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Showing posts with the label Fossils

Darwinoptera, Skye, and Lying for Evolution

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Obstreperous atheists and fundamentalist evolutionists patrol teh interwebz, targeting Darwin doubters for destruction. They have many weapons drawn and ready, but one of these is dominant: Arbitrary assertions. When those are frequently used to put down Christians and creationists, the people using them are being illogical and indicating that their worldview is incoherent. It is indeed unfortunate when scientists also build arguments on arbitrary and false statements instead of actual evidence. But then, it has also been shown that storytelling brings in the grant money. Darwinoptera pterosaurs, Flickr / Francisco Gil ( CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 ) Just off the western coast of Scotland is a group of islands called the Inner Hebrides. A representative of a pterosaur clade called Darwinoptera had apparently been found on the largest, the Isle of Skye. (A nice place to fly, certainly.) Evolutionists were surprised, especially since certain pterosaurs were only known in China, not Scotland. To cov

Ancestor H. Habilis Losing his Job

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It kind of gets me right here (I tap the upper part of my heart surgery scar), knowing that Homo habilis  will be losing his job as a handyman. His television series was canceled as well and he has to turn in his toolbelt immediately after the final episode is filmed. Mayhaps Tim Allen will be glad to get it back. Setting the fun aside, H. habilis  is a member of the evolutionary ancestor parade that culminates in you and me. Except there was more narrative than evidence since its "discovery" in 1960, which caused contention from the start. Toolbelt, Unsplash / Jesse Orrico There are no complete fossils of him, and their primary evidence is the skull labeled ER 1470. Other finds make things worse for evolutionists, who are admitting that they really know very little about human evolution. Well, of course they know very little — it never happened! Bits and pieces are inserted into a contrived narrative, and some scientists decided to pull back the reins and holler, "Whoa!

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

William Stukeley, the Royal Society, and a Plesiosaur

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Although atheists and other anti-creationists try to avoid inconvenient truths, some of us still try to present them. First, many insist that creationists lack the intellectual prowess to be scientists. We show them that many great scientists of the past were Christians , even biblical creationists. Then they may whine that we are discussing dead people, so we tell them about modern scientists that are biblical creationists . No, they are disqualified because the only true  scientists are materialists. Lather, rinse, repeat, they move the goalposts like they were jet propelled. Plesiosaur skeleton, Flickr /  Kim Alaniz  ( CC by 2.0 ) In 1660 London, the Royal Society was formed to encourage the development of natural philosophy (the earlier term for what is now called science). While some sidewinders say that biblical creation science was initiated fairly recently, the Royal Society had members who believed the Bible, including recent creation and the Genesis Flood. One of their member

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

Fossils Still Unchanged After All These Years

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According to descent with modifications evolution, it took millions of years according to secular deep time opinions for the life forms that exist today to emerge. There are billions of fossils buried in rock layers that were laid down by water all over the globe. Evidence of critters changing into other critters should be abundant, but they are not. Instead, evolutionists fight hard to validate the few possible transitional forms they claim to have. There is another big problem: Fossils show no appreciable change over all those years. Source image furnished by Why?Outreach , sturgeon image added When something has not changed, Darwin's acolytes call it "stasis." That is, the creature was fine the way it was, so it never needed to evolve. (This rescuing device is used regarding organisms living today that are unchanged, known as living fossils .) Yet they also present evolution as a kind of irresistible force that's always at work. To say that so many things didn'

The Peculiar Roadrunner

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 While out riding, I met Rusty Swingset (foreman of the Darwin Ranch near Deception Pass) and his lady friend Jacqueline Hyde heading the other way. We reined in and talked about odds and ends. Suddenly, a bird ran by. Jacqueline giggled and said she always thought roadrunners were funny. This member of the cuckoo family really does like to run, especially since it is not a great flyer. If someone takes a notion to chase after it, they should save their energy because it will outrun them — but not a coyote. The roadrunner has odd traits that suit its appearance. Greater roadrunner, Flickr / Dominic Sherony ( CC BY-SA 2.0 ) This bad boy is clever, waiting to ambush its prey by the watering hole. It is also ruthless. Hey, rattlesnake! Ha, you missed again but now you're mine ! Yep, fast reflexes.  It is not an example of evolution, but shows adaptation and (probably) the result of natural selection within the created kind. The Roadrunners also has x-shaped footprints so one cannot t

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

Mysterious Mummified Dinosaur Skin

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While mummification  may refer to the deliberate act of preserving a dead body, the word is also used to describe a critter that has died, then shriveled and dried up. People find mummified rodents and such in sheds and attics. If those had died in nature, scavengers and bacteria would have made short work of the remains. In yet another instance of something being remarkably well-preserved, some mummified  Edmontosaurus  skin falls into that category — and it is quite mysterious. Modified postage stamp of an Edmontosaurus  head from the author's collection Secular scientists are attempting to explain the process of how it could be mummified and then preserved, and they are on the right track when they refer to burial by a flood. Of course, they reject the global Genesis Flood even though fossil layers extend across continents. People may easily think that the Genesis Flood was lots of rain and that the fountains of the deep were opened up (Gen. 7:11), not knowing that the Flood was

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

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

Unreliable Dating of Human Fossils

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First, a bit of something that grinds my gears. Many articles and videos (including the one featured below) are titled in the form of a question, and some folks seem compelled to reply without dealing with the material. News flash: Writers are not asking for opinions, they are answering the question in the title. You savvy? There are people who want to know if the dating methods used on human fossils can be trusted, and what kinds of problems such vast numbers of years present for the Bible. Those used on human fossils have problems. Homo naledi skeletal specimens, Wiki Comm / Lee Roger Berger research team ( CC BY 4.0 ) I reckon it's easy to get the idea that the dates assigned to fossils of humans, apes, and alleged humans are correct. After all, these are knowledgeable people who speak with authority and tell us the dating methods used. They can even go into the details of the processes if we ask nicely. But not only are there problems with the processes, all dating methods re

