Biblical Creation vs. Evolution

[Soldier4Christ]

California museum brings creationism to life
'You cannot convince a kid they came from a fish. Kids know better'

SANTEE – Leafy, plastic vines climb the walls. Fake tree branches dangle overhead. The piped-in sound of croaking frogs fills the air.

Windows in the walls give a view to colorful finches, a shiny scorpion, even a python named Cuddles.

This lush, gardenlike room is part of the Museum of Creation and Earth History, a beige, two-story structure that brings to life a version of history that isn't taught in public schools. Here, God created Earth as described in the Bible.

Each year, about 15,000 visitors come to Santee's only museum, deemed the world's largest creationist museum by the Northwest Creation Network. (A much larger, $27 million creationist museum under construction in Kentucky will soon snatch the title.)

Folks may say they believe in evolution, but they don't really buy that humans came from other creatures, said John D. Morris, president of the Institute for Creation Research, which runs the free-admission museum.

“You cannot convince a kid they came from a fish,” he said. “Kids know better and people know better.”

A group of uniformed parochial school students was an eager audience at the museum one recent weekday morning. A chorus of “whoas” and “wows” followed as they wandered into the gardenlike room, which is devoted to Days 5, 6 and 7 of creation.

Caleb Barrera, 8, a second-grader at Chula Vista's Berean Bible Baptist Church and Academy, moved his little camera as close as he could to the critters, snapping photo after photo. Bible in hand, first-grader Matthew Fernandez, 6, tugged fifth-grader Anthony Diez, 10, toward an exhibit crawling with cockroaches.

Soon it was time for museum curator Cindy Carlson to bring out Cuddles.

“He won't bite,” she assured. With the brown-and-black snake perched on her arm, she asked the students, “Who made snakes?”

“God!” they shouted.

No government funding
Just down the street from the Santee Drive In Theatre and a stone's throw from an auto-body shop, the businesslike building seems an unusual place to tackle such questions as, “What is the meaning of life?” and, “Where did I come from?”

A member of the institute's board sold this chunk of East County to the institute in the 1980s. Today, the two office buildings there serve as headquarters for the institute, its graduate school and the museum.

A walk through the museum starts and ends in a small bookstore stocked with not-so-subtle titles such as “God Created the Plants & Trees of the World” and “Refuting Evolution.” A sign at the start of the tour states that the museum accepts no government funding. It isn't affiliated with any church, either.

Visitors step from the green-hued garden room into the reddish-orange glare of “The Fall of Man.” There, a human skull and a preserved tarantula are on display. A tiger painted on the wall bares its teeth as if poised to attack. The sorrowful cries of a man and baby waft overhead.

The next room evokes the inside of Noah's Ark. A floor-to-ceiling mural shows animals standing in pens. The sounds of cracking thunder and pouring rain can be heard, and a flashing light simulates lightning.

Noah didn't need to load the largest animals into the ark, a plaque reads. He could have collected “young virile specimens” instead, which could have allowed 50,000 animals to squeeze on board.

Near the end of the tour, a drawing of a healthy, green “Creationist Tree” is juxtaposed near a twisted “Evolutionary Tree.” Written next to the creationist tree: “Genuine Christianity” and “Correct Practices.” The evolutionary tree: “Harmful Philosophies” and “Evil Practices,” including promiscuity, pornography, genocide, slavery and abortion.

Father of creationism
The museum has been around almost as long as the Institute for Creation Research, founded by Morris' late father, Henry Morris, in 1970. It moved to its current location in the mid-1980s.

Morris is credited with helping to spark a modern creationist movement after co-writing the 1961 book “The Genesis Flood.” The work tried to scientifically explain the theory of divine creation.

The movement has grown from very few followers when the book was published to “tens of thousands” today, John Morris said, citing polls that show most Americans believe God had some hand in creation.

Morris, who has led expeditions to Turkey's Mount Ararat in search of Noah's Ark, said his father convinced many that creationism was true. John Morris now travels the country making the case for divine creation and against evolution.

From its Santee home, the institute also spreads its message across the world through pamphlets, radio programs broadcast by 1,500 radio stations worldwide, and a 113,000-circulation monthly newsletter.

Popular with students
Students on field trips and Bible study groups are among those who visit the museum most.

