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Showing posts with the label Genetics

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

DNA Repair and Deliberate Mutations Make Darwin Sad

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As many people know, a cornerstone of particles-to-paleontologist evolution is mutations. Fundamentalist evolutionists insist that mutations are entirely random — admittedly, that is plausible on the surface. They also claim that there is no purpose (teleology) in evolution. While there are many random mutations, it has been shown (much to the dismay of the Bearded Buddha and his acolytes) that some mutations are the result of advance planning, not random at all . In addition, DNA repair systems are taking the wind out of Darwin's sails. Thale cress, Rawpixel / NASA (Public Domain) Over Eurasia and Africa way, there's a plant that the locals consider a weed. Scientists love it, though. Using the science of genetics pioneered by creationist Gregor Mendel (peas be upon him), a great deal of the genome of the thale cress has been studied. Then came some surprises. Although they won't admit it, not only is there DNA repair happening, but non-randomness in mutations. This seem

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

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

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

Pseudogenes and Dead-End Darwinism

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Stevia Dolce, the lead baker at the Darwin Ranch up yonder near Deception Pass, surprised me with a visit. She brought Dekker Halls, who was visiting for the Christmas season. They heard talk about pseudogenes that did not sit right with them and wanted to ask me. After digging into the fabulous croissants that Stevia brought, we commenced to discussing the problem. Evolutionary thinking is bad for medical science, and even science itself. Scientists studied DNA, but expected everything to code for proteins. Big mistake. Directional street sign generator at RedKid Like when someone receives a delivery that isn't interesting, "Just set it over there" and it gets forgotten. These things called pseudogenes  look like genes, but did not work the way Darwinists expected. "Why do you say Darwinists , Cowboy Bob?" Dekker asked. "Nobody really believes classical Darwinism anymore." I replied, "True, but it has a couple of uses. The first one is for simpli

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

Creation, Speciation, and Galápagos Finches

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A famous icon for evolution is referred to as Darwin's finches, even though he did not know what they were when he saw them on the Galápagos islands. For someone seeking an exotic bird, look elsewhere because these are rather plain. These finches demonstrate rapid speciation. According to Darwin and other purveyors of evoporn, evolution is supposed to be random and over long periods of time. Exceptions to those rules are seen frequently. Evolutionists are so determined to keep away from the Creator, they cling to irrational science. Galapagos ground finch, Flickr / Judy Gallagher ( CC BY 2.0 ) Poster effect at PhotoFunia and cropped Rapid speciation...depending on the definition of species, of course. Scientists frequently slap leather over whether or not some critters are a separate species. Interestingly, there are some parts of the genome that simply will not modify. Others do have random changes. The Master Engineer designed creatures to survive and thrive, and frontloaded ce

Variations in Traits are Designed, not Random

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A word that is commonly used in discussions of genetics is alleles . Simply put , they are pairs of genes, one from each parent, that match. Alleles are on the chromosomes. They often have slight differences, and those as well as similarities affect organisms. People have tried to figure out where new traits that were not in a lineage came from. The Bearded Buddha had some ideas that he put into his version of natural selection. Gregor Mendel pioneered genetics (peas be upon him), and his research showed that Darwin was on the wrong trail. Wallkill Rail Trail at Kingston, NY, Unsplash / Cowboy Bob Sorensen (modified at PhotoFunia ) For a long time, it was believed that random mutations married up with natural selection to drive evolution. It was learned that DNA is heavily influenced by epigenetics . Evidence also shows that the Master Engineer designed living things to adapt, change how genes are expressed, and environment does not cause the changes. Sorry, Charlie. No, not really so

Epigenetics is the Performer of the Genome?

