Does Anyone Have A Newbie Guide?

[4jacks 0]

Hi I'm New,

 

I have some limited exposure to the whole debates going on, but all the topics on this board are a bit above my head.

 

Does anyone have a Newbie Guide of any sorts?

As in an Introduction to the hot topics.

List of Acronymns, Glossary of technical terms.

 

Sometimes when you get involved in something, it's very hard to step back and see the big picture, as a new person would see it. Example is that a lot of the threads talk about a very specific topic, everyone knows a bit about that topic and contributes to the thread without really defining or giving an introduction to that topic.

 

So does anyone have an introduction to all the hot topics, and maybe a chart on where the different viewpoints stand?

 

That would be great.

 

However if no Newbie Guide exist, links to some brief overviews of hot topics would be great. Just something to kinda get a grasp on a topic.

 

Thanks !

[ikester7579 20]

The hot topics of this forum will have a whole lot of views because search engines are hitting on the subject because of a lot of people searching for such information. Also the replies will be more than most threads here.

 

We have been pondering putting up a editors choice section for the subjects that have been of most interest, and most productive in debates. Maybe it will go up sooner since someone is asking for it.

[Fred Williams 0]

The hot topics of this forum will have a whole lot of views because search engines are hitting on the subject because of a lot of people searching for such information. Also the replies will be more than most threads here.

 

We have been pondering putting up a editors choice section for the subjects that have been of most interest, and most productive in debates. Maybe it will go up sooner since someone is asking for it.

12819[/snapback]

Yea, I need to get to that. I do have some reasons for holding off on it...

 

We could also use a glossary for newbies, such as:

 

LOL - Laugh out loud

ROTFL - Rolling on the floor laughing

OP - opening post

BTW - By the way

WRT - with respect to

 

Feel free to add others. I will put on my todo list adding a forum glossary somewhere on the main page. You know, that list I never seem to get to.

 

Fred

[skwayred 0]

OTOH - On the other hand

IMHO/IMO - In my humble opinion/In my opinion

IOW - In other words

 

[Fred Williams 0]

OTOH - On the other hand

IMHO/IMO - In my humble opinion/In my opinion

IOW - In other words

 

12830[/snapback]

BTW, IMO these are good additions. IOW thanks. LOL.

 

[4jacks 0]

r0x0rz guys I'se completely 1337 wid da forum jive.

 

I was more interested in an introduction to the whole Creation versus Evolution world. I realise topics with a lot of views are replies are considered hot, my question was more of where can I find a brief summary of that topic?

 

For example take the hot topic of abiogenesis.

http://www.evolutionfairytale.com/forum/in...?showtopic=1245

 

Go back to page one. Maybe this is a bad example becuase it's taken from another thread. But as a newbie I don't even know what abiogenesis is. So I read the first 4-5 post. Still no definition, and I can't really tell from the context of the post.

 

So here is where I would like to refer to my handy dandy Newbie guide to get a breif description of the issue. So I can keep up with what you guys are saying. But instead I go to www.dictionary.com where I get "the now discredited theory that living organisms can arise spontaneously from inanimate matter; spontaneous generation"

 

Ohh okay. Now I know WHAT you guys are talking about, but a brief summary of things like why the dictionary calls it discredited and why it's still a "hot" topic would be really cool..

 

*just using as an example* No need to post a summary of the debate in this thread.

 

Did that make sense? Just looking for something to catch up on a lot that I missed.

 

OMG BTW IMO in IMHO the H has always meant "Honest"

[frankinheimer 0]

haha 4 jacks. i had to reply. the leet speak was just too funny, i haven't seen that in forever. i also am pretty nubbish/new to all of this stuff also. a newbie guide would def. help a lot. when i first read the abiogenesis topic, i had to instant message smarterchild on aim. smarterchild is an aim robot that has many different functions including being a dictionary. I'v been using smarterchild a lot whenever i go through a topic and read the posts. so yeah, a newbie guide would help a lot.

