Horses Were Horses ”4 Million Years” Ago

Przewalski's horse is said to be the last remaining wild horse. Image courtesy of Wikipedia. (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported).


Joel Kontinen

The more we get to know about the past, the more obvious it becomes that old Darwinian assumptions have to be discarded. Many species seem to have resisted change for far longer than was thought. A good illustration of this is in a paper recently published in the journal Nature that reports on the full genome sequence of an ancient horse.

The researchers believe that the horse lived “between 780,000 and 560,000 years ago”.

The researchers say that they are now able to “trace the evolutionary history of the horse family in unprecedented detail. They estimate that the ancient ancestor of the modern Equus genus, which includes horses, donkeys and zebras, branched off from other animal lineages about 4 million years ago — twice as long ago as scientists had previously thought.”

In other words, horses have been horses for much longer than was previously assumed (even if the suggested ages are grossly inflated). They have not evolved from or into something else recently.

According to the Genesis model, horses, donkeys and zebras probably belong to the same biblical kind.

Sources:

Hayden, Erika Check. 2013. First horses arose 4 million years ago. Nature News (26 June).

Lucy’s Wrist Joints Suggest She Walked on All Fours

Here’s how the Natural History Museum in London depicts Australopithecus afarensis, better known as Lucy.





Joel Kontinen

For three decades, Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis) has been the poster girl of Darwinian evolution. Museum reconstructions often show an upright-walking creature with both human and apelike traits.

However, research on Lucy’s bones does not support this view at all. A recent video produced by Creation Ministries International shows why this old Darwinian story is wrong.

The Peacock’s Tail Defies Evolutionary Explanations

The peacock’s tail does not support Darwinian evolution.




Joel Kontinen


Charles Darwin was puzzled by the peacock’s tail. It did not seem to fit in with his idea of natural selection. He tried to fix the problem by proposing a theory of sexual selection, but that did not work, either.

Darwin assumed that the peacock’s tail attracted peahens, but research has shown that he was wrong, as this brief video produced by Creation Ministries International shows:

Many Leading Biologists Criticize Key Aspects of Evolution, Says Leading Geneticist

Charles Darwin. Image courtesy of Wikipedia. Darwinism does not explain the origin of genetic information.


Joel Kontinen

Recently, Dr. Norman C. Nevin, one of Britain's top geneticists, said:

“Many leading biologists criticize key aspects of evolution. The main problem with neo-Darwinism is the origin of new biological information. Building a living organism requires an immense amount of information. The issue that arises is the source of the information and how can random mutations and natural selection generate the necessary biological information to produce such a diversity of animal forms without antecedents.“

By saying this, Dr. Nevin endorsed Darwin's Doubt, a new book written by Dr. Stephen Meyer. The book examines the Cambrian Explosion, which is still a huge problem for Darwinian evolution.


Source:

One of Britain's Top Geneticists Recommends Darwin's Doubt. Evolution News and Views. 22 June 2013.

The Amazing Design of the Tiny Hummingbird

A Green Violet-ear. Image courtesy of Wikipedia (GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2).





Joel Kontinen

The nectar-loving hummingbird is tiny, but its features are truly amazing. It can flutter in one place while it sticks out its tongue to drink the juice a flower produces.

In a brief clip from the recently released documentary Flight: The Genius of Birds (produced by Illustra Media), Dr. Paul Nelson explains how a hummingbird uses its tongue to get at the nectar:

C. S. Lewis: Our Intellectual Skills Are No Accident

Statue of C. S. Lewis in Belfast. Image courtesy of Flickr.




Joel Kontinen

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) was one of the best-known Christian thinkers and writers of the 20th century. A former atheist, he turned to Christianity and defended the Christian worldview in his many writings.

In his book Mere Christianity, he wrote about our ability to reason, a skill he attributed to God:

“When you argue against Him you are arguing against the very power that makes you able to argue at all: it is like cutting off the branch you are sitting on.”

Source:

Mere Christianity. In C. S. Lewis. 1999. Selected Books. London: HarperCollins.

Charles Darwin’s Descendant Becomes a Christian after Reading The God Delusion

Charles Darwin. Image courtesy of Wikipedia. Recently, his great-great-great-granddaughter turned to Christianity.



Joel Kontinen


Reading Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion had a perhaps unexpected effect on Laura Keynes, who is a great-great-great-granddaughter of Charles Darwin. An agnostic at the time, she began to examine the claims of atheism more critically.

Studying at Oxford University for a doctorate in philosophy, she wanted to “to explore and analyse inconsistencies in the evidence.” This caused her to give up agnosticism and embrace Catholicism.

“New Atheism seemed to harbour a germ of intolerance and contempt for people that could only undermine secular Humanist claims to liberalism,” she concluded.


Source:

West, Ed. 2013. Descendant of Charles Darwin becomes a Catholic apologist. Catholic Herald (13 June).

These Wings Were Made for Flying

Illustra Media's new documentary Flight: The Genius of Birds shows how and why birds are designed for flight.





Joel Kontinen


Most bird species are excellent flyers, regardless of whether they are huge like the albatross, or very tiny, like the hummingbird.

Blind Darwinian processes do not explain why birds fly. The very obvious conclusion is that they have been engineered to fly, as the new documentary Flight: The Genius of Birds, produced by Illustra Media, shows. Here’s the trailer:

Atheists Are Trying to Prove That the Message of Expelled Is True

Ben Stein’s film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed revealed that evolutionists oppress and discriminate against scientists who doubt Darwinian evolution.




