Piltdown Superman

Unlike Mt. Sinai , the location of Mt. Hermon seems to be undisputed. (Certain things about its ownership are contested by nations, but never mind about that now.) As it is with other mountainous areas, it is difficult to identify  that one ; Mt. Hermon has three distinct peaks. It is significant in the Bible for several reasons , such as a border marker and probably the place of Jesus' transfiguration. It has also been sacred to other people for a mighty long time. Perhaps there is something to the idea that it was home to the Nephilim? Mount Hermon, Library of Congress , 1905 People have long been interested in end-times prophecy, and it seems to be increasing because of the state of the world today. Mt. Hermon is a focal point for some views. This child is mostly convinced about the identity of the Nephilim, but people have differing views from their own reasons. I have no interest in presenting my beliefs here. Instead, there are things to consider when people who erroneously

Flying reptiles of the past have long been a source of amazement to many people, and there is a great deal of mystery surrounding them. As expected, they appear in movies and such. There are about 150 species defined from fossils, and apparently  Pterodactylus was the first kind discovered. A 2005 movie titled Pterodactyl  has some of the critters living in modern times with wing edges like guillotines. Those are also about three times the size of  Pterodactylus from the fossil record. If the movie makers had done a little homework, they should have called it Pteranodon . Better yet, name the flick after the bigger grouping, pterosaurs. I only watched a few minutes of the movie and suggest you skip it. Pterosaur replica, Pixabay / Efraimstochter (mosaic effect added) They are classified as reptiles, but do not have some reptilian traits. There is speculation that they were warm-blooded. One scholar said they have a mosaic of features. Because of an abundance of fossils (some are well

Before we get to the main subject, there is some interesting news about the magnetic field of Earth. This shield surrounds our blue marble and protects us from harmful solar radiation, plasma, and such. It was recently discovered that when plasma strikes the magnetosphere, it vibrates and ripples like a drum membrane . The impact is spread out and dissipated to a large extent. The way buildings are designed to move in high winds or in earthquakes (resilience movement) comes to mind. To this child, is is an aspect of the magnetic field which is yet another example of the Master Engineer's design capabilities. Analysis by biblical creationists should be interesting. Earth's magnetic field, NASA / Walt Feimer (usage does not imply endorsement of site contents) Radiocarbon dating is useful for determining an approximate age of certain things, but its reliability is lessened when the object under scrutiny is very old. The magnetic field can help. It has signatures  where the age an

Wait, there is a need to search for Mt. Sinai? After all, it can be found on maps or with an internet search. That is true to some extent. However, it may depend on the mapmaker because the location of Mt. Sinai is disputed. What may be the majority opinion may not be the historical location. You savvy? Mt. Sinai is important in biblical history, as anyone who actually reads the Bible can tell you. Dealing with history of even 150 years ago can be difficult, and this involves thousands of years. Sunrise on a possible Mt. Sinai location, Unsplash / Vlad Kiselov There are several candidates for its location. Some can be dismissed by using the biblical text that describes travel time and landmarks. Other possible places suggested consider what the Bible says, and they incorporate other factors. Some are rather intriguing. The Bible presents Mount Sinai as a real location, and later in biblical history it took Elijah 40 days to get from Beersheba to Mount Sinai (1 Kings 19:3–8). The questi

That title got your attention. While it is provocative and possibly emotive to use the word conspiracy , it is not done casually in this case. People who are attracted to the history of science (and a bit about the culture of Victorian England) should be interested in what follows. The Huxley name was held by several noteworthy individuals, especially Thomas Henry and his son Julian. T.H. was considered Darwin's Bulldog  because of his aggressive promotion of evolution, and Julian carried on the activities in many ways. There were many factors that made Darwin's story successful, including Victorian society and how people supported each other. The Huxleys were instrumental in bringing Darwin to the fore and keeping evolution going. Something very interesting is how that sidewinder T.H. didn't really believe in Darwinism, but something more akin to Gould's punctuated equilibrium . He used Darwin and evolution as a means to distance science from God. Both Thomas and Julia

