Places Named in Genesis

In "Finding Eden", we examined how some people are attempting to locate Eden from clues in the Bible. Now we will broaden the subject to other place names in the early chapters of Genesis. It is not all that surprising that people will attempt to map out some locations despite the huge amount of years that has elapsed because some of the directions are very specific, such as the rivers in Eden. 

Credit: Pixabay / Jeff Jacobs

The authors clearly intended readers to know that they were writing history, but considerable debate exists about this point. There have been attempts to understand what the writers were thinking, and also to make Genesis locations into a kind of hybrid of allegory and history, of both past and present. Some scholars seem to forget, or ignore, the fact of the Genesis Flood and how it would drastically alter the land.

I should pull in the reigns for a moment and let you know a view that I accept, but is not dealt with in the article linked below. Like other biblical creationists, I believe that Moses did not sit down and write the first five books all by his lonesome. Don't get me wrong. Scripture is God-breathed (2 Tim 3:16-17 NIV), and Moses was not excluded. Because of the structure of the early parts of Genesis, it is very possible that other authors were involved, including Adam, and Moses was the final editor. Do you follow that? Also, the narratives are often in present tense, and you will find the comment "...to this day", from the perspective of the authors.

Some of the references to locations in and around Eden were somewhat less specific, however. The historical references are called deixis, and require some explanation.

The debate about Genesis’s genre is influenced by the perceived historicity of Eden in Genesis 2. A method for examining the genre of the early chapters of Genesis is to identify the relative frequency of deixis indicators, in particular the author’s use of places. The distribution and type of place references suggests that the author intended an historical genre for Genesis 1–11, but that there is a discontinuity between old and new worlds as a result of the Flood. The use of place names associated with Eden is thought to be for etiological purposes.

To read the entire article, click on "Reading ‘places’ in Genesis 1–11".




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Genetic Tinkering to Break Biological Shackles

Scientists are pushing the limits of ethics and morality, with the help of CRISPR to do genetic engineering. We have seen that some scientists are working on making horrible hybrids from animals, and even with human embryos. They talk about ethics, but their worldview is based on materialism and evolution, so we cannot expect high standards. News from communist China is fascinating from a scientific perspective, but is also alarming because of the potential for dehumanization.

A mouse with a peanut by Albert Anker

The news is that scientists messed with mice, and had a brood from female "same sex parents". Now, some critters commence to doing parthenogenesis (reproduction without a male), but they were designed by the Master Engineer for that activity. Also, the communists are not quite constrained by the remnants of Christian values like we have in the West. What happens next? Since the secular science industry is interested in anti-biblical political causes nowadays and contributes to gender confusion, this "progress" can become dangerous.

I'd take it mighty kindly if you'd listen to the podcast or read the transcript of The Briefing by Dr. Albert Mohler for October 16, 2018. He deals not only with this issue, but also the morality of making something un-extinct, if it's possible.



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Do-or-Die Lobster Situation

Set aside your bib and butter so y'all can appreciate the design of the lobster before you appreciate it with your fork. Crustaceans have a habit of molting their shells so they can grow into new ones, but there is a process that involves many steps. For the lobster, it really is a do-or-die, all-or-nothing situation. It is even more impressive because some of them get comparatively long and heavy. Most do not have great lifespans, but others are can be impressive.

California spiny lobster image credit: US National Park Service
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Time is not a luxury when it's time to do the new shell thing. Lobsters grow the new shell under the existing one, breaking out of the old one (partly through bulking up by taking on water), letting the new shell harden, and more. The specified complexity of the process defies evolution and shows the skill of the Master Engineer. By the way, if you ponder on it, it seems that our Creator likes variety in his creatures.

Have you ever dreamed that you were squeezing yourself out of a giant toothpaste tube as the tube slowly tightened around your body? Something similar happens to lobsters, so it’s more of a living nightmare for them. Lobster molting would end in sudden death if God hadn’t provided a solution to their predicament of constantly outgrowing their shells.

To read the rest, click on "Lobsters Get Comfortable in Their New Skin".





