Piltdown Superman

As established in previous posts, it is good to find methods of enhancing human performance, alleviating suffering, and all that good stuff. Sometimes it takes the form of metal and plastics, and even computerized devices such as insulin pumps . Science and technology are quickly growing in these areas. Transhumanism  goes beyond the good things, becoming a religion in itself. (Like atheists, many deny that their belief system is a religion by ignoring most dictionary definitions.) It is based on a form of evolution where we are our own creators. A.I. Cyborg adored by mindless masses* I keep banging on that ol' drum that worldviews need to have internal consistency to be taken seriously in the first place. This evolution has teleology (purpose, which is supposed to be heresy to fundamentalist evolutionists), and they also believe in a self-determined salvation boldly going into the future where there are no flaws. There are several views in transhumanism. One has human consciousnes...

One of the great marvels in the natural world is metamorphosis . A caterpillar goes into a cocoon, is deconstructed, then out pops a butterfly. Dragonflies and other creatures do this as well. It has always been a mystery that believers in descent with modifications evolution cannot explain. A group of researchers took a notion, which is fine for a starting point, but then presented it as finished work. Lazy, sloppy, even dishonest work is becoming more common in the secular science industry, so mayhaps the standard has fallen this low? Dragonfly metamorphosis, WikiComm / Clinton & Charles Robertson ( CC BY 2.0 ), modified at PhotoFunia Secularists have an a priori  commitment to materialism, so evidence supporting the Master Engineer's work is rejected out of hand. The irreducible complexity of metamorphosis itself should convince anyone of his existence. if they did not have their Darwin spectacles on, which filter out inconvenient logic and facts. Indeed, genetics adds evid...

Getting ready to write this post about gratitude and Thanksgiving Day, I slopped coffee on the carpet while walking to the computer. In this frame of mind, I am grateful to have a place to live in where I am spilling coffee, and even the stuff itself. This is my second painful Thanksgiving after my wife died after about twenty-four years together, but there are people who care about me and want to share their holiday with me. Also, some folks have very little but still have a gratitude attitude and do what they can to celebrate . Give thanks, Unsplash /  Adam Winger It is indeed unfortunate that there are people who use our inner sense of gratitude for manipulation. That is, someone can do a favor and use it for leverage to demand one in return. (It's quite different when the give and take is known from the get-go, that's like business or politics.) Some people wonder where this inner sense of gratitude came from. Many biblical creationists know that we are created to have grat...

Standard models for coal formation have numerous problems, including the curiosity that it is less than one percent of all sedimentary rocks, but there is so much that it is the source of most of the world's electricity. Coal is supposedly formed through the compression of peat. Numerous conditions would have to be just right for peat to form coal. Peat would then have to be buried very deeply, form the coal, and then be uncovered so it could be used. Interesting that dinosaur tracks have been found in it, as well as vertical tree trunks. Coal, RGBStock /  Michal Zacharzewski , modified at  Big Huge Labs Creationists frequently use conditions during the Genesis Flood as the basis for models. Like the models of secular scientists, these use present conditions (such as the movement of water) in forensic science to see if they fit what may have happened in the past. The BEDS model is a good explanation for dinosaur tracks and eggs , and it is also useful to explain the origin of ...

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  Regular readers know that I encourage people to ask questions and use critical thinking skills. This time, I will demonstrate that in the first part of this post — regarding a creation science article. Yes, I am questioning one of our own. The article linked below is about a book for younger readers and material taught to them in public schools. It almost got by me because it fit in with my existing information, but I wanted more. The introductory generalities do not rightly set well with me, but the rest has good information. USSR school, Wikimedia Commons / Vyacheslav Argenberg ( CC BY 4.0 ), creepy Darwin added Dr. Jerry Bergman is the author of the article, and there can be no doubt that he is exceptionally well-educated and brilliant. He has written scores of books and articles on creation science and other topics. Answers in Genesis, like other creation science ministries, has editors that check submissions before publication. Those things make certai...