People are accustomed to consulting a calendar on the wall, and often electronic versions complete with reminders. A quick internet search can reveal the most popular songs the year you were born, and the same with movies. Time can be fun in some ways. The Gregorian calendar we currently use was instituted by Pope Gregory XIII in February 1582. It replaced the Julian calendar, which was an improvement over the Roman version. (It has some problems that need adjusting.) Protestant and Orthodox countries did not want to conform , but eventually had to admit the new calendar was better. Calendar, Unsplash /  Eric Rothermel In the first book of the Bible, God told us about the passage of time: There was evening and morning, day one...the second day...the third day...and so on. On the fourth day, he created the sun, moon, and stars. Those were put in place to be used by us to mark the passage of time. We read that people kept track of time and told us how long Adam and others lived, so they

As mentioned before, unbelievers try to undermine the historicity of the Bible in their efforts to negate it. Genesis is maligned by atheists with their materialistic paradigm (there is no God and miracles are impossible). Unbelievers take that kind of approach to other parts of the Bible as well. You probably know the account of how the Israelites left Egypt, and Exodus 12:37 mentions 600,000 men, plus their families . Laypeople tend to forget that the Bible and other ancient texts do not conform to modern approaches regarding minute details and strict sequences of events. Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh / Benjamin West There is something that I want to say here. Thoughtful Christians and creationists do not simply appeal to miracles as a matter of course. When the text indicates a miracle occurred, yes. But to use it as a reflexive explanation, no. That is not the manner of serious researchers and scholars. To first seek a natural explanation before using one that is supernatural is

Although scoffers will reject history from and about the Bible out of hand, there are some intriguing things for inquiring minds as to whether or not ancient cultures knew about creation, Adam, and the Genesis Flood. Those of us who know and believe the Bible are aware of the dispersion at Babel, but biblical creationists have worked mighty hard to put together details involving people, places, and languages . These include names and large-scale identifiers that can be found even in Egypt. Egyptian hieroglyphs, Pixabay / Michael Baragwanath People after the Flood still tended to have long lives, so they remembered firsthand accounts of the Flood or even read the written account (before Moses edited it into the book of Genesis). Names of Ham's sons are attached to Egypt, as they were involved in settling that area. Yes, ancient Egypt knew of Adam and the Flood, but their degraded versions of the truth need expert help for extraction. While living in Cairo, I became enamoured with Eg

When searching for kite , there are things people put up into the sky and hold onto with strings, or certain birds of prey. In this case, structures in the desert that aircraft pilots said resembled those string-held kites. Darwinists hold to the dogma that humans were stupid after they finished evolving from an apelike critter, so the timeline involves being hunter-gatherers, hanging around in caves, and doing very little for a few thousand years. As we have seen, evidence consistently shows that they were very intelligent. One of many examples involves those kite-like structures. Safawi Kite 101, Flickr / Aerial Photographic Archive for Archaeology in the Middle East ( CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 ) Such kites have been known for a spell, and serious research has been undertaken with remote sensing. Hundreds of these star-shaped kites have been discovered. (I am using the word star  loosely, as the things had numerous points.) They were intelligently designed and took many people working togethe

Many people are familiar with the story of David and Goliath in one form or another, often without many biblical details. Those details help support the fact that it is not just a Sunday School story with the moral of trusting God, but also a historical narrative. For example, history and archaeology show that a sling was a formidable and accurate weapon favored by shepherds and poor people. He did not need to get as close to Goliath as paintings depict! 1 Samuel 17:40 mentions that David took five smooth brook stones , their ammunition of choice. We have not only the eyewitness account in the Bible, but fascinating corroborating evidences from archaeology. David Slings the Stone , James Tissot, c. 1896-1902 The further one gets from the time of an occurrence, the more difficult it becomes to prove. We cannot use modern scientific and analytical methods to completely verify something that happened 2,200 years ago, but the corroborating evidences are quite helpful. There are seven, most

