Belgian electro-pop trailblazers Soulwax have awoken after a decade or so stuck in standby mode.

This down-period might have been more active than most, with the central Dewaele brothers touring as 2manydjs, Despacio (with James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem) and, well, Soulwax itself when it took their fancy. However, given that their last original studio album was 2004's 'Any Minute Now', it's safe to say that the release of recent record From Deewee marks a proper return to the musical frontline for the sharp suited synth-botherers.

Soulwax were never known for making things easy for themselves and this is no routine release. Recorded in one single take after two weeks rehearsal with three different drummers, the latest record was the offspring of ambition, experimentation and looming deadlines.

We had a date by which, if it wasnt all recorded and mixed and sent off, there would be no vinyl release, no digital release, no anything. So a lot of that process came out of necessity, explains singer and co-band leader David Dewaele. We had to start at the end and think backwards to plan every second of our time, because there was absolutely no leeway. The process took about two weeks, but we only had two days where everyone was in the studio together. I think we managed the whole thing on the 18th take.

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A lot of that process came out of necessity...

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Despite such a stress-inducing recording process, the band have no regrets about taking such an unorthodox approach. "I think whether it's a year or two weeks youve spent perfecting a record, your feelings about it are roughly the same," David muses, "Its easy to say this is how it should have been, but ultimately thats how it was at that time. And thats it. Once its done and once its out it doesnt belong to you any more."

In many way's 'From Deewee' has the same advantages and disadvantages as a live album, capturing the band at a very short, specific stage in their career and preserving it in amber for all to see. "There is no definitive version," as David sagely puts it, "theres just that performance.

He also points out that, due to the unique way that the record was created, audiences at their live shows basically get to see the albums recording process recreated in full with the same personnel, equipment and setup they used back in their studio in Ghent, Belgium. Its three drummers facing off on either side, with us in the middle on machines, he explains before descending into a deluge of audiophilic jargon about how they map the sound of the different kits on stage to pan differently depending on where you are in the audience.

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Davids use of the term machines instead of instruments pretty much sums up the groups approach to artistry. He and his brother are never happier than when testing the capabilities of musical technology and disappearing down the synthetic rabbit hole in the pursuit of new ideas. In fact the group would have loved to compose an album to be entirely performed by machines, if only that pesky Aphex Twin hadn't got there first. "It excites us trying to find new ways to do unique things with these machines," he explains, citing fellow eccentric gent from Ghent Godfreid-Willem Raes (creator of and composer for the largest robot orchestra in the world) as one of the innovators they most admire.

But the most impressively machine-like aspect of Soulwaxs sound in 2017 isnt the bleeps and bloops of the bands considerable electronic arsenal; it's the aforementioned drum trifecta.

First on their new percussive roster is the heavy-hitting Igor Cavalera of metal trailblazers Sepultura, not a musician youd immediately associate with the nerdy synth-rock of Soulwax. Also on sticks is Vicky Jean Smith, who played with The Big Pink, Ipso Facto and M.I.A. Shes kind of on the other end of the spectrum to Igor, who is just this incredible machine, explains David (to whom human drummers are merely the motors that power a larger contraption). "She brings a real, for want of a better word, groove. Shes every bit as powerful as Igor but her beats are more swung than programmed." Completing the rhythmic troika is Turbowolf's Blake Davies, who David describes as "kind of in the middle" of the other two's stylistic extremes.

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She brings a real, for want of a better word, groove...

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Performing as a poly-rhythmic outfit allows the album's songs to neatly segue into one another as the trio pick up each others beats and add subtle embellishments, or take it in turns to build up towering 'pass the parcel'-style fills. This complements 'From Deewee's non-stop nature, its origin as a single take making it sound almost like one long robotic symphony. This is, in part, due to the Dewaele brothers long running side-hustle as 2manydjs. David admits that the record "is almost more like a DJ mix than a standard album. We planned the position of the songs way in advance with the way each one would transition into the next in mind.

Despite the many lessons he and his brother Stephen have learnt since Soulwax last released an album, David is adamant that there's no reason his band couldn't have made a record like it back in their early 00s heyday. On a technical level anyone could have made this album!" he laughs, "but I guess you always need a set of circumstances to make a specific album, and given there was a decade of difference between us in 2017 and the version of us that released Most Of... Im sure that affected the nature of the album we ended up with in some way.

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Make it all about the records...

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After a jawdropping showcase of this unusual live performance at M.I.A's Meltdown Festival, Soulwax will actually only play one other UK Festival: Bluedot Festival at Manchester's Jodrell Bank Observatory. Given that it also merges together science, technology, music and a healthy passion for discovery, this seems like the perfect fit for a group dedicated to using scientific means to expand their sound palette. Having the festival next to the famous Lovell Telescope seems particularly apt to David, as a lot of the identity of a festival comes down to location".

But despite their serious geek credentials, Soulwax would never curate something quite so conceptual themselves. We tend to hang out with nerds," David admits, "But were not as smart as the guys who create stuff like that, if we were to curate a festival we would probably just make it more of a vinyl fair. Make it all about the records. Sure Soulwax might be studio tech-wizards again, but as the 'From Deewee' track acknowledges, their singer has become a deejay, and that's a tricky transformation to come back from.

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Catch Soulwax at Blue Dot festival, Jordrell Bank this weekend (July 7th - 9th).

Words: Josh Gray

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In The Mix: The Continuing Evolution Of Soulwax - Clash Magazine

Arsenal: Olivier Giroud and Alexandre Lacazette make perfectly peculiar crowd by Andrew Dowdeswell

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GENT, BELGIUM SEPTEMBER 16: Alexandre Lacazette of Lyon battles for the ball with Stefan Mitrovic of Gent during the UEFA Champions League Group H match between KAA Gent and Olympique Lyonnais held at Ghelamco Arena on September 16, 2015 in Gent, Belgium. (Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)

Alexandre Lacazette is set to be an Arsenal player. After Lyon President Jean Michel-Aulas announced that a deal was agreed upon, Lacazette arrived in North London on Monday morning to undergo a medical and complete the switch. He signals an attacking evolution that Arsene Wenger is seemingly keen to instigate. However, adding just one player is not enough to fully execute such a significant and substantial change.

Here are three players to top off the attacking evolution that Lacazette has started.

The French revolution of young attacking talent is quite remarkable. While many mayfocus on the household names Paul Pogba, Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann, Ousmane Dembele there are still many others in the French system that are wonderfully gifted players, even if they may not garner the same coverage and hype.

One of those players is Thomas Lemar, a 21-year-old winger who has been a part of the ruthless Monaco side that have sliced open every opponent in their path on their way to a Champions League semi-final and Ligue 1 title. Lemar himself is a technical, composed winger, who uses his excellent balance and spatial awareness to outmanoeuvre his opponents, rather than merely sprint past them as the quicker attackers may do.

He would slide into the Arsenal team with great ease. He has the intelligence and vision that Wenger demands of his attacking players. He also has a great future ahead of him, given his age and youthfulness. Anchoring an attacking revolution on his and Lacazettes talents would be no bad thing whatsoever.

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Arsenal: 3 players to top off Alexandre Lacazette evolution - Pain In The Arsenal

The rise of Thai football on the international stage in the past few years has also attracted the attention of the video game industry.

The Thai League and Thailand national team may be included in the popular football video game Pro Evolution Soccer if discussions between all parties go well, according to FA Thailand Deputy General Secretary Patit Suphaphongs.

According to the Thai edition of Goal, Konami, the company that makes Pro Evolution Soccer, FA Thailand and Plan-B Media, FA Thailand's official rights manager, had an initial meeting to seek opportunity on Tuesday.

"Both of us need this. Konami knows that the South East Asia market has been growing, only second to China, which is number one. So it's obviously a rapidly growing market here.

"We know this too, and know that this will spread Thai football to gamers. Video games are also an excellent tool to introduce players, teams and the Thai League itself to the world.

"So we're discussing the possibilities of working together, both on mobile and console platforms. We will help them be familiar with the Thailand market, and take note of their goals.

"After this we will move on to licensing. We believe our contents can support the game as well. They also have their terms and condition details about licensing. So it's still in the discussion stage here," explained Suphaphongs.

However, South East Asian fans eager to play as their favourite Thai club need to waitlonger, as the plan is for the Thai teams to be included in the 2020 edition of the game.

"We are looking for the opportunity to integrate Thai clubs and competitions to the future PES, on both mobile and console platforms. We are aiming for the Pro Evolution Soccer edition that will come out in two years' time, as the 2018 edition is already completed while the 2019 edition is nearing completion.

