Johannes Buteo's The Shape and Capacity of Noah's Ark


Book Description

Mission statement - coresci.org Series Editor: Todd Charles Wood Core Academy of Science encourages young Christian scholars to explore the hardest problems in creation. Engineers sometimes classify problems as easy, hard, and impossible. Easy problems are trivial because they can be solved merely by applying known principles. Impossible problems cannot be solved no matter how hard we try. Hard problems are the problems in between that require the most work but yield the greatest rewards. Sometimes hard problems are accumulations of many easy problems, and sometimes they turn out to be impossible. When a hard problem is solved, though, it is widely celebrated. For Christians and especially young-age creationists, understanding creation has many "hard problems." Evidences of the great age of the universe and earth can be difficult to explain. Likewise with evidences of evolution. Creationists reject the conventional explanations that involve millions of years and humans evolving from animals, but alternative explanations that satisfy our scientific curiosity and our desire to remain true to the revealed Word of God are much rarer and not widely accepted. It is much easier to focus on the detection of error rather than the more difficult discovery of truth. This focus on error rather than truth pervades evangelical Christianity, because it's relatively easy. We all like the easy and impossible. We teach our children to recite verses from the Bible and answers to our catechisms, but when they ask difficult questions, we say, "Only God knows." We might even scold them for being impertinent or irreverent. Core Academy equips the next generation to tackle these great mysteries by first and most importantly helping young scholars to develop a bold, confident faith. All too often, scholars who face challenging puzzles become disillusioned and stray from the faith. Our first goal, then, must be enriching and nurturing strong faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Creator.




Asymmetric Ecologies in Europe and South America around 1800


Book Description

This volume proposes new ways of understanding the historical semantics of the relationship between humans and nature in South America in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The authors in this volume use the notion of asymmetry to discuss the representations of and forms of knowledge about nature circulating in, and about, colonial and postcolonial South America. They argue that the production of knowledge about the American natural space widened the power gap between the Europeans colonizers and the local population. This gap, therefore, rests on what we call 'asymmetric ecologies': Eurocentric epistemic orders excluded forms of indigenous, mestizo, and Creole knowledge about nature. By looking at literary as well as non-literary sources, such as natural histories, travel narratives, encyclopaedias or medical writing, the essays in this volume trace the origins of new theoretical paradigms (ecocriticism, biopolitics, transarea studies, etc.), and examine the regional cultural, identity, and epistemic conflicts that undercut the Eurocentric narrative of enlightened modernity.




Chronology of the Evolution-Creationism Controversy


Book Description

A unique chronology with entries describing the key events in the 3,000-year conflict between religion and science over the explanation and definition of life on Earth. Exhaustively researched and authoritative, Chronology of the Evolution-Creationism Controversy does what no other work does: it examines the conflict between the religious and scientific views of life on Earth in its full 3,000-year historical context, showing readers how this roiling debate has played out over the centuries. With hundreds of entries, Chronology of the Evolution-Creationism Controversy describes specific cultural, religious, and scientific events relevant to the evolution-creationism controversy from the first notions of creationism in ancient Egypt to the present. Within this historical approach, it identifies a number of recurring themes that have shaped the debate through the ages, including famous court cases, the recurrence of the "intelligent design" argument, disagreements over the age of the Earth, and the impact of technological advances on both the scientific and faith-based viewpoints. While approaching the subject globally throughout, the book's second half focuses on tensions between science and religious thought in the United States since the early 1900s.




Genesis Kinds


Book Description

A belief in creationism, even in young-age creationism, does not necessitate belief in the unique creation of each species. Instead, many creationists accept a secondary origin of species from ancestors originally created by God. In this view, groups of modern species constitute the "Genesis kinds" that God originally created and beyond which evolution cannot proceed (if it can even be called 'evolution'). In this collection of papers, six scholars examine the species and the Genesis kinds. Topics covered include the history of creationist and Christian perspectives on the origin of species, an analysis of the Hebrew word min (kind) from the perspective of biblical theology, a baseline of minimum speciation within kinds inferred from island endemics, a comprehensive list of proposed kinds from the mammalian fossil record, the occurrence of discontinuity between kinds, and the origin of new species by symbiosis. - Abstract.




Animal and Plant Baramins


Book Description

Mission statement - coresci.org Series Editor: Todd Charles Wood Core Academy of Science encourages young Christian scholars to explore the hardest problems in creation. Engineers sometimes classify problems as easy, hard, and impossible. Easy problems are trivial because they can be solved merely by applying known principles. Impossible problems cannot be solved no matter how hard we try. Hard problems are the problems in between that require the most work but yield the greatest rewards. Sometimes hard problems are accumulations of many easy problems, and sometimes they turn out to be impossible. When a hard problem is solved, though, it is widely celebrated. For Christians and especially young-age creationists, understanding creation has many "hard problems." Evidences of the great age of the universe and earth can be difficult to explain. Likewise with evidences of evolution. Creationists reject the conventional explanations that involve millions of years and humans evolving from animals, but alternative explanations that satisfy our scientific curiosity and our desire to remain true to the revealed Word of God are much rarer and not widely accepted. It is much easier to focus on the detection of error rather than the more difficult discovery of truth. This focus on error rather than truth pervades evangelical Christianity, because it's relatively easy. We all like the easy and impossible. We teach our children to recite verses from the Bible and answers to our catechisms, but when they ask difficult questions, we say, "Only God knows." We might even scold them for being impertinent or irreverent. Core Academy equips the next generation to tackle these great mysteries by first and most importantly helping young scholars to develop a bold, confident faith. All too often, scholars who face challenging puzzles become disillusioned and stray from the faith. Our first goal, then, must be enriching and nurturing strong faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Creator.




