| Cyrus cylinder, world's oldest human rights charter, returns to Iran on loan Deal agreed after Tehran threatens to cut cultural ties with British MuseumA Babylonian artefact sometimes described as the world's first human rights charter is to go on display in Iran after Tehran threatened to cut ties with the British Museum if it did not lend the object.The Cyrus cylinder is a 6th century BC clay object inscribed with an account in cuneiform of the conquest of Babylon by the Persian king Cyrus the Great. It arrived in Iran today and will go on display soon at Iran's national museum for four months, state TV reported.Iran said it was in a dispute with the British Museum for months over its request for a loan of the object and had repeatedly threatened to cut ties with the institution. At one point, a senior Iranian cultural official accused the museum of turning a cultural issue into a political issue.The loan discussions, which began last October, took place during a time of tension between the two countries. Tehran is under pressure from the west over its nuclear programme, and it has accused Britain and other foreign governments of interfering in its domestic policies by stoking the street protests that followed the disputed presidential election in June 2009.The British Museum said it acted in good faith throughout the negotiations and has a policy of cultural exchanges with other nations independent of political considerations.The object's inscription describes how Cyrus conquered Babylon in 539BC and captured the last Babylonian king. It also tells of how he then freed many people held captive by the Babylonians and arranged for them to return to their homelands. It does not mention the Jews brought to Babylon as slaves by Nebuchadnezzar, but their freedom was also part of that policy.State TV said a delegation from the British Museum accompanied the artefact and another British expert would soon arrive to arrange its display.The Cyrus cylinder is often called the world's oldest human rights document, but it was common in Mesopotamia for kings to begin their rule with such reform declarations, according to the British Museum.IranMiddle EastArchaeologyHistory and history of artguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Consumer groups push for label for modified salmon By MARY CLARE JALONICK 2010-09-21T18:08:22ZWASHINGTON (AP) -- Consumer advocates urged the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday to ensure that salmon engineered to grow twice as fast as the conventional variety are labeled in the grocery store as genetically modified.... hosted.ap.org |
Bid to fill telecommunications gaps in Oberon Shire There's concern in Oberon the government's $43 billion broadband rollout won't reach the shire's residents. abc.net.au |
Bridges built to help Borneo orangutans meet mates By JULIA ZAPPEI 2010-10-18T10:44:45ZKUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- Endangered orangutans on Borneo island are using fire hoses slung across rivers by humans to help them move around isolated forests to potentially meet new mates and boost the species' chances for survival, an environmental group said Monday.... hosted.ap.org |
Finding design in nature | Michael Behe Although we may not know the details of how living things are assembled, it is clear to me that they are designedAndrew Brown's comment on the debate I had with Michael Reiss missed a critical point. My contention is that 'the purposeful arrangement of parts' to achieve a specific purpose is the criterion that enables us to recognise design. I argued that the conclusion of design in the bacterial flagellum and in many other biological systems is no different from discerning it for a mousetrap or a Ford Mondeo. So what makes Intelligent Design fundamentally different from Darwinism? The Darwinian view which dominates biology holds that the design we all see in life is merely illusory and that life is essentially a blind and purposeless phenomenon. Intelligent Design claims that the design is real and demonstrable; we are left to draw our own conclusions about the implications. How the design is delivered, however, is a separate matter. I was clear that we do not yet know the details of how these designed systems were assembled over the history of life. It was in this context that I made the comment that the operation of natural law might play a part. To imply, as Brown does, however, that intelligent design can be reduced only to the operation of natural law and therefore is essentially indistinguishable from Darwinism is to confuse fundamentally the end (design) with the means of delivering it. Intelligent Design is an inductive argument from empirical observations like the irreducible complexity of molecular machinery. Intelligent causation as an explanation is consistent with all our experience of finely engineered machines which have intelligent designers. The Darwinian alternative is to propose a phenomenon never observed anywhere, namely that complex machinery can assemble itself without any planning or direction. Andrew Brown's comment on my debate with Reiss makes a category error. A lack of clarity about the processes by which living systems are assembled does not diminish the perception of their inherent design. ReligionEvolutionChristianityMichael Beheguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |