.html science and philosophy] and [http://www.skepdic.com/tisuper.html supernatuarel]. The encyclopedia also conatins articles attacking the fundamentals of Christianity like [http://skepdic.com/noahsark.html Noah's Ark].

== External Links ==
*[http://www.skepdic.com Skepdic The Skeptic's Encyclopedia]
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Skeptic%27s_Dictionary Skepdic Wikipedia]
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Todd_Carroll Robert Todd Carroll]

Charles Darwin

2008-03-14T14:56:31Z

Iamkay: /* Darwin's Racism */

[[Image:darwin.jpg|thumb|150px|right|Charles Darwin]]
'''Charles Robert Darwin''' (12 February 1809 - 19 April 1883) was a famous naturalist born in England. He is best known for the [[Theory of Evolution]] by Natural Selection. The concept is that organisms are modified over vast amounts of time by naturally occurring processes, originating from common ancestors that lived tens of millions of years ago. Outside the area of evolutionary theory in particular, Charles Darwin was regarded as an expert on barnacles, as well as being credited with discovering how coral [[atoll]]s were formed.
==General Biography==
Charles Darwin was born in [[Shrewsbury]], [[England]] in 1809 to his parents Dr. Robert Darwin and Susannah Wedgewood. Darwin's mother was a religious woman but his father was, for the most part, a weak deist. Despite his lack of theistic religious belief, the Darwin's father allowed Charles to be baptized into the Anglican Church and encouraged him to become a clergyman. Darwin's mother died in 1817. In 1825 Charles Darwin went on to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh. There, he became horrified with the brutality of surgery before anesthesia was invented and quit his medical studies.

In 1831 Charles Darwin graduated from Christ's College at Cambridge with a BA degree in the classics and theology. On December 27 of the same year Charles Darwin departed on the ''HMS Beagle'' for a five year voyage of exploration. The ''Beagle'' returned to English shores on October 2 1836. In 1837, Charles Darwin drew his now famous depiction of [[common ancestry]] in the form of a branching tree.<ref>Charles Darwin, Transmutation Notebook B 1837:36</ref> The following year he discovered the concept of ''[[natural selection]].'' Darwin insists that naturally occurring phenomena and factors working together in blind tandem have produced nature and eventually mankind.

However, Charles Darwin originally based the idea of human evolution on a racist assumption<ref>Milton, Richard ''Shattering the Myths of Darwinism'' 1997:186,287 says "Darwin [was] openly racist"</ref>, [after God was rejected as Creator], made in the late 1830s<ref>Barlow, Nora (editor) ''The Autobiography of Charles Darwin'' 1958:130</ref>, that Fuegians (natives of Tierra del Fuego) resembled primates that he had observed in the London zoo.<ref>Larson, Edward J. ''Evolution: The Remarkable History Of A Scientific Theory'' 2004:66,67</ref> In 1842 he wrote out a ''sketch'' of his theory but did not publish it. Again, in 1844 Charles Darwin produced what is known today as an ''essay'' of the same theory more developed but he still chose not to publish.

Finally, in 1859, Charles Darwin publishes his famous theory about how life may have been produced without any aid from a Divine Creator, he titles his book: ''On [[The Origin Of Species By Means Of Natural Selection]] Or The Preservation Of Favoured Races In The Struggle For Life.'' In 1871, well after his theory enjoyed widespread success, Charles Darwin published his ideas on human evolution in a two volume book titled ''[[Descent of Man]].''

==Religious Views==
[[Image:CharlesDarwin.jpg|thumb|150px|left|Charles Darwin in 1880 at the age of 71.]]
Charles Darwin likely abandoned Christianity as a student when he disappointed his father by refusing to become a minister. In his autobiography Darwin wrote about the diminishment of his religious faith and Darwin also stated he was an [[agnostic]].<ref>http://www.update.uu.se/~fbendz/library/cd_relig.htm</ref> Darwin wrote the following: "The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble to us; and I for one must be content to remain an Agnostic."<ref>http://www.update.uu.se/~fbendz/library/cd_relig.htm</ref> However, in the 1996 ''British Journal for the Philosophy of Science'' Kim Sterelny wrote in a book review the following: "I have no doubt that Darwin was a [[Materialism|materialist]] and a mechanist..."<ref>http://www.jstor.org/view/00070882/ap020188/02a00130/1?frame=noframe&userID=80cdbf39@buffalo.edu/01cce4405c00501c2c38a&dpi=3&config=jstor British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Volume 47, 1996, page 641</ref> [[Creation Ministries International]] provides some illumination regarding why it is maintained that Charles Darwin was privately a materialist:
{{cquote|[[Ernst Mayr]]’s recent book on Darwin, One Long Argument: Charles Darwin and the Genesis of Evolutionary Thought, Harvard, 1991, also acknowledges that Darwin’s references to purpose were to appease both the public and his wife. His early, private notebooks show his materialism well established. For instance, in one of them he addresses himself as, ‘O, you materialist!’ and says, ‘Why is thought, being a secretion of [[brain]], more wonderful than [[gravity]] as a property of matter?’ He clearly already believed that the idea of a separate realm of the spirit was nonsense, as is further shown when he warns himself not to reveal his beliefs, as follows:

