Dr Paul Allen

A team of scientists sequenced genomes from people who lived in a port city on the Mediterranean coast of Israel between the 12th and 8th centuries B.C. Sometime in the 12th century B.C., a family in the ancient port city of Ashkelon, in what is today Israel, mourned the loss of a child. But they didn’t go to the city’s cemetery. Instead, they dug a small pit in the dirt floor of their home and buried the infant right in the place where they lived. That child’s DNA is now helping scholars trace the origins of the Philistines, a long-standing, somewhat contentious mystery. In accounts from the Hebrew Bible, the Philistines appear mostly as villainous enemies of the Israelites. They sent Delilah to cut the hair of the Israelite leader Samson and thus stripped him of his power. Goliath, the giant slain by David, was a Philistine. The Philistines’ reputation as a hostile, war-mongering, hedonistic tribe became so pervasive that “philistine” is still sometimes lobbed as an insult for a...

Beersheba on the map of Israel (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) But . . . pass not to Beersheba .” ( Amos 5:5 ) Beersheba (well of the “sevens”) became a location of some importance in Israel ’s early history. Hagar (the Egyptian bondwoman who bore Ishmael ) was rescued by God at Beersheba ( Genesis 21:14-19 ). Abraham improved the well at Beersheba and settled there, built a grove and “called there on the name of the Lord , the everlasting God” ( Genesis21:33 ). It was at Beersheba that Abraham was told to sacrifice Isaac ( Genesis 22:1-4 ). Beersheba figured prominently in the life of Israel. Isaac made a covenant with the Philistines there, repaired the well, and lived at Beersheba for many years ( Genesis 26:17-33 ). Historically, Beersheba is best known for the political oaths ceremoniously confirmed there with the secular nations around Israel. At Beersheba, truth later became equated with tradition. Substituting the wisdom and traditions of man ( Mark 7:3-13 ) or the world’...

A generation of young men are discovering what Internet Porn can do to their brains. But growing numbers of them are deciding to escape. This secular TEDx video is essential viewing for everyone concerned about this issue:

“The heavens declare the glory of God ; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.” ( Psalm 19:1 ) This verse has been a favorite of many who recognize God’s creatorship. The vastness of space “declares” His power and sovereign control over all and calls us to worship Him as not only Creator but Savior as well. In what ways do the heavens speak? The orderly progression of day and night reminds us of God’s purpose in creating the heavenly bodies, that they should be “signs” for us to aid in telling time and the passage of time ( Genesis 1:14 ). The sun’s light energizes Earth ’s processes. From photosynthesis to tidal and atmospheric movements, the Creator can be recognized as the great Provider. The “line” mentioned in Psalm 19:4 is that of a surveyor’s line, true and accurate. It represents the absolute standard by which our conduct is measured. Just as surely as an Earth-encircling line demarcates light and darkness, so God’s holy nature measures and evaluates our behavior. The ...

Does a 6,000-year-old earth match the findings of modern science? Secular scientists have answered forcefully in the negative for generations. However, their arguments rest on the assumption of constant natural processes and constant rates, and new discoveries from ICR’s geneticists present a strong challenge to these claims. Genetic “Clocks” Ticking within every species is a “clock” of sorts that measures the length of time that a species has existed on the earth. Since DNA is passed on imperfectly from parent to offspring, each generation grows more genetically distant from prior generations. Consequently, with each successive generation reproductively isolated groups within species grow more and more genetically distant from each other. This is true for DNA found not only in the nucleus of the cell but also in the cellular energy factories termed  mitochondria . Mitochondrial DNA is present in both males and females, but unlike nuclear DNA, it is inherited only from mot...

Charles Robert Darwin. A copy made by John Collier (1850-1934) in 1883 of his 1881 portrait of Charles Darwin. According to Darwin's son Erasmus, "The picture is a replica of the one in the rooms in the Linnaean Society and was made by Collier after the original. I took some trouble about it and as a likeness it is an improvement on the original." Given to the National Portrait Gallery, London in 1896. See source website for additional information. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) In thousands of classrooms all over the world teachers are indoctrinating naïve and impressionable students with the notion that they are an accident, the result of millions of years of random anomalies and lucky deformities, or that what they do with their lives is just a matter of preference and there is no divine designer who created them.  But the Bible tells us that God designed us with a purpose in mind. Psalm 139:14 says we have been “fearfully and wonderfully made.”  It is only in re...

John Piper (theologian) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Euphemistically justifying murder as a “women’s rights” issue is at once disgusting and dumbfounding. Disgusting that anyone might use women for political posturing and sully their name by insisting that it’s a virtue for them to exercise murderous violence against their own children. Dumfounding because I can’t quite believe that these people are really convinced by their own arguments. As John Piper demonstrated clearly in this excellent blog post (which, if you haven’t already read, you should): We all know we’re killing children—human persons—and the most defenseless of human persons at that. We are just willing to sacrifice the innocent so we can give vent to our lust, immorality, and selfish ambition. And so I’ve been listening to the various “defenses” of this legalized murder, and I think to myself, “Can he really believe that something that grows, moves, consumes , is distinct from the mother, and has its own chromosom...

What are life's most pressing questions? According to Peter Weyland, head of the Weyland Corporation which is funding an inter-stellar space voyage, they include: "Where do we come from? What is the soul? What happens when we die?" Seeking answers to these questions represents the initial reason behind a trillion-dollar space expedition in the film Prometheus . Millions of theater-goers are encountering these questions for a few dollars at their local movies theater. All three questions represent the kind of thought-provoking inquiry that should occupy us in our most introspective moments and amidst our deep conversations with like-minded friends. The answers Prometheus offers represent a cautionary tale , but it does not follow that those who see it must come to similar conclusions. Prometheus, in its quest for God , is looking in the wrong place, searching with the wrong tools, and seeking the right end with a wrong attitude. Fortunately, we need not look to cave pa...