Piltdown Superman

While there were other hippopotamuses long ago, there are only two kinds left: the pygmy and the river. Interesting contrast, as the river hippo makes its home in the Nile. It is the third largest land animal and very dangerous. They are also fragile. To modify a line from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy , Hippopotamuses glide through water in much the same way that bricks don't. Water temperature must be just right, and no salt, either. So how did they get to merrie olde England? Dining hippopotamus, Pixabay / Petar Ubiparip Since they cannot fit through the doors of mass transit and they cannot operate motor vehicles, they must have walked. But Cowboy Bob, England isn't very merry and it's surrounded by water! Well, Ireland and Britain are islands now , but there was a time when the areas were accessible by foot. This involves the Ice Age that was the result of the Genesis Flood. (People have some wrong ideas about the Ice Age, such as many of them in the past an...

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  Although Reddit is really big on teh interwebs and seems to have evolved from newsgroups , I have little use for it. Interesting because I was involved in newsgroups for a spell. They were like the Wild West; there was no town marshall, so almost anything could be posted. Reddit is a bit moderated, I hear. Someone posted about Question Evolution Day . As expected, atheists and other anti-creationists went ballistic. A cursory glance shows that they still reject rational discourse and logic — yet they claim to be the rational ones. The first thing I noticed (again, cursory glances) is that the substance of QED was not discussed. Instead, they used straw man arguments, prejudicial conjecture, and some fabricated complaints that were decades  old (railing against a book from 1997). One complained that creationists are always lying, which I have pointed out is ludicrous even on the surface: Why would we, who believe in a holy and righteous God who hates lyi...

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...

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...

As a child, I watched what we called helicopter leaves (maple tree seeds) spinning to the ground. Sometimes they were plentiful, so other kids and I would scoop them up and fling them in the air, watching them spin down again. Do kids play with Javan cucumber seeds? The Javan cucumber is misnamed, more closely related to the pumpkin. It is not edible and seems to live to reproduce. Gourds swell and get quite large. When conditions are right, they open up and release the seeds. The seeds are also large and can travel surprising distances. Alsomitra macrocarpa seed, Wikimedia Commons / Scott Zona ( CC BY 2.0 ) While birds, insects, and flying mammals are the obvious choices for studies related to flight, these seeds have garnered a great deal of attention over the years for biomimetics (applying things found in nature for human applications). The seeds have inspired several aircraft designs. In addition, wind currents around the gourds that take the seeds on their journeys are also stu...

When attempting to make a point with rational arguments, misotheists are generally unwilling to "allow" Christians (and especially biblical creationists) to be right about anything of importance. I recently scanned a Page by a bigoted atheist whose material I had used for demonstration purposes a spell back, and he is still at it. That is, he shares Christian material to ridicule and makes comments that display his foolishness. In one share, a valid point was made but he refused to admit it. Monkey in snow, cropped from Unsplash / Shino Nakamura Professing atheists and other defenders of molecules-to-monkey evolution on social(ist) media are often committed to attacking their opponents instead of having any kind of intelligent discussion. It is ironic because they claim to have the upper hand over "theists" regarding reason, yet frequently violate laws of logic. Indeed, many times they clutch their pearls and holler because they do not grasp an argument, nor can the...

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...

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...

The secular science industry tells us that there have been several ice ages, each lasting millions of years. Evidence exists for what they call the last ice age , but cannot explain how it started or ended. Biblical creationists believe there was only one Ice Age. Remember that secularist have an a priori  commitment to deep time. The astronomical (Milankovitch) theory comports with their assumptions, but it is fundamentally flawed . Climate is very complex , and scares of climate change use incomplete information at best. Creationists have a strong model for the climate change of the Ice Age. Glaciers on the Melchoir Islands off Antarctica, Flickr / David Stanley ( CC BY 2.0 ) While there are probably other Ice Age models by biblical creationists, the one linked below has a great deal of explanatory power. Secularists resist creationist material, one reason being that it gives powerful evidence against their precious deep time. After all, the Bearded Buddha needs millions of yea...

