Expelled: Movie about Darvinism Overpowering Creation in Schools

I remember arguing with my geometry teacher about creation vs. evolution. Interestingly, he'd made a comment about evolution being wrong and creation was Truth, and I had asked why we couldn't have both? He got very uncomfortable and changed the subject.

Now, there's a new movie coming out about how teachers and scientists are being ostracized by their peers for even suggesting that maybe evolution isn't the key to our world, but that there might be something to this idea of "creation." Check it out here: http://www.expelledthemovie.com/playground.php

As a Catholic, I believe that the Bible was written for the purpose of saving our souls and telling us how to live our lives, and not as a scientific text, so I can't subscribe to Biblical Creationism. After all, Genesis was written by scientifically primitive men (possible Moses himself) for scientifically primitive men. It's not like God could say, "In the beginning, I (complex problem in physics involving quantum mechanics and unification theory) and created light." Even if he gave Moses the divine ability to understand that--which puts him ahead of our current scientists--what's Moses going to tell the people? "God said, 'Let there be light. And there was.'"

QED

What's more important is that God did create everything, that He did it in an orderly fashion, and that It Was Good. Whether his day is 24 hours or if (like in the movie O God), when God had breakfast, Hitler was overrunning Poland, is not important to me. And whether or not he used evolution, fiat-creation, or something in between doesn't matter to me. In fact, I think evolution is a fine model for helping us understand the biological world, even though it is imperfect and needs to be explored, debated, tweaked or simply tossed out in favor of something better. Regardless, it does not have to exclude a loving God.

And, of course, that's where my beef is. Evolution is a theory, but it's being treated like something factual and sure as the Law of Gravity. What's more, those who dare speak against it on religious (or frankly, academic) grounds are persecuted for blaspheming against the 'science' of evolution.

Blaspheming. There's a good word.

Seems to me, God mentioned something about that, too. Something about having no other Gods before him?

Ideas can be worshiped, too.

Open Disclosure

This week, I found myself in a moral dilemma.

I have a book tour blog, Virtual Book Tour de Net, where I post blurbs, interviews, trailers and the occasional review. My guidelines say that as long as it's not hate-promoting or erotica, I'm glad to post it. And for the most part I am. People have different tastes and biases and I respect that. I've come to the attention of a couple of great book-promotion companies, who ask me to tour their clients. I'm honored to this for them, and have found they're terrific people to work with.

One of those is Pump Up Your Book Promotion. They're a full service online book promotions firm. They've sent me some fun titles. This month, I toured for them Marvin Zimmerman's The Ovum Factor--and eco-thriller. I went to their site to get the information, and saw he had a trailer, so I checked it out. About a fourth of the way in, an obviously Catholic bishop or cardinal says, "Scientific research is the ultimate threat to God's creation."

Those of you who know me will understand why I stopped right there, why I will never buy this book and why I'm blogging this now.

For those that don't: I write Catholic sci-fi. My husband, Rob's, and my first book, Infinite Space, Infinite God is a rebuttal to this whole Church vs. Science cliché that is not only wrong but stupid and reflecting a narrow-minded albeit popular bias--as anyone who does a few minutes of research into the history of the Church will discover. (No, I don't feel strongly on this subject. Why do you ask?)

I thought about not promoting his book on my site. However, I said myself that as long as it's not hate-mongering or erotica, I'm glad to post it. I don't believe his book is doing either. I'm more inclined to think that he's jumped on the DaVinci Code trendy bandwagon by using the Catholic Church as a conspirator than that he has some particular bias against the Church or religion. And, at least according to his trailer, they are part of a broader group of "conservative forces" out to stop his hero. Nonetheless, it does not matter.

I have no intention of reading Zimmerman's book. I don't want to contribute to his royalties. Regardless of what his book says, if he's content to let his trailer broadcast this message, it's enough to stop me.

I'm posting this along with a link to my site and the Zimmerman's page on Pump Up Your Book Promotion which has the video along with a synopsis. If eco-thrillers are your thing, go look and make up your own mind before you buy.

I don't want to make a big deal of this, but I felt I needed to make it clear where I stand.

King Kluck and Questinos

The Saga of King Kluck is now on video! Ever thought of mummifying a chicken? Great educational project? Along with all the needed materials, get yourself a clothespin for your nose. Learn more here, and feel free to laugh as you do. I did.

This was a homeschooling project my younger sons and I did a couple of years ago. it was actually kind of fun, and the laugh value was priceless. I've blogged about it before and wrote an article about it for Home Education Magazine. Use the search function to look up the blogs.

Now a new word for authors:

Questinos: What you get when you break a query down to its base elements.

Have a great, laugh-filled week.

On Blessings and Mechanical Suits

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

I'm up early for reasons I'm not thankful for, but I am eating the last piece of pumpkin pie and I'm counting my blessings to cheer myself up. I have a terrific family; the kids love school and Rob loves being a commander; my Mom's heart has healed well enough that they're putting off surgery for another six months; I got three book contracts, one for Leaps of Faith, which I've been shopping for three years; I have many wonderful new friends, especially in the writing world; my house is pretty cool (always a concern when living on-base); and I'm in pretty good health. Oh, yes, and my youngest loved the soup I made with the leftover turkey so much he had seconds and wants it for school lunch. That's a first in our house.

I'm also thankful for my husband, who finds me the funnest articles on the web! Remember the power loader Ripley wears in Aliens? Rob and I thought it was such a cool idea, we're using it in our novel, Discovery. Yesterday, he found this article and video clip of a real mechanical suit.

MSN article about mechanical suit


Ripley in her mechanical suit.
Rob's already wishing his maintainers could have them.

BTW--If anyone knows how to center things in blogger, I'd love to learn. (I've tried the ways I know.)