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Showing posts with the label Answers In Genesis

DNA, Ancient Humans, and the Lineage of Noah

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The article featured below is from a creationist peer-reviewed technical journal, so it is primarily by and for scientists. However, there are several parts that non-scientists can understand. We can skim through the details (mostly in the middle) and still learn some important things; let the scientists have the rest. Biblical creationists have long pointed out that everyone has the same facts, and the interpretation of the facts are vital. In addition, scientists are human: They start with assumptions and presuppositions which heavily influence the results of their research. The DNA of Neanderthals and Denisovans was used by members of the secular science industry to supposedly support evolution from apelike ancestors. Data were selected that should support their views. Drawing from work by  Dr. Nathaniel Jeanson , creation scientists were able to use much of the data to show how it relates to the sons of Noah. This supports recent creation. Causes of Neanderthal extinction are also

The Bible and Copernicus

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There are many stories floating around about Nicolas Copernicus, but many are completely false. (Atheistic revisionists are partly to blame.) He was in fact a Christian who believed that studying the heavens glorified God. His views did not contradict the Bible. Copernicus is credited with the heliocentric view (the earth orbits the sun). He reluctantly brought forward his view. Church leaders were enthusiastic about it at first, and geocentric (the earth moves around the sun) scientists and philosophers opposed him. Copernicus in the tower at Frombork , Jan Matejko, 1872 His model was discussed for about seventy-five years, but it seems to have received some backlash from Galileo. Frankly (mind if I call you Frank?), Galileo was a bit of a jerk and brought trouble on himself . (Atheistic revisionists made up many things about him, too.) Galileo drew from the work of Copernicus, then brought physical evidence to the discussion of which objects orbits what; it was no longer just philoso

Giving a Listen

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Listen up! Although several posts about the human ear have been posted here, it is helpful to be reminded of the amazing and complex design involved. Those flaps of skin on the side of the head effectively scoop sounds traveling in the air (there is no sound in space, despite presentations in science fiction movies). Not just sounds on either side, but also above, below, and behind. The brain has been designed to sort out all of that information and make it useful for us, from danger to pleasure and everything between. Ear diagram credit: National Science Foundation / Zina Deretsky (usage does not imply endorsement) Although the bones in the ear have more formal names, eardrum, hammer, stirrup,  and eardrum  are commonly used. Like so many products of the Master Engineer, there is no room for piece-by-piece evolution because everything has to be in place at the same time. Otherwise, nothing would work or even make sense if some parts "appeared" and others came later. Most pe

Dancing with the Double Stars

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Take a look at the starry skies and ponder them for a spell. We know that those points of light are not all stars. Mixed in with stars of varying sizes and colors are nebulae, planets, galaxies — and more stars. Once again, increases in technology bring new knowledge and more frustrations for cosmologists. It has been learned that many of the stars we see are binary (double) stars orbiting a gravitational point between them. Interestingly, Star Wars: A New Hope  used Tatooine, a planet in a double star system in the story before exoplanets were even discovered. Webb telescope shows dust rings around Wolf-Rayet 140, Credits: NASA, et al (usage does not imply endorsement of site contents) Remember, the prevailing view of solar system formation is that a hot, gaseous cloud coalesces into stars and planets. We can reasonably expect uniformity in orbits, content, and such. Many binary stars are doing their dance with mismatched partners, and some go beyond binaries into an even more intric

Redefining Words for Profit

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The other day, I heard a supervisor in a big box store telling an employee that his next duty was to work on fast track. Being in a meddlesome mood, I asked what that meant, since it clearly was not a quick way to management or something. Instead, it was the plastic strip at the base of a shelf that holds price labels. Something I have emphasized many times (and occasionally forget) is the importance of word definitions in discussions. Businesses, regions, and so on have their own special words. A problem exists when established words are redefined to fit an agenda. Dictionary Page, Unsplash / Romain Vignes The word evolution  has several different meanings, but the most frequent connotation is of particles-to-pedagogue evolution — Darwin's disciples gleefully exploit that connotation. Also, professing atheists become furious — furious , I tell you — when it is pointed out that atheism is a religion . They say, "We don't worship a deity!" as they cry in their beer . T

