Piltdown Superman

One trick of minerals-to-man evolutionists is to claim that natural selection is evolution, and since most creationists believe in natural selection, we must also believe that Papa Darwin was right. Not hardly! Natural selection was actually the work of a creationist . Related to that is the charge that we believe in fixity of species . Yes, some folks did believe that God created everything as we see it, but such a concept was abandoned by most creationists long ago. We believe in the original genetically-rich created kinds . Sand cat, fennec fox, mulgara images from Wikimedia Commons* Not only do we accept the observed fact of natural selection (though not Darwin's creative force concept), we also believe in variation and speciation . The three animals here certainly couldn't survive in the Arctic, nor could their counterparts last in the desert. A combination of front-loaded genetic information, gene expression, plus natural selection made it possible for them to thrive. Int

There are several ideas floating around about what creationists believe and teach, but honest inquirers who prefer going to the sources instead of relying on hearsay can quickly learn the difference. Consider what creationists teach about species, for example. As regular readers know, we affirm speciation (a new species arises from an extant species). Unfortunately, some professing but uninformed creationists oppose this fact. The two articles presented below have a prairie schooner-full of material that will inform and equip folks. House finch image credit: Freeimages /  Maria Corcacas Creationists use the biblical word kind , which is somewhere around the family level of standard classifications. Species are way down the list. The definition is about as certain as nailing gelatin to a wall.  Species can change quickly, and this is demonstrated in the case of Jacob and the flocks of Laban . We believe that the Master Engineer gave creatures the abilities to adapt and change — they wer

Out riding a forest trail at night, it is common to hear a coyote howl. This can give a greenhorn a bit of a start, but not as bad as hearing a cougar. Is the word pronounced KY-ote or ky-O-tee? Depends on where you are. While coyotes frequently make guest appearances in Western shows, they are found in most of these here United States, including New York and Alaska. They have a bad reputation, but it may not be entirely deserved. Credit: Flickr / AdititheStargazer ( CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 ) These critters are crafty, stealing and eating all sorts of things. Sometimes they hunt in packs or even team up with other animals. By the way, the one in the cartoons should have caught the roadrunner because coyotes are faster. Like their jackal and dingo cousins, they are considered pests. Some folks try killing them off which actually causes them to increase their population ! They breed well, and the Eastern coyote has been found to have domestic dog DNA. Those in the wild have been known t

This is another post that links to an article that is intended for people with a good working knowledge of biology. Most cells are diploid, meaning the cells have two sets of chromosomes. When an organism or cell has more than two sets of chromosomes, you have polypolidy. An earlier post discussed plant polyploidy . Now we are going to take a look at it in animals. African banded barb image credit: Wikimedia Commons / Citron Polyploidy has not received as much study as other areas, but it is known to be more common in plants than animals. What is known so far is that polyploidy in animals is rare, and often fatal. Get some biologists discussing whether or not the changes are harmful, beneficial, or neutral, and you may have an entertaining dustup. The mysteries of polyploidy are not helped when researchers are intellectually dishonest and make assumptions, but some research on various critters has been interesting. When polyploidy leads to speciation, it happens very quickly, b

If you ever watch some of those documentaries on cats, you can see that the furry critters that own us as pets can be found in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors (the Maine Coon is a whopper.) Go to the zoo or watch a different documentary and you see the big ones such as lions, tigers, cheetahs, leopards, bobcats, and a passel of others. Where did they originate? Liger (lion-tiger hybrid) image credit: Ali West ( CC by 2.0 ) Darwinists are content with " it evolved " and spin some yarns, but it is obvious from their amazing abilities such as vision, smell, hearing, and others that the Master Engineer designed them. Biblical creationists believe in the created kinds  of Genesis, and the study of the kinds is called baraminology . They're all cats, and can interbreed. Lions and tigers can breed. The largest domestic cat (although  domestic  is disputed) is the Savannah cat , a cross between a domestic and an African serval . Lions are discussed in the Bible

Catfish are considered good eating in the southern United States and are often fried . That should not be surprising since they are found in the Big Muddy (Mississippi) least ways, and this continent has quite a few catfish in rivers and such. By the way, watch out for the dorsal and pectoral fins, because many of them are venomous — some dangerously so, which means get treatment . Credit: Unsplash / Milos Prelevic Catfish are found on almost every continent in varying sizes and shapes.Aquarium fanciers can have those that are smaller than the ones served up on a plate just before the sweet potato pie is served, and there are also some monsters in the wild. The Mekong Giant Catfish is huge, but endangered, so don't be eating those because they're endangered . Savvy that? Sometimes people are surprised by new critters, but thousands of species are discovered every year. That means we don't know all there is to know, you know? Places like the Mekong River have more t