A screenshot from Pro Evolution Soccer 2018

"The mobile edition can be developed faster due to its rapidly-updating nature, but for consoles it is likely to take more time.

"Another option that we have is for Konami to develop an entirely new game, specifically for the Thai League," Suphaphongs said.

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Thailand league and national team may be included in Pro ... - Goal.com

Actror Alexander Skarsgard: good genes, or just attractive? If animals prefer mates based on criteria that are not simply proxies for genetic fitness, then evolution is more expansive than generally imagined.

Can female preferences shape male behaviour? This is a scientific question and one with a long, controversial history.

Shortly after the 1871 publication of Charles Darwin's The Descent of Man,a biologist named StGeorge Mivart wrote a review criticising its proposed theory of sexual selection: Mivart refused to believe that the preferences and choices of females could constitute a selective pressure that shaped the behaviour and physiology of male animals. Relying more on Victorian male prejudice than scientific reasoning, Mivart concluded that "the instability of vicious feminine caprice" could never shape the evolution of males.

Darwin, however, believed that female preferences could in fact shape the evolution of ornamental traits in males (deer antlers, peacock feathers and the like). He even described sexual selection occurring through the mechanism of female agency: "The male Argus Pheasant acquired his beauty gradually through the preference of the females during many generations for the more highly ornamented males," he wrote in Descent.

Darwin's was a minority opinion, and it remains one to this day. Alfred Russel Wallace, the co-discoverer of evolution by natural selection, first articulated what has become a dominant view that female animals simply prefer traits that are proxies for health and fitness. Beauty, in short, is just a sign of good genes, and females select mates on this basis alone.

A new book by Yale University ornithologist RichardPrum revives and expands Darwin's provocative notion that beauty and genetic fitness are not always entwined. In The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin's Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World and Us,Prum develops a theory of aesthetic evolution that shows how the females of many species select male traits not for their fitness value but simply because they are pleasing.

This might sound like an esoteric distinction within evolutionary biology, but its consequences are far-reaching. If animals prefer mates based on criteria that are not simply proxies for genetic fitness, then evolution is a far more expansive process than generally imagined. It can even accommodate some maladaptive features and behaviours, so long as they have sufficient aesthetic appeal.

Darwin and Prum present evolution as more than an engine that selects organisms with adaptive advantages. They claim that sexual selection operates in part through individual aesthetic preferences for songs, dances, displays, ornaments and even behaviours. Animals are not only shaped by the natural world, they also shape their own evolution through their preferences.

It makes sense that an ornithologist would be a champion of the aesthetic dimensions of evolution. Prum has observed more than a third of the roughly 10,000 species of birds in the world. The vast variety of distinctive avian colorations and song patterns is difficult to explain solely in terms of adaptive fitness. The club-winged manakin, for instance, is a species from the Ecuadorian Andes that "sings" by rubbing its wings together at high frequencies. These wing songs require evolutionary changes that are actually maladaptive. While other species of birds have hollow bones, the club-winged manakins have solid ulnas that help enhance the sound production of their wing songs. This decreases their flight capacity and efficiency, but these disadvantages seem to be offset by the mating opportunities that the songs create.

This is just one of many examples. Spotted bowerbirds from Australia have precise preferences for the types and colours of materials they use to build bowers, the ornamental structures they use to attract mates. One species favours a particular shade of royal blue, while another uses an optical illusion known as forced perspective that makes objects appear to be a different size than they actually are. The birds are not simply advertising their physical strength by collecting bower construction materials that are more difficult to find. They use very common materials the skill is in the arrangement. "There is no compelling evidence that bower decorations are costly, honest signals of male quality," Prum writes. "Rather, they appear to vary like any other aesthetic styles among species." Males with better-constructed and more elaborately decorated bowers are rewarded with more mating opportunities.

The particulars of avian architecture, courtship dances and songs are thus somewhat contingent and arbitrary. Rather than functioning as signals of health or genetic quality, these complex behaviours develop over generations through the selective pressure of countless individual choices by avian females. Prum argues convincingly that the subjective experience of animalsthe pleasure they take in aesthetic display is a major evolutionary force. What is less clear and never really considered is whether animals are conscious of this pleasure and what it means when we say they experience beauty.

Prum opens his argument with avian examples, but he closes it by considering how the same principles might have shaped human evolution. He speculates that a broad range of features and behaviours such as deweaponised canine teeth, eyebrows and pubic hair may have originated through aesthetic evolution. Perhaps human females preferred some of these traits in males on purely aesthetic grounds: It's hard to account for eyebrows as a highly functional indicator of genetic quality.

Prum is particularly eager to emphasise the role that female mating preferences may have played in human evolution, as if feminist arguments were simply waiting for the imprimatur of a biologist. While some of these conjectures are more plausible than others, the book is a major intellectual achievement that should hasten the adoption of a more expansive style of evolutionary explanation that Darwin himself would have appreciated.

Washington Post Book World

The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin's Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World and Us, by Richard Prum, published by Doubleday. Nick Romeo is a critic and journalist whose work has appeared in the New Yorker, the New Republic and other publications.

Washington Post

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Evolutionary challenge: people are drawn to mates because they are attractive - The Australian Financial Review

BBC News

Frog evolution linked to dinosaur asteroid strike BBC News The huge diversity of frogs we see today is mainly a consequence of the asteroid strike that killed off the dinosaurs, a study suggests. A new analysis shows that frog populations exploded after the extinction event 66 million years ago. It would ... Extinction event that wiped out dinosaurs cleared way for frogsPhys.Org all 11 news articles »

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Frog evolution linked to dinosaur asteroid strike - BBC News

As of the Fourth of July, 2017, President Trump will have been a Twitter user for nearly 12 percent of his life, joining in 2009 at the age of 62 and continuing on to this very day. For 1out of every 9days hes been alive, Trump has been on Twitter.

The net effect of this is that we have a reasonably good record of the past eight years of Trumps life, a period spanning most of President Barack Obamas two terms and intoTrumps own. Its a public record unlike that of any other president, its safe to say, and its one that can show us how Donald Trump the businessman evolved into Donald Trump, the aggressively confrontational politician.

Consider the Fourth of July. Our tool Trumphop retweets old Trump tweets on the same day and time as they were originally sent. We noticed, as the Fourth approached, that Trumps tweets related to the holiday have had a noticeably different tone in recent years than in years past.

Below, Trumps Fourth of July-related tweets from each year and a sample of the other issues he chose to highlight on the anniversary of our nations independence.

The first three years of Trumps Independence Day tweets were straightforward. The 2009 iteration included a clumsy signature, but this was while Twitter was still young and people did such things.

By 2011, Trump was already engaged in politics, having considered and then skipped a run for the presidency. This was after he challenged Obama to present a birth certificate to prove that he was born in the United States which Obama did shortly before roasting Trump at the White House Correspondents Association dinner. Yet that didnt come through inTrumps July 4 tweet.

It did the next year, when Trump decided to make a birth certificate joke.

This is the new era of Trump, recognizing and reveling in the feedback that his more outrageous Twitter behavior could provide.

As the holiday approached, Trump weighed in on the presidential election, having endorsed Republican Mitt Romney during the primary.

While not on the Fourth itself, this tweet is worth a mention: the politically motivated I predicted it tweet.

In 2013, Trump spent the Fourth celebrating a legal victory.

He also retweeted a vulgar response to the settlement.

Original tweet.

He fought back with someone who was critical of him. (That original tweet included the same vulgarity as the one above.)

He also, for some reason, decided to focus on his attitudes about sharks.

He didnt tweet anything about the holiday itself.

He did in 2014.

By 2015, he was officially a candidate for the presidency. In keeping with that, he tweeted a fairly anodyne celebration of the day, tacking on his campaign slogan.

He couldnt resist, though, digging into the political moment.

Praise for his candidacy earned a retweet.

Macys, which ended its business relationship with Trump afterhe made negative comments about immigrants from Mexico at his campaign launch, earned Trumps ire.

As did his critic Romney.

By this point last year, Trump had earned enough delegates to clinch the nomination at the Republican National Convention, a few weeks after the Fourth.

He celebrated the holiday with a professionally designed image and video.

He then quickly reverted to his campaign persona, disparaging rivalHillary Clinton and Obama as fools and the former as guilty.

He also spent part of the day rebutting the controversy of the moment. On July 2 precisely one year before he stirred up controversy by plucking an animation from theInternet that showed him wrestling with CNN Trump tweeted an image his team had found online picturingClinton over a pile of dollar bills, with Most Corrupt Candidate printed over a six-pointed star. The image, quickly altered to replace the star with a circle, was widely criticized for being tacitly anti-Semitic.

