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Showing posts with the label Biology

Concealed Layers of Design

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Those with Atheism Spectrum Disorder suppress evidence for the existence of God that is clearly seen (Romans 18:1), needing to repeat the mantra that things only appear  designed. They would have to count many Darwin beads and chant very fast when seeing hidden layers of complexity. In medical science and other areas of biology, advances in technology enable us to view microscopic things we never realized existed, such as cellular machines. In the trees, under the soil, in the oceans are amazingly complex worlds testifying of the Designer. View of Onteora Lake, Unsplash / Cowboy Bob Sorensen George Washington Carver was a Christian and a creationist. He prayed for wisdom, and God guided him to discover about 300 uses for the peanut. The peanut . It was designed to have many uses. Indeed, Proverbs 25:2 tells us that God has concealed things, and kings discover them. They are not hidden because he does not want them found, but concealed so his work is gradually seen in many areas. H...

Non-Evolution of Bat Limbs and Wings Causes Surprise

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One way Darwin's disciples evosplain common traits in unrelated creatures is to invoke convergent evolution , which is lazy and convenient. Study on it a moment. Evolutionists cannot explain a trait, so they distract the issue by claiming it evolved in other critters also. No evidence, though. This was fecklessly about the wings of birds and bats. Powered flight for both is displayed in the fossil record, and despite the efforts of Darwinists, bats have always been bats . This is what creationists have said all along. Now additional news surprises evolutionists. Wing-stretched bat,  Department of the Interior / USGS   (PD, Usage does not imply endorsement) It was wondered why there are flightless birds but no flightless bats. Apparently it is because their limbs and membranes are pretty much united. Wings on both creatures exhibit specified complexity. To believe that they are the products of time, mutations, natural selection, random processes — that's a passel of faith in ...

A Plague of Fluffy Bunnies and the Genesis Flood

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Bwasted wabbits brought to Australia, then became a nightmare for agriculture! Cuteness evaporates for those viewing them after they damaged crops. Only twenty-four rabbits, and they did what rabbits do: Eat and make offspring. Hundreds of millions of offspring. The conditions were right, since there was great eating and no significant predators. Biblical creationists can use this fluffy bunny plague as an example of population growth and apply it to the Genesis Flood. There are several factors to take into consideration. Rabbit, Flickr / Marit & Toomas Hinnosaar ( CC BY 2.0 ) Scoffers say that it is ridiculous that the populations of humans and animals can be rebuilt after the Flood by so few specimens. They need to learn to do the math and figure in exponential growth. Another objection is that inbreeding depression would result. Today, yes. (Charles Darwin was concerned about his offspring when he married a first cousin.) Back at the time of the Flood, genetic degradation was n...

Consciousness and the Organic Brain Machine

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At one time, people had souls. Some classical philosophers called it perception. Nowadays, secular scientists and philosophers are almost making their research into a comedy by their conflicting views. Many deny the existence of consciousness but still try to find it in the brain. Someone named Mr. Gordons referred to humans as "meat machines." Alan McComas is a neurosurgeon, one of many people to think they have a location for consciousness in the brain — which he says is an organic machine. Brain as a machine,  MR LIGHTMAN  at FreeDigitalPhotos.net His comparison may seem reasonable at first, but it has some problems because his criteria can make many things into "machines". Also, McComas thinks those clumps of neurons called hippocampi are where consciousness resides. This idea falls apart as well. The truth is that we are created in the image of God, each one with a soul (or consciousness), and it is not a part of the container in which it resides. Over centurie...

The Immune System in Human Skin

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A couple of days ago, I was out riding and happened upon my friend Hammond Suisse out riding fences. He would find a place where the fence had a flaw, and either fixed it or made a note to come back later with more equipment. We rode together a spell, and conversation turned to how I had been fighting off a lingering cold. Hammond said, "We have an amazingly complex immune system that God engineered for us. After the fall of man, it gets overwhelmed sometimes." He glanced at a scrape on his arm. Arms and hands, Pexels / Daria Liudnaya (modified at PhotoFunia ) "Seems to me that I got something in common with immune systems." "How so?" I asked. "We're both riding fences. You know, doing work that's often unseen but sure is important. Churches, stores, companies have often unseen people doing work to keep those things going." He glance down. "I better clean that up. Good thing I'm almost done," he added. Then he asked, "...