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Stormie Waters and her fiancé Roland Meadows stopped by my place and invited me to a piano performance in town. I agreed and we rode into town in their wagon. Lisa Myworries was outside the theater, having been stood up by her date, so she joined us. A lackluster performer started out and we could tell that the piano was just adequate. The main performer, however, managed to make the piano sound like a high-quality instrument. (It reminded me of " The Touch of the Master's Hand .") We had an interesting discussion while dining afterward. Playing the piano, Pixabay / Holger Schué (music4life) Stormie had been reading an article about how the epigenome can be likened to playing a piano. Lisa spoke up, "The epigenome is above the genome, that's where the name came from." While the genome is vitally important, it is like a musical instrument. Genomes have faults, so they may not "play" as well as others. Scientists have learned about DNA and the genom

Human Gene Editing Needs Biblical Standards

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People have been modifying parts of their world for millennia, and that includes livestock as well as plants. Since selective breeding is slow, scientists started working on  genetically modified organisms  (GMOs). Those are safe , but people are afraid of them anyway. Move forward to people wanting to improve themselves. One way is to have an implant, prosthesis, or some other benefit from science and technology. This can be taken to extremes in transhumanism . Human gene editing (HGE) has similar ethical problems as forming improvements through technology. CRISPR genome editing, National Institutes of Health (Usage does not imply endorsement of site contents) Secular scientists are prone to ignoring ethics, and they have demonstrated that in HGE. They have a fundamentally-flawed worldview based on materialism (no God, therefore no ultimate moral standard, belief in evolution just material exists). Sure, some can be good, moral people — relatively speaking. But only biblical values c

Bottlenecks and Human Population

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People who have to drive on massive highways often hear of bottlenecks  where traffic is not moving well. Obviously, the principle can be seen by taking a typical bottle, removing the stopper, and inverting it. Not a whoosh , but a glug glug glug  for a spell before it finally empties. The narrowness of the bottle slowed the flow. To geneticists, a bottleneck is more complicated. Anti-creationists point out the two population bottlenecks in the Bible: Eight people on Noah's Ark who survived the Genesis Flood, then the original couple, Adam and Eve. Then they laugh. Problem is, believers in the General Theory of Evolution also  have population bottlenecks in their models. Their models have creatures that were not human yet, but even so, they believe humanity's existence was threatened. Secularists do not accurately portray the beliefs in biblical creation science, as the first couple was genetically rich, and genetic devolution was not noticeable for quite some time yet. A headl

Cheetahs and the Created Cat Kind

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Believers in descent with modifications evolution are fond of the taxonomy system that they hijacked from  Carl Linnaeus (a creationist .) Talking about the biblical created kinds  gets evolutionists on the prod. While the study of kinds is a work in progress among creationists, creationists are making progress. As a point of reference, a kind is close to the family level in conventional taxonomy. Some of the criteria for including something in a kind often apply to species, such as whether or not different critters can interbreed and hybridize: lions and tigers, dobermans and coyotes, and many others. Cheetah, Flickr / Tambako The Jaguar ( CC BY-ND 2.0 ) Most of the big cats can hybridize, but there are a few exceptions. Some folks think that cheetahs may not even be felines! Okay, they don't hybridize. That's not the only criterion. There are also a couple of common myths about cheetahs (never mind that cheetahs never prosper) that people believe and think they are not  fe

Mutations not as Random as Thought

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It is a core tenet of fundamentalist evolutionism that mutations are entirely random, and those who doubt the concept risk losing their jobs in the secular science industry. This and other key beliefs are strictly enforced. Except there have been a few secular renegades who dared to say that mutations are not  so random after all. It reached a point that scientists even had a conference discussing the fundamentally-flawed assumption of pure randomness in mutations. Now Darwinists are having to deal with the evidence in preference to the narrative. DNA mutation, Pixabay / swiftsciencewriting Unfortunately, evolutionists take a materialistic (atheism) viewpoint, so they reject the fact that the Master Engineer has programmed mutations into living things! He didn't just leave creatures on their own to take their chances. Epigenetics, programmed mutations, and more make it possible for organisms to survive and thrive. Honesty is good for the soul…especially when the evidence against yo