So at 9:42 a.m. on Independence Day, candidate Trump defended his previous tweet by disparaging the media.

Its a far cry from the simple message he offered in 2009. But, since then, Trumps public persona is similarly a far cry from what it was then.

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The evolution of Donald Trump, as seen in his Fourth of July tweets - Washington Post

ISTANBUL, TURKEY

A dispute in Turkey over the removal of the theory of evolution from schools is set to escalate further.

Turkeys main teachers' union, Egitim Sen announced it is turning to the courts.

Excluding the theory of evolution from the curriculum and obliging all schools to have a prayer room and water closet (for ablution) destroys the principle of secularism and the scientific principles of education, said Egitim Sen chair Mehmet Balik, We will open a lawsuit against these regulations and take these implementations to court.

The education ministry argues there is no religious or political agenda behind the reform rather that evolution is simply too complicated and controversial . The decision to end the teaching of evolution was made by a state official rather than a politician.

But senior members of the ruling AK Parry government, which has Islamist roots, for some time have had evolution in their sights.

Scientifically, the theory of evolution is already an archaic and disproven theory, said deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus in January, There is no such rule that this theory must be taught.

Longtime pressure against evolution

The teaching of evolution has long been under pressure in Turkish schools. Teachers and academics in the past few years have complained the importance of evolution was being reduced, while religious interpretations such as creationism and intelligent design were being enhanced in text books.

Egitim Sen has repeatedly spoken out that its members face pressure from fellow teachers and school heads of religious persuasion, as well as some parents not to teach evolution.

In the high schools evolution was already taught very badly, it was already being increasingly taught as hypothesis rather than a theory, if it was mentioned at all, declares Professor Kerem Cankocak, one of Turkeys top physicists of Istanbul Technical University.

So the complete removal of evolution was expected. Already I see many students who don't know or refuse to accept it. But this latest change is part of a wider plan, natural sciences, philosophy, social sciences all cut back in the new curriculum. They (government) want a generation who don't think, Cankocak said.

Expanding religious education

Critics of the new reforms point out they come as the government under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has markedly expanded the role of religion in education. There has been a dramatic expansion of Islamic schools, called Imam Hatip. The schools initially set up to train Imams, devote more than a quarter of education to religious studies.

In 2002 when Erdogan, an Imam Hatip graduate, came to power, 65,000 children attended the schools, now nearly a million attend. In the past couple of years state secular schools have started to be converted into Imam Hatips, in many cases with parents being given little notice or opportunity to move their child to another school.

Turkeys predominantly Kurdish southeast region, which is the center of a power struggle between the ruling AK Party and the staunchly secular pro Kurdish HDP, has witnessed some of the most far reaching education changes.

In normal state schools, that are designated as 'project schools' have many religious classes, claims Saliha Zorlu, co head of Egitim Sen Diyarbakir branch.

Islamist trend?

There is an ongoing intervention to make society more conservative, and the government knows that they can succeed in making the changes deeper and longer term by using the field of education. Weve seen even in the kindergarten classes that girls were asked to cover their head, Zorlu said.

Erdogan and his government strongly reject the charge of any religious agenda and insist the secular state is safe in their hands, they reject their party being labeled religious, preferring the word conservative. They argue the reforms are more about pluralism and that education should reflect and meet the demands of Turkeys largely conservative society. But critics point to Erdogan's rhetoric of raising young people to embrace national and moral values, a demand he repeated only last week. Critics claim a moral generation is code for Islamist.

But the controversy about evolution, religion and education far predates Erdogan and his ruling AK, After a 1980 military coup the generals introduced a terrible education system, they introduced religion to fight against communism, many of the consequences of today started there, points out Professor Cankocak. During that period the army, which often likes to present itself as guardian of the secular state, introduced compulsory religious classes and creationism into the curriculum.

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Dispute About Teaching Evolution in Turkish Schools Escalates - Voice of America

A legal challenge to Turkey's nixing evolution? National Center for Science Education The decision to remove evolution from Turkey's national curriculum is going to be challenged in court, according to the Hurriyet Daily News (July 2, 2017). As NCSE previously reported, a revision of the national curriculum, in which a unit entitled ... and more »

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A legal challenge to Turkey's nixing evolution? - National Center for Science Education

Can Christians Believe in Evolution? (Part 1) PERSONAL FROM DAVID C. PACK, PUBLISHER/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF July 1, 2017

Did God create all life on Earth according to the Genesis account or did it gradually evolve? Millions of professing Christians have been told science supports evolution, not Creation. They declare, I believe in God and the Bible, I just think evolution was how He created man. They believe God directed the gradual development of all plant and animal life. This is referred to as directed evolution, or theistic evolution.

This introduces great questions: Can a Christian accept evolution? Is this compatible with the Bibleand following Jesus Christ? What does the New Testament say? What did the apostles teach? What did Christ say? This two-part Personal answers all these questions and more.

My five-part The World to Come series titled Does God Exist?Many Absolute Proofs! forms the foundation for this Personal. It explores the latest science to prove that God exists and that evolution is factually impossible.

This two-part Personal is different. Its purpose is to examine whether the Bible permits Christians to believe in directed evolution. We will look at verses most never consider. I will prove absolutelywith overwhelming evidencethat belief in evolution is not compatible with Christianity.

Theistic evolutionists believe God created the universe and all life, but that biological evolution is a natural process within that creation. They believe the God of the Bible did not form man directly, but rather created matter and then guided the long process of evolution. A quote summarizes this thinking: theistic evolution contends that abiogenesis (the spontaneous formation of life from chemicals) and evolution (amoeba to man through eons) have occurred, but a creator was instrumental in forming the initial matter and laws, and more or less guided the whole process (The Creation-Evolution Controversy). This idea purports that science and the fossil record prove evolutionbut, since life is too complicated to have happened by itself, God must be behind the process. Evolution was simply His tool to develop single-celled organisms into complex ones and eventually into human life.

On the surface, theistic evolution sounds scientifically plausible. One might reason, God is infinitely powerful. Why couldnt He use evolution if He wanted? Of course He could. But the correct question is, did He? And does He permit you to believe something other than what He said He did?

Before examining a broad array of plain scriptures from Christ and His apostles that confirm Genesis, setup is required. We begin by asking: How did evolution become acceptable within Christianity?

This began in the system of modern education. For 120 years after Darwins theory, until the late 1970s, belief in Creation was not accompanied by automatic ridicule. Today, even insinuating that a Supreme Being had any part in designing the universe, and life within it, is usually met with scorn!

People are now thoroughly indoctrinated with evolution from an early age. The official policy of the National Science Teachers Association is, There is no longer a debate among scientists about whether evolution has and is occurring. No wonder evolution is assumed by the masses today. When I was in school, it was still the theory of evolutionalways! Now it is considered factwhen it has always been fiction.

The apostle Paul warned Gods servants not to get caught up in phony science, which could threaten their eternal lives. Christians are to be laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life (I Tim. 6:19). Following this verse, Paul charged Timothy to keep that which is committed to your trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: which some professing have erred concerning the faith (vs. 20-21).

Be careful what you profess. Many unlearned ministers have caved to junk science, which is popular but false. They teach that God endorses evolution. False science can make you err concerning the faith. Do not let it threaten your eternal life!

My series proving God exists demonstrates who stands on true science and on science falsely so called.

Confusion spread by evolutionists has led many to believe that the early chapters of Genesis, including the Creation account, do not describe real people and real events. Lets ask: Is Genesis just a collection of helpful stories that mostly never happened? Are names and places described mostly myth and superstition? Atheists and agnostics, but also growing numbers of professing Christians, think so. Seven days of Creation and a literal Adam and Eve are just too hard to believe. Sadly, much of the confusion is because many have been taught that since man is 6,000 years old, so are the Earth and universewhen in fact these are billions of years old.

The question becomes: Is Gods Word written in such a way that it permits followers of Jesus Christ to accept Him while rejecting the Genesis Creation account? A sequence of versesfrom the Old and New Testamentssets the table with enormously powerful understanding you cannot avoid.

Lets see how God says the whole Bible must be accepted or rejected as is.

Jesus commanded (in two gospels), Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God (Matt. 4:4; Luke 4:4). Some know this much but do not know He was quoting Moses, whom God first inspired to say, man does not live by bread only, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord does man live (Deut. 8:3).

Realize that Jesus opened His ministry quotingand validatingMoses, who wrote the Genesis account. Did God inspire Moses to record what God knew was at least partially false?