Berean Bible Baptist Academy student Erika Fernandez, 8, said she liked the room with live animals because her favorite parts of the Bible describe how God made them.

 “No one can make any animal but him,” she said.

The school's principal, Melito Barrera, said he doesn't worry about the children getting mixed messages about creation and evolution from society.

He points to a nearby corridor in the museum, where photos of creationist scholars hang opposite those of evolutionist scholars. On the evolutionist side, Andrew Carnegie is described as “cruel and heartless in his own day to competitors and laborers alike.” He's joined by Karl Marx and Adolf Hitler, among others.

“That's what makes it very clear,” Barrera said. “There's no gray area. It's teaching them the truth so that they will know what is in error.”

[Soldier4Christ]

SNAKES RECYCLE POISON according to reports in news@nature, New Scientist News
29 Jan 2007, and New York Times and Science Frontline, 30 Jan 2007. Scientists
studying the Japanese grass snake "Rhabdophis tigrinus" have discovered it can
eat poisonous toads and store their poison in glands on the back of its neck.
Female snakes also transferred poison to eggs, therefore offspring have some
poison already stored when they hatched. Researchers also found snakes with
poison already stored behaved differently towards predators such as hawks,
compared with snakes that had not acquired toad poison. When attacked, snakes
with stored poison adopted an arch-necked defensive posture, so the predator was
more likely to strike the region containing the glands and cause poison to leak
out. Snakes without stored poison tended to slither away and hide when
confronted by predators. This snake is the first vertebrate found to sequester
poison from another vertebrate. Some poisonous frogs are known to get their
poison from insects in their diets, and some invertebrates, eg. sea slugs, make
themselves unpalatable for predators by storing chemicals obtained from food.


ED. COM. This Japanese snake is a rear fanged snake, i.e. it does not have
poisonous front fangs to attack prey with. It does secrete saliva, but this is
injected into its food from its back teeth as an aid to digestion. Therefore, it
is not dangerous or poisonous except to anything it is already swallowing.
Snakes do not chew their food, so being able to inject digestive chemicals in
their food using their teeth is good design. Toads use their skin to excrete
waste products. In a 'very good' world, where all animals ate plants, nothing
would try to eat toads, so toxic waste products in the skin would not threaten
anyone. It was only after the world degenerated because of human sin and God's
judgement, that animals began to prey on one another and defence mechanisms were
selected for. Therefore some characteristics, such as digestive chemicals in
snake saliva and waste products in toad skin gained a secondary use as
'weapons'. It is interesting in the study described above that the snakes'
behaviour changed when they had the extra poison so they do seem to have an
understanding of what the results of eating toads achieves. Predators and
poison are issues raised by sceptics to challenge the Biblical story of the
Garden of Eden where there were no predators, and the world was "very good", but
this snake reminds us poison is one result of the increasing  degeneration
occurring as the world continues to go from good to bad to worse.

[Soldier4Christ]

WHITEST BEETLE found according to reports in BBC Online News 18 Jan 2007 and
News Scientist, 27 Jan p16.  Researchers at Exeter University have found the
whitest natural occurring substance in the scales on a beetle named
"Cyphochilius". White light consists of all colours or wavelengths of the
visible light spectrum combined together.  Surfaces appear coloured because they
reflect some wavelengths of visible light more than others. If a surface
reflects all wavelengths equally it appears white. The Cyphochilius beetle's
scales consist of randomly arranged interweaving filaments which scatter all
wavelengths of light in all directions so the beetle appears a brilliant white.
The scales are extremely thin, about 5 micrometres thick. According to Pete
Vukusic who led the study, the scales are "25 times thinner than some of the
whitest papers". He also commented to the BBC: "The degree of whiteness,
given the scale's thinness, is the really impressive thing. We can create this
quality of white synthetically, but the materials need to be much thicker. This
could have many applications." The researchers suggest that the beetle evolved
this whiteness so that it is camouflaged amongst white fungi where it lives.

ED. COM. Let us state the ignored obvious: if scientists find "many
applications" for this research they will have proved that it takes a mind with
knowledge and understanding to recognise how it works, and creative design
to make something that achieves the same result. They will then have irrefutable
proof that the beetle shell is a similar result of creative design and clever
engineering. The story about camouflage is a typical meaningless excuse to
include the word evolution with every story about biology. The beetle may be
able to hide from predators among fungi because it is already white, but that
does not explain how it got to be white. It may have always been white and
eaten white fungus, so that any other degenerate version which had lost total
reflectivity (so it appeared coloured) got eliminated after predation came on to
the planet and coloured beetles amongst white fungus were just easy
pickings.

