Tasmanian Tiger

Atheists In Favour of Christianity

Diana Vargas, fair use doctrine




Joel Kontinen


Historian Tom Holland is known primarily as a storyteller of the ancient world. Thus, his newest book Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World, came as something of a surprise for several reasons. First, Tom Holland is not a Christian. Second, Holland’s book is one of the most ambitious historical defences of Christianity in a very long time.

How did we get from there to here? He says that Christianity “Revolutionized sex and marriage, demanding that men control themselves and prohibiting all forms of rape. Christianity confined sexuality within monogamy. (It is ironic, Holland notes, that these are now the very standards for which Christianity is derided.) Christianity elevated women. In short, Christianity utterly transformed the world.”.

van Muren also speaks about atheists Douglas Murray and Charles Murray and Jordan Petersonn says that “Even Richard Dawkins has now admitted that Christianity might be preferable to the alternatives. He once called for Christianity to be destroyed. Now he begrudgingly says it has good effects on society.”

Source:

van Maren,Jonathon, 2020. Atheists in Praise of Christianity? The Stream 19 May.

Chiina Welcomes E.T.

Image courtesy of NAO/FAST, fair use doctrine.




Joel Kontinen

China has risen to the top of radio astronomy and the search for Search for extra-terrerstrial intellligence or SETI. However, “Anyone hoping for a redo of the 1960s 'space race' between the Soviet Union and the United States in today's international SETI scene is going to be disappointed. In SETI, international cooperation wins over competition," said Douglas Vakoch, president of METI International in San Francisco.”

Researchers using China's new Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), the largest single-dish scope in the world, They are are piecing together a technological strategy to carry out a major and sweeping search for extra-terrestrial intelligence (SETI).

They are using the five-hundred-meter aperture spherical radio telescope (fast) in southwest China's Guizhou province.

China is controlled by the communist party, for which SETI is a God-send. They believe that faith in God is superfluous, that everything can be explained by science or their modelling of it.

Source:

David, Leonard. 2020. SETI, go: Is there a race to contact E.T.? Live Science 25 May.

What Was Mars formed Of?

Image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech.



Joel Kontinen


Scientists have long thought Mars' core was made of iron-sulfur.

Japanese scientist are curious as how Mars formed. They want to know if the Red Planet's core was primarily formed of iron-sulfur.

"If it isn't, that will tell us something of Mars' origins," Keisuk Nishida said. "For example, if Mars' core includes silicon and oxygen, it suggests that, like Earth, Mars suffered a huge impact event as it formed. So, what is Mars made of and how was it formed? I think we are about to find out."


Source:

Lavender, Gemma. 2020. New Marsquake study could shatter theories on how Mars was born Live Science 25 May.

USA Does Not Permit Abortion

Official White House Photo, Joyce N. Boghosian.



Joel Kontinen


Health ministers from around the world adopted a resolution on health policies to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic early this week at the World Health Assembly that includes “sexual and reproductive health.”

The United States objected to the inclusion of the term and rejected the notion of an international right to abortion. It rejected the WHO’s assertion that aborting is included in the term “sexual and reproductive health.”

American will remember President Donald Trump, who said in 2019, “Americans will never tire of defending innocent life” and chided UN bodies for promoting abortion as a human right and pressuring countries to remove legal restrictions on abortion.”


Source:

Gennarini, Stefano. 2020. ”US pushes back against pro-abortion language in UN health resolution. Life Site News 22 May.

Earth’s Magnetic Field Is Weakening

Joel Kontinen

"On average the planet's magnetic field has lost almost 10% of its strength over the last two centuries, but there is a large localised region of weakness stretching from Africa to South America.

Known as the South Atlantic Anomaly, the field strength in this area has rapidly shrunk over the past 50 years just as the area itself has grown and moved westward.

Over the past five years a second centre of minimum intensity has developed southwest of Africa, which researchers believe indicates the anomaly could split into two separate cells.

The anomaly is causing technical difficulties for satellites orbiting the Earth."

Some scientist think that this occurs repeated in the history of the Earth, roughly every 250,000 years or so.


Source:

Satellites and spacecraft malfunction as Earth's magnetic field mysteriously weakens, Sky-news . 22 May.

Jerusalem Day: Celebrating the Return to Israel’s Ancient Capital

Secular Scientists Give The Age of Mount St. Helens It Deserves In Their Way

Image courtesy of Lyn Topinka, Public Domain.