King David brings more weight to this, as he describes a Bible that was at the time mostly what Moses had written: The words of the Lord are pure words: as silverpurified seven times (Psa. 12:6). King Solomon warned, Every word of God is pureadd you not to His words, lest He reprove you, and you be found a liar (Prov. 30:5-6). Every word means every wordOld Testament or Newincluding Genesis. God never lies, but He says any who alter His Word DO. Come to grips with your Bible!

Paul declared, All scripture is given by inspiration of God (II Tim. 3:16). It is an all or nothing propositionthere is no middle ground. Either you believe every word, or you might as well throw out the entire Bible! The apostle John wrote, Your word is truth (John 17:17). The prophet Daniel referred to the scripture of truth (Dan. 10:21).

So then, just on this basis, if the Bible comes to you with its AuthorGOD!purporting that all of it is true, and you assert (or defer to men who assert) that some parts of it are not true, you are calling God a LIAR! In fact, you will soon learn that God would be the worst kind of liar, having told a blizzard of lies about things that never happened and Bible figures who never existed, while emphatically stating that all of it is true.

Do not carelessly dismiss this! Because if you say some of Gods words are untrue, He says you are a liar.

Here is another passage. The Psalms record, Your word is true from the beginning: and every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever (119:160). The Hebrew is more correctly translated the beginning of Your word is true. This is powerful because the Bible begins with the Creation account in Genesis, which means beginnings. Anyone who disbelieves the first book of the Bible must also throw out this passage. Atheists reject the entire Bible, but it is another matter for those professing to believe it to reject Genesisand now we have seen parts of Deuteronomy, Psalms and Proverbs in the Old Testament, as well as Matthew, Luke and II Timothy in the New.

Next, lets at least state for the record: The word evolution, or any similar term, is not found in the Bible. Of course, most know this. What most never ask is why? If God used evolution to create man and every other living thing, why not just say He did? Why write an Instruction Book purporting to be about truth and then so unnecessarily embed all through it an enormous lie? Why do this? Why not just tell people how you made mankind? If evolution is true, why make mankind wait almost 6,000 years until one scientistCharles Darwincould solve a mystery that never needed to exist?

Those who dismiss Adam and Eve and other Genesis accounts are unaware that Jesus Christ repeatedly spoke of this first book of the Biblethat He validated the authenticity of Genesis. While modern scholars lampoon anyone ignorant enough to believe Genesis, Jesus constantly quoted it. Why would He underscoremany timesand have the apostles underscorewhat are falsehoods? Why would He put Himselfand His authority as Godin a position where one person could eventually undermine everything He ever said? This is what atheists do to Gods Wordnot what God would do to Himself. But most never consider this. They never consider that Christ would have participated in His own loss of credibilityand thus the loss of millions of people who would not follow Him as a result.

All you have read so far is just the barest opening salvo! There is much more than these baseline elements. You will see that many words in the Bible must contain Gods outright falsehoods for evolution to be true.

The New Testament Church is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone (Eph. 2:20). In construction, cornerstones are laid first. Christ came before the prophets. In fact, it was He who inspired the many Old Testament prophets to foretell His First Coming. Thus, the teachings in Gods Church come from apostles and prophets. The New Testament points to the Old Testament much more than most realize. Paul alone quoted the Old Testament hundreds of times, most often from the prophets. In Romans alone, it was quoted 57 times! I Corinthians quotes the Old Testament 21 times and II Corinthians 10 more. While this probably comes as a surprise, it should not since the New Testament Church is built on the apostles and prophets!

Here is a related pointand it is big. Moses is the greatest prophet in the Bible other than Christnot Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Samuel, Daniel, David or any other prophet. While his books are called The Law, Moses was a prophet. Deuteronomy 34 states, There arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face (vs. 10).

I repeat: Moses is the Bibles greatest prophet. And his five books, starting with Genesis, are part of the New Testament Churchs foundation.

We are now ready to examine the New Testament record. As we do, ask if Jesus and the apostles were just ignorantor if they deliberately blurred truth to make certain points. We begin with Jesus speaking to the leaders who would crucify Him three days later: That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel [the son of Adam and Eve] to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachias, whom you slew between the temple and the altar (Matt. 23:35). Luke repeats Christs words: From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple (Luke 11:51).

Keep it simple. If there was Abel, there was Adam and Eve. No one doubts the prophet Zechariah was real. He wrote the next-to-last book of the Old Testament! Therefore, do not doubt Abeland Adam and Eve, his parentsbecause God-rejecting atheists who concocted evolution say you should!

The apostle JudeJesus own brotherconfirmed the existence of Adam, Cain (Abels brother), and Enoch. Lets read: Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesiedsaying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints (Jude 1:14). Of the wicked he said, Woe unto them! For they have gone in the way of Cain and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Korah (vs. 11). There can be no way of Cain without Cain himself. And there can be no Cain without his parentsAdam and Eve. And of course there can be no Cain to kill Abel if they were all fictitious. Jude validated Cain and Adam!

The book of Hebrews also speaks of Cain and Abel: By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaks (11:4). And, To Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things than that of Abel (12:24). Is all of thispeople and eventsfictional? No Cain, no Abel, no faith, no sacrifice, no witness of righteous example? The apostle Paul thought and spoke as though all these were real.

John also speaks of Cain and Abel: we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one [the devil], and slew his brother [Abel]. And why slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brothers righteous (I John 3:11-12). Is all of this fictional? No Cain, no Abel, no murder, no evil, no righteous example, maybe no Satan? The apostle John also thought and spoke as though all these were real.

In several places, Paul referred to both Adam and Eve: Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression [but if Adam never lived he could not have sinned], who is the figure of Him that was to come [Christ] (Rom. 5:14). Further, As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive (I Cor. 15:22).

Think. How could you be subject to death because of sin committed by a fictitious person? You could not. Note this straightforward passage: Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression (I Tim. 2:13-14).

Formed means to mould, shape or fabricate: form (Strongs Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries). This shows God createdformedAdam, then Eve, the first human beings. It does not say God created an environment where they would gradually evolve to a higher state over millions of years. Also, it would be deceptive to describe one party as deceived and the other as not when neither person ever lived.

Are you seeing the problems here?

Now another passage from Paul: I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ (II Cor. 11:3). Did Paul warn first-century Christians through a made-up story? How can one avoid being deceived like Eve if there was no Eve? If Eve never existed, Paul used deceit to warn against deceit! By this logic, relax because there may be no Satan eitherand thus Paul wasted his time cautioning in another passage, Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices (II Cor. 2:11). The existence of the devil and Eve stand or fall together.

Paul knew there was a Garden of Edenand a literal Eveand a literal devil present to deceive her. He was not stretching the truth to prove a point. He referenced real people and real events! The prophet Ezekiel confirms Paul. Speaking of Satan, he recorded, You have been in Eden the garden of God (Ezek. 28:13). But not if there was no Garden of Eden. No Garden? Again, maybe no devil! One more reason it was the devil who concocted evolution.

A great parallel exists between Christ and Adam. It introduces Gods Master Purposeand validates Creation.

Paul declared: And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul [did Paul lie, or was he just ignorant of what Darwin would learn?]; the last Adam [Christ] was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual [Christ], but that which is natural [Adam]; and afterward [at a resurrection] that which is spiritual. The first man [the original Adam] is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heavenas we have borne the image of the earthy [made of flesh like Adam], we shall also bear the image of the heavenly [composed of spirit like Christ at a resurrection] (I Cor. 15:45-47, 49).

Pauls inspired statement begins referencing Genesis 2:7, And so it is written Do not miss this powerful New Testament verification of the Creation account! The apostle Paul knew Adam was made by Godthat this event did happen.

Now get this! Jesus Christ is the second Adamthis is impossible without a first Adam.

Something related that most miss. Jesus referred to Satan when indicting the Pharisees: You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning (John 8:44). Jesus calling Satanthe serpenta murderer from the beginning speaks of his deceiving Eve into eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God told the first humans not to do this or they would die. They ateand eventually died. Satan effectively murdered them. He was also the wicked one who inspired Cain to kill Abel. So he was a murderer from the beginning.

Jesus was not confused or in doubt as to what happened.

All that has been discussed carries deeper implications beyond whether evolution is true. Jesus is referred to as the second Adam. In the Garden, Adam was given a chance to live Gods Way. Yet he rejected it. As a result, mans only hope became the central purpose of Christs First Comingessential to Gods plan of salvation for mankind. It is more crucial than most could ever imagine that we understand the events of Creation. They are fundamental to the entire Plan of God! (To learn Gods ultimate purpose for you, I urge you to read my free book The Awesome Potential of Man.)

Many today enjoy studying their genealogy. The fun is often going back as far as you can. Lineage is also important to God. This is why numerous extensive genealogies appear throughout the Old Testament. Most do not dismiss them as analogy, myth or metaphor. This pattern of genealogy continues in the New Testament in Jesus lineage. Luke and Matthew paint a powerful picture, together revealing how Jesus line traces all the way back to Adam!

First comes Mary in Luke. Consider taking time to read it all. But first pick up with, Jesus Himself began to be about 30 years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, the son [it should say son in law] of Eli, which was the son of Matthat, which was the son of LeviMelchiJanna JosephMattathiasAmosNaumNathan, which was the son of David[it goes on to include Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and eventually all the way back to] Shem, which was the son of NoahLamechMethuselahEnochJaredSeth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God (Luke 3:23-38).

Now Matthews record: Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren (1:2), and this eventually comes to another Jacob [who] begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and fromBabylon to Christ are fourteen generationsJoseph, you son of David, fear not to take unto you Mary your wife (vs. 16-17, 20).

Why can we believe Joseph descended from Davidhere called Davids sonbut not that David descended from Adam?

Jesusand giants of Scriptureincluding Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Noah, Enoch and many, many othersare all described as descended from Adam. Christs genealogy is false if there was no Adam. All these men had to be either grossly deceivedor they knew better and misrepresented the truth. Worse, God installed these long lists into His Word as though they were true. Even the apostle Paul claimed his descent was from Jacobs son Benjamin. When Darwin comes up in the resurrection of the dead, he will learn the true origin of his species.

Incidentally, Luke calls Adam the son of God. Are all other sons of God literal but not Adam? Jesus is a literal son, all Christians are, Job called angels the sons of God. Perhaps you see yourself as a son of God. Are all these literalbut not Adam?

Think. If Adam did not live, then neither did his son Seth. If Seth never lived, neither did his third-great-grandson Enochand neither did Enochs great-grandson Noah, and so on with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David. And maybe then Christ never livedas millions claim!

My own genealogy appears to also trace to David, through both Nathan and Solomon, and thus to Adam. Should I doubt this? If Adam is fictional, why does the Bible record anyone descending from him? Atheists do not care about this matter, but Christians should.

No honest mind thinks God inspired Luke 3 to be recorded because it is merely interesting. Christ, as the God of the Old Testament, personally created Adam! If we are to believe the critics, Christ was terribly confusedHe did not realize He formed a fictional character, not a real person. Yet the implications of Christs lineage to Adam are extremely important. To legally inherit Davids throne, His line must be provable! (Human kings know this.) If it is not provable, can we trust anything in the Bible? (I also urge you to read an important booklet, Bible Authority...Can It Be Proven?)

You must decide at what point the Word of God is just not true. If any part is false, which is what the devil and some ministers want you to believe, then you need not obey it. Satans ultimate goal is to get people to reject the Bible as having authority over their lives. He knows that undermining biblical accounts and biblical figures destroys faith.

Part 1 has by itself proven the Bible leaves no room to believe evolution. But you have only heard half the case. Part 2 will continue with more plain verses proving Christians are not permitted to believe evolution. In the meantime, watch my five-part World to Come series proving God exists at worldtocome.org.

See the article here:

Can Christians Believe in Evolution? (Part 1) - The Real Truth

Hoffmann 76 was the last downtown service station standing when its owners decided it was time to shift gears.

So successful was the repair and maintenance aspect of Jeff and Rick Hoffmanns business, they often couldnt find enough space to queue the cars to which they wereattending.

In 2005, the brothers sold their property at Fifth and G streets, moving to new digs at 2613Second St. where Hoffmann Automotive was born.

The business legacy began in the 1970s when Davis High graduates Jeff and Rick worked at what once was known as Ray Moss Union.

I was working nights, my wife was at the university days and we never really saw each other, recalls Jeff, who with wife Susan was expecting the birth of son Jason.

Then in 1979, Jeff had an opportunity to buy the place from Ray, explains Rick, who had served six years in the National Guard and hadnt worked at Moss when his brother did.

No escrow, nothing like that, Jeff says. I just wrote Ray a check at the dinner table and it was done. It was a different time.

That was 1979. The Union 76 folks had a mandate called Minuteman Service.

(Union) was really, really big on customer service, customer focus and we believed it, too, Rick says.

We knew how to treat people, or we thought we did: Treat them the way youd want to be treated, Jeff explains. I didnt know (anything) about being in business for myself. I just knew I liked cars and I had the opportunity to buy this gas station.

Rick concurs: We just did (business) the common-sense way. We were nice to people, we did things other places didnt do.

Remember getting your oil checked, windows washed, tire pressure topped off? Long time ago, but

To this day, that lets-get-it-right approach remains evident at Hoffmann Automotive.

Nine employees, including Jeffs wife and son Jason, are on staff.

The elements that 26-year-old Jeff Hoffmann embraced when he took over as one of the youngest 76 dealers in America are stillin place.

Its pretty simple, Rick adds.

Oh, and about that policy of being nice to customers?

Rick Hoffmann met his wife Diane the gas station

She kept coming in kept dropping hints and dropping hints. She kept trying to ask me out, but I was oblivious to all this, he remembers.

We had a rule: we were nice to everybody and waited on customers, right? We kept work and play separate.

Finally, Diane had to ask Mr. Nice Guy out.

hoffman old W

Bob Isaacs aims to get a hole-in-one in this June 1979 photo to promote a Kiwanis golf tournament. Jeff Hoffmann shows off the tires to be given to the best golfer. Enterprise file photo

hoffman aerialW

An aerial photo shows the site of the Hoffmanns Union 76 station at Fifth and G streets in downtown Davis. Courtesy photo

HoffmannNewW

Rick Hoffmann, left, and his brother Jeff have owned Hoffmann Automotive since 1979. They moved their business from Fifth and G streets where they owned a Union 76 station for 26 years to 2613 Second St. in 2005. Sue Cockrell/Enterprise photo

Read the rest here:

Centennial: The evolution of friendly, efficient Hoffmann Automotive - Davis Enterprise

Briefs| Travel

By Star-Advertiser News Services

Posted July 02, 2017

July 2, 2017

Updated July 2, 2017 12:05am

ASSOCIATED PRESS / 2007

A stilt walker cruised the playa during the Burning Man festival in Gerlach, Nev. The festival is featured in an exhibit at the Nevada Museum of Arts.

RENO, Nev. >> The City of Dust exhibit is on display at the Nevada Museum of Arts in Reno.

The Reno Gazette-Journal reports the exhibit, which traces the more than three-decade evolution of Burning Man, opened to the public Saturday.

Burning Man is an annual event that started as a bohemian beach gathering in San Francisco in 1986 and has morphed into a modern-day pop-up city in Nevadas Black Rock Desert.

More than 68,000 people flock to the desert each year to form a temporary metropolis dedicated to community, art, music, self-expression and self-reliance.

The 300-piece collection of Burning Man relics will remain open until Jan. 7.

After the exhibition in Reno, it will travel to the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., in spring 2018.

This years Burning Man gathering is scheduled for Aug. 27 to Sept. 4.

Genoa creates special airport waiver for famed pesto sauce

ROME >> The Italian port city of Genoa has taken pride in its famed pesto sauce to new heights by granting special airport waivers for those who cant get enough of the basil and pine nut pasta sauce.

Genoas airport is letting travelers take as much as 500 grams of pesto (about 2 cups) in their carry-on luggage, exempting them from the 100-milliliter rule (about 6 tablespoons) for liquids in carry-on baggage. The catch: Passengers must make a donation of 50 cents or more to a charity that airlifts sick children to hospitals.

The airport said in a statement this week that some 500 euros (about $558) had been raised in the first 20 days of the initiative, which was inspired by the anguish of having to confiscate so many jars of pesto from foodies trying to get them through security.

thefamilybackpack.com

If mother knows best, why not turn to a whole lot of moms and dads for help in planning your next family adventure?

>> Name: thefamilybackpack.com

>> What it does: The easy-to-use website curates the best of family travel blogs for tips, advice, information and inspiration.

>> Whats hot: The website is not just about where to go; it is also stocked with important articles about allergies, vaccinations, bedbugs and illness. The site is particularly good for new parents and families who have not traveled a lot with young kids. Find articles such as Six Tips for Surviving Airline Travel With a Baby (The Wandering Daughter) and Flying With an Infant: Long-Haul (Babies Who Travel). The tips section aims to relieve stress with articles such as How to Get Your Kids More Excited About Vacation (Stuffed Suitcase) and Advice From Seven Years of Traveling With My Kids (This Is My Happiness). Dont miss the Educational Resources section for activities and games, photography tips, printables and more.

