Piltdown Superman

There is a perennial wildflower that grows in temperate areas of the Northern Hemisphere known as fireweed  in America, and  rosebay willowherb in Britain. It seems like an understatement to refer to land as disturbed  after fires or volcanic eruptions (or bombing, it has been called bombweed  in England), but fireweed is ready to reclaim the land. Fireweed is attractive, but may be sparse during good times for the land. Its method of distributing itself on disturbed land (above and below ground) is quite interesting. Fireweed, Flickr / Alaska Region U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Kristine Sowl (PD) When Mt. St. Helens erupted, the land was a mess and scientists watched for years to see how it would recover. Guess what showed up right quick-like? Yup, fireweed was observed  by 1985. Fungi also joined the land reclamation party. Add to this is that fireweed and other plants are food for wildlife — if they eat the right varieties at opportune times. One reas...

An exclamation of amazement at absurdity is, "How dumb can you get?" It implies that stupidity cannot get much worse. Someone pointed out that it seems like a challenge, so: "How dumb can you get? Hold my beer!" We have contenders from the nature rights movement. Those addlepated folks at the Nonhuman Rights Project tried to get personhood status for an elephant , but that was overturned. They are still trying. Also, there is no mention if hallucinogenic substances were a factor, but a mountain is legally a person with rights and responsibilities. Elephant reading a book, made with  Bing Image Generator  and enhanced The Nonhuman Rights Project keeps trying to get legislation for critters to be granted personhood. They failed in the People's Republic of New York, so they turned their attention to getting a pachyderm made a person in Colorado. Those people weren't having it . The whole idea is infested with ridiculous ideas and contradictions. In New Zealand,...

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...

When dealing with professing atheists — I have to pull on the reins right away and stop this pony before it even gets going. My use of  professing  here indicates that I believe the Bible. Romans 1:18-23 says that everyone knows God exists, but they suppress the truth so they can continue claiming that there is no God. (More foolish is that they "lack belief.") There are been many professing atheists I have encountered who ridicule theists for denying "reality" or some such. However, atheism cannot be lived on a consistent basis. Darwin dollars image made with PhotoFunia Atheists (adding professing  in every instance gets tedious) are materialists. That is, they only believe in matter; atoms, molecules, and all that good stuff. To be consistent, they cannot believe in immaterial things such as love, beauty, consciousness, morality, and other things that cannot be measured. But they do believe in most of those things, so they are standing on the biblical worldview. F...

The Bearded Buddha took the concept of natural selection primarily from Edward Blyth , then twisted it into a creative force. He probably realized it was fiddle-faddle, as he backed off from it later in life. Darwin's disciples still cling natural selection as vitally important to evolution. Natural selection is an observed fact and thousands of papers have been written about it. Seeing it work with mutations to form an entirely new creature — no. Experiments and observations were in laboratory settings until one on water fleas ruined everything. Water flea illustration, Flickr / thecmn (PD) Charlie Darwin was going to write a book with evidence that supported is claims, but never followed through . Evolutionists tried to find examples of evolution, but resorted to bad science and even deceit. Research on the water flea contradicted over a hundred years of previous research, which is significant because it was done over time in the wild, not controlled settings. Once again, we see...

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...

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...

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 ...

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...

It is interesting that Darwin's acolytes on social(ist) media tend to show ignorance of their own belief system, or mayhaps they try to steamroll over creationist opponents with hot air. Some have claimed that there are no fossils out of order — which would be news to secular scientists. There are many fossils and artifacts in what evolutionists would consider wrong places, which has caused them no small amount of embarrassment. Still, they cling to their uniformitarian views because the alternative (special creation) is anathema. Monkey fossils are causing loyal evolutionists consternation. Spider monkeys, Wikimedia Commons / Bernard Spragg ( PD ) Both creationists and evolutionists try to work out biogeography — how did that  get over there ? The monkeys in question were found in South America. Fine, nice weather, plenty of things to climb on and play with. But there are no fossils of their ancestors. They seem to have come from Africa. How, prithee? Although secularists laughed...

