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This from LifeSiteNews.com. A report written for a European committee on culture, science and education calls creationism (and the Christian worldview in general) dangerous. It warns that creationism will do such things obstruct a cure to AIDS, among other odd assertions. Thank goodness the committee had the sense to reject the report.

If you think you know why creationists should be feared, please fill me in.

Proposed Council of Europe Report Calls Creationism “Dangerous,” “Threat to Human Rights”

By Hilary White

BRUSSELS, June 27, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The French socialist politician and mathematics professor, Guy Lengagne, has written in a report for the Council of Europe’s Committee on Culture, Science and Education, that says that “creationism” and its biblically rooted Christian worldview represent a threat to human freedom and must be suppressed.

But members of the European Council's Committee on Culture, Science and Education have temporarily rejected the current draft of the report and declared freedom of thought and discussion a “fundamental value.”

Titled, “The Dangers of Creationism in Education,” the report said, “If we are not careful, creationism could become a threat to human rights.”

The report also states, “From a scientific view point there is absolutely no doubt that evolution is a central theory for our understanding of the Universe and of life on Earth.” Lengagne, a lecturer in mathematics at the University of Amiens, warned that should creationism be allowed to be taught in schools, the result could be the replacing of democracy by theocracy, the obstruction of a cure for AIDS, and a rise in fundamentalist extremism.

The report which had been prepared for a debate this week, was rejected by 63 of the 119 members of the Council of Europe, who criticized it for its “lack of reflection.” The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) announced it would be dropping the report’s issue from the roster of this week’s debate on inter-cultural and interreligious dialogue.

The committee said it “expresses its support for the Rapporteur M. Lengagne,” and is determined to bring the issue forward for the agenda for the next plenary session in October. Lengagne, however, is leaving the PACE and will not be involved in future drafts of the report.

Lengagne responded to the decision to postpone, saying he was “flabbergasted”, “appalled” and “shocked” that the PACE had referred his report back to the committee for revision.

“We are witnessing a change of direction for a return to the Middle Ages, and too many members of this Assembly can’t see it,” he said.

The Committee on Culture, Science and Education said in a statement that while the issue of creationism is a “politically topical question” that it is determined to discuss in the future, “freedom of thought and discussion is a fundamental value of the Council of Europe.”

“The Committee on Culture, Science and Education believes that it is the duty of the Assembly to show itself exemplary in this requirement.”

Copyright LifeSiteNews.com, a production of Interim Publishing. Used by permission.

Save your teeth: You might need them one day. The Discovery Channel and Egyptian antiquities chief Zahi Hawass claim that the mummy of Queen Hatshepsut, one of Egypt's most famous rulers, has been positively identified through DNA evidence and a tooth.  Research funded by Discovery used CT scans to match a single tooth with the skull of an obese female mummy discovered years ago in Valley of the Kings tomb 60, one of the tombs the legendary explorer Howard Carter discovered at the outset of the 20th century. The mummy, found along with others such as Sit-ra, Hatshepsut's royal nurse, was thought to be royal but was never identified as the famous 15th-century BC queen until now.

The crucial tooth was found in a separate box and is engraved with Hatshepsut's name. Initial mitochondrial DNA tests apparently show a connection between the mummy and Ahmose Nefertari, who may have been Hatshepsut's ancestor. [Correction: I believe BBC is mistaken in their article where they say the tooth is engraved. It was the canopic box the tooth was found in that had Hatshepsut's name on it. Also, the DNA testing is still in progress and has not yet reached any conclusions.]

Not everyone, however, is completely convinced of the mummy's identity. "You have to be so careful in reaching conclusions from such data," said Boston University Egyptologist Kathryn Bard, who was quoted in the New York Times. Another expert, a molecular biologist quoted in BBC News, expressed doubt over the strength of the DNA connection.

Part of the challenge of identifying the queen stems from the actions of her successors: In classic Egyptian style, her name was erased from royal records by another ruler, possibly her stepson, Thutmosis III.

Hatshepsut's reign was radical departure from the Egyptian pattern of male pharaohs. Depicted as severely overweight in carvings, the queen wore the false beard and the male dress of her contemporaries.

• Controversy has reignited over the Nebra disc, a metal disc thought to be 3600 years old by some, and thought to be a fake by others. The disc displays sun, stars and moon, somewhat resembling a winking smiley face. A new theory questions whether the disc was used as an astronomical instrument, and instead suggests it may have been used for magical, shamanic rituals. Assuming it's not a fraud, of course.
  
• China, and not the U.S. is now the world's leader in CO² emissions.
  
