Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

Jeff Sessions

2017-07-27T04:37:35Z

JamesMT: added content about broad support

{{Officeholder
|name=Jeff Sessions
|image=Jeff Sessions official portrait.jpg
|party=[[Republican]]
|spouse=Mary Blackshear Sessions
|religion=[[Methodist]]
|offices=
{{Officeholder/attorneygeneral
|jurisdiction=the United States
|number=84th
|president=[[Donald Trump]]
|terms=February 9, 2017 –
|preceded=[[Loretta Lynch]]
|former=n
|succeeded=
}}
{{Officeholder/senator
|state=Alabama
|terms=January 7, 1997 – February 8, 2017
|preceded=Howell T. Heflin
|succeeded=[[Luther Strange]]
}}
}}
'''Jefferson Beauregard "Jeff" Sessions III''' (born December 24, 1946) is the 84th [[United States Attorney General]], serving under Republican President [[Donald Trump]]. Previously, he served under a variety of government positions, most notably as the junior United States Senator from [[Alabama]] from 1997 to 2017.

Sessions is a strongly [[conservative]] member of the [[Republican Party]]. As a United States senator, Sessions focused his energies on opposing [[illegal immigration]], protecting American workers against harmful "[[free trade]]" agreements, maintaining a strong military, upholding the [[rule of law]], [[Limited government|limiting the role of government]], and providing tax relief to stimulate economic growth and empower Americans to keep more of their hard-earned money. As Attorney General, he advanced conservative law enforcement policies (see "United States Attorney General" section below).

==Early life and career==
Sessions was born on December 24, 1946,<ref name="CongBioGuide">[http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=s001141 SESSIONS, Jefferson Beauregard, III (Jeff)]. ''Biographical Directory of the United States Congress''. Retrieved July 25, 2017.</ref> in Selma, Alabama, and was raised in Hybart, Alabama.<ref name="WhatToKnow">[http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/07/25/attorney-general-jeff-sessions-what-to-know.html Attorney General Jeff Sessions: What to know]. ''Fox News''. July 25, 2017. Retrieved July 25, 2017.</ref> He graduated from Huntingdon College in Montgomery in 1969 and received a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Alabama in 1973.<ref name="CongBioGuide"/><ref name="WhatToKnow"/> In the same year, 1973, Sessions was admitted to the Alabama Bar, and he practiced law in Russellville from 1973 to 1975.<ref name="CongBioGuide"/> He also served in the U.S. Army Reserves from 1973 to 1986 and reached the rank of Captain.<ref name="CongBioGuide"/><ref name="WhatToKnow"/>

==Political career==
[[File:Sessions.jpg|thumb|200px|Sessions as US Senator]]
===Early political career===
Sessions served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama from 1975 to 1977.<ref name="WhatToKnow"/> In 1981, President [[Ronald Reagan]] nominated him and the U.S. Senate confirmed him to serve as the United States Attorney for Alabama's Southern District, a position he held until 1993.<ref name="CongBioGuide"/><ref name="WhatToKnow"/> In 1986, Sessions was nominated for a federal judgeship by Reagan. However, the nomination was killed by Senate [[Democrat]]s.<ref name="WhatToKnow"/> Sessions was elected Alabama Attorney General in 1994 and served until 1996.<ref name="CongBioGuide"/>

===U.S. Senate===
In 1996, Sessions won the Republican primary for U.S. Senate, after a runoff, and then defeated Democrat Roger Bedford, 52%–46% in the November general election. Sessions served in the Senate from 1997 until 2017.<ref name="CongBioGuide"/><ref name="WhatToKnow"/> He served as the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He was known for his role in defeating the "Gang of Eight" illegal immigrant amnesty bill in 2013. In his last election, in 2014, Sessions was unopposed in both the primary and general elections.<ref>Stinson, Jim (July 25, 2014). [http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2014/07/jeff_sessions_makes_history_by.html Jeff Sessions makes history by being unopposed for U.S. Senate, and re-election campaign is in no hurry]. ''AL.com''. Retrieved July 25, 2017.</ref><ref>[http://sos.alabama.gov/sites/default/files/voter-pdfs/2014/2014GeneralResults-WithWriteIn.pdf State of Alabama – Canvass of Results General Election, November 4, 2014]. ''Secretary of State of Alabama''. Retrieved July 25, 2017.</ref>

===Support for Donald Trump===
Sessions became the first sitting U.S. Senator to endorse [[Donald Trump]] for U.S. President.<ref name="WhatToKnow"/><ref>Ferris, Sarah (February 28, 2016). [http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/271109-gop-senator-expected-to-endorse-trump Trump gets first Senate endorsement]. ''The Hill''. Retrieved July 25, 2017.</ref> He strongly supported Trump due to their policy agreements.<ref>Boyle, Matthew (July 25, 2017). [http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/07/25/jeff-sessions-a-man-who-embodies-the-movement-that-elected-donald-trump-president/ Jeff Sessions: A Man Who Embodies the Movement That Elected Donald Trump President]. ''Breitbart News''. Retrieved July 25, 2017.</ref> It was reported that [[Steve Bannon]] convinced Sessions to endorse Trump, and he knew he was making a big risk in doing so.<ref>Smith, Allan (July 26, 2017). [http://www.businessinsider.com/sessions-trump-endorsement-bannon-2017-7 Bannon convinced Jeff Sessions to endorse Trump, and Sessions worried his career in the Republican Party might end because of it]. ''Business Insider''. Retrieved July 26, 2017.</ref>

===United States Attorney General===
After winning the 2016 election, President Trump nominated, and the U.S. Senate subsequently confirmed, Sessions as [[United States Attorney General]]. As Attorney General, Sessions enacted conservative policies and reformed the Justice Department from what it had been under [[Eric Holder]] and [[Loretta Lynch]]. He stayed strong, even when President Trump himself publically attacked him and he has broad support.<ref>Shaw, Adam (July 26, 2017). [http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/07/26/jeff-sessions-stands-firm-gains-broad-support-as-trump-ramps-up-attacks/ Jeff Sessions Stands Firm, Gains Broad Support as Trump Ramps Up Attacks]. ''Breitbart News''. Retrieved July 26, 2017.</ref>

For more information on Sessions's tenure at the DOJ, see:
*[[Donald Trump achievements: Criminal justice, law enforcement, and other DOJ matters]]
*[[Donald Trump achievements: Immigration, illegal immigration, and border security]]

==Political views==
Sessions was ranked by the [[National Journal]] as the fifth-most conservative United States Senator in their March 2007 conservative/liberal rankings. He backs conservative Republican stances on foreign affairs, taxes, and social policy. In 2006 he was a vocal critic of the [[John McCain]]-[[Ted Kennedy]] [[Immigration]] reform bill. Sessions voted against the $700 billion Wall Street bailout and against the $787 [[American Recovery and Reinvestment Act]].
Jeff Sessions is also an opponent of the [[mainstream media]] attacks on arbitration. His arbitration bills, introduced in Congress in 2000, 2002, 2007, and 2011, would ensure due process safeguards in arbitration. This sensible, conservative, approach to arbitration contrasts against the liberal Arbitration Fairness Act, which would prohibit the enforcement of predispute arbitration agreements in broad areas of commerce.

==Other==
===False Accusations of "racism"===
[[Liberal]]s have accused Sessions of somehow being a "racist" throughout his career. Seasons has been criticized for reportedly calling the [[NAACP]] and [[ACLU]] "un-American" and saying the [[Ku Klux Klan|KKK]] was good "until they smoked marijuana". But the truth is that Jeff Sessions has fought for civil rights during his career as Attorney general and later senator of Alabama. Sessions pushed to desegregate public schools in Birmingham and prosecuted and then gave the death penalty to a KKK member who slit the throat of a black man.[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7xHffHoGvH8]

===Speeches===
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBqrWL3h9-g&feature=youtu.be "Omnibus explains why ‘Voters are in open rebellion’"]<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBqrWL3h9-g&feature=youtu.be "Sessions: Omnibus Explains Why ‘Voters Are In Open Rebellion’"] (December 16, 2015). YouTube video, 9:11, posted by SenatorSessions.</ref> (December 16, 2015). Nine-minute condensation of speech before U.S. Senate on the December 2015 2,000 page 'omnibus' year-end funding bill. Received 225,000 views on YouTube as of March 2016.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ83CvMKYUQ "Senator Jeff Sessions endorses Donald Trump at Madison, Alabama rally"]<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ83CvMKYUQ "Donald Trump Endorsed by Senator Jeff Sessions in Madison, AL (2-28-16)"] (February 28, 2016). YouTube video, 5:11, posted by Right Side Broadcasting.</ref> (February 28, 2016). Five-minute speech endorsing 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Received 89,000 views on YouTube as of March 2016.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=s001141 Profile] at the ''Biographical Directory of the United States Congress''
*[http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/s001141/ Voting Record]
*[http://www.ontheissues.org/Senate/Jeff_Sessions.htm Sessions On the Issues]
*[http://www.opencongress.org/people/show/300088_jefferson_sessions OpenCongress]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sessions III, Jeff}}
[[Category:Former United States Senators]]
[[Category:Republicans]]
[[Category:Conservatives]]
[[Category:The 100 Americans The Left Hates Most]]
[[Category:Alabama]]
[[Category:Trump Cabinet]]
[[Category:Patriots]]

Marijuana

2016-03-19T04:34:20Z

JamesMT: /* Interesting Facts */ punctuation

[[Image:Marijuana.jpg|thumb|250px|right|Indoor Marijuana Grow (DEA photo)]]
'''Marijuana''' (colloquially known as '''"weed"''' or '''"pot"''') is the name given to the flowering buds of the cannabis sativa plant prepared for human consumption. The main active ingredient in marijuana is [[Tetrahydrocannabinol|THC]], or delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, an [[organic chemistry|organic chemical]] compound. Marijuana is harmful and generally illegal to possess, cultivate and sell in most countries, although it is legal in a few liberal jurisdictions if prescribed as medication by a physician.<ref>The sale of marijuana is illegal virtually everywhere in the world, and results in long prison sentences in many places. In Portugal, Argentina, California and South Australia, the use (rather than the sale) of small quantities of marijuana is allowed. In only one country in the world, the Netherlands, the sale of marijuana in small quantities is reportedly allowed by law enforcement.</ref> The crime rate in Denver has skyrocketed by 44% since marijuana was legalized in that state.

In the past two decades, the number of brain tumors has increased by up to 40% in the U.S. and Europe, particularly among men between ages of 20 and 40<ref>http://www.healthandenvironment.org/brain_cancer/peer_reviewed</ref> - the same demographic that is most likely to have smoked pot.

The [[liberal media]] typically downplay or completely ignore the role of marijuana in [[Young mass murderers|mass killings]], horrific accidents, and other types of harm to innocent people victimized by users of the drug. For example, authorities conceal from the public how much marijuana was in the system of "College Weed Dealer" [[Young Mass Murderers|Dzhokhar Tsarnaev]] when he went on his alleged killing rampage.<ref>http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/04/dzhokhar-tsarnaev-dealing-drugs/64529/</ref> ''Rolling Stone'' magazine, which has often featured drug abusers, displayed Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on its cover in July 2013.

The effects of marijuana can include short-term memory loss, malaise, psychosis in predisposed individuals, violence and violent fits, as well as impairment of physical and mental functioning. Some research has found that cannabis has medicinal benefits (see [[Medical marijuana]]); however many scientists contest this, and state that there are numerous federally approved medicines for the diseases that medicinal marijuana can be used to treat.

==Medicinal Harms==
Marijuana contains many of the same carcinogens as tobacco, thus when smoked it has the same harmful effects including potential damage to DNA, [[cancer]], respiratory diseases associated with smoke inhalation, and impaired immune system.<ref>[http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090615095940.htm Science Daily 6/9/2009]</ref> However, these effects have not been linked directly to alternate methods of marijuana use. Marijuana use can impair short term memory while intoxicated. THC has slight negative affects on long term memory and thus, in chronic users (approximately 1g/24Hrs),<ref>[http://www.askmen.com/sports/health/20_mens_health.html AskMen: Benefits of Marijuana]</ref> complications with long term memory are a risk. If smoked, marijuana leads to a temporary increase in heart rate and blood pressure while intoxicated. For this reason, there is a slight increase in the risk for heart related problems including heart attack during the time of intoxication.<ref>[http://www.askmen.com/sports/health/20_mens_health.html AskMen: Benefits of Marijuana]</ref> Chronic smokers often suffer from mild withdrawal symptoms, however marijuana is not physically addictive.<ref>[http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-teenage-mind/201012/is-marijuana-addictive Psychology Today: Is Marijuana Addictive?]</ref> Marijuana can impair judgment, motor skills, and balance.<ref>[http://www.acde.org/common/Marijana.htm]</ref> Marijuana has also been linked to impaired learning and developmental diability in unborn children.<ref>[http://www.nature.com/npp/journal/v31/n10/full/1301068a.html Neuropsycopharmacology: High-Potency Marijuana Impairs Executive Function and Inhibitory Motor Control]</ref>

==Medicinal Benefits==
Pot-promoters claim that the active ingredient in marijuana, [[Tetrahydrocannabinol|THC]], has been shown (in disputed studies) to produce some short-term psychological and medicinal benefits, which are probably more than offset by the medical harm. For example, Harvard University conducted a study on the effect of Δ-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol on certain lung cancers, concluding that THC might help reduce a lung cancer tumor size by as much as half.<ref>[http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070417193338.htm Science Daily 4/7/2007]</ref> In addition to a significant reduction in tumor size, there was a reduction in lesions on the lungs by 60%, and a reduction in protein markers associated with the progression of cancer.<ref>[http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070417193338.htm Science Daily 4/17/2007]</ref> But even if true, those results are only in cases of very ill people, who have nothing to lose with respect to the long-term harm caused by marijuana.

In addition to the positive effect on cancer treatment symptoms and cancer itself, marijuana is used to try to help patients afflicted with [[amyotrophic lateral sclerosis|ALS]].<ref>[http://ajh.sagepub.com/content/18/4/264.short American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine]</ref>

Marijuana is an [[antispasmodic]] and is used in the treatment of seizures.<ref>[http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=9586&page=106 National Academies Press: Marijuana and muscle spasticity]</ref> Marijuana is also used in the treatment of migraines, arthritis,<ref>[http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/art.1780090304/abstract Online Library: Treatment of adjuvant arthritis in rats with anti-inflammatory drugs]</ref> depression, <ref>[http://www.interestingfacts.org/fact/facts-about-marijuana Interesting Facts: Facts about marijuana]</ref> and glaucoma. However the effect of marijuana on intraocular pressure (IOC) is not as effective as those offered by other drugs on the market <ref>[http://www.nei.nih.gov/news/statements/marij.asp National Eye Institue: Glaucoma and Marijuana use]</ref>.

There have not been many in-depth and widely distributed studies into the possible medicinal effects of marijuana. However, with pressure from [[liberal]] advocates of marijuana, more otherwise accredited institutions are conducting research on the drug.

==Interesting Facts==
*Carl Sagan used recreational marijuana to help "open his mind".<ref>[http://boingboing.net/2009/10/07/carl-sagan-spaced-ou.html Boing Boing: Carl Sagan Spaced Out]</ref>
*Cannabis was first cultivated in China around 4000 B.C.<ref>[http://www.interestingfacts.org/fact/facts-about-marijuana Interesting Facts: Facts about marijuana]</ref>
*U.S. Declaration of Independence was not written on hemp paper, despite popular belief by liberals.<ref>[http://www.usconstitution.net/constfaq_q145.html Constitutional FAQ Answer #145 - U.S. Constitution Online]</ref>
*George Washington grew marijuana.<ref>[http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/thepresidentandcabinet/a/gwtheman.htm The President and the Cabinet: George Washington the Man]</ref>
*Alcohol is over 100 times more lethal than marijuana (ratio of lethal dose to effective dose).<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrahydrocannabinol Wikipedia: Tetrahydrocannabinol]</ref>
*President Obama has admitted to use of marijuana. Former President Clinton has also admitted to smoking marijuana, but claims that he 'did not inhale'. Former President George W Bush privately admitted to smoking marijuana, but stated he wouldn't state it publicly "'Cause I don't want some little kid doing what I tried."

==Legal Status==
Marijuana is a [[Schedule I]] [[Controlled Substance]] in the United States of America, meaning that it is illegal under federal law of the United States, and considered to have no redeemable medical value. According to the FBI, in 2012, there were 658,000 arrests for marijuana possession compared with 256,000 for cocaine, heroin and their derivatives.<ref name=nyt>{{cite news|url=http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/27/opinion/sunday/high-time-marijuana-legalization.html?_r=0|title=Repeal Prohibition, Again|work=New York Times|date=July 26, 2014|accessdate=July 27, 2014}}</ref> In several countries, particularly in [[Western Europe]], it is has been decriminalised. However, in many other countries, particularly those in the Middle East and Asia, possession of even small amounts of cannabis can be punishable by death. In 2012, the states of [[Washington]] and [[Colorado]] adopted voter referenda to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. At the same time, [[Oregon]] voters rejected a similar proposition. Federal officials said that they would contest state laws that would legalize marijuana.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/08/us-usa-marijuana-votes-idUSBRE8A705E20121108|title=Marijuana legalization victories could be short-lived|first=Alex|last=Dobuzinskis|date=Nov 7, 2012|accessdate=November 8, 2012}}</ref>

The [[Netherlands]] decriminalized the use of marijuana in 1976. As a result, marijuana use among the 18-25 age group doubled, however, despite its availability, marijuana use in the Netherlands is lower than the European average. The Netherlands also saw an influx of "drug tourists" and other undesirables, as well as an increase in crime. This has since levelled out, leaving the Netherlands with one of the lowest crime rates in Europe.

Many liberals have advocated for decriminalization.<ref>[http://www.leap.cc Law Enforcement Against Prohibition]</ref><ref>http://www.lp.org/issues/lp-oss.shtml</ref> On July 26, 2014, the ''New York Times'' published an editorial calling for removing federal controls over marijuana for people 21 and older, leaving the question to individual states.<ref name=nyt/>

Many [[American]] [[conservative]]s, especially social conservatives, oppose legalization of marijuana in any form due to its perceived harmful medical and psychological effects and its likelihood of harm to third parties due to drug-related crime and reckless driving. A few libertarian-leaning conservatives, most notably [[Ron Paul]], [[William F. Buckley]], and [[Larry Elder]], have advocated the decriminalization of this drug. Some [[liberal]]s support legalization, but most instead advocate for drug treatment and rehabilitation. [[Libertarian]]s are usually the biggest supporters of marijuana legalization. [[Gary Johnson]], a former Republican and 2012 Libertarian Party Presidential candidate for President, is the highest ranking US politician to advocate for marijuana legalization. He was a two-term Governor of [[New Mexico]].

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Illegal substances]]
[[Category:Illegal Drugs]]

Marijuana

2016-03-19T04:32:47Z

JamesMT: /* Medicinal Benefits */ fixed commas

[[Image:Marijuana.jpg|thumb|250px|right|Indoor Marijuana Grow (DEA photo)]]
'''Marijuana''' (colloquially known as '''"weed"''' or '''"pot"''') is the name given to the flowering buds of the cannabis sativa plant prepared for human consumption. The main active ingredient in marijuana is [[Tetrahydrocannabinol|THC]], or delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, an [[organic chemistry|organic chemical]] compound. Marijuana is harmful and generally illegal to possess, cultivate and sell in most countries, although it is legal in a few liberal jurisdictions if prescribed as medication by a physician.<ref>The sale of marijuana is illegal virtually everywhere in the world, and results in long prison sentences in many places. In Portugal, Argentina, California and South Australia, the use (rather than the sale) of small quantities of marijuana is allowed. In only one country in the world, the Netherlands, the sale of marijuana in small quantities is reportedly allowed by law enforcement.</ref> The crime rate in Denver has skyrocketed by 44% since marijuana was legalized in that state.

In the past two decades, the number of brain tumors has increased by up to 40% in the U.S. and Europe, particularly among men between ages of 20 and 40<ref>http://www.healthandenvironment.org/brain_cancer/peer_reviewed</ref> - the same demographic that is most likely to have smoked pot.

The [[liberal media]] typically downplay or completely ignore the role of marijuana in [[Young mass murderers|mass killings]], horrific accidents, and other types of harm to innocent people victimized by users of the drug. For example, authorities conceal from the public how much marijuana was in the system of "College Weed Dealer" [[Young Mass Murderers|Dzhokhar Tsarnaev]] when he went on his alleged killing rampage.<ref>http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/04/dzhokhar-tsarnaev-dealing-drugs/64529/</ref> ''Rolling Stone'' magazine, which has often featured drug abusers, displayed Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on its cover in July 2013.

The effects of marijuana can include short-term memory loss, malaise, psychosis in predisposed individuals, violence and violent fits, as well as impairment of physical and mental functioning. Some research has found that cannabis has medicinal benefits (see [[Medical marijuana]]); however many scientists contest this, and state that there are numerous federally approved medicines for the diseases that medicinal marijuana can be used to treat.

==Medicinal Harms==
Marijuana contains many of the same carcinogens as tobacco, thus when smoked it has the same harmful effects including potential damage to DNA, [[cancer]], respiratory diseases associated with smoke inhalation, and impaired immune system.<ref>[http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090615095940.htm Science Daily 6/9/2009]</ref> However, these effects have not been linked directly to alternate methods of marijuana use. Marijuana use can impair short term memory while intoxicated. THC has slight negative affects on long term memory and thus, in chronic users (approximately 1g/24Hrs),<ref>[http://www.askmen.com/sports/health/20_mens_health.html AskMen: Benefits of Marijuana]</ref> complications with long term memory are a risk. If smoked, marijuana leads to a temporary increase in heart rate and blood pressure while intoxicated. For this reason, there is a slight increase in the risk for heart related problems including heart attack during the time of intoxication.<ref>[http://www.askmen.com/sports/health/20_mens_health.html AskMen: Benefits of Marijuana]</ref> Chronic smokers often suffer from mild withdrawal symptoms, however marijuana is not physically addictive.<ref>[http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-teenage-mind/201012/is-marijuana-addictive Psychology Today: Is Marijuana Addictive?]</ref> Marijuana can impair judgment, motor skills, and balance.<ref>[http://www.acde.org/common/Marijana.htm]</ref> Marijuana has also been linked to impaired learning and developmental diability in unborn children.<ref>[http://www.nature.com/npp/journal/v31/n10/full/1301068a.html Neuropsycopharmacology: High-Potency Marijuana Impairs Executive Function and Inhibitory Motor Control]</ref>

==Medicinal Benefits==
Pot-promoters claim that the active ingredient in marijuana, [[Tetrahydrocannabinol|THC]], has been shown (in disputed studies) to produce some short-term psychological and medicinal benefits, which are probably more than offset by the medical harm. For example, Harvard University conducted a study on the effect of Δ-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol on certain lung cancers, concluding that THC might help reduce a lung cancer tumor size by as much as half.<ref>[http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070417193338.htm Science Daily 4/7/2007]</ref> In addition to a significant reduction in tumor size, there was a reduction in lesions on the lungs by 60%, and a reduction in protein markers associated with the progression of cancer.<ref>[http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070417193338.htm Science Daily 4/17/2007]</ref> But even if true, those results are only in cases of very ill people, who have nothing to lose with respect to the long-term harm caused by marijuana.

In addition to the positive effect on cancer treatment symptoms and cancer itself, marijuana is used to try to help patients afflicted with [[amyotrophic lateral sclerosis|ALS]].<ref>[http://ajh.sagepub.com/content/18/4/264.short American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine]</ref>

Marijuana is an [[antispasmodic]] and is used in the treatment of seizures.<ref>[http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=9586&page=106 National Academies Press: Marijuana and muscle spasticity]</ref> Marijuana is also used in the treatment of migraines, arthritis,<ref>[http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/art.1780090304/abstract Online Library: Treatment of adjuvant arthritis in rats with anti-inflammatory drugs]</ref> depression, <ref>[http://www.interestingfacts.org/fact/facts-about-marijuana Interesting Facts: Facts about marijuana]</ref> and glaucoma. However the effect of marijuana on intraocular pressure (IOC) is not as effective as those offered by other drugs on the market <ref>[http://www.nei.nih.gov/news/statements/marij.asp National Eye Institue: Glaucoma and Marijuana use]</ref>.

There have not been many in-depth and widely distributed studies into the possible medicinal effects of marijuana. However, with pressure from [[liberal]] advocates of marijuana, more otherwise accredited institutions are conducting research on the drug.

==Interesting Facts==
*Carl Sagan used recreational marijuana to help "open his mind".<ref>[http://boingboing.net/2009/10/07/carl-sagan-spaced-ou.html Boing Boing: Carl Sagan Spaced Out]</ref>
*Cannabis was first cultivated in China around 4000 B.C.<ref>[http://www.interestingfacts.org/fact/facts-about-marijuana Interesting Facts: Facts about marijuana]</ref>
*U.S. Declaration of Independence was not written on hemp paper, despite popular belief by liberals.<ref>[http://www.usconstitution.net/constfaq_q145.html Constitutional FAQ Answer #145 - U.S. Constitution Online]</ref>
*George Washington grew marijuana. <ref>[http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/thepresidentandcabinet/a/gwtheman.htm The President and the Cabinet: George Washington the Man]</ref>
*Alcohol is over 100 times more lethal than marijuana (ratio of lethal dose to effective dose)<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrahydrocannabinol Wikipedia: Tetrahydrocannabinol]</ref>.
*President Obama has admitted to use of marijuana. Former President Clinton has also admitted to smoking marijuana, but claims that he 'did not inhale'. Former President George W Bush privately admitted to smoking marijuana, but stated he wouldn't state it publicly "'Cause I don't want some little kid doing what I tried."

==Legal Status==
Marijuana is a [[Schedule I]] [[Controlled Substance]] in the United States of America, meaning that it is illegal under federal law of the United States, and considered to have no redeemable medical value. According to the FBI, in 2012, there were 658,000 arrests for marijuana possession compared with 256,000 for cocaine, heroin and their derivatives.<ref name=nyt>{{cite news|url=http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/27/opinion/sunday/high-time-marijuana-legalization.html?_r=0|title=Repeal Prohibition, Again|work=New York Times|date=July 26, 2014|accessdate=July 27, 2014}}</ref> In several countries, particularly in [[Western Europe]], it is has been decriminalised. However, in many other countries, particularly those in the Middle East and Asia, possession of even small amounts of cannabis can be punishable by death. In 2012, the states of [[Washington]] and [[Colorado]] adopted voter referenda to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. At the same time, [[Oregon]] voters rejected a similar proposition. Federal officials said that they would contest state laws that would legalize marijuana.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/08/us-usa-marijuana-votes-idUSBRE8A705E20121108|title=Marijuana legalization victories could be short-lived|first=Alex|last=Dobuzinskis|date=Nov 7, 2012|accessdate=November 8, 2012}}</ref>

The [[Netherlands]] decriminalized the use of marijuana in 1976. As a result, marijuana use among the 18-25 age group doubled, however, despite its availability, marijuana use in the Netherlands is lower than the European average. The Netherlands also saw an influx of "drug tourists" and other undesirables, as well as an increase in crime. This has since levelled out, leaving the Netherlands with one of the lowest crime rates in Europe.

Many liberals have advocated for decriminalization.<ref>[http://www.leap.cc Law Enforcement Against Prohibition]</ref><ref>http://www.lp.org/issues/lp-oss.shtml</ref> On July 26, 2014, the ''New York Times'' published an editorial calling for removing federal controls over marijuana for people 21 and older, leaving the question to individual states.<ref name=nyt/>

Many [[American]] [[conservative]]s, especially social conservatives, oppose legalization of marijuana in any form due to its perceived harmful medical and psychological effects and its likelihood of harm to third parties due to drug-related crime and reckless driving. A few libertarian-leaning conservatives, most notably [[Ron Paul]], [[William F. Buckley]], and [[Larry Elder]], have advocated the decriminalization of this drug. Some [[liberal]]s support legalization, but most instead advocate for drug treatment and rehabilitation. [[Libertarian]]s are usually the biggest supporters of marijuana legalization. [[Gary Johnson]], a former Republican and 2012 Libertarian Party Presidential candidate for President, is the highest ranking US politician to advocate for marijuana legalization. He was a two-term Governor of [[New Mexico]].

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Illegal substances]]
[[Category:Illegal Drugs]]

Marijuana

2016-03-19T04:30:12Z

JamesMT: /* Medicinal Harms */ fixed periods

[[Image:Marijuana.jpg|thumb|250px|right|Indoor Marijuana Grow (DEA photo)]]
'''Marijuana''' (colloquially known as '''"weed"''' or '''"pot"''') is the name given to the flowering buds of the cannabis sativa plant prepared for human consumption. The main active ingredient in marijuana is [[Tetrahydrocannabinol|THC]], or delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, an [[organic chemistry|organic chemical]] compound. Marijuana is harmful and generally illegal to possess, cultivate and sell in most countries, although it is legal in a few liberal jurisdictions if prescribed as medication by a physician.<ref>The sale of marijuana is illegal virtually everywhere in the world, and results in long prison sentences in many places. In Portugal, Argentina, California and South Australia, the use (rather than the sale) of small quantities of marijuana is allowed. In only one country in the world, the Netherlands, the sale of marijuana in small quantities is reportedly allowed by law enforcement.</ref> The crime rate in Denver has skyrocketed by 44% since marijuana was legalized in that state.

In the past two decades, the number of brain tumors has increased by up to 40% in the U.S. and Europe, particularly among men between ages of 20 and 40<ref>http://www.healthandenvironment.org/brain_cancer/peer_reviewed</ref> - the same demographic that is most likely to have smoked pot.