Genome Maintenance Designed, Mocks Evolution

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Believers in descent with modifications evolution often claim that genetics (pioneered by Gregor Mendel, peas be upon him) supports evolution, which is false. Sure, with good spin doctoring, genetics can appear  to support it, but not really. Then we have genome maintenance. Imagine if you will that you have been given a maintenance job. You are given your uniform and shown to your special area with the supplies you need. This indicates that the supervisor anticipates what will be needed to effect repairs. This faulty analogy also applies to genetics. DNA and mechanic* Everything was fine at the beginning of Creation, but the Master Designer knew it would become corrupted and systems would break down. The blind, mad, gibbering fake god Evolution has no coherence or foresight, but God does and he put systems into place to offset the damage. Without them, humanity would already have become extinct. Our entire intellectual culture rests on the unscientific foundation of evolutionism. Evol

Tails of Mice and Men

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There are a few things that I keep repeating because they are so important, the primary of which is that scientists (and everyone else) operate from their worldviews. These are comprised of presuppositions (things believed without experimental support). Most evolutionists presuppose materialism, creationists presuppose the truth of the Bible. Believers in descent with modifications look at information through their Darwin spectacles, usually rejecting contrary evidence and predictions. Some researchers had numerous assumptions about humans having lost tails through evolution, so they studied the tails of mice. Darwin Spectacles and mouse tail, spectacles image by kkiser at Freeimages A prairie schooner-load of assumptions is involved in the study. First, evolution is not questioned, so that is assumed. Add to that the dogma of humans and apes diverged from a common ancestor millions of years ago. Somewhere in the mix, apes lost their tails. That is historical science — or would be if

The Questions of Aging

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It is a fact of life that, barring medical conditions or accidents, people grow old and eventually take a dirt nap. There have been many efforts to try and find ways to stave off aging, and to find out what causes it in the first place. There is a movement to upgrade ourselves with transhumanism , even to the point of living forever. (There are cautionary tales about regretful immortals who long for death.) It is a good thing to cure illnesses and counteract aging, no need for transhumanism. Old Couple , Vladimir Makovsky, 1889 Those of us who believe the Bible know that aging and death entered into the world when Adam sinned. In Genesis 2:17, God told Adam that the day he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would surely die. People have said the Bible is wrong because Adam and Eve didn't die. However, the more literal translation is dying you shall die . The deterioration began and was passed down to everyone, physically and spiritually. Negative effects of all t

Richard Dawkins and Evolutionary Trees of Life

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Spend some time with atom-to-atheist evolution material, and you will invariably encounter drawings or other renderings of trees of life. Charles Darwin had an "I think" tree of life where all living things can be traced to a universal common ancestor. It makes sense that modifications in the tree of life concept would be made as evolutionary concepts evolved. However, there are many of them because there is little agreement; they do not work. Clinton Richard Dawkins tried his hand at making predictions with them. Burning down Darwin's tree of life, unmodified version is at Wikimedia Commons Dr. Dawkins made predictions based on two common ToL versions. One tree is based on the science of genetics that was pioneered by creationist Gregor Mendel (peas be upon him). Another uses physical characteristics. The trees do not coincide very well. Dawkins made a prediction for both design and for evolution. Since there's a huge amount of genetic data now available, his predict

Genetics and the Old Recipe Box

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Nonfiction books in libraries are usually filed according to the Dewey Decimal System, grouping subjects in an order that many people prefer (unlike the Library of Congress system). This child was reasonably skilled at using the library card catalog . It was a pointer of sorts, indicating the probable place on the shelf where a book was located. More involved was another system, unique to each designer, of recipe cards. Standard index cards were stored in metal or wooden boxes, having details of recipe ingredients and instructions. They were often grouped by subjects. Recipe Box, Flickr / Joy Garnett ( CC BY-SA 2.0 ), modified The article featured below takes a unique approach that shows similarities and differences between the ol' recipe box and the science of genetics pioneered by creationist Gregor Mendel (peas be upon him). Both have sets of instructions for making an organism. Some living things could have similar ingredients, but differences in finer details yield different