Atheists Squabble over Gender and Sex

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People who quote this post on social(ist) media should h!de k3y words... Until recently, there was no doubt that there are only two sexes. Sex-change operations were rare. Discussions of gender never included spectrum or fluidity. Now it is said there are two sexes but multiple genders. Someone can say, "I was assigned the male gender at birth, but I identify as a woman. I feel pretty." People were getting intimidated for a spell and afraid to say the wrong thing. Biblical creationists reject evolution and are called "science deniers," but supporters of transgenderism are the real  science deniers. Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal, Flickr / John Flannery ( CC BY-ND 2.0 ) To use some expensive words, males and females are quite often sexually dimorphic . That is, it is often obvious which are he and she. Males are often larger with more striking coloration, for example. Most of the time in humans the males are larger and have greater muscle mass. Before the leftist preference ...

Split Brains and Multiple Minds?

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This post on the human brain is from an Intelligent Design site, so I thought you might appreciate a heads up. When it comes to the brain and the mind (remember that the brain is not the mind, the mind uses  the brain), secular scientists have conflicting views on consciousness — the soul, if you will. In many cases the brain can adapt. People can have brain portions missing and still function  because of what is called plasticity. In extreme cases of epilepsy, surgery is performed to split the brain. Illustration of split and normal brains, WikiComm / Soccernumber1 ( CC BY-SA 4.0 ) Literally splitting the brain sounds like a death sentence. However, the adaptability and (in my view) mysterious ways people can still function with damage kind of offset feelings of alarm for the patients. In fact, most have no ill effects after the surgery. Others may have some that diminish. Now back to the confusion of secular views. Make up your minds (heh!), is there consciousness or not? S...

Venomous Lizards and Good Creation?

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There are many reptiles with venom, most of which are snakes. People think of rattlesnakes, cobras, and others. Ever hear of the gaboon viper? The bite is often fatal, and if not, tissue damage may necessitate amputation. Narrowing the list, there are lizards with venom. Unlike snakes, they do not have injection mechanisms. The Gila monster (pronounced HEE-la) in the American Southwest and down Mexico way a mite, latches on and chews its venom in. Rarely dangerous to humans. It is fair to wonder why these exist when creation was very good (Gen. 1:31). Gila monster, Wikimedia Commons / Josh Olander ( CC BY 4.0 ) The question becomes more challenging for biblical creationists because we maintain that in the beginning, everything was vegetarian (Gen. 1:29-30). But some critters are built to be fatal. God created everything with genetic diversity, and one possibility is that when Adam sinned and brought on the curse, genetic switches were activated so they could survive in the changed wor...

Amazement at Fruit Fly Brains

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Here is a creature that is easy to wave away, but people should appreciate the work that the Master Engineer put into it. For that matter, it is notoriously difficult to swat. One reason is that it is so small that the air from a striking hand buffets them. Another reason fruit flies are difficult to swat is because of their vision and the design of their eyes. The fruit fly brain has been mapped, and some of its 140,000 neurons involve the eyes. Such a mapping feat could not have been accomplished until recent years. Fruit fly, Flickr / John Tann ( CC BY 2.0 ), modified at PhotoFunia Researchers had to start small, as humans have 80 billion neurons. They found over eight thousand types of neurons in different classes based on functions. Various ones would send signals from the brain to certain areas. It shows that human understanding of the Creator's work is very incomplete, such as how some connections seem random, and that neurons take unexpected routes. This research may have ...

Abiogenesis and the Silence of the Space Aliens

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In their continuing mission to prop up Charlie's Victorian myth, Darwin's disciples are boldly dancing with space aliens in the pale moonlight. That may seem edgy and adventurous, but no aliens are available for dancing — or anything else. All the tax money spent in efforts to find intelligent life on strange new worlds... but none has been found. A survey taken of astrobiologists shows that most believe it must  exist. They have a vested interest, getting paid for studying nonexistent entities. Someone should tell  DOGE about this waste of money . Children watching alien spaceship, Pixabay /  Stefan Keller From a secular perspective, these astronomers and such don't know any better. Although abiogenesis (chemical evolution, life from non-life) is shown to be impossible , they presuppose that it happened anyway. Just not on Earth. Also, they play by numbers based on assumptions: So many stars that would have worlds, the odds are in favor of them having intelligent life. ...