Biblical Knowledge and Creation Science

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At one time, Christians were the main people doing science. (It was called natural philosophy  until the name was changed to science .) Christians and creationists were right at home here. Science operates by laws, and those were given by the Creator. They provide consistency. See how that works out? Eventually, Christians yielded to materialists. Much of that was through compromise on the authority of the Bible. Secular scientists reject the Bible in favor of naturalism. Both kinds of scientists have worldviews based on their presuppositions. Universe and Bible, Pixabay / Alex Myers and Maicon Fonseca Zanco What follows is going to be difficult for some people to accept, even creationists. Bible-believing Christians actually have an advantage in doing science. Indeed, Psalm 119:130 tells us that God's Word brings understanding. Not only does the biblical worldview rule out time, chance, errors as explanations for observed data, but Christians also have a basis for logic and scie

Speciation, Evolution, and Creation

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There are several aspects of speciation that are shocking — shocking , I tell you — to both secularists and biblical creationists alike. Although Russell Watchtower and the Ministry of Truth at the Darwin Ranch crank out propaganda that Darwinian scientists are unified (and people believe it), the truth is quite different. It is to be expected that there are disagreements among evolutionists about whether or not some critters should be classified as a different species, but there are numerous species concepts. Also, speciation and variation are well in keeping with biblical creation science! 22 species of birds, art ca. 1870s via Boston Public Library The waters continue to get a mite murky. There are four main ways that scientists explain speciation, but some of those are controversial. Other times, they may overlap. Creationists have been accused of believing in the fixity of species , where God created everything "as is". Informed creationists do not hold to that view, whi

Question Evolution Day and Phylogenetic Logic

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Retail merchandisers in big chain stores often use  planograms , which are basically maps for the placement of items. Those are from the dictates of corporate headquarters, and some of them are very strange. Placement of merchandise is often quite irrational. Believers in universal common descent evolution believer in the evolutionary tree of life , and the secular science industry has naturalistic versions of planograms called cladograms . This is phylogeny, attempting to show relationships between organisms. Enhanced version of Darwin's Tree of Life Sketch Clades can be useful tools showing relationships between living things, but within well-defined limits. Evolutionary planograms — I mean, cladograms — are based on the presupposition that fish-to-fool evolution happened. Although it is considered a theory, evolution is treated like a fact that should not be questioned. No free speech, no free thought. But yes, by all means, indulge in circular logic by assuming evolution to pro

The Baffling Phenomenon of Brood Parasitism

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In the 1957 science fiction novel The Midwich Cuckoos , John Wyndham wrote about an English village that mysteriously lost consciousness for a day. Then the people awakened. All the women of childbearing age were pregnant, and as the 61 offspring grew, it was realized that they were aliens. And dangerous. The word cuckoo  in the title is in reference to that family of birds, sixty of which are brood parasites . They lay eggs in the nests of other birds. The unhappily adoptive parents seldom expel the eggs of the intruders, who often kill the rightful nestlings after hatching. Eurasian (common) cuckoo, Wikimedia Commons / Vedant Raju Kasambe ( CC BY-SA 4.0 ) Brood parasitism is best known among cuckoos and cowbirds (neither of which is impressive in appearance), but also happens in some fish. When searching these topics, expect to find the non-explanation of "it evolved," even though brood parasitism defies evolutionary concepts. More puzzling is when obligate brood parasite

Archaeology and the Fall of Jericho

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So many events of ancient history are only known through word-of-mouth stories, some artefacts, and even written accounts. The Bible has never been refuted by archaeology, and archaeologists used to respect the Bible even if they were unbelievers. Today, some try to wave off biblical events using bad reasoning. The Battle of Jericho was a significant event marking the conquest of Canaan. The Israelites were led by Joshua, successor of Moses. Jericho was an imposing city with a double wall, and God miraculously intervened. The Taking of Jericho , James Tissot, ca. 1900 There is no doubt that Jericho existed. In fact, there were walls around the city before Joshua got there. After it was burned, other people decided that it sure would be a shame to let that prime real estate go to waste, so they moved in. Jericho went without walls for many years after its conquest because nobody wanted to run crosswise of Joshua's curse on whomever rebuilt the walls. There are many archaeological fa