>> Whats not: The Destination section is divided into North America, Africa, Asia, Europe, South America and Oceania. There are plenty of posts within each, but the section could benefit from a city directory or a map of articles within.

Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times

Read more here:

Burning Man exhibit documents evolution of Nevada event - Honolulu Star-Advertiser

LISBON, PORTUGAL - JULY 23: Lyon's forward Alexandre Lacazette celebrates scoring Lyons goal during the Friendly match between Sporting CP and Lyon at Estadio Jose Alvalade on July 23, 2016 in Lisbon, Portugal. (Photo by Carlos Rodrigues/Getty Images)

Arsenal: Alexandre Lacazette the last nail in Kylian Mbappe coffin by Andrew Dowdeswell

Arsenal: Riyad Mahrez the perfect Alexandre Lacazette sequel by Andrew Dowdeswell

Alexandre Lacazette is seemingly set to sign for Arsenal. The Lyon striker has arrived in North London for a medical, ahead of completing a 52-million move. It is an extremely exciting move that is the type of high-profile signing that fans have been pining for. But there is much more to this addition than meets the surface.

To provide a little context for the impending signing of Lacazette, we must travel back to last summer. In very similar circumstances, Arsene Wenger was searching for a replacement for Olivier Giroud. But it is not a simple like for like replacement that Wenger is wanting to find.

In his quest to find an alternative striking option, Wenger was looking for a very particular type of player: a pacy, dynamic, direct centre-forward who can run the channels, stretch defences with their quickness and sharpness, and create space for the plethora of creative, ingenious attacking midfielders behind them as a result.

That is most definitely not the player that Giroud is. That is not to say that he is a bad player. He has a unique set of skills that few others in European football can replicate. His strength and size cause problems for opposing defences, while he boasts an excellent first touch with great awareness, meaning he is the perfect focal point with his back to goal, excelling in the neat interplay that Wenger demands of his teams.

Lacazette arriving is a sign that Wenger is wanting to alter his tactics.

There is a change and an evolution coming to the Arsenal. But there is more than just an alteration on the pitch that the addition of Lacazette eludes to.

His signing is also very different to that of the usual Arsenal transfer dealings. He will break the clubs record fee for a player, he is a big-name, high-profile star who has been pursued by several other sides, and will be added to the squad early in the window, showing a convictionand intention in the transfer window that is usually criticised for being so painfully absent.

The transfer is an exciting one, one that brings an element of optimism and hopefulness to the future. But it is also one that signals a changing of the times at the Emirates, and that is perhaps the most promising element of all.

Read the rest here:

Arsenal: 52 million Alexandre Lacazette signals change and evolution - Pain In The Arsenal

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

In the US there have been many attempts to expunge evolution from the school curriculm or demand that creationismthe idea that all life was uniquely created by Godis given equal treatment in science textbooks. While all these have failed, the government in Turkey has now banned evolution from its national curriculum.

US creationists want both views to be presented, to let children decide what to believe. Bids to reject this are wrongly characterized as attempts to shut down debate or free speechto promote a scientific, atheistic, secular, ideology over a more moral, ethical, commonsense religious worldview.

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Turkeys decision goes much further. This isnt about claiming equal treatment, its an outright ban. The government justifies it by claiming evolution is difficult to understand and controversial. Any controversy however is one manufactured by ultra-religious communities seeking to undermine science. Many concepts in science are more difficult than evolution, yet they still get taught.

Evolution, creationists argue, is just a theory its not proven and so up for debate. Evolutionary trees (especially for humans) are regularly re-drawn after new fossil discoveries, showing how poor the theory is. After all, if the theory was correct, this wouldnt keep changing. Often, creationists will pose a challenge for science to prove how life started, knowing that there is not yet a firm, accepted theory. Finally, theres the king of all arguments: if we all evolved from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?

These arguments are packed with factual inaccuracies and logical fallacies. Evolution doesnt need an explanation of how life started. It simply describes how life develops and diversifies. Humans did not evolve from monkeyswere great apes. Modern apes, including humans, evolved from now extinct pre-existing ape species. Were related to, not descended from, modern apes.

Creationists fail to understand that evolution itself is not a theory. Evolution happens. Life develops and diversifies, new species come into existence. We can see intermediate life forms right now, such as fish that are transitioning to living on land and land mammals that recently transitioned into aquatic life. The theory of evolution explains how evolution takes place. Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace first described the mechanism that drives the changenatural selectionin 1858.

Creationists also fail to understand the difference between a theory and a law in science. This is something that even science graduates suffer from, as Ive noted in my own research. Theories explain scientific concepts. They are evidenced and accepted by the scientific community. Theories are the pinnacle of scientific explanation, not just a hunch or a guess. Laws however have a different role, they describe natural phenomena. For example, Newtons laws of gravity do not explain how gravity happens, they describe the effects gravity has on objects. There are laws and theories for gravity. In biology however, there are few laws, so there is no law of evolution. Theories do not, given sufficient proof, become laws. They are not hierarchical.

A third issue is the lack of understanding of the nature of science. Science aims not to find some objective truth, but to elicit an explanation of natural phenomena. All scientific explanations are provisional. When new evidence is found that contradicts what we think we know, we change our explanations, sometimes rejecting theories that were once thought to be correct. Science is always working to try and falsify ideas. The more those ideas pass our tests, the more robust they are and the greater our confidence is that they are correct. Evolution has been tested for nearly 160 years. Its never been falsified. Science only deals with natural phenomena, it doesnt deal with or seek to explain the supernatural.

Banning good science undermines all science, especially considering evolutions place underpinning modern biology, with plenty of evidence to support it. For mainstream scientists, the fact that evolution happens is neither seriously questioned nor controversial. Any controversy in discussions of evolution resides in the role natural selection has in driving diversity and change, or the pace of that change.

This ban on teaching evolution in Turkish schools opens up the possibility that alternative, unscientific ideas may enter science teaching, from those who believe in a flat earth to deniers of gravity.

How do we deal with the apparent schism between religious belief and scientific evidence?

My research and approach has been to distinguish between religion, a belief system, and science, which works on the acceptance of evidence. Beliefs, including but not limited to religious beliefs, are often held irrationally, without evidence, and are resistant to change. Science is rational, based on evidence and is open to change when faced with new evidence. In science, we accept the evidence, rather than choose to believe.

Turkeys move to ban the teaching of evolution contradicts scientific thinking, and tries to turn the scientific method into a belief systemas if it were a religion. It seeks to introduce supernatural explanations for natural phenomena, and to assert that some form of truth or explanation for nature exists beyond nature. The ban is unscientific, undemocratic and should be resisted.

James WilliamsisLecturer in Science Education attheSussex School of Education and Social Work, University of Sussex.

Read this article:

Erdogan vs. Darwin: Turkey will pay the price for removing evolution ... - Newsweek

The caring so needed in our shrinking world must go beyond caring for those we know and have actual ties to and investment in. The call is for caring for the collective human family and especially the most vulnerable and disenfranchised among us.

We need to resist in ourselves and our leaders that strong evolutionary survival tendency to achieve quality life only for ourselves and "our kind." Evolution was once necessarily and unconsciously barbaric in its survival of the most physically fit.

That need has changed. Human consciousness, not evolved to its present potential in past epochs, is now called on to shape the future of evolution. This shifts the need from viewing life as the "great competition" to the new epoch of cooperation and compassion toward all people and nature.

The hope-filled potential for a world-embracing compassionate consciousness I think has made a giant leap in the last century. Only humans can supply this feature to nature which alone leads to a more healed world. But we're not forced to embrace such a compassionate consciousness. We can instead stick to the well-worn paths of smaller mindedness.

Times are a changin' and new times call for a tough but compassionate and wise consciousness. These are the new key for the survival of our species and planet. The great world religions all point to such an era of surviving compassion. Are we already too late in receiving the saving compassionate consciousness which has been a cosmic goal of evolution for millennia?

Jim Hibbett

Riverton

View post:

Letter: Evolution's new era of compassion - The State Journal-Register

World War II Vet Bob Emick 94 celebrates Uncle Sams upcoming birthday with Evolution Dance at Savannah Center.

Evolution Dances Independence Day celebrationSaturdaybrought bittersweet memories for dancer Mary Ann Dailey and fighting words from World War II veteran Bob Emick. When asked if he was happy to enjoy the Flags, Freedom and Fireworks show at Savannah Center, Emick, 94,gave a classic American reply: hell yeah. And if that wasnt enough, this real life Yankee Doodle Dandy added one more thing: Im going to be 95 next week. Happy birthday Mr. Emick, and happy birthday Uncle Sam. For Mary Ann Dailey, the joy of the holiday was mixed with love, gratitude and longing for her late husband, Joseph C. Dailey. He served two tours of Vietnam with the Army and died five years ago from Agent Orange.

Mary Ann Dailey made her Evolution Dance debut Saturday and paid tribute to her late husband Joseph Dailey a Vietnam veteran.

I miss him and I dedicated my performancetonightto him, Dailey said. Tonight, we saluted my husband and all Vietnam veterans. Thats important to me and everyone else.

Larry Rivellese

The night kicked off in Patriotic style when Larry Rivellese fresh off his appearance on NBC-TV with Steve Harvey brought the crowd to its feet with a stirring version of the National Anthem. Its an honor for me to sing that song, Rivellese said. A number of the performances in the music and dancing extravaganza were dedicated to Vietnam veterans. They included: A Soldiers Letter, read to parents played by Sue Schuler and Jack Filkins. The Ballad of the Green Berets, by Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler, and danced to by Rose Bianchini, Dolores Pittaro and Rosie Theiss. Also Billy Joels Goodnight Saigon, featuring Richard Blanchard, Chip Fuller, Phip Fuller, Frank Olive and Carter Poust. Also, a table with an empty chair was in front of center stage, to honor those Missing in Action, held prisoner, or killed serving America. There was also a tribute to women veterans with the song Remembering the Hero, featuring Dailey along with dancers Kathy Chesley-Williams, Jacqie Davis, Paige Fleming, Mollie McCarthy, Leslie Rosenberg, Sue Schuler, Yuri Sohn, Diane Vargas and Dianne Zugnoni. Ive been dancing a long time but this was my first performance for Evolution Dance and that made it more special, said Dailey, a New Jersey native who moved to The Villages with her husband 10 years ago.

Diane Vargas, far right, and Carter Poust, center, during the Stars and Stripes Finale.

The entire Evolution Dance production was filled with emotion, joy, sadness and drama. Thats the way we wanted it because thats what makes an entertaining show, Diane Vargas, artistic director of Evolution Dance along with Helene Yelverton. The Fourth of July is about celebration, but its also about remembering the men and women who have served this country in the Armed Forces, Vargas said. The biggest thrill for us, is when the military veterans in the audience enjoy what we do. Thats what its all about. This show percolated with energy, talent and appreciation for veterans. It began in style with some rousing World War II numbers. The whole company was jumping and jiving to such 1940s classics as Sing Sing Sing, In the Mood Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy and Crazy Feet a delightful tap number by Helene Yelverton, with some help from Frank Olive and Carter Poust. Poust was in fine, vocal form, saluting the vets in the audience while singing This is Our Country. The tapping was frenetic on Yankee Doodle Dandy, with Violet Ray joined by Dailey, Chesley-Williams, McCarthy, Pittaro and Theiss.

Yuri Sohn does the split during a dance at Savannah Center.

Yuri Sohn, along with Vargas and the Fuller twins mixed ballet and contemporary dance moves on Strike Up the Band. The whole cast took to chairs while dancing, singing and slapping their knees on a red-white-and blue Our Favorite Son from Follies. The show closed with a fitting, explosive Stars and Stripes Finale. This was a great night, Vargas said afterwards. We started doing this last year and we hope to make it a tradition and do it every year. It means a lot of all of us. Just like the Fourth of July.

Read more:

Evolution Dance's Independence Day show ramps up plenty of patriotic feelings - Villages-News

Hearsay is not admissible as evidence in court and it doesnt seem to go very far in science, either.

A pair of researchers in the field of human evolution have lost a paper which contained data from personal correspondence that the providing party apparently did not enjoy seeing in print.

The article, Early hominin biogeography in Island Southeast Asia, was published in the September/October 2015 issue of Evolutionary Anthropology. The authors, Roy Larick and Russell Ciochon, are paleoanthropologists and co-founders of the Iowa-Bandung Java Project a 20-year old collaborative effort to study the origins of early humans in Indonesia.

Per the retraction notice:

The above article from Evolutionary Anthropology, published on 19 October 2015 in Wiley OnlineLibrary (www.onlinelibrary.wiley.com), and in Volume 24, Number 5, pp. 185-213, has been retracted by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. The retraction has been made due to the inclusion without explicit permission of unpublished third-party research data disclosed to the authors in personal correspondence. The Editor notes that the journal has since clarified its policy on citing unpublished research findings, and in particular those disclosed in personal correspondence, to avoid future instances of this nature.

John Fleagle, who edits Evolutionary Anthropology, referred us to the writers guidelines page for the new policy:

Because Evolutionary Anthropology is primarily a review journal, we discourage the use of Personal Communications as citations. If Personal Communications, or any other unpublished materials are cited, the author(s) must include a copy of the communication stating the evidence cited and giving the author(s) permission to use the observations.

This is the journals first-ever retraction.

Larick provided a bit more information about the article in an email:

The issue of communicated data arose after publication. We were surprised with the issue and especially with the demand for retraction. We were yet more surprised that Wiley retracted the paper on the grounds cited. Through two lawyers, one in Iowa City and one in New York, we attempted to develop a solution not involving retraction. Our biggest surprise was that Wiley seemed determined to retract under any circumstance.

We have not yet decided on how to proceed with the paper, which is a review of literature and current ideas. Much of the communicated data (citations of personal communication) has now been published.

The Evolutionary Anthropology paper is a synthesis of our work integrated with other current research, especially that of the Australians. So much good material was on the verge of publication as we were finishing the paper in 2015. We relied on personal communications to bring new studies to light. We had made our intentions clear to our colleagueseveryone knew about this paper. With hindsight, we pushed personal communication a little too far. As an aside, neither the editor nor any of the five reviewers expressed concern about our citations.

It is our great disappointment that the paper could not be kept published with accommodations to the offended scientists. We feel that our case lies well outside the standard (an necessary) reasons for retracting scientific papers.

The paper has been cited once, according toClarivate Analytics Web of Science.

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WASHINGTON

Turkey has always prided itself on being a secular state.

The nation enshrined the separation of church and state in its constitution by constitutional amendment in 1928. But that was nearly a century ago, and about 99 percent of the nations citizens are now identified as Muslim.

Watch: Evolution vs. Erdogan: Turkey Struggles with Basic Science

The current government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has received some criticism for eroding the countrys historic commitment to secularism and moving the nation in a more fundamentalist direction.

Recently, in a decision that many saw as moving Turkey away from secularism and toward Islam, the government banned the teaching of evolution in high school.

That means Turkish students entering high school will no longer learn naturalist Charles Darwins theory that all living things share a common ancestor. It is a simple idea that is the foundation of the study of life on Earth and beyond.

In explaining its decision, the government said it is not about Islam. Instead, officials said that students, Dont have the necessary scientific background and information-based context needed to comprehend the theory.

Alpaslan Durmus, head of the education ministrys curriculum board, said members thought the theory should be taught to higher-level students.

We tried to leave out some of the controversial issues from our students agenda, Durmus added.

Unable to compete on world stage

Whatever their reason, critics say the practical outcome is that Turkish children will not get the education they need to compete on the world stage.

The Turkish education system is very weak concerning the fundamental sciences, secular scholar Alaattin Dincer told VOA. Both in domestic and international exams; be it in math, physics, chemistry and biology, our students have very low passing grade percentages. It is actually terribly low.

If you dont tell our children, the next generation, about science and evolution and Darwin; if you raise them without them learning those subjects, how can you argue that we are a scientifically enlightened country that can producer the scientists of the future? How can you tell them this? Dincer asked.

Other critics say it is part of a plan by President Erdogan to embed an official Islamic identity into Turkish society. But like Catholic scholars, many Islamic theologians say evolution and Islam can co-exist quite easily.

If something has scientific truth, then you cannot stand against it, Ihsan Eliacik, a Muslim theologian, told VOA. If evolution is scientific truth that exists in nature, nobody can stand against it. Because it is true. Fiction cannot cover a lie. A religious faith cannot destroy truth. Besides, by my religious faith, scientific truth means religious truth. The two are not contradictory.

VOA Turkish Services Tan Cetin contributed to this story.

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Turkey Moves Further From Secularism in Dropping Evolution From Schools - Voice of America

The first Apple iPhoneis now 10 years old. Over that time it has become a revolutionary piece of hardware. But its gesture-based iPhone OS software -- now called iOS -- has been just as revolutionary.

