Biblical Creation vs. Evolution

[Soldier4Christ]

PLANTS AND PEOPLE HAVE SAME PROTEIN, according to report in Biology News Net
9 April 2007. Scientists at Scripps Institute have found that humans and plants
have a common biochemical pathway that helps them resist bacterial infection. A
human protein called Nod1 is activated by another protein named SGT1. In plants
SGT1 activates a group of proteins named Resistance proteins, which have a
similar structure and function to the protein family that includes Nod1. SGT1 is
also found in yeasts and mammals. Richard Ulevitch from the laboratory that
conducted the study suggested that some protein regulatory pathways exist in
plants and humans "simply because they do the same thing in much the same way".
He commented: "In reality, there are only so many ways to accomplish related
biological responses."

ED. COM. It is good to see mainstream biologists admitting what is basically
common sense, rather than making up some contrived evolutionary story. For many
years creationists have been pointing out that finding the same protein in two
different living things only proves that they both need it for a similar
purpose, and this does not prove any evolutionary connection between the two.
Finding the same kind of protein in two living things is like finding an axle in
both a wheel barrow and a car. It does not prove one machine turned into
another, but it does show that whoever built the machines knew what was needed
to make them work and intelligently put similar bits in. The same applies to
living things. The Creator of all living things made them as separate, unique
combinations of often common and appropriate components.

[Soldier4Christ]

QUANTUM PHYSICS IN PLANTS, reported in Nature, and Biology News Net 12 Apr
2007. Plants are able to extract energy from sunlight with almost 100%
efficiency because the transfer of light energy into the reaction centres that
begin the process of photosynthesis happens almost instantaneously. The transfer
process has been a mystery, but researchers at the US Department of Energy's
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory have found evidence that it is a quantum mechanical
effect. Graham Fleming, who led the study, described their results: "We have
obtained the first direct evidence that remarkably long-lived wavelike
electronic quantum coherence plays an important part in energy transfer
processes during photosynthesis. This wavelike characteristic can explain the
extreme efficiency of the energy transfer because it enables the system to
simultaneously sample all the potential energy pathways and choose the most
efficient one." Biology News Net commented: "The photosynthetic technique for
transferring energy from one molecular system to another should make any
short-list of Mother Nature's spectacular accomplishments. If we can learn
enough to emulate this process, we might be able to create artificial versions
of photosynthesis that would help us effectively tap into the sun as a clean,
efficient, sustainable and carbon-neutral source of energy." Gregory Engel, who
was also involved in the study, commented: "Nature has had about 2.7 billion
years to perfect photosynthesis, so there are huge lessons that remain for us to
learn. The results we're reporting in this latest paper, however, at least give
us a new way to think about the design of future artificial photosynthesis
systems."

ED. COM. A plant which cannot select the right energy spectrum and then transfer
such energy efficiently is destroyed by the same energy, long before it can
evolve. The coexistence of both a selection and quantum transfer process is
proof of deliberate and intelligent creation, not 2.7 billions years of mindless
natural processes. If bio-technologists are able to learn the "huge lessons" of
how to design an artificial photosynthetic system they will have doubly proven
it takes brilliant understanding and creative engineering to make a system that
selects and then extracts energy from light at near perfect efficiency. The
photosynthetic method for transferring energy is a "spectacular accomplishment"
but the glory for this should go to the Lord Jesus Christ through whom and in
whom all things were created, (see John 1:3, Colossians 1:16) not to a false god
named Mother Nature.

