Bill Nye: Doubting Darwin Is Disastrous!

Joel Kontinen

The behaviour of a theory’s advocates speaks volumes of the strength of a theory. In other words, if a theory is robust, it does not need angry supporters who will shout at all those who do not see its strengths.

In recent years, Darwinists have used almost everything but scientific arguments for furthering their pet theory.

This approach has obviously failed as many have already left the boat, and more are leaving.

But some have decided to stay on board and face the storms. One of them is Bill Nye, “the Science Guy”. Recently he posted a video in which he warned of the dangers of rejecting evolution.

Nye, who has a bachelor’s degree in science, says that doubting evolution is “unique to the United States.” One wonders where he gets his outdated information. In May I attended a creation conference in London. None of the speakers, most of whom had far better scientific credentials than Nye, were Americans. Creation Ministries International, one of the leading creation organisations, is actually headquartered in Australia. There are creationist organisations in most European countries. I personally know many Finnish creationists.

Nye claims that the failure to believe in evolution “holds everybody back”. He equates acceptance of Darwinism with technological development. What he fails to see is that engineers use intelligent design, a concept that evolutionists wish to ban.

Bill Nye says he wants to deny parents the choice of letting their children doubt evolution. Unfortunately, in a typically Darwinian fashion, he wants to stifle all scientific dissent.

Here’s a video that doctors David Menton and Georgia Purdom of Answers in Genesis made in response to Nye’s claims:

Flat Earth Is The Sceptics’ Own Myth

Emperor Fredrick I Barbarossa holds the symbol of Earth (an orb) in his hand. Painting from the 13th century. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.






Joel Kontinen

Sceptics often claim that the Bible says that the Earth is flat. They believe that the writer(s) of Genesis had embraced the Babylonian worldview.

This myth does not stem from the Bible. Several Scripture passages speak of a round earth.

There is no evidence that even medieval Christians believed in a flat earth. On the contrary, the rulers of the Holy Roman Empire had an orb that symbolised the earth.

Like all orbs, the Emperor’s symbol was round – the same shape as the earth in the Old Testament Book of Isaiah (ca. 700 BC).

Sceptics invented the flat earth much later.

Mickey Mouse Syndrome? Evolutionists See Human Traits In Rats But Not In Ants

A recent study criticises the tendency to see human traits in rats. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.




Joel Kontinen

Mickey Mouse might influence the interpretations of evolution-believing scientists more than they are willing to admit.

Recently, professor Alex Kacelnik of Oxford University and colleagues took a look at how researchers interpret the behaviour of rats and ants.

If a rat attempts to rescue another rat that has been trapped, this is interpreted as empathy. However, if an ant rescues a fellow-ant, this is seen as instinctive behaviour.

Evolutionists do this because they believe that a rat is more evolved than an ant that is lower on the evolutionary ladder.

Professor Kacelnik criticises this kind of selective interpretation. He says that rats are not capable of empathy.

Kacelnik and his colleagues published their research in the journal Biology Letters.



Source:

Rat and Ant Rescues 'Don't Show Empathy’. Science Daily (12 August 2012).

Well-Known Atheist Philosopher Doubts Darwinism

Professor Thomas Nagel is a Darwin-doubter. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.





Joel Kontinen


Charles Darwin’s views are becoming increasingly unpopular and outdated. Two years ago, professors Jerry Fodor and Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini took a pot-shot at the role of natural selection in evolution.

Now, philosophy professor Thomas Nagel goes a step further. The subtitle of his new book Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False (Oxford University Press, 2012) already says something about his approach.

Nagel says that materialism is incapable of explaining consciousness, for instance.

Thomas Nagel, who is professor of philosophy and law at New York University, is an atheist but he is relatively open-minded towards intelligent design.

Meteorites Challenge ET Life

Naturalistic theories cannot explain the origin of life. Michelangelo: The Creation of Adam. (ca. 1511). Image courtesy of Wikipedia.




Joel Kontinen

Finding life in outer space is becoming increasingly difficult. For a long time, researchers had assumed that the meteorites found in the Tagish Lake in Canada were evidence for extraterrestrial life. They thought that since most of the amino acids discovered in these meteorites were left-handed, life could spontaneously arise from non-life in space.

Molecules are either left-handed or right-handed. Life on Earth is almost exclusively built on left-handed amino acids.

However, new observations are challenging the naturalistic dreams of life without a giver of life. Research suggests that these left-handed amino acids are not evidence of the origin of life.

Harald Steininger, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute, says that although a swimming pool was full of left-handed amino acids, it would still not be alive. An unbridgeable gulf separates amino acids from the origin of life.

Extremely fine-tuned intelligent design is needed for the origin of life. The best theory that we know of is the one outlined in the Book of Genesis: ”In the beginning, God created”.


Source:

Guttridge, Nicola. 2012. Meteorite's left-handed molecules a blow to ET search. New Scientist (1 August).

Grandma Lucy Could Not Speak

New research suggests that Lucy’s voice sounded like today’s monkeys.