[skwayred 0]

r0x0rz guys I'se completely 1337 wid da forum jive.

 

I was more interested in an introduction to the whole Creation versus Evolution world.  I realise topics with a lot of views are replies are considered hot, my question was more of where can I find a brief summary of that topic?

 

For example take the hot topic of abiogenesis.

http://www.evolutionfairytale.com/forum/in...?showtopic=1245

 

Go back to page one. Maybe this is a bad example becuase it's taken from another thread.  But as a newbie I don't even know what abiogenesis is.  So I read the first 4-5 post.  Still no definition, and I can't really tell from the context of the post.

 

So here is where I would like to refer to my handy dandy Newbie guide to get a breif description of the issue.  So I can keep up with what you guys are saying.  But instead I go to www.dictionary.com where I get "the now discredited theory that living organisms can arise spontaneously from inanimate matter; spontaneous generation"

 

Ohh okay.  Now I know WHAT you guys are talking about, but a brief summary of things like why the dictionary calls it discredited and why it's still a "hot" topic would be really cool..

 

*just using as an example* No need to post a summary of the debate in this thread.

 

Did that make sense?  Just looking for something to catch up on a lot that I missed.

 

OMG  BTW IMO in IMHO the H has always meant "Honest"

12842[/snapback]

It is still a hot topic because of its ties with the materliaism ideology. Materialism is a worldview which states that the material universe/matter is all there is.

 

BTW, yeah, I think the H on IMHO really stands for Honest. Thanks for correcting me.

[Guest kega]

actually the H does stand for Humble, more christians should try looking that one up in a dictionary!

[Phaedrus 0]

Hi I'm New,

 

I have some limited exposure to the whole debates going on, but all the topics on this board are a bit above my head.

 

Does anyone have a Newbie Guide of any sorts?

As in an Introduction to the hot topics.

List of Acronymns, Glossary of technical terms.

 

Sometimes when you get involved in something, it's very hard to step back and see the big picture, as a new person would see it. Example is that a lot of the threads talk about a very specific topic, everyone knows a bit about that topic and contributes to the thread without really defining or giving an introduction to that topic.

 

So does anyone have an introduction to all the hot topics, and maybe a chart on where the different viewpoints stand?

 

That would be great.

 

However if no Newbie Guide exist, links to some brief overviews of hot topics would be great.  Just something to kinda get a grasp on a topic.

 

Thanks !

12812[/snapback]

 

The CreationWiki is a free encyclopedia of creation science being assembled by an international editorial staff. We encourage all creationists to get involved with the development of this valuable resource. There are currently 2,704 articles from a creationist point of view.

 

CreationWiki Free Encyclopedia of Creation Science

 

These are exceptionally good for learning the basic vocabulary and they are neutral to the Creation Evolution question:

 

Secular Scientific Resources, semi neutral :

 

 

Human Genome Project Information Image Gallery

 

 

Smithsonian Human Family Tree

 

 

Kimball Biology Pages

The following resources have been made available online in their entirety.

 

Answers in Genesis, Free Online Resources

 

The increased focus of recent decades on creationism, "creation-science," "origin science," and "theistic science" has created a climate in which old questions are raised anew with specific focus and additional sophistication. One of those questions concerns the meaning of the term "day" in Genesis 1:1 - 2:3.

 

THE "DAYS" OF CREATION IN GENESIS 1

 

The Origins television program started in 1985 by Russ Bixler, co-founder of Cornerstone TeleVision, was discontinued with his passing in January of 2000. Now his son Paul, a producer/editor at Cornerstone TeleVision, is putting together a new Origins series.

 

These new programs offer a forum to use scientific evidence to validate the truth of creation.

 

Cornerstone TeleVision, Origins series.