A few weeks ago, we looked at " Woolly Mammoths, DNA, and the Genesis Flood ." There was an article by a different organization that I almost deleted because I thought it was an echo of the one linked above. Nope. Different after all. Mammoths and other creatures are getting a great deal of attention lately. Interesting genetic research was contaminated by secular assumptions of deep time. Mammoths are dated at tens of thousands of years, and dinosaurs at millions of years. Secular scientists assume DNA can last such a long time because they assume the animals are so old. Mammoths, Wikimedia Commons /  Honymand  / ( CC BY-SA 4.0 ) There have been several interesting discoveries, including that mammoths and elephants both have twenty-eight pairs of chromosomes, showing their relationship to elephants. (Is anyone surprised?) A gene that controls hair and skin growth is not active in mammoths, but they have it, which may be why they were so shaggy. Scientists said the organic ma...

If my experiences online are any indication, denizens with Atheism Spectrum Disorder seem compelled to attack biblical creationists and Intelligent Design proponents and defend particles-to-peer-reviewer evolution. Some will falsely claim to be scientists, others demand a creationist's "credentials." I lack belief that many scientists are interested in trolling. On occasion, someone with knowledge joins a discussion. David Coppedge briefly interacted with Dr. Ralph Marcucio. Dr. Marcucio was involved in a paper on genetics (the science started by Gregor Mendel, peas be upon him). He claimed that the paper supported evolution. Background image :  The Passion of Creation ,  Leonid Pasternak, 1880s Apparently Ralph's work has some good science, but his emphasis on canalization (an organism's tendency to go back to its earlier form when provoked) actually works against him. Further, canalization is compatible with teachings of biblical creationists! This illustrates a...

Some folks seem to have the notion that Charles Darwin applied science to his observations, leading to the publication of On the Origin of Species . That is not the case. He had ideas for which he wanted to find support. Interestingly, his writing was not intended as a way to kill God. People have debated whether or not Darwin was an atheist throughout his life, and his writing may imply that he was unsure himself. Reading Origin  one can see an unevenness, and maybe a vague defense of the Creator regarding pain. I gave Charlie a floral wreath at  PhotoFunia .  His writings had many unsupported claims for which he promised to provide evidence — but never produced . At times he supported atheistic materialism, but other times, he knew that what is seen in the world must have been designed in some way. A benevolent Creator would not have used so much suffering, so natural selection — nature — is the culprit. The timing and conditions back then were right for Darwin to becom...

Interesting that believers of descent with modifications go ape when someone says that we "evolved from monkeys," yet Charles Darwin himself said that we essentially have monkey brains. He also wondered how trustworthy the human brain can be due to its origins. Naturally, biblical creationists say that our brains are  reliable because they were designed by our Creator who intended for us to use them. It seems that atheists are not using — or even abusing — logic in origins stories (see " Logic Getting Worse in Evolutionism "). Bonobo, Pixabay /  Herbert Aust When materialists try to explain how brains and minds (and logic) came about through evolution, they cannot come up with a consistent story. Invoking natural selection backfires because it assumes too much. Apelike creatures were not the beginning of evolution, but a whole chain of alleged creatures going all the way back to atoms in motion. Some materialists know they have no leg to stand on in this, but they b...

Scoffers sometimes refer to Christianity as a "death cult," which is an ad hominem  and a straw man; we believe that death is an enemy (I Cor. 15:26) that has been defeated by the bodily Resurrection of Jesus. It is indeed ironic that those scoffers uphold evolution which actually is a death cult. Strangely, people have a fascination with fear and death, but also a simultaneous aversion to them. In movies, violence and gore are extreme and people pay their hard-earned money to see them. Try to talk about their own mortality and people often change the subject. Cemetery, Pixabay / Patty Jansen Those of us who have experienced the death of someone close seem to have a stronger aversion to it than others. My wife died fourteen months ago today, and I have no interest in stories with numerous killings, and gore. I have long been put off by large body counts, but more so now. Indeed, others who experience grief often try to help others get through it. Darwin taught a version of na...

In the 1970s, molecular biology was quickly growing. Unfortunately, scientists brought a prairie schooner-full of assumptions with them instead of being objective. DNA was getting sequenced and a large section of it was labeled as "junk" leftover from our alleged evolutionary past. There are classes of RNAs that are puzzling, and they are are not always linear. Some RNAs were considered junk because they did not code for proteins, but some were involved in that after all. In reality, scientific hubris was defeated because RNAs have important functions. Then circular RNAs were discovered. Metabolism of circular RNA, Wikimedia Commons / Wei-Yi Zhou ( CC BY 4.0 ) There are three classes of circRNAs (so far). They surprised researchers by setting up camp in unexpected areas of genes. Their functions are quite complex, and like other things, have a say in gene expression. Mayhaps if secularists realized that there is a Master Engineer who put things in their places for good reaso...

