Piltdown Superman

A while back, I took a day to visit the seashore. Shortly after arriving, I located the booth where Sarah sells seashells by the seashore and we talked about various things. Sara's sister Suzie sells seashells by the seashore in Australia, and she's doing well. Sarah is a merchant, so she puts in a great deal of time searching for good specimens (often snorkeling for seashells as well) and even finds ways to make them memorable. Jewelry, coffee table displays, and all that good stuff. Seashells, Morguefile / jade If you study on it, there are basically two different types of shells. Crabs and their kin have one kinds, but most of what we find on the beach are made by mollusks and are composed of calcium carbonate. The Master Engineer designed these creatures to make their homes while they live in them, constantly growing and working. Shells are strong and (I believe) made colorful because of God's desire to give us that pleasure. Darwinists are once again at a loss to expla

Occasionally, it is helpful to state the obvious: Just because a wild animal is cute does not mean it is safe to approach. There are hundreds of octopus species, and they do not mean harm for humans — but it happens by accident or if they feel threatened. And watch out for that smaller blue-ringed octopus with deadly venom . Moving on, the octopus shows a great deal of intelligence and ingenuity. Sometimes that is to the dismay of researchers and keepers of aquariums. Octopus, Unsplash / Diane Picchiottino While designations of higher  and lower  life forms is based on fundamentally-flawed evolutionary concepts, humans are made in the image of God. We can make sophisticated music, detailed communication, science, mathematics, and more. Even so, octopuses and other creatures show remarkable abilities that reveal the handiwork of the Master Engineer. Don't underestimate them. Oh, and those suckers? They get a huge amount of sensory information from them. The idea that animals general

Marine invertebrates are interesting and useful to study, and we recently read about a clam as yet another living fossil . This time, we discuss clams that live in mudflats and produce erythromycin. That is an extremely useful antibiotic, sometimes prescribed for people who have penicillin allergies. Although most bacteria are beneficial, we know some are harmful. The mudflats (also, tidal flats) that the Asiatic hard clam calls home are loaded with bacteria (and have other dangers, watch where you walk). Tides or rivers drop a lot of sediment in these coastal wetlands. So how do we get clams that produce and important antibiotic? Stewart Island Oban Mudflats, WikiComm / Ingolfson (Public Domain) Marine invertebrates are quite at home among pathogens even though they are immune-system challenged. The Creator put something in these clams that are living dangerously while secreting erythromycin and other antibacterial activity. Naturally, Darwin's disciples appeal to evolution and m

Long ago, the coelacanth was considered extinct. Its fossils got believers in fish-to-fire marshal evolution all excited because it had nubbin fins that they thought resembled feet. Yee haw boy howdy, this bad boy was a transitional form. It was evolving for land life as required by the Darwinian narrative! The geologic column has numerous problems including fossils in the wrong order and so-called ghost lineages (where certain fossils appear, disappear for a few million Darwin years, and then reappear). That stuff gets left out of the millions of years with transitions narrative. The coelacanth was not willing to be a part of it. Coelacanth,  NOAA  (usage does not imply endorsement of site contents) Evolutionists made their pronouncements about the fossils according to their presuppositions. Then the coelacanth decided to stop playing hide and seek. One was found, but not in good enough condition for detailed study. Eventually, more were found, and were pretty much identical to their

Anglerfish are denizens of the deep, dark, cold sea. They have, as Tim the Enchanter would say, "Nasty big pointy teeth!" Anglerfish have a bioluminescent lure that dangles in front of them to attract prey. Bioluminescence is when a creature chemically generates its own light; fireflies are actually bioluminescent beetles. They live so far down, the pressure is immense. Scientists find it difficult to keep them alive for research. One type of Anglerfish, the Ceratioid, is a bit of a difficulty for biblical creation: If everything was created very good , why does this happen? Cryptopsaras couesii , Wikimedia Commons / Masaki Miya, et al  ( CC BY 2.0 ) Interesting how what happens to C. couesii is wrongly used as "evidence" for Darwinism. You'll read about that in the link below. This is where it becomes part science and part theology. Yes, everything was very good in the beginning with no death and suffering, but something happened. When Adam sinned (the Fall of