Joel Kontinen

A very suspicious stew is brewing in the academic sphere in the USA. It all began when Jerry A. Coyne, a professor at the University of Chicago and a well-known Darwinian blogger, complained about a fellow scientist.

Coyne, who is an outspoken atheist, claimed that Eric Hedin, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Ball State University, favours the view of intelligent design (ID) and presents Christianity in a very positive light. Coyne demanded that the university had to scrutinise Professor Hedin’s teaching, and Ball State promised to look into the matter.

Coyne complained of a course that is actually not about science. In his own lectures he does not shy away from atheism, but like PZ Myers and Richard Dawkins (before he retired), he is quick to promote naturalistic dogma and exclude all other worldviews.

Darwinians have hardly ever tolerated dissenting views.


Source:


Jaschik, Scott. 2013. Science or Religion? Inside Higher Ed (17 May).

Made in God’s Image

This creature was not made in God’s image, but we are.




Joel Kontinen


Evolutionists would claim that humans share a common ancestor with apes. But regardless of what they might believe, an unbridgeable chasm separates us from all animals.

It does not only have to do with biology but also with our mental skills, our creativity. Moreover, only humans can worship and fellowship with their Creator.

Only humans were created in God’s image. A brief video produced by Creation Ministries International discusses this topic:

Tiny Tarsiers Were Excellent Mariners – If Evolution Is to Be Believed

An ancient ancestor of the Philippine tarsier (Tarsius syrichta) perplexes evolutionists. Image courtesy of Jasper Greek Golangco, Wikipedia.





Joel Kontinen

A tiny fossil recently discovered in China is probably causing some head scratching to evolutionists. The fossil, an assumed ancestor of tarsiers, is thought to be 55 million years old.

Evolutionists believe that primates already lived in Africa 38 million years ago. This is interesting, because they assume that until 16 million years ago Africa was an island.

Primates thus had to sail from Asia to Africa on rafts.

But how on earth could tiny tarsiers no bigger than a human palm cope with a long sea voyage? In addition, at least two animals had to make the trip, otherwise we would not have had primates in Africa but they would have become extinct.

The root of the problem is the belief in millions of years. The problem disappears, if one gives up this dogma.

Source:

Wilford, John Noble. 2013. Palm-Size Fossil Resets Primates’ Clock, Scientists Say. The New York Times (5 June).

Forgeries or Not? Science Calls For Stricter Scrutiny for Chinese Fossils

Some famous fossils, such as Archaeoraptor liaoningensis, were forgeries.




Joel Kontinen


The latest issue of Science has an interesting article that questions the credibility of some fossils found in China. It brings to mind what J. Shreeve wrote in Discoverer magazine in 1990: ”Everybody knows fossils are fickle; bones will sing any song you want to hear.”

The problem with Chinese dinosaur and bird fossils is that no one really knows whether they are authentic, as many have been collected and sold by amateurs.

According to Science,

“such secondhand fossils have a downside: Sloppy records or even outright forgeries can make it hard for researchers studying a specimen to tell where it came from, how old it is, or sometimes even whether it is genuine.”

Darwinian just so stories and even an entire worldview are often based on very flimsy evidence.


Source:

Balter, Michael. 2013. Authenticity of China's Fabulous Fossils Gets New Scrutiny. Science 340 (6137), 1153–1154 (7 June 2013).

How Many Monkeys Are Needed to Type Shakespeare’s Works?

Chimps can ruin a typewriter but they cannot use it to type intelligent messages. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.




Joel Kontinen

What do you get if you give monkeys a typewriter or computer in the hope that they would type Shakespeare’s collected works?

Some Darwinists have suggested that with enough time, anything could happen.

A scientific study attempted to examine what monkeys would do with a computer. The result: five pages of nonsense and a very dirty computer, as this brief video produced by Creation Ministries International shows:

Human Size Has Not Changed in ”1.5 Million Years”, New Research Suggests

A recent footprint study does not support this scenario. Image courtesy of José-Manuel Benito Álvarez, Wikipedia.




Joel Kontinen

In real life things do not change like they are supposed to do in textbooks on evolution. According to Nature, “Fossil footprints indicate that hominins were already as large as modern humans by 1.52 million years ago.”

The short article reported recent research by Brian Richmond and Heather Dingwall at George Washington University and their colleagues. They compared footprints left by Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei to those left by people in Kenya who in our time habitually walk barefoot, and noticed that the footprints were practically identical.

They found no evidence for evolution.



Source:

Footprints reveal hominin size. Nature 497, 538 (30 May 2013).

Aurornis xui, a Bird Older Than Dinos, Discovered in a Chinese Museum

Archaeopteryx (above) will probably have to relinquish its role as the grand daddy of modern birds.




Joel Kontinen

Recently, a fossil found in a Chinese museum might shake up the Darwinian view of the avian family tree and make the dino to bird connection less credible. The newcomer is a half a metre (20 inches) long feathered creature. Its discoverer, palaeontologist Pascal Godefroit, regards it as a real bird.

Aurornis xui, as the fossil is called, is assumed to be ”150-160 million years old, which would make it older than Archaeopteryx.

However, some researchers still think that Archaeopteryx is the earliest true bird.

It was difficult for birds to evolve from dinosaurs, if even evolutionists think that they are at least as old as dinos.

Source:

Woolston, Chris. 2013. New contender for first bird. Feathered creature shakes up avian family tree. Nature News (29 May).