Evolution: Storytelling and Magic

Something from nothing? Image courtesy of Strobridge Litho. Co., Cincinnati & New York (Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license).




Joel Kontinen

What would be left of Darwinian evolution if its adherents did not invoke storytelling and the miraculous appearances of new body parts?

Very, very little. Here’s a recent example published online in the journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) of an attempt to explain why the Cambrian Explosion produced an incredible assortment of novelty in almost no time.

“There are few putative macroevolutionary trends or rules that withstand scrutiny. Here, we test and verify the purported tendency for animal clades to reach their maximum morphological variety relatively early in their evolutionary histories (early high disparity),” the authors say in their abstract.

Translation: The “Cambrian” animals appear fully functional without any obvious ancestors. Darwinists have to resort to inventive explanations to come up with anything that would sound plausible.

There is a much more credible explanation for the Cambrian Explosion (and the millions of years that evolution cannot do without): Noah’s Flood. The rock layers indicate the order of burial, not the appearance of new species.



Source:

Hughes, Martin, Sylvain Gerber and Matthew Albion Wills. 2013. Clades reach highest morphological disparity early in their evolution.
PNAS (July 24).

Desmond Tutu Prefers Hell over Obedience to God’s Word

Desmond Tutu. Image courtesy of Dale Frost, Flikr. (Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license).





Joel Kontinen

If the Bible says (it does) that homosexuality is a sin, then former archbishop Desmond Tutu says he will definitely not want to go to heaven.

Speaking in Cape Town at an event sponsored by the UN, Tutu said,

“I would refuse to go to a homophobic heaven. No, I would say sorry, I mean I would much rather go to the other place.”

Translation: Desmond Tutu thinks he knows some things better than God, who, after all, has made it perfectly clear that homosexuality is a sin.

God will not force anyone to enter heaven. He does not like human rebellion – not even that instigated by a former archbishop, either, but calls all people to repent of their sins.

Source:

Chumley, Cheryl K. 2013. Desmond Tutu: I’d pick hell over an anti-gay heaven. The Washington Times. (26 July).

Dinosaurs in the Bible?

What does the BIble say about dinosaurs?



Joel Kontinen



The word dinosaur was coined in 1841, so we cannot see it in the Bible. However, the Book of Job describes a creature known as Behemoth:

“Look at the behemoth, which I made along with you and which feeds on grass like an ox.
What strength he has in his loins, what power in the muscles of his belly!
His tail sways like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are close-knit." (Job 40:15-17, NIV).

It sounds like a sauropod dinosaur, which would mean that dinos and people lived at the same time.

The latest episode of ICR’s That’s a Fact video series features dinosaurs, the Bible and dragons.

There is plenty of evidence that suggests that dinosaurs might not be as old as many assume.

You can watch the video here.

Answers Mega Conference Is Now Live

Joel Kontinen

The AIG Mega Conference is being held at the Sevierville Events Center in Sevierville, Tennessee (July 22 – 26). The speakers include Ken Ham, Dr.Tommy Mitchell, Dr. Georgia Purdom, Dr. Andrew Snelling, Buddy Davis, Dr. Terry Mortenson, Bodie Hodge, Bill Jack, Steve Ham, John Elliott, Todd Friel, Eric Hovind and Mark Coppenger.

Ray Comfort’s new film Evolution vs. God was premiered at the Conference on Monday night (July 22).

You can watch some of the session live on the Internet. Check the AIG website for details.




Source:

Answers Mega Conference

Atheists Want to Ban the Star of David

Some atheists obviously want to ban all religious symbols, such as the Star of David. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.






Joel Kontinen



Architect Daniel Libeskind has designed a Star of David for the Holocaust Memorial being built in Columbus, Ohio. This has lead to a potential lawsuit, as the atheistic Freedom From Religion Foundation is opposed to the use of what they see as a religious symbol in a public building.

The approach of the atheistic organisation speaks more loudly of the inherent intolerance of those who oppose religion than of anything else. After all, Daniel Libeskind’s parents were Holocaust survivors and unlike the cross, the Star of David is not a religious symbol at all.

In Nazi Germany, all Jews had to wear the star whether they wanted to or not. The Holocaust Memorial reminds us of one of the biggest tragedies in history – one that was inspired by Darwinian evolution and its purported struggle for existence.



Source:

Katherine Bindley. 2013. Ohio Statehouse Holocaust Memorial Star Of David Design Prompts Lawsuit Threat. The Huffington Post (18 July).

Language Families Support The Tower of Babel Account

Pieter Brueghel the Elder: The Tower of Babel (1563). Image courtesy of Wikipedia.


Joel Kontinen

Genesis 11 describes the Tower of Babel account when God confused the language people spoke at the time. From then on, there were 70 language groups.

What is interesting is that the language families we currently have correspond roughly to those mentioned in the table of nations in Genesis, providing proof of the accuracy of the Bible, as this brief video produced by the Institute of Creation Research (ICR) shows.

Has King David’s Palace Been Found?