Joel Kontinen



Mount St. Helens is a a testimony of creation research.

Dr Steve Austen, has made discoveries that tumble the
slogans of uniformation Science, did not mention “the fine laminations and layers of rock laid down in minutes, the ability of mudflows to cut through solid rock, the near-instantaneous carving of Grand-Canyon-like canyons on a smaller scale, and the phenomenon of logs in Spirit Lake planting themselves upright to resemble the fossil forests of Yellowstone). Those findings were made primarily by a creation geologist, Dr Steve Austin, and reinforced by other creation scientists",as mentioned by Creation-Evolution Headlines.

Ichthyosaurs Grew Sharp Teeth So They Could Harvest Shellfish

image courtesy of Nobu Tamura, CC BY-SA 4.0CC BY-SA 4.0



Joel Kontinen


We have problems today, but just consider how the ichthyosaurs had it some 252 million years ago during the Permian mass extinction. Evolutionists think that these animals evolved sharp teeth to crush shellfish,

Yes, that right, they evolved sharp teeth to gain a lunch.

Darwinian folktales are interesting. Some, for instance warn of the use of predestination in biology, as we we have four limbs because we have a belly - A new evolution story..


Source.

Field Museum, 2020. Prehistoric sea creatures evolved pebble-shaped teeth to crush shellfish Phys.org 5 May.

The New York Times Says that Israeli Soldier Killed by “Rock”

Image courtesy of Courtesy. Fair use doctrine.


Joel Kontinen

The New York Times described the killing this week of IDF soldier Amit Ben Yigal as follows: “A 21-year-old Israeli soldier was killed early Tuesday when he was struck in the head with a rock. Yes,

but rocks don’t target Israeli soldiers, someone must be guide their way.

In reality, the soldier was killed by a Palestine terrorist, who dropped it on an Israeli soldier.

Emanuel Miller of watchdog group HonestReporting wrote, “Journalists have a responsibility to accurately, fairly report events. Reporters have a duty to share all the facts. Rocks don’t hit people by themselves, just as car doesn’t drive into people of their own volition.”

Miller, Emanuel. 2020. Honest Reporting 12 MAY.

Fish-Eating Anchovies

Image courtesy of Joschua Knüppe, Fair use doctrine.




Joel Kontinen

This article is full of evolution and millions of years .

When dinosaurs and other large predators went extinct some 66 million years ago, lots of creatures evolved to take their place. But unlike the plankton-hunting anchovies we eat in Caesar salads today, some ancient anchovies evolved into fish-eating predators, according to a new study.

Researchers examined a 30-centimeter-long fossil embedded in a rock formation near Chièvres, Belgium, and another partial fossil from Pakistan’s Punjab province. They were between 41 million and 54 million years old, and both shared a peculiar feature: a single saber tooth on the upper jaw.

The researchers think that it hailed from a small fish, called a Monosmilus chureloides.

While sea bird look the same as today, the researchers write in Royal Society Open Science that these anchovies also loved to eat fish.


Source:

Ortega, Rodrigo Pérez. 2020. Saber-toothed anchovies roamed the oceans 45 million years ago. Science 12 May.

The Truth About Jerusalem

No Little Green Men On New Exoplanet

NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech.





Joel Kontiinen

Scientists suspect they have found a new alien planet by gravitational microlensing.

Gravitational microlensing relies on the fact that massive objects warp the space around them. When a telescope, a massive object and a target line up in just the right way, the massive object warps the light emitted by the target, magnifying it

The planet's star is a dim dwarf star, perhaps even a brown dwarf, or "failed star." The planet's year lasts about 617 Earth days, even though its orbit falls somewhere between those of Earth and Venus around our sun.

This exoplanet is four times the mass of Earth — making it a super-Earth or a sub-Neptune — that circles its star between the orbital distances of Venus and Earth – which means no little green men on it.

The research is described in a paper published May 7 in The Astronomical Journal.

Source:

Bartels, Meghan, 2020. Scientists spot super-Earth planet in Earth-like orbit. Space.Com 12 May.

Naked Mole Rats Bathe Their Brains In Carbon Dioxide To Prevent Seizures

Image courtesy of Roman Klementschitz, CC BY-SA 3.0.


Joel Kontinen

They might not win any beauty contests or even look very cute, but naked mole rats (Heterocephalus glaber) are exceptional animals.

