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Welcome to ARN-Announce
Number Six, July 10, 2000

ARN-Announce is the on-line announcement and information service of Access Research Network. ARN generates announcements to the current ARN Announce list as information becomes available. You have received this message because your email address was submitted to this list. Subscription and Unsubscription information is at the end of this message.

IN THIS ARN-ANNOUNCE:

A FEW NOTES ABOUT ARN-ANNOUNCE

This is the sixth issue of ARN-Announce. It describes many of the upcoming events and new articles, books, videos and other resources on Intelligent Design. Please forward this message to several of your friends and colleagues to let them know about the resources available at Access Research Network (www.arn.org). Back issues of ARN-Announce can be found at www.arn.org/announce.htm

ORIGINS & DESIGN ISSUE 38 NOW AVAILABLE

Peering Into Darwin’s Black Box
Spring 2000 Edition

It been over a year since our last issue of the Origins & Design journal, and we are working hard to get another issue out this year, but O&D Issue 38 is finally here!

The feature article in this issue is "Peering into Darwin's Black Box." Cell biologist Joseph Francis argues that even in "simple" bacteria, the most basic cell functions display irreducibly complex mechanisms--for instance, cell division.  This article considers the origin of an irreducibly complex cell division apparatus in the light of protocell theory and intelligent design theory, and concludes that intelligent design is a better explanation

Also in this issue Michael Corey reports on the April 1999 AAAS conference "Cosmic Questions", Walt Hearn and Lydia McGrew exchange thoughts on "Blaming the Handyman", Paul Nelson provides his always excellent Literature Survey, Margaret Helder reviews the 1999 book Darwinism Defeated? The Johnson-Lamoureux Debate on Biological Origins and Kurt Wise reviews Leonard Brand's book Faith, Reason, and Earth History: A Paradigm of Earth and Biological Origins by Intelligent Design.

If you would like to order a copy of this issue ($7) or start a subscription with this issue ($20 U.S. Individual) leave your info on our voice mail system (888-259-7102) and we will ship it right out or order on our secure web server: http://www.arn.org/arnproducts/odesigninfo.htm

NEW BOOK AVAILABLE FROM ARN:

Body & Soul: Human Nature & the Crisis in Ethics by J.P. Moreland & Scott B. Rae

I have a friend who likes to read the last few pages of a book before he reads any other part of it. I assume this is only with non-fiction works, since this approach would certainly ruin most fiction books I’ve read. If he does not find the author’s conclusion affirming or at least intriguing, then he does not want to waste his time reading the book. In many ways Body & Soul is the end of the book when it comes to understanding human origins. We spend a lot of time talking about the origin of the universe, the origin of information, the origin of life and the origin of the phyla. But what about the origin of the soul?

Is there another nature within mankind other than the physical? Moreland and Rae emphatically affirm this in their modern version of dualism. This body and soul (dualism) view has historical roots as far back as Plato and Aristotle. The authors review modern arguments from science, philosophy and theology to make a convincing case that humans are more than just a collection of molecules and genes.

It is the exclusion of the soul (monism) and its responsibilities in our high tech society that creates many of the moral dilemmas we face today such as abortion, euthanasia, fetal tissue research and more. As with many scientists in their respective fields, Moreland and Rae are defending the philosophical and ethical issues of "personhood" by stating that we consist of more than chance, material substances and we have responsibilities to ourselves and others.

Moreland and Rae have done an excellent job in this 384 page effort to create a work that is both academically rigorous and yet accessible to the lay reader. No doubt the layman will have to "work" his way through this volume, but the reward will be a defendable position on modern ethical issues based on a body and soul view of personhood.

I believe many readers will be drawn in to the intelligent design dialogue by reading this last chapter of the origins "book" by Moreland and Rae. To order a copy of Body & Soul go to: http://www.arn.org/arnproducts/php/book_show_item.php?id=35

NEW ARTICLES ON-LINE FROM NANCY PEARCEY

Not only is Nancy Pearcey the new managing editor of our journal Origins & Design, but she is also a prolific writer as well. This is evidenced by the barrage of new articles by Nancy that have appeared in World magazine, Christianity Today, Human Events, and First Things in recent months.