Joel Kontinen


While natural history museums present Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis) as our grandmother, she obviously could not walk upright like we do. She had long curved hands that were well suited for hanging from tree branches.

Recent research highlights another ape-like feature in Lucy: She was unable to articulate like humans, but uttered sounds that an ape would make.

Bart de Boer, a researcher at Vrije University in Brussels, built a plastic model of Lucy’s vocal tract. An expert on the evolution of speech, de Boer concluded that Lucy could not speak the way we do, but sounded more like today’s monkeys.


Source:

Neimark, Jill. 2012. Big Idea Bring Ancient Voices Back to Life. Discover Magazine (9 August).

Mutant Butterflies of Fukushima Do Not Help Evolution

Pseudozizeeria maha. Image courtesy of Laitche.com, via Wikipedia. A healthy butterfly looks like this, but the radiation that seeped out of the nuclear power plant in Fukushima has badly damaged the wings of some butterflies.



Joel Kontinen

Darwinian evolution would be in big trouble without mutations. Evolution needs change and this requires mutations that are like typos in a blog post.

Typos seldom improve a post.

The nuclear accident in Fukushima shows why mutations are no friends of the evolutionist. They have damaged the butterflies’ wings.

Natural selection cannot make use of such mutations.

Almost all mutations are harmful, but the evolutionist hopes that as millions of years go by, some mutations would turn out to be useful. Torn wings do not seem to be very useful for a butterfly, however.

Source:

Scientists say Fukushima caused mutant butterflies. Taipei Times (13 August 2012). The paper has a photo of a mutant butterfly with damaged wings.

Evolution: Bones 10 Kilometres from Each Other Will a Skull Make

The reconstruction of KNM-ER 1470. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.





Joel Kontinen


In 1972 Richard Leakey’s research team found parts of a skull. At first, the fossil was assumed to be 2.6 million years old but the skull was too human-like to fit into the evolutionary view of human ancestry. Thus, after a very long debate it lost almost a million years of its age and is now dated at 1.9 million years and known as Homo rudolfensis.

The skull is known as KNM-ER 1470 (KNM stands for Kenya National Museum where the skull is kept, ER means East Rudolph or the area in which it was found, and 1470 is the museum’s serial number.)

Last week Meave Leakey and colleagues published an article in the journal Nature on a new bone that they found over ten kilometres (six miles) from the place KNM-ER 1470 was found. They say that the piece fits into the skull.

Homo rudolfensis is a rather interesting skull as different researchers have seen it in very different ways, depending on how they fill the empty space between the bones.

Source:

Choi, Charles. 2012. New Flat-Faced Human Species Possibly Discovered. Life Science (8 August).

Are Christian Morals Banned? New York Times and the Lolo Jones Case

In 2010, Lolo Jones won the 60 metre hurdles at the Doha Indoor World Championship Games. Image courtesy of Erik van Leeuwen, Wikipedia.





Joel Kontinen

New York Times sportswriter Jere Longman obviously wants Olympic hurdler Lolo Jones to keep her Christian views to herself and stop appearing on magazine covers. In an article written just a few days before Jones run in the 100 metre hurdles finals in the London Olympics, Longman said that the fame of Lolo Jones was due to marketing and her good looks.

Lolo Jones, who turned 30 during the Olympics, disclosed that she is still a virgin and will stay so until marriage. An evangelical Christian, she has not been ashamed to tweet Bible passages and to say that Jesus is Lord.

Some Christian sites have suggested that this might be the real reason for Longman’s antagonism. The left-leading media will hardly criticise a Hollywood star for turning to Buddhism or some sort of New Age philosophy, but when one of the top woman hurdlers says that she will abide by the Bible’s teaching on marriage, the New York Times is up in arms.

In the Beijing Olympics, Jones narrowly missed the gold after clipping the penultimate hurdle. She was seventh. In London she was fourth, a tenth of a second from the bronze medal. Nothing to be ashamed of.

Recently, Lolo Jones appeared on the cover of Oxygen – Woman’s Fitness.


Source:

McClelland, Mac. 2012. Medal-less Lolo Jones has nothing to be ashamed of. Reuters: The Great Debate (8 August).

Curiosity Rover: Evolution on Mars?

Evidence of life on the red planet? Image courtesy of NASA.





Joel Kontinen


As it is becoming increasingly difficult to find evidence for evolution on Earth, NASA has turned its attention to looking for it on the red planet.

Technically, NASA is not searching for proof of evolution, but merely for hints that there once could have been conditions on Mars that would have allowed life to appear on the planet.

The naturalistic origin of life is part and parcel of the worldview that rejects the Creator. In recent years, NASA has embraced a philosophical stance that has no place for God.

Gone are the days when astronauts were allowed to read Genesis aloud in space.

NASA’s approach is a bit odd, given that the more we have learnt about the cell, for instance, the more obvious it has become that it cannot have come about through blind Darwinian processes. The same applies to the origin of life. It is too complicated to pop up all by itself.