The [[liberal media]] typically downplay or completely ignore the role of marijuana in [[Young mass murderers|mass killings]], horrific accidents, and other types of harm to innocent people victimized by users of the drug. For example, authorities conceal from the public how much marijuana was in the system of "College Weed Dealer" [[Young Mass Murderers|Dzhokhar Tsarnaev]] when he went on his alleged killing rampage.<ref>http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/04/dzhokhar-tsarnaev-dealing-drugs/64529/</ref> ''Rolling Stone'' magazine, which has often featured drug abusers, displayed Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on its cover in July 2013.

The effects of marijuana can include short-term memory loss, malaise, psychosis in predisposed individuals, violence and violent fits, as well as impairment of physical and mental functioning. Some research has found that cannabis has medicinal benefits (see [[Medical marijuana]]); however many scientists contest this, and state that there are numerous federally approved medicines for the diseases that medicinal marijuana can be used to treat.

==Medicinal Harms==
Marijuana contains many of the same carcinogens as tobacco, thus when smoked it has the same harmful effects including potential damage to DNA, [[cancer]], respiratory diseases associated with smoke inhalation, and impaired immune system.<ref>[http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090615095940.htm Science Daily 6/9/2009]</ref> However, these effects have not been linked directly to alternate methods of marijuana use. Marijuana use can impair short term memory while intoxicated. THC has slight negative affects on long term memory and thus, in chronic users (approximately 1g/24Hrs),<ref>[http://www.askmen.com/sports/health/20_mens_health.html AskMen: Benefits of Marijuana]</ref> complications with long term memory are a risk. If smoked, marijuana leads to a temporary increase in heart rate and blood pressure while intoxicated. For this reason, there is a slight increase in the risk for heart related problems including heart attack during the time of intoxication.<ref>[http://www.askmen.com/sports/health/20_mens_health.html AskMen: Benefits of Marijuana]</ref> Chronic smokers often suffer from mild withdrawal symptoms, however marijuana is not physically addictive.<ref>[http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-teenage-mind/201012/is-marijuana-addictive Psychology Today: Is Marijuana Addictive?]</ref> Marijuana can impair judgment, motor skills, and balance.<ref>[http://www.acde.org/common/Marijana.htm]</ref> Marijuana has also been linked to impaired learning and developmental diability in unborn children.<ref>[http://www.nature.com/npp/journal/v31/n10/full/1301068a.html Neuropsycopharmacology: High-Potency Marijuana Impairs Executive Function and Inhibitory Motor Control]</ref>

==Medicinal Benefits==
Pot-promoters claim that the active ingredient in marijuana, [[Tetrahydrocannabinol|THC]], has been shown (in disputed studies) to produce some short-term psychological and medicinal benefits, which are probably more than offset by the medical harm. For example, Harvard University conducted a study on the effect of Δ-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol on certain lung cancers, concluding that THC might help reduce a lung cancer tumor size by as much as half.<ref>[http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070417193338.htm Science Daily 4/7/2007]</ref> In addition to a significant reduction in tumor size, there was a reduction in lesions on the lungs by 60%, and a reduction in protein markers associated with the progression of cancer.<ref>[http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070417193338.htm Science Daily 4/17/2007]</ref> But even if true, those results are only in cases of very ill people, who have nothing to lose with respect to the long-term harm caused by marijuana.

In addition to the positive effect on cancer treatment symptoms and cancer itself, marijuana is used to try to help patients afflicted with [[amyotrophic lateral sclerosis|ALS]].<ref>[http://ajh.sagepub.com/content/18/4/264.short American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine]</ref>

Marijuana is an [[antispasmodic]] and is used in the treatment of seizures.<ref>[http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=9586&page=106 National Academies Press: Marijuana and muscle spasticity]</ref> Marijuana is also used in the treatment of migraines, arthritis<ref>[http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/art.1780090304/abstract Online Library: Treatment of adjuvant arthritis in rats with anti-inflammatory drugs]</ref>, depression<ref>[http://www.interestingfacts.org/fact/facts-about-marijuana Interesting Facts: Facts about marijuana]</ref>, and glaucoma. However the effect of marijuana on intraocular pressure (IOC) is not as effective as those offered by other drugs on the market <ref>[http://www.nei.nih.gov/news/statements/marij.asp National Eye Institue: Glaucoma and Marijuana use]</ref>.

There have not been many in-depth and widely distributed studies into the possible medicinal effects of marijuana. However, with pressure from [[liberal]] advocates of marijuana, more otherwise accredited institutions are conducting research on the drug.

==Interesting Facts==
*Carl Sagan used recreational marijuana to help "open his mind".<ref>[http://boingboing.net/2009/10/07/carl-sagan-spaced-ou.html Boing Boing: Carl Sagan Spaced Out]</ref>
*Cannabis was first cultivated in China around 4000 B.C.<ref>[http://www.interestingfacts.org/fact/facts-about-marijuana Interesting Facts: Facts about marijuana]</ref>
*U.S. Declaration of Independence was not written on hemp paper, despite popular belief by liberals.<ref>[http://www.usconstitution.net/constfaq_q145.html Constitutional FAQ Answer #145 - U.S. Constitution Online]</ref>
*George Washington grew marijuana. <ref>[http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/thepresidentandcabinet/a/gwtheman.htm The President and the Cabinet: George Washington the Man]</ref>
*Alcohol is over 100 times more lethal than marijuana (ratio of lethal dose to effective dose)<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrahydrocannabinol Wikipedia: Tetrahydrocannabinol]</ref>.
*President Obama has admitted to use of marijuana. Former President Clinton has also admitted to smoking marijuana, but claims that he 'did not inhale'. Former President George W Bush privately admitted to smoking marijuana, but stated he wouldn't state it publicly "'Cause I don't want some little kid doing what I tried."

==Legal Status==
Marijuana is a [[Schedule I]] [[Controlled Substance]] in the United States of America, meaning that it is illegal under federal law of the United States, and considered to have no redeemable medical value. According to the FBI, in 2012, there were 658,000 arrests for marijuana possession compared with 256,000 for cocaine, heroin and their derivatives.<ref name=nyt>{{cite news|url=http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/27/opinion/sunday/high-time-marijuana-legalization.html?_r=0|title=Repeal Prohibition, Again|work=New York Times|date=July 26, 2014|accessdate=July 27, 2014}}</ref> In several countries, particularly in [[Western Europe]], it is has been decriminalised. However, in many other countries, particularly those in the Middle East and Asia, possession of even small amounts of cannabis can be punishable by death. In 2012, the states of [[Washington]] and [[Colorado]] adopted voter referenda to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. At the same time, [[Oregon]] voters rejected a similar proposition. Federal officials said that they would contest state laws that would legalize marijuana.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/08/us-usa-marijuana-votes-idUSBRE8A705E20121108|title=Marijuana legalization victories could be short-lived|first=Alex|last=Dobuzinskis|date=Nov 7, 2012|accessdate=November 8, 2012}}</ref>

The [[Netherlands]] decriminalized the use of marijuana in 1976. As a result, marijuana use among the 18-25 age group doubled, however, despite its availability, marijuana use in the Netherlands is lower than the European average. The Netherlands also saw an influx of "drug tourists" and other undesirables, as well as an increase in crime. This has since levelled out, leaving the Netherlands with one of the lowest crime rates in Europe.

Many liberals have advocated for decriminalization.<ref>[http://www.leap.cc Law Enforcement Against Prohibition]</ref><ref>http://www.lp.org/issues/lp-oss.shtml</ref> On July 26, 2014, the ''New York Times'' published an editorial calling for removing federal controls over marijuana for people 21 and older, leaving the question to individual states.<ref name=nyt/>

Many [[American]] [[conservative]]s, especially social conservatives, oppose legalization of marijuana in any form due to its perceived harmful medical and psychological effects and its likelihood of harm to third parties due to drug-related crime and reckless driving. A few libertarian-leaning conservatives, most notably [[Ron Paul]], [[William F. Buckley]], and [[Larry Elder]], have advocated the decriminalization of this drug. Some [[liberal]]s support legalization, but most instead advocate for drug treatment and rehabilitation. [[Libertarian]]s are usually the biggest supporters of marijuana legalization. [[Gary Johnson]], a former Republican and 2012 Libertarian Party Presidential candidate for President, is the highest ranking US politician to advocate for marijuana legalization. He was a two-term Governor of [[New Mexico]].

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Illegal substances]]
[[Category:Illegal Drugs]]

Slavery

2015-11-19T00:42:39Z

JamesMT: /* The Decline of Slavery under Christianity */ copy edit

'''Slavery''' is a legal economic system with involuntary servitude, such that the people held in bondage must work for their owner, and can be bought and sold (see [[slave trade]]).

Legally, the slave has limited rights. For example, it was a crime in the American South to kill or maim a slave, except in self-defense.

In the American South, slavery normally was a lifetime condition, and children born to slave mothers automatically became slaves of the owner.

In human history, slavery originated when people were captured in warfare. Secondarily, slavery resulted when some able-bodied people became so poor through debts that some wealthy people claimed them as property at least until they worked off their debts. The [[Year of Jubilee]] was instituted by God for His own nation in order to prevent slavery from becoming a means by which cleverly unscrupulous, or cleverly ignorant, people made a living, such as happened in the American South.

In America the vast majority of slaves were African blacks, and many of these had been bought from African tribal leaders; Indians starved themselves to death rather than live as slaves. From 1500 to 1820, hundreds of thousands of Europeans were captured in war by Muslims and made slaves.

Western Christendom abolished slavery during the 19th century.
The last forms of legal slavery were outlawed in 1970 in the Arabian countries, but hidden slavery still exists today in remote parts of Africa such as the [[Sudan]] where Arabs own black slaves. In Mauritania, dark-skinned people own lighter-skinned slaves.<ref> [http://www.leaderu.com/ftissues/ft9605/articles/gregory.html African Slavery 1996]</ref>

Slavery was found in the history of most civilizations. Slavery flourishes where there is a high demand for labor and not enough workers. When the workers are plentiful, slavery dies out because it is unprofitable. That is, it becomes cheaper to free a slave and hire low cost paid labor than to buy and maintain slaves. Typically, when it had almost died out, it was made illegal by the government, as in Brazil.

The most famous instance of slavery was in the American South until it was forcibly ended during the [[American Civil War]] (1861-65)--the only major war in world history fought over slavery.

==Economics==
The two main forms of slavery are house servants (in which slaves are luxury items owned by the rich), and field work, in which slaves are used as a cheap labor force. If free labor is cheaper than expensive slaves, slavery will disappear. If there is a shortage of laborers (and an abundance of work to do), slavery becomes economically possible. It is especially profitable in new lands with few people and rich soils or mines that require imported labor.

Slavery tended to die out in cities and flourished only in rural areas. In the cities rich families owned many slaves as a luxury good guaranteeing good servants. Otherwise, slaves in cities were more expensive to maintain than free labor, which could be hired and fired as needed. Slave labor was profitable for farms, mines, and construction jobs; it was not profitable for factories.

==History==
===Ancient world===
[[File:Slavebeating.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Slavery in Ancient Egypt. Wall [[painting]] from 15th century BC Egyptian tomb.]]
Most ancient civilizations, including Greece and Rome, practiced slavery on a large scale.

Slavery has its roots deep in humanity's pagan past, in humanity's fallen, self-centered nature. According to the Bible, God created humankind free, giving them the dignity of choice. Yet slavery is found earlier than the time of Abraham (about 2,000 B.C.) In the Garden of Eden, according to the Bible, God gave Adam the blessing of work even before the Fall. That work became harder after our first parents rebelled against their Creator.<ref>The Holy Bible, Genesis 3:17-19</ref></ref>Heathen nations despised manual labor, and consigned it to slaves<ref>Lorella Rouster, The History of Slavery, ECM Publ, 2011, [/ 1</ref>

All early civilizations were built on slave labor--Mesopotamia, Babylon, Eqypt, Greece, Rome, and the big civilizations of Central America.<ref>Rouster, p. 2</ref> Milton Meltzer's book, Slavery, A World History, is filled with pictures of ancient carvings, paintings and other artifacts clealy picturing slavery..<ref>Milton Meltzer, Slavery, a World History</ref> Historian Kenneth Scott LaTourette said, "Slavery was a characteristic feature of the social and economic organization of the ancient world."<ref>LaTourette, A History of the Expansion of Christianity, Vol. I, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI, 1939, 1967, p. 26</ref>

In [[Egypt]], the Hebrews were slaves for a time. "All the slaves were considered the property of the gods and the pharaoh."<ref>Meltzer, p. 32</ref> Technically, slaves in Egypt were prisoners of war and foreigners. However, the peasant class which did all the manual labor were tied to the land belonging to pharaoh and had a standard of living difficult to distinguish from slavery.<ref>Meltzer, p. 30</ref>

The primary slave market in ancient Greece was on an island in the Aegean sea known as "Delos." From there slaves were traded and used throughout the Greek city-states. In [[Ancient Greece|ancient Athens]] about 30% of the population consisted of slaves.<ref>[http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_1741501460_4/Ancient_Greece.html Ancient Greece]</ref> "Sumerian society knew two classes: free men and slaves." Over time, slaves grew in number and provided cheap and abundant labor.<ref>Milton Meltzer, Slavery, a World History, p. 11-12</ref>

Greek civilization was utterly dependent on slave labor. Three-fourths of Athens were slaves. (Athens was the city the Apostle Paul described as "given to idolatry" in Acts 17:16.)

In Greek and Roman society, human beings were seen as having no intrinsic value. They had value only as citizens of the state, and only a minority of people qualified as such. Those who had no value included the infirm, the poor, the lower classes, prisoners of war, slaves, artisans and manual workers. Noncitizens were defined as having no purpose and hence unworthy to be helped when their lives were at risk. This meant they were not considered worthy to receive physical protection or even food.<ref>Alvin Schmidt, Under the Influence, How Christianity Transformed Civilization, p. 130</ref> The Greek philopher Aristotle wrote, "a slave is a living took, just as a tool is an inanimate slave."<ref>Nichomadean Ethics 8:11, quoted in Schmidt, p. 274</ref>

In Roman society, "domestic slaves did every conceivable kind of work for their masters. Among them were eunuchs to attend to the women and cripples to "amuse" guests with their deformities. A rich man needed at least two slaves to carry him to the circus, but eight to ten usually went along for show. When a man walked at night, he had to have a train of slaves bearing torches to light and protect him on his way. Domestic slaves of the wealthy were many that they were organized like armies into specialized battalions. The more powerful Romans acquired staffs of better than a thousand slaves. One man, C. Caelius Isidorus, left 4,116 slaves when he died. The emperors, whose wealth outstripped all, boasted slave "families" of 20,000 or more<ref>Meltzer, p. 138</ref>

Under Roman law, slaves had no rights. They were considered property, not persons. They could not own or inherit property. They were not permitted to legally marry, so all their children were considered illegitimate.<ref>Meltzer, p. 144 & 176</ref>

Often prisoners of wars in ancient history were used as slaves, particularly during the [[Roman Empire]]. Historians debate how extensive slavery was in the Roman Empire--estimates go as high as 25% of the population.<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/slavery_01.shtml BBC - History - Resisting Slavery in Ancient Rome]</ref> [[Christianity]] helped lessen the harshness by which Romans treated slaves. The Roman jurist Ulpian wrote, "As far as Roman law is concerned, slaves are regarded as nothing."<ref>Meltzer, p. 178</ref>

Other means by which ancient peoples went into slavery were inability to pay debts, being sold by their parents for the same reason, being born to slave parents, and being kidnapped by slave raiders or pirates.

The name "slav" which forms a part of the name of many European people groups is derived from the word "slave." According to the [[Domesday Book]] census in 1086 AD, 10% of England's population was enslaved.<ref>[http://www.domesdaybook.net/helpfiles/hs2970.htm Domesday Book Slave]</ref>

{{Clear}}

== The Decline of Slavery under Christianity ==

Christianity was born into a world that was overwhelmed with slavery, with Rome, the dominant world power in the time of Jesus, utterly dependent on slave labor. The life and teachings of Jesus and His followers, described in the New Testament, while not forbidding slavery nor organizing any campaign against it, struck at the very roots of slavery, drying up its power much as herbicides work on killing stubborn weeds from the roots up.<ref>Rouster, History of Slavery, p.6.</ref>

Jesus dignified labor by working as a carpenter. He took the form of a servant. He washed the disciples' feet. He commanded us to love our neighbors and do good to our enemies. He had a habit of calling people back to the beginning of things, and in the beginning God created people free. Christianity promoted the equality of its members, accepting slave and slavemaster as equal brothers and sisters serving side by side in the church (Galatians 3:28). Christianity, like Judaism before it, taught that God gave humankind the dignity to choose for ourselves. That is possible only in liberty and not in slavery. These influences worked quietly at first, for Christians were not a world power or even a majority. Most had no political power, and they lived in a totalitarian system. Yet because of the Christian emphasis on love and mercy, slavery was soon rid of most of its extreme features of cruelty. In early Christian writings, there was an emphasis on being free in spirit to serve Christ even if one's station in life was as a slave. Ambrose wrote that the slave "might be superior in character to his master and might be more truly free" (LaTourette, p. 622.

However, in the second and third centuries after Christ, as wealthy Romans began to be converted to Christiantiy, tens of thousands of slaves were freed by converts. Melania freed 8,000, Ovidus 5,000, Chromatius 1400, Hermes 1200. <ref>Shmidt, p. 274, from W.E. H. Lecky, History of European Morals, 1911</ref> Converted out of a decadent, totally self-absorbed society, many Christians sold their goods and lands and used the proceeds to help the poor, support hospitals, take in orphans, free prisoners, and free slaves. Liberation was frequent, especially on Easter and other special days of the church. Church law from the early centuries allowed for liberation (called manumission) of slaves during church services. <ref>CAnnon LIIIV, The African Code CAnons, aslo called the Canons of he Fathers Assembled at Carthage, 419 A.D.</ref><ref>The Canons of the Council in Tuillo (also called the Quinisext Council, 692 A.D..</ref>Freeing slaves took great conviction and courage, for the Roman emperors issued edicts unfavorable to the practice. Clement said in his Epistle to the Corinthians no 55, "Some Christians surrendered their own freedom to liberate others."<ref>Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book III, Chapter IV</ref>

Augustine of Hippo (354-430 A.D.) led many clergy under his authority in N Africa to free their slaves "as an act of piety".<ref>Augustine, "Of the Work of Monks", p. 25, Vol. 3, Nicene & Post-Nicene Fathers</ref> He boldly wrote a letter to the emperor urging a new law against slave traders, and showed great concern about the slave of children.<ref>The Saints, p. 72</ref> He saw slavery as a product of sin and as contrary to God's plan, writing that God "did not intend that this rational creature, who was made in His image, should have dominion man over man, but man over the beasts.<ref>Augustine, The City of God, chapter 15, p. 411, Vol. II, Nicene & Post-Nicene Fathers</ref>

Likewise Chrysostom, a fourth century church leader, wrote that Christ annulled slavery and admonished Christians to buy slaves, teach them a skill by which to make a living, and set them free. The act of Christians freeing slaves was so common in his day that he wrote that many outside the church complained that Christianity was subverting the system, causing masters to have their slaves taken from them.

Ambrose, a church leader about the same time, redeemed all the slaves he could.<ref>Ambrose, Duties of the Christian Clergy, p. 54</ref>

===Medieval Europe===
[[Image:Ruslavery.jpg|right|thumb|350px|[[Painting]] of a slave market in late medieval Eastern Europe.]]

Slavery in [[Poland]] was forbidden in the 15th century; in [[Lithuania]], slavery was formally abolished in 1588; they were replaced by the second enserfment.

Slavery was a major institution in [[Russia]], and families facing starvation often sold themselves into slavery. Russian agricultural slaves were formally converted into serfs earlier in 1679. In 1723, when the [[Peter the Great]] converted the remaining household slaves into house serfs. <ref>[http://www.britannica.com/blackhistory/article-24160 Welcome to Encyclopædia Britannica's Guide to Black History]</ref> Serfdom was abolished in 1863 by Tsar [[Alexander II]]; however, most serfs had to pay the government for giving them land.

===African Slave Trade===

== African Practices of Slavery ==

Slavery was widespread within Africa itself, and the richest in Africa were not those owning the most land, but those who owned the most slaves. In the Sahara Desert, slaves were used in gold and salt mining. Slaves were usually prisoners of war from other areas of Africa, or debtors, or enemies or the king, but many women outside of those three categories were also enslaved in African societies.

== The Islamic Trans-Sahara Slave Trade ==

Slavery was rapidly declining in Europe due to the influence of Christianity, and had all but disappeared from much of Europe when the advent of Islam brought a rebirth of the slave trade.<ref>L W Miller, Anti-Slavery Activism 101, ECM Publ, 2011</ref>
Islam has always expanded primarily though making war (declaring jihad) on its neighbors and forcing people to convert, be executed, or live in slavery in a subservient status to Islam. The demand for slaves was largely created by wealthy Islamic rulers who required salve women for the large harems to which they were accustomed, as well as soldiers and servants. The trade began in 652 A.D. when Abdallah Ben Said, King of Islamized Egypt, waged jihad on the Sudan, conquered it and imposed on the Sudanic King Khalidurat the treaty called Bakht. The treaty required annual supply of hundreds of slaves to Said.<ref>http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20120413180645205 University World News, ''Scholars Focus on Arab Trans-Saharan Slave Trade''</ref>

Islam partnered with African kings who were already involved in enslaving captured populations. Long trains of slaves were sent across the Saharan with slaves marching on foot. Islam dominated the African slave trade from the 7th to the 15th centuries, and continued on a smaller basis long after that. It has never stopped in some Muslim lands.

Islamic slavery had very high death rates. It is estimated that 80% died on the long, harsh march through the Sahara.

Castration of males was a very dominant feature of the Islamic slave trade. Specific cities in the Sahara were given to this practice as the Islamic caravans passed through. Such "eunuchs" brought the highest prices, purchased by rich Arab kings and princes as security agents for large harems. It is estimated that 70 to 90% perished in the ordeal of castration.<ref>http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20120413180645205 University World News, ''Scholars Focus on Arab Trans-Saharan Slave Trade''</ref> Castration centers developed in the Mossi country; Damagaram in Niger; Borno in northeastern Nigeria; Kumasi in Ashantiland now Ghana; Kano, Nigeria (the largest--early British administrators wrote frequently about it); and Baguimi (also spelled Aaghirmi, in Chad Republic & along the Nigerian border--the best known). Some African kings were already practicing castration of their enemies, but the Islamic slave trade institutionalized it. This, along with the fact that any children born to slave women were usually killed at birth, is the reason there are few descendants of these slaves and little African diaspora in Arab Islamic lands.<ref>http://forums.eunuch.org/showthread.php?10192-Ottoman-Eunuchs</ref><ref>http://patachu.com/slavery-trans-Saharan-trade/</ref> Some early sources of direct evidence of the Islamic slave trade were al-Yakub, a 9th century Arab writer; Ibn Battuta, a 12th century eyewitness; Mansa Museh, 1324, and Leo Africanus, 1494-1554.

== The Transatlantic Slave Trade ==

===1492-1865===
In 1455, a "papal bull" (formal letter by the [[pope]]) justified a right of Christian nations to enslave any non-Christian in the name of exploration. The Spanish had already been enslaving South American natives on a limited basis, but with the rise of sugar plantations the need for a larger slave force arose. 12 million of African slaves were brought by the Europeans to [[Mexico]], [[Peru]], the [[Caribbean]] and [[Brazil]]. The demand for sugar was exploding throughout the entire western world. Soon France, the Netherlands and Britain were also establishing profitable sugar plantations in the new world. The plantation system began in Brazil, where rich white [[plantation]] owners were the highest rung in the social hierarchy and black slaves were at the bottom. Obviously life on a sugar plantation was very hard work for a slave; most died in less than 10 years, and had to be replaced.

European traders encouraged Africans to trade slaves with them. The [[Trans-Atlantic slave trade]] became a booming business for Europeans and Africans alike, in which African rulers sold prisoners of war and even their people to Europeans for goods such as iron, alcohol, tobacco and most importantly, guns. Trans-Atlantic trade led to the degrading use of "chattel" slaves, whereby the slaves were treated purely as property of the owner, much as slaves had been considered in ancient Greece and Rome. The slaves served as sailors, skilled craftsmen or farmers. The journey across the Atlantic, known as the Middle Passage, led to the death of 10-20% of the African slaves. But an even higher percentage lost their lives in the journey from their homes in Africa to the African coast, where they were to board the slave ships.

* After kidnapping potential slaves, merchants forced them to walk in slave caravans to the European coastal forts, sometimes as far as 1,000 miles. Shackled and underfed, only half the people survived these death marches. [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1narr4.html]

The Trans-Atlantic slave trade was one component in a system of routes known as the "Triangular Trade" between South America, New England, and the West Coast of Africa. The three main items that were exchanged were sugar, rum and slaves. European goods, mainly guns, were used to buy slaves from Africa. The slaves were then shipped to the Americas. Then, from America, sugar, rum and tobacco were brought back to Europe, completing the "triangle" of trade. Slavery is one of the less noble aspects of American history.

Although slavery had existed in all cultures from the dawn of human history, the trans-Atlantic trade was the first time the trade was based primarily on one race enslaving another. This dehumanizing of black Africans had a devastating and demoralizing effect on the whole group. Many began to believe there was something inherently bad about their blackness and something intrinsically inferior about African Americans, including themselves. Unlike the eunuchs and ghilmans who were castrated by caravans of Islamic slave traders, black slaves in America reproduced and passed on the feelings of inferiority and sometimes bitterness and deep anger.<ref>Lorella Rouster, Anti-Slavery Activism 101, Every Child Ministries, Edition 2, 2011, p. 27-28</ref>

====White slaves====
Between 1530 and 1780, Europeans including Britons and even some Americans were frequently taken captive and enslaved by privateers from the [[Barbary States]]. Estimates of so-called "white slavery" vary from as little as 50,000 to in the millions <ref>http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/whtslav.htm</ref>. Generally Europeans enslaved by the [[corsairs]] were usually poorer sea merchants and city dwellers whose families were unable to pay the ransom necessary to free them. Often the [[Pasha]] would purchase the female captives into his harem. Many were forced to "go turk" or convert to "mohammadism" in order to stay with their children who were raised as Muslims. Occasionally slaves would convert in order to escape harsher labors such as tending the oars in the corsairs <ref>http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/white_slaves_print.html</ref>.

For a long time, until the early 18th century, the Crimean Khanate maintained a massive slave trade with the [[Ottoman Empire]] and the Middle East. Kefe was one of the best known and significant trading ports and slave markets. In a process called "harvesting of the steppe" Crimean Tatars enslaved many Slavic peasants.
[[Image:Boulanger Gustave Clarence Rudolphe The Slave Market.jpg|right|thumb|350px|[[Gustave Boulanger]], ''The Slave Market''.]]

====Islam====
In Senegambia, between 1300 and 1900, close to one-third of the population was enslaved. In early [[Islamic]] states of the western Sudan, including Ghana (750-1076), Mali (1235–1645), Segou (1712–1861), and Songhai (1275-1591), about a third of the population were slaves. In [[Sierra Leone]] in the 19th century about half of the population consisted of slaves. In the 19th century at least half the population was enslaved among the Duala of the Cameroon, the [[Igbo]] and other peoples of the lower Niger, the [[Kingdom of Kongo|Kongo]], and the Kasanje kingdom and Choke of [[Angola]]. Among the Ashanti and Yoruba a third of the population consisted of slaves. The population of the [[Kanem]] was about a third-slave. It was perhaps 40% in Bornu (1396–1893). Between 1750 and 1900 from one- to two-thirds of the entire population of the Fulani jihad states consisted of slaves. The population of the Sokoto caliphate formed by Hausas in the northern [[Nigeria]] and Cameroon was half-slave in the 19th century. It is estimated that up to 90% of the population of [[Arab]]-Swahili Zanzibar was enslaved. Roughly half the population of [[Madagascar]] was enslaved.<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/blackhistory/article-24157 Welcome to Encyclopædia Britannica's Guide to Black History]</ref>

The Anti-Slavery Society estimated that there were 2 million slaves in [[Ethiopia]] in the early 1930s, out of an estimated population of between 8 and 16 million.<ref>[http://www.yale.edu/glc/events/cbss/Miers.pdf Twentieth Century Solutions of the Abolition of Slavery]</ref> Ethiopia officially abolished slavery and serfdom after regaining its independence in 1942. On August 26, 1942 [[Haile Selassie]] issued a proclamation outlawing slavery.<ref>[http://www.globalmarch.org/resourcecentre/world/ethiopia.pdf Ethiopia]; [http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/2691/COS2.html Chronology of slavery]</ref>
====India====
India in 1841 had an estimated 8,000,000 or 9,000,000 slaves in India.<ref>According to Sir Henry Bartle Frere (who sat on the Viceroy's Council).</ref> In Malabar, about 15% of the population were slaves. Slavery was abolished in both Hindu and Muslim India by the Indian Slavery Act V. of 1843. Provisions of the Indian Penal Code of 1861 effectively abolished slavery in India by making the enslavement of human beings a criminal offense.<ref>[http://www.wluml.org/english/pubs/pdf/occpaper/OCP-07.pdf Islamic Law and the Colonial Encounter in British India]</ref>
====Korea====
Indigenous slaves existed in [[Korea]]. During the Joseon Dynasty (1392–1910) about 30% to 40% of the Korean population consisted of slaves. Slavery was hereditary, as well as a form of legal punishment. There was a slave class with both government and privately owned slaves, and the government occasionally gave slaves to citizens of higher rank. Privately owned slaves could be inherited as personal property. During poor harvests and famine, many peasants would voluntarily become slaves in order to survive. In the case of private slaves they could buy their freedom.<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-693609/history-of-Korea Korea, history pre-1945:slavery -- Encyclopaedia Britannica]</ref><ref>[http://www.geog.buffalo.edu/~geobl/main/lectures/l17.html The Choson Era: Late Traditional Korea]</ref><ref>[http://ideas.repec.org/p/snu/ioerwp/no26.html Korean Nobi]</ref> Slavery was officially abolished with the Gabo Reform of 1894.