Look at that, they have a stele — whatever that is. I had to look up that word. A stele  is an ancient monument that was put up for to commemorate various important occasions. They were sometimes made of wood. A stone stele was a big slab engraved with writing, so it was obviously too much trouble to make for casual reasons. The Merneptah Stele was established by Egyptians to celebrate several military victories, and it also mentions military victories over Judah. So who what was Merneptah the pharaoh? Merneptah Stele, Wikimedia Commons / Onceinawhile ( CC BY-SA 4.0 ), enhanced It is interesting and useful when artefacts corroborate biblical history, but our faith is not established by evidence. Nor is it destroyed by the apparent lack of evidence. On a related subject, see " Lack of Evidence, Lack of Faith ." Ancient Egypt did not follow modern practices of laying out history. Some of it was...truly bizarre, a fact acknowledged by secularists as well as Bible believers. Som

What comes to mind when the prophet Daniel is mentioned? Perhaps some of the accounts many of us learned as children, such as his account of his friends in the fiery furnace, eating veggies, or his own experience in the den of lions. How about Belshazzar's blasphemous feast on his last night as a ruler, which prompted the expression, "The writing on the wall?" Then there are those prophecies... The Bible has come under attack for centuries for various reasons, especially its historical reliability. Materialists act from their presuppositions that there is no God and are no miracles. There can be no prophesy, nosiree! The book of Daniel is rejected by them and liberal "Christian scholars" for similar reasons. Belshazzar's Feast , Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, 1635 Why is it that people profess to be Christians, but try to tear down the foundations of their faith and destroy the faith of others? A simple way to reject the contents of Daniel's book is to

People may wonder why creationists discuss archaeology so often, since it does not seem to have any bearing on creation evidence. While archaeology does not have direct  application to the creation account, it provides useful evidence used for creation science. It also supports biblical history. Archaeology is a relatively young science, obviously having inherent difficulties because of the time involved. E.g., some places are thousands of years old, possibly buried in sand, people have built homes or cities on sites of interest. When something like the location of Sodom and Gomorrah of Genesis 18-19 is announced, people tend to take notice. Landscape with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah / Joachim Patinir , 1520 Sodom was not just a hick town, but rather a region that included a large city, its sister city Gomorrah, and several other cities. Because of the tremendous amount of time, ideas as to its location that have been proposed for its location are conflicting. Here we conside

Those of us who have been raised believing that there is only one God may find it difficult to comprehend that there are cultures that worship many. Animism  has multiple spirits that people pray to, which is seldom known in the Western world. Polytheism  is the belief in many gods. Some folks claim that the global flood story in the  Gilgamesh  epic poem was copied by the Hebrews. It is to laugh. Those gods were like children who gained power, squabbling with each other, messing with humans, and so on. Looking at mythologies, we see that many groups were polytheistic. The Assembly of the Gods , Jacopo Zucchi 1576, WikiComm  It strikes this child as interesting that the word avatar  is used frequently, often associated with a picture to represent oneself online. In religions like Hinduism, an avatar is when one of their gods decides to show up on Earth for a spell. People with a worldview based in atheistic materialism denigrate Judaism and Christianity, obviously because of the belie

There was a period in certain parts of Europe called (with a passel of hubris in the eyes of this child) the Age of Reason  or the Enlightenment . These things do not simply spring up on their own, but are developed from religious, cultural, intellectual, political, and other cultural views that happened before. The Enlightenment was by no means unified. Some had a fondness for Classical things (Socrates himself was particularly missed by Voltaire). Some wanted knowledge without the senses, others believed knowledge could be achieved by reason alone. This period is sometimes considered a triumph of atheism (indeed, the bloody French Revolution was the culmination). Erasmus Darwin, the grandfather of Charles, was an atheist who lived at this time. His Zoonomia  was unfluential to Charlie . Immanuel Kant by Johann Gottlieb Becker, 1768, modified with PhotoFunia Criticism of the Bible was widespread at this time with efforts to find excuses to intellectualize it away. (For that matter,