Planetary Habitability and Water

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Habitability out there, thataway, was a simple concept: A planet had to be the right distance from a suitable star. There also had to be some water. Secular cosmologists and astrobiologists (yet there are no aliens to study) depend on atoms-to-alien evolution to happen. Aside from the silliness of believing in abiogenesis despite  science and reason, these folks also have to deal with how the habitability zone becomes increasingly complex. It gets more complicated the way water is vital for habitability in more ways than scientists previously considered. Desert world scene, Pixabay / Gordon Taylor There are books and movies about desert worlds where water is a precious commodity. Computer simulations greatly increase the suspension of disbelief in audiences because a world without water could not evolve  — a substantial amount of water, at that. Also, the water would have to be at a minimum level. Such information should inspire people to be thankful to the Creator for the wor...

Island Tiger Snakes and Natural Selection

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Off the coast of Australia is the island state of Tasmania, and off the coast of that is Mount Chappell Island (also called Hummocky). It is uninhabited private property used for sheep grazing. Some critters live there, one of which is the extremely venomous tiger snake. This snake gets its name from bands of color resembling a tiger, but there are color varieties. If you are uncertain about its identity, leave it alone — especially since that part of the world is chock full o' venomous things. Interestingly, that island tiger snake is a study in natural selection. Tiger snake, iNaturalist / Max Tibby (PD), modified at PhotoFunia Darwinists may be surprised that informed biblical creationists accept natural selection, and that it fits nicely with creationist models. Part of their confusion is from natural selection being a part of the evolutionary framework, but their adaptation by selection idea also requires mutations. Many creationists postulate that the Creator frontloaded liv...

Bad Design Arguments about Horse Riding

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While woolgathering the other day, I thought back to a small get-together at my prospector friend Stormie Waters' place. There were equine games. I knew Stormie's friend Ruby Slippers was skilled at horse riding, but in the speed, turns, and fine maneuvering, she and the horse were like a unit. In the heyday of the nineteenth century American cattle drives, riders and horses worked together. Such unity is common. Long ago, people were using horses for transportation (riding and pulling wagons), pack animals, and more. So why say there were not designed to be ridden? The Cowboy , Frederic Remington, 1902 We have looked at dysteleology  arguments (that something supposedly had bad design, so the Creator does not exist or is incompetent, therefore evolution) several times. Sorry, Wilbur, but the argument can be used about the horse. Of course. Although poor design imaginings are used to prop up evolution, they are theological opinions, not scientific, in nature. Interestingly, th...

Immortal Jellyfish Defies Evolution

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Those other jellyfish get the media attention, what with their bell shapes, lack of brains, deadly stinging tentacles and such. What about the "immortal jellyfish" that scientists call  Turritopsis dohrnii ? Of course, they are 0.18 inches (4.5 mm) long, so they are difficult to see — but are in pretty much every ocean. Nothing physical is immortal, but T. dohrnii makes a good try though, barring accidents and such. They essentially regenerate themselves (no word if any carry sonic screwdrivers), reverting to an immature stage. Sometimes they even skip that stage. The process is amazingly complex. Turritopsis dohrnii , enlarged from Wikimedia Commons / Bachware ( CC BY-SA 4.0 ) On a side note, it has been said that youth is wasted on the young... Can you imagine starting over as someone much younger but retaining the knowledge you have? Of course, these critters lack brains, so there's not a whole lot of knowledge to draw from as they progress. Sometimes the jellyfish e...

Dangerous Eats for a Little Mouse

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People know that a mongoose will win out against a cobra, not only because of its speed but it is also highly resistant to its venom. (Never mind that Snake and Mongoose funny car racers were friends off-track.) For that matter, house cats have speed and flexibility to dodge venomous serpent strikes . So what about a mouse? They are fast and can be fierce, and videos exist of them making cats back off. If you have a skill, may as well use it. Over yonder in Grand Canyon, the grasshopper mouse can be a fierce little hunter! Southern grasshopper mouse, WikiComm / National Park Service  (PD) "Hey, Jerry! What's fer supper?" "Well, I'm a mite tired of grasshoppers, but I hear tell there are tarantulas in these parts. Mayhaps a scorpion or two. I gotta find me some baked beans and coffee to go with them..." Sure, I got creative about the conversation. If you talked to a wild mouse and got too close, you might get your nose bitten by those sharp teeth. Like the m...