Time and time again, proponents of descent with modifications are presented with fossils of creatures that show no appreciable change between then and now. Some evolutionists admit that they walk by by faith, not by sight. The thought of admitting there is a Creator makes them squirm. There are seventeen accepted species of penguins. Despite common ideas, they are not confined to Antarctica, but are found in diverse places such as southern Africa, the Galápagos, and more. They vary in size with the smallest being the blue (little, fairy) penguin at thirteen inches (33 cm). Blue penguin, Flickr / Laurens ( CC BY-ND 2.0 ) A few fossil fragments about the size of the blue penguin were found. It could be considered an eighteenth species. Although this child is suspicious of the amount of information that can be deduced from a few fossils because big mistakes have been made, scientists are telling us that the new fossil ( Pakudyptes ) shows the wings were like those of modern penguins ...

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  On another weblog, I wrote about riding to a town with Roland Meadows, the fiancé of my prospector friend Stormie Waters. We made friends with Aaron, an employee of a big box store. I went to his town and we met up at an eatery there and we made chin music about our jobs. The place where he works is quite large and the customer base is not exactly classy folks. Some are, but the majority show disrespect to employees, merchandise, and more. When he discussed retail reshops , I thought of radiometric dating, of all things. Grocery shopping, Pexels /  Hobi industri , modified at  FotoSketcher People assume that radiometric dating proves that the earth is old, but it is based on presuppositions of deep time and molecules-to-manager evolution. Simply put, a radioactive element (let's pick uranium for now) decays into lead. Uranium is the parent and lead is the daughter . The amount of each is compared and the decay rate is factored in, calculations ar...

It has been said that people throughout history have found ways to get high, which frequently includes alcohol. Generally speaking, drunkenness is something for disreputable people. The first instance in the Bible is Noah (Gen. 9:21) and it is usually spoken of unfavorably (consider Prov. 23:29-35). Part of the disfavor toward any form of intoxication is the loss of control (Eph. 5:18). In the 1960s, drug use was considered a way of opening or expanding the mind. Our evolutionary ancestors supposedly got high. Hippie-type van, Unsplash / Nick Karvounis Materialists have long denied the existence of consciousness or tried to explain it away, but this goes in the opposite direction. Dr. Bobby Azarian thinks that in the distant past, our apelike ancestors got stoned. (I can imagine a bunch of apes riding in a hippie van, wearing big sunglasses, acrid smoke and Grateful Dead music pouring out the windows...) It's supposed to open your mind, maaan! Far out! What great benefit to humanit...

There are several large land masses in the world, and Eurasia takes up a huge chunk. Japan is an island nation. SSE of there is the Philippines archipelago, south of that is Indonesia, and the South Pacific has many islands. Boom!  Australia is the world's largest island, kind of startling among its smaller neighbors. New Zealand is another island nation. It has a unique species of robin that has a different look and song than those in North America, and they are inquisitive. Mayhaps even friendly — making them susceptible to predation. Then there is the black robin. Black robin, Flickr / schmechf ( CC BY-SA 2.0 ) As New Zealand is dwarfed by Australia to the north, it dwarfs the Chatham Island archipelago to their east. It is considered a part of New Zealand. Anyway, they have a black robin that also is a nice guy. The little chirper is cute, too. Something cannot get much closer to the brink of extinction than these. There were only five left, with just one breeding pair. In a ...

Salamanders are amphibians that looks somewhat like lizards, and many types are found in North America. They may bite when they feel threatened but have no venom. Some have secretions in their skin that may make someone sick, so refrain from licking them. Like humans, amphibians, birds, and many other critters, they are classified as tetrapods . That simply means vertebrates that have two pairs of limbs. Salamanders are also cold-blooded, which means the environment controls their temperature, not from an internal mechanism. A fossil was found in a cold place. Reconstruction of Gaiasia jennyae , Wikimedia Commons / Olmagon ( CC BY-SA 4.0 ) (background modified) Down Argentina way, a fossil of a large tetrapod that resembles a salamander was discovered in the cold of Gondwana. The scientists wonder how a cold-blooded critter could have survived up there, and they are having some arguments. Still protecting deep time, though. Also, other organisms were found nearby, so a shallow lake wa...