[Soldier4Christ]

SHEDDING LIGHT ON SUPER REFLECTIVE PROTEINS, described in an article in
news@nature 8 Dec 2006.  Scientists at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods
Hole, Massachusetts, have found a group of proteins in octopus skin that reflect
all wavelengths of light from any angle. The researchers found the proteins in
cells called leucophores that form the bottom layer of octopus skin. According
to zoologist Roger Hanlon: "Protein reflectors are very odd in the animal
world." The proteins are able to reflect all wavelengths of light from any angle
and can match the intensity of the surrounding light. "This is beautiful
broadband reflection," said Hanlon at a meeting of the Materials Research
Society in Boston in November 2006. Further studies of cuttlefish skin show that
the brightness of the leucophores is enhanced by flat platelets contained in a
layer above the leucophores, but scientists need to do more research to find out
how these work. Scientists hope that once the structure and optical properties
of the proteins and cells of octopus skin are understood they could inspire the
development of super-reflective materials. The news@nature article concludes:
"Hanlon sees his discovery as a call to arms for materials scientists to find
applications for the bounty being discovered by zoologists. He's sure they'll
find a use for it: after all, he says, the military are always interested in
playing with light."

ED. COM. Optical engineering requires precision design and engineering. If
engineers are able to copy the structure and optical properties of these
proteins and platelets they will have MORE irrefutable evidence that octopus
skin was designed by a smarter, more creative Engineer. Therefore, they are
without excuse for not recognising the Creator and giving Him the glory due to
His name.

[Soldier4Christ]

AUSSIE MASSIVE MEGAFAUNA DEPOSIT FOUND, according to articles in news@nature
24 Jan 2007, Nature, vol. 445, p422, and ABC News in Science 25 Jan 2007.
Researchers in Museums and Universities all over Australia have been studying a
"treasure trove of fossils" discovered in 2002 in caves in the Nullarbor Plain -
a vast arid region in southern Australia. The fossils include giant kangaroos,
tree kangaroos, giant wombats, thylacines (Tasmanian Tigers) and a tree climbing
lion-like carnivore named "Thylacoleo". All  the giant animals and many other
marsupials are now extinct, and there is ongoing debate as to whether climate
change or human activity caused their disappearance. Gavin Prideaux of the
Western Australian Museum and colleagues analysed the carbon and oxygen
isotope in some kangaroo and wombat teeth from the cave fauna and concluded the
climate was similar to today's climate and the megafauna must have been adapted
to an arid environment. However, Prideaux commented to news@nature, "There's no
way you could have such a high diversity of herbivores living on a few
saltbushes
and grasses." The research team sum up their findings as: "The diverse herbivore
assemblage implies substantially greater floristic diversity than that of the
modern shrub steppe, but all other faunal and stable-isotope data indicate
that the climate was very similar to today."

ED. COM. Prideaux is right about a large diversity of giant animals not being
able to survive in the current  environment of the Nullarbor Plain. This
Nullabor area of Australia was named because it is almost treeless (Null - none,
Arbor - tree) and the vegetation is sparse and not very nutritious. Present day
tree kangaroos are only found in rainforests, and a giant tree climbing
carnivore would need some big trees and an abundance of prey to survive.  These
fossils are more consistent with the view that the Australian climate has
degenerated and such decline began long before the motor car, the industrial
revolution and the farming of flatulent dairy cows. The biblical account records
that ever since Noah's flood the whole world has been drying out. This
undoubtedly was one factor in the demise of large creatures. As post flood
humans spread out over the world they began to hunt large animals and ALSO
contributed to the extinction of the megafauna. Note that none of these changes
are evolution. Extinction and decrease in animal size are the opposite of
evolution, but exactly what you would expect from the Biblical history of the
world.

[Soldier4Christ]

FOSSIL LEAF INSECT found according to Nature, vol. 445, p128, 11 Jan 2007.
Scientists at the University of Bonn have found the "first example of a fossil
'leaf insect' from the fossil record" in the Messel formation in Germany, dated
as 47 million years old. The fossil is "remarkably well preserved" and
"resembles modern leaf insects of the  Phasmatodea order which includes stick
insects." The insect has been named "Eophyllium messelensis".