In the "Missing Link That Wasn’t" published in the March 10, 2000 issue of Human Events, Nancy documents several reversals of key evidence supporting Darwinism such as the recent "dinobird" from China.

In "Darwin’s Dirty Secret" which appeared in World magazine March 13, 2000, Nancy takes a critical look at the emerging field of evolutionary psychology and the shocking conclusion of one proponent regarding the evolution of rape.

"DNA: The Message in the Message" is the title of the June 1996 article that Nancy wrote for First Things which we have recently posted. Nancy gives a succinct explanation of the evidence for design from the structure of DNA and insights from information theory.

"The Birds and the Bees: Pop Culture’s Evolutionary Message" appeared in the April 22, 2000 issue of World. In this article Nancy illustrates how Darwinism has oozed out of the classroom and into the teen pop culture. A recent music lyric says it all "You and me baby ain't nothin' but mammals; So let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel." Nancy concludes with two recommended books for parents who want to counter the Darwinian pop culture mindset.

"We’re Not in Kansas Anymore: Why secular scientists and media can’t admit Darwinism might be wrong." What's the best way for public schools to handle the evolution issue? In this cover article for Christianity Today, May 22, 2000, Nancy analyzes what we learned from the Kansas controversy and shows how the concept of intelligent design has become the "big tent" for Christians and others concerned about the assumption of naturalistic philosophy in science and across the curriculum.

"Creation Mythology: Defenders of Darwinism resort to suppressing data and teaching outright falsehoods." Science is supposed to be self-correcting, but in some places educators are so nervous about any criticism of Neo-Darwinism that they are prohibiting teachers from informing students about recent corrections to the theory. This article from the June 24, 2000 issue of World magazine tells the story of two teachers who were penalized for their attempts to teach students the latest developments in evolutionary theory.

"Overcoming the Scandal of the Christian Mind" From First Things, February 2000. Review by J. Budziszewski of Nancy’s recent book How Now Shall We Live? (Tyndale, 1999), coauthored with Chuck Colson.

To view any of these articles go to Nancy’s home page on the ARN web site at: http://www.arn.org/pearcey/nphome.htm

STAR GAZER'S SKY MAP AND COMET LINEAR

I’ve always had a love for astronomy and I own more star books and charts than I know what to do with. When Haley’s comet came around I even bought a small Edmund Scientific telescope and did some comet photography. But next week I’m heading off to camp in the mountains with 19 Boy Scouts and I was looking for a simple star chart that a 12 year old could use. I found a great one at skymaps.com.

If you download the pdf file for the Northern Hemisphere for July they have the path of Comet Linear charted out which you can see with binoculars and maybe the naked eye later in the month.  I'm going to use this chart with the Scouts to find constellations, stars, comets, star clusters, galaxies and nebulae, and talk a little about the fine-tuning of the universe.

To get the .pdf printable copy of your sky map (which requires the Adobe Acrobat Reader to open and print) go to: http://www.skymaps.com/

TEACHING MOMENTS FROM DISNEY'S DINOSAUR

There is nothing like going to a Disney matinee in the summer to make you feel like a kid again. My brother, sister and I used to pay fifty cents at the local theater to watch Disney reruns all afternoon and escape the 100 degree heat in LA. I had the opportunity to relive those memories recently when I took my twelve-year-old son and 10 of his friends to the new Disney Dinosaur movie to celebrate his birthday. But my encounter with rather unDarwinian dinosaurs left me thinking about the "teaching moments" that the film offered. To find out what they were go to: http://www.arn.org/docs/dw_disneysdinosaur.htm

IN THE NEXT ISSUE ...

In the next issue of ARN announce I will be reporting on the Baylor and Concordia conferences and tell you more about other upcoming conferences. We also have many new audio, video and book products to report (some of which you can find on your own if you hunt around our web site)

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