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They asked Gould why “all this talk about scientific creationism’?” They wanted to know whether evolution was “in some kind of trouble” in America. One of the priests emphasized that he had “always been taught that no conflict exists between evolution and Catholic faith.” Gould explained that the only conflict came from an American “homegrown phenomenon—a splinter movement . . . of Protestant fundamentalists who believe that every word of the Bible must be literally true.”

A student at Howard University has gone viral due to her public resignation letter she recently posted renouncing her affiliation with her new sorority, arguing its induction ceremony made her feel like she essentially worshipped a false God, a compromise of her Christian faith.

Student Zora Sanders called out the sorority, Delta Sigma Theta, in a two-page letter she posted to her Instagram account in May. Sanders and sorority representatives did not respond to requests from The College Fix seeking comment in recent weeks about the controversy.

Sanders, in her letter, described herself as a rising senior at Howard and a former member of its Delta Sigma Theta chapter, writing she “renounced and denounced” her membership.

Delta Sigma Theta is a historically black Greek-lettered sorority, founded in 1913 at Howard. It was established to promote academic excellence and support the African American community, but is open to women of all races. Its website states members work to promote commitment to public service, academic excellence, and sisterhood.

In her statement, Sanders described the secretive induction ceremony, writing she was required to “go to a ceremonial table, kneel down, and recite two different oaths – regarding my now, life-time commitment to Delta Sigma Theta.”

The oath states in part she agrees to commit to the sorority “until final judgment” and can “never be freed,” quoting from the organization’s ritual book. Sanders then cites passages in the Bible that tell believers never to swear an oath to any false gods.

“God makes it very clear to his children that there is only ONE and living God, and that is Jesus Christ,” she wrote.

“…This unexpected emphasis on Minerva conflicted with my personal values, as I do not derive wisdom from the goddess Minerva,” Sanders wrote, adding that she also learned later, after the ceremony, that an image of Minerva is part of the organization’s crest and official symbol.

“As a Christian, I don’t affiliate, partake, or wear anything that is symbolic of any other deity that is not God, including the Greek goddess,” Sanders wrote.

Sanders also alleged that during the first chapter meeting, the president of the sorority opened with Bible verses and Psalms that were “manipulated” and “misconstrued” in order to fit a more “Delta version.” This, the student wrote, is another “huge non-negotiable.”

Sander’s denunciation has sparked significant controversy on social media. Sanders posted it to Instagram May 20. Since then, it has amassed 20,000 likes and over 6,000 comments, some of which praise her, others that condemn the stance, and others that say she exaggerated the situation.

Some even accused her of posting it to gain fame and money. Others argued the use of Minerva is akin to America having an eagle as its mascot and symbol.

Some members of Delta Sigma Theta are also upset their secret rituals were published openly. One comment reads: “No hate, but please delete! As a member of Delta Sigma Theta, I don’t appreciate our sacred info being shown to the public.”

Writing for National Review, Abigail Anthony argued that the “irony is that insisting the sorority’s ‘rituals’ are ‘sacred’ only reinforces Sanders’s argument that they contravened Christian faith.”

https://www.thecollegefix.com/christian-student-denounces-sorority-for-ritual-swearing-oath-at-altar-praising-goddess-minerva/

I have always enjoyed knowledge. It’s really fun to learn things. I was at a car dealership the other day when I met a man who had vitiligo. He told me something that I had never known about the cause of that skin condition. It was another piece of information that is good to know.

    But what we are all really looking for is wisdom. A simple definition of wisdom is “biblical knowledge applied.” So when you take what the Bible says and apply it to your life, business, or relationships, you become the smartest person on earth!

Proverbs:20:7The just man walketh in his integrity: his children are blessed after him.
See All...: The just man walketh in his integrity: his children are blessed after him.

Ephesians:6:4And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
See All...: And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Proverbs:4:1Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding.
See All...: Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding.

Genesis:18:19For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.
See All...: For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.

3 John:1:4I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
See All...: I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

Proverbs:10:1The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.
See All...: The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.

—Mark Cahill, (born March 16, 1962, American author, speaker, and evangelist).

It is commonly thought today that there is a battle between science and religion. Yet highly respected evolutionist, the late Stephen Jay Gould, claimed that both could be accepted and need not contradict each other. Gould believed that science and religion dealt with entirely different subjects and were like ships passing in the night. This theory (with which Dawkins vehemently disagrees) is known among scientists as NOMA: non-overlapping magisteria. He got the idea in early 1084, while staying in a hotel for itinerate priests at the Vatican, where he was attending “a meeting on nuclear winter sponsored by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.” Housed in the same hotel and also attending the conference was “a group of French and Italian Jesuit priests who were also professional scientists.”

Have movies and most conventional paleontologists got it all wrong? T. rex and other theropod dinosaurs (the meat-eaters) are often portrayed as intelligent predators that can outmuscle and outsmart their opponents. But is that really supported by science?