A spell back, we examined characteristics of Noah's Ark and saw that the entire process was not just an series of miracles (see " Noah's Ark and the Miraculous " for those article links). Answers in Genesis has spent considerable time on the logistics of the Ark. Here are two more articles of interest. It has been a dogma of Darwinism that early humans swung down from the trees but had not yet evolved intelligence. Numerous examples of their genius ruins evolutionary presuppositions. That is because humans were created with intelligence from the beginning. Grinding peanuts with ox power, Wikimedia Commons / Michael Gunther ( CC BY-SA 4.0 ) Indeed, the Bible mentions skills of people before the Genesis Flood which included metalworking and the like. (Some people speculate that Noah and family could have hired people to help build the Ark, even though they would have thought it was foolishness.) They lived a mighty long time, and after the Flood, Noah reached a total o...

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  Although I am not fond of trends, I like a new one on my radar. "Beware of Smartphone Zombies" can be seen on T-shirts, possibly  real road signs , and many places on the internet. People do not watch where they are walking, forcing others to go around them — if possible. It illustrates a deeper problem related to the stupidification of society, especially younger people. Our Creator gave people minds to use, but their attention is on electronic entertainment and getting dopamine from a sort of electronic culture . They miss out on true beauty. Rondout Creek joining the Hudson River, several things happening, Unsplash / Cowboy Bob Sorensen I'll allow that people want their entertainment and don't want to be interrupted. For instance, I was uninterested in going on "color tours" to see the autumn leaves changing because I had things I preferred to do. We all have some entertainment priorities or some things just have no appeal. However...

One crisp autumn day, I was riding out Folly Road past Stinking Lake (which is not as bad as it sounds). Riding down from the Darwin Ranch was Al Buehterawl. We reined in and commenced to jawing. Eventually the subject turned to birds supposedly evolving from dinosaurs. He knows full well that I oppose the idea that dinosaurs evolved into birds. When I pointed out that birds existed at the time of dinosaurs and museums are deceptive about this fact , Al Buehterawl took a deep breath and moved the goalposts with, "They were primitive  birds." Owl, Pexels / Simon Rizzi Darwinists are often deceptive. That's right, I said it!  Most (but not all) evolutionists believe that dinosaurs evolved from birds, treating it like an established fact despite contrary evidence. Their terminology is changing, referring to some reptiles as "non-avian dinosaurs" as a way of reinforcing their belief. For that matter, calling something "primitive" means less evolved, whic...

Theories, models, worldviews, and other things need to be internally consistent. Atheism fails in this regard and is unliveable, so  professing atheists (Rom. 1:18-19) have to stand on the biblical worldview. Likewise, believers in particles-to-paleontologist evolution often need to borrow from biblical creation science. A student who claimed to believe the Bible lost faith because of fossil dinosaur footprints. He couldn't imagine  a global Flood allowing for footprints. Problem is, he did not check for that internal consistency in creationist models, so he made assumptions instead of doing his homework. Dinosaur tracks at Jurassic Moenave Formation, US Geological Survey (usage does not imply endorsement of site contents) I'll allow that it's still something to consider. A flood is a busy time, especially when it's global in scale. Checking on creation models of the Genesis Flood shows a specific model that does a good job of explaining tracks, eggs, scavenging (they...

In the twentieth century, John Dewey was considered a great intellectual. He is credited with developing the modern public school system. Dewey had some odd and contradictory ideas in his worldview. He was an atheist and signer of the atheistic Humanist Manifesto, which openly admitted that it was a religion. Also, he did not believe in absolute truth or knowledge. It is ironic that an educator did not believe in knowledge. Worse, his rejection of God made him blind to the fact that logic comes from God — without God, morality, knowledge, wisdom, logic, and science are impossible ! Those details did not matter to Dewey. While he did some things that helped the school system, he wanted children depending on others to do the thinking for them — reflecting the atheistic, evolutionary, and Marxist trends that were growing in the formerly United States at the time. It can be seen today that many people have no inking about how to do critical thinking. Also, notice how these sheeple tend tow...