An intriguing creature of tropical and subtropical waters is called the Portuguese Man-of-War (some render it Man o' War or similar), but has been found in colder waters on occasion. Is it an attempt by Portugal to rule the waves? No, it is not from there. The Man-of-War has a floating part that remains above the water, the rest is submerged. This critter is similar to a jellyfish in some ways, especially those very long venomous tentacles that easily fire off painful stings. It's not so much an it , but more of a they . View from above,  Physalia physalis , Flickr /  Bengt Nyman ( CC BY 2.0 ) Okay, so it's not from Portugal. What about the other part of its handle? It is thought that it has a resemblance to the sails of heavily-armed warships (probably frigates, not galleons) of yesteryear. The upper part acts like a sail, so wind and ocean currents tell it where it's going to go. Although rather small body wise, a flotilla of a thousand of these things cruising along

It sounds like a sci-fi movie, Sharks in a Volcano , where sharks are swimming in lava and menacing researchers. (Well, Sharknado  had five sequels, so it could happen.) The reality of the situation is something...truly bizarre. The volcano Kavachi is frequently on the prod, erupting and causing new islands to form — most of them do not last, however. Researchers went into this hot, toxic, dangerous place when the volcano had some down time. Sure, extremophiles exist, but they are usually microbes and such. Not this time. Kavachi undersea volcano eruption, NASA Earth Observatory / Jesse Allen & Robert Simmon (usage does not imply endorsement of site contents) Scientists found sharks, bony fish, and more living in that crater! Darwin's disciples, being what they are, think this can give insight into evolutionary history of such critters. (Evolutionists are frequently surprised by things, then play the "insights into evolutionary history" card.) From a biblical creati

American tax dollars through the National Science Foundation fund the JOIDES Resolution  research vessel, partly named after Captain James Cook's HMS Resolution  which was used for quite a bit of exploring. The acronym stands for Joint Oceanographic Institutions for Deep Earth Sampling . The ship is packed with scientists and crew, and they do quite a bit of drilling for ocean floor core samples. Since the research is international in scope, one particular journey was led by Japanese researchers and explored the South Pacific. What they discovered astonished them. JOIDES Resolution , WikiComm /  John Newcomb  ( CC BY 3.0 ), slightly enhanced They got themselves a passel of bacteria that were "sleeping", and were successfully awakened. (Unlike a predictable science fiction movie, they didn't turn everyone into evil monsters.) Here's where the secular old-earth paradigm kicks in. Those bacteria were in an area that they could not have reached without help.. Assuming

Sharks and rays are in the same biological grouping, which gives us some interesting characters. Manta rays are nice to watch as they appear to fly underwater. Unfortunately, rays have a tendency to be unattractive. They have some interesting and unique traits. There are several kinds of fishes that have electric organs, but none of them are Hammond organs used with amplifiers in rock bands. The organs (or structures) play a vital part in the lives of these fish, including sensory and offensive/defensive applications. Spotted Torpedo, Flickr / Philippe Guillaume ( CC BY 2.0 ) Have you ever seen animated cartoons where a character gets zapped by an electric "eel" and they light up while jumping around? Yeah, those fish can pack quite a punch like the spotted torpedo and others, but they are not closely related. Darwin's disciples unconvincingly evosplain how those structures evolved. It's called the Stuff Happens Law , sort of like: "How did it get that way?"

Going into the second half of 2022, my unregistered assault keyboard is clean and ready for action! An idea in the  Star Trek universe was the cloaking device , which made Klingon and Romulan spaceships invisible. The Hawaiian bobtail squid has a camouflaging method that can be likened to the Star Trek  gadgets, and it was in place before the spaceship thing was a gleam in Gene Roddenberry's eye. The little bobtail squid, which at first glance has a resemblance to an octopus, glows in the dark. It is not designed to do that by itself, but instead has help from bioluminescent bacteria. This win-win situation requires an amazing level of specified complexity. Bobtail Squid about to get out of Dodge, NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research (site endorsement not implied) These little dumplings start getting the necessary bacteria shortly after birth, having tissues that kill the other microbes; the bacteria they want are already immune. Then it feeds — cultures — the bacteria. W