Mockers of Christians and the Bible frequently make inane statements that Christians and creationists do not understand science, or worse, that we are " science deniers ." Some claim that creation scientists are not "real" scientists, as if instead of getting their degrees from actual universities, they came from Billy Joe's Bible Church Academy and Bait Shop. Some take a different tack, ignoring the fact that Christians founded many of the major sciences, then making false statements about history. One is that the Reformation led to attacks on science. Actually, the Reformation accelerated science. Wittenberg church door, Wikimedia Commons /  AlterVista  ( CC BY-SA 3.0 ) Remember what has been discussed before: Movements rarely happen overnight, nor are they triggered by one individual. Martin Luther nailed ninety-five theses to the Wittenberg church door on October 31, 1517, and many people consider that the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. It was an i...

In the Southwestern United States, there is a place popular with geologists and paleontologists called the Green River Formation . There are several rivers and tributaries called Green River, and this area is a tributary of the Colorado River. The formation and basins include several states. Since so much research is done in the formation, it is not surprising to get news from there. What may have been surprising to secular scientists is how the new bat fossils they discovered gave no clues to an alleged evolutionary ancestor of bats. Since secularists don't play the hand they're dealt, they reshuffle and deal from the bottom of the deck. In this case, the unevolving bat fossils did not fit their paradigm, so they tacked on two million years to bad origins. Sure, why not? If it helps keep the story going and avoid the fact of recent creation by the God of the Bible, they'll find ways. The Green River Formation is also interesting because of varves (thin layers of sediment)....

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...

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 ...

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...

Although many Western countries had Judeo-Christian values when they were founded, they have drifted from them over the years. People still enjoy the fruits of those values to some extent but are mostly unaware of where they originated. Different values are taught in schools. State-run education is a misnomer; it is actually indoctrination. Yes, indoctrination  is a word that is often casually used, but it is used very deliberately in this case. The school system has control of children for about a thousand hours a year. They teach materialistic and atheistic "values," especially evolution. Textbooks, Freeimages /  Jean Scheijen It is hypocritical for atheists and other secularists/humanists to be outraged when Christian parents want to instill their morals and principles in their children. Christians are supposedly indoctrinating" them. Not hardly! The opposite is true. Evolution is paramount, and liars for Darwin believe that, according to their fundamentally-flawed mo...

Here is another instance where wording is important, as mindfulness  has different meanings. People will advise others to be mindful, and I have used the word myself. On those occasions, it simply means to be aware or to pay attention. However, there is a much darker meaning of the word. Believers in sand-to-psychologist evolution generally shun religion, especially Christianity. Most believe in scientism , a de-facto religion — even if they do not realize it. Many secularists practice mindfulness believing it to be a scientifically-based meditation technique. Bad idea. Meditation, Pixabay / Gerd Altmann (Geralt) Although most evolutionists deny it, their belief system can be traced back to ancient pagan religious views . Indeed, we have seen pantheism and animism tacitly invoked in scientific reports. There is no single view of psychology, and there are numerous schools of thought. Why? None of them have the answers! Evolutionary thinking is a big part of psychology, including ev...

Roland Meadows had me ride over to his place for a visit, and his fiancée Stormie Waters was also stopping by. She wanted to go over some of her prospecting charts, then some details of their upcoming nuptials. Conversation wandered, and Stormie said she wanted to have children. She mentioned reading that Maisasaura  was a good mother dinosaur. This idea came from Jack Horner. He had been involved in some searching found several of their fossilized nests. It seemed that the young received care from their parents.. Maiasaura with young, Flickr / Eden, Janine and Jim ( CC BY 2.0 ) While I have no doubt that Stormie and Roland would be caring parents, doubt has been raised about the Horner scenario for  Maiasaura . He holds the majority view that dinosaurs evolved into birds. Jack "saw" traits of birds caring for their hatchlings in the dinosaur fossils. I reckon he generalized a mite too much, as not all birds are good parents (especially brood parasites , the dirty birds). A...

Although is is often interesting to learn about archaeological discoveries, it must be a tough job. Study on it. Not only are things very old and fragile, but archaeologists must study history, false narratives, shifting borders, languages — and modern political situations that may bring their work to a screeching halt. The Bible contains accurate history; nothing in it has been contravened by archaeology. Those of us who believe the Bible are not rattled by fallacious arguments from silence (something has not been found), knowing it is inerrant. Archaeology helps clear up certain things. Tablet from Nuzi, Wikimedia Commons / Zunkir ( CC BY-SA 4.0 ) When reading the Genesis narrative around the time of Abraham, people may wonder, "What's that all about?" We know why Sarai told Abram to go in to her maidservant Hagar in Genesis 16, but it turns out that she is not the first person to suggest this. Also, why did Rachel steal her father's household gods in Genesis 31, a...