 

It is never good science to ignore anomalous data or to eliminate a conclusion because of some presupposition. Sir Henry Dale, one-time President of the Royal Society of London, made an important comment in his retirement speech: "Science should not tolerate any lapse of precision, or neglect any anomaly, but give Nature's answers to the world humbly and with courage." To do so may not place one in the mainstream of modern science, but at least we will be searching for truth and moving ahead rather than maintaining the scientific status quo.--Barry Setterfield, March 7, 2002

 

Barry Setterfield, Research Library

 

 

The charitable reading of the uncertainty about the scientific status of design suggests that it reflects philosophical confusion. Somewhere in the deeper logic of our current conception of scientific explanation, we have made, or overlooked, a very serious blunder. Among the elements of what Gerald Holton calls "the modern world picture" -- that is, the received scientific world picture -- there exist profoundly inconsistent epistemological commitments. Put more simply, if what we want is the truth about how the world and its creatures came to be, then we may not be able to tell that story in fully naturalistic terms. Because the truth -- to modern eyes ungainly, even ugly -- may be otherwise.

 

Jettison the Arguments, or the Rule? The Place of Darwinian Theological Themata in Evolutionary Reasoning, by Paul Little University of Chicago

 

In the late 1970s, there was a need to make available scripturally sound and scientifically accurate materials in apologetics among the churches of Christ. The idea for Apologetics Press was bornâ€â€Âan idea that soon became a reality. The necessary legal steps then were taken to allow the work to be recognized as non-profit and tax-exempt by both State and Federal governments. In 1985, Apologetics Press moved into its own custom-built, 11,000-square-foot building that was debt free upon completion.

 

Apologetics Press

 

The 7 Wonders Museum is part of the NWCN

 

Northwest Creation Resources

 

"A man from a primitive culture who sees an automobile might guess that it was powered by the wind or by an antelope hidden under the car, but when he opens up the hood and sees the engine he immediately realizes that it was designed. In the same way biochemistry has opened up the cell to examine what makes it run and we see that it, too, was designed." (Molecular Machines: Experimental Support for the Design Inference, by Michael J. Behe)

 

An Introduction to Molecular Machines and Irreducible Complexity

 

MIT Biology Open Courseware

 

Molecular Interactions in Cell Events: Catalysis, Heriot Watt University

 

The primary source document for Creationism is the Bible itself and one of the main reasons for it being doctrinally vital is original sin.

 

Sin

Easton's Bible Dictionary:

Sin - is "any want of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God" (1 John 3:4; Rom. 4:15), in the inward state and habit of the soul, as well as in the outward conduct of the life, whether by omission or commission (Rom. 6:12-17; 7:5-24). It is "not a mere violation of the law of our constitution, nor of the system of things, but an offence against a personal lawgiver and moral governor who vindicates his law with penalties. The soul that sins is always conscious that his sin is

(1) intrinsically vile and polluting, and

(2) that it justly deserves punishment, and calls down the righteous wrath of God. Hence sin carries with it two inalienable characters,

(1) ill-desert, guilt (reatus); and

(2) pollution (macula).", Hodge's Outlines.

 

The moral character of a man's actions is determined by the moral state of his heart. The disposition to sin, or the habit of the soul that leads to the sinful act, is itself also sin (Rom. 6:12-17; Gal. 5:17; James 1:14, 15).

 

The origin of sin is a mystery, and must for ever remain such to us. It is plain that for some reason God has permitted sin to enter this world, and that is all we know. His permitting it, however, in no way makes God the author of sin.

 

Adam's sin (Gen. 3:1-6) consisted in his yielding to the assaults of temptation and eating the forbidden fruit. It involved in it,

(1) the sin of unbelief, virtually making God a liar; and

(2) the guilt of disobedience to a positive command. By this sin he became an apostate from God, a rebel in arms against his Creator. He lost the favour of God and communion with him; his whole nature became depraved, and he incurred the penalty involved in the covenant of works.

 

Original sin. "Our first parents being the root of all mankind, the guilt of their sin was imputed, and the same death in sin and corrupted nature were conveyed to all their posterity, descending from them by ordinary generation." Adam was constituted by God the federal head and representative of all his posterity, as he was also their natural head, and therefore when he fell they fell with him (Rom. 5:12-21; 1 Cor. 15:22-45). His probation was their probation, and his fall their fall. Because of Adam's first sin all his posterity came into the world in a state of sin and condemnation, i.e.,

(1) a state of moral corruption, and

(2) of guilt, as having judicially imputed to them the guilt of Adam's first sin.