ED. COM. A fully formed creature that can be classified alongside living leaf
insects is just what you would expect to find as a result of insects having been
created as separate kinds that reproduced after their kinds, regardless of
how and when they were entombed in the fossil record. Remarkably well preserved
fossils occur when living  organisms are rapidly and deeply buried, so they
don't decompose.

[Soldier4Christ]

JURASSIC SHRIMP LIVES, according to a report in New Scientist News 10 Dec
2006 and ABC (Australia) News in Science, 11 Dec 2006. Researchers carrying out
a census of marine life have turned up a shrimp that was believed to have been
extinct for 50 million years. The creature, named "Neoglyphea neocaledonia", was
found alive and well living in the Coral Sea near Australia. The researchers
have also found many previously unknown species of sea creatures. Fred Grassle,
chair of the project's scientific steering committee, commented to New
Scientist: "Each expedition reveals new marvels of the ocean - and with the
return of each vessel it is increasingly clear that many more discoveries await
marine explorers for years to come."

ED. COM. The living "Jurassic shrimp" was recognised because it looked the same
as the fossil shrimp found in Jurassic rocks. So it can be added to the ever
growing list of living fossils. No matter how old you believe Jurassic rocks
are, this find shows that shrimps have reproduced after their kind since these
rocks were deposited. Not a comforting evidence for evolutionists, but
consistent with the 10 fold Genesis statement that they were created to do
this. As the scientists involved in this project find more new and wondrous
things living in the sea, they should be reminded of Psalm 107:23-24, "Others
went out on the sea in ships . They saw the works of the LORD, his wonderful
deeds in the deep."

[Soldier4Christ]

TWO HEADED FOSSIL found according to a report in BBC News Online, Times
Online, The Telegraph (UK) and New Scientist News 20 Dec 2006. Palaeontologists
have found a fossilised reptile with two heads buried in Cretaceous rocks in
north eastern China. The fossil has been identified as a choristoderan, an
extinct aquatic reptile with a long neck that grew to about one metre (3 ft) in
length. The two headed fossil is a baby, about 7cm (2.8in) long, and was found
in a fossilised nest of other baby choristodera. The creature had two heads and
necks attached to a single body, and is the only known two headed fossil. Living
two headed reptiles have been found, and are the result of a defect called
"axial bifurcation" that occurs during embryonic development. The Times article
comments: "The find is remarkable because it is extremely rare for any dead
animal to be preserved as a fossil. The vast majority decompose without leaving
a trace of their existence. For a specimen as rare as a mutant with two heads to
survive defies the laws of probability." The Telegraph article is entitled
"Fossil of two-headed 'dragon' found in China".

ED. COM. The Times is right about fossilisation - it doesn't occur just because
something dies, as scavengers and bacteria usually destroy dead animals. Fossils
are formed ONLY when things are buried rapidly and deeply, as has happened with
this nest of baby dinosaurs. The two headed dinosaur was most likely the result
of the same defective development that causes two headed reptiles to form today.
This is a degenerative process that usually causes the animal to die early in
life because the two heads fight one another. To put it in a biblical
perspective, it formed only after Adam's sin as two heads are not better than
one, and are the provable result of degeneration. It also is a maximum age of
Noah's flood as this is the first time rapid burials of degenerate creatures
occurred. Therefore, it is a good reminder of the Biblical history of the world.
The world was created "very good" but after man rebelled against his creator,
God judged the world in several ways including sending a massive flood.

[Soldier4Christ]

OLDEST GLIDING MAMMAL found according to reports in BBC News Online 13 Dec
2006 and Nature, vol 444, p889 14 Dec 2006. Palaeontologists in China have found
the fossil of a squirrel sized animal in rocks dated as 125 million years old.
This makes it at least 65 million years older than the previous oldest flying
mammal - a rodent dated as being 30 million years old. The new fossil is very
well preserved and has a clear imprint of a fur covered fold of skin stretching
between its fore and hind limbs. The creature had long limbs, similar to living
gliding mammals, but it is so different from other mammals that it has been
classified as a new order of mammals. It has been given the scientific name
"Volaticotherium antiquus" which means "ancient gliding beast". One of the
scientists who studied the fossil, Dr Jim Meng of the American Museum of Natural
History, commented: "This new evidence of gliding flight in early mammals is
giving us a dramatically new picture of many of the animals that lived in the
age of the dinosaurs."  The Editor's introduction in Nature comments: "This
discovery shows that mammals were living highly diverse lives during this
relatively early stage of their evolution."