Surprisingly Christian Material on Intelligent Design Site

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by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  When perusing Evolution News , the primary website of the Discovery Institute, there seems to be a great deal of self promotion. There is also quite a bit of science and philosophy. There are scientists involved, and it is reasonable to think that they publish in secular scientific journals just like creationists. My problems with the ID movement are that while they show unguided  evolutionary processes are not possible, it has a big tent. That is, there are agnostics, biblical creationists, what appear to be theistic evolutionists, and others involved. Sometimes Christians there seemed to be reluctant to mention the Creator. Also, I am a biblical creationist and presuppositionalist. Neon question mark, Unsplash / Emily Morter Everyone has presuppositions, things we assume to be true, that comprise our worldviews . Biblical presuppositionalists presuppose that the Bible is true  and the final standard of truth. "Ya think, Cowboy Bob?" Yes, I had to be

Hugo de Vries and the Evolution of Darwinism

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As seen before, big ideas and movements rarely spring up suddenly. Charles Darwin did not create evolution , it is an ancient pagan philosophy going back to the Greeks, Hindus; the first evolutionist is the god of this world (2 Cor. 4:4). Indeed, Darwin was also influenced by Lamarck, his grandfather Erasmus, and others.  Charlie even hijacked and retooled Edward Blyth's work on natural selection for his own purposes, making it a creative force. (His acolytes over the years have even made it into a being with the power to make choices.) Apparently he backed off a bit by the time Origin of Species reached its final edition. Sun obscured by tree, Mt. Tremper (NY) trail, 14 Sept 2022 by Cowboy Bob Sorensen Darwinism was embraced by academia — finally a way to get that pesky Creator out of their lives! There was a time that Darwinism was at risk of falling out of favor because of its substantial problems. People aware of Gregor Mendel's work in genetics (peas be upon him) thought

Ever-Active Honeybees

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They honeybee may seem to be a simple creature, but it has been studied for centuries and many things have been learned in the past few decades; it is not  simple. Honeybees are surprisingly intelligent. People have probably heard of the waggle dance. It is   where a bee does an intricate dance that communicates to the rest of the gang where the goodies are located. This dance is like a language, needing senders and recipients. It goes into precise detail and was not decoded until late in the 20th century. Honeybees in honeycomb, Pixabay / PollyDot Basketball is often referred to as "b-ball." When bees split off from a hive that is getting too large, they take up temporary lodging that looks like a literal bee ball. Honeybees are known for being pollinators, which is important in food production for animals and humans. Yes, there are other pollinators, but if these bees went away, the results would be devastating. With all the specified complexities, believers in baryon-to-be

School Indoctrination in Occult and Marxism

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Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) has been gradually creeping into public schools for quite a while, but not under that name. Like we have seen before, there are programs that seem to have noble goals, but are insidious at their cores. SEL is one of them. It purports to be about empathy, supportive relationships, and so on. Then comes equity. That is a favorite term of Marxists and means equal results. What ends up happening is that people who work very little get the same reward as those who do the work. See where this is going? Theosophy symbol superimposed on colorized Karl Marx image The sidewinder who was one of those instrumental in setting up what is now SEL was John Fetzer. He was religious, but exchanged the semblance of Christianity for occult activities. One of these was the teachings of theosophist Alice Bailey. Watch out when occultists, New Age believers, and others reference "the Christ," as this is not  Jesus Christ. Bailey spoke of "the Christ" a

The Ecstasy and Necessity of Gold

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Roland Meadows was with my prospector friend, his fiancée Stormie Waters. I found them at a stream near her home and watched them panning for gold. After a spell, I asked why she found gold so compelling. Her answer surprised me. She was not expecting to get rich but was doing all right. Like so many others, she likes the color and weight. Gold has been the object of much killing and theft. It is also discussed frequently in the Bible, and she added that it applies to the attributes of God in many ways. Dubai Gold Sauk, RGBStock / opinto In Revelation, we read that we're going to walk on pure gold in the streets of the New Jerusalem. The antagonist of James Bond in Goldfinger  is Auric Goldfinger (yes, there are people with that surname). Auric means "of gold" or something, but note the first two letters: AU, which is the chemical symbol of this element. None of that is relevant to anything, I'm just showing off something I noticed. There are many applications for gol

