Monday, October 19, 2009
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
The Mysterious Islands Movie
“The Mysterious Islands”: New Galapagos Film Challenges Evolution on “Ground Zero” of DarwanismSAN ANTONIO, Texas — September 8, 2009 — As the world prepares to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s landmark book, On the Origin of Species, Vision Forum has unveiled details on a new documentary, filmed on the Galapagos Islands, that debunks the conclusions Darwin reached during his storied trip to this island chain during the voyage of the HMS Beagle.
The cinematically beautiful adventure film, entitled The Mysterious Islands, was shot earlier this year and examines the same unusual creatures Darwin saw while on the Galapagos Islands, and repudiates the findings he made there that formed the basis of his Theory of Evolution. The 90-minute film, shot and directed by the award-winning Jon and Andy Erwin of Erwin Brothers Motion Pictures, is set for release in early November, just weeks prior to the November 24 anniversary date of Darwin’s influential book.
“This October and November, Americans and other Westerners will be confronted with an unprecedented onslaught of pro-evolutionary propaganda as the major media and leaders of academia heap praise on Charles Darwin, the patron saint of evolutionism,” noted Doug Phillips, who served as Executive Producer of The Mysterious Islands.
“New pro-Darwin feature films will be launched, including Creation, a major motion picture produced by atheists and starring an outspoken atheist that will present a negative perspective on the biblical account of origins,” remarked Phillips. “Major international events will be held honoring Darwin in such places as the University of Chicago. The Darwin-hype is about to reach a feverish pitch as protagonists of evolutionism celebrate the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species.
“Christians look to Jerusalem, Muslims to Mecca, but for the followers of Charles Darwin, the Galapagos Archipelago is the spiritual homeland to their evolutionary faith,” Phillips observed. “Our film — shot on ground-zero of evolutionism — will be a counter-offensive to the Darwin adulation that blows holes in the conclusions he formed while observing the wonder-filled creatures that inhabit the Galapagos Islands.”
Told through the eyes of 16-year-old Joshua Phillips, The Mysterious Islands presents a remarkable quest to Darwin’s Eden with Joshua, his father, and a team of scientists and investigators including Dr. John Morris, president of the Institute for Creation Research. The Mysterious Islands is a fast-paced film that tracks their journey of discovery as they walk where Darwin walked and engage with the amazing animals that he chronicled during his Voyage of the Beagle. Their mission: to determine whether the Galapagos Islands are a laboratory for evolution, as Darwinists claim, or a showcase for creation.
Along the way, the film examines intriguing questions that Darwin failed to answer, or that he just got wrong: Why do the animals on these islands appear to have little fear of man? Why have some of the creatures of the Galapagos developed such unusual characteristics -- are these phenomena evidences of evolution or something else? Does natural selection produce new kinds of animals, or just variations within the same kinds?
“Darwin was a poor naturalist,” noted Phillips, who led the team on this historic expedition. “While on the Galapagos, he improperly recorded his observations and later drew fundamentally wrong conclusions from the findings that he made. One hundred and fifty years after the publication of his magnum opus, his errors are clearer to see. It is not surprising that key arguments he advanced to support his Theory of Evolution have been rejected by evolutionists themselves. By retracing his steps, we show exactly where he erred.”
This beautiful documentary takes viewers deep beneath the ocean waves among hundreds of white-tip sharks, over lava fields covered with salt-spitting marine iguanas, and to the unusual habitat of blue-footed boobies and flightless cormorants. Featuring the only team of Creationists and Christian scientists to shoot a documentary on the Galapagos during 2009 — Darwin’s anniversary year — The Mysterious Islands brings a fresh perspective on Charles Darwin and his Theory and presents sweeping cinematography of one of the most remote, desolate, and fascinating island chains in the world.
***
Visit the official Mysterious Islands website at: http://www.themysteriousislands.com/
To interview Doug Phillips’ regarding The Mysterious Islands, contact Wesley Strackbein by
e-mail at press@visionforum.org or by phone at (210) 340-5250, ext. 222.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
KNOW THESE TERMS FOR MONDAYS TEST (Oct 5th)
STATEMENT
TRUTH VALUE
NO TRUTH VALUE
SELF-SUPPORTING STATEMENTS
SUPPORTED STATEMENTS
SELF REPORTS
T/F STATEMENTS BY DEFINITION
T/F STATEMENTS BY LOGICAL STRUCTURE
TAUTOLOGY
SELF-CONTRADICTION
AUTHORITY
EXPERIENCE
DEDUCTION
CONSISTENT
INCONSISTENT
IMPLICATION
LOGICAL EQUIVALENCE
INDEPENDENT
DISAGREEMENT
REAL DISAGREEMENT
APPARENT DISAGREEMENT
VERBAL DISAGREEMENT
THE VERB OF BEING
VERB OF BEING PROCEDURE
Friday, September 25, 2009
Faraday Cage
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Is a lie always a lie?
Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.” But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live. So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and let the male children live?” The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” So God dealt well with the midwives. And the people multiplied and grew very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.” [Exodus 1:15-22]
Probably one of the first things you think when reading this text is: "Wait a second… the midwives told a lie. That's bad, right? But it helped them out, so does that mean it's okay to lie to accomplish good?" This is a confusing ethical dilemma, and the essence of it is familiar to many of us. Is it okay to break the law of God in order to bring about "the greater good?" Does the end justify the means, when the means are obviously sin in themselves? If my boss wants me to conduct business dishonestly, and threatens my job security if I don't comply, should I do it? What if my marriage or the lives of my children depend on it? Do I lie to get ahead in life, or preserve my life, or even to preserve the lives of others? Do I cheat, steal, or otherwise go against God's character and expressed will, because the outcome will be better than if I don't?
These are hard questions, but there are answers. The temptation common to these questions is this: if I would just break God's commandment, I can get the life for myself that I think is best. The temptation is to manage our own destinies. The Hebrew midwives feared God and didn't kill the male children—hooray! But when their lives were in jeopardy for having disobeyed Pharaoh, they figured the best way out of this fix was to lie, which is disobedience to God. True, God had not previously commanded them not to lie, but neither had he previously commanded them to preserve life. They knew enough about the character of God—as do we all—that they knew his will for their lives. They feared God and disobeyed Pharaoh… then when under pressure they feared Pharaoh and disobeyed God.
But good came about from it, right? So everything's okay in the end, right? Wrong. The problem is this: the midwives gave in to the temptation to take care of things for themselves, because their instinct was, "If I obey God and tell the truth, I'm dead… I don't want to die, so I'll lie." They didn't trust in God's supreme and good providence. They could have said, "If I tell the truth, God can preserve me from Pharaoh's wrath." Or they could have said, "If I tell the truth, and Pharaoh kills me, it's God's good plan for my life—NOT proof that he has abandoned me." But they gave in to the lie, "If I obey God, things will go badly for me, because God doesn't care for me like I can care for myself." The temptation is to disbelieve his favorable providence in your life, because it really doesn't appear that things are going your way.
The way to hold up under such temptation is this: believe! Persecution and temptation are aimed at one thing only, and that is the eradication of your faith in God. So we must believe that God has good in mind for us, even if it looks like our suffering and death. We can be assured of this good intention toward us as we see his love demonstrated toward us in Christ. Because Christ died for sinners, we know that God will never strip away our good eternal destiny. Because of Christ, we know that all things work together for good for his people—even if being his people means we lose our families or jobs or lives.
And this good news is even better when you realize that you don't have to be perfect to deserve this kind treatment from God. Jesus came to save sinners, not "righteous people" (as if there really were such a thing). Sinners are the only kind of people God saves and blesses. The Hebrew midwives sinned, and God blessed them anyway, not because they had been really clever to lie to Pharaoh, but because he is a gracious and powerful God with a good destiny in mind for them. God truly has wonderful providence in store for people just like you and me, if our faith is in him through Jesus Christ.
So you can stand firm in your faith in the face of temptation and persecution, and say, "I don't know how God's going to work this out, because things look pretty bad right now, but whatever it is must be good, and so I will trust him with my life and do what he has called and commanded me to do." Looking to Jesus, you can resist sin, even to the point of shedding blood.
"When Germanicus, a young man and true Christian, was delivered to the wild lions on account of his faith, he behaved with such astonishing courage that several pagans were converted to the faith that inspired such bravery…." [John Foxe's Book of Martyrs]
When God's grace fuels your ethics, you can live the beautiful and faithful kind of life that will either make people want to kill you, or make them fall in love with your Savior, to the glory of God.
http://www.reformationtheology.com/2007/11/grace_fuels_ethics.php Eric Costa on November 11, 2007 05:47 PM
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
News? Editorial? Something else?
Is it editorial?
Is it news?
Is the story based on truth?
Now watch the same event broadcast on another network.
Is it the same story?
You can't always believe what you see on TV.
