Tag Archives | Michael Buratovich

Buratovich, Michael A. “The Evolution Controversy: A Survey of Competing Theories.” Christian Scholar’s Review 38, no. 2 (2009): 301-303.

Abstract: […] the authors state that a prediction of Darwin’s theory was that “nature will preserve even the slightest variation that proves beneficial,” but that “population genetics calculations show that single mutations, even if positive, usually only have a small chance of survival” (57). […] relativistic effects result in billions of years passing in the rest of the universe while only thousands pass near the Earth, which explains how billion-year-old stars and galaxies can exist in a universe only a few thousand years old.\n Several eukaryotic organisms have flagella that do not display the standard 9 + 2 arrangement. […] the book misses a primary problem with alternatives to evolutionary theory scientific assertions must pass through the flames of peer-review and colleague confirmation before they are admitted into a classroom.

Buratovich, Michael. “Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion, and the Battle for America’s Soul/40 Days and 40 Nights: Darwin, Intelligent Design, God, Oxycontin, and Other Oddities on Trial in Pennsylvania.” Christian Scholar’s Review 37, no. 2 (Winter, 2008): 253-257.

Abstract: The city of Dover, Pennsylvania is located approximately thirty miles south of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. You would not expect this small town to make national news, but on November 19, 2004, the Dover Area School District issued a press release that required biology teachers to read a statement to their ninth-grade biology students that said, in part: “Intelligent Design is an explanation of the origin of the life that differs from Darwin’s view. The reference book, Of Pandas and People, is available for students who might be interested in gaining an understanding of what Intelligent Design actually involves . . . .” This statement sparked the famous Tammy Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area School District, et al. trial, in which John E. Jones, Federal judge for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, ruled that the Dover Area School Board attempted to introduce religion into public schools and that Intelligent Design (ID) is not science and has no place in a high school biology class.

Buratovich, Michael. “Dawkin’s God: Genes, Memes, and the Meaning of Life.” Christian Scholar’s Review 35, no. 2 (Winter, 2006): 280-283.

Abstract: With respect to Dawkins’ refutation of William’Paley’s “God as the Divine Watchmaker” hypothesis, McGrath points out that Paley’s Natural Theology “represents the late and final flowering of a movement that came into being in the aftermath of the great Newtonian revolution of the late seventeenth century, and which had completely lost its way by the middle of the eighteenth century” (69). Finally, the quote from River out of Eden that speaks of DNA as digital information and creatures as survival machines that act as mere vessels to carry this information can hardly mean that Dawkins wishes to reduce all social behavior to kin selection, since he said as much about human behavior in The Selfish Gene.

Buratovich, Michael. “A Matter of Days.” Christian Scholar’s Review 35, no. 1 (Fall, 2005): 116-118.

Abstract: Instead of seeing all life as having descended from a common ancestor, Ross is a Progressive Creationist, contending that God episodically created, by divine fiat, different types of plants and animals to inhabit the earth over distinct periods of time; these episodic creations included, most recently, the miraculous creation of mankind. Third, sequencing of mitochondrial DNA from the haplochromines (cichlid fishes) of Lake Victoria, which is only 12,400 years old, has definitively shown that among fourteen fish species from distinct trophic groups (insect-eaters, fish-eaters, algae-scrapers, snail-crushers, shail-shellers and pedophages), only fifteen base substitutions have occurred amongst the more than eight hundred bases examined.

Buratovich, Michael. “Uncommon Dissent: Intellectuals Who Find Darwinism Unconvincing/Creationism’s Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design.” Christian Scholar’s Review 34, no. 3 (Spring, 2005): 382-386.

Abstract: Buratovich reviews Uncommon Dissent: Intellectuals who Find Darwinism Unconvincing edited by William A. Dembski and Creationism’s Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design by Barbara Forrest and Paul R. Gross.

Buratovich, Michael. “Perspectives on an Evolving Creation.” Christian Scholar’s Review 34, no. 1 (Fall, 2004): 136-138.

Abstract: …Kansas State paleontologist Keith Miller has assembled an impressive cadre of contributors who believe in both evolution and the orthodox Christian faith. The contributors to this book hail from Christian schools like Calvin, Messiah, and Wheaton to name a few, and secular universities like UCLA, University of Alabama, and Johns Hopkins University. The resulting volume is highly educational and informative even if it is a little uneven in places.

Buratovich, Michael and Thomas Buratovich. “Battle for the Beginning: Creation, Evolution and the Bible.” Christian Scholar’s Review 32, no. 4 (Summer, 2003): 455.

Abstract: Well-known pastor and radio preacher John MacArthur wrote The Battle for the Beginning to “examine what the biblical text teaches about creation” (29), but not to “get into in-depth scientific arguments related to the origin of our universe” (29). The Battle for the Beginning shows the problems that potentially surface when a gifted expositor writes an authoritative text outside his area of expertise.