News to Note, March 1, 2008

1. Petrified Animals Died Quickly

A team examining a fossil deposit in the Canadian Rockies has determined that the fossil “bonanza” was buried by a rapid, muddy “miracle of preservation.”

2. Sea Reptile is Now Largest on Record

Norwegian scientists have announced the largest marine reptile known to modern science, a fossil discovered in 2006 in Norway’s far-north Svalbard islands.

3. AP: “Third Manmade Grand Canyon Flood Planned”

The Associated Press reports that officials plan to flood the Grand Canyon for the third time since 1996 in an effort to restore an ecosystem altered by a dam.

The 1963 Glen Canyon Dam transformed the Colorado River that runs through the Grand Canyon, taming annual floods and shifting the balance of fish living in the river, leading to the extinction of four fish species. Since 1996, two artificial floods have been created in an attempt to replicate the once-usual spring floods that flushed the canyon out and restored the ecosystem.

If the U.S. Department of the Interior approves next month’s planned flood, the bypass tubes of Glen Canyon Dam will be opened again. With each attempt, scientists are studying the effect of the floodings in an attempt to restore originally native species.

The planned flood will increase Colorado River flows through the Grand Canyon to 41,000 cubic feet (1161 m³) per second for almost three days and will “scour and reshape miles of sandy banks on the floor of the Grand Canyon.”

It’s interesting to note how this flood, which still has the power to reshape sandy banks, mimics the effects of the great Flood, which would have unleashed rivers of unbelievable force as the waters receded from the heights of the earth and flowed toward ocean basins. The Grand Canyon was likely formed as the Colorado Plateau was lifted above sea level during the second half of the Flood year and the waters surged out to the Pacific Ocean.

4. Americans Shifting Religious Affiliations, Dropping Out

An extensive study released by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life documents trends in American religious affiliation—based on interviews with more than 35,000 adults.

5. Get Expelled Next Month!

Dozens of AiG staff watched the “director’s cut” of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed several days ago. The documentary’s host, actor/economist/lawyer Ben Stein, does a masterful job of exposing the persecution suffered by many professors or researchers when they don’t believe in evolution.

The publicity campaign is ramping up this month in anticipation of the movie’s release next month. This very entertaining movie isn’t about biblical creation, but it does have the potential to wake up millions of people to the ways the secular scientific community can mistreat and expel credentialed individuals who suggest the possibility of intelligent design—or even just question evolution. The film documents how some “Darwin-doubters” are losing their jobs.

Expelled is to be released to movie theaters on April 18. Visit getexpelled.com for more information where you can watch trailers and an interview with Ben Stein.

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