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Showing posts from September, 2024

Glyptodonts for Lunch

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Though many critters from the depths of time are extinct, some have living relatives today. There are living things that were thought to be extinct, then discovered to be alive and labeled living fossils . One animal from days of old is the dilly of armor, the armadillo. It is linked to the  glyptodont  group. As with some other creatures, even the largest of the armadillos are dwarfed by ancient relatives. DNA reveals that glyptodonts are actually giant armadillos — and may have been on the dining menu for some people. Glyptodon clavipes , Flickr / S. Rae (adjusted), ( CC BY 2.0 ) As to why animals were much larger back then, biblical creationists and secular scientists have differing ideas. Creationists have suggested longer lifespans and with them, delayed maturation. However, creationists are uncertain if the pre-Flood conditions on Earth played a part in bigness ( which included the Ice Age ). Also, secular scientists say cutting marks found on bones indicate slicing off...

Non-Science in Dinosaur-to-Bird Evolution

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In Through the Looking-Glass by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (writing as Lewis Carroll), the White Queen boasted of having been able to believe six impossible things before breakfast. That book was published in 1871, and Charles Darwin had published On the Origin of Species  in 1859. Believing impossible things seems to have been growing in popularity. Although the idea of dinosaurs evolving into birds is treated as a scientific fact by many of Darwin's disciples, actual scientific facts are ignored or denied. Evidence and dating systems of secularists work against them, but they still believe impossible things. Archaeopteryx by Dr. Thompsons Seifenpulver , ca. 1900 An early attempt to bolster Darwinism was Archaeopteryx . This bad boy should have been left alone, as most secular paleontologists admitted that it was just a bird, not a transitional form between dinosaurs and birds. Secular dating methods as showing Archie as being older than dinosaurs. Yet some secular paleontologists ...

Misunderstanding Slavery in the Bible

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Atheists and other unbelievers often attempt to find ways of negating the importance of the Bible. It is extremely common for them to say that the creation account is wrong because it is out of keeping with secular origins stories. Another attempt to negate the Bible by stating, "Your holy book condones slavery!" Restrain your equines, Erika. There is a great deal happening here, not the least of which is conflating slavery in the culture of the ancient Near East with the very different slave trade of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Woman in chains, PxHere Yes, slavery is discussed in the Bible, but manstealing was forbidden. Ancient Israel wanted to be like neighboring nations, so God gave strict guidelines for the treatment of slaves. Those slaves were given better treatment in Israel than elsewhere. Also, conquered people were often taken as slaves by Israel. If you study on it a spell, this is actually merciful because the men were killed in battle — women and ch...

Scientist Angry at Politicization in Science

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by Cowboy Bob Sorensen As discussed before, the secular science industry is all in for leftist politics and morality. There are folks in academia and science professions who simply want to do their jobs and are not necessarily thrilled with the extreme leftist views of their employers. People may rightly wonder why science organizations, which should be ignoring politics and doing science stuff, are doing these things. After all, they are essentially making an obscene gesture at millions of people who disagree with their adoration of leftist Democrat policies. Two scientists working, Pexels / Edward Jenner One simple reason is that Democrats promise money. (People want money for their interests no matter who is hurt in the long run, and they want their special interests to be promoted, especially sexual deviances.) The secular science industry wants that grant money, you betcha! Another reason for their partisanship is that they want to be admired by their peers . And many of their pee...

Baffling Jacana Bird Defies Evolution

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Admittedly, this is just a speculation, but if baryons-to-birds evolution were true, there should be a large amount of sameness. Laws of nature have to be followed. Anyway, the jacana is a strange bird that goes against many general patterns in nature. They are part of the shorebird created kind . For one thing, the female is much larger than the male. Another is that mating is polyandrous. That is, females mate with multiple males. (Interestingly, many birds are monogamous for a season or even for life.) Behavior toward their own young is...truly bizarre. Crested jacana bird, Flickr / David Minty ( CC BY 2.0 ) It would make sense to nurture the young so the species can keep going. Young jacanas do not live long enough to reach adulthood. Natural selection may have had a part in how a lone female can usurp the dominant female and then kill the chicks that are not hers! (Unlike human females that want to protect a baby, even if they do not know it, because it's a baby.) When an out...