Information always requires a sender. Intelligent life requires an intelligent sender.


Source:

Chang, Kenneth. 2012. After Safe Landing, Rover Sends Images From Mars. The New York Times (6 August).

Noah’s Ark Has Been Launched

Huibers’ ark is surprisingly large. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.




Joel Kontinen

Noah’s Ark was not a toy boat. The first ocean-going vessel that was bigger than it was built some 150 years ago.

In 2007 Johan Huibers, a Dutch carpenter, built his previous ark. Many were amazed at its huge size.

Huibers' first floating ark was 70 metres (230 ft) long, 13 metres (43 ft) wide and 13 metres (43 ft) high. He hoped to build a full-size ark in time for the London Olympics.

The ark has now been launched. Huibers used the measurements detailed in Genesis, 300 x 50 x 30 cubits. History knows of cubits of various lengths, but the ark's most likely length was 140-155 metres or 455-508 feet.

Huibers’ floating ark has been anchored off the Dutch town of Dordrecht. The ark dwarfs the buildings on the waterfront.

Source:

Nisbet, Robert. 2012. Modern-Day Noah Opens Doors Of Ark Creation.. Sky News (29 July).

Chinese Official: “A Brain Needs Washing”

Chinese officials want to remind Hong Kong schoolchildren of the benefit of Chairman Mao’s thinking. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.




Joel Kontinen

The Chinese government wants to enlighten schoolchildren in Hong Kong about the blessings brought about by the Communist party. However, some citizens, used to a more independent way of thinking, were not very pleased with the new curriculum and took to the streets, protesting what they saw as brainwashing.

Jiang Yudui, who represents a pro-Beijing association, said that the curriculum would wash their brains but this would not necessarily be a bad thing:

“ A brain needs washing if there is a problem, just as clothes need washing if they’re dirty,” he said.

In the western world, Darwinism has a similar indoctrinating effect as the Communist party has in China, but here few have the courage to call the teaching of evolution what it in reality is.

Source:

Lau, Joyce. 2012. Thousands Protest China’s Plans for Hong Kong Schools. The New York Times. (29 July).

Over 430 Mammal Species Lived during the Dinosaur Era

Joel Kontinen

Natural history museums do not usually display mammals and birds together with dinosaurs. It is difficult for museums that are devoted to spreading the dogma of naturalistic evolution to acknowledge that, as a rule, animals tend to resist change.

At the Creation 2012 Super Conference in North Carolina, doctor Carl Werner said that he had examined the fossil collections of over 60 natural history museums and had gone to ten dig sites to see what the dino era fauna really looked like.

The result was a big surprise.

At least 432 mammal species are known to have lived during the dino era. The number is surprisingly high, as there probably only were 600 dinosaur species, which would make the era of dinosaurs a misnomer.

Doctor Werner found out that many modern species of mammals and birds (excluding the big mammals) already lived at the time of the dinosaurs. Moreover, they looked surprisingly similar to the animals that we see today. For instance, ducks, flamingos and parrots already lived at the same time as T. rex.

CMI’s Super Conference ended yesterday. Although it coincided with the London Olympics, the five-day event attracted hundreds of participants. In addition, God TV broadcasted the sessions to millions of homes.

The latest issue of Creation magazine has an article on modern birds co-existing with dinosaurs, written by Dr. Don Batten.

C. S. Lewis: Science Is Magic’s Twin

Joel Kontinen

C. S. Lewis once said that science and magic are twins. A soon to be released book edited by Dr. John West will examine this issue.

The Magician's Twin: C. S. Lewis on Science, Scientism, and Society (Discovery Institute Press, 2012) will be accompanied by a video documentary that will premiere on August 11 in Seattle.

Scientism can be defined as ”an exaggerated trust or belief in the power of scientific methods and knowledge” (The New Penguin English Dictionary). For some people, it seems to be a secular religion.

The Creation Super Conference Is Now Live

Joel Kontinen

God TV is now sending the Creation Super Conference sessions live.

Yesterday evening nuclear physicist Dr. Jim Mason talked about the problems with radiometric dating. No one can be sure about the starting assumptions or the ratio of parent vs. daughter elements in a particular rock, whether there has been a loss or gain of substances, or whether the decay rate has always been stable.

Dr. Mason mentioned some “bad” dates, such as a 3.5 million year age for Mt. Ngauruhoe in New Zealand that erupted in the 1950s and a 2.8 million year for Mt. St. Helen’s lava flow in 1984.

He also discussed the presence of radiocarbon (C-14) in coal and diamonds. No C-14 should be detected in coal or diamonds over 90,00 years old. However, coal and diamonds consistently contain radiocarbon, which is a big problem for the millions of years view.

Thus, radiometric dating can give precise dates that nevertheless are precisely wrong.

In yesterday’s final talk geologist Dr. Carl Froede warned of the danger of basing our interpretations of the past on the assumptions of the non-theistic worldview.

You can watch the sessions here.