Here's how Apple's groundbreaking mobile operating system has evolved from iPhone OS 1.0 to iOS 11, set to come out later this year.

Photo by: Artur Debat/Getty Images

For all its fanfare, the first iOS was somewhat limited. There was no App Store yet, so early adopters could only use the simple apps that came preloaded. It was basically an iPod with a phone built in.

Photo by: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Much of the web was still unready for the mobile revolution back in 2007. It's a good thing you could pinch to zoom.

Photo by: Jonathan Torgovnik/Getty Images

Apple's iPhone OS 2 launched with the iPhone 3G in July 2008. The OS update brought several important new features, including always-on email push, Google Maps Street View and most importantly the App Store.

Photo by: Mario Tama/Getty Images

The third major iteration of the iPhone operating system introduced multimedia messaging (MMS), video recording, spotlight search and voice control.

Photo by: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

iPhone OS 3.0 was also the first version with cut, copy and paste functionality.

Photo by: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The release of iOS 4.0 brought with it multitasking, spell check and custom wallpapers.

Photo by: T3 Magazine

Apple's new iPhone 4, running iOS 4.0 out of the box, introduced the concept of FaceTime video conferencing. At first, the feature only worked when connected to a Wi-Fi network.

Photo by: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The 2011 launch of iOS 5 brought wireless updates to the iPhone, allowing it to be updated without connecting it to a computer via iTunes. The new iMessage instant messenger feature, meanwhile, allowed the sending and receipt of multimedia content over Wi-Fi.

Photo by: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Another huge improvement in iOS 5 was iCloud, which synced your contacts and other personal data.

Apple gave away the first 5GB of cloud storage for free; 15GB of storage cost $20 per year.

Photo by: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

iOS 5 also marked the introduction of Siri, Apple's voice-activated digital assistant. It was only available on the iPhone 4S at first.

Photo by: Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images

The sixth version of iOS, released alongside the iPhone 5 (seen here), brought deep Facebook integration, Passbook, panoramic photos and the ability to make FaceTime calls over your cellular network.

Photo by: John Moore/Getty Images

Apple's switch from Google Maps to Apple Maps, which also occurred in iOS 6, was terribly received. The not-ready-for-primetime replacement included numerous graphics bugs and a large number of incorrect and out-of-date business listings.

Photo by: Screenshot by Fox Van Allen

Apple's iOS 7 brought a total visual refresh to the iPhone with its simple, flat-icon style.

Craig Federighi, Apple's SVP of software engineering, explained that the shadowing and texture effects used on icons in the past was a way to distract from the limitations of the display. "But with a display this precise," says Federighi, "there's nowhere to hide. So we wanted a clear typography."

Photo by: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Beyond the new look, iOS 7 brought a new control and notifications center, AirDrop, CarPlay support and the option to change Siri's gender.

Photo by: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

iOS 7 also brought with it Touch ID support. Though only available on the iPhone 5S at the time, being able to authenticate through your fingerprint is now a staple of modern phones.

Photo by: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The eighth major version of iOS kept the flat look of iOS 7 while adding useful new features. The iPhone got cross-platform continuity with Mac and iPad (Handoff), QuickType predictions, family sharing, Wi-Fi calling, time-lapse photos, Notification Center widgets and this handy Battery Usage feature that shows you what's draining your battery.

Photo by: CNET

The iOS 8.1 update introduced Apple Pay for contactless payments via near field communication (NFC) and a dedicated payment chip on the iPhone 6 and later devices.

The service got off to a mixed start, with major retailers Walmart and Best Buy refusing to accept Apple Pay as a result of exclusivity deals with a failed competing service.

Photo by: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The Apple Music subscription streaming service arrived with the iOS 8.4 update, pushed to iPhones and iPads shortly after the 2015 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference.

Photo by: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Apple's iOS 9 introduced a low-power mode, a Night Shift mode for easy reading after dark and mass transit support for Maps. The Notes app also got an update, seen here, that allows you to sketch with your finger.

Photo by: CNET

Apple also added the News app in iOS 9. Similar to the app Flipboard, the news aggregator keeps you informed by constantly refreshing headlines from your favorite news sites, CNET included.

Photo by: CNET

The current iteration of iOS, version 10, introduced a sticker store for the Messages app, predictive emoji, chat bubble animations, facial recognition that bundles your photos together by person, and a Bedtime feature to help you get the perfect night's sleep.

Photo by: NurPhoto

Apple's iOS 10 also includes a new Home app that brings together and manages all your compatible smart home devices.

Photo by: CNET

It's only available in beta right now, but Apple has packed a ton of new features into iOS 11.Control Center can be customized, Live Photos can be edited, Siri can translate certain languages and there's a new one-handed keyboard.

Those who install iOS 11 on an iPad will also get a MacBook-like dock on the bottom of their screens.

Photo by: CNET

Photo by: CNET

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The evolution of Apple iOS - CNET

If you're struggling to up your Gold Coin game in "Angry Birds Evolution," we've got the help you need.

Angry Birds Evolution is a free-to-play game that requires the usage of several kinds of currencies, including Gold Coins. These are an important part of the game, and you'll want to get as many as you can if you want to evolve your favorite birds to take the fight to the pigs. You won't just amass a hundred or so coins overnight or anything like that, but this guide will help you fluff up your stores of gold coins to ensure you've got enough to bypass spending real money on them. It will take a little time, but if you follow these steps you'll be rolling in the dough in no time.

Collect birds to sell them whenever possible

You can collect birds in "Angry Birds Evolution" as you play, and they're worth a set amount of coins. Each regular bird is worth 10 gold coins depending on how many stars it has. If you receive a 1-star bird, that means you can turn it around for 10 coins. If you have a 2-star bird, you can sell it for 20 coins. The goes on up to 50 coins per 5-star birds. Sell the lesser birds worth 20 and 30 coins and sell a couple of your higher-rarity birds, but hang on to some of them for other purposes in-game. These are some of the quickest and surefire ways to get additional coinage.

modojo.com is a leading online provider of videogame, entertainment and lifestyle content, as well as community and interactive services. Read more at modojo.com.

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Game tips: 'Angry Birds Evolution,' how to get more gold coins - Quad-Cities Online

Animal domestication is an interesting thing. Domesticating wild animals, for instance, is overwhelmingly considered unjust captivity, but we view companion animals in our home far differently.

Bred with particular traits in order to make them more cooperative to captivity, many environmental ethicists would call domestication morally problematic because it creates unnatural companions that are stunted and inferior versions of their wild ancestors.

A new study, however, may put cat lovers at ease.

The study, recently published inNature Ecology & Evolution, analyzed DNA from more than 200 cats spanning the last 9,000 years, including ancient Romanian cat remains, Egyptian cat mummies, and modern African wildcat specimens.

The analysis found that cats lived for thousands of years alongside humans before they were domesticated. And during that time, their genes didnt change from wildcats, except for the distinctive stripes and dots of the tabby cat.

According to the research, the ancestors of todays domesticated felines came from southwest Asia, and spread to Europe by 4400 B.C. The data suggests that the cats began congregating around farming communities in the Fertile Crescent about 8,000 years ago. It was here that they settled into the laps of humans on their own accord. While the cats fed off of the mice and rats around the humans crops and other agricultural byproducts, humans welcomed the rodent control. And so a mutually beneficial relationship ensued.

This is probably how the first encounter between humans and cats occurred, explainedstudy coauthor Claudio Ottoni of the University of Leuven. Its not that humans took some cats and put them inside cages.

Another look at African cats in Egypt, which spread into the Mediterranean and most of the Old World beginning around 1500 B.C., showed that humans were likely attracted to cats because of traits like sociability and tameness.

The analysis reveals the possibility that prehistoric human populations likely carried their cats along ancient land and sea trade routes to keep rodents at bay.

Ultimately, the data shows that cats became domesticated companions of humans without changing much, if at all, from their wild state, which reveals that while cats certainly took their time, which should come as no surprise, they certainly chose to be domesticated.

Dogs, on the other hand, which were the first animals to be domesticated, were selected to perform specific tasks, which ultimately led to particular traits being bred. Now, a diverse rangeof dog breeds exists today.

I think that there was no need to subject cats to such a selection process since it was not necessary to change them, said coauthor Eva-Maria Geigl. They were perfect as they were.

Were discovering incredible things about where theyve come from, how far theyve gone, and what kind of impact theyve had on humans, said Ottoni. I think studying more about this species is going to open up even more about the domestication process.

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Cats Domesticated Themselves, Ancient DNA Shows - Collective Evolution