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Silly Dinosaur DNA Research

In the secular science industry, things are seldom as they appear — especially regarding origins. Now secularists are riding at a full gallop to the propaganda mill up yonder at Deception Pass. Do they really have dinosaur DNA? Somebody tell those owlhoots to bring those ponies back to the corral and step inside so we can talk a spell.

First of all, to get real dinosaur DNA, you need to get it from a real dinosaur. I don't see any hereabouts, do you? Nor has anyone found some intact that hasn't degraded over the years. Evolutionary science and creation science are forensic in nature, so the researchers made numerous assumptions about the ancestry of dinosaurs. That's mighty difficult, since dinosaurs had no evolutionary past. In addition, they made the assumption that dinosaurs evolved into (or are closely related to birds), but such an idea is ridiculous. When unfounded, unscientific assumptions are made, the research can easily fall down like a house of cards. This is a great deal of wasted effort to deny the fact that dinosaurs (and everything else) were created, and not the product of dust-to-dinosaur evolution.

The original study, published in the peer-reviewed science journal Nature Communications, made the following claim: “Given our data, it is perhaps not an unreasonable speculation that, if we had the opportunity to make metaphase chromosomes from tissue of non-avian theropods, both karyotypic and molecular cytogenetic analysis (genome size aside) would reveal little difference from a modern chicken, duck or ostrich (or at least a spiny soft-shelled turtle).” The study’s authors basically made the claim that a Velociraptor would have similar DNA to a modern chicken if the DNA were viewed under a microscope. That is an extremely bold claim to make!

To read the entire article, click on "Have Researchers Found Dinosaur Genes?" By the way, chickens (alleged dinosaur descendants) are scary. Maybe we can see movies about chickens running rampant and terrorizing the world!




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Tapestry Art and Noah

Tapestries are an ancient art form, and were extremely popular in Europe during the Middle Ages. Perhaps the larger versions were used to cover the cold castle walls as well as appeal to the eye. Since this art was made by hand on a loom, it had an advantage of being somewhat portable. The Wawel arrasses can be found in Warwel Castle in Poland.

Credit: Wikimedia Commons / KHRoN (CC BY-SA 2.5)

The king, Sigismund II Augustus, he liked him some tapestries, and had a passel of 'em. Celebrated 16th century artist Michiel Coxie (the "Flemish Raphael") was involved. His scenes involving Noah and the Ark included dragons, the word in use before dinosaur was coined. Coxie wanted to be faithful to the biblical text, and after all, dragons were mentioned in books at the time; dragons must have been on the Ark.

Dinosaurs have appeared in old art, such as the Angkor Wat carving, those at Bishop Bell's tomb, possibly the Ica stones, and others. Darwin's disciples object to the possibility that man and dinosaurs ever coexisted because evolution, but historical records, art, and especially the Bible indicate otherwise. Michiel probably did not see any of those critters, so there is a bit of artistic license in his work.They did had some dinosaur characteristics, however.

Within the eight pieces telling the story of the Flood are two tapestries showing the animals going onto and coming off Noah’s Ark. Many of them are easily recognizable as good depictions of their living counterparts today: lions, camels, cows, and various types of birds. But there are also animals that look distinctly like dragons.

To read the entire article, click on "Dragons on Noah’s Ark — The tapestries of Sigismund II Augustus".





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The Joy of Rewriting Textbooks?

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen

A while back, someone sent me a link to a short article in Forbes, "Why Do Scientists Get Excited About 'Rewriting The Textbooks?'", which I last accessed on October 13, 2018. It was written by contributor Carmen Drahl, an evolutionist. She had some enthusiastic things to say about the idea, but they were a mix of both realistic and idealistic concepts.

Credit: Freeimages / Zsuzsa N.K.

First of all, the title tells us that scientists write textbooks. Mayhaps that's why they keep getting their atoms-to-author evolutionary research fouled up, as they spend so much time writing textbooks? Do a search and you'll find that many different kinds of people can write and publish textbooks, then committees review them. Some scientists write them, many do not.

I’m one of the lucky folks who was trained to see science as a process, as a way of looking at the world. And when you see science that way, you realize that while the concepts and definitions that emerge from research may eventually be proven wrong, the process for gaining new knowledge — the scientific method — is the best way we have of learning about the world around us. That’s what’s wondrous to a scientist— to know that we understand the periodic table, or our solar system, or the animal kingdom, a little bit better, because someone has come up with a new idea that’s a better fit for all the data points that have been gathered over the years.