Design in Autumn Leaf Colors

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In our neck of the woods, the autumnal equinox has just happened. The first day of fall...because that's what leaves on deciduous trees do. Some folks have fun admiring the autumn foliage, even taking trips to see it. They are sometimes given the silly epithet "leaf peepers." Nature is not tied to solar or manmade calendars. Some trees begin the leaf color-changing process before autumn, others hang on to their leaves a while longer. Conditions are the guiding force, including stress. Leaves changing colors and falling is by design. Late summer trees beginning to change color, Unsplash / Cowboy Bob Sorensen While scientists have a handle on the process, there is still much to learn. Since there will be less sunlight, the leaves that are used to catch it are burdensome. Before they are released from their duty, trees take back nutrients. There is no chlorophyll in the leaves, so their existing colors are revealed — except red leaves, those undergo a chemical transformation...

Politically Correct Science and Easter Island

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Although political correctness (a wide-ranging term often unrelated to politics) and cultural sensitivity frequently become absurd, sometimes they can be useful. Ayers Rock in Australia is also known as the Aboriginal name Uluru.  Easter Island and its people are now called  Rapa Nui . While it was arrogant of the white explorers to assign names of their own choosing without so much as a by your leave, leftist ideologies often demonize white people. The secular science industry embraces leftist cultural ideas, and this is illustrated with the history of Easter Island. Easter Island statues, Flickr / The TerraMar Project ( CC BY 2.0 ), modified at PhotoFunia On a side note, the head statues on Easter Island are famous. What is less known is that bodies of a sort are attached to those heads and buried underground. There are stories about how the isolated population of Rapa Nui degenerated and collapsed, even to the point of wars and cannibalism. A big part of it was ecoci...

Homicide in Modern Health Care

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Under the pretense of personal rights, modern medical treatments include bodily mutilation, the murder of the unborn, and other things that were unthinkable at one time. If suffering animals can be euthanized, so can people. One result of a Darwinian worldview is that humans are devalued . Study on it a spell. Everything came from a common ancestor, and ultimately, "star stuff." Secularists consider people for their value to society, Bible-believing Christians see them as valuable because they are created in the image of God. Abandoned Hospital Monsour Medical Center, Flickr / Darryl Moran ( CC BY-ND 2.0 ) It is now being called health care to kill people. Euthanasia can be invoked because of excessive pain or no hope of recovery. Also, "physician assisted suicide" is when medical personnel provide the means of another person to end their own lives. This can include mental illness, depression, hopelessness, and more. The other day was the one-year anniversary of my...

Human and Octopus Evolution Research Conundrum

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Fun fact: Octopi  is an incorrect plural for  octopus  because octopus is an English word, not Latin. So it does not receive a Latin plural. Octopuses  is correct even though it may mess with the tongue. Anyway, they are classified as mollusks belonging to the arthropod phylum. Octopuses come in various sizes and show remarkable characteristics, especially intelligence. Their brain neurons have an element that is important for thinking, and are also found in human brains. Humans and octopuses are so clearly different, they could not have evolved from a common ancestor. Octopus, Pexels / Pia B The phrase "Thinking outside the box" is often used to describe how someone goes beyond limitations, often to find a solution or new way of doing things. Evolutionists essentially put their thinking into boxes with phylogenetic trees and homology . These work together, but are illogical. Not only do they limit thinking, but are illogical because they use circular reasoning: Assu...

Breastfeeding and the Survival of Women

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My prospector friend Stormie Waters is getting hitched up with Roland Meadows, and they will make a fine couple. Like many others, they want to have the event in the spring. It may even happen outdoors by one of Stormie's favorite streams. They have occasionally sought my advice and sometimes I got a mite uncomfortable. Stormie said, "It's known that breastfeeding is best for a baby's nutrition." She looked at me with wide eyes and asked, "They get calcium that way. Why don't women's bones collapse?" Roland also waited for my reply. Young Mother Breastfeeding Her Child , Jules Breton, 1873 I dealt with my embarrassment about such a personal subject involving close friends by taking a clinical mindset. Also, I had been reading an article about it. Mammals have calcium taken from their bones, and this is not unique to humans. The child needs calcium, but so do adults. Folks have wondered for a mighty long time why women are not harmed by breastfeed...

Fossil Discoveries Fit Creationist Expectations

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Descent with modifications evolution maintains that, biologically speaking, all life forms go back to a common ancestor. The claims of evolutionists should be verified in living things today as well as through the fossil record; there should be an uncountable number of transitional forms. Biblical creationists reject evolution partly through lack of evidence. While they believe in speciation, diversity, and the biblical kinds (similar to the family level in modern reckoning), they maintain that there are no transitional forms in the fossil record. Aerodactylus scolopaciceps  with soft tissue, Wikimedia Commons /  Steven U. Vidovic, David M. Martill  ( CC BY 2.5 ) What in the wild world of paleontology is a-goin' on here? Some recent examples show why creationists are not surprised because the discoveries fit their expectations. Secular reckoning has sharks as ancient critters, and a small group suddenly appeared in the fossil record. No evolution. A web-spinning spider a...