It is common knowledge that the secular news media are, for the most part, heavily biased toward the political left. This obviously influences their reporting — which seems more like propaganda than actual journalism. After all, journalists are expected to investigate and ask hard questions. There are a few reporters who want to do their jobs. Unfortunately, they are obscured by the lapdog majority. In the secular science industry, leftist causes and Darwinism are paramount as well as symbiotic. The public wants answers and is getting annoyed with the science press. Sausages by Amanda Lim at Unsplash (modified, obviously) In an article on an Intelligent Design site titled " Why Are Science Reporters So Credulous? ", David Klinghoffer points out that secular science journalists are assembling press releases instead of doing genuine reporting. He quotes Nicholas Wade, who indicates that journalists put scientists on pedestals which hinders doubt or healthy skepticism. The secu

A term that has become common in recent years is fact check , predominantly used in political matters. It seems that fact-checking organizations (as well as individuals) are bolstered by appeals to their authority and popularity — as well as those who want their biases confirmed. Who checks the checkers? The Snopes site was outstanding for looking up information and refuting silly urban legends, but it became disingenuous when supporting leftist politics . The FactCheck outfit claims that Snopes is reliable (this post has a mix of good and bad information, but supports leftist sources), but they are biased themselves . Negative biases are used when fact-checking the Bible using archaeology. Study room at Qumram, Israel - Flickr / Dennis Jarvis  ( CC BY-SA 2.0 ) Although this may seem like the genetic fallacy , it is worth considering the presuppositions of people making assertions and challenges. Many times on social(ist) media, people will simply make claims. For example, in Matthew

Secular scientists have found possible evidence of a severe drought thousands of years ago. The dating is obviously contentious with the biblical timeline, and even those scientists are not in agreement with their dating methods. With additional information, it seems to support the famine in Egypt when Joseph was the administrator for the pharaoh. The dating methods used by secular scientists are saturated with evolutionary assumptions, all of which are unprovable. We need to get up on a sizeable hill to get the big picture. Nile River by satellite / MODIS, NASA GSFC (usage does not imply endorsement of site contents) The Bible provides accurate history, and naysayers have been refuted many times. With that in mind, part of the big picture is the narrative in the late chapters of Genesis. Joseph was a mite arrogant it seems, so his brothers sold him, and he eventually wound up in Egypt. Read it for yourself for the details, but remember that Joe was given the meaning of Pharaoh's

No, nobody seems to be speculating on the origin of sound itself yet, but that may happen eventually. This one is about the idea that Earth was quiet for a mighty long time before life evolved. Then, some things began to make sounds. The physics of sound production and travel are understood, and scientists have a handle on how humans and critters make various sounds. One paleontologist in particular presented science-free speculations based on his materialistic worldview of how sounds from organisms evolved. Storyteller  by Anker Grossvater, 1884 / Source:  Wikimedia Commons This owlhoot began with a naturalistic view of origins and history, then commenced to use the fundamental scientific principle so popular in the secular science industry: Making Things Up™. In a recent post, I mentioned the successful advertising promotion, " Where's the Beef? ", which has often been repurposed to indicate that something has no substance. More recently, " Show me the money "

One of the most remarkable and recognizable places in the world is Stonehenge, bringing along a sense of mystery. There are numerous candidates for the original builders and their reasons for doing so, but those are only speculations. Why was it built? Perhaps it is because it is on one of the alleged ley lines . Some people think it may have been a temple or healing center , possibly because of the unique bluestones (spotted dolomite) that were transported from Wales to the Stonehenge site. It has been determined that it was set up to be a perpetual calendar. Stonehenge, Pixabay / Simons41 While Stonehenge was known to have astronomical aspects, it took many years to determine that its structure shows mathematical precision. The ancient builders knew that there would need to be adjustments made for leap years as well. (Remnants of the  Cahokia Woodhenge were discovered in the 1960s. Although less ancient, its builders apparently made it to be a solar calendar as well. It doesn't