A recent study found no compelling evidence that the relative brain size of large theropods, like Tyrannosaurus rex, was any different from that of modern reptiles, like crocodiles and alligators.1 The new study published in The Anatomical Record found their brains were just bigger because their body size was bigger.1

Possibly even more importantly, the study also found that brain endocasts of dinosaur skulls likely overestimate the size of their brains because the brains of extant reptiles do not completely fill their skull cavities. Doug Wylie, one of the co-authors of the paper, said, “The first time I dissected an alligator brain, I took the top of the skull off and I went, ‘Where is the brain?’ Because there is this big space in there.”2 Instead, cerebrospinal fluid takes up some of the cavity. This has likely caused an overestimation of the size of many theropod brains, suggesting the need for reevaluation.

Furthermore, this same study disputed a 2023 report that T. rex brains had more neurons than an extant primate, like a baboon. Instead, they found that reptile brains are packed more loosely with neurons compared to both birds and mammals. Reptiles, like T. rex, had fewer connections and circuits in their brains, likely making them less intelligent.2

Darren Naish, another co-author of the study, said, “The possibility that T. rex might have been as intelligent as a baboon is fascinating and terrifying, with the potential to reinvent our view of the past. But our study shows how all the data we have is against this idea. They were more like smart giant crocodiles, and that’s just as fascinating.”2

This study confirms that dinosaurs were not birds or even bird-like. The brains of theropods were shaped and sized more like today’s reptiles. And many of their measured sizes are likely overestimated since much of the brain cavity was likely filled with fluid.

Current data on T. rex brain size and shape indicate their intelligence, thought processing, and senses were probably very similar to alligators and crocodiles.3,4 Some dinosaurs may have been able to smell really well, but they could not perform complex tasks.

God designed dinosaur brains that were perfectly suited for their lifestyles and body size when He created dinosaurs on Day 6 of the creation week (Genesis 1:25).

References

1. Caspar, K. R. et al. 2024. How smart was T. rex? Testing claims of exceptional cognition in dinosaurs and the application of neuron count estimates in palaeontological research. The Anatomical Record. Published on anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com April 26, 2024, accessed April 29, 2024.
2. Baisas, L. 2024. T. rex was probably about as intelligent as a crocodile. Popular Science. Posted on popsci.com April 29, 2024, accessed April 29, 2024.
3. Clarey, T. 2015. Tyrannosaurus rex Was No Birdbrain. Acts & Facts. 44 (8): 15.
4. Clarey, T. 2015. Dinosaurs: Marvels of God’s Design. Green Forest, AK: Master Books, 130.

https://www.icr.org/article/t-rex-not-as-smart-as-thought/

The brain is the most complex lump of matter in the universe, and its design and development raise further questions to which science has no answer. The list of thus far unanswerable questions lying just beneath the surface of the “impassable swamp” that bars our approach to the base of Mount Improbable is almost endless. It is as though science has stumbled into a house of mirrors with infinitely receding images.

Today’s atheistic evolutionists are scrambling to deal with a host of vital questions that Darwinism stirred up but cannot answer. A growing number of scientists are convinced that matter itself has some form of consciousness. This theory is completely irrational. Unquestionably, our physical bodies, from head to toe, inside and out, are nothing more than energy/matter, and that includes our brains. But neither the physical brain nor the electro-chemical impulses operating within it can think, in spite of theories attributing to some form of consciousness. Then how can one’s brain think? It doesn’t. It certainly doesn’t originate our thoughts. If it did, we wouldn’t know what thoughts our brains might come up with next and impose upon us!

The Scriptures are clear: there is a malevolent being, a fallen angel, we know as Satan. He tempts and troubles humans that have been created in the image of God, and although powerful, being a created being, his power is limited. God has given believers the tools to resist him but religious hucksters take advantage of those who are not been well taught. Mike Warnke was one who took advantage of that with his 1972 book Satan Seller.  His claim was that he was a former high priest of Satan who had become a Christian. He was a much sought-after speaker, and his "insights" spurred an entire Satanic Panic industry in the 1980s and 1990s. 

He was exposed as a fraud in the 1993 book Selling Satan: The Tragic History of Mike Warnke by Michael Hertenstein and Jon Trott but the claims of Satanic Ritual Abuse numbered in the thousands by the late 1990s, aided by books like Michelle Remembers, Satan's Underground and others. Satan's primary goal is deception. He is fine with deceiving humans that he does not exist and fine with deceiving them into believing he is more powerful than he is. Either way, he distracts them from God. A young lady from Kenya, Wanjiru Ng'ang'a, wrote an interesting article, A Warning Call: The Pitfalls of Seeking Wisdom on Evil from Ex-Satanists:   

"As ex-Satanists recount their experiences, they often attribute their freedom to specific rituals, prayers, or actions they believe were instrumental in their deliverance. From experience, they present these actions as essential components of any “deliverance” process. Hence, implying that others must employ similar methods to achieve spiritual victory over demonic forces.

"However, most of them are at best suspect since they often don’t align with how the Bible teaches believers to approach spiritual warfare.

"Again, this is not to say that are lying; rather, I wish to remind us that at the end of the day we should prioritize the sufficiency of God’s Word in shaping our understanding of spiritual warfare and guard against adopting extrabiblical practices."

In 2004, we published an article by a pastor who had been heavily involved in the deliverance ministry for over 25 years. He came to realize he needed to make a change from focusing on the demonic to focusing on God and His word. The change in focus brought him to ask, Hey…Where Did The Devil Go? 

https://mailchi.mp/a1d428ad5a47/fear-no-evil?e=169825fd77