===Present Day===
Slavery was also known among [[Arabs]] into the 20th century. As recently as the 1950s, [[Saudi Arabia]] had an estimated 450,000 slaves, 20% of the population.<ref>[http://www.answering-islam.org/Silas/slavery.htm Slavery in Islam]</ref><ref>[http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/apr07/page18.html £400 for a Slave]</ref> It is estimated that as many as 200,000 people had been taken into slavery in Sudan during the Second Sudanese Civil War.<ref>[http://www.iabolish.org/slavery_today/in_depth/sudan-genocide.html War and Genocide in Sudan]</ref><ref>[http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/livewire/archived/the_lost_children_of_sudan/ The Lost Children of Sudan]</ref> In [[Mauritania]] it is estimated that up to 600,000 men, women and children, or 20% of the population, are currently enslaved, many of them used as bonded labor.<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/1458_abolition/page4.shtml The Abolition season on BBC World Service]</ref> Slavery in Mauritania was finally criminalized in 2007.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6938032.stm Mauritanian MPs pass slavery law]</ref> In [[Niger]], slavery is also a current phenomenon; a Nigerien study has found that more than 800,000 people, or almost 8% of the population, are slaves.<ref>[http://abcnews.go.com/International/Story?id=813618&page=1 The Shackles of Slavery in Niger]</ref><ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/4250709.stm Born to be a slave in Niger]</ref> The Tuareg-rebels in [[Mali]] have a long tradition of practicing slavery.<ref>http://frontpagemag.com/2013/howard-rotberg/slave-labor-from-auschwitz-to-mali/</ref>

Also, the term "slavery" is often used metaphorically for sex workers who are controlled by pimps.

==Famous Slaves==
* [[St. Felicity]]
* [[St. Patrick]]
* [[Pope Pius I]]
* [[Pope Callixtus I]]
* [[Pope Clement I]]
* [[Spartacus]]
* [[Frederick Douglass]]
* [[Harriet Tubman]]
* [[Dred Scott]]
* [[Booker T. Washington]]
* [[Atilla the Hun]]
* [[Denmark Vesey]]

==Abolition of Slavery==
===France===
France had slavery in its Caribbean colonies and [[Condorcet]] (1743 - 1794), an influential [[philosophe]], rejected slavery as antithetical to Enlightenment morality. He became a leader in the antislavery movement and in the 1780s attacked the institution of slavery on philosophical and moral grounds in his writings. After 1780, Condorcet took a leading, though secret, role in antislavery agitation by writing ''Reflections on Negro Slavery'' under the pseudonym Dr. Schwartz. In 1784, he was a founder and principal actor in La Société des Amis des Noirs, which sought to prepare for the eventual abolition of slavery. By 1794, Condorcet still supported colonization, but believed that a colonization based on liberal economics and civil equality could transform the world.

[[Napoleon]] (ruled 1799-1815) made a major adventure into the Caribbean--sending 30,000 troops in 1802 to retake Saint Domingue ([[Haiti]]) from ex-slaves under black leader [[Toussaint L'Ouverture]] who had revolted and killed off the whites and mulattoes. Napoleon wanted to preserve France's financial benefits from the colony's sugar and coffee crops; he then planned to establish a major base at New Orleans. He therefore reestablished slavery in Haiti and [[Guadeloupe]], where it had been abolished after rebellions. Slaves and black freedmen fought the French for their freedom and independence. Revolutionary ideals played a central role in the fighting for it was the slaves and their comrades who were fighting for the revolutionary ideals of freedom and equality, while the French troops under General Charles Leclerc fought to restore the order of the ancien régime. The goal of reestablishing slavery - which explicitly contradicted the ideals of the French Revolution - demoralized the French troops. The demoralized French soldiers were unable to cope with the tropical diseases, and most died of yellow fever. Slavery was reimposed in Guadeloupe but not in Haiti, which became an independent black republic. <ref> Philippe R. Girard, "Liberte, Egalite, Esclavage: French Revolutionary Ideals and the Failure of the Leclerc Expedition to Saint-Domingue." ''French Colonial History'' 2005 6: 55-77. in [[Project MUSE]]</ref> Napoleon's vast colonial dreams for Egypt, India, the Caribbean, Louisiana, and even Australia were all doomed for lack of a fleet capable of matching Britain's Royal Navy. Realizing the fiasco Napoleon liquidated the Haiti project, brought home the survivors and sold off Louisiana to the U.S.<ref>Steven Englund, ''Napoleon: A Political Life'' (2004). p 259. Slavery remained in Guadeloupe until 1848.</ref>

===United States===
The first black slaves were brought to [[Jamestown]] Colony early on. Originally, slavery was legal in every British American colony. However, after the [[American Revolution]], the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that, since the new state constitution read, "All men are born free and equal, and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights; among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties", it made slavery illegal. By 1804, slavery had been abolished in every northern state.<ref>However, in many states, current slaves remained in servitude for the rest of their lives.</ref>

[[The South]] after 1800 became more militant in defense of slavery. [[John C. Calhoun]] and other southerners (usually members of the [[Democratic Party]]) called it the South's "peculiar institution" and proclaimed it a good idea. Some proponents suggested it would also be a good idea for white workers who were living under worse conditions in Northern cities.<ref> Elizabeth Fox-Genovese and Eugene D. Genovese, ''Slavery in White and Black: Class and Race in the Southern Slaveholders'' (2008)</ref> It flourished in the Southern states until [[Abraham Lincoln]], a Republican, and his Union Army abolished it during the [[American Civil War]]. This was a case of racial slavery--the slaves were black, the owners were white.<ref> A few free blacks owned slaves--usually relatives they had purchased from whites. Indian tribes also had slaves, both Indian and black.</ref>

===British Empire===
Emancipation of slaves in the British Caribbean became a major cause by the 1800s, when abolitionists such as [[William Wilberforce]] and [[John Wesley]] began speaking out against the evils of the system.<ref>[http://www.brycchancarey.com/abolition/wilberforce.htm William Wilberforce (1759-1833)]</ref> Wilberforce was supported in his efforts by [[John Newton]], a slave trader who became a Christian and then opposed the slave trade. In 1807 the [[House of Commons]] passed the Slave Trade Abolition Bill by a 283-16 vote. It made the international slave trade a crime of piracy and sent the Royal Navy to enforce it.<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/devon/content/articles/2007/03/20/abolition_navy_feature.shtml Sailing against slavery. By Jo Loosemore] BBC</ref> In 1808 the U.S. also outlawed the international trade. However, some slave traders evaded the prohibition--many were caught and hung, with the freed captives sent to [[Sierra Leone]]. Slavery remained legal inside the [[British Empire]] (including Canada) until 1833 when the government bought all the slaves from the owners<ref> Mostof the owners lived in great mansions in London, and appreciated the money.</ref> and freed them.<ref>The ex-slaves went through an apprenticeship process before gaining freedom. Andrea Curry ''Timeline: The Abolition of the Slave Trade'', British Heritage Magazine (May 2007)</ref> <ref>[http://slavetrade.parliament.uk/slavetrade/history/parliamentabolishestheslavetrade/draftdocument.html History: Parliament Abolishes the Slave Trade] Parliamentary House of Lords</ref>

===United States===
In the United States, the northern states abolished slavery by 1803--most of the slaves there were house servants. In [[The South]], however, cotton made slavery very profitable and 11 states seceded in 1861 to protect their interest. [[Abraham Lincoln]] achieved the end of slavery in 1863-65, using the Army and the [[13th Amendment]]. In Cuba and Brazil, slavery was unprofitable and finally collapsed in the 1880s as few people wanted to buy slaves.

===Abolitionists===
*[[Harriet Tubman]], Underground Railroad. (1820 - 1913) <ref>http://www.heritageny.gov/Railroad/urny.cfm</ref> Well-known associate of the Underground Railroad. Acted as a spy and led raids to assist others in gaining their freedom.
*[[Frederick Douglass]], orator, writer and publisher. (1817 - 1875) <ref>http://www.nndb.com/people/447/000048303/</ref> Respected leader of the abolitionist movement, consummate freedom seeker, orator and publisher.
*[[Ralph Waldo Emerson]], unitarian minister and freethinker. (1803-1882) <ref>http://www25.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/ralphwaldoemerson.html </ref> Expressed visceral public disapproval of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Exhorted people to "do the duty of the hour", and support abolition.
*[[William Lloyd Garrison]], anti-slavery editor of the Liberator (1805 - 1879); the single most imfluential abolitionist <ref>http://www.nndb.com/people/966/000049819/</ref> Founded the Liberator with partner Isaac Knapp in 1831.
*[[Elizur Wright]], abolitionist, freethinker. (1804-1885) <ref> http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0852788.html</ref> Became involved in the abolitionist movement while attending Yale university. Eventually worked as a secretary with the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833 and assumed the editorship of the Massachusetts Abolitionist in 1839.
*[[John Brown]] (1800-1859), tried to lead a slave rebellion in 1859; the slaves did not join him, but white Southerners became convinced there were many more John Browns to come if they stayed in the Union
*[[John Stuart Mill]], philosopher, essayist. (1806 - 1879) <ref>http://www.nndb.com/people/147/000030057/</ref> Wrote numerous essays on abolition during the American Civil War. Asserted the war was being fought to abolish slavery, an unpopular political opinion at the time.

==Biblical Perspective==
{{main|Slavery in the Bible}}
[[File:Alma - Tadema The Finding of Moses 1904.jpg|thumb|360px|[[Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema]], The Finding of Moses, 1904.]]
Slavery was an well-established institution throughout the Ancient Near East, and the
[[Old Testament]] sanctions its form of regulated slavery, though that is seen as being counter cultural in its degree of amelioration, including as compared to that of ancient slave states as Greece and Rome, and the typical practice of slavery in American history.<ref>[http://www.christian-thinktank.com/qnoslave.html ''Does God condone slavery in the Bible?'']</ref><ref>[http://www.christian-thinktank.com/qnoslavent.html ''The issue of 'slavery' in the NT/Apostolic world'']</ref> The New Testament does not condemn the institution itself, but makes requirements upon both masters and slaves in further improving treatment in the inherited economic institution.

Slave owners in the antebellum South cited both Old Testament and New Testament texts, such as Ephesians 6:5, “slaves, obey your masters”, in arguments for the Christian endorsement of slavery. Another Bible verse states that thieves should be sold into slavery.<ref>Exodus 22:3 "He should make a full restitution; and if he have nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft.</ref> Under the [[Mosaic Law]], Hebrew slaves could be kept for six years, and offered release in the seventh for nothing. They were to be treated as hired servants, and generous provisions given to them at termination, though they could choose to be lifetime servants. However, daughters who were sold to be betrothed to the owner or his son, were not set free in their seventh year but were to be allowed to be redeemed if that marriage had not taken place done. If marriage occurred, they were to be set free if the husband was negligent in his basic marital obligations.(Exodus 21:1-11; cf. Dt. 15:12-18)

The system of slavery commonly diminished a person to the point where they would be regarded as a thing or an object to be owned. The Christian [[abolitionists]] disagreed with this valuation, and saw the New Testament in particular, and its ethos of love for neighbor as oneself, as supporting the abolition of slavery, and advanced an interpretation of the Bible which presented human value in terms of God's parental love for all people as His children (see [[human rights]]).<ref>[http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/bourne/bourne.html Bourne, George, 1780-1845, ''A Condensed Anti-Slavery Bible Argument; By a Citizen of Virginia'']</ref><ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=3n4OGC-OoqIC&dq=God+Against+Slavery+George+B.+Cheever,&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=YCiuzJHs7T&sig=GyTdW1UZEO6eqV6XxdKv2v_SJF8&hl=en&ei=oaWRSvHyJpPDlAeXqdCjDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false George B. Cheever, ''God Against Slavery'' (1875)]</ref>

While requiring Christian obedience <ref>''Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible'', Eph. 6:7; cf. Rm. 13:1</ref> of slaves toward their masters, the New Testament also requires masters to exercise their duties in the fear of God, and prohibits threatening, abuse or unequal pay for slaves. ((Eph. 6:9; Col. 4:1) (1Cor. 7:21) It also commands slaves to obtain freedom if possible, and contains the record of the [[apostle Paul]] requiring that the escaped slave Onesimus be received back by his master Philemon, no longer "as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved", even as Paul himself (Philemon 1:16,17)

[[Pat Robertson]], while acknowledging the Old Testament's teachings on slavery, argues that "we have moved in our conception of the value of human beings over the years" until we have realized that slavery is "terribly wrong."<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-DtlRyvC34 Pat Robertson on the Bible and slavery]</ref>

===Curse of Ham===
Some Southern white theologians before the Civil War asserted that the slavery of blacks was the result the curse of Ham. However, there is no evidence that the curse had to do with skin color, and the descendants of [[Canaan]] most likely were not black, and it is generally concluded that they did not settle in [[Africa]].<ref>http://www.bible.org/page.php?page_id=70</ref><ref>http://www.christiananswers.net/q-aig/race-blacks.html</ref><ref>Full Life Study Bible, Zondervan Publishing Company (September 1992)</ref><ref>A Condensed Anti-slavery Bible Argument By George Bourne </ref>

==Further reading==
* [[Abolitionism]]
* [[American Civil War]]

===Reference===
* Finkelman, Paul, and Joseph C. Miller, eds. ''Macmillan Encyclopedia of World Slavery'' (1999), very good reference
* Morgan, Kenneth. ''Slavery and the British Empire: From Africa to America'' (2008) [http://www.amazon.com/Slavery-British-Empire-Africa-America/dp/0192892916/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241544745&sr=1-5 excerpt and text search]
* Parish, Peter J. '' Slavery: History and Historians'' (1989) [http://www.questia.com/library/book/slavery-history-and-historians-by-peter-j-parish.jsp online edition]
* Rodriguez, Junius P., ed. ''The Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery'' (2 vol. 1997), very good reference
===Rome===
* Bradley, Keith. ''Slavery and Society at Rome'' (1994) [http://www.amazon.com/Slavery-Society-Themes-Ancient-History/dp/0521378877/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254513594&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
* Westermann, William L. ''The Slave Systems of Greek and Roman Antiquity'' 91955) 182pp [http://www.questia.com/read/3797806?title=The%20Slave%20Systems%20of%20Greek%20and%20Roman%20Antiquity online edition]

===United States===
* Fogel, Robert. ''Without Consent or Contract: The Rise and Fall of American Slavery'' (1989) [http://www.questia.com/library/book/without-consent-or-contract-the-rise-and-fall-of-american-slavery-by-robert-william-fogel.jsp online edition]
* Genovese, Eugene. ''Roll Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made'' (1974), the most important book, written as Genovese was moving from Marxism to conservatism
* Miller, Randall M., and John David Smith, eds. ''Dictionary of Afro-American Slavery'' (1988), exellent reference
* Phillips, Ulrich B. ''American Negro Slavery: A Survey of the Supply, Employment and Control of Negro Labor as Determined by the Plantation Regime'' (1918), the best older history; leftists complain it does not share their biases. [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/11490 free edition online]

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

==External links==
*[http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/black-slavery-and-islamic-racism/ Islamic Slavery and Racism]

[[Category:Black History]]
[[Category:The South]]
[[Category:Civil Rights]]
[[Category:British Empire]]
[[Category:African History]]

Slavery

2015-11-18T07:55:26Z

JamesMT: Removed a few extra lines of space.

'''Slavery''' is a legal economic system with involuntary servitude, such that the people held in bondage must work for their owner, and can be bought and sold (see [[slave trade]]).

Legally, the slave has limited rights. For example, it was a crime in the American South to kill or maim a slave, except in self-defense.

In the American South, slavery normally was a lifetime condition, and children born to slave mothers automatically became slaves of the owner.

In human history, slavery originated when people were captured in warfare. Secondarily, slavery resulted when some able-bodied people became so poor through debts that some wealthy people claimed them as property at least until they worked off their debts. The [[Year of Jubilee]] was instituted by God for His own nation in order to prevent slavery from becoming a means by which cleverly unscrupulous, or cleverly ignorant, people made a living, such as happened in the American South.

In America the vast majority of slaves were African blacks, and many of these had been bought from African tribal leaders; Indians starved themselves to death rather than live as slaves. From 1500 to 1820, hundreds of thousands of Europeans were captured in war by Muslims and made slaves.

Western Christendom abolished slavery during the 19th century.
The last forms of legal slavery were outlawed in 1970 in the Arabian countries, but hidden slavery still exists today in remote parts of Africa such as the [[Sudan]] where Arabs own black slaves. In Mauritania, dark-skinned people own lighter-skinned slaves.<ref> [http://www.leaderu.com/ftissues/ft9605/articles/gregory.html African Slavery 1996]</ref>

Slavery was found in the history of most civilizations. Slavery flourishes where there is a high demand for labor and not enough workers. When the workers are plentiful, slavery dies out because it is unprofitable. That is, it becomes cheaper to free a slave and hire low cost paid labor than to buy and maintain slaves. Typically, when it had almost died out, it was made illegal by the government, as in Brazil.

The most famous instance of slavery was in the American South until it was forcibly ended during the [[American Civil War]] (1861-65)--the only major war in world history fought over slavery.

==Economics==
The two main forms of slavery are house servants (in which slaves are luxury items owned by the rich), and field work, in which slaves are used as a cheap labor force. If free labor is cheaper than expensive slaves, slavery will disappear. If there is a shortage of laborers (and an abundance of work to do), slavery becomes economically possible. It is especially profitable in new lands with few people and rich soils or mines that require imported labor.

Slavery tended to die out in cities and flourished only in rural areas. In the cities rich families owned many slaves as a luxury good guaranteeing good servants. Otherwise, slaves in cities were more expensive to maintain than free labor, which could be hired and fired as needed. Slave labor was profitable for farms, mines, and construction jobs; it was not profitable for factories.

==History==
===Ancient world===
[[File:Slavebeating.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Slavery in Ancient Egypt. Wall [[painting]] from 15th century BC Egyptian tomb.]]
Most ancient civilizations, including Greece and Rome, practiced slavery on a large scale.

Slavery has its roots deep in humanity's pagan past, in humanity's fallen, self-centered nature. According to the Bible, God created humankind free, giving them the dignity of choice. Yet slavery is found earlier than the time of Abraham (about 2,000 B.C.) In the Garden of Eden, according to the Bible, God gave Adam the blessing of work even before the Fall. That work became harder after our first parents rebelled against their Creator.<ref>The Holy Bible, Genesis 3:17-19</ref></ref>Heathen nations despised manual labor, and consigned it to slaves<ref>Lorella Rouster, The History of Slavery, ECM Publ, 2011, [/ 1</ref>

All early civilizations were built on slave labor--Mesopotamia, Babylon, Eqypt, Greece, Rome, and the big civilizations of Central America.<ref>Rouster, p. 2</ref> Milton Meltzer's book, Slavery, A World History, is filled with pictures of ancient carvings, paintings and other artifacts clealy picturing slavery..<ref>Milton Meltzer, Slavery, a World History</ref> Historian Kenneth Scott LaTourette said, "Slavery was a characteristic feature of the social and economic organization of the ancient world."<ref>LaTourette, A History of the Expansion of Christianity, Vol. I, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI, 1939, 1967, p. 26</ref>

In [[Egypt]], the Hebrews were slaves for a time. "All the slaves were considered the property of the gods and the pharaoh."<ref>Meltzer, p. 32</ref> Technically, slaves in Egypt were prisoners of war and foreigners. However, the peasant class which did all the manual labor were tied to the land belonging to pharaoh and had a standard of living difficult to distinguish from slavery.<ref>Meltzer, p. 30</ref>

The primary slave market in ancient Greece was on an island in the Aegean sea known as "Delos." From there slaves were traded and used throughout the Greek city-states. In [[Ancient Greece|ancient Athens]] about 30% of the population consisted of slaves.<ref>[http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_1741501460_4/Ancient_Greece.html Ancient Greece]</ref> "Sumerian society knew two classes: free men and slaves." Over time, slaves grew in number and provided cheap and abundant labor.<ref>Milton Meltzer, Slavery, a World History, p. 11-12</ref>

Greek civilization was utterly dependent on slave labor. Three-fourths of Athens were slaves. (Athens was the city the Apostle Paul described as "given to idolatry" in Acts 17:16.)

In Greek and Roman society, human beings were seen as having no intrinsic value. They had value only as citizens of the state, and only a minority of people qualified as such. Those who had no value included the infirm, the poor, the lower classes, prisoners of war, slaves, artisans and manual workers. Noncitizens were defined as having no purpose and hence unworthy to be helped when their lives were at risk. This meant they were not considered worthy to receive physical protection or even food.<ref>Alvin Schmidt, Under the Influence, How Christianity Transformed Civilization, p. 130</ref> The Greek philopher Aristotle wrote, "a slave is a living took, just as a tool is an inanimate slave."<ref>Nichomadean Ethics 8:11, quoted in Schmidt, p. 274</ref>

In Roman society, "domestic slaves did every conceivable kind of work for their masters. Among them were eunuchs to attend to the women and cripples to "amuse" guests with their deformities. A rich man needed at least two slaves to carry him to the circus, but eight to ten usually went along for show. When a man walked at night, he had to have a train of slaves bearing torches to light and protect him on his way. Domestic slaves of the wealthy were many that they were organized like armies into specialized battalions. The more powerful Romans acquired staffs of better than a thousand slaves. One man, C. Caelius Isidorus, left 4,116 slaves when he died. The emperors, whose wealth outstripped all, boasted slave "families" of 20,000 or more<ref>Meltzer, p. 138</ref>

Under Roman law, slaves had no rights. They were considered property, not persons. They could not own or inherit property. They were not permitted to legally marry, so all their children were considered illegitimate.<ref>Meltzer, p. 144 & 176</ref>

Often prisoners of wars in ancient history were used as slaves, particularly during the [[Roman Empire]]. Historians debate how extensive slavery was in the Roman Empire--estimates go as high as 25% of the population.<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/slavery_01.shtml BBC - History - Resisting Slavery in Ancient Rome]</ref> [[Christianity]] helped lessen the harshness by which Romans treated slaves. The Roman jurist Ulpian wrote, "As far as Roman law is concerned, slaves are regarded as nothing."<ref>Meltzer, p. 178</ref>

Other means by which ancient peoples went into slavery were inability to pay debts, being sold by their parents for the same reason, being born to slave parents, and being kidnapped by slave raiders or pirates.

The name "slav" which forms a part of the name of many European people groups is derived from the word "slave." According to the [[Domesday Book]] census in 1086 AD, 10% of England's population was enslaved.<ref>[http://www.domesdaybook.net/helpfiles/hs2970.htm Domesday Book Slave]</ref>

{{Clear}}

== The Decline of Slavery under Christianity ==

Christianity was born into a world that was overwhelmed with slavery, with Rome, the dominant world power in the time of Jesus, utterly dependent on slave labor. The life and teachings of Jesus and His followers, described in the New Testament, while not forbidding slavery nor organizing any campaign against it, struck at the very roots of slavery, drying up its power much as herbicides work on killing stubborn weeds from the roots. up.<ref>Rouster, History of Slavery, p.6.</ref>

Jesus dignified labor by working as a carpenter. He took the form of a servant. He washed the disciples' feet. He commanded us to love our neighbors and do good to our enemies. He had a habit of calling people back to the beginning of things, and in the beginning God created people free. Christianity promoted the equality of its members, accepting slave and slavemaster as equal brothers and sisters serving side by side in the church (Galatians 3:28). Christianity, like Judaism before it, taught that God gave humankind the dignity to choose for ourselves. That is possible only in liberty and not in slavery. These influences worked quietly at first, for Christians were not a world power or even a majority. Most had no political power, and they lived in a totalitarian system. Yet because of the Christian emphasis on love and mercy, slavery was soon rid of most of its extreme features of cruelty. In early Christian writings, there was an emphasis on being free in spirit to serve Christ even if one's station in life was as a slave. Ambrose wrote that the slave "might be superior in character to his master and might be more truly free" (LaTourette, p. 622.

However, in the second and third centuries after Christ, as wealthy Romans began to be converted to Christiantiy, tens of thousands of slaves were freed by converts. Melania freed 8,000, Ovidus 5,000, Chromatius 1400, Hermes 1200. <ref>Shmidt, p. 274, from W.E. H. Lecky, History of European Morals, 1911</ref> Converted out of a decadent, totally self-absorbed society, many Christians sold their goods and lands and used the proceeds to help the poor, support hospitals, take in orphans, free prisoners, and free slaves. Liberation was frequent, especially on Easter and other special days of the church. Church law from the early centuries allowed for liberation (called manumission) of slaves during church services. <ref>CAnnon LIIIV, The African Code CAnons, aslo called the Canons of he Fathers Assembled at Carthage, 419 A.D.</ref><ref>The Canons of the Council in Tuillo (also called the Quinisext Council, 692 A.D..</ref>Freeing slaves took great conviction and courage, for the Roman emperors issued edicts unfavorable to the practice. Clement said in his Epistle to the Corinthians no 55, "Some Christians surrendered their own freedom to liberate others."<ref>Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book III, Chapter IV</ref>

Augustine of Hippo (354-430 A.D.) led many clergy under his authority in N Africa to free their slaves "as an act of piety".<ref>Augustine, "Of the Work of Monks", p. 25, Vol. 3, Nicene & Post-Nicene Fathers</ref> He boldly wrote a letter to the emperor urging a new law against slave traders, and showed great concern about the slave of children.<ref>The Saints, p. 72</ref> He saw slavery as a product of sin and as contrary to God's plan, writing that God "did not intend that this rational creature, who was made in His image, should have dominion man over man, but man over the beasts.<ref>Augustine, The City of God, chapter 15, p. 411, Vol. II, Nicene & Post-Nicene Fathers</ref>

Likewise Chrysostom, a fourth century church leader, wrote that Christ annulled slavery and admonished Christians to buy slaves, teach them a skill by which to make a living, and set them free. The act of Christians freeing slaves was so common in his day that he wrote that many outside the church complained that Christianity was subverting the system, causing masters to have their slaves taken from them.

Ambrose, a church leader about the same time, redeemed all the slaves he could.<ref>Ambrose, Duties of the Christian Clergy, p. 54</ref>

===Medieval Europe===
[[Image:Ruslavery.jpg|right|thumb|350px|[[Painting]] of a slave market in late medieval Eastern Europe.]]

Slavery in [[Poland]] was forbidden in the 15th century; in [[Lithuania]], slavery was formally abolished in 1588; they were replaced by the second enserfment.

Slavery was a major institution in [[Russia]], and families facing starvation often sold themselves into slavery. Russian agricultural slaves were formally converted into serfs earlier in 1679. In 1723, when the [[Peter the Great]] converted the remaining household slaves into house serfs. <ref>[http://www.britannica.com/blackhistory/article-24160 Welcome to Encyclopædia Britannica's Guide to Black History]</ref> Serfdom was abolished in 1863 by Tsar [[Alexander II]]; however, most serfs had to pay the government for giving them land.

===African Slave Trade===

== African Practices of Slavery ==

Slavery was widespread within Africa itself, and the richest in Africa were not those owning the most land, but those who owned the most slaves. In the Sahara Desert, slaves were used in gold and salt mining. Slaves were usually prisoners of war from other areas of Africa, or debtors, or enemies or the king, but many women outside of those three categories were also enslaved in African societies.

== The Islamic Trans-Sahara Slave Trade ==

Slavery was rapidly declining in Europe due to the influence of Christianity, and had all but disappeared from much of Europe when the advent of Islam brought a rebirth of the slave trade.<ref>L W Miller, Anti-Slavery Activism 101, ECM Publ, 2011</ref>
Islam has always expanded primarily though making war (declaring jihad) on its neighbors and forcing people to convert, be executed, or live in slavery in a subservient status to Islam. The demand for slaves was largely created by wealthy Islamic rulers who required salve women for the large harems to which they were accustomed, as well as soldiers and servants. The trade began in 652 A.D. when Abdallah Ben Said, King of Islamized Egypt, waged jihad on the Sudan, conquered it and imposed on the Sudanic King Khalidurat the treaty called Bakht. The treaty required annual supply of hundreds of slaves to Said.<ref>http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20120413180645205 University World News, ''Scholars Focus on Arab Trans-Saharan Slave Trade''</ref>

Islam partnered with African kings who were already involved in enslaving captured populations. Long trains of slaves were sent across the Saharan with slaves marching on foot. Islam dominated the African slave trade from the 7th to the 15th centuries, and continued on a smaller basis long after that. It has never stopped in some Muslim lands.

Islamic slavery had very high death rates. It is estimated that 80% died on the long, harsh march through the Sahara.

Castration of males was a very dominant feature of the Islamic slave trade. Specific cities in the Sahara were given to this practice as the Islamic caravans passed through. Such "eunuchs" brought the highest prices, purchased by rich Arab kings and princes as security agents for large harems. It is estimated that 70 to 90% perished in the ordeal of castration.<ref>http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20120413180645205 University World News, ''Scholars Focus on Arab Trans-Saharan Slave Trade''</ref> Castration centers developed in the Mossi country; Damagaram in Niger; Borno in northeastern Nigeria; Kumasi in Ashantiland now Ghana; Kano, Nigeria (the largest--early British administrators wrote frequently about it); and Baguimi (also spelled Aaghirmi, in Chad Republic & along the Nigerian border--the best known). Some African kings were already practicing castration of their enemies, but the Islamic slave trade institutionalized it. This, along with the fact that any children born to slave women were usually killed at birth, is the reason there are few descendants of these slaves and little African diaspora in Arab Islamic lands.<ref>http://forums.eunuch.org/showthread.php?10192-Ottoman-Eunuchs</ref><ref>http://patachu.com/slavery-trans-Saharan-trade/</ref> Some early sources of direct evidence of the Islamic slave trade were al-Yakub, a 9th century Arab writer; Ibn Battuta, a 12th century eyewitness; Mansa Museh, 1324, and Leo Africanus, 1494-1554.

