Piltdown Superman

It could be that I am counting wrong, this is the third Christmas without my departed wife. She died in September 2023, so that year was the first, 2024 was the second, now it is 2025. (My doubts are because I do not remember some things.) I look at her chair and picture her watching 1951's  Scrooge  with me. We see the empty chairs where friends and family members gathered with us, feeling pangs of loss. But Christmas is not just about family, gifts, and things. Secular ideas tend to drown out the true meaning. Unoccupied place setting, Unsplash / Mark Chan The purpose, despite the multitudinous add-ons, is to observe the birth of Jesus. He is God the Son, the Creator of the universe — and us. (Although God the Son has existed eternally, it is fitting to celebrate the birthday of the man Jesus, Phil. 2:7, Rev. 22:16.) Although I had some tears while writing this post, I have to do what all of us should do: Focus on Jesus. Christmas actually reminds us that he came to die for ...

Several planets, moons, and comets were known until 1801, then an asteroid was discovered. More space rocks were found in the late 20th century. Some scientists decided that since ere are so many of them, people should be watching for any that may crash into the earth. That would spoil a good day. ATLAS is a big part of sky scanning, and 3I/ATLAS is the name given to a certain object. At first, it was thought to be an asteroid. But the orbit is wrong, not gravitationally tied to the sun — it is an interstellar comet. Interstellar comet 3I / ATLAS by Hubble telescope, NASA , ESA, David Jewitt (UCLA) et al  (usage does not imply endorsement) A few years ago, the first interstellar visitor to our system, `Oumuamua, was discovered. Its cigar shape baffled people. One scientist and several others thought it and 3I/ATLAS may be alien spacecraft; the ideas are...truly bizarre. (Actually, the motion and behavior of comets — dirty snowballs —  is unpredictable and not fu...

Here is a critter that does not seem to be famous outside of sub-Saharan Africa and parts of the Middle East, but Westerners who read their Bibles may recognize the word. Maybe. The Hebrew word can be translated different ways. They look cute, but watch out for nasty sharp big pointy teeth. So what is this beastie? It is complicated. There are distinct species that are markedly different. The rock hyraxes (sometimes called dassies ) have a very involved social structure, whereas the tree hyraxes are nowhere near as social.  Pair of hyraxes, Pexels / Guerrero De la Luz Biblical creationists refer to the created kinds , a concept that has some resemblance to conventional ideas. The kind  is generally placed at the family  level. We have no problem with speciation. There is no evidence for hyrax evolution, but variations are clearly seen. The Master Engineer designed them to be able to adapt for unique lifestyles as their characteristics demonstrate. Hyraxes (or hyraces) are...

For a while, the coelacanth was considered a transitional form, using its fins to begin the process of walking. It also disappeared from the fossil record, then reappeared in layers dated later. Whereja go, whadja do? What was probably a backhand at Christianity, they called this reappearance a Lazarus taxon . Thinking people should be given pause because of not only the disappearance and reappearance interpretations of the fossil record, but also the description of the critter's behavior without having seen it in action. The coelacanth has humiliated evolutionists — again. Coelacanth,  NOAA  (usage does not imply endorsement of site contents) This fish is endangered, and museums specimens that can be studied are quite rare. After all this time and excitement, the head of one was examined by anatomists. It turns out that much of the anatomy had been wrongly understood for many years. Also, Darwin's disciples say it did not evolve fast enough. Further, all of its internal struc...

Ever since a jumble of bones was discovered in 1974, the myth of Australopithecus afarensis  — nicknamed Lucy — has been contentious. Many supporters of evolution on social(ist) media accept the propaganda from the secular science industry about how it is a definitive link between humans and apelike ancestors. If you study for a spell, this smacks of desperation. The skeleton was assembled from several different critters including humans. One of the vertebrae was that of a baboon, a mistake that lasted over forty years that should not have happened. There are more problems as well. Australopithecus afarensis - forensic facial reconstruction, WikiComm / Cicero Moraes ( CC BY-SA 4.0 ) Sure, there are similarities between apes and humans. Those can be used to support common design as well as common ancestry. This putative human ancestor was clearly designed to live in the trees . Apes do that. One huge difference not to be kicked away is the feet. Footprints at Laetoli were wro...