A new study, published in the journal Current Biology, brings to light another of the secrets of the mole rat.

In the new study, "Carbon dioxide is really good at calming the brain down, if not shutting the brain down," said study author Dan McCloskey, an associate professor of psychology at the Graduate Center of The City University of New York. McCloskey studies epilepsy, a neurological condition characterized by recurrent seizures, and thinks the study of naked mole rats could help to unravel mysteries surrounding the human medical condition."

"Further research into what provokes seizures in naked mole rats, and what prevents them, could help guide future studies in human patients, he added."

"A 2011 study led by the University of Helsinki suggested that doctors could quickly suppress seizures in epilepsy patients by having them inhale air made up of 5% carbon dioxide. Now, physicians in Finland "keep CO2 bottles on hand" for acute epilepsy treatment, and specifically for infants with febrile seizures, McCloskey said."

Unlike other creatures, these tiny rodents hardly age at all. While they will eventually die, they can live well over 30 years in captivity, which is a huge age for rats.

This reminds us of the diversity seen in the animal kingdom.

They remind us of the longevity of the early humans mentioned in Genesis after the Fall.

Source:

Lanese, Nicoletta. 2020. We expel carbon dioxide as waste. Naked mole rats bathe their brains in it to prevent seizures. Live Science 30 April.

Old Squid Relative Takes Lunch But Then Something Happens

Image courtesy of Malcolm Hart/Proceedings of the Geologists' Association.



Joel Kontinen


“A squid relative went fishing, but never got to eat its prey.” It probably got attacked by the Flood of Noah’s days that put an end to its ravages.

“This 200 million-year-old fossil was originally discovered in the 19th century, but a new analysis reveals that it's the oldest known example of a coleoid, or a class of cephalopods that includes octopuses, squid and cuttlefish, attacking prey.

That attack was vicious, said study lead researcher, Malcolm Hart, emeritus professor of micropaleontology at the University of Plymouth in England.”

The researchers named the creature Clarkeiteuthis montefiorei. The 40 centimeters squid long relative was eating a smaller herring-like fish, when something stopped what they were doing.

The study has been accepted by the Proceedings of the Geologists' Association and was presented May 6 as part of Sharing Geoscience Online.

Source:

Geggel , Laura. 2020. 200 million-year-old fossil shows oldest 'squid attack' on record. Live Science 5 May.

Tully Monster Is A Vertebrate

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.





Joel Kontinen


Some animals are so weird that they don’t fit into evolutionary classifications. Of today’s creatures, the duck-billed platypus , the spiny anteater and the aardvark are huge puzzles for Darwinians.

Now, the Tully monster (Tullimonstrum gregarium( that lived is presented as a Darwnian enigma.

How Water’s Chemistry Helps Make Life on Earth Possible

Image courtesy of Juhanson, CC BY-SA 3.0.


Joel Kontinen

Water is essential for our planet. Now, I see water that has just released from its ice --another feature for water it does not freeze from the bottom, but at the top,

On this video, Dr, Michael Denton tells us what water, how it is specially useful to us.

Source:

How Water’s Chemistry Helps Make Life on Earth Possible. Evolution News 2 May.

Weird Mammal Found In Madagascar

Denver Museum of Nature & Science/Andrey Atuchin.



Joel Kontinen

Scientists can't even figure out how this odd creature walked.

The oldest complete mammal fossil in the Southern Hemisphere looks like its from its from outer space.

"The new fossil, reported in the journal Nature, is the oldest (and only) nearly complete skeleton from an extinct group of mammals known as Gondwanatherians. This mysterious bunch lived alongside the dinosaurs on the southern supercontinent of Gondwana. They're known from a smattering of teeth and bone fragments, a single skull and the new, remarkable skeleton of an animal whose discoverers have dubbed the "crazy beast."

The fossil is from northwestern Madagascar and dates back 66 million years, to the end of the Cretaceous period. Madagascar was already an island at the time, having drifted away from Africa by 88 million years ago, and the animals that lived there were completely bizarre, said David Krause, the senior curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, who led the new research."

Evolution can be wonderful. It can lead to all causes of wonders, some of which take away the millions of years.

Source:

Pappas, Stephanie. 2020. Ancient 'crazy beast' from Madagascar had mismatched body and teeth from 'outer space' Live Science 29 April.

A Whale of an Evolution Tale (Long Story Short, Ep. 2)