Votaries of minerals-to-microbiologist evolution are confused by the meaning of evolution, and they spread their tohubohu to the public. We often see them conflating evolution with variation. In a similar way, adaptation is interpreted as evolution. They conveniently skip over basic science and observational skills. Red-browed finch image by John Manger / CSIRO ( CC BY 3.0 ) (Usage does not imply endorsement of site contents) When you see finches, you can see variations and adaptation. When you see dogs, you see variations and adaptation. You do not see anything changing into something else. Big and little, long and short, different colors, speciation — each staying within the boundaries of its own kind with a little help from genetics. Darwin's disciples generally follow his teachings that some vague, undefined external pressures caused organisms to change. As we have seen in the articles linked here on engineered adaptability (such as " Engineered Adaptability or

Last time I checked, the established dogma of universal common ancestor evolution included purposeless change. We have seen several times that these evolutionists are resorting to pantheism , animism , mysticism , and so on. If you check your Charles Darwin Club Secret Decoder Ring™, you will see that materialists are making evolution into an entity, and tacitly appealing to design, not chance. But those things are against their rules. Diamond Head Crater, Oahu, Hawaii image credit: Unsplash / Chase O Some stick spiders in Hawaii would undergo some changes to suit their environments when they headed to other islands. Darwinists incorrectly refer to the changes as "evolution", but that is the opposite of the truth. Variation, sure. Speciation, maybe. Also, the changes are quite rapid. But they still remain essentially the same, and no new genetic information is added. What really puzzled the researchers (before they got bored and looked for something shiny to play with

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

Scientists who are involved in biology disagree on the definition of species. Sometimes this happens with individual critters, but the broader use of the term is also disputed. It is the lowest ranking in taxonomy below genus, most often defined as organisms that can mate to produce fertile offspring . Doesn't always work that way, however. Liger at the Novosibirsk Zoo / Wikimedia Commons / Алексей Шилин We hear about hybrids, often in the plant kingdom. Animal hybrids usually cannot reproduce, and one of the most famous examples is the mule, from a male donkey and female horse. There are other hybrid animals as well. Darwin's imaginary "Tree of Life" gets its branches all tangled up with species interbreeding, and sometimes, the hybrids can breed with the parents, creating havoc for scientists at the genus level. It may be slightly less surprising when the matings happen in captivity, but they happen in the wild as well. Materialists like to reject any cons

Except for a few uninstructed people, creationists and evolutionists agree that speciation occurs. When it comes to the mechanisms, benefits, purposes, limitations, and so forth, that's when we're going to be having us some disagreements. Whether through natural or artificial means, hybridization occurs. Liger (lion-tiger hybrid) image credit: Ali West ( CC by 2.0 ) Advocates of muck-to-monkey evolution have a heap of difficulty explaining speciation and its limitations. Biblical creation science advocates have explanations and speculations that fit the observed data. The article linked below discusses the origin of diversity, the purpose of it in the Creator's plan, the role of genetics and epigenetics, and more. What about hybrid sterility? There could be a purpose in that as well, but thoughts on this are still being developed. I reckon that this is a show-stopper for evolution, what with sterile hybrids not continuing the changes and all, but that's just me

"But Cowboy Bob, shouldn't that title read —" Yes, I know, the real phrase is, "Cry 'Havoc!', and let slip the dogs of war", from Shakespeare . I figured it was the leashed I could do. Creationists have used dog breeds for many illustrations, including the variety of diversification that our Creator built into the genetic structure of the dog kind, and also how breeding (artificial selection) reduces the fitness for survival of the animals.  Credit: FreeDigitalPhotos.net / Bill Perry In days long passed, dogs were bred for their abilities. Now they are also bred for their appearance. A new study surprised scientists because they expected certain breeds to be related due to similar traits, and vice versa . But with all of the genetic studying, there is no evidence supporting Darwin's dreadful idea; dogs are still dogs and are not turning into something completely other — even with human interference. People have loved (or hated

When scientists commence to assigning species classifications, the dividing lines get a mite blurry. Scientists occasionally have difficulty if a critter belongs to a separate species. One of they key points is if an organism can reproduce sexually. So, why are some things classified as different species if they can interbreed? Alaskan brown bear credit: US Department of Transportation (Usage does not imply endorsement of site contents) Creationists refer to the biblical phrase created kind , which is similar to the family classification. All of the varieties of dog, such as the little yap dog, police dog, dingo, wolf — all are descended from a single dog kind, probably a wolf. The quest for nonexistent evolutionary history of bears was the impetus for sequencing the genomes of four bear species. Instead of supporting evolutionism, the results are more in keeping with creationary models. After all, the bears can hybridize, so even Darwinists are wondering if they're fouli

Basement Cat was feeling affectionate and came up to see me, helping me get in touch with my inner felines. The purr machine works quite well. Interestingly, the some of the great cats purr as well, and do other things that we see in Felis catus (domestic house cat), including play with a ball . Sometimes Basement Cat thinks she's a panther or something, acting like the hiss is a roar. Her big cousins do the hiss thing, too. Here's a divergence: most domestic cats are not fond of water, but tigers are very fond of it . Proponents of life evolving from a common ancestor have had it mighty difficult to classify the cat family members. "Early" cats according to evolutionary mythology were classified into two lineages, but without significant justification. Cats existing today are able to hybridize, which is one of several reasons that biblical creationists say that cats probably are members of a single kind , in this case, called a holobaramin. Creationists do bel

