Posts

Disagreements on Dark Matter

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It amazes this child that sciency folks believe in things they cannot see or test, but dark matter is at the top of the list along with the Big Bang, cosmic and biological evolution, deep time, and all that good stuff. Creationists tend to reject dark matter because it is a rescuing device for the Big Bang. Also, it can only be inferred, not observed. When searching for images at NASA, I noticed that there were numerous articles where scientists were amazed because the supposed dark matter did not behave in a manner that secular cosmologists expect. Some are getting on the prod about how it constantly defies explanation, and are proposing a replacement. Hubble image of galaxies, NASA , ESA, & J. Lotz & HFF Team (STScI) (usage does not imply endorsement of site contents) A few secular cosmologists believe in Modified Newtonian Dynamics. It is thought that this approach to science offers better explanations for what is observed that trying to use dark matter. Of course, the majo

Possible Location of Sodom from Genesis 19

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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

Engineering Plant Communication

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Before we get into this, some discussion is necessary. I have become much more circumspect regarding the use of material from the Institute for Creation Research. The main reason is their vehement denial that natural selection exists , and also their Continuous Environmental Tracking model. Biblical creationists, like other scientists, have models and disagreements among themselves. Some creationists dislike the CET model, which is a work in progress. I am not convinced that I need to reject it and delete all the other posts I have done over the years about it. Rocks (pareidolia, see the face in the rock?) and plants, Unsplash / Cowboy Bob Sorensen However, the post featured below claims to have support for CET. In this case, I think the author is unconvincing. The discussion about how new studies on plants reveal design from an engineering perspective is interesting. Therefore, the article is presented for your consideration. As science and technology develop, things are far less simp

Yellowstone 2022 Flooding and Rethinking Deep Time

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Something that this child does not get weary of saying is never underestimate the power of water ! Videos of people trying to drive through flash floods and getting trapped when their cars are swept away, mudslides causing destruction, and more should warn people. Yellowstone National Park (the first ever, from 1872) was an example of quick flooding in June, 2022. Fortunately, there were no injuries or deaths (that I could find reported). There was great deal of damage, but repair efforts were undertaken and things are much better now. Uniformitarian geologists have been rethinking their beliefs lately. Yellowstone N.P. north entrance road damage, National Park Service / Doug Kraus (usage does not imply endorsement) A report said this flooding was a "once in a thousand year event" or "once a century flood, which is silly because nobody was there to see previous big floods. Secular scientists are finally comparing Yellowstone's fossil forests with mudflows from Mount

Fact and Fiction about Dinosaur-Age Bacteria

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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

Wrong Ideas on the Origin of Polytheism

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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

The Evolutionary Speciation Battle Rages On

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Regular readers might recollect that I wrote about a dustup at the Darwin Ranch, yonder out Folly Road near Deception Pass. Evolutionists cannot agree on how to define species , and it is unfortunate that they reject the superior taxonomy of the biblical kind  used in creation science (see " Coming to Terms with Species and Biblical Kinds "). Speciation occurs when similar living things can interbreed. But the squabble about defining species applies here as well. (After all, coyotes and dogs can interbreed .) The Master Engineer designed living things to adapt, survive, and reproduce. Darwin caricature from one of the  Vanity Fair publications, 1871, modified at Pixlr Brown bears and polar bears interbreed, so does that mean they are separate species? There is disagreement. Using molecular clock data has too many problems and is unreliable, so that won't stop the battle. Galápagos finches are often cited as evidence that Papa Darwin was right, but... Then we have the famo

The Thymus and Harmful Evolutionary Medicine

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Something that gets the hands at the Darwin Ranch on the prod is when creationists bring up past  embarrassments of evolutionists. In addition to their failed attempts to provide plausible human ancestors , there are numerous logical flaws in their research. One frequent error is arguing from ignorance. Many creationists, and even some evolutionists, complain about secularists acting like the mantle of scientist  allows them to speak ex cathedra . Speaking from evolutionary presuppositions and incomplete information, aspects of DNA were wrongly declared to be "junk" , and bodily organs were said to be "vestigial", which has been thoroughly refuted. Diagram with Thymus Gland, Wikimedia Commons / Cancer Research UK ( CC BY-SA 4.0 ) The thymus glad was said to be vestigial (a useless organ or structure that lost its purpose in the deep, dark past of evolutionary history). If those tinhorns had been less anti-creation and realized that the Master Engineer put things in

The Evolution-Defying Slime Mold

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Stormie Waters and her betrothed Roland Meadows stopped by my place, and they commenced to jawing about the yellow stuff on a dead log in the woods. Since I had written a post on slime mold a spell back , it was somewhat familiar to me. The article featured below has some information that is quite interesting. Rather disgusting name, slime mold. There are others, including the blob and social amoebas . The slime part is true, but mold is incorrect. It used to be consider among the fungi but it defies classification. Slime Mold, Pexels / Chris F. In addition to being extremely difficult to classify, it acts like a creature with intelligence — but without a brain! It can find its way through a maze, and scientists are studying how it can be used in human applications (biomimetics). It is interesting how it sends out...probes, I guess...in search of nutrients. Good eats here? Fine, stay attached. Not so good? Pull back, and leave a bit of slime to mark the area as useless. Darwin's

Fat, and Brain Fuel

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There are people who can eat huge amounts of food and complain that they are unable to gain weight, and others of us feel like we do  gain it by simply looking at a chocolate layer cake. While exaggerated, those are examples of metabolism. Some folks do not take care of themselves, eating the wrong things and not getting exercise. The problem is the accumulation of fat. Even sitting in front of the television eating junk food, humans still burn calories faster than our alleged cousins, the chips. Pixabay / Gerd Altmann Scientists believe it's because we have bigger brains than apes, and our brains require a great deal of energy. Apes do what they were designed to do, and they do it well. They were created for their own places in ecosystems, and do not need larger brains or accumulated fat to run them. We are created in the image of God, and can think, sing, write, read, and many other things. The energy we need is stored in those fat cells. This is something else that sets us apar