Caravaggio: David and Goliath (ca. 1599). Some sceptics assumed that King David was a legendary figure. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.




Joel Kontinen

Some sceptics thought that King David never existed. Some others assumed that he was a tribal chief and that the accounts about him in the Old Testament were greatly exaggerated.

However, this week the Israel Antiquities Authority issued a press release that claims that King David’s palace was discovered. It stated:

“Two royal public buildings, the likes of which have not previously been found in the Kingdom of Judah of the tenth century BCE, were uncovered this past year by researchers of the Hebrew University and the Israel Antiquities Authority at Khirbet Qeiyafa – a fortified city in Judah dating to the time of King David and identified with the biblical city of Shaarayim.

One of the buildings is identified by the researchers, Professor Yossi Garfinkel of the Hebrew University and Saar Ganor of the Israel Antiquities Authority, as David’s palace, and the other structure served as an enormous royal storeroom.”

Khirbet Qeiyafa is not far (about 30 kilometres) from Jerusalem. The discovery suggests that Israel was a well-developed state in the 10th century B.C.

While we cannot be absolutely sure that the find is really David’s palace, it seems to be a very logical explanation of the facts.

Interesting? Yes, but we should not forget that the Bible describes real people, who lived in real geographic locations at real eras in history.

Sources:

Israel Antiquities Authority. 2013. King David’s Palace was Uncovered in the Judean Shephelah (18 July).

Wiener, Noah. 2013. King David’s Palace at Khirbet Qeiyafa? Biblical Archaeology Society (18 July).

“Spider Silk Is a Wonder of Nature”

This spider is using more advanced technology than most (human) researchers. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.




Joel Kontinen

Materials found in nature could help us to spare our planet, an article in The Conversation suggests. They are also “rich in information and low in energy.” No wonder, then, that biomimicry or imitating intelligent solutions found in nature has become a very popular branch of study.

Michelle Oyen, Lecturer in Mechanics of Biological Materials at University of Cambridge, UK, writes:

“The magic of spider silk has everything to do with the transmission of information through DNA. Human engineering is adept at using more energy to solve problems. Nature does it through the use of better information.”

Blind Darwinian processes are not supposed to come up with hi-tech solutions, so there must be a more intelligent explanation: design.

Source:

Oyen, Michelle. 2013. Spider silk is a wonder of nature, but it’s not stronger than steel. The Conversation. (5 June).

“The Popular Image of Human Evolution Is an Illusion,” Famous Evolutionist Says

Paleoanthropologist Bernard Wood acknowledges that this scenario is an illusion. Image courtesy of José-Manuel Benito Álvarez, Wikipedia.





Joel Kontinen

Darwinian evolution needs imagination and illusions, otherwise if could not be marketed as aggressively as it has been. But at times some evolutionists manage to be quite frank about the credibility of their evidence.

Just over a decade ago, Bernard Wood, a well-known paleoanthropologist at George Washington University, wrote in New Scientist:

“There is a popular image of human evolution that you’ll find all over the place, from the backs of cereal packets to advertisements for expensive scientific equipment. On the left of the picture there’s an ape—stocky, jutting jaw, hunched in the knuckle-walking position. On the right, a man—graceful, high forehead, striding purposefully into the future. Between the two is a succession of figures that become ever more like humans, as the shoulders start to pull back, the torso slims down, the arms retract, the legs extend, the cranium expands and the chin recedes. Our progress from ape to human looks so smooth, so tidy. It’s such a beguiling image that even the experts are loath to let it go. But it is an illusion.”

What about the facts? They’re still missing – 150 years after Darwin.


Source:

Wood, Bernard. 2002. Who are we? New Scientist 176 (2366): 44–47. (26 October).

The Cambrian Explosion – Still a Huge Problem For Evolutionists

Dr. Stephen Meyer’s new book addresses a huge problem that continues to trouble Darwinists.





Joel Kontinen



Darwinian evolution fails to account for the influx of genetic information needed to produce new animals. Darwinian processes are unable to solve this huge engineering problem.

And then the purported missing links or intermediary forms that evolution desperately needs are still missing, over 150 years after Darwin’s The Origin of Species.

So, even if we disagree with the evolutionary time scale of hundreds of millions of years, the Cambrian Explosion is still a huge problem for evolutionists.

Nature: Some Exoplanets Might Not Exist

This bright object in the Fomalhaut system might not be a planet after all. Image courtesy of NRA/NSF/NASA.





Joel Kontinen

The number of exoplanets might be smaller than astronomers and astrobiologists previously thought, research recently published in Nature suggests.

Astronomers had even previously suspected that the bright object in the disc around the star Fomalhaut (HD 216956) was not a planet after all.

Now, Wladimir Lyra, an astrophysicist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, and Marc Kuchner, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Maryland, suggest that such features are probably not planets at all.

This is not very good news to exoplanet hunters who had assumed that habitable planets are common in the universe.

However, habitable planets seem to be very rare. And, as we know, life only comes from life. As the Book of Genesis says, “In the beginning God created.”