[Soldier4Christ]

BIG FISH WITH BIG BITE reported on BBC News Online, 29 Nov 2006. Scientists
in Chicago have built a biomechanical model of the skull and jaws of an extinct
fish named "Dunkleosteus terrelli" to see how fast and powerful its bite was.
They found a "highly kinetic skull driven by a unique four-bar linkage
mechanism." This enabled the fish to open its mouth very rapidly and create a
suction force that dragged prey into its mouth, and then bring its jaws together
with the force around 5,000 Newtons. This is the strongest bite of any known
fish, including the great white shark. It is unusual for a fish to have both a
fast bite and powerful bite - they usually have one or the other. One of the
researchers, Mark Westneat of the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago,
explained: "This is possibly due to the unique engineering design of its skull
and different muscles used for opening and closing." The fish was a placoderm,
an extinct group of fishes that had bony plates in the skin, and which grew to
be about 10m (33ft) long. Scientists believe it needed a powerful bite because
it "was surrounded by possible prey that all required really high bite force."

ED. COM. "Unique engineering design" is actually evidence for Design and hence
Designer. It is anything but evidence for chance random processes. The fact that
this fish, and all placoderms, are extinct, and that very few fish today ever
grow to be 10 metres long, is evidence that the living world is going down in
both diversity and size. This is the opposite of evolution. In fact, this fossil
is good evidence for the Biblical history of the world, i.e. a created world,
full of "uniquely designed" complex creatures that have degenerated or died out.

[Soldier4Christ]

BIRDS' BREAKFAST PLANNED, according a report in and news@nature, 21 Feb 2007
and Nature, vol 445, p919 22 Feb 2007. In the wild, many birds store away food
for the future, and seem to be able to store the right amount in the right place
for their future needs. Scientists at Cambridge University, UK, studied scrub
jays, which regularly store nuts, to see how precisely they could plan ahead.
Nicola Clayton and colleagues placed birds in cages with three parts. Food was
placed in the middle section during the day and evening, but the birds could
access all parts of the cage. In the mornings they were confined in one of the
other two end sections. In one section they were given food, but not in the
other. At first the birds were given powdered nuts, which they can eat but not
store away. After the birds got to know the routine for feeding and being
confined in one section of the cage they were given a plentiful supply of whole
nuts during the day. Birds can bury whole nuts and the cages had trays of sand
in the end sections. As expected, the birds buried some of the nuts, but they
buried three times as many in the "no-breakfast" section. In another experiment
the birds were given two types of food during the day and evening. In the
mornings they were confined in one of the end sections of the cage and were
given one type of food. During the day the birds buried more of the food they
would not be given the next morning in each of the end sections. These results
indicate that it wasn't just the association with hunger that led them to bury
food in one place and not another. Thomas Zentall of University of Kentucky, who
also studies animal cognition, commented that birds lead "intellectually
demanding lives" - finding and processing different types of food, remembering
where they hid the food, and keeping track of their neighbours, but there is a
bias against birds because they have small brains. However, as Nicola Clayton
pointed out "their brains are bigger than chimps, relative to the body size."

ED. COM. Biologists over the last few years, have come to the conclusion our
feathered friends are not "bird brained", but the birds' small brains are just
wired differently from mammals and this enables them to function at a very high
level in spite of their small size. These days we praise clever electronic
engineers for designing smaller computers that carry out more functions.
Therefore, we should also praise the Creator who designed and made the bird
brain, which does more than any computer.

[Soldier4Christ]

CHICKEN CHATTER DECIPHERED, as described in the Daily Telegraph Online 16
Nov 2006. Chris and Linda Evans have investigated how much information is
contained in hens' calls. It has always been assumed that hens are only able to
communicate at a very primitive level, and the sounds they make when they find
food are just meaningless exclamations. However, they can make over 20 different
calls, which have separate meanings. For example, a hen that finds food makes a
repetitive high pitched call that other birds recognise as "here is food" and
will look for food themselves. The birds can also give some indication of the
quality of the food, eg. producing sounds at a higher rate for a more desirable
type of food. Recent research has found that chickens are not nearly as stupid
as most people assume. They live in stable social groups, can recognise each
other by facial features, and seem to be able to understand that if an object
they recognise is taken away and hidden, it has not ceased to exist.