‘to avoid saying how far I believe in materialism, say only that emotions, instincts, degrees of talent which are hereditary are so because brain of child resembles parent stock.’<ref>http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/1877</ref>}}

Scholars refer to the private notebook in which Charles Darwin stated he was a materialist as the "M" notebook of 1838.<ref>Barrett, Paul H. ''Darwin on Man'' 1974:276</ref> [[Ernst Mayr]] wrote that "It is apparent that Darwin lost his faith in the years 1836-39, much of it clearly prior to the reading of [[Robert Malthus|Malthus]]. In order not to hurt the feelings of his friends and of his wife, Darwin often used deistic language in his publications, but much in his Notebooks indicates that by this time he had become a 'materialist' (more or less = atheist)". <ref>''American Scientist'' May 1977:323</ref>

According to Charles Darwin the "manifestly false history of the world" <ref>ibid. Barlow 1958:85.</ref> as recorded in the Old Testament and New Testament miracles led him to reject Biblical veracity <ref>ibid. Barlow 1958:85-87.</ref>. Eminent Darwin biographer, Professor Janet Browne, sums up Darwin's views concerning religion: Darwin "mapped out a comparative evolution of the religious sense, proposing that religious belief was ultimately nothing more than a primitive urge to bestow a cause on otherwise inexplicable natural events...In short, he made no secret of his view that he did not believe religion to have any rational foundation at all" <ref>Browne, Janet ''Charles Darwin The Power of Place'' 2002:341</ref>. When he died in 1882 at the age of seventy-three, Darwin was buried at Westminster Abbey next to Sir [[Isaac Newton]].

However, the [[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] states the following regarding Charles Darwin:
{{cquote|In 1885, the Duke of Argyll recounted a conversation he had had with Charles Darwin the year before Darwin's death:

In the course of that conversation I said to Mr. Darwin, with reference to some of his own remarkable works on the Fertilisation of [[Orchid]]s, and upon The [[Earthworm]]s, and various other observations he made of the wonderful contrivances for certain purposes in nature—I said it was impossible to look at these without seeing that they were the effect and the expression of Mind. I shall never forget Mr. Darwin's answer. He looked at me very hard and said, “Well, that often comes over me with overwhelming force; but at other times,” and he shook his head vaguely, adding, “it seems to go away.”(Argyll 1885, 244] <ref>http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/teleological-arguments/notes.html</ref>}}

There exists in hostile Darwin literature a story about a Christian called Lady Hope who visited and spoke with a dying Charles Darwin. This appears to be merely a legend, and there is no evidence that Lady Hope ever converted or even visited Darwin on his deathbed. <ref>http://www.carm.org/evo_questions/deathbed.htm</ref>

== Darwin's Sickness and Controversy Regarding His Sickness ==

For more on this topic see: [[Darwin's Sickness]]

For most of his adult life Charles Darwin suffered from very poor health.<ref>http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v17/i4/darwins_illness.asp</ref> The 1992 ''New Encyclopaedia Britannica '' stated that Darwin's illness was [[psychogenic]] in origin (A psychogenic illness is one that originates in the mind or in mental condition). <ref>http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v17/i4/darwins_illness.asp</ref> A 1997 article in the [[Journal of the American Medical Association]] entitled "Charles Darwin and Panic Disorder" states that the "variable intensity of symptoms and chronic, prolonged course without physical deterioration also indicate that his illness was [[Psychiatry|psychiatric]]." <ref>''Charles Darwin and Panic Disorder''" by Thomas J. Barloon, MD and Russel Noyes, Jr., January 8, 1997 [[Journal of the American Medical Association]]</ref> In regards to illness associated with evolutionary ideas a journal article in the [[American Journal of Medicine]] states that Darwin suffered from "[[psychoneurosis]] provoked and exaggerated by his [[theory of evolution|evolutionary]] ideas".<ref>"The Illness of Charles Darwin", William B. Bean, September 1978, American Journal of Medicine</ref> The American Journal of Medicine article also stated that his Darwin's wife, Emma, greatly disapproved of his evolutionist ideas and "This, facsimile of public reaction, must have kept lively his anxiety and torment". <ref>"The Illness of Charles Darwin", William B. Bean, September 1978, American Journal of Medicine</ref> According to the abstract for a 1997 journal article in the [[Notes and Records of the Royal Society]] the psychogenic hypothesis for the origin of Darwin's illness "holds the field" but the article questions the validity of this diagnoses and mentions the work of [[Ralph Colp Jr.]] MD, a physician and psychiatrist (For details see: [[Darwin's Sickness]]). <ref>http://www.journals.royalsoc.ac.uk/content/c5la8dhfh8v7tbx8/</ref><ref>http://www.pathlights.com/ce_encyclopedia/Encyclopedia/20hist06.htm</ref>

