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Showing posts with the label Institute for Creation Research

Eye Cell Complexity Baffles Evolutionists

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In the days when Charles Darwin roamed the earth, he wrote that believing the complexities of the eye came about through natural selection seemed "absurd in the highest degree." Then he proceeded to believe absurdity anyway — and increased knowledge makes things worse for evolutionists since then. The human ear is a marvel , but the eye is even more amazing. Both eye and ear gather information from outside, then the brain has to arrange and make sense of the input. The retina alone is about as complex as the brain! Photoreceptors in a human retina, NIH / National Eye Institute (usage does not imply endorsement) The eye "appeared" (Darwinspeak for "evolved"), but once again evolution is assumed, not demonstrated. Researchers claim that the retinal cell types among several critters go way back in evolutionary history and are "conserved." In other words, there is no evidence of evolution. Worse for secularists, they are tacitly admitting not to com

Mixed Andes Fossils and Evolutionary Storytelling

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Down Colombia way near near the town of Villa de Leyva is an area full of fossils. Paleontologists like it a lot. However, what they found is challenging to uniformitarian beliefs (deep time, slow and gradual processes). The scientific principle of Making Things Up™ was implemented. Regular readers have probably noticed that the secular science industry has a habit of evosplaining  with fake facts, ignoring real facts, and raising unanswered questions. Apparently, what matters more than scientific truth is praising Darwin and bolstering deep time so the grant money keeps coming in. Villa de Leyva, Colombia toward Andes Mountains, Flickr / Rosario González Morón ( CC BY-NC 2.0 ) In the article linked below, there is an example of something that makes this child wonder how the researchers got advanced degrees in the first place. Giving weak explanations for what is observed as if there was no other possibility is commonplace. It just so happens that the story they are confabulating appe

Beauty and Design in the Motmot

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To stop and think on it for a while, beauty  is a word used to describe many things. Sunsets, waterfalls, canyons, the cosmos, certain people, animals, birds, and much more can be called beautiful. That word  also describes other things picked up by our senses, things not visual. Spring is coming in our neck of the woods. I heard a house finch today singing what I call the "Happy to be a birdie" song, which is beautiful. Who would have thought that beauty could make me sad? It is because my beloved wife is not here to share it with me. Motmot photo by Andy Morffew at Pxhere, modified at PhotoFunia The most likely place to see the motmot bird is in Central America, and maybe further south a ways. It has distinct markings — "What's the deal with the defective tail, Cowboy Bob?" Scientists have found that there certain barbs fall off, which at first may feed into the "poor design, therefore evolution" arguments. In fact, even secular scientists admit tha

Tyrannosaurini from out of Time

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Not too long ago, I finished loading supplies into my buckboard and was ready to head on out of town. Of a sudden, I saw Stevia Dolce, the lead baker at the Darwin Ranch. With her was Lotta Lyez who was promoted as an assistant to the cook. Feeling a mite playful, I asked Lotta if she was going to pick up some Tyrannosaurini, it was between the fettuccine and linguine. She stared a moment, then gave a bit of an "Oh, you!" hand flip as Stevia smiled. The wordplay may not have happened if I had not been reading about the sudden appearance of T. Rex  and family. Tyrannosaurus rex , RGBStock / Kevin Tuck Some fossil parts were examined again and the critter was renamed because of subtle differences that were found. (I wonder if that's a bit drastic since people, animals, and so on have variations without having to be branded as a different species.) In the report, homage was given to the puny god of evolution, but with a difference. It is known that dinosaurs have no evoluti

No Evolution of Reptile Skin in 286 Million Years?

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If you take a notion to saddle up and ride out Oklahoma way, there are several things for which it is known. A part of Tornado Alley is there, the famous Route 66, and that amniote skin dated millions of years old. No, that last one has not crossed the radar of many folks, but it is significant to both secular and creation scientists. A cave system was filled in (imagine what it took to not only dig out, but to find it) and it contained that small piece of amniote skin. Crocodile photo by Ravi Jandhyala at Flickr ( CC by 2.0 ) Y'all may be wondering how a piece of reptile skin can last for 286 million years according to conventional dating methods. Researchers have an explanation. Incomplete science to the rescue! It was preserved by hydrocarbons. There is a serious problem with that idea. Also, Earth is quite active, and to think this cave system was undisturbed for all that alleged time is silly. No evolution to see here, just faulty work from the secular science industry. Skin

Biomimetics and Hummingbird Wing Motions

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Biomimetics (or biomimicry) is an amazing area where scientists study abilities the Master Engineer has provided to creatures, then copying them for human use. Of course, secularists do not thank God for what they have learned. Hummingbirds are the subject of this study. One in particular lives on the left coast of North America, mostly in the formerly United States but also a bit north and south of what passes for its borders. Anna's hummingbird is an amazingly agile critter  the size of a table tennis ball, with an upper weight of 5.7 grams (0.2 ounces). Anna's hummingbird, Flickr / USFWS, Robert McMorran ( CC BY 2.0 ) Because of their unique wing motions, Anna's hummingbirds navigate small openings that other birds could not even consider: They can keep flapping. Studies of this bird are being conducted for possible use in small aerial vehicles. The fossil record shows that there has been no appreciable change in hummingbirds in all those Darwin years ( like other creat

Creation and Poisonous Plants

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The other day, I saw a graphic called First Day in Heaven  that was meant to portray someone joyfully embracing Jesus upon their arrival. I said that this is how I pictured it with my beloved wife. Someone replied that she will greet me with open arms again. A vile atheist chided that person for "lying" to me. Aside from having the decency to let me have my comfort even though he rejects the truth of the gospel, he was assuming that there is no Heaven, so we are wrong — or lying. Because atheism. This is similar to how atheists and evolutionists call on biblical creationists to explain our views on things, yet they often assume we are wrong or lying and will not listen to us. That is not the way to have an intelligent discussion. How can some poisonous plants be a part of God's original very good  creation from a creationist perspective? Both skeptics and many Christians want to know. Sosnowsky’s hogweed, Wikimedia Commons / Krzysztof Ziarnek ( CC BY-SA 4.0 ) Creationist

Small RNAs Show Masterful Engineering

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DNA is a fabulous molecule, vitally important to living things. Studies of the genome show functions of DNA, then further details and mechanisms are discovered. Epigenetic changes are essentially on top of the genome, regulating how genes are expressed. Also extremely important is RNA, and new research is showing that there are small RNAs that have some extremely important functions. It is also amazing that some changes made can be passed along to offspring, which is not good news for molecules-to-microbiologist evolution. DNA illustration, Pixabay / Miroslaw Miras Researchers injected RNA molecules into certain cells and saw that genes could be affected, even silenced. MicroRNAs regulate gene expression in an important way. Most of their work is outside the nucleus of the cell  but not always. Some of these can even help communications systems between cells. Also, these miRNAs are part of three main systems. Yes, life is the product of the Master Engineer, and the irreducible complex

DNA Sequence Is More Bad News for Evolutionists

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Once again, the combination of the desire to learn plus advances in technology conspire to thwart the wishes of evolutionists. It happens in a big way with the Webb space telescope . Some secular geologists are echoing some of creation science  because of additional studies. Now this... While a great deal of DNA sequencing has been accomplished, and there is still more work to be done. Y chromosome analysis of humans and great apes did not go well for evolutionists. Genetics never has been helpful to evolution. DNA puzzle, Pixabay / qimono (modified) The old "ninety-eight percent similarity" between human and chimpanzee genome has long been refuted  (but Darwin's Flying Monkeys™ repeat it anyway), and this new research is another major setback for evolution. Comparing chimpanzee and human Y chromosomes shows they are only twenty-six percent similar. Factor in a 2010 study and secularists should cowboy up and admit that there is no evidence for evolution, but a great deal

Evosplaining Dinosaur Extinction with Volcanic Activity

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Believers in descent with modifications evolution often  evosplain dinosaur extinction with the Chicxulub big rock impact, insisting on consensus among evolutionists. There is  some consensus, but a majority does not make truth. There are serious  problems with that impact story . One of the most obvious is that if the asteroid (or comet, or meteorite) killed off the dinosaurs, it should have taken a passel of more fragile creatures as well. It has been suggested that volcanic activity was important to destroying the dinosaurs. Artist's conception of Chicxulub impact,  NASA Goddard A fragment of agreement exists between secular and creation scientists: There was a great deal of volcanic activity in Earth's past. Of course, the two camps have no agreement on the hows and whys of the volcanism. If secularists didn't have a "Katie, bar the door!" attitude toward creation science models of the Genesis Flood and Ice Age, they might see that they are getting closer to