ED. COM. Birds were generally thought to be stupid or to behave by instinct
because they have small brains, hence the term "bird brain". However recent
research into many bird species indicates they are capable of quite complex
learning, and their brains are not deficient, but are wired differently to
mammals. They are only stupid if they are not given an opportunity to learn from
other birds. This should not be a surprise as scientist have known for many
years that birds have many other features that are distinctively different to
mammals and reptiles, eg. their breathing system. This fits perfectly with
Genesis 1 story of the 5th day of creation when God created birds as separate
and fully formed creatures.

[Soldier4Christ]

GYROSCOPE CONTROL FOR MOTHS reported in Science, vol. 315, p863, 9 Feb 2007.
Sanjay Sane of the University of Seattle has been researching how moths maintain
stability in flight when they are so light that any gentle breeze could blow
them off course. He analysed high speed films of moths in flight and measured
the movements of their antennae. He also recorded the activity of a tiny sense
organ at the base of each antenna. Putting this altogether he concluded that the
moths use their antennae to measure the twists and turns of their bodies as they
fly, in the same way that aeronautical engineers use movements of gyroscopes to
stabilise aircraft and missiles in flight. To test his theory he cut off the
antennae of some moths and filmed them flying. They were hopelessly unstable and
flew in all directions, including upside down and backwards. When he glued the
antennae back on the moths could fly normally.

ED. COM. Gyroscopes are precision instruments, and building them and installing
them in aircraft takes creative design and engineering. No-one would try flying
a plane with half made gyroscopes, and it is just as silly to imagine gyroscopes
in insects evolving slowly and gradually over millions of years. We wonder how
many half evolved moths spent their lives flying upside down and backwards but
still managed to find a mate and pass on their half-evolved genes for evolution
to work on. It is far more sensible to believe that moths were created as fully
formed creatures, complete with needed antennae gyroscopes, ready to fly and
multiple after their kind, as described in Genesis.

[Soldier4Christ]

WALKING OVER CRACKS WITH COCKROACHES reported in New Scientist news, 16 Feb
2007. Robot researchers in the US have been "copying biological examples" as
they work on building robots that can walk over broken terrain. Researchers at
the University of California and Pennsylvania University studied high speed
videos of spiders and cockroaches running across a wire mesh to help them
understand how they can negotiate surfaces with gaps. They found that "the
physical design of the insects' and arachnids' legs" enables them to negotiate
such surfaces. Spiders have spines on their legs which can support the body when
pushed down vertically onto a surface, but fold back when the leg is lifted.
Cockroaches held their legs out horizontally so that they gripped the mesh with
other parts of the leg, not just their feet. The researchers then modified their
six legged robot by adding spines and redesigning the legs so that more surface
made contact with the terrain. They found the modified robot could cross a grid
more easily than their previous model. The scientists hope their research will
help them design rescue robots that can manoeuvre over uneven, gap ridden
terrain.

ED. COM. Notice how evolutionist engineers can't help using the word "design"
when they see it. They recognise that the spines on the spiders' legs and the
structure of cockroach legs are not just naturalistic or random. If engineers
are able to build a robot that can cross cracked surfaces, it will involve their
creative design and construction (albeit copied and unoriginal). Therefore, they
are being deliberately ignorant when they claim that spiders and insects evolved
by chance. If the engineers do manage to build a robot that is useful in rescue
operations the people who are rescued should be grateful to the engineers who
built it. Even more, they should be grateful to the Creator God who designed the
"biological examples" that the engineers copied. Most of all they should be
grateful to the Creator God who gave them life in the first place, and sent the
Lord Jesus Christ to rescue us from our rebellion against Him and give us
eternal life.