• Crevo at CBRN has posted a list of over 100 living fossils--that is, life forms found in the "ancient" fossil record which are still living in the same form today.
• Salvador Cordova at the Young Cosmos is talking about criticism of the Big Bang, and the problem of young galaxies.
• Do you take Echinacea supplements? The plant, it turns out, is good for preventing colds.
• The European Space Agency is seeking six volunteers to live for 17 months in an isolated prototype spacecraft in order to test the human dynamics of a manned flight to Mars. According to BBC News, volunteer crew members will experience "cramped conditions, a high workload, lack of privacy, and limited supplies." Apparently males still jump at such opportunities: Out of 150 applications so far, less than 20 have been from women.
• A University of Nottingham conference on "'Health and the Healthy Body' in early medieval times" will bring together historians to discuss such mid-AD topics as miraculous healing, magic, and demonic possession. I'm not sure what to think of this. Maybe someone will liveblog it.
  

 During the week of the Jamestown Quadricentennial, people had the opportunity of taking a tethered flight in a hot air balloon. Balloon rides are early affairs since the atmosphere is calmer in the morning. We took our flight between 6:30 and 7:00.

Above: A staff member of the balloon company is securing one of the ropes that tethers the balloon to the ground--a necessary safety measure. Unfortunately that meant the balloon could only fly up 70 feet or so. Once balloons are in the air they are steered by wind direction, so taking a higher, untethered flight means planning a landing spot downwind.

Above: The view from the cockpit.

As I promised, here are more vacation photos. For one of our first days in the Williamsburg/Jamestown area, we took a boat tour on the James River, launching from Fort Pocahontas (more about that place in a coming post) and destined for waters next to the old Jamestown settlement. Below is our worthy vessel, along with our worthy tour guide, who narrated Jamestown history during the cruise and shared his local knowledge of the James River. When we boarded he asked us if we lived in Virginia (I began to say no) and showed us a map of the area indicated in the 1606 Virginia charter, the land between 34^o and 45^o latitude from coast to coast. According to the map, the charter covered about two-thirds of the modern U.S. including the entire state of Indiana. I admitted to the guide that perhaps I was a Virginian after all. Historically speaking of course.

Above: These kids are hanging out at the bow, or front, of the ship.

Click to read more ...

Updated on Friday, June 22, 2007 at 01:52PM by Daniel James Devine

Over the next few entries I'll be posting some photos and news from I and my family's recent trip (a vacation, technically speaking) to Virginia for the Vision Forum Jamestown Quadricentennial. On the way there and back, we stopped at a couple noteworthy places, including Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and Petersburg, Kentucky, where sits that famed and recently opened monument to biblical creation, the Answers in Genesis Creation Museum. For this post I'll be focusing on the Creation Museum.

In case you wondered, I've been out of town for two weeks, and internet access has been elusive. Leaving Northwest Indiana in the first place was a tad bittersweet since it meant I'd be leaving the peak season of the Brood XIII 17-year cicada outbreak--but I was relieved upon my return when I heard the sound of their droning emanating from the woods next to my house. They've begun to die and fall to the ground, and yesterday I picked a twig with holes bored into the bark where the females had laid eggs.

But on to the subject at hand:

AiG employs between two and three hundred staff, some of whom work as security for the controversial museum. Both media and protesters have pulled various bluffs or pranks, nothing violent or very serious, but enough to warrant the careful attitude the museum now has toward visitors.

Click to read more ...

Thanks to a new website from the University of Arizona, you can explore the dunes, craters and canyons of Mars without ever leaving the house. Over 1,200 high resolution images have been placed online in a user-friendly format, allowing both scientists and the public to study Martian terrain in rich detail. It's better than Google Mars (IMHO); be sure to download the free IAS Viewer.

The images were made using the most powerful camera in orbit around another planet, the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The camera is run by a University of Arizona-based team.

See the latest images here. 

Recent landslide in Zunil Crater. NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.

The Discovery Institute blog is continuing some excellent investigative reporting on the denial of tenure for ID theorist Dr. Guillermo Gonzalez. Although Gonzalez far and above meets the qualifications for tenure at the school where he works (Iowa State University), he has been denied tenure for no other apparent reason than his personal research into intelligent design. He has responded to the rejection of his first appeal in this statement. Whether they realize it or not, Iowa State is making it increasingly obvious to the American public that the educational establishment is free from neither ideological bias nor overt discrimination.

On a different note, there are new posts and much interesting discussion over at Salvador Cordova's promising site, The Young Cosmos. He has recently posted on the horizon problem (Cosmologist Paul Davies--not a creation scientist--has suggested that constants like speed of light may not have always been constant), and on the interpretation of Genesis 1.

Crevo at CBRN is talking about whether creationists should focus on research or on apologetics.

And here's a new creationist blog for your pleasure.