Given Darwin's likely psychogenic or [[psychobiological]] illness various [[Creationism|creationists]] have stated that Darwin's illness was the result of guilt and/or fear. <ref>http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v17/i4/darwins_illness.asp</ref><ref>http://www.pathlights.com/ce_encyclopedia/Encyclopedia/20hist06.htm</ref>

== Darwin's Reaction to Criticism of His Work ==
Charles Darwin closely followed the general public's reaction to his evolutionary ideas. In 2002, [[Richard Milner]] wrote an article entitled ''Putting Darwin in his Place'' and stated that Darwin ''"clipped, catalogued and indexed hundreds of offprints, about 350 reviews and 1,600 articles, as well as satires, parodies and Punch caricatures, with which he filled hefty scrapbooks..."''<ref>http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000B62D6-7E63-1D7E-90FB809EC5880000#</ref> Criticisms of his work troubled Darwin. Milner wrote that after [[Charles Lyell]] published a weak endorsement of Darwin's work in Lyell's Antiquity of Man, "''Darwin's disappointment brought on 10 days of vomiting, faintness and stomach distress''". <ref>http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000B62D6-7E63-1D7E-90FB809EC5880000#</ref> In addition, Milner states when anatomist St. [[George Mivart]] made a negative review of Darwin's work The Descent of Man, it "triggered two months of "giddiness" and inability to work..." ''<ref>http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000B62D6-7E63-1D7E-90FB809EC5880000#</ref>
== Family Life ==
Author Peter Brent wrote of Darwin's relationship with his wife Emma and stated that "Their ties to each other were linked to childhood and the very beginnings of memory. They had a common history, a joint tradition. It is hard to think their relationship a passionate one, but it was happy, and the happiness had deep roots."<ref>Peter Brent, "Darwin: A Man of Enlarged Curiosity", page 316</ref> Charles Darwin displayed a dependency on his wife that was childlike. Darwin wrote a letter to his wife in 1848 that said, "My dearest old Mammy ... Without you, when sick I feel most desolate .. Oh Mammy I do long to be with you and under your protection for then I feel safe."<ref>http://www.bradburyac.mistral.co.uk/dar9.html</ref> Peter Brent states that it is hard to imagine that the letter was from thirty-nine year old man writing to his wife rather than a young child writing to its mother.<ref>http://www.bradburyac.mistral.co.uk/dar9.html</ref> In their article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, entitled Charles Darwin and Panic stated that Darwin felt "nervousness when Emma leaves me".<ref>''Charles Darwin and Panic Disorder''" by Thomas J. Barloon, MD and Russel Noyes, Jr., January 8, 1997 Journal of the American Medical Association</ref> Darwin had ten children with his wife Emma. <ref>http://darwin-online.org.uk/EditorialIntroductions/Browne_EmmaDiaries.html</ref>

==Darwin's Racism==
Charles Darwin wrote in his work ''[[The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex]]'' the following:
{{cquote|At some future period not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilised races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace the savage races throughout the world. At the same time the anthropomorphous apes...will no doubt be exterminated. The break between man and his nearest Allies will then be wider, for it will intervene between man in a more civilised state, as we may hope, even than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as the baboon, instead of as now between the Negro or Australian and the gorilla.<ref>http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/quotes/mine/part4.html</ref>}}

==Darwin's Belief in Male Superiority==
In Darwin's work ''[[The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex]]'' he wrote the following:
{{cquote|... a higher eminence, in whatever he takes up, than can women—whether requiring deep thought, reason, or imagination, or merely the use of the senses and hands. If two lists were made of the most eminent men and women in poetry, painting, sculpture, music (inclusive of both composition and performance), history, science, and philosophy, with half-a-dozen names under each subject, the two lists would not bear comparison. We may also infer, from the law of the deviation from averages, so well illustrated by Mr. Galton, in his work on “Hereditary Genius” that ... the average of mental power in man must be above that of women.<ref>http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2007/08/24/feedback-female-inferiority</ref>}}

==Darwin and the Cult of Personality==
There is a cult of personality and type of religiousity currently surrounding Charles Darwin. [[Stephen Jay Gould]] wrote the following in 1978: ""... all theories [of natural selection] cite God in their support, and ... Darwin comes close to this status among evolutionary biologists ...".<ref>http://www.bradburyac.mistral.co.uk/dar1.html</ref> In 2002, Michael White similarly wrote: "Of course today, for biologists, Darwin is second only to God, and for many he may rank still higher."<ref>http://www.bradburyac.mistral.co.uk/dar1.html</ref>

==References==
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[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Evolution]]