YoungCosmos is now split into 3 websites;

1. www.YoungCosmos.com (main website, and portal to everything else)

2. www.YoungCosmosBlog.com
(the replacement for the blog you are now reading)

3. www.YoungCosmosDiscussion.com (professional level YEC science forum)

The current www.YoungCosmos.com is located at:

http://smartaxes.com/blog/

If you are viewing this site, then it means the links you are using are out of date. But don’t worry. Simply go to this URL to go to the 3 new websites:

www.YoungCosmos.com

Salvador

http://www.virtual-creations.net/~youngcos/phpBB2/rss.php?t=1

This will get you a feed that displays all new topics as though they were posts on a blog.

If you want all posts (i.e., not just new topics, but also the follow-ups), then leave off the “?t=1″ at the end.

This is a nice way to keep up on the activity at the forum. There is a way to format the url to limit it to just a particular forum category, but I haven’t quite figured that out yet.
I haven’t put an icon there for it, though. I’ll need Rick’s help for that.

1. Main Portal
2. Blog
3. Discussion Forum

One of the 3 new websites is now up and running. It is the Discussion Forum, and the Discussion Forum I consider to be the heart of YoungCosmos mission, where serious ideas and long term projects can be explored, discussed, and collaborated.

To access it, please visit:

www.YoungCosmosDiscussion.com

This forum is for collaboration and exploration of important long term topics.

For example, there is a new discussion of an Advanced Creation Science topic of interest:

Revision to Setterfield and Dzimano 2003 paper, Eq. 25

Many thanks to Rick and JB for their help. The discussion forum also has latex capability so we can do really cool things with math equations!

1. Main Portal (something like the www.ARN.org)

2. Blog for news, articles, and sort term discussion (basically a continuation of this blog)

3. Discussion Forum for long term discussion and collaboration

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:
….
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

That is how I view the saga of the creation/evolution war. There are also subtleties to this as well, particularly with the YEC issue because there are OECs who are allies of the YECs in the most major cause, and yet do not agree on the issue of the age of the Earth.

In the war against Darwinian evolution, there is lots of rhetoric, public relations, campaigning, one-upsman ship, public denigration of each other. There is a time and place for this, imho. The war metaphor for that discussion is appropriate. In my 4 years of debate with the pro-Darwin crowd, I have gained very little in the way of scientific information from the critics. What I have gained was having to learn scientific arguments to refute them. The reason for that is I maintain, the physical evidence is strongly against naturalistic evolution. It does not take a lot to realize life doesn’t emerge from lifeless chemicals spontaneously. This is scientific fact! The origin of life had to have emerged from process we don’t see in operation today. The arguments were mostly rhetoric and metaphysics and politics.

In contrast, with respect to the age of the Earth, the arguments are not so easy, and there are days I have thought the problems were insurmountable. Furthermore, unlike Darwinian evolution, the death sentence for YEC came from a YEC (in Maxwell), not from someone inherently opposed to the idea of special creation (as Darwin was). But as I said, even with the death sentence for YEC signed, sealed, and delivered, the executioner has not been quite able to deliver the fatal blow. Like in the movies, a hero comes at the last second as the fatal blow is about to fall!

With that in mind I wish to entertain ideas of how to foster a civil and welcoming environment where two parties can exchange information in such a way as they feel they are cooperating in the search for truth, rather than trying to tear each other down.

a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,

Some things I find helpful. If you really think your opponent is mistaken, it is best to try to:

1. restate his argument
2. recognize that from his perspective it can seem right
3. recognize you could be wrong
4. state the factual reasons why you disagree

Adding qualifiers like “bad” or “poor” probably starts to so seeds of discord. It would suffice to say to a fellow participant, “this seems incorrect because….”

And let us in this debate turn the other cheek as much as possible. There will be a time to fight, but imho, OECs and OE-ID are our beloved friends, we should treat them and the arguments they bring to the table with respect. Those who also come to the table who are not pro-ID, but have good Old Universe arguments are also welcome. The YEC cause will do well to cognizant of serious scientific difficulties of YEC theory….

So I invite readers to speak their mind….

http://smartaxes.com/blog/yec-resources-online/

I please keep the discussions going. I’ll be tied up most of the rest of the week, but I’ll check in occasionally. I’ll be meeting Michael Behe, Kurt Wise, Gordon Wilson, Tim Brophie, David DeWitt, Paul Nelson, etc. etc. this week…There is the big Discovery Institute event today in DC, and the Baraminology Study Group (BSG) tomorrow in Lynchburg, Va and more activity for me in Tunica Mississipi this weekend….so I’ll hope you’ll excuse my sporadic participation until next week.

We are getting offers from authors and contributors. I will also seek top talent from both sides to offer articles. I’d like to thank everyone for their participation, especially the adminstrators who are helping rebuild the website, weblog, and discussion forum.

[Update 6/6/07]
YoungCosmos will shortly be split into 3 websites:

YoungCosmos.com

YoungCosmosBlog.com

YoungCosmosDiscussion.com

We will try our best to preserve the logins and passwords from the current blog when we migrate to the improved blog at YoungCosmosBlog.com.

The weblog you are reading will be accessible the YoungCosmos.com website and directly accessible through the www.YoungCosmosBlog.com URL. The reasoning behind the split was something I envisioned a long time ago:

YoungCosmosBlog.com will be the blog you are reading now, but it will be
substantially improved from today’s blog. It’s main purpose is to keep track of recent developments.

www.YoungCosmosDiscussion.com is a discussion forum where participants can conduct discussion of topics of interest to them. They will also have the ability to moderate their own discussions!

YoungCosmos.com will be a general portal to every thing else. It will have lots of links and educational resources including YoungCosmosBlog.com and YoungCosmosDiscussion.com

Please visit YoungCosmosBlog.com fand let us know what changes you would like. Please, for you own sake, DO NOT POST THERE since it is merely a test site and what you write will be forever lost into the great bit bucket in the sky whenever we make upgrades (which be almost daily).

However, I welcome your feedback on the new site. We have set up a discussion forum where more orderly discussion on the website can be discussed. Visit

Young Cosmos Feedback and Web Development Forum

Thanks to everyone who has been a part of our weblog since it began February 17, 2007. I had a vision for a www.YoungCosmos.com website for over two years. It’s main function was to be a portal for information, resources, collaboration, networking, and discussion. It was intended to follow the architecture of www.ARN.org

Visit: www.CreationSafaris.com

Let me know if you want to star discussion on any articles you find there.

The first order of business is to get the website up and running. It’s not quite where I envision from a technical standpoint, but in the mean time I will be posting topics just to keep things running while the website continues to be improved.

I will post links to various beta test sites that will showcase the look and feel of the envisioned website after the first round of construction is complete.

I welcome your all’s feedback and assistance.

Consider this an open thread to talk about anything (with the provision the discussion is restricted within limits of civility.)

I am a Christian, and I believe the discovery of a YoungCosmos will honor Christ, but the approach, imho, should be through arguing the evidence, and not theology. If the evidence speaks for itself, then the Bible and various theologies will be believable.

Christ recognized in John 10:38 that some will distrust His Words even if they are willing to believe in Him. Imho, He admonished such good-hearted individuals who are doubting His words, rather than to simply stop doubting, begin considering the empirical evidence.

The miracle of the universe and life point to God. And if we discover the Cosmos is Young, the world not only points to the existence of God, but the Christian God. Let us follow the evidence where it leads.