The Assumed Ape To Man Evolution is a Flimsy Story

Image courtesy of José-Manuel Benito Álvarez, Wikipedia.



Joel Kontinen

First there was a story that lacked evidence. Then there were attempts to fit the evidence into a predetermined framework. The result is not very convincing since Darwinian evolution does not have a mechanism that would lift an ape-like creature to walk on two feet and make him into a man capable of using language fluently.

What do fossils disclose about human evolution? Not very much. Although there is no scarcity of fossils there are very few assumed remains of our supposed forefathers.

In his book Icons of Evolution (2000), Jonathan Wells, who has a PhD in molecular and cell biology, criticised the assumed evidence for evolution. He pointed out that it was very flimsy and misleading.

On a fresh video he says that nothing much has changed in ten years. Darwinian evolution does not work:




Natural selection and mutations do not increase an organism’s genetic information. In other words, animals cannot evolve from simpler forms into more sophisticated ones.

Harvard Astrophysicist: Alien Life Might Not Exist

Many exoplanets are hot Jupiters. Image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle.


Joel Kontinen

For a long time many astronomers have assumed that the universe is teeming with Earth-like planets that must harbour life.

Not all experts share this view, however. Recently, Howard Smith, a senior astrophysicist at Harvard University, said that we might be alone in the cosmos. Although 500 exoplanets have already been discovered, none of them resemble Earth. Smith suggests that Earth is unique.

Exoplanets differ from Earth in many ways. Most are hot super-earths that orbit very close to their star.

Dr. Smith says that many astronomers were thrilled by the discovery of the planet HD10180 as they assumed that it was very much like the Earth. But the more they examined it, the more obvious it became that there are enormous differences. HD10180 orbits its sun at a distance of under two million kilometres and is scorching hot (like many other exoplanets).

No wonder Dr. Smith is sceptical of finding life in outer space.

The Bible does not say anything about extraterrestrial life. In contrast, those who believe in Darwinian evolution assume that the universe is teeming with life.

Source:

Blake, Heidi. 2011. Alien life deemed impossible by analysis of 500 planets. The Telegraph (23 January).

The Coppedge Case: NASA’s Moral Quagmire

Wernher von Braun (1912 –1977), the father of the US Apollo space programme, believed that God created the entire universe. Image courtesy of NASA.




Joel Kontinen

In December 1968 Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders orbited the moon. They read the first ten verses of Genesis as a Christmas greeting to the inhabitants of ”the good earth”:

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.”

Dr. Wernher von Braun (1912 –1977), the father of the Apollo programme, was also a Bible-believing Christian. Since his time, however, NASA has sunk into a moral quagmire. Now, NASA employees cannot even suggest that at least some aspects of nature appear to be designed – if they want to keep their jobs.

Since 1997 David Coppedge has worked as an information technology specialist and system administrator in the Cassini Program at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He was demoted when a colleague complained that he had loaned two pro-ID DVD documentaries to his co-workers.

This week NASA announced that Mr. Coppedge would loose his job because they have to downsize the staff at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

NASA’s excuse is a lame one. Mr. Coppedge is one of the senior computer experts at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Usually, it is the junior members who have to go first and not the most competent ones.

It seems that for some NASA bosses intelligent design is like a red rag to a not-too-friendly bull.



Source:

Background on David Coppedge and the lawsuit against NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Inquiry Concludes Israel Had the Right to Stop the Gaza Convoy

This ship made headlines in May 2010. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.


Joel Kontinen

In May 2010 Israeli commandoes intercepted a Turkish convoy bound for Gaza. The ”peace activists” on board the Mavi Marmara attacked the soldiers with metal tubes and other weapons.

Ten of the soldiers were wounded in the clash. The Israelis had to resort to firearms to calm the all-but-peaceful activists, nine of whom died and several were wounded.

For the most part, the popular media promptly condemned the Israeli raid.

Israel set up a commission to investigate the matter. In addition to Israeli experts, it also included two well-known international observers. Lord David Trimble was awarded the 1998 Nobel peace prize for his efforts to bring an end to the fighting in Northern Ireland. Ken Watkin, a retired Canadian brigadier-general, investigated the Rwanda genocide.

The inquiry concluded that international law gave Israel the right to intercept a convoy that was a potential security risk.

Reporting on the decision, BBC for instance did not even mention the names of the international observers.


Sources:

Israel inquiry finds Gaza aid flotilla raid 'was legal' BBC News. 23 January 2011.

Flotilla Report: BBC Plumbs the Depths. Honest Reporting. 24 January 2011.

A Big Surprise For Evolution: Crows Are Smarter Than Great Apes

New Caledonian crow (Corvus moneduloides). Image courtesy of John Gerrard Keulemans, Wikipedia.



Joel Kontinen

Crows are surprisingly clever. In spite of their relatively small brains, they are more innovative in their use of tools than the great apes. This is a dilemma for Darwinians since according to the evolution-based story, as our closest living relatives chimpanzees should be cleverer than birds.

Recently, a team at the University of Oxford observed New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides) living in aviaries. The researchers gave the crows different kinds of objects. Seeing a potentially dangerous object, the birds would first touch it with a tool (a stick) until they would use their beak.

Research has shown that crows will use one tool to access another one that will enable them to use a third tool.

Crows are innovative tool users in other ways, also:




Source:

Physorg.com. 18 January 2011.

Corruption Kills – Even in Earthquakes

The Haitian earthquake in January 2010 was more deadly than any other in several decades. Image courtesy of Joshua Lee Kelsey, US Navy, via Wikipedia.



Joel Kontinen

When an earthquake hits a very corrupt country, it kills more people than if it occurs in a less corrupt country. This is the take-away message of a fresh study that looked into the causes of earthquake deaths.

Professor Nicholas Ambraseys at the Imperial College in London and professor Roger Bilham at the University of Colorado at Boulder examined data collected by Transparency International, a Berlin-based organisation that monitors corruption and the abuse of power globally.

Ambraseys and Bilham noticed that during the past three decades 83 per cent of all deaths occurred in the most corrupt countries.

For instance, whereas the 2010 quake in Haiti took the lives of approximately 250,000 people (the estimate varies greatly, depending on the source), no one died in a comparable 7.0 magnitude earthquake in New Zealand.

According to ScienceDaily, many deaths are caused by “corrupt building practices … which can include the use of substandard materials, poor assembly methods, the inappropriate placement of buildings and non-adherence to building codes.”

The result should not be a surprise for Christians who believe in the Bible. After all, the apostle Paul said that the wages of sin is death.

Source:

Extent of Corruption in Countries Around the World Tied to Earthquake Fatalities. ScienceDaily 16 January 2011.

50 Years Ago: The Book That Brought Noah’s Flood Back to News Headlines

Joel Kontinen


In 1959, when evolutionists celebrated the 100th anniversary of The Origin of Species, Sir Julian Huxley proclaimed that creationism was practically dead.

Sir Julian Huxley (1887-1975) was the grandson of Thomas Henry Huxley, who was known as Darwin’s bulldog.

Two years after Huxley’s prediction, doctors John Whitcomb and Henry Morris published their book The Genesis Flood that showed that the Flood of Noah’s day was not a myth but a real historical event.

Dr. Whitcomb was a theologian and Dr. Morris an expert in hydraulics. Whitcomb knew what the Bible said about the Flood and Morris understood what a lot of water could do.

Over 200, 000 copies of the book have been sold. It marked a real renaissance in biblical creationism.