Creation Science Curriculum

We attended the local Back to Genesis seminar this weekend. I picked two of the creation science books that were already on the HMTP and the two RATE books that I have been wanting. While we are in the mood for making drastic changes to the reading schedule I feel the urge to put some effort into trying to aggressively schedule these books as part of our ongoing science education curriculum.

STARLIGHT AND TIME, by D. Russel Humphreys.
Subtitled, "Solving the Puzzle of Distant Starlight in a Young Universe." That's enough for me. Humphreys was very interesting at the conference. I just hope the book is not too technical for me to follow.

GENETIC ENTROPY & THE MYSTERY OF THE GENOME, by J.C. Sanford.
This one presents information that the accumulated mutations in our DNA proves that humans could not have been on this planet for millions of years. No species can indefinitely survive a rate of mutation greater than 1 per generation. We are living under a rate at least 100 times that.

RADIOISOTOPES AND THE AGE OF THE EARTH, ed. by Larry Vardiman et.al.
RADIOISOTOPES AND THE AGE OF THE EARTH, Vol 2, ed. by Larry Vardiman et.al.
The RATE books are very technical, and very expensive. But I deem them to be essential reading if we hope to have even the most rudimentary understanding of the conclusions made in them. This in information is the kind we would like to use in conversations with "deep time" people.

There is another, more technical, conference coming to Denver on Saturday, September 15, 2007. Registration required. 800-743-6374. www.icr.org/conference.

There is also supposed to be an conference at the Pikes Peak Center in April, 2008. It would be great to read these books before then. Just a thought.

Wolfe Rehab Program - HMTP Changes

The HMTP is about to see a major revision. We became aware of a painful omission when a friend of ours, Dave Kaufman, was reading Gene Wolfe's THE BOOK OF THE LONG SUN, and provoked in us an unexpected longing to experience sublime excruciations at the hands of Wolfe, the master torturer. So we decided to weave the NEW SUN, LONG SUN, and SHORT SUN books back into the list. This could not be done, of course, without first reading some other books that have long lain in the backwaters of the HMTP. We are calling this new focus the Wolfe Rehab Program. We have nearly completed our program of comparing John Varley with the best of the rest. Now it will soon be Wolfe's turn. Due to the complexities and unified nature of Wolfe's multi-volume novels, each will be read in consecutive months, rather than being strung out over a period of several years. In preparation we will also be reading two book-length works of literary criticism about the NEW SUN. One is a doctoral dissertation.

Jack Boyd will be pleased to see that we have finally committed to reading RINGWORLD THRONE, and all the related books too. We will also be reading DECLARE, DALGREN, BUG JACK BARRON, and a slew of non-fiction books along the way, including one of my favorites, THE EUDAEMONIC PIE. The Creation Track is now more fully populated and brought in closer. Note too that Richard K. Morgan is fully represented with the inclusion of TH1RTE3N. Another significant change is the scheduling of ISRAELOLOGY, now slated for Sept. - Oct. 2007. The changes were thought out over a period of months, and at the last meeting we reached consensus to put them in place. We think this is a solid reading program.

Remember when viewing the HMTP that it can, and often does, change at the whim of the CCCP. And the further you look into the future, the more unsure things become. As the administrator, and chief perpetrator of these changes, it is an interesting study in decision-making to watch the changes take place.

The current book is MEMOIRS OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR by Winston S. Churchill. It is on a 20 page per day pace. Don't let this one slip. It might break your foot. The discussion will be June 16th.

The Wolfe Rehab Program will begin in June of 2009. Make plans accordingly.

The Prestige

I listened to the novel THE PRESTIGE, by Christopher Priest. While both the book and the movie share the elements of feuding magicians and the technology of Nikola Tesla, they are very different stories. I found myself wondering how the movie managed to improve on the essence of the novel without utilizing the same plot devices as the novel. The movie was, to me, more satisfying. It was more horrific than the novel, and the feud attacks were better staged. It felt like a magic trick, while the book seemed to lose its focus. The book has a very different ending due to the different effects attributed the Tesla machine. The two versions stand as variations on a theme. Both are worth the price of admission. The movie attains greatness. The book, by virtue of its disparity from the film, manages to be surprising and rewarding in its own right.

(Deus Vult)

BIRTH OF AN AGE

I just finished BIRTH OF AN AGE by James BeauSeigneur. He has many ingenious ideas that he works into his fictional account of Revelation. OPTCS: 66746.

(Deus Vult)