[nChrist]

GLOBAL WARMING ON MARS reported in Canadian National Post, 26 Jan 2007 and
National Geographic News, 28 Feb 2007. Data and images from the Mars Global
Surveyor and Mars Odyssey have revealed that Mars is undergoing a period of
warming and its polar ice caps are melting. The conventional theory on
variations in temperature on Mars is that they are due to aberrations in its
orbit and rotation. Mars does not have a large moon to stabilise its movements,
as the earth does. However, Russian Scientist Habibullo Abdussamatov, of Pulkovo
Astronomical Observatory, St. Petersburg, has studied variations in the sun's
heat and claims there is a pattern that can account for most of the climate
variation on both Mars and Earth. He has studied changes in the sun's irradiance
and claims that both Mars and Earth are going through a warm period due to
changes in the sun's heat. Abdussamatov commented, "Man-made greenhouse warming
has made a small contribution to the warming seen on Earth in recent years, but
it cannot compete with the increase in solar irradiance". He went on to explain,
"The solar irradiance began to drop in the 1990s, and a minimum will be reached
by approximately 2040. It will cause a steep cooling of the climate on Earth in
15 to 20 years."



The unpopular punch line is that if Abdussamatov is correct, climate
change should not be blamed on human activity as fast cars and flatulent cows
can have no possible influence on Mars climate. Recent media reports have
claimed that global warming is "all our fault,"  but human activity cannot be blamed for climate change on Mars.
Abdussamatov has nailed his colors to the wall with his "steep cooling"
prediction, so it will be interesting to see if it is correct in 15 to 20 years.
In the meantime his work reminds us that there are far more powerful forces at
work in and on the world than human activity, and we would remind all to put
your trust in the One who is more powerful than all the powerful forces in the
Universe: i.e. the One who made it - the Lord Jesus Christ.

AMEN PASTOR ROGER!

Brother, I love this post and had to quote the entire post again. The CREATOR of the Universe is in charge and always has been. I love to hear scientists give honor and glory to GOD. It makes me very happy to hear scientists in many fields recognize GOD over man's puny science and theories. Every knee will bow to GOD one day, including those who rejected JESUS CHRIST and mocked HIM. Sadly, it will be too late if they rejected HIM during this short life. Thanks for sharing this with us.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Revelation 1:7-8 NASB  BEHOLD, HE IS COMING WITH THE CLOUDS, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen. "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."

[Soldier4Christ]

You're most welcome, brother. I, too enjoy seeing scientists that give recognition for all to God. I pray for more to do so and pray that many of those that are politicizing this global warming will turn to Him also.

[Soldier4Christ]

 Why Does ICR Study the Mount St. Helen's Eruption?
by John Morris, Ph.D.*

Ever since the May 18, 1980, eruption of Mount St. Helens, ICR has made it a focus of intense research. From it we have learned a great deal about the origin of rocks and geologic features, and the processes needed to form them.

In general, ICR holds that most of earth's rocks were formed rapidly during the great Flood of Noah's day, not over the millions of years of supposed geologic history. But here's the problem. Geologists like to study modern rocks and the processes which form them, and infer past circumstances. Yet Noah's Flood was a totally unique event, unlike any in our experience. Those geologists who assume uniformity in history thus seem to have an advantage. But the rocks really do appear to have been formed by dramatic processes operating at rates, scales, and intensities far beyond those we experience. Only modern, local catastrophes, such as the eruption of Mount St. Helens, can give us a glimpse into earth's geologic power, particularly as we expand our thinking onto the worldwide scale of Noah's Flood. Thus the Mount St. Helens catastrophe becomes a scale model for the great Flood.

Keep in mind that most of the damage done by the eruption was water related. Mount St. Helens had been glacier-covered, and when it got hot, water raced down the mountain as a mighty flood, eroding soil, rocks, trees -- everything in its path -- eventually redepositing them at the foot of the mountain. Volcanic episodes added to the fury. When the eruption calmed, up to 600 feet of sediments had been deposited, full of plant and animal remains. Now the sediments have hardened into sedimentary rock and the dead things have fossilized. Furthermore, wood is petrifying. Peat (the precursor to coal) has formed. A deep canyon has been gouged out. Many features which geologists are taught take long ages to form, were seen to happen rapidly. Igneous rocks which formed since 1980 yield radioisotope dates of millions of years, but are obviously much younger in age.