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  Many people say that evidence for the Designer is clearly obvious in many ways, even showing his engineering and planning skills, love of beauty, and more. Even the single-celled  Stentor coeruleus  shows intricacy found in multicellular organisms. The wealthy and intelligent Elon Musk was asked about the Creator , and he said, "I believe this universe came from something. People have different labels." I do not think he simply meant that the word God  is not the same in all languages. Chromosomes, National Human Genome Research Institute (public domain) There are people who admit that the universe and life itself were designed, but they distance themselves from the Designer. Believers in microbes-to-microscopist evolution study things like chromosomes and then gleefully give the credit to evolution. While evolution is pantheistic in nature (is is an ancient religious and philosophical belief, after all), it is not a person and cannot make de...

As mentioned previously , atheists have a fondness for calling the Bible "fairy tales." Even a cursory reading of the Bible and fairy tales reveal marked differences. Myths, fairy tales, and legends tend to be vague but the Bible has dates and locations. Short videos are very popular now and many have nice stories with happy endings. F'rinstance, the waitress in the diner noticed the young boy was not acting right and saved his life — but zero  details. Look for those next time you watch one and use healthy skepticism. Universe and Bible, Pixabay /  Alex Myers  and  Maicon Fonseca Zanco Scoffers may say that people just decided to make up a religion and wrote a book to support it, which is risible to thinking people. If you  were going to make up a religion and give its history, wouldn't you construct the characters as really wonderful folks? The Bible records betrayal, bad decisions, and other things, revealing that the people were genuine. Indeed, there are fo...

Something that has been discussed, and probably cussed, for centuries is where the Israelites crossed the Red Sea. The subject in question raises questions about many other subjects. After all, the Exodus from Egypt was over 3,000 years ago. Unfortunately, places no longer exist, sands have shifted, locations are uncertain, and more. Historical records are extremely important, but Egyptian chronologies are misleading. Despite the rantings of atheopaths, the Bible is not "fairy tales," and it contains detailed historical information.  Dust blowing over the Red Sea, NASA GSFC, Jesse Allen To complicate matters, some folks try to take this clearly miraculous event and try to make it into a naturalistic coincidence. Yes, the wind blew. The Bible said so. But that does not take away the power and presence of God. (The idea of the wind blowing so hard that all those Israelites crossed over, then the waters drowned Pharaoh's army in a shallow area is ridiculous.) There are sev...

It may be a mite baffling for some when hearing about typhoons, hurricanes, and cyclones. Are they different storms? Pretty much the same type of thing with names based on their locations. Those in the Northern Hemisphere rotate counterclockwise and those in the Southern Hemisphere rotate clockwise. What may be surprising is that these big storms have many benefits. (Indeed, lightning striking the ground is beneficial .) That is something unlikely to appear on a news broadcast because fear and destruction are good for viewership ratings. Sometimes we hear about how they form, though. Hurricane Erin, NASA Earth Observatory / Michala Garrison These monsters of destruction are actually beneficial for life on Earth. Hurricanes help the global heat balance by absorbing heat energy and redistributing it. They also replenish water supplies and rainfall, and the rotations encourage new plant growth. And much more. Secularists hand wave the benefits as products of evolution, but study on this a...

There is something contradictory in evolutionary icons, especially regarding Charles Darwin himself. Some folks get obstreperous over the use of the word Darwinism , saying that nobody believes that anymore. That word is a convenience since people know what is being discussed. However, using Galápagos finches' beak variation as evidence of evolution through natural selection is still proclaimed. It was an icon for many years without actually examining the claims in depth. The truth is far more complex than many people realize. And the finches? They did not change into something else. Colorized version of John Gould's Galapagos Finches, 1837 Although natural selection in its true sense fits well with biblical creation science, some creationists reject it (including the president of the organization for the article linked below). There may be things that need to be clarified, such as rejecting the Bearded Buddha's claim that natural selection is a creative force (traditional...