It is said that one of the best examples of evolution is the whale story, which makes Darwin smile and his disciples light prayer candles in celebration. Except that it is not all that impressive, relying more on imagination than reality. If evolution were true, would they need to use tall tales and deception to keep it breathing? This kind of stuff is rampant. As regular readers have seen, evolutionists use faulty reasoning and bad science to manipulate people into believing their worldview. A new paper evosplains whale craniums. Humpback whale breaching,  NOAA  (usage does not imply endorsement of site contents) Remember, any evolutionary change requires a multitude of gradual changes over long periods of time. There should be evidence to back up their claims. It's not happening, old son. Tales are told with miracles and magic going every which way, omitting important considerations, little to no evidence —then appealing to clades. Those are generally the products of the complex

If asked what fish in the sea is the biggest, someone may be suggest the whale. If you want to tease, coax them to say the blue whale. Then tell them that they are half right because a whale is a mammal, but the largest fish is the whale shark. Unfortunately, sharks get bad press, especially after that Spielberg movie. Most are not interested in seeking humans for lunch, but someone says shark  and people panic. Nurse sharks are harmless. While the whale shark has teeth and denticles to spare, it eats much smaller things. Whale Shark, Flickr / Mike Johnston  ( CC BY 2.0 ) Speaking of teeth, whale sharks even have some on their eyes. Well, sorta. Those are denticles — "So if they look the same, are they eye denticle, Cowboy Bob?" Uh, sure. Moving on... Darwinists have floated explanations that just won't wash, but those on the eyes are very modified and used to for eye protection. Also, evolutionists did that thing they have done so often: If they don't understand an o

One reason scientists do not know many things is that there is a huge amount to learn, so they select certain subjects for analysis. Sometimes they reject a subject out of hand because it has been deemed unimportant. Scientists can hinder their knowledge by being too limited. The sailing ship Tara  is packed with scientists, and they discovered a schooner-full of RNA viruses in the oceans. This child approves (as if they would care) that these researchers wanted to get additional information, as the more harmful viruses get the most attention. Apollo 17 "Blue Marble" — NASA (usage does not imply endorsement, yada, yada, yada) Studying a few viruses may give them something to lasso for those under study, but, scientists need to saddle up and ride to the top of the hill for a bigger picture. After all, viruses are important. Some folks think all viruses are bad, but that is incorrect. (Some think all bacteria are bad as well, another error.) Viruses known as  bacteriophages c

Like many fish, Atlantic sturgeons live most of their lives in the ocean, but go up rivers to spawn. Those accessing rivers from the Chesapeake Bay can choose from several. Some scientists were being unscientific, saying that these sturgeons spawn in the spring because that was the consensus. Although sturgeons are endangered, a boatload of them spawn in the fall , not the spring. In fact, old records indicated fall spawning times as well. How could they miss seeing such large fish? Sturgeons have been mistaken for lake and sea monsters! NOAA Fisheries (click the link for some interesting facts, including size and weight) Too bad there wasn't a Chinook Haddock Sturgeon to preach them a sermon and get their attention. Even so, secularists probably wouldn't have noticed because they were locked into oversimplifying and rejecting previous records. In fact, these fish may have spawned both  in spring and fall. Sturgeons are considered living fossils, because the fossils of sturge

Anti-creationists are known for pseudo-intellectual posturing with dysteleology (claiming something was poorly design, so there is no God), but they use false comparisons. Clinton Richard Dawkins and others railed (out of his area of expertise) that the human eye as badly designed, and no amount of science and reason refuting such claims  will be considered by their disciples. They even compare our eyes to those of critters and criticize the Master Engineer. Because atheism. Our eyes were designed for our environment, other eyes were designed for other environments. You savvy that, pilgrim? Whiteleg shrimp image credit: NIH NLM (usage does not imply endorsement of site contents) The design of shrimp eyes is extremely intricate and irreducibly complex. The eye reflectors are comprised of nanospheres, and those are optimal for reflecting light so these critters can see in low-light conditions. Humans want to indulge in biomimetics to imitate this, but it would be a huge project requirin