 

"Original sin" is frequently and properly used to denote only the moral corruption of their whole nature inherited by all men from Adam. This inherited moral corruption consists in,

(1) the loss of original righteousness; and

(2) the presence of a constant proneness to evil, which is the root and origin of all actual sin. It is called "sin" (Rom. 6:12, 14, 17; 7:5-17), the "flesh" (Gal. 5:17, 24), "lust" (James 1:14, 15), the "body of sin" (Rom. 6:6), "ignorance," "blindness of heart," "alienation from the life of God" (Eph. 4:18, 19). It influences and depraves the whole man, and its tendency is still downward to deeper and deeper corruption, there remaining no recuperative element in the soul. It is a total depravity, and it is also universally inherited by all the natural descendants of Adam (Rom. 3:10-23; 5:12-21; 8:7). Pelagians deny original sin, and regard man as by nature morally and spiritually well; semi-Pelagians regard him as morally sick; Augustinians, or, as they are also called, Calvinists, regard man as described above, spiritually dead (Eph. 2:1; 1 John 3:14).

 

The doctrine of original sin is proved,

(1.) From the fact of the universal sinfulness of men. "There is no man that sinneth not" (1 Kings 8:46; Isa. 53:6; Ps. 130:3; Rom. 3:19, 22, 23; Gal. 3:22).

(2.) From the total depravity of man. All men are declared to be destitute of any principle of spiritual life; man's apostasy from God is total and complete (Job 15:14-16; Gen. 6:5,6).

(3.) From its early manifestation (Ps. 58:3; Prov. 22:15).

(4.) It is proved also from the necessity, absolutely and universally, of regeneration (John 3:3; 2 Cor. 5:17).

(5.) From the universality of death (Rom. 5:12-20).

 

Various kinds of sin are mentioned,

(1.) "Presumptuous sins," or as literally rendered, "sins with an uplifted hand", i.e., defiant acts of sin, in contrast with "errors" or "inadvertencies" (Ps. 19:13).

(2.) "Secret", i.e., hidden sins (19:12); sins which escape the notice of the soul.

(3.) "Sin against the Holy Ghost" (q.v.), or a "sin unto death" (Matt. 12:31, 32; 1 John 5:16), which amounts to a wilful rejection of grace.

 

Sin, a city in Egypt, called by the Greeks Pelusium, which means, as does also the Hebrew name, "clayey" or "muddy," so called from the abundance of clay found there. It is called by Ezekel (Ezek. 30:15) "the strength of Egypt, "thus denoting its importance as a fortified city. It has been identified with the modern Tineh, "a miry place," where its ruins are to be found. Of its boasted magnificence only four red granite columns remain, and some few fragments

 

Original Sin as Formal Doctrine:

 

According to Christian tradition, original sin is the general condition of sinfulness (lack of holiness) into which human beings are born (Psalm 51:5). Original sin is also called hereditary sin, birth sin, or person sin. Used with the definite article ("the original sin"), it refers to the first sin, committed when Adam and Eve succumbed to the serpent's temptation.

 

Original Sin from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Original sin may be taken to mean: (1) the sin that Adam committed; (2) a consequence of this first sin, the hereditary stain with which we are born on account of our origin or descent from Adam.

 

From the earliest times the latter sense of the word was more common, as may be seen by St. Augustine's statement: "the deliberate sin of the first man is the cause of original sin" (De nupt. et concup., II, xxvi, 43). It is the hereditary stain that is dealt with here. As to the sin of Adam we have not to examine the circumstances in which it was committed nor make the exegesis of the third chapter of Genesis.

 

 

Original Sin, from New Advent the Catholic Encyclopedia

 

Hope that helps.

 

Grace and peace,

Mark