== The Transatlantic Slave Trade ==

===1492-1865===
In 1455, a "papal bull" (formal letter by the [[pope]]) justified a right of Christian nations to enslave any non-Christian in the name of exploration. The Spanish had already been enslaving South American natives on a limited basis, but with the rise of sugar plantations the need for a larger slave force arose. 12 million of African slaves were brought by the Europeans to [[Mexico]], [[Peru]], the [[Caribbean]] and [[Brazil]]. The demand for sugar was exploding throughout the entire western world. Soon France, the Netherlands and Britain were also establishing profitable sugar plantations in the new world. The plantation system began in Brazil, where rich white [[plantation]] owners were the highest rung in the social hierarchy and black slaves were at the bottom. Obviously life on a sugar plantation was very hard work for a slave; most died in less than 10 years, and had to be replaced.

European traders encouraged Africans to trade slaves with them. The [[Trans-Atlantic slave trade]] became a booming business for Europeans and Africans alike, in which African rulers sold prisoners of war and even their people to Europeans for goods such as iron, alcohol, tobacco and most importantly, guns. Trans-Atlantic trade led to the degrading use of "chattel" slaves, whereby the slaves were treated purely as property of the owner, much as slaves had been considered in ancient Greece and Rome. The slaves served as sailors, skilled craftsmen or farmers. The journey across the Atlantic, known as the Middle Passage, led to the death of 10-20% of the African slaves. But an even higher percentage lost their lives in the journey from their homes in Africa to the African coast, where they were to board the slave ships.

* After kidnapping potential slaves, merchants forced them to walk in slave caravans to the European coastal forts, sometimes as far as 1,000 miles. Shackled and underfed, only half the people survived these death marches. [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1narr4.html]

The Trans-Atlantic slave trade was one component in a system of routes known as the "Triangular Trade" between South America, New England, and the West Coast of Africa. The three main items that were exchanged were sugar, rum and slaves. European goods, mainly guns, were used to buy slaves from Africa. The slaves were then shipped to the Americas. Then, from America, sugar, rum and tobacco were brought back to Europe, completing the "triangle" of trade. Slavery is one of the less noble aspects of American history.

Although slavery had existed in all cultures from the dawn of human history, the trans-Atlantic trade was the first time the trade was based primarily on one race enslaving another. This dehumanizing of black Africans had a devastating and demoralizing effect on the whole group. Many began to believe there was something inherently bad about their blackness and something intrinsically inferior about African Americans, including themselves. Unlike the eunuchs and ghilmans who were castrated by caravans of Islamic slave traders, black slaves in America reproduced and passed on the feelings of inferiority and sometimes bitterness and deep anger.<ref>Lorella Rouster, Anti-Slavery Activism 101, Every Child Ministries, Edition 2, 2011, p. 27-28</ref>

====White slaves====
Between 1530 and 1780, Europeans including Britons and even some Americans were frequently taken captive and enslaved by privateers from the [[Barbary States]]. Estimates of so-called "white slavery" vary from as little as 50,000 to in the millions <ref>http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/whtslav.htm</ref>. Generally Europeans enslaved by the [[corsairs]] were usually poorer sea merchants and city dwellers whose families were unable to pay the ransom necessary to free them. Often the [[Pasha]] would purchase the female captives into his harem. Many were forced to "go turk" or convert to "mohammadism" in order to stay with their children who were raised as Muslims. Occasionally slaves would convert in order to escape harsher labors such as tending the oars in the corsairs <ref>http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/white_slaves_print.html</ref>.

For a long time, until the early 18th century, the Crimean Khanate maintained a massive slave trade with the [[Ottoman Empire]] and the Middle East. Kefe was one of the best known and significant trading ports and slave markets. In a process called "harvesting of the steppe" Crimean Tatars enslaved many Slavic peasants.
[[Image:Boulanger Gustave Clarence Rudolphe The Slave Market.jpg|right|thumb|350px|[[Gustave Boulanger]], ''The Slave Market''.]]

====Islam====
In Senegambia, between 1300 and 1900, close to one-third of the population was enslaved. In early [[Islamic]] states of the western Sudan, including Ghana (750-1076), Mali (1235–1645), Segou (1712–1861), and Songhai (1275-1591), about a third of the population were slaves. In [[Sierra Leone]] in the 19th century about half of the population consisted of slaves. In the 19th century at least half the population was enslaved among the Duala of the Cameroon, the [[Igbo]] and other peoples of the lower Niger, the [[Kingdom of Kongo|Kongo]], and the Kasanje kingdom and Choke of [[Angola]]. Among the Ashanti and Yoruba a third of the population consisted of slaves. The population of the [[Kanem]] was about a third-slave. It was perhaps 40% in Bornu (1396–1893). Between 1750 and 1900 from one- to two-thirds of the entire population of the Fulani jihad states consisted of slaves. The population of the Sokoto caliphate formed by Hausas in the northern [[Nigeria]] and Cameroon was half-slave in the 19th century. It is estimated that up to 90% of the population of [[Arab]]-Swahili Zanzibar was enslaved. Roughly half the population of [[Madagascar]] was enslaved.<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/blackhistory/article-24157 Welcome to Encyclopædia Britannica's Guide to Black History]</ref>

The Anti-Slavery Society estimated that there were 2 million slaves in [[Ethiopia]] in the early 1930s, out of an estimated population of between 8 and 16 million.<ref>[http://www.yale.edu/glc/events/cbss/Miers.pdf Twentieth Century Solutions of the Abolition of Slavery]</ref> Ethiopia officially abolished slavery and serfdom after regaining its independence in 1942. On August 26, 1942 [[Haile Selassie]] issued a proclamation outlawing slavery.<ref>[http://www.globalmarch.org/resourcecentre/world/ethiopia.pdf Ethiopia]; [http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/2691/COS2.html Chronology of slavery]</ref>
====India====
India in 1841 had an estimated 8,000,000 or 9,000,000 slaves in India.<ref>According to Sir Henry Bartle Frere (who sat on the Viceroy's Council).</ref> In Malabar, about 15% of the population were slaves. Slavery was abolished in both Hindu and Muslim India by the Indian Slavery Act V. of 1843. Provisions of the Indian Penal Code of 1861 effectively abolished slavery in India by making the enslavement of human beings a criminal offense.<ref>[http://www.wluml.org/english/pubs/pdf/occpaper/OCP-07.pdf Islamic Law and the Colonial Encounter in British India]</ref>
====Korea====
Indigenous slaves existed in [[Korea]]. During the Joseon Dynasty (1392–1910) about 30% to 40% of the Korean population consisted of slaves. Slavery was hereditary, as well as a form of legal punishment. There was a slave class with both government and privately owned slaves, and the government occasionally gave slaves to citizens of higher rank. Privately owned slaves could be inherited as personal property. During poor harvests and famine, many peasants would voluntarily become slaves in order to survive. In the case of private slaves they could buy their freedom.<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-693609/history-of-Korea Korea, history pre-1945:slavery -- Encyclopaedia Britannica]</ref><ref>[http://www.geog.buffalo.edu/~geobl/main/lectures/l17.html The Choson Era: Late Traditional Korea]</ref><ref>[http://ideas.repec.org/p/snu/ioerwp/no26.html Korean Nobi]</ref> Slavery was officially abolished with the Gabo Reform of 1894.

===Present Day===
Slavery was also known among [[Arabs]] into the 20th century. As recently as the 1950s, [[Saudi Arabia]] had an estimated 450,000 slaves, 20% of the population.<ref>[http://www.answering-islam.org/Silas/slavery.htm Slavery in Islam]</ref><ref>[http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/apr07/page18.html £400 for a Slave]</ref> It is estimated that as many as 200,000 people had been taken into slavery in Sudan during the Second Sudanese Civil War.<ref>[http://www.iabolish.org/slavery_today/in_depth/sudan-genocide.html War and Genocide in Sudan]</ref><ref>[http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/livewire/archived/the_lost_children_of_sudan/ The Lost Children of Sudan]</ref> In [[Mauritania]] it is estimated that up to 600,000 men, women and children, or 20% of the population, are currently enslaved, many of them used as bonded labor.<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/1458_abolition/page4.shtml The Abolition season on BBC World Service]</ref> Slavery in Mauritania was finally criminalized in 2007.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6938032.stm Mauritanian MPs pass slavery law]</ref> In [[Niger]], slavery is also a current phenomenon; a Nigerien study has found that more than 800,000 people, or almost 8% of the population, are slaves.<ref>[http://abcnews.go.com/International/Story?id=813618&page=1 The Shackles of Slavery in Niger]</ref><ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/4250709.stm Born to be a slave in Niger]</ref> The Tuareg-rebels in [[Mali]] have a long tradition of practicing slavery.<ref>http://frontpagemag.com/2013/howard-rotberg/slave-labor-from-auschwitz-to-mali/</ref>

Also, the term "slavery" is often used metaphorically for sex workers who are controlled by pimps.

==Famous Slaves==
* [[St. Felicity]]
* [[St. Patrick]]
* [[Pope Pius I]]
* [[Pope Callixtus I]]
* [[Pope Clement I]]
* [[Spartacus]]
* [[Frederick Douglass]]
* [[Harriet Tubman]]
* [[Dred Scott]]
* [[Booker T. Washington]]
* [[Atilla the Hun]]
* [[Denmark Vesey]]

==Abolition of Slavery==
===France===
France had slavery in its Caribbean colonies and [[Condorcet]] (1743 - 1794), an influential [[philosophe]], rejected slavery as antithetical to Enlightenment morality. He became a leader in the antislavery movement and in the 1780s attacked the institution of slavery on philosophical and moral grounds in his writings. After 1780, Condorcet took a leading, though secret, role in antislavery agitation by writing ''Reflections on Negro Slavery'' under the pseudonym Dr. Schwartz. In 1784, he was a founder and principal actor in La Société des Amis des Noirs, which sought to prepare for the eventual abolition of slavery. By 1794, Condorcet still supported colonization, but believed that a colonization based on liberal economics and civil equality could transform the world.

[[Napoleon]] (ruled 1799-1815) made a major adventure into the Caribbean--sending 30,000 troops in 1802 to retake Saint Domingue ([[Haiti]]) from ex-slaves under black leader [[Toussaint L'Ouverture]] who had revolted and killed off the whites and mulattoes. Napoleon wanted to preserve France's financial benefits from the colony's sugar and coffee crops; he then planned to establish a major base at New Orleans. He therefore reestablished slavery in Haiti and [[Guadeloupe]], where it had been abolished after rebellions. Slaves and black freedmen fought the French for their freedom and independence. Revolutionary ideals played a central role in the fighting for it was the slaves and their comrades who were fighting for the revolutionary ideals of freedom and equality, while the French troops under General Charles Leclerc fought to restore the order of the ancien régime. The goal of reestablishing slavery - which explicitly contradicted the ideals of the French Revolution - demoralized the French troops. The demoralized French soldiers were unable to cope with the tropical diseases, and most died of yellow fever. Slavery was reimposed in Guadeloupe but not in Haiti, which became an independent black republic. <ref> Philippe R. Girard, "Liberte, Egalite, Esclavage: French Revolutionary Ideals and the Failure of the Leclerc Expedition to Saint-Domingue." ''French Colonial History'' 2005 6: 55-77. in [[Project MUSE]]</ref> Napoleon's vast colonial dreams for Egypt, India, the Caribbean, Louisiana, and even Australia were all doomed for lack of a fleet capable of matching Britain's Royal Navy. Realizing the fiasco Napoleon liquidated the Haiti project, brought home the survivors and sold off Louisiana to the U.S.<ref>Steven Englund, ''Napoleon: A Political Life'' (2004). p 259. Slavery remained in Guadeloupe until 1848.</ref>

===United States===
The first black slaves were brought to [[Jamestown]] Colony early on. Originally, slavery was legal in every British American colony. However, after the [[American Revolution]], the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that, since the new state constitution read, "All men are born free and equal, and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights; among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties", it made slavery illegal. By 1804, slavery had been abolished in every northern state.<ref>However, in many states, current slaves remained in servitude for the rest of their lives.</ref>

[[The South]] after 1800 became more militant in defense of slavery. [[John C. Calhoun]] and other southerners (usually members of the [[Democratic Party]]) called it the South's "peculiar institution" and proclaimed it a good idea. Some proponents suggested it would also be a good idea for white workers who were living under worse conditions in Northern cities.<ref> Elizabeth Fox-Genovese and Eugene D. Genovese, ''Slavery in White and Black: Class and Race in the Southern Slaveholders'' (2008)</ref> It flourished in the Southern states until [[Abraham Lincoln]], a Republican, and his Union Army abolished it during the [[American Civil War]]. This was a case of racial slavery--the slaves were black, the owners were white.<ref> A few free blacks owned slaves--usually relatives they had purchased from whites. Indian tribes also had slaves, both Indian and black.</ref>

===British Empire===
Emancipation of slaves in the British Caribbean became a major cause by the 1800s, when abolitionists such as [[William Wilberforce]] and [[John Wesley]] began speaking out against the evils of the system.<ref>[http://www.brycchancarey.com/abolition/wilberforce.htm William Wilberforce (1759-1833)]</ref> Wilberforce was supported in his efforts by [[John Newton]], a slave trader who became a Christian and then opposed the slave trade. In 1807 the [[House of Commons]] passed the Slave Trade Abolition Bill by a 283-16 vote. It made the international slave trade a crime of piracy and sent the Royal Navy to enforce it.<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/devon/content/articles/2007/03/20/abolition_navy_feature.shtml Sailing against slavery. By Jo Loosemore] BBC</ref> In 1808 the U.S. also outlawed the international trade. However, some slave traders evaded the prohibition--many were caught and hung, with the freed captives sent to [[Sierra Leone]]. Slavery remained legal inside the [[British Empire]] (including Canada) until 1833 when the government bought all the slaves from the owners<ref> Mostof the owners lived in great mansions in London, and appreciated the money.</ref> and freed them.<ref>The ex-slaves went through an apprenticeship process before gaining freedom. Andrea Curry ''Timeline: The Abolition of the Slave Trade'', British Heritage Magazine (May 2007)</ref> <ref>[http://slavetrade.parliament.uk/slavetrade/history/parliamentabolishestheslavetrade/draftdocument.html History: Parliament Abolishes the Slave Trade] Parliamentary House of Lords</ref>

===United States===
In the United States, the northern states abolished slavery by 1803--most of the slaves there were house servants. In [[The South]], however, cotton made slavery very profitable and 11 states seceded in 1861 to protect their interest. [[Abraham Lincoln]] achieved the end of slavery in 1863-65, using the Army and the [[13th Amendment]]. In Cuba and Brazil, slavery was unprofitable and finally collapsed in the 1880s as few people wanted to buy slaves.

===Abolitionists===
*[[Harriet Tubman]], Underground Railroad. (1820 - 1913) <ref>http://www.heritageny.gov/Railroad/urny.cfm</ref> Well-known associate of the Underground Railroad. Acted as a spy and led raids to assist others in gaining their freedom.
*[[Frederick Douglass]], orator, writer and publisher. (1817 - 1875) <ref>http://www.nndb.com/people/447/000048303/</ref> Respected leader of the abolitionist movement, consummate freedom seeker, orator and publisher.
*[[Ralph Waldo Emerson]], unitarian minister and freethinker. (1803-1882) <ref>http://www25.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/ralphwaldoemerson.html </ref> Expressed visceral public disapproval of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Exhorted people to "do the duty of the hour", and support abolition.
*[[William Lloyd Garrison]], anti-slavery editor of the Liberator (1805 - 1879); the single most imfluential abolitionist <ref>http://www.nndb.com/people/966/000049819/</ref> Founded the Liberator with partner Isaac Knapp in 1831.
*[[Elizur Wright]], abolitionist, freethinker. (1804-1885) <ref> http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0852788.html</ref> Became involved in the abolitionist movement while attending Yale university. Eventually worked as a secretary with the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833 and assumed the editorship of the Massachusetts Abolitionist in 1839.
*[[John Brown]] (1800-1859), tried to lead a slave rebellion in 1859; the slaves did not join him, but white Southerners became convinced there were many more John Browns to come if they stayed in the Union
*[[John Stuart Mill]], philosopher, essayist. (1806 - 1879) <ref>http://www.nndb.com/people/147/000030057/</ref> Wrote numerous essays on abolition during the American Civil War. Asserted the war was being fought to abolish slavery, an unpopular political opinion at the time.

==Biblical Perspective==
{{main|Slavery in the Bible}}
[[File:Alma - Tadema The Finding of Moses 1904.jpg|thumb|360px|[[Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema]], The Finding of Moses, 1904.]]
Slavery was an well-established institution throughout the Ancient Near East, and the
[[Old Testament]] sanctions its form of regulated slavery, though that is seen as being counter cultural in its degree of amelioration, including as compared to that of ancient slave states as Greece and Rome, and the typical practice of slavery in American history.<ref>[http://www.christian-thinktank.com/qnoslave.html ''Does God condone slavery in the Bible?'']</ref><ref>[http://www.christian-thinktank.com/qnoslavent.html ''The issue of 'slavery' in the NT/Apostolic world'']</ref> The New Testament does not condemn the institution itself, but makes requirements upon both masters and slaves in further improving treatment in the inherited economic institution.

Slave owners in the antebellum South cited both Old Testament and New Testament texts, such as Ephesians 6:5, “slaves, obey your masters”, in arguments for the Christian endorsement of slavery. Another Bible verse states that thieves should be sold into slavery.<ref>Exodus 22:3 "He should make a full restitution; and if he have nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft.</ref> Under the [[Mosaic Law]], Hebrew slaves could be kept for six years, and offered release in the seventh for nothing. They were to be treated as hired servants, and generous provisions given to them at termination, though they could choose to be lifetime servants. However, daughters who were sold to be betrothed to the owner or his son, were not set free in their seventh year but were to be allowed to be redeemed if that marriage had not taken place done. If marriage occurred, they were to be set free if the husband was negligent in his basic marital obligations.(Exodus 21:1-11; cf. Dt. 15:12-18)

The system of slavery commonly diminished a person to the point where they would be regarded as a thing or an object to be owned. The Christian [[abolitionists]] disagreed with this valuation, and saw the New Testament in particular, and its ethos of love for neighbor as oneself, as supporting the abolition of slavery, and advanced an interpretation of the Bible which presented human value in terms of God's parental love for all people as His children (see [[human rights]]).<ref>[http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/bourne/bourne.html Bourne, George, 1780-1845, ''A Condensed Anti-Slavery Bible Argument; By a Citizen of Virginia'']</ref><ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=3n4OGC-OoqIC&dq=God+Against+Slavery+George+B.+Cheever,&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=YCiuzJHs7T&sig=GyTdW1UZEO6eqV6XxdKv2v_SJF8&hl=en&ei=oaWRSvHyJpPDlAeXqdCjDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false George B. Cheever, ''God Against Slavery'' (1875)]</ref>

While requiring Christian obedience <ref>''Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible'', Eph. 6:7; cf. Rm. 13:1</ref> of slaves toward their masters, the New Testament also requires masters to exercise their duties in the fear of God, and prohibits threatening, abuse or unequal pay for slaves. ((Eph. 6:9; Col. 4:1) (1Cor. 7:21) It also commands slaves to obtain freedom if possible, and contains the record of the [[apostle Paul]] requiring that the escaped slave Onesimus be received back by his master Philemon, no longer "as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved", even as Paul himself (Philemon 1:16,17)

[[Pat Robertson]], while acknowledging the Old Testament's teachings on slavery, argues that "we have moved in our conception of the value of human beings over the years" until we have realized that slavery is "terribly wrong."<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-DtlRyvC34 Pat Robertson on the Bible and slavery]</ref>

===Curse of Ham===
Some Southern white theologians before the Civil War asserted that the slavery of blacks was the result the curse of Ham. However, there is no evidence that the curse had to do with skin color, and the descendants of [[Canaan]] most likely were not black, and it is generally concluded that they did not settle in [[Africa]].<ref>http://www.bible.org/page.php?page_id=70</ref><ref>http://www.christiananswers.net/q-aig/race-blacks.html</ref><ref>Full Life Study Bible, Zondervan Publishing Company (September 1992)</ref><ref>A Condensed Anti-slavery Bible Argument By George Bourne </ref>

==Further reading==
* [[Abolitionism]]
* [[American Civil War]]

===Reference===
* Finkelman, Paul, and Joseph C. Miller, eds. ''Macmillan Encyclopedia of World Slavery'' (1999), very good reference
* Morgan, Kenneth. ''Slavery and the British Empire: From Africa to America'' (2008) [http://www.amazon.com/Slavery-British-Empire-Africa-America/dp/0192892916/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241544745&sr=1-5 excerpt and text search]
* Parish, Peter J. '' Slavery: History and Historians'' (1989) [http://www.questia.com/library/book/slavery-history-and-historians-by-peter-j-parish.jsp online edition]
* Rodriguez, Junius P., ed. ''The Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery'' (2 vol. 1997), very good reference
===Rome===
* Bradley, Keith. ''Slavery and Society at Rome'' (1994) [http://www.amazon.com/Slavery-Society-Themes-Ancient-History/dp/0521378877/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254513594&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
* Westermann, William L. ''The Slave Systems of Greek and Roman Antiquity'' 91955) 182pp [http://www.questia.com/read/3797806?title=The%20Slave%20Systems%20of%20Greek%20and%20Roman%20Antiquity online edition]

===United States===
* Fogel, Robert. ''Without Consent or Contract: The Rise and Fall of American Slavery'' (1989) [http://www.questia.com/library/book/without-consent-or-contract-the-rise-and-fall-of-american-slavery-by-robert-william-fogel.jsp online edition]
* Genovese, Eugene. ''Roll Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made'' (1974), the most important book, written as Genovese was moving from Marxism to conservatism
* Miller, Randall M., and John David Smith, eds. ''Dictionary of Afro-American Slavery'' (1988), exellent reference
* Phillips, Ulrich B. ''American Negro Slavery: A Survey of the Supply, Employment and Control of Negro Labor as Determined by the Plantation Regime'' (1918), the best older history; leftists complain it does not share their biases. [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/11490 free edition online]

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

==External links==
*[http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/black-slavery-and-islamic-racism/ Islamic Slavery and Racism]

[[Category:Black History]]
[[Category:The South]]
[[Category:Civil Rights]]
[[Category:British Empire]]
[[Category:African History]]

RAF Fylingdales

2015-11-18T07:43:50Z

JamesMT: copy edit

'''RAF Fylingdales''' is a [[Radar]] station in the [[United Kingdom]], operated by the [[Royal Air Force]] in a top secret location just off the A169 [[Whitby]] to [[Pickering]] Road in [[North Yorkshire]]. Once famous for its giant white Golf ball-like [[Radome]]s during the [[cold war]], it is now just a giant concrete triangular shaped building. It provides an integrale role in tracking objects in space.

[[Category:Yorkshire]]
[[Category:Radar Stations]]
[[Category:Royal Air Force]]

Alternate history

2015-11-18T07:36:51Z

JamesMT: copy edit

'''Alternate history''' is a broad genre that covers any event in history that could have happened differently. One possible alternated history would be a scenario in which the [[Confederate States of America|the South]] won the [[American Civil War]]. Filmmaker Kevin Willmott, a professor at the [[University of Kansas]], made a film called ''CSA: Confederate States of America'' dealing with this subject.
The author widely considered to be the best in the genre is [[Harry Turtledove]].

==See also==
[[Counterfactual history]]

[[category:genres]]
[[Category:History]]

Best arguments against homosexuality

2015-10-13T04:35:58Z

JamesMT: copy edit

The '''best arguments against homosexuality''' are as follows:

=== Top ten arguments ===

#it's unhealthy, and it's better to encourage people to adopt healthier lifestyles<ref>This argument worries the [[Left]]. [http://www.massresistance.org/docs/gen2/15b/DrChurch-BIDMC/hearing-coming_072715.html One hospital recently fired a physician for informing the public about the health risks] of [[homosexuality]].</ref>
#it's not [[pro-life]]<ref>Nothing the Left can do about this argument, which resonates well with the increasingly pro-life youth.</ref>
#it's anti-[[Bible]] - no other conduct is condemned as much by the [[Bible]] as [[homosexuality]]<ref>The Bible even condemns those who approve of homosexuality. ''See'' Romans 1:32.</ref>
#it's infringing on more important freedoms, like freedom of religion and speech
#it's another [[Leftist]] political movement, which [[communists]] support
#it's promoted far too much by the [[liberal media]] - if the lifestyle were good, then why would [[liberal censorship]] of criticism be necessary?
#people should be able to leave the lifestyle if they want to, so why are homosexuals working hard to ban [[conversion therapy]]?
#homosexuals are wealthier than heterosexuals, so homosexuals don't need any more handouts like benefits for same-sex couples
#it's an anti-Christian movement - why aren't homosexual activists suing Muslim or Hindu bakers for not serving [[same-sex marriage]]?
#it's a selfish movement - notice how billionaire homosexuals are not setting up hospitals as Christians have

=== Additional arguments ===

#tired of the gay corruption, which has become too big of a problem
#believe in real marriage instead
#there is no "gay gene" and studies of twins prove this
#the [[homosexual agenda]] is the wrong direction for our country
#many horrific crimes have been committed by men caught up in the homosexual lifestyle
#the homosexual lifestyle increases suicide rates
#states and local communities should be deciding this, not a few justices in D.C.
#churches have rights too
#disordered conduct is the wrong direction for individuals and our Nation

(add to list)

=== References ===

<references/>

=== See also ===

*[[Arguments Against Homosexuality]]
*[[Ex-homosexuals]]
*[[Conversion therapy]]
*[[Homosexuality and the Bible]]
[[Category:Homosexuality]]

Best arguments against homosexuality

2015-10-13T04:32:47Z

JamesMT: spelling

The '''best arguments against homosexuality''' are as follows:

=== Top ten arguments ===

#it's unhealthy, and it's better to encourage people to adopt healthier lifestyles<ref>This argument worries the [[Left]]. [http://www.massresistance.org/docs/gen2/15b/DrChurch-BIDMC/hearing-coming_072715.html One hospital recently fired a physician for informing the public about the health risks] of [[homosexuality]].</ref>
#it's not [[pro-life]]<ref>Nothing the Left can do about this argument, which resonates well with the increasingly pro-life youth.</ref>
#it's anti-[[Bible]] - no other conduct is condemned as much by the [[Bible]] as [[homosexuality]]<ref>The Bible even condemns those who approve of homosexuality. ''See'' Romans 1:32.</ref>
#it's infringing on more important freedoms, like freedom of religion and speech
#it's another [[Leftist]] political movement, which [[communists]] support
#it's promoted far too much by the [[liberal media]] - if the lifestyle were good, then why would [[liberal censorship]] of criticism be necessary?
#people should be able to leave the lifestyle if they want to, so why are homosexuals working hard to ban [[conversion therapy]]?
#homosexuals are wealthier than heterosexuals, so homosexuals don't need any more handouts like benefits for same-sex couples
#it's an anti-Christian movement - why aren't homosexual activists suing Muslim or Hindu bakers for not serving [[same-sex marriage]]?
#it's a selfish movement - notice how billionaire homosexuals are not setting up hospitals as Christians have

=== Additional arguments ===

#tired of the gay corruption, which has become too big of a problem
#believe in real marriage instead
#there is no "gay gene" and studies of twins prove this
#the [[homosexual agenda]] is the wrong direction for our country
#many horrific crimes have been committed by men caught up in the homosexual lifestyle
#the homosexual lifestyle increases suicide rates
#states and local communities should be deciding this, not a few justices in D.C.
#churches have rights too
#disordered conduct is the wrong direction, for individuals and our Nation

(add to list)

=== References ===

<references/>

=== See also ===

*[[Arguments Against Homosexuality]]
*[[Ex-homosexuals]]
*[[Conversion therapy]]
*[[Homosexuality and the Bible]]
[[Category:Homosexuality]]

Age of the Earth

2015-10-07T03:46:30Z

JamesMT: typo

[[File:Blue Marble.jpg|thumbnail|200px|right|The historical and scientific evidence strongly indicates that the [[earth]] is approximately 6,000 years old.{{#tag:ref|cf.
*Age of the earth: 101 evidences for a young age of the earth and the universe<ref name="101Evidences">{{cite web |title=Age of the earth; 101 evidences for a young age of the earth and the universe |author=Don Batten |publisher= CMI |date= 4 June 2009 |url=http://creation.com/age-of-the-earth}}</ref>
*How old is the earth?<ref name="RefutingEvo">{{cite book |title=Refuting Evolution; How old is the earth? |author=Jonathan Sarfati |chapter =8 |url=http://creation.com/how-old-is-the-earth}}</ref>
*[http://creation.com/young-age-of-the-earth-universe-qa ‘Young’ age of the Earth & Universe Q&A]
*[http://creation.com/jesus-age-earth Jesus on the age of the earth]|group=note}}]]
''See also [[Counterexamples to an Old Earth]].''

The '''Age of the Earth''' has been a matter of interest to humans for millennia. All verifiable evidence indicates that the Earth is only about 6,000 years old. Yet with circular reasoning and implausible assumptions, [[liberals]] insist that the Earth is approximately 4.54 billion years (4.54 × 10<sup>9</sup> ± 1%).<ref name="101Evidences"/><ref name="RefutingEvo"/><ref>[http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/10/22/opinion/polls/main965223.shtml polling]</ref>

Old Earth advocates rely on one flawed assumption to the exclusion of other evidence, similar to how an investigator may mistakenly rely on one faulty eyewitness's opinion to the exclusion of all else. In fact, eyewitness testimony is proven to be less reliable than other indicators, just as the assumption by Old Earth proponents that the [[Radiometric dating|rate of radioactive decay]] has always been constant is flawed. In fact, the rate of radioactive decay would inevitably slow down as the universe cools.