There are three family classifications of pinnipeds, which are walruses, sea lions, and seals. These oceanic carnivores account for one quarter of all carnivores on Earth, and these eat a variety of marine animals. Pinnipeds have a variety of movements in water and on land. Believers in universal common descent evolution say that the three families, like whales, had land ancestors that did an about-face and evolved some more to live in the sea. Other evolutionists disagree, saying that genetics does not support a single ancestor. Atlantic Grey Seals, RGBStock / Elvis Santana The fossil record does not support any kind of pinniped descent with modifications. Sure, there is evidence for variety, but not evolution — which is what biblical creationists expect. One weak attempt to find a fossil link between seals and their land-based ancestors was simply an otter. Question Evolution Day is February 12 For that matter, fossils of monk seals are the same as their living counterparts. The evi

Consider whales. They spend their lives on the water and resemble fish, but they are animals. Air-breathing mammals. The largest animal on Earth is the blue whale, and it eats mighty small shrimp-like critters known as krill . When a baleen whale eats those little things, they do what is called lunge feeding and take in a huge quantity of them. They also gulp down water, and blast it out through the blow hole up top. Have you ever wondered how they eat without drowning? Blue whale image from NOAA Fisheries (usage does not imply endorsement of site contents) Whales eat underwater many times each day, and a large number of functions for closing off airways and such happen automatically. Obviously, we be submerged and eat successfully. Something else that cannot be done is for those jaspers who invoke evolution as empirical science to be able to give us evidence for this alleged evolution. Some people think and ask questions, and don't just gulp down what "scientists say."

If folks saddle up and ride to Florida, head way south into the Florida Keys. The Spanish word cayo  means "little island". The Keys are an archipelago, and U.S. Highway 1 takes you to Key Largo ( Cayo Largo , long little island). Then head out to  John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park . There are plenty of activities year round. Boating, walking, hiking, and so on. But the good stuff for our purposes happens underwater. People who do snorkeling and diving can get a good look. Flickr / Matt Kieffer  ( CC BY-SA 2.0 ) Symbiosis  happens with mutually beneficial relationships, but things that happen in coral reefs are a mite surprising. Corals tend to be on the tiny side for the most part, and the living parts (polyps) generally eat zooplankton. Meanwhile, single-celled algae called zooxanthellae have a symbiosis with corals. Another fascinating bit of symbiosis is what are called cleaning stations. Big fish queue up and let little fish swim into their mouths and clean their teet

This post features the third part in a series by Dr. Robert Carter, first two of which were made available in this post . I thought he was done, but he had some more to discuss with us. In this article, he discusses a model for the created kinds, baramins , of Genesis. Darwin's "Tree of Life" simply does not work. Biblical creationists have pointed out that created kinds are like an orchard, or branching trees in a forest. Dr. Carter believes that this concept should be developed another way. Corals extend tentacles, NPS / A. Bourque (usage does not imply endorsement of site contents) Many secularists get furious — furious , I tell you — that creation scientists reject  their  classification system (which materialists stole from creationist Carl Linnaeus and modified to fit atheistic naturalism), and are working on baraminology , the study of created kinds . No, creationists do not believe in the "fixity of species" (no speciation, everything stayed the same). T

Proponents of universal common descent evolution have a passel of stories to tell, but they have nasty habits of circular reasoning (assuming evolution to prove evolution), neglecting basic facts, and making a passel of assumptions. When scientists say that they have evidence, look for examples. Anti-creationists take the material without using critical thinking skills or asking questions, then tell biblical creationists, "Proof of whale evolution! Take that , creationists!" Not hardly! Watch for evolution of the gaps (they hope information will be found) and speculations. Freeimages /  Kym Parry The just-so story of whale evolution goes back to when life supposedly evolved in the oceans, had innumerable beneficial mutations and natural selection, then something took a notion to go back into the sea, had additional mutations and natural selection, and out popped whales. Latest tweaks for the story involve speculations about how nasal passages moved during evolution and that t