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Showing posts with the label Engineering

System Engineering and Biology

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For a while now, biologists have been starting to look at living things from an engineering perspective. They are a bit skittish about it, because if things are engineered, there must be an Engineer a Designer. Indeed, C. Richard Dawkins and other Darwinists tell scientists to remind themselves that things only appear designed. Another reason for the reluctance of evolutionists to admit to engineering approaches is that biblical creationists have been talking about biological engineering for some time now. A paper in the Intelligent Design community discusses systems engineering in biology. Construction, Pixabay /  Adi Rahman Systems engineering requires making a plan to build something in order to accomplish a goal, models are developed, testing happens, and all that good stuff before a final product is made. Taking inspiration from mechanical engineering, the authors describe model-based reverse system engineering. To show how their approach would work, glycolysis was used. If a ...

Engineered Biology Based on the Bible

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First post of the year, and my unregistered assault keyboard is locked, loaded, and upgraded. When doing science, it is important to make sure that one is operating within the framework. This includes presuppositions. As stated before, everyone has a worldview , and that includes things we presuppose to be true without empirical verification. Secular scientists presuppose universal common descent with modifications evolution, biblical creation scientists presuppose that the Bible is true. There are times when those assumptions need to be checked. Galaxy UGC 2885 credits: NASA / ESA / B. Holwerda (usage does not imply endorsement of site contents) We have seen numerous times that a naturalistic worldview doesn't marry up with observed evidence, so timelines are modified, data is tweaked, and a prairie schooner-full of problems beset secularists. Instead of playing around protecting the naturalism narrative, secular scientists with integrity should be questioning their presupposition...

Creation and Biological Production Clocks

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When an engineer is contracted for a project, many things must be established from the beginning. Production clocks are essential because a project would be chaotic if things were not done properly and in order. Embryonic clocks support a creation science model for biological engineering. Credit: Freeimages / Frederic Carmel In a study of chicken embryos, researchers saw that development progresses in a distinct order. There are several biological development clocks in organisms, some work faster, slower, adjust speeds, and more. They also sense conditions in their environments and adjust accordingly. This specified complexity cannot be explained by molecules-to-mother evolution, but makes complete sense when we realize that we have a Creator. This Creator has explained himself in the Bible. Two recent findings in biology add confirmation that biological functions are best characterized by engineering principles. This research describes a number of sophisticated internal clocks...

Ancient Seeds and the Master Engineer

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During some archaeology work in Israel, some seeds were discovered dated at about 2,000 years old. Date is the operative word with two meanings because they were date palm tree seeds. Using controlled conditions, some of those seeds were coaxed into growing. Phoenix dactylifera image credit: Wikimedia Commons / Wilfredo R Rodriguez ( CC0 1.0 PD ) An engineer will develop something for a purpose, and more advanced techniques are included to deal with adverse contingencies. The Master Engineer loads a tremendous amount of genetic information into seeds, and they can die and then come back. More than that, the organisms that come from seeds are also designed to reproduce. Dates are popular for their taste and health benefits, and even medicinal qualities; clearly they are one of God's provisions for humanity. The extinct Judean variety of Phoenix dactylifera seeds grew, their genome was sequenced and agricultural processes from way back when were discerned. The clever fol...

Creation Science, Biomimetics, and the Bombardier Beetle

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Creationists have been using the bombardier beetle as an example of irreducible complexity before that that phrase was first used by Dr. Michael Behe. Essentially, everything has to be in place from the start or nothing works. The bombardier beetle has also inspired some scientific applications.  There are many species of these beetles. Some of them are the explosive types that fire off bursts of hot liquid accurately at predators, and others have similar approaches.  Australian bombardier beetle,  Wikimedia Commons /  Peter Halasz  ( CC by-SA 3.0 ) Clinton Richard Dawkins told half truths and left out important information while denigrating creation and affirming evolution. Of course, his "it evolved" non-answer was typical of Darwin's acolytes. Professor Andy McIntosh was familiar with the common fascinating information, but he has a different perspective and education, so he asked different questions than the rest of us may ask. His collabo...

Epigenetics and Engineered Adaptation

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Sometimes, it gets rather difficult posting about genetics — especially epigenetics. Once again, the more we learn, the more we realize that there is still much more to learn. Like genetics, the study of epigenetics has been friendly to biblical creationists and hostile to Darwinists. Chaffinch image credit: Freeimages / Jack Kemp Evolutionists refer to variations as "evolution" as they are wont to do, which is an effort at equivocation. That is, it's a bait 'n' switch to make people accept goo-to-gibbon evolution by inaccurately calling small changes "evolution", but they are nothing of the kind.  We are told that evolution takes a very long time to occur, so scientists are surprised at "rapid evolution" , which is another example of equivocation. In fact, no evolution happened. (Of course, there is the mostly ignored punctuated equilibrium  concept of Eldridge and Gould , related to the hopeful monsters  idea of Goldschmidt, where no...

Thankfulness and - Repurposing?

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From 1985-1992, American television had a series called MacGyver, which has become a bit of a cultural icon because of the hero's abilities to use chemistry, physics, and the like (as well as being able to think quickly) to make things happen and get out of difficulties. The series was rebooted in 2016. The idea of using whatever is available and fast thinking is often found in espionage movies and fiction. The concepts of multitasking and repurposing are found in many places, including our daily lives and in biology. Replica ship Mayflower II credit: Wikimedia Commons / OldPine It seems that that some MacGyvers were on the Mayflower as well. The midship beam was cracking, and for it to completely break would have been a death sentence. The resourceful crew cowboyed up and repurposed a part of a printing press' equipment to save the voyage — and a major part of American history. For this, many of us are thankful. Many of our organs, cells, and parts of our DNA are abl...