ED. COM. Fossil evidence shows mammals have been living "highly diverse lives"
as long as they have existed. The fossil record of mammals IS one of fully
formed functional creatures well designed to live in a variety of environments.
The fact that this new and extinct mammal is so different to living mammals that
it must be classified into a new order, is a sign that there was once a greater
variety of mammals living on the earth but some have died out. It is not
evidence for evolution, but for extinction and loss - the opposite of evolution.

[Soldier4Christ]

UNCHANGED AMBER MICROBES reported in Nature, vol 444, p835, 14 Dec 2006.
Italian scientists have examined droplets of amber from the largest known
deposit of Triassic amber in the Dolomites of northern Italy. They describe
their findings: "Here we describe 220-million-year-old droplets of amber
containing bacteria, fungi, algae and protozoans that are assignable to extant
genera. These inclusions provide insight into the evolution and
palaeoecology of Lower Mesozoic micro-organisms: it seems that the basal levels
of food webs of terrestrial communities (biocoenoses) have undergone little or
no morphological change from the Triassic to the Recent."

ED. COM. What the scientists really mean is the micro-organisms that were living
when this amber was formed are the same as micro-organisms that are alive today.
If the amber really was 220 million years old, this study would only prove that
microbes have multiplied after their kind in a most spectacular way, and they
haven't evolved into anything else. It also raises the interesting question of
what algae, fungi, bacteria and protozoans were all doing up a tree to be
quickly entombed in amber which is fossilized tree sap.

[Soldier4Christ]

SQUIRRELS AND SPRUCE BOOM AND BUST. According to a new study published in
the journal Science on Thursday, December 21, 2006 (DOI:
10.1126/science.1135520), spruce trees in the Canadian Yukon, and parts of
Belgium and Italy, have evolved a synchronized boom and bust approach to seed
production in an attempt to thwart Red Squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) that
feed on their seeds. Yahoo News (UK/Ireland) calls it "an evolutionary
battle of wits for the survival of the species" between the spruce trees and the
squirrels, and reports that "the phenomenon, known as masting, involves all of
the trees in large regions synchronizing seed production so that they either
produce massive amounts of seed, or no seed at all, in a given year." Since the
number of seed-bearing cones produced by one tree can vary dramatically, from
500 cones one year to 10 the next, the squirrel population will therefore be
well fed one year, and starve the next, thus reducing the number of seed
predators, allowing more seeds to survive. But research challenges this
conventional evolutionary explanation!

Researchers periodically captured and recaptured tagged squirrels to assess how
many female squirrels were pregnant. At the same time, they recorded the number
of cones produced by spruce trees in the squirrels' habitat.  "Squirrels can
somehow predict which years trees will produce massive amounts of seed, a new
study reveals. The animals produce an extra litter of pups months ahead of these
unusually large harvests." According to Andrew McAdam of Michigan State
University, one of the scientists involved in the study, "the reason it's so
interesting is that we often think of seed predators, such as these squirrels,
as going along with the trees' game." He explains that "this is the first time
that this type of anticipation has been documented in animals such as
squirrels." Scientists have not determined how squirrels can predict the size of
the spruce cone harvest almost half a year in advance, but suggest perhaps the
animals can detect higher levels of certain hormones in the cone buds that
appear on trees a year before the large harvest. Perhaps they notice more of
these cone buds in the spring ahead of the harvest and have an extra litter
based on this visual cue. The Yahoo report concludes that the squirrels are
beating the spruce trees in the "battle of wits."

ED COM. Winning at games or wars require superior strategies planned well in
advance. The victor is the one who best anticipates the opponent's most likely
moves, and develops the most effective counter-measures. Squirrels certainly
have intelligence, and their collective survival strategy is clever. That is not
proof that squirrels evolved, but it is proof that the squirrels brain is
capable of solving such problems. Trees, on the other hand, are clearly not
intelligent, therefore any "behaviour" used by spruce trees to defeat predators
must rightly be attributed to their Designer, who created them on the third day
as food for creatures such as squirrels (Genesis 1:11-13). Since both spruce
trees and squirrels still survive, the score must be even.

