Institute For Creation Research

John D. Morris was showing guests around his $50,000 pride and joy, a new, 4,000-square-foot museum extolling the virtues of creationism, when he came to a large glass cage full of finches. "There are (Charles) Darwin's finches over there," he said. "They were the birds that convinced him of evolution. So, there they are." He rolled his eyes and continued. "They are finches! They are just finches! They haven't changed any . Some have big beaks. Some have little beaks.

Dinny the roadside dinosaur has found religion. The 45-foot-high concrete apatosaurus has towered over Interstate 10 near Palm Springs for nearly three decades as a kitschy prehistoric pit stop for tourists. Now he is the star of a renovated attraction that disputes the fact that dinosaurs died off millions of years before humans first walked the planet.

How old is the Grand Canyon? Most scientists agree with the version that rangers at Grand Canyon National Park tell visitors -- that the 10-mile wide chasm in northern Arizona was carved by the Colorado River 5 million to 6 million years ago. Now, however, a book in the park's bookstores tells another story.

The occasional phone call comes in for Stephen Thorne these days telling him he's going to burn in hell. A handful of agitated callers have left messages on his Dial-An-Atheist answering machine--they say they're praying for him. Thorne is the 32-year-old Escondido man who has taken upon himself the awesome task of protecting San Diego County's right to "freedom from religion." As founder of the county's new chapter of American Atheists, his holiday season was a busy one.

Charging that there is "anti-Christian bigotry" in movies and television shows, a group of 800 individuals, including leaders from more than 50 religious denominations, have sent a "statement of concern" to the corporate chiefs of the major studios and networks. "During the past several years, there has been an increasing number of television programs and movies containing anti-Christian bigotry.

Seventy-two Nobel Prize winners in science urged the Supreme Court on Monday to reject a Louisiana law calling for "balanced treatment" of evolution and creationism in public schools. In its new term that begins this fall, the Supreme Court will rule directly on the issue for the first time in the 50-year-old legal clash between creation and evolution. The Nobel winners said the case is crucial for American science.

Every full moon and new moon evening when the tides are highest, through mid-July, the grunion will come ashore for their annual mating ritual. On many nights that the small fish are expected to arrive, the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium will conduct Meet the Grunion programs to educate visitors about these elusive creatures. On Sunday, and on March 30, the aquarium will open at 8 p.m. for participants to view a film about the grunion, followed by a walk to the beach with aquarium staff at 9 p.m.

In years past, in churches and public spaces across Ventura County, they have prayed for victims of Kosovo and Columbine, for Oklahoma City and Bosnia. This year, many of their prayers were directed closer to home: toward the waters and beaches of Port Hueneme. They prayed for the 88 people who died in the Alaska Airlines crash in late January. And they prayed for the county emergency workers and volunteers who toiled to recover the wreckage and to comfort the grieving.

A small, private Christian graduate school filed suit in federal court Friday alleging that the state Department of Education, Superintendent of Public Instruction Bill Honig and other state administrators have violated its constitutional rights by withdrawing its license to issue master's degrees. In a 23-page complaint filed in U. S.