When I was in school, the solar system had nine planets. The Kuiper Belt was not mentioned, nor were dwarf planets or trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs). Pluto lost its planethood status because of its size; there is a passel of TNOs with Pluto being the first. All of that stuff was expected to be geologically dead, but Pluto and its moons baffle deep time proponents with activity . There are volcanoes out yonder such as Jupiter's moon Io , and some that expel ice instead of lava. Pluto has some of these. Artist's concept of New Horizons visiting Pluto, with moon Charon in the distance, : NASA/JHU APL/SwRI/Steve Gribben Ice volcanoes throw out water ice as well as methane and others are more accurately called cryovolcanoes . Pluto has one named Kiladze, named after the Georgian astronomer Rolan I. Kiladze. This volcano shares its wealth abundantly, then its caldera collapses. Then erupts again and repeats the cycle. The energy necessary to do this should not exist according to deep...

It has been fifty years since Lucy ( Australopithecus afarensis ) was discovered, but amid secular shouts of joy and dancing in the street, some evolutionists are unconvinced that Lucy ( or Lucifer ) is such a big deal. Indeed, there have been unconvinced scientists from the beginning. There are numerous reasons for doubting this ape as a transitional form. Scattered bones over a wide area, mistakes in the mix, other critters also existed, key components are missing, and more. Evolution at that time needed a boost, and this child believes that Lucy was manufactured, not discovered. Australopithecus afarensis , WikiComm /  Wolfgang Sauber  ( CC BY-SA 4.0 ) Paleoanthropologist Dr. Bernard Wood rides for the Darwin brand and is a respected name among evolutionists. He pointed out that in the 1970s, evolution was portrayed as resembling a ladder with apelike critters at the bottom and more "advanced" organisms toward the top. That idea, and Lucy, are hooey. November 24, 2024, mar...

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...

Geckos are a special class of reptile, and they are found on every continent except Antarctica. There are many species in a wide variety of habitats, so it is not surprising that they come in a range of sizes. The smaller geckos are considered good pets. They are also of interest to scientists pursuing the field of biomimetics. That is, taking ideas from what is found in nature, developing them for human use, then crediting the puny god of evolution instead of the Creator. In the case of geckos: The way their feet stick to smooth surfaces. Tokay gecko, Wikimedia Commons / Richard Ling ( CC BY-SA 3.0 ) The tokay gecko would be a challenging pet. They can bit rather hard, are fast — and have a loud, obnoxious call that someone imagined sounded like "tokay," hence the name. Let the scientists deal with those things as they remove the latest escapee from the ceiling. Gecko feet and the way they can adhere to a surface, then release at will, is fascinating. Tokays provide bigger...

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...

Although underrated, humans have an amazing ability to detect various smells. What animal has the best ability to do this? It depends on how it is measured. Elephants can distinguish the greatest variety of smells , and some other animals may also rate highly. But they have not yet been tested. Dogs are legendary as trackers of fugitives and missing persons, and their sooper sniffers have been utilized to sniff out cadavers, bombs, drugs, cancer, and even fossils . Now things are getting even more interesting. Labrador nose, Freeimages /  huzzah Let's pause riding this here trail a mite. People can pick up on smells, and this child thinks that maybe certain abilities have faded over the years since our creation. We smell or otherwise sense something but only have a vague awareness in the backs of our minds. This may be misconstrued as a psychic ability when it was originally something we were created with. Smell could be a big part of that. After all, odors trigger emotions, memori...

Whether one likes it or not, concrete is a ubiquitous sign of human progress. Study on it a spell when looking around and seeing various forms of concrete in buildings, sidewalks, and so on. Like other things, it is subject to breaking down. Mayhaps it would last longer if it was made better? Well... When the ancient Romans were building their empire, they had brilliant engineering feats such as the aqueducts — which even made water flow uphill for a ways. Roman concrete was a big part of the construction. Also consider their Pantheon. Pantheon, Unsplash / Nicholas Martinelli Those feats don't fail after all these years. This amazes people who are locked into their belief of descent with modifications evolution, as their worldview requires humans to be unintelligent way back when. That is why they're constantly surprised by artefacts and records of historical talents. Biblical creationists have long said — and repeatedly vindicated — that humans were created as intelligent bein...

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 ...

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 ...

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...