[Soldier4Christ]

TECHNICAL CHALLENGE ON DESIGN as evolutionist writes; "Eukaryotes, such as
ourselves, have several different biochemical mechanisms for generating energy,
including glycolysis, Kreb's cycle and oxidative phosphorylation (based on the
principle of chemiosmosis), the latter of which provides us with the most
efficient use of food molecules, and is therefore considered to be the most
advanced. However, the principle of oxidative phosphorylation via chemiosmosis
seems very, very complicated, as if it were tailored to 'fit on the end of' the
Kreb's
cycle and glycolysis metabolic pathways, rather than as if it had been instantly
designed from scratch. In other words, the design seems far too cumbersome,
having to use huge ATP synthase enzymes, as well as several large transport
proteins, all of which seems a bit wasteful for something designed instantly by
an intelligent entity."

OUR COMMENT: Just because enzymes are large does not make them wasteful. They
actually need to be large to do their work. There is more to an enzyme that just
the reaction centre. Enzymes must regulate, and this means they must interact
with other molecules in the cell. Furthermore, some enzymes need to be bound to
cell membranes, in precisely the right place, in order for them to work.

Like catalysts in industrial chemical processes, enzymes have to be in the right
place at the right time and under the control of already existing feed-back and
regulation mechanisms. Otherwise the whole system will not work. Study each
enzyme in depth, and then try to make a smaller version of each one that
actually does the same job, and you will find out the weakness of your evolving
theory. Since these enzymes work with greater efficiency than any man made
machine, you should stand back in awe as you remember the modern science of
nanotechnology gets much of its inspiration from the way biological molecules
work.

At a philosophical level: why does something that is designed "instantly" have
to be simple? Time doesn't make systems complicated, knowledge and power does.
The old rule applies -the smarter you are the faster the job gets done whether
it is big or small. Furthermore, our sceptical friend admits that oxidative
phosphorylation looks as if is "tailored to fit at the end of Kreb's cycle".
Things that are "tailored" are the result of design and craftsmanship, not
chance random processes.

THE EVOLUTIONIST CONTINUES: "It seems more plausible to believe that the
oxidative phosphorylation pathway developed after glycolysis and Kreb's cycle,
as a way to make the already existing system more efficient, i.e. as a way to
'make do' with what was already in place, and incorporate it into an improved
scheme, rather than completely redesigning it."

OUR COMMENT. Please note that your thesis means that before the complex
mechanism of Chemiosmosis came about, which produces ATP molecules by passing
hydrogen ions through huge turbine-like ATP synthase enzymes,
there had to be some biochemical machinery already present in the cell that
produced Hydrogen ions, and then concentrated them into a specific area of the
cell - exactly what the electron transfer chain now does.

But your stage by stage theory means the horrifically complex biochemical
details of the basic electron transfer chain, the first part of oxidative
phosphorylation, make no sense, as the electron transport chain only works with
the Krebs cycle functioning - one is both pointless and useless without the
other.

If you assume this system evolved in stages then what is the point of a cell
having a pre-existing mechanism for making and concentrating hydrogen ions? They
are not much good for anything else, apart from digesting food -
a destructive process that occurs outside cells. Large amounts of Hydrogen ions
are in fact dangerous if let loose anywhere inside a cell. Therefore, if the
process originated within an evolving cell, it would destroy it - which means
that it is absolutely vital that the whole system was designed as a complete
process from beginning to end.

Both the editors of this newsletter studied biochemistry as evolutionists, and
remember being impressed by the size and complexity of Kreb's cycles and its
associated metabolic pathways, as displayed on wall sized charts in university
biochemistry labs (and somewhat daunted by having to learn it all). However, we
recognised that the complex multi-step system enabled energy to be efficiently
extracted from food, and be constantly regulated according to the cell's needs
at any one time.

EVOLUTIONIST CONTINUES: "Thus, the entire mechanism for energy release in cell
seems very clumsy and cumbersome for an intelligent design, but ingenious for a
gradually changing, gradually improving system that began as a simple,
inefficient metabolic pathway, and developed, evolved, into a highly efficient
energy release mechanism."