New Discoveries about Neanderthals

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Here is a fun fact: The Neanderthal valley was renamed in the 19th century for theologian Joachim Neander, who also wrote the hymn "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation." Interesting that a supposed evolutionary ancestor of humans was discovered in "his" valley. There is a prairie schooner-full of information showing that the Neanderthal people were fully human . Many of us have Neanderthal DNA. Information supporting their humanness keeps pouring in. A new bit of research was quite interesting and also puzzling to evolutionists. Neanderthal Woman, PLOS One / WikiComm /  Bacon CPH  (now deleted) ( CC BY 2.5 ), Modified at  PhotoFunia Apparently these bad boys were built for speed. Not marathons, but sprinting. They were considered slow brutes and adapted for extreme cold of the Ice Age in earlier years. Well, even the Ice Age climate there gets a rethink because not as many areas were in the deep freeze as previously thought. Genetics show that...

No Evidence for Endosymbiosis and Evolution

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Something of interests to both secular and creation scientists is mutualism  (or symbiosis ), but believers in particles-to-parole officer evolution have a mighty difficult time explaining it. The usual response can be restated as, "It evolved." Not an answer , old son. Another form of mutualism is endosymbiosis , where one organism lives inside another and both are the better for it. Evolutionists believe that endosymbiosis was a vital step forward in the evolution of life. Basically, an archaeon (a kind of microorganism) gulped down a bacterium and evolution took a big step forward. Endosymbiosis, Wikimedia Commons / Signbrowser (PD) Got evidence? It's a mite difficult since we're talking about historical science, after all. Researchers first presupposed evolution (of course), and they injected a bacterium into a fungus. That happens in nature anyway, but they extrapolated madly backward in time and claimed they had evidence supporting this phase of evolution. Not ...

Heart Cockle Shells Baffle Evolutionists

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Science material prompts people to learn vocabulary, but reading "bivalve mollusk known as Corculum cardissa " is not a romantic description for heart cockle shells. Mollusk  is a large grouping that includes clams, oysters, and other things. Bivalve  are the mollusks that have a pair of hinged shells. Dinoflagellates  are single-celled organisms that live in water and have characteristics of both plants and animals. They are important in water ecosystems because of their oxygen production. Also, they have a unique relationship with heart cockles. Corculum cardissa , Wikimedia Commons / Jan Delsing (PD), modified at PhotoFunia These tiny creatures live inside the shell and do photosynthesis with the sunlight. Heart cockles benefit from what the dinoflagellates give off. This is another example of mutualism (or symbiosis ). Except...shells are opaque. There is a special process where a kind of window lets them have the sunlight they need. Darwin's disciples use the s...

Spiders are Marvels of Engineering

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Like a number of other critters, spiders exist on every continent except Antarctica. This may be disconcerting news to many people who fear and loath the arachnids. Let me make it worse: All  spiders have venom. Not that many are dangerous to humans, though. People fear spiders from horror stories, being startled at home by them, and by ignorance, but it is useful to put aside the heebie-jeebies and consider creatures for what they are. The Master Engineer displayed his skill in designing them. Golden orb-web spider ( Nephila pilipes ), Flickr /  Lip Kee  ( CC BY-SA 2.0 ) Indeed, scientists are studying spider silk for our own applications (biomimetics). The black widow's silk is under scrutiny , others are being studied for their strength and,  surprisingly, nerve repair . Although evolution gets the glory as if it was a person, Darwin's disciples admit that they cannot backtrack a plan for their origin. That's because it's not a product of evolution, old son. Take...

Volcano Damage Restoration and — Gophers?

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Burrowing rodents known as pocket gophers  (the pocket part of the name could refer to pocketing  food in cheeks) are widely considered pests. Farmers try to grow plants, gophers burrow and eat them. Sometimes they pull the small plants down into their burrows. We recently saw how nature reclaims urban areas and devastation , so that may have been in the minds of scientists who saw volcanic ash from Mount St. Helens. They took a notion to see what gophers can do to help the soil for one day. The rodents said, "Challenge accepted." Pocket gopher, Wikimedia Commons / LeonardoWeiss ( CC BY 3.0 ) Our Creator has designed things to have an ecological niche, but obviously some critters get rambunctious. Even so, burrowing and recycling the soil by bringing deeper soil up and upper soil deep, could help seeds grow. Other creatures got involved in bioturbation, and the one-day pocket gopher project had results that show forty years later. Reporter Jules Bernstein relates experiments...