Creepy Charlie Never Followed Through

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It is amazing how things change over time, especially when evolutionists are the ones writing popular versions of history. Charlie Darwin took his voyage on the Beagle  ship, observed nature, and brilliantly formulated evolution through natural selection. The scientific world praised his genius. Stuff and nonsense. His version of evolution was resisted at first, and scientists wanted him to back up the claims in his 1859 tome,  On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life , Title page of Origin of Species with creepy 1871 Vanity Fair  caricature added Darwin made excuses, such as claiming illness — and then published material on other topics. He was going to write a massive book of evidences supporting his hypotheses, but it never happened. Charlie made Natural Selection an entity, wrote many notes, frustrated scientists, but ultimately his promised book was never written. Well, something  was ...

Ethics Impacted when Creature Plays Creator

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As anyone who pays attention to the origins controversy is probably aware, atoms-to-atheist evolution is far more famous than biblical creation science. Evolution is not simply a biological discussion, but a worldview that is diametrically opposed to biblical creation . Scientists are not ethical monoliths. Some have cheated and committed fraud to advance their careers and profit. Atheists have no consistent moral foundation, and some even appeal to evolution for morality . Humans want some kind of freedom outside of the Creator's boundaries like a goldfish desires freedom outside the tank. Girl and cyborg, Pixabay /  Gerd Altmann (geralt) Christians hear the word doctrine  quite often, but it is not a "religious" word. A doctrine is a set of principles in a framework that is given for belief or practice. There are military, political, and other doctrines. Although it is not likely to be found in a book of Christian doctrines, we need to consider the doctrine of creaturel...

Light Learning for Engineers from Animals

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Biomimetics is where humans imitate characteristics of nature for their own benefit, so here are two examples. Indeed, if scientists who learn from creation were not such materialists, they might use Bible verses like Psalm 104:25-26 and  Job 12:7-8 as inspiration. Using the night  setting on my camera, instructions are given to stay still because the exposure is several seconds instead of the usual fraction of a second. The human eye (an inspiration for a researcher) does the opposite: It has constant tiny movements. His results were surprising when he imitated these movements. Prism effect, Flickr / Ian Mackenzie ( CC BY 2.0 ) The researcher programmed robot cameras with the small motions like the human eye. It seems like they would be blurry, but he obtained sharper images! In other news giant clams may have an impact on solar panels. Algae grow a certain way on the shells, and this helps the clams get the light they need. Their light collection strategy is more efficient...

Simplified Homology and Presuppositions

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Believers in descent with modifications evolution claim to have science on their side, but certain evidences for evolution are simply false. One is phylogenetic trees , which are diagrams of hypotheses and conjectures. They are not evidence. Another is homology . Note that the root word is the Greek word for same , and used in words like homogenous. In homology, if critters have things in common like each having two eyes, tails, external ears, heads on necks, etc., then boy howdy! They must have evolved from a common ancestor. Not hardly! Horse and Cow in a Meadow , Paul Gauguin, 1885 Essentially, a presupposition  is something that is assumed to be true without proving it beforehand. Many times for the sake of discussions, things are presupposed by the mutual understanding of readers or listeners. Other times, evolutionists presuppose evolution and then confirm their biases. That is circular reasoning. Biblical creationists presuppose that the Bible is true from the very first ver...

A New Ankylosaur and the Genesis Flood

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Off the southern edge of England, in the English Channel, lies the Isle of Wight. It is known for landscapes, chalk, and geological features, so the locals were probably not overly surprised to learn that a new ankylosaur was discovered there. Ankylosaurs were herbivores. These critters looked like turtles gone wrong, what with all that armor and all. One curiosity is that they are usually found fossilized on their backs . Also, like other creatures of that time, evolution is assumed but there is no evidence of it. Edmontonia rugosidens, Wikimedia Commons / Mariana Ruiz (PD) The way they were buried in sediment is a curiosity to secular scientists, and they have some ideas that do not pass the sniff test. So many ankylosaurs were clumsy, fell into rivers and floated out to sea where they were buried? This child lacks belief that such an idea is plausible. Indeed, the more reasonable explanation (although streng verboten  among Darwin's acolytes) is the mechanisms of the global Gen...