OUR COMMENT. No eukaryotic cells show any sign of having ever had a simpler
system, so the belief that one existed is blind faith. If there was simpler
system that worked why would a more complex one evolve?

The punch line: test your "step by step" theory by trying to make a copy of the
Krebs system to find what you actually have to do to make it work, remembering
that the scientist who worked out how the process of chemiosmosis works,
(just one part of the whole process), received a nobel prize for his creative
intelligence.

We recommend you swap your blind faith to objective faith in the creator Christ.
In the end your theories won't satisfy your intellect, let alone your eternal
soul. Neither will they deal with your sin. Jesus promises to do both and that
if you seek him with all your Heart you will find him. We did.

[Soldier4Christ]

 Flood Geology and Intelligent Design
by William Hoesch, M.S.*

Modern earth science owes quite a debt to both Flood geology and intelligent design. According to some, both movements had their start in the twentieth century, but actually these movements played a big role in the history of geology centuries ago and serve to inspire us today.

To make sense of the earth's past requires a linear view of history. Prior to the seventeenth century such thinking was considered rebellious, for it questioned the authority of the "Ancients," especially Aristotle (384-322 BC). Though brilliant, Aristotle had wrong ideas about geology. These included geo-centrism, the spontaneous generation of fossils, and an eternal earth that was governed only by naturalistic and gradual forces. The Roman Catholic Church gave official sanction to these ideas and had the impossible task of trying to square them with Scripture. Galileo (1564-1642) is an example of someone who got in big trouble for questioning Aristotle's authority. It took a Biblical literalist to found the science of earth history and Nicolas Steno (1638-1686) was this watershed figure. His success earned him the title of "founder" of the sciences of crystallography, paleontology, stratigraphy, and earth history, if not the father of geology itself. Steno grew up in northern Europe during the Protestant Reformation but made his mark in geology while in northern Italy, where he followed on the heels of Galileo. Steno was first and foremost a Flood geologist, who saw the earth as having a finite history dominated by creation, the flood, and coming judgment. For him there were no "prehistoric ages," for earth and man were both created during the same six-day span only a few thousand years ago. Although it may come as a surprise to geology students, Flood geology gave to scientists what they didn't have before -- a linear view of Earth history.

Steno's geology was politically incorrect for another reason -- he incorporated intelligent design into his reasoning. He observed the remarkable similarity between the natural (inorganic) growth of crystals in the laboratory and the growth of the mineral that composes the shells of living organisms. Shell growth is controlled by an ordering principle, a teleonomy, by which the calcium carbonate conforms exactly to the form of the soft-bodied creature it contains; i.e., a clam shell grows in such a way as to perfectly enclose the creature inside. No such ordering principle is found in inorganically formed crystals, only repetition. When he demonstrated apparent design and purpose in fossil shells, Steno demonstrated (contra-Aristotle) that fossils are the remains of once-living organisms. He used intelligent design to do it.

In Steno's day it was considered scientific to think fossil shark's teeth "grew" within the earth and were invested with magical powers. Called "tongue stones" for their shape, Steno noted that they often showed signs of abrasion or decay. From this he implied they were not being formed at the present time but were relics of an earlier period. Processes currently acting on them were not creative but destructive. He saw what Darwin and so many others have missed. Again, he invoked intelligent design to do it.

How odd that Steno is universally praised today for his accomplishments in geology, yet spurned (on two counts) for his methods of arriving at them. Steno believed a literal Genesis.

*William A. Hoesch, M.S. geology, is research assistant in Geology.

[Soldier4Christ]

 Scientific Discoveries Continue to Erode Darwinism
by Frank Sherwin, M.A.*

The unobserved process of evolution and its bizarre history has been thoroughly entrenched in the minds of millions. For decades there were facets of this theory that one was never to question, but irritating scientific discoveries continue to unravel the Darwinian garment.