The expression, "When the cat's away, the mice will play" applies to the hands at the Darwin Ranch, when the foreman goes into town on business. Well, evolutionists are proposing something similar: when the dinosaurs took a dirt nap, mammals felt free to evolve faster. Of course, there was also a large amount of mammalian extinction going on as well. Scientists examined fossils of certain mammals, then presented a hypothesis based on their presuppositions of Earth being mighty old, evolution as a fact, and others. They neglected other areas of "rapid evolution" that conflict with this hypothesis, and included the too-common conflation between change  and dust-to-dinosaur evolution.  If they had cognated on actual speciation and bothered to look at the much better Genesis Flood models of creationary scientists, they'd have a much better idea of what happened, and that it happened much more recently than they'll accept in their worldview. In a recen

Mammoths were big elephant-like critters that lived way up north during the Ice Age, got quick-frozen and were encased in ice a zillion years ago. One was heroic but cranky, named Manfred. At least, that seem to be the public perception. Actually, there were several different beasties that looked like elephants. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons / Honymand / CC BY-SA 4.0 There were varieties of mammoths, one of which was the woolly mammoth — not to be confused with the larger mastodon, and not to be confused with the Christian rock band Mastedon ("video" below). Mammoths are a bit of a puzzler for proponents of muck-to-mammoth evolution, as are modern elephants, since evolution is presumed, not demonstrated. Another area of stress is the Ice Age. Uniformitarian views are unable to explain it, but biblical creationary scientists have plausible models based on the Genesis Flood. The aftermath of the Flood, genetics, speciation, natural selection, the biblical created k

Darwinists have a corral-full of rescuing devices to be utilized when observations do not fit their paradigm. One of these is convergent evolution, where different organisms independently evolved similar traits, even though there is no plausible mechanism or evidence. Some of these convergent evolution evasions are quite outlandish . Image credits: Burmese python (top), Pixabay / skeeze Emperor boa (bottom), Pixabay / sipa There are distinct differences in critters, but since they have some aspects in common, it's "evidence" that they evolved from a common ancestor. It's disallowed to even consider the more reasonable explanation: they were designed and equipped by their Creator to diversify within genetic limits and fill ecological niches. (That's right, creationists do accept speciation .) A recent study of pythons and boas reached the stunning conclusion that, even though they diversified, they did not change into something else. Convergent evolution

Even in upstate New York, we can see a variety of birds at the feeder on our patio. My wife likes to admire several kinds, and we have a bit of fun looking them up in books and online. She likes the two kinds of woodpeckers that drop in, and giving peanuts to the blue jays. Jays are smart, too, which fits because they're related to crows and ravens, considered among the most intelligent birds. Malicious Advice Mallard is at it again. In some ways, evolutionists and creationists agree about some elements of speciation. We disagree when it comes to how such varieties came about, and from where. There's no evidence that they came from a common ancestor, and the South American origin story is based on Darwinian presuppositions. We have our presuppositions, too, and believe that speciation of birds that were on Noah's Ark during the Genesis Flood is a better explanation of scientific evidence. This involves the study of baraminology or biblical kinds, terms held in deri

Time to do some thinking, as the article featured below has some rather technical material in it. Ever hear of jumping genes? T hey don't actually jump. Rather, they move around a bit under certain circumstances. Retroelements are found in DNA, traveling in the chromosomes of their hosts. They were thought to be "junk" because of evolutionary thinking. As before, so-called junk has been found to have a purpose. "Retroelements" image composed from items found at Clker clipart. The genes of a certain wallaby were sequenced, and the findings seem to support rapid speciation as postulated by biblical creationists. They were doing what the Creator programmed them to do from the beginning. Yippie ky yay, secularists! Jumping genes or transposable elements (TEs) are present in virtually all life forms, from bacteria to humans. They are short DNA sequences that can move from site to site in the chromosomes of their hosts. They have been divided into two grou

People who go camping in parks populated with bears need to take certain precautions , because having a grizzly or some other Ursus in your campsite — ain't nobody got time for that. Those critters can get right ornery, especially since you're on their territory. Play a little game. If you commence to searching for species and subspecies of bears, you'll find quite a few. Then ask your friends how many bears they can name. Worse would be to try to get people to identify them by pictures: brown, black with lighter fur, grizzly, the Kodiak (Alaskan grizzly or Kodiak brown), that can be a mite confusing. Even bears that are considered to be closely related can have wide varieties. Photo credit: Polar bear by Steven C. Amstrup / USGS (usage does not imply endorsement) Evolutionists will tell you that all those bears are different because of mutations over long periods of time. But mutations do not add genetic information to account for the diversification. Yes, crea