Culture

Evolutionists and atheist activists who recently complained about a Ball State University assistant professor teaching creationism may be missing a broader view of education, according to popular Christian apologist Lee Strobel, who says that colleges should be a place where students can explore both Darwinism and creationism fully and freely.

"I believe we should give teachers, scientists, and students the right to pursue the evidence wherever it takes them – even if it takes them to the politically incorrect conclusion that there's an Intelligent Designer," Strobel told The Christian Post via email. "In other words, let's test the evidence in the marketplace of ideas.

"As two-time Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling said, 'Science is the search for the truth.' At least, it should be. Personally, I even believe we should teach more on Darwinism," he added. "That's right – more. That's because today students are given only a cursory and one-sided explanation of evolution. On this surface level, the theory's grandest claims seem to hold together pretty well. Yet if students are encouraged to dig deeper – in fact, to examine all of the evidence, pro and con – they begin to recognize its fatal flaws." more >>

The Department of Veterans Affairs has revealed that more than 85,000 veterans last year were treated for injuries or illness stemming from sexual abuse in the military, highlighting a crisis that President Barack Obama has called "shameful and disgraceful."

"We will not stop until we've seen this scourge, from what is the greatest military in the world, eliminated," Obama told Pentagon officials last week at the White House. "Not only is it a crime, not only is it shameful and disgraceful, but it also is going to make and has made the military less effective than it can be."

The Associated Press reported on Monday that more than 85,000 veterans had been affected in 2012, based on information released by VA. Of those cases, most of the victims were women, but nearly 40 percent were men. Sexual abuse has been defined by VA as "any sexual activity where you are involved against your will," which can come in various forms – some have reported to have been raped, while others said they were groped or subjected to verbal abuse or other forms of sexual harassment. more >>

A stampede in Ghana on Sunday left four people dead after thousands swarmed a church said to be offering holy water with healing properties.

"All of us were caught by surprise. No one knew the crowd will be so huge," police spokesman Freeman Tetteh said, according to BBC News. "The church was also caught by surprise ... Nobody can apportion blame [at this stage]."

The stampede occurred at the Ghana branch of the Synagogue Church of All Nations, Ghana Business News reported. The head pastor of the church, Prophet T. B. Joshua, has been sending out repackaged holy water to branches of the church across the globe, an initiative he announced earlier in May. A number of church members in Accra, the capital, had lined up since Saturday night in hopes of gaining access to the anointed water, and the church was supposedly at full capacity by 8: 30 p.m. more >>

Protesters picketed the opening of the life-size Barbie Dreamhouse Experience in Berlin, Germany, on Thursday, burning a Barbie doll on a cross as part of a demonstration.

"This dream world suggests that women can't be anything less than beautiful and slim," said Franziska Sedlak from protest group Occupy Barbie Dreamhouse. "And life is not about being beautiful all the time."

Women's groups are arguing that the Dreamhouse, which comes full of rooms and accessories designed to look just like Barbie's fictional Malibu home, is pushing the "cliché of the female role in society" and is a negative image for girls to look up to. more >>

Laurene Powell Jobs, the wife of late Apple CEO Steve Jobs, is making a name for herself when it comes to philanthropy.

Jobs lost her husband in 2011. The Apple innovator was behind game-changing devices such as the iPad, iPod, and iPhone.

Among the many legacies Jobs left behind, the innovator also left behind a vast fortune. His wife's net worth is $11.5 billion, making her the ninth wealthiest woman in the world, according to Forbes. more >>

John Mark and Pamela Crawford are suing the state of South Carolina for performing sex assignment surgery on their adoptive infant three months prior to having legal custody of the child. This is the first lawsuit of its kind in the nation.

Their child, known as M.C., was born with both male and female reproductive organs, otherwise known as a special needs child that has an intersex condition. When M.C. was 16 months old and a ward of the state, under the care of the South Carolina Department of Social Services, doctors and department officials decided that M.C. should undergo sex assignment surgery to make M.C. a girl. The child's biological mother was deemed unfit and the biological father was considered to have abandoned the child. The decision about the child's sexuality was left to the state.

M.C. is now 8 years old, identifies as a boy, dresses as a boy, and refuses to be called a girl. M.C.'s surgery is irreversible. Left with female genitalia, his parents say that he feels like he has always been a boy and he has announced to his school and church community that he is a boy. more >>