Moreover, a large number of physical processes, such as neutron capture and fluctuations in solar radiation, affect the rate of radioactive decay of elements in the Earth's crust and render radioactive dating measurements unreliable, depending upon the specific methods used.<ref>http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0899536205000138#bib6</ref>

Much scientific evidence points to a [[young earth creationism|young age]] of the earth and the universe and the biblical creation organization [[Creation Ministries International]] published articles entitled ''[http://creation.com/age-of-the-earth 101 evidences for a young age of the earth and the universe]'' and [http://creation.com/how-old-is-the-earth How old is the earth?] which summarize some of the evidence for a young age of the earth.

== Historical views ==
[[Image:Landscape.jpg|right|300px]]
=== Widespread Historical Acceptance of Biblical Account ===
For most of recorded history humans of many backgrounds, such as St. Barnabas and St. Irenæus,<ref>Burnet, p. 259.</ref> viewed the age of the Earth to be around 6,000 years.<ref>Burnet, p. 258.</ref>

Saint [[Cyril]], who came into Great Moravia (present day [[Slovakia]] and Moravia in [[Czech Republic]]) from [[Byzantine Empire]] in 863 [[AD]] as Christian [[missionary]], wrote in his poem ''Proglas'',<ref>{{cite web
|title=Proglas
|publisher=sme.sk
|url=http://zlatyfond.sme.sk/dielo/93/Filozof_Proglas
|language=Slovak
|access date=05.05.2012
|quote=The parchment version of Proglas in Cyrillic from 13th century was discovered in 1858 by Russian Slavic scholar Hilferding}}</ref> dedicated to his works on translation of the four [[Bible|biblical]] [[The Gospels|Gospel]]s to Slavonic language, the following sentence that brings testimony about the perception of the age of the world that time:
{| class="wikitable"
| rowspan="4" |{{cquote|To the holy Gospels I am the Foreword:<br/> for as it was promised by the prophets long ago,<br/> Christ comes to gather the nations,<br/> for He sheds light on the world entire.<br/>That is what has happened ''in our '''seventh''' millennium.''}}
!''The seventh millennium'' since the [[Creation]] was calculated as follows:
|-
| '''5 508''' years that had passed since the Creation till [[Jesus Christ]]’s birth plus
|-
| '''863''' (the year when Constantine and Methodius had come to Moravia)
|-
|results in figure of '''6 371'''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Proglas, the foreword to the Old Church Slavonic translation of the four Gospels|publisher=The Centre for Information on Literature, Slovakia|url=http://www.litcentrum.sk/36106|access date=05.05.2012|quote=Explanations: '''in our seventh millennium''' – it means the seventh millennium since the Creation. It was calculated as follows: 5 508 years that had passed since the Creation till Jesus Christ’s birth plus 863 AD (the year when Constantine and Methodius had come to Moravia) added to the year 6 371 -- that is seventh millennium.}}</ref>
|}
Prior to the onset of [[totalitarian]] and [[uniformitarianism |uniformitarian]] (i.e. long-age) [[scientism]] promoted by [[Charles Lyell|Lyell]], [[Darwin]], [[T. H. Huxley|Huxley]], and others in the 19th century, when most people and scientists in [[Europe]] and [[North America]] had a [[Christian]] or [[biblical]] worldview, the [[atheist]]ic [[evolution]]ary concept of billions of years for the age of the earth was unknown to mainstream [[Western civilization|Western]] [[science]] beyond cursory [[philosophical]] speculations.<ref name="YECBritannica">{{cite web |title=Encyclopaedia Britannica: supporting a young earth! |publisher=creation.com |url=http://creation.com/encyclopedia-britannica-supporting-a-young-earth |quote=The concept of billions of years for the age of the earth was unknown to science (or to the church[4]) before the rise of uniformitarianism in the 19th century. This is strong evidence that modern long-age views of creation do not originate in Genesis, but are a misguided attempt by some Christian leaders to try to reconcile what God has said with the atheistic pronouncements of evolutionary ‘science’.|accessdate=November 8, 2014}}</ref>

For example, in his 1619 book the ''Harmonices Mundi'' (The Harmony of the World), [[Johannes Kepler]], [[mathematician]] and [[astronomer]], wrote that he does not care if his book will need to wait a century for a reader, as [[God]] has waited '''six thousand years''' for him as an [[Scientific observation|observer]].<ref>{{cite book |title=The Harmony of the World |author=Johannes Kepler |publisher=American Philosophical Society |year=1997 |pages=IX, XXXVII, 391, 410 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=rEkLAAAAIAAJ&q=six+thousand#v=snippet&q=six%20thousand&f=false|quote=O, Almighty God, I am thinking Thy thoughts after Thee! ... The book is written, to be read either now or by posterity, I care not which. It may be well to wait a century for a reader, as God has waited six thousand years for an observer.}}</ref> Kepler calculated a Creation date of 3992 BC, and [[Isaac Newton]] also strongly defended biblical chronology.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Greatest Hoax on Earth? Refuting Dawkins on Evolution |author=Jonathan Sarfati |publisher=Creation Books Publishers |year=2010 |place=Atlanta, Georgia, USA |pages=311 |isbn=978-1921-643064 |url=http://creation.com/the-greatest-hoax-on-earth/main.php |quote=Kepler calculated a Creation date of 3992 BC, and Isaac Newton (1643-1727), probably the greatest scientist of all time, also strongly defended biblical chronology.}}</ref><ref name="Newton">{{cite book
|author= Isaac Newton
|title= Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John
|publisher=Originally: J. DARBY and T. BROWNE (2005:Project Gutenberg)
|place=London
|chapter=PART I. Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel.CHAP. I. Introduction concerning the Compilers of the Books of the Old Testament.
|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16878?msg=welcome_stranger
|quote=The Pentateuch is composed of the Law and the history of God’s people together; and the history hath been collected from several books, such as were the history of the Creation composed by Moses, Genesis 2:4; the book of the generations of Adam, #Ge 5:1;
|accessdate=26 July 2015}}</ref><br>

In 1771, the first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, the oldest English-language general encyclopedia that was first published as a 3-volume set in Scotland, included a table of world events under the heading ‘Astronomy’ on page 493. These events begin with the [[creation]] of the world in the year 0, which they dated at 4007 years before Christ.<ref name="YECBritannica"/><ref>{{cite web |title= Encyclopaedia Britannica: supporting a young earth! |publisher= creation.com |url=http://creation.com/media-center?fileID=Rj4PFM_od9U |quote= The notion that the world in billions of years old has only been popular for about 200 years. Before that time most scientists understood that Noah's Flood was responsible for laying down the rocks which today are associated with millions of years. Richard Fangrad and Calvin Smith discuss the details. |accessdate=November 8, 2014}}</ref><br>

In 1830, Dr. Hales published a list of 120 historical authorities from various cultures who had decided on an official [[date of creation]].<ref name="Hales">{{cite book |title=Chronology and geography |author=William Hales |publisher=C.J.G. & F. Rivington |year=1830 |page= |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=aNfVAAAAMAAJ}}</ref> These ranged from 6984 B.C. to 3616 B.C.<ref>Batten 2002 quotes from "Young’s Analytical Concordance of the Holy Bible", 1879 8th Edition, 1939, which relates this, and reproduces the selection of the dates from Young.</ref>

Included in Hales' list is [[James Ussher]], who calculated the '''famous date of 4004 B.C.''' for creation<ref name="Carson">{{cite book
|author=David G. Dunbar et al.
|title=Hermeneutics, Authority, and Canon
|editor=D.A. Carson and J.D. Woodbridge
|publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers
|year=1986 (Zondervan), 2005
|location=Eugene, Oregon
|chapter=Nine: The Biblical Canon
|pages=256
|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=XHoFAQAACAAJ
|isbn=1-59752-118-3
|quote= Professor John Redwood describes the commitments of seventeenth century Christians: “To the seventeenth-century biblical chronology, the account of Moses, and the science of geology were all part of the same world of learning. No one seeking to enquire into rocks or minerals, into earth history of formation of the earth’s configuration could afford to ignore or deny the value of his primary source, the Bible.” James Ussher in the early seventeenth century had based his dating of creation at 4004 B.C. on a detailed and literal reading of the historical accounts.}}</ref> and published it in his ''magnum opus'', ''[[The Annals of the World]]'' during the mid-1600s. Young Earth creationists still consider this date to be close to the actual date.<ref>{{cite web
|title=Creation Seminar 1 - Age of the Earth (FULL)
|author=Kent Hovind
|publisher=Creation Science Evangelism
|page=31min:00sec
|url=https://youtu.be/szBTl3S24MY?t=1857
|accessdate=26 July 2015
}}</ref>

=== Evolutionists vs. “odius spectre” Kelvin ===
{| class="infobox bordered" style="font-size:95%; width:25em;"
! style="font-size:120%; background:lightgray; text-align:center; padding:5px 0;" | Time as key hero for [[naturalistic]] ‘[[Fog displacement|explanation]]’
|-
| style="padding:15px;" | ''“Time is in fact the hero of the plot … given so much time the "impossible" becomes [[Logic of possibility|possible]], the possible probable and the probably virtually certainly certain. One has only to wait: time itself performs [[miracle]]s.”''
<div style="padding-left:40px;">— George Wald<ref>{{cite book |title= The Physics and Chemistry of Life|author=George Wald |publisher=G. Bell |year= 1957 |pages=12 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=IlCgnQEACAAJ }}</ref><ref name="West">{{cite web |title=Western culture and the age of the earth; Review of The Dating Game: One Man’s Search for the Age of the Earth by Cherry Lewis, Cambridge University Press, 2000 |author= Tas Walker |publisher= CMI |url= http://creation.com/cherry-lewis-the-dating-game-one-mans-search-for-the-age-of-the-earth-book-review |accessdate=13 June 2015
}}</ref>{{#tag:ref|Ad. “time itself performs miracles” - cf. [[Evolution of the gaps]]: An 'explanation' that has no other than philosophical implication and that cannot be tested is regarded for a key symptom of ideological thinking. Moreover, the Slovak poet Ondrej Fabrici maintained that [[idol]]s of the old [[pagan]] belief systems have been refurbished and disguised in the changed setting of the modern era under the new name of scientific endeavor.<ref>{{cite book |title=Prorok Daniel (Prophet Daniel)|author= Jozef Ondrej Markuš|publisher=Matica slovenská|year=2001|page=39|isbn=80-7090-600-6|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=zpnkAAAACAAJ|language=Slovak |quote=
Či zmenil dačo Chronos starý
na plánoch tých Babylonu,
hoci sa ako dieťa tvári
vek atómu, elektrónu?!

Len tváre figúr vymenené,
technika ťahov spresnená,
idoly staré postavené
odiali sa v nové mená!

Kulisy zmenil Chronos – čas
Babylon žije prostred nás!
(Ondrej Fabrici)}}</ref> For example, the “incomprehensibly vast periods of time” invoked by evolutionism is in fact nothing more than refurbished and masqueraded belief in creative power of elapsing time represented either by ancient [[Babylonian]] god, transposed into Greek mythology as [[Chronos]], or antique Aeon<ref>{{cite web |title= ЭОН |publisher= dic.academic.ru |url= http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enc_philosophy/3798/ЭОН |language=Russian |accessdate=14 June 2015 |quote= ЭОН (греч. ), термин др.-греч. философии, «жизненный век», «вечность», время в аспекте жизненного существования, как некая целостная самозамкнутая структура (ср. лат. aevum, рус. «век») в отличие от «хро-носа» как абстрактного, количественно-измерительного, объективного и аморфного времени. … В гностицизме зон – это силы, которые исходят от божества. … Эон в геологии длительный период времени, состоящий из нескольких эр.}}</ref>, a divine power constituting a [[gnostic]] belief system. <ref name="Skarsaune">{{cite book
|author=Oskar Skarsaune
|title=In the Shadow of the Temple: Jewish Influence on Early Christianity
|publisher=IVP Academic
|year=2002
|location=Downers Grove, IL
|pages=246
|chapter=12:Orthodoxy and Heresy
|isbn=978-0-8308-2844-9
|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=2q6qTb-A7GwC
|quote=There are several gnostic “systems,” with a great deal of variety in details, but one can newertheless discern a basic pattern that is common to most or all Gnostic texts: There exists a highest God, who within himself comprises several divine powers. The Gnostics called these powers aeons, and there were different systems of arranging aeons. … This aeon, confused and in despair, created the material world…
}}</ref>|group=note}}</div>
|}
George-Louis Lecrerc, Count of [[Buffon]], rejected [[Christianity]], adopted [[Evolutionism|evolutionary thought]], and thus searched for [[materialistic]] explanations for the [[origin science|origin]] of earth.<ref name="Larson">{{cite book
|author=E.J. Larson
|title=Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory
|publisher=Modern Library
|location=New York
|year=2006
|pages=9, 13-18, 39, 58-62
|isbn=0-8129-6849-2
|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=xzLRvxlJhzkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Larson+Evolution:+The+Remarkable+History&hl=en&sa=X&ei=PbZfVJugD83vaJengLgI&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=rejected%20Christianity%20&f=false}}</ref> In 1778, he proposed that the Earth was about 74,832 years old<ref name="ingv">INGV</ref>, what was in line with thinking that pushed God as creator either back in time or out of the picture altogether.<ref name="Larson"/>
In the early nineteenth-century, the so called [[uniformitarian]]s conspired to overthrow the [[Biblical chronology]] that would measure geologic time in generations of man.<ref name="Richter">{{cite journal |title=Geological Notes: Kelvin and the Age of Earth |author=F.M. Richter |publisher=Journal of Geology |year=1986 |volume=94 |pages=395-401 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/30068713}}</ref> The dictum as a fundamental maxim for their geological speculation and worldview<ref name="PerryInAS">{{cite web |title=Kelvin, Perry and the Age of the Earth |author=Philip C. England, Peter Molnar, Frank M. Richter |date= |url=http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/page2/kelvin-perry-and-the-age-of-the-earth |accessdate=13 June 2015 |quote=Before dissecting Kelvin's arguments, it is worth describing the worldview that he was opposing.}}</ref> was expressed through [[James Hutton]]’s aphorism<ref name="ingv"/>, coming from his 1785 book ''Theory of the earth'': ''“The revolt, therefore, of this physical inquiry is, that we find [[Singularity#Antipathy_to_the_idea_of_beginning|no vestige of a beginning]], [[Horror of a Divine Foot|no prospect of an end]].“''<ref name="KelvinOnDynamics">{{cite web |title=On Geological Dynamics |author=W. Thomson (Lord Kelvin) |publisher= Transactions of the Geological Society of Glasgow |year=1869 |url=http://zapatopi.net/kelvin/papers/on_geological_dynamics.html |aaccessdate=May 17, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Theory of the earth; or an investigation of the laws observable in the composition, dissolution and restoration of land upon the globe. |author=James Hutton |publisher=Royal Society of Edinburgh |year=1785 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=RjYAAAAAQAAJ}}</ref> Hutton's theory of the earth was not based on field observations but on his wishful, speculative confusion of geological process with [[Newton]]ian [[physics]].<ref name="GOULDinNYT">{{cite web |title=IT'S AN OLD, OLD , OLD, OLD WORLD |publisher= NYT |author=D. R. Wallace |date= June 14, 1987 |url=http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/11/09/home/gould-arrow.html |accessdate=7 June 2015 |quote=Hutton's theory of the earth as a geological clockwork of eroding continents balanced against uplifting ocean basins was not based on field observations but on his wishful, speculative confusion of geological process with Newtonian physics....Hutton and Lyell were dedicated not to modern notions of geological dynamism but to antique ones of geological steady-state...The textbook legend of Hutton and Lyell seems dim and confused compared with that of Copernicus and Galileo. In demonstrating the shallowness of that legend}}</ref>

In 1822, [[Joseph Fourier|Fourier]] laid the groundwork for the mathematical analysis of the flow of [[heat]] in his treatise ''Théorie Analytique de la Chaleur''; and later, in 1827, he published arguments that the Earth must be cooling.<ref name="PerryKelvinCritique">{{cite journal | title=John Perry’s neglected critique of Kelvin’s age for the Earth: A missed opportunity in geodynamics |author=P. England, P. Molnar, F. Richter |journal=GSA Today |volume= 17 |number= 1 |date=January 2007 |doi=10.1130/GSAT01701A.1 |url=http://www.colorado.edu/GeolSci/faculty/molnarpdf/2007GSAT.England.PerryKelvinBlownOpportunity.pdf |accessdate=5 June 2015 |quote= Fourier ... made arguments that the Earth must be cooling (Fourier, 1827), with which Lyell was certainly familiar (Lyell, 1830, p. 140–141).}}</ref> This was in line with so called [[Kant-Laplace nebular hypothesis]], under which the earth would have gradually cooled from its assumed molten beginnings to its current state.

In 1830 [[Charles Lyell]], despite being familiar with Fourier's arguments<ref name="PerryKelvinCritique"/>, supported, with a convert's zeal, the Hutton's idea of a
steady-state Earth of indefinite age in ''Principles of Geology''<ref name="ingv" />, a book that later influenced [[Darwin]]. Lyell started his book with a self-serving history of geology that [[Academician Burdenko syndrome|uncritically hailed]] any insight anticipating uniformitarianism and under the banner ''“to free the science from Moses”''<ref>{{cite book |author= Charles Lyell |title= Principles of Geology |Volume= 1 |year=1881 (1990)|publisher=University of Chicago Press (reprint) |pages=268 (XVII) |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=9WjnbzHpvfEC |quote=Most other geologists, whether or not they agreed with Lyell on specific issues, would in fact have considered themselves his allies in hoping “to free the science from Moses” (Lyell 1881, vol.1, p.268).}}</ref> [[Kerkut’s student syndrome|utterly dismissed]] the contributions of [[Catastrophism|catastrophists]] including [[Georges Cuvier]], the "lion of nineteenth-century French science" and founder of modern comparative anatomy and paleontology, who as early as 1796 announced ''"the existence of a world previous to ours, destroyed by some kind of catastrophe"'' and whose scientific arguments for the theory of [[special creation]] held back the tide of evolutionary thought for a generation.<ref name="Larson"/> Lyell shown up to be a disciple of Buffon, who resolutely refused to accept the notion of catastrophes, including the [[Noah's Flood|Biblical Flood]], which many of their contemporaries upheld. Before Darwin boarded the HMS Beagle in 1831, his Cambridge tutor Adam Sedgwick, who had supplied just twenty-two years old Darwin with a reading list for the voyage, conspicuously omitted controversial Lyell’s ''Principles''. Darwin was however given a copy of the book by the ship's aristocratic captain Robert FitzRoy, who wished to have some scientific person on board.<ref name="Larson"/><ref>{{cite web |title=The Voyage of Charles Darwin, Part 1 |publisher=BBC |year=1978 |pages=7-part series Part 1, 46min:15sec |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hoDaxVIVPE&feature=youtu.be&t=2850 |accessdate=May 17, 2015 |quote=}}</ref> Darwin was fascinated by book, he dedicated his own writings about the voyage to Lyell, and in his letters claimed that ''"I always feel as if my books came half out of Lyell's brains ... the great merit of the Principles, was that it altered the whole tone of one's mind & therefore that when seeing a thing never seen by Lyell, one yet saw it partially through his eyes."''<ref>{{cite web |title=Darwin Correspondence Database: Darwin, C. R. to Horner, Leonard 29 Aug 1844 |author=Ch.Darwin |publisher=Darwin Correspondence Project by Cambridge University Library |url=http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/entry-771 |accessdate=May 17, 2015}}</ref>
{| class="infobox bordered" style="font-size:95%; width:25em;"
! style="font-size:120%; background:lightgrey; text-align:center; padding:5px 0;" | About people who admit how incomprehensibly vast have been the past periods of time
|-
| style="padding:15px;" |''If the question "When?" is asked, the natural reply is merely a look of astonishment, and persistent enquiry elicits '''nothing more definite than a vague "Long ago."'''{{#tag:ref|Ad. ''“nothing more definite than a vague ’Long ago’”'' cf.
*''«I asked Ramsay how long a time he allowed for that history. He answered that he could suggest no limit to it. I said “You don’t suppose geological history has run through 1,000,000,000 years?” “Certainly I do.” “10,000,000,000 years?” “Yes.” “The sun is a finite body. You can tell how many tons it is. Do you think it has been shining for a million million years? ” “I am as incapable of estimating and understanding the reasons which you physicists have for limiting geological time as you are incapable of understanding the geological reasons for our unlimited estimates.” I answered, “You can understand the physicists’ reasoning perfectly if you give your mind to it.”»'' Lord Kelvin, conversation on geological time with Sir Andrew Ramsay during the meeting of the British Association at Dundee in 1867<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Age of the Earth as an Abode Fitted for Life
|journal=Science |publisher= American Association for the Advancement of Science |volume=9 |issue=228 |date= May 12, 1899 |page=668 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1626214?seq=4#page_scan_tab_contents |acessdate=July 18, 2105}}</ref>
*''“I do not have millions of years”'' Gail E. Kennedy, Associate Professor, Anthropology, [[UCLA]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Evolution Vs. God Movie |publisher=Living Waters |pages=14min:48sec|date=6 Aug 2013 |url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0u3-2CGOMQ&feature=youtu.be&t=885 |accessdate=25 July 2015}}</ref>|group=note}} Anything else, of course, could not be expected from a people whose [[Big Bang theory|conceptions of the development of the universe]] are limited to a recognition of the [[Geologic_system#The_system|alternation of seasons]] and the [[Abiogenesis|insistent mysteries of life]] and death.''<div style="padding-left:40px;">— Arthur Holmes <ref name="Holmes1913">{{cite web |title= The age of the earth |author= Arthur Holmes |publisher= Harper |place=London |year= 1913 |pages=2,11 |url= https://archive.org/details/ageofearth00holmuoft |accessdate=July 18, 2015 |quote=As an example of one of the more extravagant demands, mention may be made of Darwin’s estimate in 1859 of the time elapsed since the latter part of the Cretaceous period. From the rate of chalk erosion in Kent, he deduced that the excavation of the Wealden valleys had required a period of 300 million years. Referring to this estimate, Jukes gave his opinion that while it might be a hundred time too great, it was equally probable that it was hundred times too small. Evidently 30,000 million years, in the absence of more reliable data, was not considered an absurdly excessive period for the erosion of the Weald. It should be noticed, however, that after the publication of Thomson’s views, Darwin withdrew this estimate from the origin of species.}}</ref></div>
|}
In his 1859 ''[[The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection|Origin of species by means of Natural selection]]'', Darwin declared that ''‘He who can read Sir Charles Lyell’s grand work on the Principles of Geology, which the future historian will recognise as having produced a revolution in natural science, yet does not admit how incomprehensibly vast have been the past periods of time, may at once close this volume.’''<ref name="KelvinOnDynamics"/><ref>{{cite book |title= On the Origin of Species |author= Charles Darwin |year=1859 |pages=282 |edition=1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RdIp_XRopbcC&q=incomprehensibly+vast#v=snippet&q=incomprehensibly%20vast&f=false}}</ref> Darwin based his views on Hutton and Lyell who were dedicated not to modern notions of geological dynamism but to antique ones of geological steady-state.<ref name="GOULDinNYT"/> It is believed a feeling of guilt at having helped Darwin arrive at his heretical theories was a factor that might have contributed to FitzRoy’s tragic decision to suicide on 30th April, 1865.<ref>{{cite web |title= FitzRoy's Bicentenary|publisher= The Friends of Charles Darwin |url=http://friendsofdarwin.com/articles/fitzroy/ |quote= The ridicule over the weather forecasts was probably the last straw that drove FitzRoy to suicide on 30th April, 1865. But there were numerous other factors that might have contributed to his tragic decision: his failed New Zealand governorship; a feeling of guilt at having helped Darwin arrive at his heretical theories; his belief that suicide was a family trait; who knows what else might have helped push him over the edge? |accessdate=May 17, 2015}}</ref><ref name="BBC67">{{cite web |title=The Voyage of Charles Darwin, Part 6&7 |publisher=BBC |year=1978 |pages=7-part series Part 6&7, 1h:49min:35sec |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXY-EWZU5qo&feature=youtu.be&t=6575
|accessdate=July 18, 2015 |quote=}}</ref>

The doctrine that the Earth was of unlimited age allowed Uniformitarian geologists to evade [[explanation in science|explaining]] any [[phenomenon|phenomena]] by laws of [[physics]] and resort to [[Fog displacement|blurring]] them by ''“reckless drafts on the bank of time”'' instead. For the legendary British physicist William Thomson, later known as [[Lord Kelvin]], this game without rules was simply not scientific. The speculations of uniformitarians on age of the Earth were forbidden by the laws of the thermodynamics, which he had helped in developing. He showed, with the full force and prestige of mathematical physics,{{#tag:ref|cf.
*''"God is mathematician of a very high order and He used advanced mathematics in constructing the universe."'' [[Paul Dirac]]<ref name="Flew">{{Cite book|title=There is a God, How the world's most notorious atheist changed his mind|author=Antony Flew|publisher=HarperOne|year=2008|isbn=978-0-06-133530-3|pages=105|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=zbL66ePcjpQC |quote= }}</ref>
*''"Religion and natural science are fighting a joint battle in an incessant, never relaxing crusade against skepticism and against dogmatism, against unbelief and superstition … [and therefore] ‘On to God’"'' [[Max Planck]]<ref name="Flew"/>|group=note}} that, if one were to assume that the Earth is a solid body cooling from an initially high temperature, measurement of the rate of heat loss from its surface would clearly place limits on its age.

Kelvin started to advance his arguments under the title ''“Note on Certain Points in the Theory of Heat”'' first in 1844 in ''Cambridge Mathematical Journal''. After clarifying some of Fourier’s mathematics related to the conduction of heat and the dissipation of energy, he presented the upper boundary for the age of the Earth in his 1863 classic paper ''On the Secular Cooling of the Earth'' as '''98 millions of years'''.<ref name="OnSecularCooling">{{cite web |title= On the Secular Cooling of the Earth |author=W. Thomson (Lord Kelvin) |publisher= Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh |year=1864 (Read 1862) |volume= XXIII |pages= 167-169 |url= http://zapatopi.net/kelvin/papers/on_the_secular_cooling_of_the_earth.html |aaccessdate=June 14, 2015}}</ref> The figure was based i.a. on following assumptions and considerations:
{| class="infobox bordered" style="font-size:95%; width:25em;"
! style="font-size:120%; background:lightblue; text-align:center; padding:5px 0;" | On the Kelvin's calculations
|-
| style="padding:15px;" | ''I have sometimes been asked by friends interested in geology to criticise Lord Kelvin's calculation of the probable age of the earth. I have usually said that it is hopeless to expect that Lord Kelvin should have made an error in calculation.''

<div style="padding-left:40px;">—John Perry<ref>{{cite journal |title= On the Age of the Earth |author=John Perry |journal=Nature |date= 3 January 1895 |issue=51 |pages=224-227 |doi=10.1038/051224a0 |url= http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v51/n1314/pdf/051224a0.pdf
}}</ref> </div>
|}
* The ‘celebrated’ '''Poisson’s hypothesis''', that the present underground heat of Earth is due to a passage, at some former period, of the Solar system through hotter stellar regions, would not serve uniformitarians and evolutionists right, since it either grants only short time periods with moderate temperature on earth’s surface or, if the transition from hot region to cold region is shifted further back in time, it leads to extreme temperatures that must have destroyed all animal and vegetable life.
* The '''Leibnitz’s theory''', which simply supposes the earth to have been at one time an incandescent liquid, without explaining how it got into that state, is the best for view of the geologists who require the longest periods.
* The initial temperature of molten blob to be 7000°F or 3888°C, respectively, corresponding to a high estimate of generally assumed temperature of melting rock. Later Kelvin explained that he could take lower value as more probable, but was most anxious not to underestimate the age of the earth based on the very meager information then available.<ref name="KelvinNature1895"/>
* The measurements of underground temperatures near Edinburgh served as basis for the estimated “general increase of temperature in the Earth downwards” alias mean geothermal gradient of 1/50th of a degree Fahrenheit per foot (~ ca 36°C/km).

After taking into account the estimated uncertainties in thermal gradient and thermal conductivity, Kelvin broadened an upper limit for the age of the Earth to interval between 20 and 400 millions of years (20 ~ 400 Ma). In a later paper, based on experimental results performed by Carl Barus (who found out that diabase, a typical [[basalt]] of very primitive character, melts between 1100°C and 1170°C and is thoroughly liquid at 1300°C)<ref name="KelvinNature1895">{{cite journal |title=On the Age of the Earth |author= Lord Kelvin |journal= Nature (reprint in SA)|date= January 3, 1895 |pages= 334-337 |url=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/lord-kelvin-on-the-age-of-the-earth/ |accessdate=14 June 2015 |quote= Carl Barus (Phil. Mag., 1893, first half year, pp. 186, 187, 301-305) that diabase, a typical basalt of very primitive character, melts between 1,100° C. and 1,170° and is thoroughly liquid at 1,300°.}}</ref>, he modified the value for supposed initial molten rock temperature to 1200°C<ref name="Richter"/>, thus by the end of the 1800s narrowed down the interval to 20 ~ 40Ma<ref name="chemeu">{{cite web |title=William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin |publisher=chemeurope.com |url=http://www.chemeurope.com/en/encyclopedia/William_Thomson%2C_1st_Baron_Kelvin.html |accessdate=14 June 2015 |quote= Thomson ultimately settled on an estimate that the Earth was 20-40 million years old }}</ref>, with personal preference for the lower value which is also the most quoted one.<ref>{{cite book |title= The Dating Game: One Man's Search for the Age of the Earth |author= Cherry Lewis |publisher= Cambridge University Press |year= 2012 |pages= 39 |isbn= 978-11076-59599 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=vU1yZQ03Kz0C }}</ref><ref name="West"/>

Many scientists liked these values, since they appeared to be consistent with calculations made by [[Hermann von Helmholtz]], who in 1854 estimated the age of sun to be between 20 and 40 million years,<ref name="ingv"/><ref>{{cite web |title= Trial balloons and the age of the earth |author= Tas Walker |publisher=CMI |url= http://creation.com/trial-balloons-geochronology |accessdate= 14 June 2015}}</ref> but for both evolutionists in biology as well as uniformitarians in geology they were distastefully low.<ref name="KelvinRevisited">{{cite web |title= Lord Kelvin revisited on the young age of the earth |author= John Woodmorappe |publisher=CMI |url= http://creation.com/trial-balloons-geochronology |accessdate= 14 June 2015}}</ref> Darwin wrote in his letters that he has ''“not as yet been able to digest the fundamental notion of the shortened age of the sun and earth,”''<ref>{{cite book |author= Loren Eiseley
|title=Darwin’s Century: Evolution and the Men who Discovered It
|publisher=Anchor
|place=New York
|year=1961
|pages=234, 235, 240
|isbn= 978-03850-81412
|url=http://www.amazon.com/Darwins-Century-Evolution-Men-Discovered/dp/0385081413
}}</ref> and admitted that ''“Thompson's views of the recent age of the world”'' have been for some time one of his ''“sorest troubles.”'' (1869).<ref>{{cite web
|title= Darwin, C. R. to Wallace, A. R., Letter 6706
|author=Charles Darwin
|date= 14 Apr 1869
|publisher= Darwin Correspondence Database
|url=http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/entry-6706#mark-6706.f4
|quote=Thompson's views of the recent age of the world have been for some time one of my sorest troubles, & so I have been glad to read what you say.f4:William Thomson held that the crust of the earth had solidified only 100 million years ago, and had criticised [Charles Darwin]'s estimate in the first edition of Origin of 300 million years for the denudation of the Weald (see W. Thomson 1862a, pp. 391--2). See also Correspondence vol. 16, letter to G. H. Darwin, [9 December 1868].
|accessdate=21 July 2015}}</ref> Notwithstanding some Croll's ''"excellent remarks on the work which can be effected within a million years,"'' he felt ''"greatly troubled at the short duration of the world according to Sir W. Thompson,"'' for Darwin required for his ''"theoretical views a very long period before the [[Cambrian]] formation"''.<ref>{{cite web
|title= Darwin, C. R. to Croll, James, Letter 6585
|author=Charles Darwin
|date= 31 Jan 1869
|publisher= Darwin Correspondence Database
|url= http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/entry-6585
|quote= The physicist William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) had calculated the age of the earth based on its cooling from a molten ball. He concluded that the earth could not possibly have existed with its crust in a similar state as at present for the length of time proposed by geologists (see W. Thomson 1865). In Origin 5th ed., p. 379, [Charles Darwin] noted that based on Thomson's calculation of the age of the earth and Croll's estimation that 60 million years had passed since the Cambrian period, the time left for the pre-Cambrian period (140 million years) was `hardly sufficient for the development of the varied forms of life which certainly existed towards the close of the Cambrian period'.|accessdate=21 July 2015}}</ref> After the publication of Kelvins’s views, Darwin first halved, in the second edition of the ''[[Origin of species]]'' (p. 287), his own estimate of the time (''"far longer than 300 million years"'') allegedly elapsed since the latter part of the conjectured ''"[[Geologic_system#The_system|Cretaceous period]]"'', and later withdrew the discussion altogether from the third edition.<ref name="Holmes1913"/><ref>{{cite web
|title= Darwin, C. R. to Hooker, J. D., Letter 6841
|author=Charles Darwin
|date= 24 July 1869
|publisher= Darwin Correspondence Database
|url= http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/entry-6841#back-mark-06841.f7
|quote= In [Tait] 1869, p. 429, Tait had quoted [Charles Darwin]'s conjecture, based on his estimate of time needed for the denudation of the Weald, that far longer than 300 million years must have elapsed since the latter part of the secondary period (Origin, p. 287). In response to criticisms in the Saturday Review, 24 December 1859, however, [Charles Darwin] halved his estimate in the second edition of Origin, and removed the discussion altogether from the third edition.
|accessdate=21 July 2015}}</ref>. In 1871 he even named Kelvin ''“an odious spectre”'' that came so that Darwin could not ''“rely much on pre-[[Silurian]] times.”''<ref>{{cite web
|title= Darwin, C. R. to Wallace, A. R., Letter 7858
|author=Charles Darwin
|date= 12 July 1871
|publisher= Darwin Correspondence Database
|url=https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/entry-7858
|quote=I can say nothing more about missing links than what I have said. I should rely much on pre-Silurian times; but then comes Sir W. Thompson like an odious spectre. Footnote: [Charles Darwin] discussed the absence of transitional forms in the fossil record in Origin 5th ed., pp. 208–15, 346–8. He thought William Thomson’s estimate of the time elapsed since the consolidation of the earth’s crust was probably too short for species to evolve according to his theory (Origin 5thed., p. 379)
|accessdate=21 July 2015}}</ref>

== The game changer: Radioactivity mythmaking==
{| class="infobox bordered" style="font-size:95%; width:25em;"
! style="font-size:120%; background:lightblue; text-align:center; padding:5px 0;" | The age of the earth is definite
|-
| style="padding:15px;" | ''"We do not say whether it is twenty million years or more, or less, but we say it is not indefinite. And we can say very definitely that it is not an inconceivably great number of millions of years."'' ''"We feel that there is no possibility of things going on for ever as they have done for the last six thousand years."''

<div style="padding-left:40px;">— William Thomson (Lord Kelvin)<ref name=" OntheMiracleofLife">{{cite web |title= “On the Miracle of Life” [Actual title unknown.] Excerpt from an address at the annual meeting of the Christian Evidence Society |author=W. Thomson (Lord Kelvin) |publisher= as quoted in Heros of the Telegraph by J. Munro.|year= 1889 |url= http://zapatopi.net/kelvin/papers/on_the_miracle_of_life.html |accessdate=July 18, 2015 |quote= I may refer to that old, but never uninteresting subject of the miracles of geology. Physical science does something for us here. St. Peter speaks of scoffers who said that ‘all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation;’ but the apostle affirms himself that ‘all these things shall be dissolved.’ It seems to me that even physical science absolutely demonstrates the scientific truth of these words. We feel that there is no possibility of things going on for ever as they have done for the last six thousand years. ... The science of dead matter, which has been the principal subject of my thoughts during my life, is, I may say, strenuous on this point, that the age of the earth is definite. We do not say whether it is twenty million years or more, or less, but we say it is not indefinite. And we can say very definitely that it is not an inconceivably great number of millions of years.}}</ref></div>
|}

By the end of the nineteenth century, Lord Kelvin had completely demolished all opposition.<ref name="West"/> He made uniformitarian geological community to accept that the age of the earth must be finite and that estimating the age by quantitative reasoning instead of supporting steady-state theory with [[Horror of a Divine Foot|philosophical bias]] should be crucial part of the geological endeavor. Even ‘''Darwin’s bulldog''’ and [[T. H. Huxley|musketeer of Darwinism Huxley]], who previously attacked Kelvin by making indirect allusions about ''“the first passer-by who fancies that our house is not so well built as it might be”'', ventured to suggest, in front of the Geological society of London, that ''“limitation of the period during which living beings have inhabited this planet to one, two, or three hundred million years, may be admitted, without a complete revolution in geological speculation.”''<ref name="KelvinOnDynamics"/> Materialistic philosophers, such as the British analytical [[Bertrand Russell]], realized that the Hutton's materialstic concept ''”no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end”'' is further unmaintainable, and de facto denounced it while starting to proclaim Biblically compatible apocalyptic views: ''“all the labors of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of Solar System”''. These things should be regarded, ''“if not quite beyond dispute,”'' ''“yet so nearly certain, that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand.”''<ref name="Signature">{{Cite book
| author = Meyer, Stephen C.
| title = Signature in the Cell
| publisher = HarperOne
| location= New York
| year= 2008
| isbn = 978-0-06-147279-2
| pages = 450
| url=http://books.google.com/books?id=RUGKBdKawDUC| quote= }}</ref>

But T.C. Chamberlin, head of the Department of Geology at the [[University of Chicago]], was not prepared to concede defeat. While defending his faith in long-ages, he speculated, without any observational basis whatever, that there might yet be discovered new sources of energy that would allow more time than Kelvin had calculated.<ref>{{cite book |title=Earth |author= Frank Press, Raymond Siever |publisher=W. H. Freeman |edition=4 |year=1986 |pages=40 |isbn=978-0716717430 |url=http://www.amazon.co.uk/Earth-Frank-Press/dp/0716717433}}</ref> Thus, the quest for the age of the earth as a subjective, arbitrary and erratic pursuit, was set for an fascinating turn.<ref name="West"/> This came in 1896, when [[radioactivity]] was discovered by Henri Becquerel and when in 1903 [[Marie and Pierre Curie|Pierre Curie]] and Albert Laborde demonstrated that [[radioactive decay]] releases heat. Before long, several people argued that this source of heat was great enough to overturn Kelvin’s conclusion about the boundary for the age of the earth. Among them was [[Ernest Rutherford]], who in 1904 suggested, in the Royal Institution, that ''“Lord Kelvin had limited the Age of the Earth, ‘provided no new source of heat was discovered.’ That prophetic utterance refers to what we are considering tonight, [[radium]]!”'' Later, Rutherford often repeated his tale of thinking on his feet in front of the “old bird” Kelvin who “beamed” at him. This episode and pleasing form of the anecdote, boosted by the eminence of its author, who was considered the father of nuclear theory, provided a ready vehicle for mythmaking and uncritical acceptance of proposition that because the discovery of radioactive heat undermined an assumption behind Kelvin’s calculation, it also undermined his conclusion.<ref name="PerryKelvinCritique"/> As the half-life of radium's dominant isotope is 1600 yr, heat given out by radium obviously could not be the wanted missing energy.{{#tag:ref|cf. ''"[Rutherford and Soddy] could not get away from the fact, however, that radium itself, although universally regarded as an element, decays far too rapidly to be as old as the minerals in which it is found. The only solution seemed to be that radium too must be a metabolon with a 'life' of a few thousand years."''<ref name ="BURCHFIELD">{{cite book |title=Lord Kelvin and the Age of the Earth |author=Joe D. Burchfield |publisher= The University of Chicago Press |place=Chicago |year=1975, 1990 |pages=173 |isbn=0-226-08043-9}}</ref>|group=note}} Nevertheless, later assumptions of equilibrium in decay series of [[uranium]] and [[thorium]] allowed to consider heat sources with half-lives in gigayears (Ga; 1 Ga = 10<sup>9</sup> years).

The 1911 edition of the [[Encyclopedia Britannica]] discussed dates up to 500 million years.<ref>Encyclopædia Britannica, pp 650-651.</ref>
By about 1930, J. H. Jeans was arguing for an age of the Earth of around two billion years.<ref>Universal History of the World, p.76.</ref>

The inclusion of radiogenic heat makes however only insignificant difference in terms of age limit inferred from the time required for the surface gradient to reach its present-day estimated value of 20°C/km supported by observational evidence.
As a matter of fact, it is freely acknowledged that radioactive heat sources within the earth do not account for its present internal temperatures if the earth had really existed for 4.5 Ga. The statements such as ''"Thanks to Madame Curie, the inexhaustible energies of the atom of the globe … are potentially available to geological speculation"'' and ''"Kelvin overthrown"''<ref name="KelvinRevisited"/> are logically incorrect; Kelvin's conclusion would be undermined by that discovery only if incorporation of the Earth's radioactive heat into his calculations produced a substantially different age limits for the earth.

The general conclusion is that, even if Kelvin had included a reasonable radiogenic heat production in his thermal calculations, he would still have found grounds for arguing that the age limit of the earth was of the order of 10<sup>8</sup> years and his estimate would have been virtually unaffected.<ref name="Richter"/>

=== The Scientific Dogma of 4.5 billion years ===
{| class="infobox bordered" style="font-size:95%; width:25em;"
! style="font-size:120%; background:lightgray; text-align:center; padding:5px 0;" | Subjective biased approach to data selection
|-
| style="padding:15px;" |''"In general, dates in the correct ballpark are [[Paleoscience#Paleoscience.2C_worldview_of_the_scientists.2C_sociological_and_psychological_factors.2C_political_pressure|assumed to be correct]] and are published, but those in disagreement with other date are seldom published, nor are the discrepancies fully explained."''
<div style="padding-left:40px;">— Richard K. Mauger<ref>{{cite journal |title= K-Ar ages of biotites from tuffs in Eocene rocks of the Green River, Washakie, and Uinta basins, Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado |author= Richard L. Mauger |journal= |publisher=University of Wyoming |year=1977 |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=17-42 (37)|url= https://geobookstore.uwyo.edu/sites/default/files/download/ConttoGeo_TOC.pdf |accessdate=13 June 2015 }}</ref> </div>
|}
In 1943 R.A. Daly of Harvard University published his authoritative paper ''“Meteorites and an Earth model,”'' where he studied the analogies between [[Rock (material)|terrestrial rocks]] and [[meteor]]ites, coupled with deductions on the probable nature of the Earth’s interior. He hypothesized that the latter ones originated by disruption of a planet once situated between Mars and Jupiter, in the region now occupied by [[asteroid]]s. At first textbooks have quoted his theory approvingly, but later it has been disfavored due to mineralogical discontinuities between different groups of meteorites which were interpreted as evidence against a single parent body hypothesis. Nevertheless, the meteorites, “enigmatic bodies,” have managed to attract the great resurgence of interest in scientific research.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Meteorites |author=Brian Mason|journal=American Scientist |volume=55| issue=4 |year=1967|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/27837038?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents}}</ref>

In his 1956 paper named ''Age of Meteorites and the Earth'', Claire Patterson, using ''“certain assumptions which are apparently justified,”'' introduced for meteor age a figure of '''4.55 ± 0.07 × 10<sup>9</sup>yr.''' and commented that since earth lead meets the requirement for definition of ''“the isotopic evolution of lead for any meteoritic body,”'' it is therefore ''“believed that the age for the earth is the same as for meteorites”'' and that ''"this is the time since the earth attained its present mass"''.<ref>{{cite web |title= Age of meteorites and the earth |author= Claire Patterson |url=http://www.mantleplumes.org/WebDocuments/Patterson1956.pdf |accessdate= }}</ref> In spite of cautions and skepticism advised by the authors, this figure gradually became a scientific dogma that rarely anyone has dared to question.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Ralph W. Matthews |title=Radiometric dating and the age of the Earth |date=December 1982 |publisher=Creation |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=41–44 |quote=In spite of cautions and skepticism advised by the authors this number has been widely and enthusiastically accepted and is usually quoted as if the evidence was decisive and conclusive. It has assumed something of the status of a universal constant to which all other data must be fitted, thus it has become common practice to assume that data which does not fit this result is either wrong or unintelligible. |accessdate=December 30, 2014}}</ref> Henry Morris explains that the unprovable assumptions are not the only problem with radiometric dating. One huge concern is that the results published are only a selected sample, chosen especially to agree with preconceived ideas about the earth, life, and [[evolution]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Once upon a time … A Review of The Mythology of Modern Dating Methods by John Woodmorappe |author=Michael J. Oard |url=http://creation.com/once-upon-a-time |accessdate=November 9, 2014}}</ref>

When in 1972 N.H. Gale tried to corroborate this established figure, he discovered that U-Pb ages ''"showed apparent large excess of radiogenic lead compared with the amount expected from the decay of Uranium in the meteorites over 4.5AE. ... For each of the 4 meteorites there was an excess of radiogenic lead not supported by uranium decay over 4.5AE.”'' After short analysis:
*''“The superior modern analytical methods used made it impossible that analytical contamination could explain the result.''
*''The circumstances ... make it extremely unlikely that terrestrial contamination could explain the results for this meteorites.''
*''... a considerable excess of radiogenic lead in most fractions ...is difficult to attribute to contamination,“''
rather than starting to reckon with possibility to challenge the established figures and methods, after recalling that ''“Patterson was the first to show that several stony meteorites yield a ... model of 4.5AE,”'' he proposed the new explanation for discovered discrepancy: ''"discordant results can be attributed to contamination."''{{#tag:ref|The claim on the contamination explaining the "discordant result" is in direct contradiction with previous statements that neither analytical nor extremely unlikely terrestrial contamination could explain the results. According to Ryan Dobson, author of a book on [[moral relativism]], a person that holds conflicting opinions about something and starts disagreeing with himself of herself is in trouble.<ref name="Dobson">{{cite book
|author=Ryan Dobson, Jefferson Scott
|title=Be Intolerant in Love: Because Some Things Are Just Stupid
|publisher=Tyndale House Publishers
|location=Sisters, OR, USA
|year=2007
|isbn=978-1590-521526
|page=23-26
|pages=121
|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=yvSEGgAACAAJ
|quote= You can't recognize that you hold conflicting opinions about something and hang on to both of them for very long. When you start disagreeing with yourself, you're in trouble.}}</ref> The trouble maintaining a train of thought in logical and coherent manner is regarded by [[medical science]] as symptom and characteristic of [[schizophrenia]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Schizophrenia: Symptoms, Types, Causes, and Early Warning Signs |publisher=helpguide.org |url= http://www.helpguide.org/articles/schizophrenia/schizophrenia-signs-types-and-causes.htm |accessdate=13 June 2015 |quote=Fragmented thinking is characteristic of schizophrenia. Externally, it can be observed in the way a person speaks. People with schizophrenia tend to have trouble concentrating and maintaining a train of thought. They may respond to queries with an unrelated answer, start sentences with one topic and end somewhere completely different, speak incoherently, or say illogical things.}}</ref>|group=note}}
{| class="infobox bordered" style="font-size:95%; width:25em;"
! style="font-size:120%; background:lightgray; text-align:center; padding:5px 0;" | Assault on scientific [[Socratic principle]]
|-
| style="padding:15px;" |''"Most advocates do not defend their theses out of conviction that they are true, but rather because they once declared them to be true."''
<div style="padding-left:40px;">— Georg Christoph Lichtenberg </div>
|}
Consequently, his research of the Earth’s age turned into calculation of ''"the correct sample ratios"'' from ''"observed ratios"'' so that the Table in his paper could finally show the “correct” preconceived age, established in this field of research.<ref name=GALE>{{cite web |title=U-Pb studies of the appley bridge meteorite |author=Gale, N.H., Arden, J. and Hutchison, R. |publisher=Nature Phys. Science |year=1972 |volume=240 57 |url=http://www.springerlink.com/content/r741164v5162r447}}</ref> This methodological flaw is known as [[data torturing]].

Using [[circular logic]] — assuming that decay rates remained constant despite necessarily changing physical characteristics as time approached the origin — Old Earth proponents insist that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old based on an assumption of constancy in [[Potassium-argon dating|Potassium-argon (K:Ar) decay rates]] and other radiometric methods.<ref>Peck, 2000, p.376.</ref>

In 1978, ''Geotimes'' magazine published by American Geological Institute quoted John Eddy, a famous astronomer, who argued that due to ''“some new and unexpected results“'' scientists could live with bishop Ussher’s 4004 B.C. value for the age of Earth and Sun, ''a fortiori'' since there is not much in the way of [[Scientific observation|observational]] [[Scientific evidence|evidence]] in [[astronomy]] to conflict with his calculations.<ref>{{cite journal |author=John Eddy quoted by R.G. Kazmann |title= It’s About Time: 4.5 Billion Years (report on Symposium at Louisiana State University)|publisher= Geotimes magazine (from 09/2008 renamed to Earth magazine) of American Geological Institute |year=1978 |issue=23 |pages=18-20|quote=I suspect that the Sun is 4.5 billion years old. However, given some new and unexpected results to the contrary, and some time for some frantic recalculation and theoretical readjustment, I suspect that we could live with bishop Ussher’s value for the age of Earth and Sun. I don’t think we have much in the way of observational evidence in astronomy to conflict with that.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Jon Covey |title= Age of the Universe |publisher= Creation In The Crossfire |date= January 3, 2013 |url=http://www.creationinthecrossfire.com/documents/AgeOfUniverse/AgeOfTheUniverse.html |accessdate=December 30, 2014 |quote= Evolutionary astronomers confidently argue the universe is 12-20 billion years old, although there is no certainty about any astronomical observations. John Eddy, a famous astronomer, once said that there isn’t much in the way of observational astronomy that proves the universe is old. He said that with “frantic theoretical readjustment” if new evidence showed that astronomers have been wrong, they could live with Bishop Ussher’s date of 4,004 B.C.}}</ref>

== Geology ==

[[Image:516XZRGNCKL AA240 .jpg|right|300px]]
[[William R. Corliss]] is a cataloger of scientific [[Anomaly|anomalies]] (observations and facts that challenge prevailing scientific [[paradigm]]s) and has published many works on the subject.<ref name="sf">[http://www.science-frontiers.com/ Science Frontiers] (Corliss' web-site)</ref>
He also wrote 13 books for the [[National Aeronautics and Space Administration]] (NASA), a dozen educational booklets for the [[Atomic Energy Commission]] (AEC), and a dozen articles for the [[National Science Foundation]] (NSF).<ref>Corliss, 2002</ref> The science magazine ''[[New Scientist]]'' had an article which focused on the career of William Corliss.<ref>Adrian Hope, "Finding a home for stray fact", ''New Scientist'', July 14, 1977, p. 83</ref>
''New Scientist'' wrote regarding Corliss's work: "All I can say to Corliss is carry on cataloging". <ref>Quoted on the [http://www.science-frontiers.com/sourcebk.htm Science Frontiers web-site]</ref> [[Arthur C. Clarke]] described Corliss as "[[Charles Fort|Fort]]'s latter-day — and much more scientific — successor."<ref>Clarke, Arthur C. (1990) ''Astounding Days: A Science Fictional Autobiography''. Gollancz. Page 110</ref>

Corliss's work on geological anomalies catalogs scores of anomalies which challenge the [[old-earth]] [[paradigm]].<ref>[http://www.science-frontiers.com/sourcebk.htm#Geology Geological Catalogs] (Science Frontiers)</ref>

== Bibliography ==
* Burnet, Thomas, [http://www.sacred-texts.com/earth/ste/ste36.htm The Sacred Theory of the Earth, chapter V], 1691.
* Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition (1911). [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/User:Tim_Starling On-line page facsimiles].
* Hammerton, J.A. (Ed.), "Universal History of the World" (8 volumes) The Educational Book Co., London, c1930.
* Batten, Don, [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/417 Old-earth or young-earth belief: Which belief is the recent aberration?], ''Creation'' 24(1):24–27, December 2001.
* [http://www.ingv.it/~roma/SITOINGLESE/activities/geomagnetismo/analysistheory/historicalresearch/age.html The age of the Earth] (Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV)).
*Peck WH, Valley JW, Wilde SA, and Graham CM (2000) Ion microprobe Evidence for Pre-4.4 Ga Continental Crust and Low Temperature Water/Rock Interaction. ''Geol. Soc. Am. Abstr'', vol 32, no. 7.

== External Links ==
*[http://creation.com/age-of-the-earth Age of the earth] by [[Creation Ministries International]]
*[http://creation.com/refuting-evolution-chapter-8-how-old-is-the-earth How old is the earth?] - ''Refuting evolution'' - Chapter 8 by Dr. [[Jonathan Sarfati]] at [[Creation Ministries International]]
*[http://creation.com/young-age-of-the-earth-universe-qa Age of the Earth and Universe] by [[Creation Ministries International]]

== Notes ==
<references group=note/>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Geology]]

Gun

2015-10-02T05:34:42Z

JamesMT: removed line space

[[Image:Glock30.jpg|right|200px]]

The '''gun''' is a mechanical [[weapon]] which uses expanding gas or some other propulsion method to fire a [[bullet]], [[dart]] or other projectile through a hollow tube called a barrel.

The four main types of modern [[firearm]]s today are bolt-operated, pump action, semi-automatic, and [[automatic weapons]]. In a bolt-action weapon, each new round must be loaded manually, by moving the breech to eject the empty casing. In pump action guns (usually shotguns) a new round must be manually loaded by pulling back on pump of the gun, located underneath the barrel.

In semi-automatic weapons, each pull of the trigger fires a bullet, each shot ejecting spent brass and loading new ammunition until the magazine is depleted. In fully automatic weapons, bullets will be fired as long as the trigger is depressed. Fully automatic fire will cause the gun to heat up very quickly, which can become dangerous as it can burn exposed flesh and because rounds may "cook off" or fire unexpectedly due to the chamber becoming hot enough to ignite the propellant.

==History==

[[Gunpowder]] was invented around the 800s AD. Firearms appeared after 1200, and became military weapons around 1600. The musket could not hit a small target, so armies fired them in volleys, giving a shotgun effect. Rifles were indeed accurate but were very slow to reload until the 1850s, when an expanding-base bullet was invented. Rifles were the main weapon on both sides of the [[American Civil War]].

In the United States, widespread gun ownership allowed settlers to quickly tame the entire continent and paved the way for entrepreneurs who drove the economic engine behind America's superpower status. Today, gun ownership is not only a tool for self protection, but for sport and for environmental protection. Hunters have been the most effective voice behind the movement to preserve America's natural abundance of fish, game and majestic forest. By helping to manage animal populations, funding conservation efforts through permit fees and taxes, and advocating for the responsible use of America's resources, hunters have been able to preserve a tradition of uniquely American self-reliance and ruggedness that stands as an ideal for others to follow.

==Gun control==
[[Gun control]] consists of limitations on the ownership of firearms, and by extension restricts the fundamental right of self-defense.

[[Conservative]]s usually emphasize the individual [[the right to self-defense]] through the use of guns. [[Liberal]]s more often stress the dangers of unrestricted ownership. They are, however, much more likely than conservatives to oppose measures to educate the public about proper gun use and safety. Conservative gun safety measures in several states are currently languishing in liberal-dominated legistlative committees due to obstructionist political maneuvering by Democrats.

Guns are said to be effective at deterring crime and protecting the gun owner. Scientific studies point to dramatic drops in crime as non-criminal gun ownership rises as proof that universal gun ownership is a deterrent to violence. Police officers often use guns to enforce the law, except in some countries where the police are not armed. The mere presence of a gun often discourages criminals from attempting to resist arrest or harm an officer. The lack of armed police can actually increase violence towards officers, who must rely on less-effective means of controlling criminals. England, where police are famous for not being armed, recently suffered a breakdown in police effectiveness when a liberal riot mob managed to shut down parts of London for several days and cause massive amounts of damage to local businesses and homes.

===Ireland===
In the Republic of Ireland, the Garda Síochána has since its foundation held that uniformed officers do not carry guns - "The Garda Síochána will succeed not by force of arms or numbers, but on their moral authority as servants of the people", as the first Commissioner said<ref>http://www.garda.ie/faq.html#G4</ref>. The current Commissioner of the Gardaí has stated that "we do not live in a 'gun culture'", despite a recent rash of armed crime. In Iceland, there are no armed forces, including the Police, and all Police only carry a baton on duty.<ref>http://www.specialoperations.com/Foreign/Iceland/Default.htm</ref> In addition, the regular Police forces of the UK<ref>http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=535071&in_page_id=1770</ref> and the Police Force of New Zealand do not carry firearms while on normal patrol, or in the latter case describe themselves as "generally unarmed"<ref>http://www.police.govt.nz/about/history.html</ref>. However, each of these Police forces also has highly trained specialist teams of armed Police, who are brought into play at time of need.

Studies have repeatedly shown that law-abiding citizens carrying guns are an effective deterrent against crime<ref>http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/467988</ref><ref>http://saf.org/kleck1998.pdf</ref><ref>http://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/8926.html</ref>. Further comparison between different states by [[John Lott]] indicates that states that have more conservative gun laws have lower crime rates, violent crime rates, and firearms [[homicide]]s than states with more liberal gun laws.

== Science Fiction ==

[[Science fiction]], such as [[Star Trek]], has postulated many different types of directed energy weapons. These are guns that fire beams, waves, or packets of energy. Some energy guns can be set to stun, not to wound or kill. Most firearms legislation would not classify these as firearms, so their ownership would be unrestricted.

== Miniguns ==

One unusual type of gun is a minigun. Despite what you would think from the name, a minigun is the biggest of all small-arms. A minigun has multiple barrels which are driven by a loud electric motor. This allows it to have a very high rate of fire, and is a major difference from the systems of operation described at the top of the article.

Miniguns are commonly seen in the movies, notable examples being [[Terminator 2]] and [[Predator]], where miniguns can be seen exploding multiple police cars or cutting down whole areas of forest. In reality miniguns probably cannot actually cut down trees, and standard 7.62mm ball ammunition would not cause a car to explode, although a [[tracer]] round might if it hit the gas tank.

==See Also==
* [[Home security]]
* [[Gun control]]
* [[Gun facts]]
{{template:Second Amendment groups}}

==Bibliography - Further Reading==
* [[Boston T. Party|Party, Boston T.]], [[Boston's Gun Bible]]. [[Wyoming]] [[American Redoubt]] [[Javelin Press]], 2008.
* Hess, Earl J. ''The Rifle Musket in Civil War Combat: Reality and Myth.'' (2008) 288 pages, ISBN 978-0-7006-1607-7

==External Links==
*[http://www.nra.org The National Rifle Association] Everything firearm related. Includes information on Second Amendment rights, NRA Training and Education, Politics and Legislation pertaining to gun rights.
*[http://www.a-human-right.com/ A Human Right] Discussion of the human right to self defense with a firearm.
*[http://www.learnaboutguns.com/ Learn About Guns] Firearm information and politics from a pro-firearms perspective.
*[http://www.gunowners.org/ Gun Owners of America] A no-compromise pro-gun lobby in Washington, D.C.

