Goodbye, Textbook Explanations: Microbes Can Create Dripstones

Caves can be interesting places. Image courtesy of Dave Bunnell, Wikipedia.





Joel Kontinen

Recently, Science Daily published a report on dripstones that challenges previous views:

“Scientists have found that microscopic organisms can create dripstones in caves. The research illustrates how biological life can influence the formation of Earth's geology.”

The article reported on a group of researchers from Denmark, Sweden and Spain who investigated dripstone formation in a Swedish cave and found out that microbes played an active role in their formation.

Obviously, the previous view was too simplistic:

“According to traditional textbooks, dripstones are created by geological or geochemical processes with no influence from living organisms. But now scientists report that formation of dripstones can be a lot more complex than that: Sometimes microbes are responsible for the formation of these geological features.”

The textbook explanation features a slow process that takes thousands, if not millions of years. We now know that at least in some caves this is not true but stalagmites and stalactites get help from micro organisms. As yet, they are not sure whether this speeds up the process.

It has been known for some decades that dripstones can form much faster than generally expected. For instance, Emil Silvestru, a karstologist or cave expert with a PhD in geology, has criticised the conventional belief in millions of years for cave formation, as it is based on assumptions that cannot be verified.

Source:

Microbes can create dripstones in caves. Science Daily, August 18, 2014.

Latest Zonkey Is Evidence of the Genesis Principle of After Its Kind

A zonkey or zedonk at Colchester Zoo in 2004. Image courtesy of Wikipedia (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license).




Joel Kontinen

Recently, a zebra mother and a donkey father gave birth to a zonkey in a private zoo in Crimea. Telegraph, as the zonkey is named, is the latest in a series of hybrids that at least to some extent call into question the validity of what we mean by a species.

Obviously, zebras and donkeys belong to the same Genesis kind.

Telegraph also lends support to the idea that the Genesis concept kind is a much wider concept than the biological term species.

Previously, I’ve written about a liger (lion + tiger), a geep (sheep + goat) and a cross between a grizzly and a polar bear.

These hybrids are evidence of the fact that animals reproduce after their kinds, just like Genesis tells us.


Source:

Zonkey called Telegraph born at Crimean zoo. The Telegraph, 7 August 2014.

The Atheist’s Dilemma: Chemicals Don’t Turn into Life

Image courtesy of ICR.




Joel Kontinen

Naturalistic origin-of-life explanations are facing a dire crisis. This has not made an end to potential explanations, however.

Recently, New Scientist posted a YouTube video on how life might have arisen from non-life.

In a characteristically Darwinian manner it presents a scenario of what might have happened:

“How do a bunch of dead chemicals come together to make something that’s alive? Well, a living cell is basically just a bag filled with water and a few more complex molecules.”

While the video also mentions enzymes, DNA and RNA, the overall picture is far too simplistic. Cells are anything but simple. They are full of astoundingly complex miniature machines - far too complex for human engineers to manufacture on such a tiny scale.

The video envisions the “bags”, i.e. cell membranes, moving about for aeons and gobbling up all kinds of molecules, mostly junk, but then by trial and error finding just the right ingredients for life.

Millions or even billions of years of random processes could never produce a single cell, however.

As ICR physicist Jake Hebert points out, the laws of physics and chemistry will not permit life to come from non-life.

Even some secular scientists will admit that what is needed is a miracle.

Source:

How life on Earth began

Superfast Erosion in Taiwan Shows Millions of Years Are Not Needed

Da'an River in Taiwan. Image courtesy of Wikipedia (GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2).





Joel Kontinen

Water has the ability to form – and destroy - geological features quickly. In 1999 an earthquake blocked the Da'an River in Taiwan. But the waters kept on pounding against the blockage, and by 2008 the river had formed a 25-metre wide gorge.

An article in New Scientist states:

“But it just so happens that the river has to bend through 90 degrees before entering the gorge. That means it flows at right angles to the line of the gorge just above the gorge mouth. This sideways flow makes the river extremely abrasive. In effect, it acts like a sheet of sandpaper, grinding away the upstream wall of the gorge at 17 metres a year. At this rate, the whole gorge will vanish in about 50 years.”

Millions of years are not needed for producing (or destroying) geological features. Two 20th century examples are the volcanoes Parícutin in Mexico and Mount St. Helens in the state of Washington, United States.

Mt. Parícutin began as a small fissure in a field in 1943, and reached the height of 336 metres (1,102 feet) within a year.

After Mount St. Helens erupted in May 1980, a single lava flow formed over 7.5 metres (25 feet) of sediment in just three hours.

Just imagine what a year-long global flood with plenty of water could do.

Source:

Coghlan, Andy. 2014. Vanishing river gorge shows geology in fast forward. New Scientist (17 August).

Richard Dawkins: Not Aborting Foetus with Down’s Syndrome Is Immoral

Richard Dawkins. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.



Joel Kontinen

There should be no moral judgements in atheism. Obviously, Richard Dawkins does not entirely practice what he preaches. His recent tweet on aborting an unborn baby with Down’s syndrome made headlines:

“Abort it and try again. It would be immoral to bring it into the world if you have the choice,” he wrote.

This is not the first time Dawkins is involved in a Twitter controversy. Last year he claimed that unborn human babies are less human than adult pigs.

This might well be in keeping with his evolutionary faith, but seen from a Christian perspective, it sounds outrageous.

It is interesting that Dawkins used the word immoral, as in an atheistic worldview there is no lawgiver and hence no ultimate sense of right and wrong. In order to make moral pronouncements, he has to borrow Christian terminology.

Dawkins’ tweet is an example of the moral darkness in which many people live. I would suggest that the only antidote for this dilemma is to let the true light of the gospel of Jesus Christ to shine.

That light will overcome all darkness.

Source:

Richard Dawkins: 'immoral' not to abort if foetus has Down's syndrome. The Guardian (21 August 2014).

Earthquakes in the Bible Were Real, Dead Sea Mud Shows

Mount Sodom with Lot's Wife pillar. Image courtesy of Mark A. Wilson (Department of Geology, The College of Wooster).




Joel Kontinen

Dr. Steven Austin is a Bible-believing geologist who in recent years has been studying seismites, i.e., sedimentary beds disturbed by seismic shaking, in the Dead Sea area in Israel and Jordan.

Recently, he gave a talk on his findings at the Creation Super Conference.

He has noticed that the seismites show clear signs of earthquakes mentioned in the Bible, such as the one mentioned in the Old Testament book of Amos (ca. 750 BC) and the quake that took place during the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

This is no surprise. We would expect the Bible to describe real people and real historical events.

The Darwinian Roots of World War I

A Canadian tank advancing with infantry at Vimy in April 1917. Image courtesy of Canada. Dept. of National Defence.



Joel Kontinen

Ideas have consequences. In the early 20th century, German intellectual and military leaders had espoused Darwinian thinking. They believed that war was inevitable and it would help in the struggle for existence by allowing the fittest to destroy the nations that were not as fit.

The Germans had already tested their theory in what became known as the first holocaust in South-West Africa (present-day Namibia) in 1896 and 1904–1908, when tens of thousands of Africans were slaughtered.

World War I (1914–1918) showed what Darwinian thinking could do.

Discovery Institute has produced a new documentary film The Biology of the Second Reich: Social Darwinism and the Origins of World War I on the hidden ideological and scientific roots of The First World War.