For instance, decades ago it was routinely taught that vertebrates arose long after the Cambrian period. Evolutionists maintained that the Cambrian (beginning "542 million years ago") was when "simple" life was first getting established. It would take many millions of years to produce the first animals with backbones -- the fish. In fact, two evolutionists stated in a well-known text, "Fish arose during the Ordovician |beginning '488 mya'|. . . ."1 But in 1999 fossil fish were found in lower Cambrian sediments in south China.2

Several years back, this writer attended the International Conference on Dinosaur/Bird Evolution. One afternoon, a number of us took a field trip led by a recognized "expert." He asked us if the field in which we were standing could have been a dinosaur-age environment. Several said no, because there was grass present. Evolutionists maintain that grasses were not present during the age of dinosaurs --

    In my review |i.e., Eschberger, ed.| of Disney's new movie "Dinosaur," I mentioned that one of the few scientific inacurracies |sic| that I found in the movie was the presence of grasses in the dinosaur nesting grounds.3

However, in a 2005 report we read, "Plant-eating dinosaurs munched on grass, say scientists who had thought the plants emerged after the beasts died off."4

Students were taught that the only mammals during the "age of dinosaurs" were small, and barely able to stay alive among the terrible thunder lizards. Evolution theory said that the mammals were nothing more than "shrew-like insectivores that hunted at night." That radically changed with the recent discovery of large, dinosaur-hunting mammals!5

One of the more spectacular discoveries that has done much to dispel the myth of dinosaurs living many millions of years ago is the unearthing of soft dinosaur tissue (see Acts & Facts Origins Column).6 How could dinosaur tissue remain soft for 70 million years?

These discoveries, while devastating Darwinism, clearly support the creation model, with all things created within one week, not long ago.

1. Ayala, F. J., and James W. Valentine. 1979. Evolving: The theory and processes of organic evolution. Benjamin Cummings Publ., CA: 366.

2. Shu, D-G. et al. 1999. Lower Cambrian vertebrates. Nature 402 (Nov. 4): 42. (See also Colbert, Edwin H. et al. 2001. Colbert's evolution of the vertebrates: A history of the backboned animals through time. Wiley-Liss, Inc., NY: 5.)

3. Eschberger, Beverly. 2000. Grasses and grazers. Suite 101, July 7. http://www.suite101.com/print_article.cfm/paleontology/43299

4. CBC News. 2005. Grasses grew for dinosaur grazers. November 17. http://www.cbc.ca/story/science/national/2005/11/17/dino-grasses051117.html

5. Hecht, J. 2005. Large mammals once dined on dinosaurs. New Scientist.com, January 15. http://www.newscientist.com/channel/life/dinosaursmg18524824.400

6. Sherwin, F. 2005. The devastating issue of dinosaur tissue. Origins Column, ICR.org, June. http://www.icr.org/article/2033/

*Frank Sherwin is a zoologist and seminar speaker for ICR.

[Soldier4Christ]

 How Will the Present Earth Pass Away?
by John Morris, Ph.D.*

First, let's review some facts of physics. We have discovered that atoms themselves are held together by mysterious forces. These forces keep each atomic nucleus, which contains particles of like electrical charge, from flying apart. They also keep the electrons in proximity to the nucleus, allowing atoms to bond to form more complex molecules, including all organic compounds which make up every cell in every living thing. These forces can be manipulated by man, in some cases with the release of great energy, but their ultimate nature is not understood, and they cannot be replaced by something of our own creation. The facts are quite compatible with the truth of Scripture, that Christ "uphold|s| all things by the word of His power" (Hebrews 1:3), and that "by Him all things consist" (Colossians 1:17).

Let's also remember that "the ground," probably including even the physical elements (Genesis 3:17), was cursed because of Adam's sin. Many of the atoms today spontaneously decay into smaller, less complex atoms, giving off harmful radiation. The earth's surface substantially consists of sedimentary rock deposited by moving Flood waters, full of the remains of dead organisms which died horrible deaths in that flood. Other rocks were melted by unimaginable heat and later cooled into our present igneous and metamorphic deposits. Everywhere we see remnants of bent and broken rock. Our planet has experienced past violence not encountered by modern man.

Surely, one of the primary purposes of the coming renovation of the heavens and the earth will be to replace it with a "new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness" (II Peter 3:13). Neither heavens nor earth will fully be "un-created," for both were created to last forever (Psalm 148:5-6). Evidently, the raw materials which comprise the present atoms will be transformed into something recognizably similar, but different. The atoms will disintegrate and their matter will be reshaped into our permanent home, free from any memory or evidence of sin.

We will dwell there forever, enjoying the unbroken fellowship of our great Creator/Savior Jesus Christ.

*Dr. John D. Morris is President of the Institute for Creation Research.