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Firearms]]
[[Category:Hunting]]
[[Category:Sports]]
[[Category:Survivalism]]
[[Category:Hobbies]]
[[Category:Tools]]
[[Category:Everyday Carry]]
[[Category:Investments in Tangibles]]
[[Category:Bug-out Bag]]

Counterexamples to Evolution

2015-10-01T06:24:27Z

JamesMT: added period

[[File:Question-Evolution-Campaign.jpg|thumbnail|250px|right|The [[Question evolution! campaign]] by [[Creation Ministries International]] is a worldwide campaign which poses 15 questions that evolutionists cannot satisfactorily answer.<ref>[http://creation.com/question-evolution Question evolution! campaign] by [[Creation Ministries International]]</ref> The 15 questions posed to evolutionists can be found [http://creation.com/15-questions HERE] ]]
The [[theory of evolution]] does not permit the existence of any counterexamples. '''If any one of the 49 counterexamples listed below is correct, then the theory of evolution fails'''. Moreover, even if there is merely a 10% chance that each of these counterexamples is correct (and the odds are far higher than that<ref>Many of the counterexamples are indisputable, rendering each of their probabilities of being correct nearly 100%.</ref>), then the probability that the theory of evolution is true is less than 1%.
==Counterexamples==
===Logical examples===
# Evolution cannot explain artistic beauty, such as brilliant autumn foliage and the staggering array of beautiful marine fish, both of which originated before any human to view them; this lacks any plausible evolutionary explanation. Moreover, some non-creationists claim that beauty is only in the eye of the beholder, that is, beauty is a human concept. This is not true because many animals, such as elephants, have been seen to respect beauty (albeit in their own way).
# Evolution predicts that human intelligence should increase over time, when in fact all evidence is that it is decreasing: declining SAT scores, shortening attention spans, and increasing mental problems.
# The current annual rate of extinction of species far exceeds any plausible rate of generation of species. Maybe it might just be because of global warming. Expanding the amount of time for evolution to occur makes evolution even less likely. Also, if global warming is man made, then the earth should've supposedly been cooler millions of ago. Cold enough that animals could not have survived. Therefore, either evolution or global warming must be false (or both, which is the most logical scenario).
# The [[Second Law of Thermodynamics]] establishes that everything in the world becomes more disordered over time, in the absence of intelligent intervention; the theory of evolution falsely claims that some systems can become more ordered, like an impossible [[perpetual motion machine]].
# Royal Truman and Peter Borger wrote concerning optimization and the genetic code: "The distribution of ‘code quality’ would roughly follow a Gaussian distribution, based on the [[law of large numbers]]. This means that as coding conventions are improved, it would be ever more difficult for natural selection to generate yet better codes."<ref>[https://creation.com/images/pdfs/tj/j21_3/j21_3_84-92.pdf Genetic code optimisation: Part 2] by Royal Truman and Peter Borger</ref>
# More than 70% of Earth is covered with water, devastating flooding is frequent, and a massive ancient flood is historically recorded by every culture. Limestone and fossils exist at the highest peaks of altitude. Yet mammals cannot survive large floods. It is impossible to increase the period of time to permit evolution without also increasing the likelihood of extinction of mammals due to large flooding.
# Evolution cannot explain the lack of genetic diversity among the Homo sapiens species. Were evolution and the Old Earth theory true, the human population would show a much larger genetic variance.<ref>http://www.godandscience.org/evolution/descent.html#rpafAHIwKHS7</ref> Some scientists have stated that a troop of 55 chimpanzees contains more genetic diversity than the entire human race; this would support the idea that all chimps are descended from a relatively large initial population while all humans are descended from a much smaller initial population (two people, perhaps). 80% of all human diversity is found on the African continent, which accords with a human population growing from a small group in the post-Flood Middle East.[[File:Ara macao -on a small bicycle-8.jpg|thumbnail|300px|right|[[Parrot]] feathers are a problem for evolutionists. For more information, please see [http://creation.com/parrot-fashion parrot feathers].]]
# Parsimonious repetition of design elements throughout Creation, e.g. the eye's appearance in remarkably different species. For such complex structures to [[convergent evolution|arise repeatedly via evolution]] is [[statistical_impossibility | impossible]], as evolution is an inherently random and historically contingent process.<ref>http://www.answersingenesis.org/tj/v15/i1/homology.asp</ref>
# ''Pleiotropy'', the fact that a change of a single gene can have several different effects, renders the "improvement" of animals by random mutation impossible, as any mutation with a potentially beneficial effect will be coupled with one or more other potentially lethal effects.<ref>http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/aid/v4/n1/beneficial-mutations-in-bacteria</ref>
# The development of feathers, which could not have conceivably "grown" from the scales of reptiles<ref>http://icb.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/40/4/687.pdf</ref><ref>[http://palaeoblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/early-evolution-of-feathers.html]</ref>
# For evolution to be true, every male dog, cat, horse, elephant, giraffe, fish and bird had to have coincidentally evolved with a female alongside it (over billions of years) with fully evolved compatible reproductive parts and a desire to mate, otherwise the species couldn't keep going. <ref>http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=90743</ref>
# There are no historical records of anyone directly observing one species evolving into another, which would certainly be something worth writing about. Surely of the millions of species we have, someone would have witnessed ''one'' come into existence had it evolved.
# If evolution were to explain where human beings come from, then every personality type should benefit human life. This is clearly untrue because the world is filled with liars, psychopaths, and murderers. These traits clearly do not benefit humanity.
# Evolution should lead to the extinction of homosexuality, yet to this day homosexuality continues to exist.
# The Theory of Evolution dictates that all organisms descended from single celled bacteria. Considering that bacteria are, and always have been, the most successful group of organisms, covering all areas of the globe in some of the most extreme environments, why would it have been advantageous to evolve into organisms that are so much more limited to the environments they can inhabit? Surely, staying as bacteria would be far more advantageous, due to their tolerance of extreme conditions, quick reproduction time, etc.

===Lack of mechanism===
[[Image:Feather image.jpg|thumb|300px|right|[[Harvard]] biologist [[Ernst Mayr]] wrote: "It must be admitted, however, that it is a considerable strain on one’s credulity to assume that finely balanced systems such as certain sense organs (the eye of vertebrates, or the bird’s feather) could be improved by random [[mutation]]s."<ref>[http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/ReferencesandNotes9.html Ernst Mayr, Systematics and the Origin of Species (New York: Dover Publications, 1942), p. 296]</ref>]]
# The extraordinary migration patterns of butterflies and birds cannot be explained through naturalistic development, and lack any plausible materialistic explanation.<ref>[[migration]]</ref>
# Evolution does not account for the immense amount of [[information]] in the genome. While there are various definitions of information, and many types have been observed to occur naturally, DNA contains information that is processed to lead to a result predetermined by the content of that information. Strictly speaking it is inaccurate to refer to DNA as a "code" or "language," as many scientists are prone to doing. In fact DNA is more like a template, which produces messenger RNA (mRNA,) a new template with more appropriate bases for protein production. The mRNA essentially acts as a scaffold to which the appropriate amino acids attach to form a protein molecule. Rather than being a language containing words which each have a meaning, DNA is more like a jig or framework which allows a specific molecule of mRNA, and subsequently a specific protein sequence, to be assembled on it. In effect the information is the sequence of chemical reactions which that length of DNA will catalyse. Given the huge number of useless protein molecules which could be formed and the complexity of even a simple protein such as haemoglobin, this sequence could not have evolved by natural selection as the odds against the initial organism having a functional protein are too great.
# The development of feathers, which could not have conceivably "grown" from the scales of reptiles or any other known structure.<ref>http://icb.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/40/4/687.pdf</ref><ref>[http://palaeoblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/early-evolution-of-feathers.html]</ref>[[File:Autumn.jpg|292px|right|thumbnail|The beauty of [[God]]'s [[creation]], such as [[autumn]] foliage, cannot adequately be explained through the evolutionary [[paradigm]]. See: [[Argument from beauty]]
<br />
<br />
<small>([http://www.flickr.com/photos/universalpops/5236103680/ Flickr] picture, see:'' [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/deed.en license agreement])</small>]]
# Humans exhibit behaviors such as performing [[science]], creating [[art]] and [[music]], [[dance|dancing]], and a number of other intellectual and artistic behaviors which could not have been produced by random mutations. There is no known evolutionary reason why these should be favored.
# Trematode parasites, like many other kinds, lack a plausible evolutionary phylogeny, though they can easily be explained by a teleological design.<ref>http://www.creationresearch.org/crsq/articles/36/36_4/trematodes.html</ref>
# Evolution cannot explain the many complex sex-determining systems. For example, in most mammals, females have two identical sex chromosomes (XX in this case) whereas males two different ones (XY.) However in birds, reptiles, many insects, and other organisms, the situation is reversed to where the male has two identical sex chromosomes and the female has two different ones; for example male birds have a ZZ chromosome pair and females ZW. No evolutionist has proposed a mechanism by which mammals could have a different sex chromosome system from the reptile ancestors they allegedly share with birds.
# Evolution requires that random mutations cause one [[kind]] to change into another, but this has never been observed.
# The existence of two symmetrical kidneys, which are unnecessary in most people, lacks a plausible evolutionary explanation based on functionality alone. Because evolution falsehoods mislead most people into thinking they need their second kidney, "the average waiting time for the organs from a deceased donor in the United States is five years" and "3,916 patients waiting for a kidney in 2006 died before one became available."<ref>[http://www.scienceline.org/2009/03/04/levitan-health-living-kidney-donor-transplant/] This article observes, "As a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found, living kidney donors live as long or longer and enjoy better quality of life than the general population."</ref>
#Thousands of years of intense selective breeding should have produced a new wolf species from domesticated dogs, yet dogs and wolves remain the same species.

===Maladaptation===

# Inability to account for widely observed altruism among animals, as it ''reduces'' an animal's ability to survive. “The existence of altruism between different species — which is not uncommon — remains an obstinate enigma.”<ref>''In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood'' [http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/ReferencesandNotes12.html]</ref> Not surprisingly, many atheist evolutionists have done their utmost to ''deny'' animal altruism.
# The gradual buildup of deleterious mutations in an organism's genome as the species grows older limits the maximum lifespan of a species well under what would be required for evolution. Each generation of humans has far more negative mutations than the posited natural selection can remove. Evolution is thus impossible as species would become nonviable long before they could diverge.<ref>http://www.godandscience.org/evolution/descent.html#rpafAHIwKHS7</ref>

===Wrong predictions===
[[Image:Harvester-ants.jpg|thumb|205px|right|Ant behavior is the result of [[intelligent design]]. 19th century [[Europe|European]] naturalists were wrong about [[ant]] behavior. The [[Bible]] was correct about ant behavior.<ref>http://ed5015.tripod.com/BWilliamsvsAnon71to73.htm</ref>]]
# Lack of any demonstrable vestigial parts of the human [[genome]]. While evolutionists often claim that regions of the genome are "[[junk DNA]]" and would not have been placed there by a designer, none have actually shown this to be true, and much so-called "junk DNA" has been shown to be useful.<ref>http://www.godandscience.org/evolution/junkdna.html</ref>
# While evolutionists argue that there are examples of "[[argument from poor design|bad design]]" in the bodies of many organisms, such as "flaws" in the human spine and sinus system, evolutionists fail to realize that, by their own theory, natural selection should have removed these things! The simpler explanation, that these represent degeneration from an original, created perfect form, is the superior one. In other words, as [[CreationWiki]] notes, such "flaws" are actually "a result of deterioration, resulting from Man's Fall."<ref>[http://creationwiki.org/Functional_integration_indicates_design_(Talk.Origins) Functional integration indicates design], from [[CreationWiki]]</ref>
# We have the perfect number of [[teeth]] to fit in our [[mouth]]s. While creationism perfectly accounts for that result, evolutionism predicts a contrary result: As our [[face]]s evolved from chimpanzee-like faces to human faces, the shortening of the muzzle would have caused the teeth to become badly overcrowded in the front of the mouth.
# Human fertility is rapidly declining, disproving evolutionary improvement in humans and also suggesting a brief timeline for human existence.
# Evolutionist theory predicts that in the case of [[convergent evolution]], a particular structure such as an eye that evolves in an optimal form in one species can later evolve in a suboptimal form in a different species. No such result has ever been observed.
# Constantly mutating, drug-resistant [[pathogen]]s such as [[MRSA]] have been demonstrated to be the result of devolution rather than evolution.<ref>[http://www.answersingenesis.org/PublicStore/product/Genesis-of-Germs-The,5181,224.aspx Genesis of Germs], from [[Answers in Genesis]]</ref> This is the exact opposite of what evolutionary theory predicts.

===Missing fossils===
[[Image:800px-Baleen Whale Physical Characteristics svg.png|right|300px|thumbnail|The remarkable [[whale]], which is a [[mammal]], has no plausible evolutionary ancestor.]]
# No transitional forms appear for horses, instead different and distinct horse-like animals appear in the fossil record.<ref>[[Ray Comfort]], in the Forward to the 150th anniversary edition of "On the Origin of Species"</ref>
# The enormous gaps and lack of intermediate species in the [[fossils|fossil]] record, once all the frauds are removed.
# Mammalian fur and body hair. There is no known evolutionary pathway for the development of fur, and no fossil evidence of hair evolving from scales, even though it survives very well.<ref>http://www.creationresearch.org/crsq/articles/40/40_4/Bergman.htm</ref>

=== Irreducible Complexity===
# The extraordinarily long neck of the [[giraffe]]. The giraffe's heart creates immense pressure to drive blood up the neck to the brain. Because of this there are valves in the neck which automatically restrict the blood flow when the giraffe lowers its head to drink. Without these valves the sudden increase in blood pressure as the heart no longer needs to overcome gravity would rupture the arteries in the brain and kill the giraffe. However the giraffe could not have evolved a long neck without the valves and had no need to evolve the valves unless it had a long neck. The okapi, which evolutionists claim is the closest relative of the giraffe, has no such valves. Evolutionary theory cannot explain this. <ref>[http://www1.pacific.edu/~e-buhals/GIRAFFE2.htm]</ref>[[Image:BacterialFlagellum.jpg|thumb|200px|right|[[flagellum|Bacterial Flagellum]] with rotary motor, courtesy of Access Research Network (Art Battson)]]
# The development of wings in birds, as intermediary wing stubs would have no use, and be a competitive disadvantage.
# The [[flagellum]] of certain bacteria contain a multi-part cellular motor which fails to function if a single part is removed. This is the classic example of [[irreducible complexity]] as publicised by Professor [[Michael Behe]].<ref>[http://www.millerandlevine.com/km/evol/design2/article.html]</ref> Because the flagellum must have all its parts to function it could not have evolved and therefore must have been designed by an intelligent being. At the [[Kitzmiller vs. Dover Area School District]] trial, Professor [[Ken Miller]] attempted to rebut this argument by pointing out that if 42 parts of the flagellum are removed what remains is a fully functional Type III Secretory System, used by some bacteria to inject toxins into target cells. While Miller's claim is factually accurate, it fails to explain how the T3SS could simultaneously add 42 parts to create a working flagellum.
# The organ and brain development required for retinal imagery require a base level of complexity, making a primitive form useless and impossible under evolution.<ref>http://www.creationresearch.org/crsq/articles/43/43_1/retinal_imagery.htm</ref>
# The [[ear]] contains three tiny [[bone]]s that transmit sound waves from the eardrum to the cochlea.<ref>[http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/bigear.html Neuroscience for Kids: The Ear]</ref> Because of the complicated arrangement of those bones, transitional forms (which have never been found) would have served no purpose. Evolutionists claim that these bones used to form part of the reptilian jaw joint, but no intermediate fossil with half jaw/half ear has ever been found, and there is no way evolutionism can explain how a jaw becomes an ear.
# Bony skeletons represent an example of irreducible complexity, since only a fully formed, complete skeleton is of any use whatsoever, while having only one or some few number of bones in an otherwise invertebrate creature is hardly advantageous. It is inconceivable to think that some random mutation could have resulted in the formation of an entire bone system in a creature which was previously invertebrate.
# "Social insects" such as bees, ants, and termites, which have extremely complex caste systems. Where an insect fits into the system is determined by its diet when young. Evolution requires that the genes for the various castes and the genes for caste-specific behavior all appeared simultaneously. Akin to the concept of [[irreducible complexity]], but on a higher (social) order, this is impossible given random chance. The complex social structure of these insects is evidence of [[intelligent design]]; also, since the overwhelming majority of individuals are workers and do not reproduce, they do not perpetuate their genetic material, as evolutionism claims all living things must do.
#Lungs never would have had to develop unless the animal was already on land, in which case, they would die before reproducing.
#There is no explanation within the theory of evolution through natural selection for the mechanism in which a catapillar turns into a butterfly. Essentially the original animal is broken down and rearranged into a totally different animal, with no similar physical characteristics. This process cannot be explained within the theory, and points to a designer's involvement.

===Uncategorized===
# Evolution would result in modern languages having one common ancestral language, and for nearly a century linguists insisted that there must be one. There is not, and linguists now accept that there are completely independent families of languages.{{fact}}
# No other animal exhibits [[religion]]. A far better explanation than random mutations is that humans were given the capacity to be religious by a loving God who wants a relationship with His creations.
# Circadian phenomena -- internal 24-hour clock mechanisms of humans and other living beings -- defy material explanation. Examples include how some people are unable to change the timing of their need for sleep for each day, and how plants exhibit clock-like behavior regardless of their exposure to sunlight. In addition, there is a weekly clock cycle for many phenomena, which has a clear biblical basis but defies any materialistic explanation.<ref>http://www.biblestudy.org/godsrest/mysterious-seven-day-cycle-in-plants-animals-man-2.html</ref>
# Scientists have found proof that the first chicken came before the first egg,<ref>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38238685/ns/technology_and_science-science/</ref> consistent with a special creation of chickens but not with a gradual descent with modifications from a proto-chicken and proto-egg.
# Despite the large (and ever increasing) number of breeds of [[dog]]s, and the fact that some pure bred lineages of dogs are reproductively isolated from other dogs, no new species of dog has evolved.<ref>http://creation.com/dogs-breeding-dogs</ref>

== Question evolution! campaign ==
[[Image:Carl weiland.jpg|thumbnail|150px|right|Dr. [[Carl Wieland]] is the Managing Director of [[Creation Ministries International]] ]]
''See also:'' [[Question evolution! campaign]]

Since [[World War II]] a majority of the most prominent and vocal defenders of the [[evolution|theory of evolution]] which employs [[methodological naturalism]] have been atheists.<ref>
* Dr. Don Batten,[http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/737/ A ''Who’s Who'' of evolutionists] ''Creation'' 20(1):32, December 1997.
* [[Jonathan Sarfati]], Ph.D.,F.M., [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/3830 ''Refuting Evolution'', Chapter 1, Facts and Bias]
</ref> In 2011, a campaign called the [[Question evolution! campaign]] was launched by the [[Bible|biblical]] [[creation]] organization [[Creation Ministries International]] which is a worldwide "[[grassroots|grass-roots]] movement to challenge the anti-[[Christianity|Christian]] [[dogma]] of [[evolution]]".<ref>[http://creation.com/question-evolution Question evolution! campaign]</ref> The focus of the Question evolution! campaign is on "15 questions that evolutionists cannot satisfactorily answer."<ref>[http://creation.com/question-evolution Question evolution! campaign]</ref> The 15 questions posed to evolutionists (and undecided individuals) can be found [http://creation.com/15-questions HERE] The campaign will be primarily conducted in the [[United States]], the [[United Kingdom]], [[Canada]], [[Europe]], [[Australia]], [[New Zealand]], [[Singapore]] and [[South Africa]].<ref>http://creation.com/question-evolution</ref>

== Logical Conclusion ==
As scientific theories require that their laws be immutable, the existence of merely one counterexample disproves the truth of the rule. Thus, if evolution fails to account for any one of these items (or countless others), it must be discarded.
{{evolution}}
{{Counterexamples}}

== See also ==

*[[Atheism]]
*[[Evolution and atheism]]
*[[Creation vs. Evolution Videos]]
*[[Logic of possibility]]
*[[Postmodern science]]

== External Links ==
*[http://creation.com/ Creation Ministries International]

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

[[Category:Counterexamples]]
[[category:Evolution]]

Counterexamples to Evolution

2015-10-01T06:20:51Z

JamesMT: added period

[[File:Question-Evolution-Campaign.jpg|thumbnail|250px|right|The [[Question evolution! campaign]] by [[Creation Ministries International]] is a worldwide campaign which poses 15 questions that evolutionists cannot satisfactorily answer.<ref>[http://creation.com/question-evolution Question evolution! campaign] by [[Creation Ministries International]]</ref> The 15 questions posed to evolutionists can be found [http://creation.com/15-questions HERE] ]]
The [[theory of evolution]] does not permit the existence of any counterexamples. '''If any one of the 49 counterexamples listed below is correct, then the theory of evolution fails'''. Moreover, even if there is merely a 10% chance that each of these counterexamples is correct (and the odds are far higher than that<ref>Many of the counterexamples are indisputable, rendering each of their probabilities of being correct nearly 100%.</ref>), then the probability that the theory of evolution is true is less than 1%.
==Counterexamples==
===Logical examples===
# Evolution cannot explain artistic beauty, such as brilliant autumn foliage and the staggering array of beautiful marine fish, both of which originated before any human to view them; this lacks any plausible evolutionary explanation. Moreover, some non-creationists claim that beauty is only in the eye of the beholder, that is, beauty is a human concept. This is not true because many animals, such as elephants, have been seen to respect beauty (albeit in their own way).
# Evolution predicts that human intelligence should increase over time, when in fact all evidence is that it is decreasing: declining SAT scores, shortening attention spans, and increasing mental problems.
# The current annual rate of extinction of species far exceeds any plausible rate of generation of species. Maybe it might just be because of global warming. Expanding the amount of time for evolution to occur makes evolution even less likely. Also, if global warming is man made, then the earth should've supposedly been cooler millions of ago. Cold enough that animals could not have survived. Therefore, either evolution or global warming must be false (or both, which is the most logical scenario).
# The [[Second Law of Thermodynamics]] establishes that everything in the world becomes more disordered over time, in the absence of intelligent intervention; the theory of evolution falsely claims that some systems can become more ordered, like an impossible [[perpetual motion machine]].
# Royal Truman and Peter Borger wrote concerning optimization and the genetic code: "The distribution of ‘code quality’ would roughly follow a Gaussian distribution, based on the [[law of large numbers]]. This means that as coding conventions are improved, it would be ever more difficult for natural selection to generate yet better codes."<ref>[https://creation.com/images/pdfs/tj/j21_3/j21_3_84-92.pdf Genetic code optimisation: Part 2] by Royal Truman and Peter Borger</ref>
# More than 70% of Earth is covered with water, devastating flooding is frequent, and a massive ancient flood is historically recorded by every culture. Limestone and fossils exist at the highest peaks of altitude. Yet mammals cannot survive large floods. It is impossible to increase the period of time to permit evolution without also increasing the likelihood of extinction of mammals due to large flooding.
# Evolution cannot explain the lack of genetic diversity among the Homo sapiens species. Were evolution and the Old Earth theory true, the human population would show a much larger genetic variance.<ref>http://www.godandscience.org/evolution/descent.html#rpafAHIwKHS7</ref> Some scientists have stated that a troop of 55 chimpanzees contains more genetic diversity than the entire human race; this would support the idea that all chimps are descended from a relatively large initial population while all humans are descended from a much smaller initial population (two people, perhaps). 80% of all human diversity is found on the African continent, which accords with a human population growing from a small group in the post-Flood Middle East.[[File:Ara macao -on a small bicycle-8.jpg|thumbnail|300px|right|[[Parrot]] feathers are a problem for evolutionists. For more information, please see [http://creation.com/parrot-fashion parrot feathers].]]
# Parsimonious repetition of design elements throughout Creation, e.g. the eye's appearance in remarkably different species. For such complex structures to [[convergent evolution|arise repeatedly via evolution]] is [[statistical_impossibility | impossible]], as evolution is an inherently random and historically contingent process.<ref>http://www.answersingenesis.org/tj/v15/i1/homology.asp</ref>
# ''Pleiotropy'', the fact that a change of a single gene can have several different effects, renders the "improvement" of animals by random mutation impossible, as any mutation with a potentially beneficial effect will be coupled with one or more other potentially lethal effects.<ref>http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/aid/v4/n1/beneficial-mutations-in-bacteria</ref>
# The development of feathers, which could not have conceivably "grown" from the scales of reptiles<ref>http://icb.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/40/4/687.pdf</ref><ref>[http://palaeoblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/early-evolution-of-feathers.html]</ref>
# For evolution to be true, every male dog, cat, horse, elephant, giraffe, fish and bird had to have coincidentally evolved with a female alongside it (over billions of years) with fully evolved compatible reproductive parts and a desire to mate, otherwise the species couldn't keep going. <ref>http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=90743</ref>
# There are no historical records of anyone directly observing one species evolving into another, which would certainly be something worth writing about. Surely of the millions of species we have, someone would have witnessed ''one'' come into existence had it evolved.
# If evolution were to explain where human beings come from, then every personality type should benefit human life. This is clearly untrue because the world is filled with liars, psychopaths, and murderers. These traits clearly do not benefit humanity.
# Evolution should lead to the extinction of homosexuality, yet to this day homosexuality continues to exist.
# The Theory of Evolution dictates that all organisms descended from single celled bacteria. Considering that bacteria are, and always have been, the most successful group of organisms, covering all areas of the globe in some of the most extreme environments, why would it have been advantageous to evolve into organisms that are so much more limited to the environments they can inhabit? Surely, staying as bacteria would be far more advantageous, due to their tolerance of extreme conditions, quick reproduction time, etc.

===Lack of mechanism===
[[Image:Feather image.jpg|thumb|300px|right|[[Harvard]] biologist [[Ernst Mayr]] wrote: "It must be admitted, however, that it is a considerable strain on one’s credulity to assume that finely balanced systems such as certain sense organs (the eye of vertebrates, or the bird’s feather) could be improved by random [[mutation]]s."<ref>[http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/ReferencesandNotes9.html Ernst Mayr, Systematics and the Origin of Species (New York: Dover Publications, 1942), p. 296]</ref>]]
# The extraordinary migration patterns of butterflies and birds cannot be explained through naturalistic development, and lack any plausible materialistic explanation.<ref>[[migration]]</ref>
# Evolution does not account for the immense amount of [[information]] in the genome. While there are various definitions of information, and many types have been observed to occur naturally, DNA contains information that is processed to lead to a result predetermined by the content of that information. Strictly speaking it is inaccurate to refer to DNA as a "code" or "language," as many scientists are prone to doing. In fact DNA is more like a template, which produces messenger RNA (mRNA,) a new template with more appropriate bases for protein production. The mRNA essentially acts as a scaffold to which the appropriate amino acids attach to form a protein molecule. Rather than being a language containing words which each have a meaning, DNA is more like a jig or framework which allows a specific molecule of mRNA, and subsequently a specific protein sequence, to be assembled on it. In effect the information is the sequence of chemical reactions which that length of DNA will catalyse. Given the huge number of useless protein molecules which could be formed and the complexity of even a simple protein such as haemoglobin, this sequence could not have evolved by natural selection as the odds against the initial organism having a functional protein are too great.
# The development of feathers, which could not have conceivably "grown" from the scales of reptiles or any other known structure.<ref>http://icb.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/40/4/687.pdf</ref><ref>[http://palaeoblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/early-evolution-of-feathers.html]</ref>[[File:Autumn.jpg|292px|right|thumbnail|The beauty of [[God]]'s [[creation]], such as [[autumn]] foliage, cannot adequately be explained through the evolutionary [[paradigm]]. See: [[Argument from beauty]]
<br />
<br />
<small>([http://www.flickr.com/photos/universalpops/5236103680/ Flickr] picture, see:'' [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/deed.en license agreement])</small>]]
# Humans exhibit behaviors such as performing [[science]], creating [[art]] and [[music]], [[dance|dancing]], and a number of other intellectual and artistic behaviors which could not have been produced by random mutations. There is no known evolutionary reason why these should be favored.
# Trematode parasites, like many other kinds, lack a plausible evolutionary phylogeny, though they can easily be explained by a teleological design.<ref>http://www.creationresearch.org/crsq/articles/36/36_4/trematodes.html</ref>
# Evolution cannot explain the many complex sex-determining systems. For example, in most mammals, females have two identical sex chromosomes (XX in this case) whereas males two different ones (XY.) However in birds, reptiles, many insects, and other organisms, the situation is reversed to where the male has two identical sex chromosomes and the female has two different ones; for example male birds have a ZZ chromosome pair and females ZW. No evolutionist has proposed a mechanism by which mammals could have a different sex chromosome system from the reptile ancestors they allegedly share with birds.
# Evolution requires that random mutations cause one [[kind]] to change into another, but this has never been observed.
# The existence of two symmetrical kidneys, which are unnecessary in most people, lacks a plausible evolutionary explanation based on functionality alone. Because evolution falsehoods mislead most people into thinking they need their second kidney, "the average waiting time for the organs from a deceased donor in the United States is five years" and "3,916 patients waiting for a kidney in 2006 died before one became available."<ref>[http://www.scienceline.org/2009/03/04/levitan-health-living-kidney-donor-transplant/] This article observes, "As a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found, living kidney donors live as long or longer and enjoy better quality of life than the general population."</ref>
#Thousands of years of intense selective breeding should have produced a new wolf species from domesticated dogs, yet dogs and wolves remain the same species.