Inner Workings of DNA Repair

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Believers in molecules-to-mechanic evolution maintain that vertical change happens through natural selection and mutations. However, those mutations need huge amounts of time to accumulate, and a strong argument for a young earth is genetic entropy . That is, at the rate of mutations seen today factored into the assumed age of humans on Earth, we should be extinct. Evolutionists have another problem to contend with, and that is how built-in biological DNA repair mechanisms are working to keep mutations at a minimum. Welder with DNA, original image: Pixabay / Natsan P Matias ; modified with DNA image from Clker clipart From a biblical creation viewpoint, everything was very good immediately after creation (Gen. 1:31). Death and degeneration entered into creation when Adam sinned (Rom. 5:19). Things began to go downhill. Mutations slipped through the repair systems and things are increasingly worse. Even so, those repair mechanisms are extremely effective at slowing down mutations that D

Fossil Butte National Monument and the Genesis Flood

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National parks and national monuments are under the auspices of the US National Park Service. Down Wyoming way is Fossil Butte National Monument , which is famous for asparagus. Just checking, it is famous for fossils. Officially, it is a ridge, not a butte, it just looks like a butte from some angles. The area itself is the National Monument, and there is a passel of fossils (mostly plants and fish). While you cannot dig up and take home fossils, it is on the Green River Formation which is extremely large. Get fossils from non-government land if you wish. Double rainbow on Fossil Butte, National Park Service The official story involves a lake, but the fossils indicate otherwise. Several creatures are distinctly salt water, and it takes a great deal of rapidly-deposited sediment to make the fossils — many of which are excellent. While the NPS tells tales of deep time, the observed evidence clearly fits the global Genesis Flood for many reasons. Southwestern Wyoming contains one of the

No Evolution in Fossil Leaf Miner

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Time and time again, believers in descent with modifications find a problem with their story and pretend that it gives them insight. Many even feign excitement. Interesting that they dig in deeper instead of cowboying up and admitting that their paradigm is fundamentally flawed. Insects that burrow into leaves and eat them from the inside are known as leaf miners . In an area known for extremely well-preserved fossils, leaf miners were found — showing no change in millions of Darwin years. Miner, Comstock Mine, 1861 via National Archives , colorized at Lunapic , then modified at PhotoFunia It was also one of those "earlier than thought" moments that happen frequently. Insects eating the leaves at the time of fossilization were exhibiting the same behavior that their living counterparts have. The evidence better supports recent creation, old son. The doctoral candidate in charge (was he lighting candles to Darwin to impress others in the secular science industry?) cited evolut

H. naledi and Fake Science News

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It seems that the critter known has Homo naledi  has generated confusion and controversy from the get-go, and the unreliable dating methods used by secular scientists do not help anyone. Wishful thinking, bad science, and other propaganda efforts have been used to pose Lucy as a human ancestor , but that does not seem to be happening to such extremes with H. naledi . It could be from a desire for accuracy, but claims about H. naledi  are being challenged. Homo naledi facial reconstruction, Wikimedia Commons / Cicero Moraes et al  ( CC BY 4.0 ) One may wonder at first if some researchers were mixing up this guy with Neanderthals because they made claims made that it acted like humans. (That would make its relationship to humans seem a mite more plausible.) One thought is that it buried its dead, but the researcher ignored several important facts that give lie to this idea. Another suggestion is that it made tools. Apparently H. naledi  had an artistic bent because of what looked like

Butterflies, Cancer, and Biomimetics

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It has been said that dogs and cats can see things that we cannot. Based on some of their actions (including giving warnings and such), it may very well be true. We have trichromatic vision, which means all the colors we see are combinations of red, green, and blue. RGB codes are frequently used to get specific colors. Studies show that many critters see colors beyond our range, on into the ultraviolet. Someone took a notion to study the vision of an Asian swallowtail butterfly. It can see ultraviolet. Asian swallowtail butterfly, Flickr / Zorac&Visar ( CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 )  These flutterbyes can convert ultraviolet light into visible light — an example of specified complexity that defies evolution and testifies of the Creator's skill. Certain things in cancerous tissues are more concentrated and show up under UV light. Scientists are using biomimetics, drawing inspiration from the butterfly's vision, to work on a means of finding cancer! It’s something right out of science f