It sure is nice to have a sense of wonder about science and knowledge. Many of us do. I wonder about the first part of that quote, where she's "one of the lucky ones who was trained to see science as a process". How are other people trained, then? Also, she said that science is "a way of looking at the world". That sounds to me like an empirical worldview, which is rather sterile. As many creationists (and others) have said numerous times, people interpret data according to their presuppositions.

She went on to give an illustration about "scientists getting excited" and discussed chemist Neil Bartlett. He made an important discovery, so textbooks had to be rewritten. Well, yes. When real discoveries are made, textbooks need to be rewritten. Not so much with evolutionary "discoveries" — certain examples of fraud, such as Haeckel's fraudulent drawings, are still in the textbooks. Other examples of bad evolutionary science are frequently found in textbooks.

We keep hearing about new discoveries that frustrate believers in deep time and evolutionists:

• Human-Chimp genome is not as close as we were told
• Dinosaur evolution needs to be rewritten again
• Magnetic field reversals are shown to happen far more rapidly than previously believed 
• Several finds, including rapid speciation, fluster evolutionists
• Neanderthals were not stupid brutes, but fully human 

There are many more on this site alone.I reckon the reasons folks might get excited about rewriting textbooks is that they can get paid for it. Another is that secularists can cover their tracks and try to hide their embarrassment. Of course, some evolutionists will still manage to lie outright, since the end justifies the means as a long as people can be made to believe in evolution.

Science is exciting and fun. When used to appreciate and understand the work of our Creator, the sense of awe deepens. Biblical creationists in scientific disciplines often say that they are motivated to know how God created something. Being excited about EvolutionDidIt and evosplaining with "it evolved" is fatuous. If textbook writers are excited about updating real science, good for them.




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Totalitarian Evolutionism

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen

This article is an unexpected sequel of sorts to "The Pandemic of Unchallenged Darwinism".

Although Charles Darwin has been taking a dirt nap for over 136 years, his speculations still have a tremendous influence today. That is not because the science behind his work is so powerful that it is irrefutable. On the contrary, as scientific knowledge has grown over the years, the paucity of evidence for universal common ancestor evolution has become increasingly apparent. Why is evolution still holding such a lofty position with both the public and the scientific establishment?

Background image furnished by Why?Outreach, then modified

The primary reason that Darwin is still on his throne in the minds of many is that accepting evolution is a spiritual matter. If the origins controversy and the age of the earth were strictly about scientific evidence, most people would be biblical creationists, and Darwin would be just a footnote in history.

Evolution is also accepted because it is protected; secularists do not want to have their worldview inconvenienced by the truth. As readers of this site have seen, contrary evidence is suppressed, terrible logic is employed by Darwin's disciples, pantheism and animism are used ("evolution" is made into an entity that makes decisions), and more. Further, active deception is used to convince people to believe in evolutionism It is noteworthy that science is conflated into evolution, and appeals to emotional intimidation are added. "You reject evolution? Then you are a science denier!" That'll be the day! Some of us are not so easily swayed by lies, old son.

Atheists and evolutionists not only use emotional manipulation, but capitalize on the way critical thinking is seldom taught anymore. Logical fallacies reign triumphant in the secular science industry as well as in everyday discourse. A sanitized version of evolution is presented to the masses as an undisputed fact, and many people do not know that there is such a thing as creation science.

To be blunt, the scientific establishment can be compared to the one-party system prevalent in Communist regimes. Elections in the Soviet Union were a farce and were controlled by the Party for many years, and reforms were too late. Secularists control much of scientific research and the science media.

Let me get into a recent bit of shame in the United States. I hope this comparison is accurate. When Donald J. Trump was elected as President of the United States, the losing party threw tantrums. Unlike Republicans, the leftists reacted violently. On Wednesday, October 3, 2018, there was a "Presidential Alert Test" of the National Wireless Emergency System. Leftists went nuts. One even said, "He’s raping us through technology." Oh, please. When leftists were not acting up physically, they resorted to emotional manipulation and blatant deceptions with the help of the media.

When Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court, three women made unfounded accusations against him (one was embarrassingly risible), even though he had been a Circuit Judge on the US Court of Appeals and had many years in public service. He had even passed six FBI background checks before this. The presumption of innocence and any semblance of due process were rejected by the Senate (especially the leftist media, which influenced some of the public). Democrat Senator Mazie Hirono insisted that an accuser of Kavanaugh must be believed, even though there was no evidence against him. This is a genetic fallacy. (I'll be switched with snakes if this whole thing isn't reminiscent of the Stalin show trials.) The Democrat Party obstructs Donald Trump and his actions, especially if they perceive a threat to their sacrament of abortion. I believe that America is faced with one-party rule and totalitarianism from the left, whether fascism or socialism.

In a similar way, we are effectively dealing with one-party rule in science. Those who deny (or even hint that they are not fully convinced) about Darwin's system are regarded as second-class citizens, so his disciples feel they have the right — indeed, a public service — to ridicule, lie about, and misrepresent those of us who present contrary evidence. The party in charge obtains tax money to tell silly Darwin-affirming stories and present them as "science" with little resistance, and Darwin's protectors want this to continue unabated. For them, an accusation against someone's character is as good as a trial and conviction, therefore, whatever someone says is negated because of such ad hominems and misrepresentation.

Not only do evolutionists and atheists try their best to have evidence suppressed, but they seek to silence us. The sidewinder linked above ("public service") defames creationists on the internet, sends out spam to uninvolved and uninterested parties, attacks them on their social media timelines, and more. Others resort to simple-minded ridicule, such as this one. Perhaps they think that we will be shamed and intimidated into silence, and let them run rampant with their version of science. Not hardly! Some of us are on the prod because we are tired of being lied to about evolutionary and leftist science. We won't back down, we won't be silent, you savvy?

Atheists and evolutionists like to point to fossils for support of evolution, sometimes as if the very existence of fossils confirms and old earth, and also proving Darwin right. However, scientists (like other people) interpret evidence based on their presuppositions. Many examples of transitional forms (something shown evolving into something else) are ludicrous to less biased people (see "Silly Darwin Stories Never Rebuked by Big Science, Big Media"). People tend to believe scientists, but if they strip away the paradigms and actually examine the evidence, they can see that fossils do not contain the expected transitional forms after all. Even trained observers risk the wrath of the secular scientific establishment when they point out that they are using erroneous assumptions about fossil patterns.

Like the Communist Party that controlled the Soviet Union, the state is the final arbiter of truth. Evolutionists of the secular science party parade their fossils propaganda to convince people that Darwin was right and creationists have nothing to say. Again, they are attempting to preserve their one-party system and negate the opposition. The hammer and sickle were smashed, but some jaspers who have no appreciation for history are attempting to piece them back together again. Likewise, the father of lies was defeated millennia ago but he and his minions are attempting to have control through deception.

Readers of secular science media need to realize that every fossil bone, every tooth, and every footprint is being interpreted in terms of millions of years of death and struggle in the upward march of progress from bacteria to man. Free-thinking reporters never stray, because they would quickly be shamed out of their jobs. Readers of BM, whether at Science Daily or at national park signs, never hear that there are other ways to interpret fossils. Even when Dr Mary Schweitzer found soft, stretchy tissues in dinosaur bones, eliciting gasps from hosts on 60 Minutes, nobody was permitted to question the 80-million-year age of the fossils or the reality of dinosaur evolution. Only creationists pointed to the obvious contradiction with the party line, but they have to operate in the gulags of BS, or outside the institutions of power, as did members of unregistered churches or dissident groups in communist countries. The situation is so bad that even anti-creationist scientists who have doubts about Darwin’s mechanism have to meet in semi-secret groups and publish with caution (example: The Third Way of Evolution). They feel obligated to make it clear up front that they are not one of “them” (the creationist counter-revolutionaries).

To read the entire article, click on "Darwinists Use Fossils as Props for Propaganda". Also, totalitarian regimes such as communism or fascism have a great deal in common. You may want to see my article, "Evolution and the New Atheo-Fascism".

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