The Dinosaur with the Super-Sized Identity Crisis

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While time is erroneously considered to be a hero of the particles-to-paleontologist evolution story, it is often useful when sorting out evolutionary speculations. Evolutionists seek fame, and it is not uncommon for them to make assertions based on mediocre evidence. They often have woefully incomplete skeletons displayed as evidence for their story. In the case of Supersaurus , a few bones were found in the 1970s. Very large bones. Presenting for your pondering pleasure, Ultrasaurus ! (And the crowd goes wild) . It was portrayed in many places. However, there were problems... Supersaurus , Wikimedia Commons / LadyofHats (PD, modified) The paleontologist did not make the moniker  Ultrasaurus  official, so someone else used it for his own version. The first one was renamed it Ultrasoros , changing the next-to-the-last letter. That's bad enough to cause identity problems for the critter, but it was later determined that the bones belonged to two different types of dinosaurs, one

Spider Fossil Good News for Creationists

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It seems that most fossils being found nowadays are good news for creationists, what with excellent preservation, computerized tomography ( as used here ), and all that good stuff. New South Wales is a state on the east coast of 'Straya, the centre of which is home to McGraths Flat. It is a research area, and they are finding some interesting fossils (expect more in the future). A brushfooted trapdoor spider fossil was on the large side. Although mostly the same as its modern counterpart, Darwin's disciples naturally cheered evolution. Brushfooted trapdoor spider in Brisbane, Australia, Flickr / Robert Whyte ( CC BY-NC-ND ) Other spider fossils have been discovered there, and even tiny ones can be examined in minute detail. I find this amazing because we're talking about stone that gets examined, not soft tissues. Once again, we see that creatures had to be buried in the right conditions (rapidity is a big part of it) so scientists can examine those details. They could not

Getting a Head on an Arthropod Fossil

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There sure is a huge number of high-quality fossils coming out of China. While healthy skepticism is in order because of the people selling fakes in certain areas , the quantity is impressive. It may be that some are so plentiful, they are boring to scientists. Oh goodie, another trilobite... Alert eyes can spot and reference something new or a superior specimen to something already known. Then they can use some of that impressive technology and get the details. This happened with a Kylinxia  fossil and a CT scan. Kylinxia zhangi , Wikimedia Commons / Junnn11 ( CC BY-SA 4.0 ) This critter looks like several others, so this child doesn't envy paleontologists who need to tell them apart. Anyway, computerized tomography (the CT in a CT scan) involves numerous X-rays. Kylinxia  got the treatment and the soft stuff of its head buried in the rock was revealed. Of course, secularists promptly began telling evidence-free Just-So Stories about what went on in the distant past millions of D

Out-of-Place Pollen Makes Darwin Sneeze

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Down South America way in an interesting meeting place of Venezuela, Brazil, and Guyana is flat-top Mount Roraima. Mountains like this are said to have been planed flat by erosion, but planation surfaces are troublesome to secular geologists. One reason is that it is not seen happening today. Mr. Roraima contains a small problem: fossilized pollen. It should not exist, but occurs here and in other places as well. Secular dating methods indicate that the mountain is 1.8 billion years old. There was not supposed to be multicellular life on Earth yet. Mount Roraima, Wikimedia Commons / M M ( CC BY-SA 2.0 ) Obviously, pollen comes from plants. According to fundamentalist evolutionists, there were no plants 1.8 billion years ago. This is not a new discovery, either, since it was known from 1963. Some secularists wanted to adjust the data to fit their views, even saying that there was contamination. Nope. Instead of admitting that their evolutionary views have been falsified, they put it o

The Horse Series is Bad Evolution, of Course, of Course

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Out at the Darwin Ranch, Russell Watchtower of the Ministry of Truth and his pal Al Buehterawl were a mite giddy. Word has it that they were all excited about a new report on the horse evolution. Although the horse series has been touted as one of the best examples of evolution, it is full of difficulties . The flimsy story is something that biblical creationists have been using for many years as an example of interpreting data from a fundamentally-flawed presupposition, ignoring other possibilities for observed data, and just bad logic. But those old boys are thrilled that the mystery of the disappearing toes has been solved. Horse hoof, Pexels / Barbara Olsen Darwin's disciples selected candidates for the horse lineage from (among other things) size. They also claim that over time, the toes on the critters reduced until we have the single hoofed animal we see today. That has been a problem. Some evolutionists think that all four toes are still present, but vestigial. Hail Darwin,

Defusing Cambrian Explosion Excuses, Part 2

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This is the second of two installments, Part 1 is here . Several times, atheists and other evolutionists on teh interwebs attempt to wave off the Cambrian Explosion by downplaying its importance. One tinhorn challenged me by demanding to know why it is important, and how creationists deal with it. If they do not know its importance, they should not be apologists for evolution and deep time. But I think people like this enjoy attempting to put creationists on the defensive. It has been a major difficulty for many years, and efforts to solve the problem are doomed to failure. Life on Cambrian Miaolingian sea, WikiComm / Zhixin Sun et. al . ( CC BY 4.0 ), modified at PhotoFunia Note that in all of these things, evolutionists believe  despite  the evidence, and even resort to bad science and bad logic to protect Darwin from mean looks as he saunters down Evolution Street. They get downright deceptive. That's right, I said it!  No amount of tampering with data or reimagining it can cha