Fossilized Stingrays in Wyoming

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Interesting how so many fossils contain critters that are recognizable, or extinct species of their living counterparts. As emphasized many times, more and more detailed fossils are being discovered. Also, such great detail requires rapid burial. Many fossils are found in the wrong place . Of course, believers in deep time and universal common descent will  evosplain those things away. Some challenges cannot be easily dismissed. Consider marine creatures such as whales in the desert or today's subject, fossilized stingrays in Wyoming. Stingray fossil, Wikimedia Commons / Bob Richmond ( CC BY 2.0 ) (cropped) Some folks assume that if creatures were fossilized together, they must have been neighbors. Out-of-place fossils put that notion to rest. In addition to great detail, the fact that delicate creatures are fossilized at all point to rapid burial. That these things have happened in so many different places, the evidence is part of the greater testimony to the global Genesis Flo

Evolutionists go Batty about Echolocation

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Humans are proud of sonar, which uses sound waves to locate objects. Waves are transmitted, strike an object, and people can calculate its size, shape, and location. Good stuff, Maynard! Sonar in animals is called echolocation , used by dolphins, bats, and others. They do it with far more sophistication than human inventions. Lazy Darwinists are content to call the same property in different critters convergent evolution , but have not demonstrated any  evolution. In fact, there is no sign of evolution in fossilized bats at all, even after supposed millions of years. Batman Lego in egg, Pixabay / Andrew Martin (not implying endorsement of anything by anybody) Better fossil specimens of all sorts of things are being found. Science and technology are advancing. This gives paleontologists the ability to study something and get a great deal of detail. It was thought at one time that echolocation in bats evolved after they had been around a while, but a recent finding shows that they had t

Two Living Things that Give Off Salt

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There are words with phile  or similar in them that often mean a love of something, such as philosophy (love or wisdom or learning). The word structure can also make it seem like an organism has a fondness for something, actually meaning that it thrives in a certain environment. A thermophile  lives in extremely hot areas such as the thermal vents on the ocean floor. Want to take a crack at halophyte ? That one is a bit tricky, but it uses the word for salt. There are plants that thrive in saline conditions inhospitable to many other plants. Athel Tamarisk, iNaturalist / Xochitl Zambrano ( CC BY 4.0 ) Athel tamarisk is one of those stubborn plants that lives in deserts and is found in many parts of the world. One of its handels is the Athel pine, and it does resemble pine in some ways. It is also useful as a windbreak, and since it doesn't burn easily, it can be used to hinder fire. When it lives in saline conditions, it actually gives off salt! Athel tamarisk was designed by the

Evolution Narrative Drives Bird Tracks in Dinosaur Strata Story

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The story is that the geologic column shows fossils in an orderly progression from simple to complex, and the fossil record is complete, without gaps. Russell Watchtower and his Ministry of Truth at the Darwin Ranch up near Deception Pass have been successfully convincing folks that the preceding is a true story. In reality, there are fossils out of order. If people had healthy skepticism and dared to question evolution, they would know about fossil placement problems. A new report on fossilized bird footprints sparked a rescuing device. It did not go well. One of the birdlike footprints from Maphutseng, Lesotho (left), and a false colour depth map of the print (right) PLOS ONE 2023 / Abrahams et al. 2023 (CC-BY 4.0) via New Scientist There must be quite a few stupid people buying the malarkey that evolutionists put out. The predominant narrative dictates that dinosaurs evolved into birds despite no actual evidence. Instead of questioning the story, some other critters came around and

Sunflower Motion — More Complex than Thought

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Sunflowers are one of the easiest flowers to identify, what with those big yellow heads loaded with sometimes 2,000 seeds and such. They are also a provision of the Creator for our benefit, grown and harvested for oil and the seeds, which are healthy — and may be a substitute for people with nut allergies . Of course, a famous characteristic is how young sunflowers track the sun from east to west. It was thought that this was a kind of phototropism, which is when plants and fungi grow toward (or away from) a light source. Sunflowers, Pixnio / Bruce Fritz It has been learned that this ability of young sunflowers to follow the sun across the sky (even on cloudy days) is heliotropism . It is not fully understood and is very complex. Plants adapt to changes in conditions, and different genes are expressed in response to certain conditions. This is yet another example of the Master Engineer at work. Botanists have long wondered how heliotropism works to allow this amazing plant to track th