===Maladaptation===

# Inability to account for widely observed altruism among animals, as it ''reduces'' an animal's ability to survive. “The existence of altruism between different species — which is not uncommon — remains an obstinate enigma.”<ref>''In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood'' [http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/ReferencesandNotes12.html]</ref> Not surprisingly, many atheist evolutionists have done their utmost to ''deny'' animal altruism.
# The gradual buildup of deleterious mutations in an organism's genome as the species grows older limits the maximum lifespan of a species well under what would be required for evolution. Each generation of humans has far more negative mutations than the posited natural selection can remove. Evolution is thus impossible as species would become nonviable long before they could diverge.<ref>http://www.godandscience.org/evolution/descent.html#rpafAHIwKHS7</ref>

===Wrong predictions===
[[Image:Harvester-ants.jpg|thumb|205px|right|Ant behavior is the result of [[intelligent design]]. 19th century [[Europe|European]] naturalists were wrong about [[ant]] behavior. The [[Bible]] was correct about ant behavior.<ref>http://ed5015.tripod.com/BWilliamsvsAnon71to73.htm</ref>]]
# Lack of any demonstrable vestigial parts of the human [[genome]]. While evolutionists often claim that regions of the genome are "[[junk DNA]]" and would not have been placed there by a designer, none have actually shown this to be true, and much so-called "junk DNA" has been shown to be useful.<ref>http://www.godandscience.org/evolution/junkdna.html</ref>
# While evolutionists argue that there are examples of "[[argument from poor design|bad design]]" in the bodies of many organisms, such as "flaws" in the human spine and sinus system, evolutionists fail to realize that, by their own theory, natural selection should have removed these things! The simpler explanation, that these represent degeneration from an original, created perfect form, is the superior one. In other words, as [[CreationWiki]] notes, such "flaws" are actually "a result of deterioration, resulting from Man's Fall."<ref>[http://creationwiki.org/Functional_integration_indicates_design_(Talk.Origins) Functional integration indicates design], from [[CreationWiki]]</ref>
# We have the perfect number of [[teeth]] to fit in our [[mouth]]s. While creationism perfectly accounts for that result, evolutionism predicts a contrary result: As our [[face]]s evolved from chimpanzee-like faces to human faces, the shortening of the muzzle would have caused the teeth to become badly overcrowded in the front of the mouth.
# Human fertility is rapidly declining, disproving evolutionary improvement in humans and also suggesting a brief timeline for human existence.
# Evolutionist theory predicts that in the case of [[convergent evolution]], a particular structure such as an eye that evolves in an optimal form in one species can later evolve in a suboptimal form in a different species. No such result has ever been observed.
# Constantly mutating, drug-resistant [[pathogen]]s such as [[MRSA]] have been demonstrated to be the result of devolution rather than evolution.<ref>[http://www.answersingenesis.org/PublicStore/product/Genesis-of-Germs-The,5181,224.aspx Genesis of Germs], from [[Answers in Genesis]]</ref> This is the exact opposite of what evolutionary theory predicts.

===Missing fossils===
[[Image:800px-Baleen Whale Physical Characteristics svg.png|right|300px|thumbnail|The remarkable [[whale]], which is a [[mammal]], has no plausible evolutionary ancestor.]]
# No transitional forms appear for horses, instead different and distinct horse-like animals appear in the fossil record<ref>[[Ray Comfort]], in the Forward to the 150th anniversary edition of "On the Origin of Species"</ref>
# The enormous gaps and lack of intermediate species in the [[fossils|fossil]] record, once all the frauds are removed.
# Mammalian fur and body hair. There is no known evolutionary pathway for the development of fur, and no fossil evidence of hair evolving from scales, even though it survives very well.<ref>http://www.creationresearch.org/crsq/articles/40/40_4/Bergman.htm</ref>

=== Irreducible Complexity===
# The extraordinarily long neck of the [[giraffe]]. The giraffe's heart creates immense pressure to drive blood up the neck to the brain. Because of this there are valves in the neck which automatically restrict the blood flow when the giraffe lowers its head to drink. Without these valves the sudden increase in blood pressure as the heart no longer needs to overcome gravity would rupture the arteries in the brain and kill the giraffe. However the giraffe could not have evolved a long neck without the valves and had no need to evolve the valves unless it had a long neck. The okapi, which evolutionists claim is the closest relative of the giraffe, has no such valves. Evolutionary theory cannot explain this. <ref>[http://www1.pacific.edu/~e-buhals/GIRAFFE2.htm]</ref>[[Image:BacterialFlagellum.jpg|thumb|200px|right|[[flagellum|Bacterial Flagellum]] with rotary motor, courtesy of Access Research Network (Art Battson)]]
# The development of wings in birds, as intermediary wing stubs would have no use, and be a competitive disadvantage.
# The [[flagellum]] of certain bacteria contain a multi-part cellular motor which fails to function if a single part is removed. This is the classic example of [[irreducible complexity]] as publicised by Professor [[Michael Behe]].<ref>[http://www.millerandlevine.com/km/evol/design2/article.html]</ref> Because the flagellum must have all its parts to function it could not have evolved and therefore must have been designed by an intelligent being. At the [[Kitzmiller vs. Dover Area School District]] trial, Professor [[Ken Miller]] attempted to rebut this argument by pointing out that if 42 parts of the flagellum are removed what remains is a fully functional Type III Secretory System, used by some bacteria to inject toxins into target cells. While Miller's claim is factually accurate, it fails to explain how the T3SS could simultaneously add 42 parts to create a working flagellum.
# The organ and brain development required for retinal imagery require a base level of complexity, making a primitive form useless and impossible under evolution.<ref>http://www.creationresearch.org/crsq/articles/43/43_1/retinal_imagery.htm</ref>
# The [[ear]] contains three tiny [[bone]]s that transmit sound waves from the eardrum to the cochlea.<ref>[http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/bigear.html Neuroscience for Kids: The Ear]</ref> Because of the complicated arrangement of those bones, transitional forms (which have never been found) would have served no purpose. Evolutionists claim that these bones used to form part of the reptilian jaw joint, but no intermediate fossil with half jaw/half ear has ever been found, and there is no way evolutionism can explain how a jaw becomes an ear.
# Bony skeletons represent an example of irreducible complexity, since only a fully formed, complete skeleton is of any use whatsoever, while having only one or some few number of bones in an otherwise invertebrate creature is hardly advantageous. It is inconceivable to think that some random mutation could have resulted in the formation of an entire bone system in a creature which was previously invertebrate.
# "Social insects" such as bees, ants, and termites, which have extremely complex caste systems. Where an insect fits into the system is determined by its diet when young. Evolution requires that the genes for the various castes and the genes for caste-specific behavior all appeared simultaneously. Akin to the concept of [[irreducible complexity]], but on a higher (social) order, this is impossible given random chance. The complex social structure of these insects is evidence of [[intelligent design]]; also, since the overwhelming majority of individuals are workers and do not reproduce, they do not perpetuate their genetic material, as evolutionism claims all living things must do.
#Lungs never would have had to develop unless the animal was already on land, in which case, they would die before reproducing.
#There is no explanation within the theory of evolution through natural selection for the mechanism in which a catapillar turns into a butterfly. Essentially the original animal is broken down and rearranged into a totally different animal, with no similar physical characteristics. This process cannot be explained within the theory, and points to a designer's involvement.

===Uncategorized===
# Evolution would result in modern languages having one common ancestral language, and for nearly a century linguists insisted that there must be one. There is not, and linguists now accept that there are completely independent families of languages.{{fact}}
# No other animal exhibits [[religion]]. A far better explanation than random mutations is that humans were given the capacity to be religious by a loving God who wants a relationship with His creations.
# Circadian phenomena -- internal 24-hour clock mechanisms of humans and other living beings -- defy material explanation. Examples include how some people are unable to change the timing of their need for sleep for each day, and how plants exhibit clock-like behavior regardless of their exposure to sunlight. In addition, there is a weekly clock cycle for many phenomena, which has a clear biblical basis but defies any materialistic explanation.<ref>http://www.biblestudy.org/godsrest/mysterious-seven-day-cycle-in-plants-animals-man-2.html</ref>
# Scientists have found proof that the first chicken came before the first egg,<ref>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38238685/ns/technology_and_science-science/</ref> consistent with a special creation of chickens but not with a gradual descent with modifications from a proto-chicken and proto-egg.
# Despite the large (and ever increasing) number of breeds of [[dog]]s, and the fact that some pure bred lineages of dogs are reproductively isolated from other dogs, no new species of dog has evolved.<ref>http://creation.com/dogs-breeding-dogs</ref>

== Question evolution! campaign ==
[[Image:Carl weiland.jpg|thumbnail|150px|right|Dr. [[Carl Wieland]] is the Managing Director of [[Creation Ministries International]] ]]
''See also:'' [[Question evolution! campaign]]

Since [[World War II]] a majority of the most prominent and vocal defenders of the [[evolution|theory of evolution]] which employs [[methodological naturalism]] have been atheists.<ref>
* Dr. Don Batten,[http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/737/ A ''Who’s Who'' of evolutionists] ''Creation'' 20(1):32, December 1997.
* [[Jonathan Sarfati]], Ph.D.,F.M., [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/3830 ''Refuting Evolution'', Chapter 1, Facts and Bias]
</ref> In 2011, a campaign called the [[Question evolution! campaign]] was launched by the [[Bible|biblical]] [[creation]] organization [[Creation Ministries International]] which is a worldwide "[[grassroots|grass-roots]] movement to challenge the anti-[[Christianity|Christian]] [[dogma]] of [[evolution]]".<ref>[http://creation.com/question-evolution Question evolution! campaign]</ref> The focus of the Question evolution! campaign is on "15 questions that evolutionists cannot satisfactorily answer."<ref>[http://creation.com/question-evolution Question evolution! campaign]</ref> The 15 questions posed to evolutionists (and undecided individuals) can be found [http://creation.com/15-questions HERE] The campaign will be primarily conducted in the [[United States]], the [[United Kingdom]], [[Canada]], [[Europe]], [[Australia]], [[New Zealand]], [[Singapore]] and [[South Africa]].<ref>http://creation.com/question-evolution</ref>

== Logical Conclusion ==
As scientific theories require that their laws be immutable, the existence of merely one counterexample disproves the truth of the rule. Thus, if evolution fails to account for any one of these items (or countless others), it must be discarded.
{{evolution}}
{{Counterexamples}}

== See also ==

*[[Atheism]]
*[[Evolution and atheism]]
*[[Creation vs. Evolution Videos]]
*[[Logic of possibility]]
*[[Postmodern science]]

== External Links ==
*[http://creation.com/ Creation Ministries International]

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

[[Category:Counterexamples]]
[[category:Evolution]]

Pseudoscience

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JamesMT: Moved citations up

'''Pseudoscience''' is [[theory]] or [[speculation]] which has the trappings and [[rhetoric]] of [[science]], and is presented as science, but does not follow the [[scientific method]]. Pseudoscientific theories are typically not [[falsifiable]], and their purveyors show unwillingness to allow outsiders to observe, test, or replicate their findings.

== Falsifiability ==
The most cited element of scientific theory is [[falsifiability]], established by [[philosopher]] [[Karl Popper]]<ref>[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/popper/#BacHisTho Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, see in particular sections 2 and 3]</ref>. A falsifiable theory makes predictions, which can be used to test it. Thus, the theory of gravity is falsifiable, as it predicts that an apple held above the ground and released will fall. If it fails the test, it is discarded, and if it passes, it is not proven, but better supported.

== Disproven Science ==
The term pseudoscience is also often applied to theories which ''are'' falsifiable and have in fact been falsified and discarded. [[Phrenology]] predicted that psychological traits could be inferred from the shape of the skull, but no actual link was ever found. Various [[astrology|astrological]] theories predicted regular planetary effects on the earth and human health, but testing those failed.

The existence of [[God]] is thus not considered scientific theory, as no test can possibly be conceived which categorically disproves His existence. The same is the case for [[string theory]], which is a mathematical unification of scientific theory, but makes no predictions. Such things fall outside the realm of science.

== Charlatanism ==
The label ''pseudoscientist'' is commonly given to cranks and [[charlatan]]s, who claim abnormal powers and abilities, but refuse to demonstrate them in objective, controlled, monitored environments. For example, Uri Geller claims to be able to bend spoons without applying pressure to them, but he cannot do it in front of scientists or journalists<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3vGGf-ZIkc Uri Geller debunked by James Randi and Johnny Carson</ref>. Countless conjurers and mediums claim to be able to speak with the dead, but controlled circumstances revealed that they were really only conducting clever psychological tricks.

== Metaphysics ==
[[Spiritual]], [[metaphysical]], [[philosophical]], and [[religious belief]]s are occasionally confused with pseudoscience, as there is often an overlap in rhetoric, and charlatans blur the lines between scientific and philosophical ideas of knowledge.

== Public belief ==
Despite evidence and logic against pseudoscientific theories, many remain popular among the public. Homeopathic medicine is available at most health-food stores and is a multi-billion dollar business, and 31% of Americans believe in astrology.

Notably, twice as many [[Democrats]] believe in astrology as [[Republicans]], showing a strong bent of irrationality and scientific [[illiteracy]] among [[liberals]].<ref>http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=359</ref>

There is no definitive or objective definition of the term "pseudoscience", so it is also sometimes used as a pejorative term. Pseudoscientists consider their work to be real science rather than pseudoscience. In addition to this, oftentimes theories which conflict with their theories are considered by them to be pseudoscience. Theories which are considered to be psuedoscience by the public may transition into being considered science if substantial evidence is found to support the theory. For example, before the theory of plate tectonics was fully developed, it was considered pseudoscience, whilst its predecessors, theories which involved an expanding Earth, are now considered pseudoscience.<ref>R. G. A. Dolby, ''Uncertain Knowledge: An Image of Science for a Changing World'', Published by Cambridge University Press, 2002. ISBN 0521892627, 9780521892629, 380 pages. [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=xd3ylT3WTLEC&pg=PA191&dq=pseudoscience+pejorative&num=100&as_brr=3 Page 191]</ref><ref>Brian Stableford, ''Science Fact and Science Fiction'', Published by CRC Press, 2006, ISBN 0415974607, 9780415974608, 729 pages. [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=uefwmdROKTAC&pg=PA410&dq=pseudoscience+pejorative&num=100&as_brr=3 Page 410]</ref>

==Examples of pseudosciences==
[[Image:5712dawkins.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Within the [[evolution|evolutionary]] science community and the [[creation science]] community, Richard Dawkins has faced charges of engaging in pseudoscience and also has faced charges of committing elementary errors.<ref>http://www.truefreethinker.com/articles/send-clowns-–-richard-dawkins-obliges</ref><ref>http://creation.com/the-greatest-hoax-on-earth/main.php</ref> For more information, please see: [[Richard Dawkins and pseudoscience]] ]]
* [[Animal magnetism]]
* [[Astrology]]
* [[Big Bang]] astronomy
* Much of the work of [[Richard Dawkins]]<ref>http://www.truefreethinker.com/articles/send-clowns-–-richard-dawkins-obliges</ref><ref>http://creation.com/the-greatest-hoax-on-earth/main.php</ref> (see: [[Richard Dawkins and pseudoscience]])
* [[Biodynamic agriculture]]
* [[Darwinism]]
* [[Dianetics]]
* [[Dominionism]]
* [[Environmentalism]]
* [[Evolution|Evolutionary biology]]<ref>http://www.icr.org/home/resources/resources_tracts_scientificcaseagainstevolution/</ref><ref>http://www.grisda.org/origins/04004.htm</ref><ref>http://www.uncommondescent.com/darwinism/there-is-no-theory-of-evolution/</ref> <ref>http://members.iinet.net.au/~sejones/PoE/pe05scnc.html</ref><ref>http://www.parentcompany.com/science_kit/sk3b.htm</ref><ref>http://www.apologeticspress.org/rr/reprints/Evolution-Fact-or-Theory.pdf</ref>
* [[Free Energy]]
* [[Graphology]]
* [[Global warming]]
*Much of the work of [[Stephen Hawking]]
* [[Homeopathy]]
* [[Iridology]]
* [[Lysenkoism]]
* [[Mesmerism]]
*Much of the work of [[PZ Myers]]<ref>http://www.truefreethinker.com/articles/pz-myers-pseudoscienceblogscom</ref>
* [[Old earth]] geology
* [[Orgone therapy]]
* [[Parapsychology]]
* [[Phrenology]]
* [[Population control]]
* [[Pseudoarchaeology]]
* [[Psychoanalysis]]
* [[Reflexology]]
* [[Self-projection as God]] (also known as [[vicarious autotheism]])
* Much of the work of [[Carl Sagan]]
* [[Transgenderism]]
* [[Ufology]]

== See also ==
* [[Scientism]]
* [[List of atheist and agnostic pseudosciences]]

Humor:
* [[Essay: You obviously don't understand how science works|You obviously don't understand how science works]] - Humor/[[Satire]]

=== Refutations of Pseudoscience ===
* [[Counterexamples to Evolution]]
* [[Counterexamples to Global Warming]]
* [[Counterexamples to an Ice Age]]
* [[Counterexamples to an Old Earth]]
* [[Counterexamples to Relativity]]
* [[Counterexamples to String Theory]]

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Pseudoscience]]

Creation Ministries International

2015-10-01T06:08:38Z

JamesMT: Clean up some unused html code

[[Image:Carl weiland.jpg|thumbnail|150px|right|Dr. [[Carl Wieland]] was one of the founders of Creation Ministries International ]]
'''Creation Ministries International''' (CMI) is a network of [[creation]] ministries which started in [[Australia]], and now also has offices in the [[United States]], the [[United Kingdom]], [[Canada]], [[New Zealand]], [[South Africa]], and [[Singapore]].

== Outreach and structure ==

CMI publishes ''Creation'' magazine and the technical ''Journal of Creation''. ''Creation'' has been published (originally as ''Ex Nihilo'') since 1978, and it has readers in 140 countries.

Outreach mainly comprises the publications, the web-site, and speaking engagements, mainly in church services. The "Creation Bus" is a converted Adelaide bus which tours outback and rural areas of Australia, fulfilling speaking engagements at churches and schools in smaller communities. The "Ark Van" is a van with a set of detailed models of [[Noah's Ark]] which visits churches, Sunday schools, schools, agricultural shows, and community events in Australia.

Each national CMI organisation is legally autonomous, but co-operates with each other. Each Ministry is controlled by a board of directors who are elected by members of the organisation.

The Australian ministry publishes the magazine and journal, and operates the web-site, [http://Creation.com Creation.com], on behalf of each national organisation.

=== Question evolution! campaign ===

''For more information please see:'' [[Question evolution! campaign]]

The [[Question evolution! campaign]], launched by Creation Ministries International, is a worldwide "[[grassroots|grass-roots]] movement to challenge the anti-[[Christianity|Christian]] [[dogma]] of evolution".<ref>[http://creation.com/question-evolution Question evolution! campaign]</ref> The focus of the Question evolution! campaign is on 15 questions that evolutionists cannot answer. The ''15 Questions that evolutionists cannot satisfactorily answer'' can be found [http://creation.com/15-questions HERE]. <ref>[http://creation.com/question-evolution Question evolution! campaign]</ref> The campaign will be primarily conducted in the [[United States]], the [[United Kingdom]], [[Canada]], [[Europe]], [[Australia]], [[New Zealand]], [[Singapore]] and [[South Africa]].<ref>http://creation.com/question-evolution</ref>

In May of 2011, Creation Ministries International and the [[Traditional Values Coalition]] decided to jointly work together to advance the Question evolution! campaign. The Traditional Values Coalition is a [[church]] [[lobby|lobbying]] organization that lobbies for over 43,000 [[United States|American]] churches.

The campaign features tracts, t-shirts, badges, mugs, etc. and students are being encouraged to participate in the campaign.<ref>http://creation.com/question-evolution</ref>

=== The 15 questions that evolutionists cannot satisfactorily answer ===

The [http://creation.com/15-questions 15 questions of the Question evolution! campaign], summarized, are (the full version of the 15 questions can be found [http://creation.com/15-questions HERE]):

# How did [[Origin of Life|life originate]]? How did life with hundreds of proteins originate just by chemistry without [[intelligent design]]?
# How did the [[DNA]] code originate? The code is a sophisticated language system with letters and words where the meaning of the words is unrelated to the chemical properties of the letters—just as the information on this page is not a product of the chemical properties of the ink (or pixels on a screen). What other coding system has existed without intelligent design?
# How could such errors (mutations) create 3 billion letters of DNA information to change a microbe into a microbiologist? How can scrambling existing DNA information create a new biochemical pathway or nano-machines?
# Why is [[natural selection]] taught as ‘evolution’ as if it explains the origin of the diversity of life?
# How did new biochemical pathways, which involve multiple enzymes working together in sequence, originate?
# Living things [[intelligent design|look like they were designed]], so how do evolutionists know that they were ''not'' designed? Why should science be restricted to [[Naturalism (philosophy)|naturalistic causes]] rather than [[logic|logical]] causes?
# How did multi-cellular life originate?
# How did [[sex]] originate?
# Why are the (expected) countless millions of [http://www.conservapedia.com/Evolution#Lack_of_Any_Clear_Transitional_Forms transitional fossils missing]?
# How do ‘living fossils’ remain unchanged over supposed hundreds of millions of years?
# How did blind chemistry create mind/intelligence, meaning, altruism and morality?
# Why is evolutionary ‘just-so’ story-telling tolerated?
# Where are the scientific breakthroughs due to evolution? Why do schools and universities teach evolution so dogmatically, stealing time from experimental biology that so benefits humankind?
# Why is evolution, a theory about ''history'', taught as if it is the same as this ''operational'' science?
# Why is a fundamentally religious idea, a dogmatic belief system that fails to explain the evidence, taught in ''science'' classes? If “you can’t teach religion in science classes”, why is evolution taught?

The Question evolution! campaign tract with the expanded questions includes short arguments and/or quotes in support of biblical [[creation]], in additionally offers links to articles on CMI's website providing supporting evidence.<ref>[http://aufiles.creation.com/images/pdfs/flyers/15-questions-for-evolutionists-a4.pdf 15 questions that evolutionists cannot satisfactorily answer]</ref>

=== Darwin film ===
CMI is producing a documentary film challenging [[evolution]], for release in 2009, the 200th anniversary of the birth of [[Charles Darwin]] and the 150th anniversary of the publication of ''[[The Origin of Species]]''. The $US5 million film is, they say, "among the biggest documentary film projects undertaken by any faith-funded Christian organization in the world"<ref>[http://www.darwinfilm.com/ Documentary film project] Official web-site.</ref>

=== Support Groups ===
CMI in Australia has a number of volunteer auxiliaries known as "Support Groups", located mainly in each of the state capitals.

== Creation Ministries International and atheism ==

See also: [[Creation Ministries International and atheism]]

Creation Ministries International (CMI) has a large number of articles concerning [[atheism]] compared to most biblical [[creation]] organizations.

Below is CMI's collection of articles critiquing atheism:

*[http://creation.com/atheism-agnosticism-and-humanism-godless-religions-questions-and-answers Atheism, agnosticism and humanism: godless religions]

=== 2010 Global Atheist Convention ===

The worldwide atheist community was challenged to a debate by Creation Ministries International as prominent atheists were speaking at a 2010 global atheist convention in [[Australia]].<ref>http://www.truefreethinker.com/articles/richard-dawkins-cowardly-clown</ref> [[Richard Dawkins]], [[PZ Myers]] and other prominent atheists refused to debate Creation Ministries International.<ref>http://www.truefreethinker.com/articles/richard-dawkins-cowardly-clown</ref>

== Scientists and Speakers ==

The following scientists and speakers work for CMI.
* [http://creation.com/adrian-bates Adrian Bates] (New Zealand)
* [http://creation.com/gary-bates Gary Bates] (United States)
* Dr. [http://creation.com/dr-don-batten Don Batten], plant physiology (Australia)
* [http://creation.com/philip-bell Philip Bell], zoology (United Kingdom)
* Dr. [http://creation.com/dr-robert-carter Rob Carter], Marine biology (United States)
* Dr. [http://creation.com/dr-david-catchpoole David Catchpoole], plant physiology (Australia)
* [http://creation.com/richard-fangrad Richard Fangrad], electronics (Canada)
* Dr. [http://creation.com/dr-john-hartnett John Hartnett], physics (Australia, part time)
* Dr. [http://creation.com/dr-mark-harwood Mark Harwood], satellite specialist (Australia, part time)
* Dr [http://creation.com/dr-johan-kruger Johan Kruger], zoologist (South Africa)
* Dr. [http://creation.com/dr-pierre-gunnar-jerlstrom Pierre Jerlström], molecular biology (Australia)
* Dr. [[Jonathan Sarfati]], physical chemistry (Australia)
* Dr. [http://creation.com/dr-emil-silvestru Emil Silvestru], geology (cave specialist) (Canada)
* [http://creation.com/calvin-smith Calvin Smith] (Canada)
* [http://creation.com/peter-sparrow Peter Sparrow] (Creation Bus, Australia)
* Dr. [http://creation.com/dr-tas-walker Tas Walker] engineering, geology (Australia)
* [http://creation.com/rod-walsh-ark-van Rod Walsh] (Ark Van, Australia, part time)
* Dr. [[Carl Wieland]], medical doctor (Australia)

== History ==
[[File:Richard Dawkins stumped.jpg|alt=Richard Dawkins stumped|thumbnail|200px|right|The video ''From a Frog to a Prince'', produced by Creation Ministries International, features the [[atheism|atheist]] and [[evolution|evolutionist]] [[Richard Dawkins]] being stumped by the question of a creationist.<ref>http://creation.com/was-dawkins-stumped-frog-to-a-prince-critics-refuted-again</ref> The interviewer asked Dawkins for an example of [[genetics|genetic]] [[information]] arising from a [[mutation]].<ref>http://creation.com/was-dawkins-stumped-frog-to-a-prince-critics-refuted-again</ref> A shortened version of the video has been translated into 10 languages.<ref>http://creation.com/was-dawkins-stumped-frog-to-a-prince-critics-refuted-again</ref> ]]
The history of CMI can be traced back to 1977, when Dr. [[Carl Wieland]] started the ''Creation Science Association'' in [[South Australia]], and [[Ken Ham]] and John Mackay started ''Creation Science Educational Media Services'' in [[Queensland]] around the same time. In 1980, the two organisations amalgamated and renamed the ''Creation Science Foundation'', based in Queensland. Wieland had started publishing the magazine, and with the amalgamation, this was taken over by Ham and Mackay.

In 1986 Ham left CSF and went to work for the [[Institute for Creation Research]] in [[California]]. Mackay left in 1987 and started his own creation ministry. Wieland returned to take over management of the organisation, which remained (and remains to this day) in [[Brisbane]], Queensland.

CSF opened an office in the United Kingdom in 1993.

In 1994, Ham left ICR and started a branch of CSF in the United States, but because of legal technicalities, could not use that name, and instead called the organisation ''Answers in Genesis''. The other CSF offices changed their name to Answers in Genesis soon after.

Also in 1994, an office was opened in [[Auckland]], New Zealand. Canada followed in 1998, when the Creation Science Association of Ontario, which had been in existence since 1978, joined the group. The South African ministry began in 2002.

In early 2006, following a decision by AiG (US) to break from the international group (along with AiG (UK)), the remaining organisations changed their name to Creation Ministries International and commenced their own web-site.

Later in 2006, CMI opened new offices in the United States and the United Kingdom.
== Publications ==

*[[Creation magazine]]

*[[Journal of Creation]] - Peer reviewed biblical creation journal

Creation Ministries Internal also publishes a [http://usstore.creation.com/catalog/books--c-4.html variety of books, booklets, videos, CDs and tracts].

== Dispute with Answers in Genesis ==

''For more detail, see [[Answers in Genesis#Dispute with Creation Ministries International|Answers in Genesis: Dispute with Creation Ministries International]]''

In early 2006, [[Answers in Genesis]] (U.S.) stopped distribution of ''Creation'' magazine and the ''Journal of Creation'', switching the subscribers to their new magazine, ''Answers''. CMI claims that this was unethical, unlawful, and harmed their ministry. After failing to obtain a satisfactory resolution on the dispute, CMI began legal proceedings against AiG (U.S.) in May 2007.<ref>[http://www.creationontheweb.biz/lawsuit_justification.html Why CMI-Australia is holding AiG-US legally accountable for its actions]</ref> CMI notes that the dispute is settled, as of April 2009. <ref>[http://creation.com/dispute-settled Dispute settled]</ref>

== Bibliography ==
* [http://www.creation.com/content/view/42/60/ What we are]
* [http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/about/history.asp The history of AiG–U.S. to early 2007]

== See Also ==
*[[Richard Dawkins and Creation Ministries International]]

==External Links==
*[http://creation.com Creation Ministries International website]
*[http://www.facebook.com/creationministries Creation Ministries International - Facebook]
*[http://creationwiki.org/CMI Creation Ministries International] at [[CreationWiki]]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9o8HR5lMluA Christian apologist Rev. Joe Boot on Creation Ministries International] - [[YouTube]] video

'''Question evolution! campaign:
'''
*[http://creation.com/question-evolution Question Evolution!]
*[http://creation.com/15-questions 15 Questions that evolutionist cannot satisfactorily answer]
*[http://aufiles.creation.com/images/pdfs/flyers/15-questions-for-evolutionists-a4.pdf 15 Questions that evolutionist cannot satisfactorily answer PDF version]
*[http://traditionalvalues.org/content/home/31850/ Question Evolution!] Campaign webpage for [[Traditional Values Coalition]]

Question evolution! videos:

*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9oJFXSyGpM Question Evolution!] - [[YouTube]] video
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yJZHk1IBR0 The Question Evolution Campaign - Come see!]

Question evolution! tract:

*[http://usstore.creation.com/catalog/questions-evolutionists-tracts-p-849.html 15 Questions that evolutionist cannot answer tract] - USA
*[http://creation.com/images/pdfs/flyers/15-questions-for-evolutionists-s.pdf 15 Questions that evolutionist cannot answer] - PDF facsimile

'''Age of the earth:'''

*[http://creation.com/age-of-the-earth Age of the earth -101 evidences for a young earth and universe]
*[http://creation.com/refuting-evolution-chapter-8-how-old-is-the-earth How old is the earth?] - ''Refuting evolution'' - Chapter 8 by Dr. [[Jonathan Sarfati]]

'''Refutations of atheism:'''

*[http://creation.com/atheism Atheism] by Ken Ammi
*[http://creation.com/atheism-agnosticism-and-humanism-godless-religions-questions-and-answers Atheism, agnosticism and humanism: godless religions]
{{Template:Creation vs. evolution}}

== Notes ==
{{reflist|2}}

[[Category:Young Earth Creationism]]
[[Category:Christian Organizations]]