First the Chicken — or Maybe the Egg

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Meeting up with my old friend Hammond Suisse in town for lunch, we placed our orders at the eatery. He wanted fried chicken and I had a hankering for an omelette. Hammond joked that we would find out which comes first, the chicken or the eggs. If you study on it a spell, you may realize that the old question has an evolutionary basis. Biblical creationists know that God created the functionally mature chicken first so it could lay eggs. Actually, yes and no. The answer is not quite so straightforward. Chickens and eggs, Unsplash / Daniel Tuttle Creationists study baraminology , which is the study of the created kinds  in the Bible. Those are not species, and are roughly equivalent to families  in the secular system. They studied on which birds can hybridize with chickens. Since we believe that the Creator equipped original parent kinds to have a passel of DNA and epigenetic switches, and therefore we believe in speciation, chickens probably came from pheasant-like birds. A big problem

Humanity Making Itself the Creator

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Naturalistic views run rampant in Western society, pushing the Creator further and further away. We look to ourselves for salvation. This can be delving into our minds with philosophies and New Age pagan religions, or it can mean looking to other people to give our lives meaning. The secular science industry supports politicians who promote leftist views, celebrities think those are just really swell so they give their support to them. People who use emotions instead of their intellects follow along like sheep. Image by Cowboy Bob Sorensen, modified with FotoSketcher Many people have bumper-sticker mentalities. That is, they are motivated by short sayings on memes and bumper stickers, but are unwilling or unable to apply critical thinking skills to issues. "White people are oppressors of darker-skinned people," "A man trapped in a woman's body," "Stop global climate change or we'll all die" and others sound good to some folks. What's really hap

Crying Tears — a Blessing?

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Tears are actually very important, always present in healthy eyes. There is a system to drain them off. They help keep eyeballs clean when dust or something intrudes. When tears are brought on by emotions, creationists and evolutionists have very different speculations. Some animals mourn the loss of a mate or one of their group (crows recognize faces and may seek vengeance), but they do not shed tears like humans. Emotional crying is unique and quite puzzling. Cowboy Bob Sorensen, tough guy crying, mirror selfie modified at PhotoFunia Yes, I mentioned speculation on both our parts. Similarly, blushing is a problem for evolutionists, but it may have a specific purpose given by our Creator. When we have tears of sorrow, a sympathetic person may say, "That's right. Let it all out." Well, it's not like draining a reservoir; tears replenish. However, "let it out" is psychologically and medically valid! They run down our face (as shown in my left eye, above) whe

Isaiah and the Virgin Birth Prophecy

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It may come as a shock to some folks, but biblical prophets did not necessarily  foretell future events. They spoke the words of God and admonished wayward people. However, some prophesied noteworthy events — such as Isaiah and the virgin birth of Jesus. Atheists cannot handle prophecy and try to denigrate it by saying people who came later got creative and fabricated the foretelling. (They assert but never provide evidence.) Isaiah 7:14 reads, ". . .the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son. . ." Disputes exist if she is a virgin or only a young woman. Isaiah , Ernest Meissonier, 1838 There are several problems with this passage. If the girl was just a young woman, the prophecy is no big deal. Also, the word translated as young woman or virgin can legitimately be translated either way. Context is important, as are historical events. We learn, to the dismay of misotheists, that it was indeed a virgin that conceived according to prophecy. Isaiah is a beloved book of the

Animals and Communication

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Interesting and even surprising studies have been made about how animals communicate with one another, and some of their interchanges are surprisingly detailed. Inter-species connection seems rare and very limited; blue jays sounding the alarm in the woods, for instance. The 1956 children's novel  The Hundred and One Dalmatians has a rather extensive canine conversation network with messages relayed through barking. Despite their intelligence, they never developed a system to communicate with humans. Interestingly, there are videos of animals seeking out humans and making known their needs for help. Barking corgi, Flickr / xan latta ( CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 ) Animals can make themselves understood to each other to some extent, but a bonobo and a chimpanzee will never discuss the physics of coconut spinning. The Creator gave many animals the ability to communicate for their survival. There are studies of communication between animals and humans. Notice that it has to be initiated by peop