Species


Book Description

Over time the complex idea of "species" has evolved, yet its meaning is far from resolved. This comprehensive work is a fresh look at an idea central to the field of biology by tracing its history from antiquity to today. Species is a benchmark exploration and clarification of a concept fundamental to the past, present, and future of the natural sciences. In this edition, a section is added on the debate over species since the time of the New Synthesis, and brings the book up to date. A section on recent philosophical debates over species has also been added. This edition is better suited non-specialists in philosophy, so that it will be of greater use for scientists wishing to understand how the notion came to be that living organisms form species. Key Selling Features: Covers the philosophical and historical development of the concept of "species" Documents that variation was recognized by pre-Darwinian scholars Includes a section on the debates since the time of the New Synthesis Better suited to non-philosophers




Judgment and Salvation


Book Description

This book contends the text of the Noachian deluge narrative categorically underscores all God did to preserve life in spite of the disaster. Despite the picture of devastation that the narrative depicts, the prominent emphasis of the text is on deliverance and redemption, i.e., salvation, not judgment. The focus of the Genesis flood is acutely bent towards God’s salvific rather than punitive purposes. The arc of salvation within the flood narrative can be broken down into two main ideas. Firstly, God’s intention for creation is not thwarted, and, secondly, God commits himself to his intentions of creation. God’s intention for creation can be stated thus: the establishment of order via covenant showing the sanctity of human life and the upholding of all life. This involves, in particular, humanity as his image bearers, including the lex talionis (life-for-life) principle.




Masters of Mathematics


Book Description

The original title for this work was “Mathematical Literacy, What Is It and Why You Need it”. The current title reflects that there can be no real learning in any subject, unless questions of who, what, when, where, why and how are raised in the minds of the learners. The book is not a mathematical text, and there are no assigned exercises or exams. It is written for reasonably intelligent and curious individuals, both those who value mathematics, aware of its many important applications and others who have been inappropriately exposed to mathematics, leading to indifference to the subject, fear and even loathing. These feelings are all consequences of meaningless presentations, drill, rote learning and being lost as the purpose of what is being studied. Mathematics education needs a radical reform. There is more than one way to accomplish this. Here the author presents his approach of wrapping mathematical ideas in a story. To learn one first must develop an interest in a problem and the curiosity to find how masters of mathematics have solved them. What is necessary to be mathematically literate? It’s not about solving algebraic equations or even making a geometric proof. These are valuable skills but not evidence of literacy. We often seek answers but learning to ask pertinent questions is the road to mathematical literacy. Here is the good news: new mathematical ideas have a way of finding applications. This is known as “the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics.”




When the Great Abyss Opened


Book Description

The story of Noah's flood is one of the best-loved and most often retold biblical tales, the inspiration for numerous children's books and toys, novels, and even films. Whether as allusion, archetype, or literal presence--the American landscape is peppered with "recreations" of the ark--the story of Noah's animals and the ark resonates throughout American culture and the world. While most think of Noah's ark as a dramatic myth, others are consumed by the quest for geological and archeological proof that the flood really occurred. Persistent rumors of a large vessel on the mountain of Ararat in Turkey, for instance, have led many pilgrims and explorers over the centuries to visit that fabled peak. Recent finds suggest that there may have been a catastrophic flood on the shores of the Black Sea some 7,600 years ago. Is this then the reality behind the ancient tale of Noah? More to the point, why does it matter? What does the story of the Flood mean to us and why does it so stir the collective imagination? When the Great Abyss Opened examines the history of our attempts to understand the Flood, from medieval Jewish and Christian speculation about the physical details of the ark to contemporary efforts to link it to scientific findings. Unraveling the mythical dimensions of the parallel Mesopotamian flood stories and their deeper social and psychological significance, J. David Pleins also considers the story's positive uses in theology and moral instruction. Noah's tale, however, has also been invoked as a means of justifying exclusion, racism, and anti-homosexual views. Pro-slavery advocates, for example, used the story of Noah's Curse on Ham's son Canaan to rationalize the enslavement of Africans. Throughout this expansive and lively book, Pleins sheds new light on our continuing attempts to understand this ancient primal myth. Noah's Flood, he contends, offers a unique case study that illuminates the timeless and timely question of how fact and faith relate.