This may Finally put the Big Bang Down

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The Big Bang story has been built, rebuilt, cobbled, and Frankensteined in general. When told by card-carrying members of the secular science industry, it sounds tidy and almost plausible. It brought on both cosmic and biological evolution. Looks good on paper. However, the tale is told as if scientists were trucking along in complete unity. Nope. Cosmologists and cosmogonists in the ranks disagree. It is also presented without any actual science, driven by presuppositions and mathematics that support them. The cosmological constant problem may be a good reason to put the thing down. Made at  photofunny  with a  NASA / ESA  image (usage does not imply endorsement of site contents) Something that supports science itself is how scientific laws (as we understand them) are consistent and predictable, which fits both Intelligent Design and biblical creation science views. A scientist made a claim that is...truly bizarre: The fundamental principle called the cosmological c...

Presenting the Case for Creation Science

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Some people read or watch mysteries for the challenge of solving them, but many have noted that writers withhold information. In reality, detectives have to find and use the evidence they have in the here and now to reconstruct what happened in the past. This is forensic science. In a courtroom, evidence is presented so a verdict can be reached. Both the prosecution and defense may be more interested in winning the case rather than reach the correct conclusion. Distractions, glossy presentations and wording, misleading logic and more can be utilized. Legal work, FreeDigital I mages /  I ndypendenZ Atheists and other believers in universal common ancestor evolution present their case, but do not take all the evidence into account. The secular science industry has biased presentations in museums, documentaries, and so forth. Those can be slick, compelling, and entertaining; they want to win. People who are interested in reaching the truth need both sides of the story. Biblical creati...

Mammoth Problems in Greenland

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Secular scientists are committed to uniformitarianism ("the present is the key to the past") for the most part. Slow and gradual processes do not support observed evidence, so their worldview keeps them attempting to find explanations. Greenland is an icy place, but it was not always that way. There are canyons there (yippie ky yay, Bill Nye), plants were found underneath the ice sheet, the ice deposited quickly and not over huge amounts of time, and more. An ecosystem in the northern part of Greenland has been detected. Greenland north coast image credit: NASA /  Michael Studinger  (usage does not imply endorsement) The science of genetics, pioneered by Gregor Mendel (peas be upon him) has developed in some amazing ways. In this case, soil was analyzed and critters that lived in northern Greenland could be determined. But mammoths ? How did those  get up there? This is pretty far north. The biodiversity is a tough thing for secular scientists to explain in the first p...

Nevada Crocodile Fossil and Opposing Models

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When the hand one is dealt is not playing well, cheat. After all, secular scientists seem to be doing that more and more. One example is the definition of archosaur . It has certain physical characteristics and includes crocodilians, dinosaurs, pterosaurs — and birds. Quite a broad category, and includes the tendentious assumption  that birds evolved from dinosaurs. Evidence and logic differ about that last part. A new fossil pseudosuchian (expensive word for crocodile) species was discovered in Nevada. That is counterintuitive, since those critters do not live so far inland. Crocodile, Pixnio /  Steve Hillebrand , USFWS Another species? That's nice. That also fits with biblical creation science models. Of course, like the assumption that birds evolved from dinosaurs and are related to archosaurs, secular scientists assume that crocodiles evolved even though there is no evidence of it. They also have to deal with the location of this one, as well as mixtures of organisms fossi...

People Increasingly Distrust the Secular Science Industry

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That moment when "Imma have me a sammich" sounds like a good idea, but there is a problem. Opening up the bread wrapper, pulling out the bread, and — mold spots. You cannot discard those slices and trust the rest, either, because it spreads unseen and can be harmful . People have a confused trust/distrust relationship with the secular science industry. It has been shown numerous times here and elsewhere that they have a leftist bias and that their ethics are craptacular. The leftist corruption spreads throughout science, the media, entertainment, sports, and more. Moldy bread, Flickr / Lynn Friedman ( CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 ) I am once again telling you that there are people working in the secular science industry that have some integrity and want to do their jobs, but the organizations are heavily biased. Unfortunately, secularists embrace materialism (essentially, atheism) and therefore reject the Creator, who is the ultimate source of morality and ethics. They uphold evolutionar...

Falling Stone Arches and the Genesis Flood

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A common attraction for geologists and tourists is Arches National Park in Utah, which has thousands of stone arches. It may be surprising to some people to learn that such arches exist around the world, and Kentucky has a passel of them itself. Take a trip to the Daniel Boone National Forest and Red River Gorge to see some. There are many arches in the formerly United States, but not all are the big ones. Some are on the small side. What is more interesting is that some have been collapsing. Skybridge arch - Red River Gorge, Wikimedia Commons / Smokemob ( CC BY 3.0 ) Secular scientists say that stone arches last thousands of years and then fall. Interestingly, people seemed to think the arches would last indefinitely. To be standing on one when it collapsed could spoil a day. Certain arches are actively monitored to see if they are becoming dangerous. There are two articles to consider in this post, the first being shorter and more general. Take a look-see at " The Age of Arc...