If Bacteria Remain Bacteria, Is That Evolution in Action?

Joel Kontinen

Evolution in action is a mantra we hear every now and then. One of the primary causes for this is that some bacteria are resistant to antibiotics. However, this has little, if anything, to do with evolution, as research has shown that bacteria that predate the medical use of antibiotics were resistant to antibiotics.

Furthermore, bacteria always remain bacteria, just like fruit flies remain fruit flies, regardless of headlines suggesting that evolution has occurred.

ICR’s latest That’s a Fact video looks at “evolving bacteria”.

More Fiction About Israel’s Capital in the UK Media

Joel Kontinen

On the eve of the London Olympics, the BBC did not remember the name of Israel’s capital. The Guardian went one step further, claiming that the capital was Tel Aviv.

This brief video produced by Honest Reporting looks into the issue and fails to find support for the Guardian’s claim:

Our Distant Cousin - the Banana?

Joel Kontinen


From time to time we hear the old claim that chimpanzees are almost humans despite the fact that many studies suggest otherwise. (Read more here and here.)

It would be good to remember what professor Steve Jones, who is definitely no friend of creation, said ten years ago:

“We also share about 50% of our DNA with bananas and that doesn’t make us half bananas, either from the waist up or the waist down.”

Humans are even less apes.

Source:

Jones, Steve, interviewed at the Australian Museum on The Science Show, broadcast on ABC radio, 12 January 2002.

BBC: Israel Does Not Have a Capital

According to the BBC, this flag is not flowing in East Jerusalem. Image courtesy of Math Knight and Zachi Evenor.



Joel Kontinen

The BBC’s sports website is re-writing geography. It lists the names of the countries taking part in the London Olympic Games and their capitals. The BBC informs us that the capital of a country called Palestine is East Jerusalem. However, the capital of Israel is ominously missing.

The BBC received so much feedback that it acknowledged that it might have made a mistake. Even in the new version Israel does not have a capital. It does mention that the seat of government is in Jerusalem and that the foreign embassies are in Tel Aviv.

This is not the first time the BBC has developed it own version of the geography and history of Israel.

Source:

Plosker, Simon. 2012. BBC Olympic Coverage Declares East Jerusalem as Palestinian Capital . Honest Reporting. (19 July).

Sharp Teeth – A Problem for the Creation View?

ICR’s new video examines sharp teeth in the animal kingdom.


Joel Kontinen

In the Darwinian view, nature is red in tooth and claw. Some animals have sharp teeth with which they break the bones of less fortunate animals and eat them.

However, sharp teeth do not necessarily mean that an animal is carnivorous. There are animals like fruit bats and pandas that use their teeth to eat fruit and vegetables.

Thus, sharp teeth are not a problem for the creation view. ICR’s new That’s a Fact video examines this issue.

In the very good world of Genesis, no animal ate other animals. And the prophet Isaiah looked forward to a time in which animals would no longer eat each other.

Craig Venter Sees Precise Design in Cells

J. Craig Venter compares the cell to a computer programme. Image courtesy of PloS Biology.



Joel Kontinen

It is becoming increasingly difficult to deny design in biology.

Bill Gates once said that DNA “is like a computer program but far, far more advanced than any software we’ve ever created.”

Now renowned biologist Craig Venter basically agrees. As quoted in a New Scientist blog, he says:

"All living cells that we know of on this planet are 'DNA software'-driven biological machines comprised of hundreds of thousands of protein robots, coded for by the DNA, that carry out precise functions."

All computer programmes that we know of are designed. Not one of them evolved through Darwinian processes.




Source:


O'Connell, Claire. 2012. Passing the baton of life - from Schrödinger to Venter. New Scientist (13 July).

Why Are Atheists Afraid of a Small Statue?

Atheists are demanding that this statue be removed. Image courtesy of ACLJ.




Joel Kontinen

For almost 60 years, a statue depicting Jesus has stood on a mountainside in Montana, USA. Placed there by World War II veterans, one would think that it is not causing harm to anyone.

However, atheists are calling the statue a sham and are suing to get it removed.

If atheists were consistent, it would not matter to them what others believe, since according to their ideology everything can be reduced to the movements of atoms.

But obviously they are not entirely convinced that their godless worldview reflects reality.

And lawsuits do not speak well of their tolerance of other views.

Source:

Clark, Matthew. 2012. Defending the War Memorial Statue of Jesus Atheists Call a Sham. ACLJ (13 July).

Smithsonian Uses Creation Museum Dino in Its Brochure

Joel Kontinen

The dinosaur models at the Creation Museum in Kentucky are so good that the Smithsonian is using a picture of one of them in its brochure.

Located in Washington D.C., the Smithsonian Institution is a complex consisting of 19 museums, a zoo and a research institute funded by the U.S. federal government.

Many people would associate the Smithsonian with a belief in millions of years of Darwinian evolution. So the use of a Creation Museum dino is somewhat of a surprise.

Dan Lietha, a staff artist at Answers in Genesis, thinks that a photographer must have taken the photo at the Creation Museum and submitted it to a stock photo website that sold it to the Smithsonian.

