Eric Lyons … believes that textbooks used in schools today skew people’s perception of the world by only providing information on evolution and not creation. …

For instance, Lyons said he believes dinosaurs and man lived at the same time, contrary to the beliefs of evolutionary scientists who have separated the two by millions of years.

If, he said, the Bible is the infallible word of God as most Christians believe [mjh: really?], then all animal species and man were created within the span of two days. Therefore, dinosaurs and man must have lived during the same era.

“There is good, scientific evidence of their co-existence,” Lyons said, referring to archeological finds, including cave paintings of dinosaur-like creatures by the Anasazi Indians of the American Southwest. “We try to document everything that shows this is the truth.”

[Lyons is] the director for research at the Apologetics Press, an organization publishing “scripturally based and scientifically accurate” information on subjects as varied as evolution and spirituality. …

[D]inosaurs are one of the “sugar sticks” evolutionary scientists and people who believe in evolution use to get children interested in the idea. Science textbooks are “full of misinformation” on dinosaurs and several other scientific topics, according to Lyons. …

James Bellcock, a Four Mile Hill church member and co-organizer for the seminar, said … “I think it counterbalances the information about evolution that is out there,” Bellcock said.

He said that creation is the only way he believes the world can be explained. Bellcock, who holds a masters degree in mathematics, said that just looking at the probabilities of human life springing forth without a divine hand should be enough to make people question the theory of evolution. …

“It is difficult to explain a God that has always been, but that is really the only option there is,” Bellcock said.

This is what horrifies me about Evangelical Christians. Belief and faith are fine. But these people believe they are infallible and that their beliefs are absolutely true and all other beliefs are not just wrong but evil. It’s only worse when they bother to steal some of the trappings of science: just admit your faith, don’t try to ‘prove’ it.

Notice the comment about dinosaurs as ‘sugar sticks’ to entice the very young. Just exactly what they are doing when they say Jesus rode a dinosaur.

Finally, so what if there is a god who started it all. That could be true and the bible a bundle of nonsense. mjh

The Bible is the authentic, authoritative, and final revelation of the true God. Though written over a period of 1,400 years by forty very diverse men on two continents, The Book is completely unified and free from error. A single theme is expanded upon throughout?the redemption of man through the Messiah. The Bible was confirmed by predictive prophecies and the miracles of the inspired men who wrote it. The moral laws contained within are more reasonable and consistent than that of any other religious or naturalistic system.

[via dangerousmeta!]

Here’s what happened to the Republican Party By GARRISON KEILLOR

The Union is what needs defending this year. Government of Enron and by Halliburton and for the Southern Baptists is not the same as what Lincoln spoke of. This gang of Pithecanthropus Republicanii has humbugged us to death on terrorism and tax cuts for the comfy and school prayer and flag burning and claimed the right to know what books we read and to dump their sewage upstream from the town and clearcut the forests and gut the IRS and mark up the Constitution on behalf of intolerance and promote the corporate takeover of the public airwaves and to hell with anybody who opposes them.

This is a great country, and it wasn’t made so by angry people.

[from the book Homegrown Democrat: A Few Plain Thoughts From the Heart of America; thanks, Jas.]

[One response:]

?…and there is more to life than winning.?

Garrison, you had better hope so, because lose you will. Lose you must.

Because those horrible Republicans you speak of – and those who support the best President since the end of WWII – we will surely prevail.

And you WILL lose. Most importantly, the world will be so much better for it. You are a talented, likeable man. much more likeable when you keep out of the political debate. — A. Oplas

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/979/

With several Senators absent due to

presidential campaigns, sickness or the aftermath of Hurricane Frances, the Republican Senate leadership is planning to slip in a vote on

the flag desecration amendment –- a measure that would not otherwise pass. But due to these absences, this proposed amendment to the

U.S. Constitution — which has already passed in the House — has a real chance of passing in the Senate. We need your help to stop it!

The flag desecration amendment would alter the First Amendment for the first time. Civil libertarians, coalitions of veterans,

religious leaders and other Americans have been vocally opposing this un-American initiative for many years, but its supporters have been

waiting for a moment like this to slip it through.

Take Action! The Senate vote will be extremely close and we need you to tell your

Senators to oppose this dangerous amendment.

American Civil Liberties Union : Act now! Senate Leaders Will Soon

Move to Approve the Flag Amendment

I mentioned the Daily

Howler recently as a site that prods the Media. Another is Alpert’s

Truth (disclaimer — or ad, you choose — I host Arthur Alpert’s blog).

Here’s a site that offers itself as a resource to

journalists: Poynter Online – Columns (thanks to j f l e c k). Bloggers don’t have to be journalists. However, all of

us should have an interest in the Media — it is a vital part of our democracy. mjh

With Pika,

um, tied up, and NewMexiKentraveling and dangerousmeta! also away, the Blogosphere has contracted. One more day of this and I may have to

pick up a book (to knock myself unconscious). mjh

Good gawd, it’s John Fleck Day at the Albuquerque Journal, with at least 3

articles on the front and back of Section B (one of the three sections I read on Sundays) and one more inside. This must be the annual

issue they submit for awards. Meanwhile, Flecky (as Duhbya calls him) is riding into the wind (whatever direction he’s riding) in a bike

race. mjh

ABQjournal: Scientists: Earth’s Beginnings Can be

Found on MoonBy John Fleck, Journal Staff Writer

It is hard to think of the moon, floating serenely above the horizon on a

warm summer evening, as a violent place.

Barbara Cohen is not fooled.

There was a time in our solar system’s deep past

when the moon, the Earth and our other planetary neighbors were battered like overmatched, punch-drunk boxers. Massive chunks of asteroid

pounded them again and again.

ABQjournal: Election 2004: A Look at Nuclear Issues By John Fleck, Journal Staff Writer

Kerry, Bush Disagree on the

Military Utility of Atomic Weapons and Ways to Curb Their Spread

John Kerry and George W. Bush offer voters a clear choice on what

has become the central national debate about the future direction of the U.S. nuclear arsenal— the question of whether to pursue a new

nuclear bomb designed to destroy underground enemy bunkers.

[mjh: this is two articles — weapons and waste — rolled into one Web

article]