Source:


Perkins, Sid. 2013. Proposed exoplanets may be just gas and dust. Nature News (10 July).

“People Are Unable To See Evolution Because They Don’t Have Imagination,” Evolutionist Says

It is not easy to see our cousin here, if we do not have imagination.


Joel Kontinen

At times, when scientists who believe in evolution are honest about their beliefs, they might have interesting things to say. As featured on Ray Comfort’s new documentary Evolution Vs. God, Gail Kennedy, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles, says:

“The problem with those who are unable to see evolution, I think, is that they don’t have imagination.”

Laetoli Footprints – They Look Like Human Footprints But ...

A replica of the Laetoli footprints at the National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo, Japan. Image courtesy of Wikipedia (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license).






Joel Kontinen

In Darwinian explanations, the cart often comes before the horse. Fossils are seldom if ever carbon dated because evolutionists assume that they are too old to contain radiocarbon.

And if some features are in the wrong place (evolutionary speaking, that is), they cannot be what they obviously are. A well-known example is the existence of fossil footprints in Tanzania that are assumed to be 3.6 million years old. As this brief video produced by Creation Ministries International shows, they look exactly like human footprints, yet Darwinists cannot accept this, because it would be contrary to their storytelling.

Nature, Misinformation, Science Education and Paulo Freire

In his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Freire called for a more critical approach to education.


Joel Kontinen

In his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Freire discusses the traditinal “banking” method of education in which the teacher pours knowledge onto the students and the students accept it without thinking about it. Freire says that this approach leads to a dehumabization of both the students and the teachers.

Freire calls for a more critical approach to education, with the teacher and students searching for knowledge together.

Compare this with a recent article in the journal Nature on science education in the United States. It claims: “In the past decade, those who oppose evolution have sought to enact ‘academic freedom’ laws that would allow creationism to be taught alongside evolution.”

Actually, Academic Freedom Bills only allow for a more balanced approach. They allow teachers and students to think. In Tennessee, the Law states:

"Neither the state board of education, nor any public elementary or secondary school governing authority, director of schools, school system administrators, or any public elementary or secondary school principal or administrators shall prohibit any teacher in a public school system of this state from helping students understand, analyze, critique, and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories covered in the course being taught within the curriculum framework developed by the state board of education.”

Paulo Freire would probably approve.


Sources:


Freire, Paolo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. 1993. 30th Anniversary Edition. Trnaslated by Myra Bergman Ramos. New York: Continuum.

Morello, Lauren. 2013. Evolution makes the grade Nature 499, 15–16 (4 July).

Who Invented a Flying Device More Sophisticated Than a Helicopter?

A helicopter is no match for a dragonfly.





Joel Kontinen

For several decades, researchers, engineers and inventors have drawn inspiration from nature. For instance, Professor Stuart Burgess and his research team at the University of Bristol (UK) have developed a tiny flying robot weighing less than 20 kilograms. It flies like a dragonfly.

Professor Burgess acknowledges that the robot is no match for a dragonfly that is a very sophisticated creature that can fly in any direction.

Burgess says that it is ironic that evolutionists believe that dragonflies are primitive animals. The best engineers are unable to develop robots that could fly as well as they can.

The answer to the question (even according to Professor Burgess) is God.

Source:

Burgess, Stuart. 2012. God Invented it First. Answers 7(1), 46–51. (January 2012).

German Daily Depicts Israel as Moloch

Moloch. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.


Joel Kontinen



Moloch was a Caananite deity associated with child sacrifices. Recently, the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung used a cartoon describing this idol as an illustration in a review of a book by Peter Beinart, a liberal Jewish American commentator.

The cartoon was accompanied by a text that stated (as translated from German):

“Germany is serving. For decades now, Israel has been given weapons, and partly free of charge. Israel’s enemies think it is a ravenous Moloch. Peter Beinart deplores this situation.”

The paper deplored that it used this cartoon, but the damage has already been done.


Source:

Plosker, Simon. 2013. Anti-Semitism in German Daily: Israel as a Ravenous Monster. Honest Reporting (July 3).

”Evolutionary Conservation” and Other Darwinian Buzzwords

Many of our feathered friends seem to have an “evolutionary conserved” organelle that has the hallmarks of design.





Joel Kontinen

Darwinese is an interesting language. In contrast to standard English, words can take on very surprising meanings.

Recently, when researchers reported on the discovery of an organelle in the inner ear of many birds, they said that it was a case of “evolutionary conservation”, which in plain language means that something has not evolved.

The paper reporting this in Current Biology suggests that this organelle is “an integral component of the sensory apparatus in birds.” It probably helps birds to navigate much more accurately than we can with our hi-tech devices.

Change should be the most prominent feature in evolution. However, very often researchers have to resort to Darwinese to explain away the facts. Evolutionary conservation or stasis is all too common in the fossil record, and the number of living fossils keeps on increasing.


Source:

Lauwers, Matthias et. al. 2013. An Iron-Rich Organelle in the Cuticular Plate of Avian Hair Cells. Current Biology 23 (10) 924–929.