“There’s no doubt the Creation Museum’s sculptors/designers do great work and at a highly professional and scientific level! And people are noticing,” Answers in Genesis CEO Ken Ham writes in his blog.

Read more here.

Coming Soon: Creation 2012 SuperConference

Joel Kontinen

This year, Creation Ministries International is having its Creation SuperConference at Lifeway Ridgecrest Conference Center in North Carolina, U.S.A.

The 5-day conference starts on Wednesday, August 1st, and ends on Sunday, August 5th. Most of the speakers, for instance Jonathan Sarfati, Rob Carter, Jim Mason, John Sanford, Carl Werner and Carl Froede Jr., have earned PhDs. Dr. Carl Wieland, the founding editor of Creation Magazine, will also be speaking at the conference.

If you can’t travel to North Carolina, you can watch the sessions live on the Internet. See the details here.

Another Nail in the Coffin of ”Junk DNA”

The DNA of this creature does not support evolution. Image courtesy of George Shuklin, Wikipedia.




Joel Kontinen

Just a few years ago, “junk DNA” was evolutionary dogma. Richard Dawkins and other ardent Darwin defenders regarded it as fact.

However, as the gaps in our knowledge are being filled, researchers are increasingly finding useful functions for the DNA that does not code for proteins and was thought to be leftovers from evolution.

A recent article in New Scientist stated:

“Some junk is worth keeping. Non-coding, or junk, mouse DNA contains vast amounts of information vital to gene function – and those regulatory functions take up much more space on the genome than the all-important coding segments.”

In other words, without doing away with the concept “junk DNA”, the article actually suggests that this junk is not junk at all. Interestingly, the author Hannah Krakauer admitted:

“Even though the human genome was sequenced over a decade ago, gaps like these demonstrate just how little we know about what the large portions of those DNA sequences actually do.”

The mouse genome does not support Darwinian evolution. That much, at least, we know.



Source:

Krakauer, Hannah. 2012. Mouse 'junk' DNA vital for gene regulation. New Scientist (3 July).

What Does the ”God Particle” Have to Do with God?

Tintoretto: Creation of the Animals (ca. 1550). Image courtesy of Wikipedia. The ”God Particle” can hardly tell us anything about origins.



Joel Kontinen

When a hitherto undiscovered particle gets the name “God particle”, one might suspect that it is not just an ordinary boson. But, then, very little in nature is ordinary. For instance, a tiny cell is full of astounding nanomachines.

The problem with the ”God Particle” or the Higgs boson is that scientists assert that it might tell us something about the origin of some of the fundamental building blocks of matter.

This, of course, is pure speculation. Ink cannot tell us how an author wrote a text and a particle cannot tell us how it came into being. It definitely cannot tell us that God had nothing to do with its creation.

If anything, the Higgs boson suggests that physics is complicated, just like chemistry and biology are.

You can read more of my thoughts on the Higgs boson here.

Iranian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani Illegally Imprisoned for 1000 Days

Joel Kontinen

All people should in principal be able to enjoy freedom of religion. However, Iranian authorities seem to think that this does not apply to Christians.

Iranian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani has now been illegally imprisoned for 1,000 days. Watch this video for ways in which to show support for him.



You can read more about Pastor Youcef here, here, here and here.

Millions of Years – It’s an Emotional Issue

Joel Kontinen

Time is not the hero in the fable known as Darwinian evolution, as no amount of time would turn a myth into science. However, as Ken Ham explains in this video clip, the idea of millions of years is a very emotional issue for many evolutionists. They will dislike anyone who dares to question their long age dogma.




However, Christians should acknowledge that the almighty Creator did not need millions of years. In the New Testament His miracles were often instantaneous, so why would He need to resort to deep time in the Old Testament?

New Video: T. rex Blood Cells and Other Fossil Anomalies

Joel Kontinen

The latest episode of ICR’s That’s a Fact video series features blood cells that were discovered in a T. rex fossil, other soft tissue, squid ink and other discoveries that do not fit in with the millions of years paradigm.

You can watch the video here.

Naturalistic Speculations Fail to Explain the Origin of Life – Once Again

Naturalistic explanations of the origin of life cannot explain the origin of life. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.




Joel Kontinen

In naturalistic speculations about the origin of life, the tail wags the dog. As they only accept one game - the one that excludes both design and intelligence - their suggestions usually range from the outlandish to the bizarre.

Writing in New Scientist, Nick Lane acknowledges that cells contain "amazing nanoscopic machines". However, he also speculates about “simple cells” (actually an oxymoron since cells are always anything but simple) that “don't have the right cellular architecture to evolve into more complex forms.”

He also says that “there is an extraordinary energetic penalty for growing larger”. In spite of this, he sees “a freak accident” as the catalyst for growing more complex cells.

There is a much more logical way to explain the origin and development of life. But, as Harvard biology professor Richard Lewontin put it, they “cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.”


Source:

Lane, Nick. 2012. Life: is it inevitable or just a fluke? New Scientist 2870: 32-37.