For most of the month, we were focused on national partners networking and making the arrangements for next year’s ministry. However, the greatest event of the month was a conference on the teaching of the origins in public schools. The conference was arranged at Osgroh Academy, the oldest university in Eastern Europe, where the first complete Bible in Russian was printed.
You know, it is hard to believe that a conference like that happened at all! About 200 educators from Ukraine and Russia came together at the campus of a top rate state (!) university to discuss the issues of academic freedom and integrity in teaching the origins in the state-approved curricula!
The President of the university joined the conference on the second day, and that gave official status to the event as well as gave me an opportunity to give them a set of our materials as a gift for the library. We also made a presentation of our resources. As a result, the faculty of the humanities college of the university shows a great interest in our work and, God willing, they could manage to invite us with a modular course on Science and the Bible eventually. Could you imagine – teaching Creation Science at the post-communism state university?! May the Lord help and leads that potential partnership!
At the ending plenary session of the conference, the declaration was approved by the participants about the inadmissibility of discriminating the biblical creation approach in education. It is going to be distributed to the colleges and universities as an official document. God is doing unbelievable things! We could not even imagine something like this happening so soon.No doubt, we still have a long way to go, but it is hard to underestimate that great step that was made. Please pray for the seeds planted to provide a harvest in God’s timing, as well as pave the road for new opportunities.
RESOLUTION of the international scientific-practical conference
„Creation Paradigm in Modern Science: on the Road to an Integrated World View” On November 28-29, 2008 at the National University „Ostroh Academy” (Ukraine) the first International scientific-practical conference „Creation Paradigm in Modern Science: on the Road to an Integrated World View” took place. In its work about 250 leading researchers (including 24 doctors, and 47 candidates of sciences) took part from various spheres of knowledge from Ukraine, Russia, the USA, and South Korea. The participants of the conference came to the conclusion, that the conception of creationism (paradigm of Creation) is fully scientifically correct. The main topics of the conference have been general methodological and philosophical aspects of the Creation paradigm in science, methodological problems of natural sciences, methodological problems of social sciences and humanities, the spiritual revival of man and society, education, mass media, public and religious organizations.
The conference has stressed that the correctness of the topics discussed in it consists in that the Creation paradigm describes the facts of origins and existence of the physical Universe more adequately, and it solves the problems of the origin of life, consciousness, language, and information more adequately. This theory is better supported by material facts and fundamental laws, than the naturalistic paradigm which is dominant nowadays. The importance of the biblical kind of creationism was underlined which gains all the more solid confirmations with every new coil of accumulation of scientific information.
Taking into account the above said, the participants of the conference have decided:
1. To appeal to the National Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine with a request to give their recommendations to the scientific magazines and publishing houses that are under their jurisdictions to follow the principle of equality of rights of world views during the selection of materials for the publication, – a principle which is contained in the art. #35 of the Constitution of Ukraine;
2. To appeal to the President, the Cabinet of Ministers, and the Parlament of Ukraine with a request to bring the Law for Education of Ukraine in accordance with the art. #35 of the Constitution of Ukraine; (the Constitution postulates the right for freedom of choice of world view (the equality of rights of world views), while the Law for Education postulates the secular character of education (secular is interpreted as atheistic by the Ministry of Education);
3. With the purpose of further development and popularization of the Creation paradigm in Ukrainian science and society the Association of creationists of Ukraine should be founded, the task of which would be the distribution of the new world view, a world view enabling to accelerate the progress of science and to attain the spiritual and moral revival of society and man;
4. To appeal to foreign organizations sharing the ideas of creationism with a proposal of strengthening collaboration between them and organizers and participants of the conference, in particular with the Association of creationists of Ukraine;
5. With the purpose of solving the most difficult world-view, scientific and philosophical problems and constructing a general scientific theory of creationism the Scientific Educational Institute for Creation Research should be founded;
6. To recommend to all the organizations dealing with the world-view questions (research, educational organizations, mass-media), and also public organizations to study and then use and popularize the materials of this conference, which will be accessible in particular at the websites www.christian-ethics.org.ua, www.creation.in.ua, www.apolsoc.info, www.scienceandapologetics.org, www.biblicaldiscovery.info, www.nt-creaz.org.ua; and also to conduct scientific-elucidation and lecture work;
Head of the Organizational Committee of the Conference,
Rector of the National University „Ostroh academy” Igor Pasichnyk