Further Discussion of Engineered Adaptability and Evolution

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This enlightening series by Dr. Randy J. Guliuzza continues. Previously, we saw that Charles Darwin focused on external influences and claimed that those are responsible for vertical evolution. I'll allow that he did not know what we know today, as Gregor Mendel (peas be upon him) had not fully developed his studies in genetics.  Credit: Pixabay / Gerhard Bögner A study of the Great Chinese Famine had some excellent work, but was incomplete, failing to identify a causal mechanism. Likewise, scientists cling to the consensus of externalism as the means of change in organisms. Instead, they need to be examining the way the Creator has engineered them to adapt to changes. Imagine the challenges facing an engineer who’s been tasked with designing a fully automated, unmanned spacecraft that needs to travel to a planet and safely return. . . . Every capability the autonomous vessel has, including the ability to relate to external conditions, will be due to its own features…and n...

Engineered by the Master Architect

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Some rather deep articles have been linked from here regarding engineering causality as a response to Darwinism . The short form is that Darwin and most of his followers believe that external forces are responsible for changes, and they extrapolate horizontal changes into vertical evolution — of which there is no evidence. The answer for Darwinism's silly idea is that organisms were designed by the Master Engineer. It is interesting that many human inventions and structures reflect designs in living organisms. Interior of Salisbury Cathedral , William Turner, 1805 Architects who engineered cathedrals built them to endure, and many have lasted many centuries. Some of the support structures are found in the skeletons of animals. Only took humans a few thousand years to catch on to that aspect of our Creator's design. For that matter, the box turtle's shell exhibits architectural engineering as well! Interestingly, some evolutionists give credit to nature  (which is the...

Responding to Darwinism with Engineering Causality

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The series continues on how Darwin's externalism has interfered with scientific investigation on living organisms, and evolutionists give credit to nature for changes real and imagined. Engineered complexity is the opposite and arguably more scientific approach. Now we need to look at some additional factors. Credit: Pixabay / Adi Rahman Materialistic scientists are frequently surprised at what is found in nature. Organisms adapt, and do it quickly, but Darwinism requires huge amounts of time and assumes that conditions are the primary factors. While conditions are important, the best approach is to see that organisms adapt because they were designed by the Master Engineer to do so. Anti-creationists often lie about biblical creationists that our argument is "GodDidIt", so there is no need to investigate further. Yet evolutionists essentially say "NatureDidIt", and even personify nature in a kind of pantheistic view. No, both camps want to know how som...

Fibers, Burrowing, and Other Biomimetics

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Still kind of hard to cognate folks who believe that everything happened by time, chance, and random processes. There is no Master Engineer who designed everything and has explained himself in Scripture, no, can't have that, science is arbitrarily established as having naturalistic beliefs; no creationists need apply. For that matter, use of language in a paper even remotely implying the existence of our Creator gets said paper retracted .  Science is impossible in an atheistic or evolutionary worldview. So, they study the design in nature for human applications. Does that make sense, to study something for the sake of imitating it if that something was the product of chance, and then praising Darwin, blessed be? Not hardly! Credit: Pixabay / StockSnap Okay, I went away for a while, but I'm back now. There's some exciting work being conducted in the field of biomimetics. A sea sponge makes a kind of fiber optic cable, and is being examined for flexible glass. Muss...

Creation and Engineering Principles Part 1

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One of the arguments used by creationists is that something that was designed had a designer. You may have seen it: a painting has a painter, a building has builders, music has composers — but something with amazing specified complexity such as the human brain is something that Darwinists will tell us is the product of time and chance. People like C. Richard Dawkins say that things are not designed for a purpose, they just look that way . Oh, please! Credit: Pixabay / Stevebidmead Materialists fall back on their chant of "EvolutionDidIt", even though they have no plausible mechanisms or explanations for what is transpicuous. ( You'd think that someone with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering like Bill Nye would be able to understand this, but such is not the case.) Organisms are engineered to adapt, but their false god of evolution receives undue credit. When logic and evidence indicate the work of our Creator, the Master Engineer, such conclusio...

Turtles and — Architectural Engineering?

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Here's an understatement: turtles do not feel the need for speed. Many of us like to see the armored vehicles lumbering along (and even helping them get across the road, but make sure you don't get hit by traffic when doing your good deed), or admiring their markings. Their design (such as box turtles having their own "antifreeze" ) is quite interesting, as well. Box Turtle / Valley Forge National Park / US National Park Service The shells of these critters are not miniature army helmets. Instead, the Master Architect included many features similar to (and superior in many ways) advanced designs by human engineers. Unlike most reptiles, which escape danger by hiding or running, turtles carry around a protective shield and home all rolled into one. No other vertebrate does anything quite like this. A portable home requires special architectural designs—not just on the inside but for the whole body plan. I prefer to think of turtles as walking cathedrals, tem...

"Bad Design" Claim about the Vas Deferens Refuted

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Some evolutionists like to justify their beliefs in evolution and natural selection by claiming that a feature ( such as the human eye ) is the product of "bad design", so EvolutionDidIt. The "carrying away vessel", the vas deferens, of many males is one such feature that people like Richard Dawkins will regard as poorly designed. He made mistakes that someone with his training should not have made, and also went beyond his expertise to say that he could have done better. (Unfortunately, his disciples accept his words and spread them around in their efforts to negate creation science and Intelligent Design.) Dawkins' alternative designs do not withstand examination. DO NOT go to the URL in the picture   Not only is the vas deferens expertly designed for embryological development, but is efficient from biological, engineering and fluid mechanics viewpoints. The vas deferens is an important part of the male reproductive system. However, some anti-creationi...