A catchy slogan helps illustrate this. To form geologic features, it either takes a little bit of water and a long time, or a lot of water and a short time. Even though we didn't witness the Flood, we do see modern catastrophes, and they rapidly accomplish things the Flood did on a grander scale. In a short, Biblically compatible time scale, such a Flood can account for the features we see on earth, features which many geologists mistake for evidence of great age. Earth doesn't really look old, it looks flooded.

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

[Soldier4Christ]

 The Amazing Jewel Beetle
by Frank Sherwin, M.A.*

Recently scientists made a startling discovery in the world of insects. It involved a common beetle called the jewel beetle which is designed with the uncanny ability to detect flames of a forest fire perhaps 80 kilometers (approximately 50 miles) away.1 Not only that, but it can also hear the cracking of the wood and even sense combustion products in very small amounts using supersensitive receptors.

The jewel beetle (genus Melanophila) was first discovered and superficially described in 1960 by Canadian entomologist William George Evans. Dr. Evans insisted that the tiny pits of this curious beetle contained infrared receptors. The more research entomologists have conducted on this little creature the more amazed they become. For example, the black fire beetle (as it is called in Canada), like many animals in creation, requires special conditions in which to breed. This insect needs burnt wood from a blazing forest fire! But how does it find such conditions? It has been designed with special sensors -- sensilla -- in tiny pits on its underside that can actually pick up infrared (IR) radiation from the flames of a fire. This capability to detect infrared radiation (either from a fire, or heat produced by an animal) is quite amazing and has no evolutionary mechanism of development. As is known, this beetle (there are several species on several continents) and some snakes such as the pit viper are the only creatures with this ability.

Not surprisingly, with this capacity, jewel beetles are the first creatures to move into such an inhospitable environment. Because they are the first arrivals, there are no jewel beetle predators to worry about and they can proliferate in large numbers. The female flies to the still smoldering bark of a tree to lay her eggs. The young hatch and are safe inside the dead wood. The usual defense mechanism of a living tree to such insect predation (i.e., resin secretion and toxic chemicals -- see Origins Issues: http://www.icr.org/article/2461) is, of course, halted. She finds these trees with the incredible infrared detector/feelers God has given her. Secular scientists state these feelers are just "modified mechano-sensors," but the creation scientist would say these are tools created for the job.

Jewel beetle research has been long and detailed, involving not just entomologists, but also chemical ecologists, physiologists, and a physicist. Scientists at the University of Bonn (Germany) are currently trying to mimic the features of the infrared feelers to see if they can cheaply manufacture thousands of these sensing devices. If they can, the devices can be mounted around forests, ready to register and alert foresters of a fire. The military is also interested in such capabilities. But as is often the case with man's attempts to mimic God's creative work, the first prototype sensor is large, cumbersome, and not nearly as accurate as the tiny jewel beetle.

Let's remember that random genetic mistakes, called mutations, cannot make all of the special apparatus described above. This is not the result of evolution, but the fingerprint of the Master Designer. In fact, the apostle Paul said that such highly sensitive infrared sensors studied today are evidence of God's creation. This is indeed "clearly seen" (Romans 1:20).

[Soldier4Christ]

 Great Turnovers!
by William Hoesch, M.S.*

The book of Job contains interesting allusions to "overturning" of mountains and of the earth that, on the surface, appear to have relevance to geology. One must say "appear," because Biblical creationists like me can be accused of being overly literal! "He putteth forth His hand upon the rock; He overturneth the mountains by the roots" (Job 28:9). It is God "Which removeth the mountains, and they know not: which overturneth them in His anger" (Job 9:5). "Behold, He withholdeth the waters, and they dry up: also He sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth" (Job 12:15).

The Hebrew action verb in these verses is haphak, and, like many words, it can carry a number of different meanings depending on the context.

Among its usages, however, are ones that are clearly physical and literal. For example, in Joshua 7:8, "Israel turneth |haphak| their backs before their enemies"; in Hosea 7:8, "Ephraim is a cake not turned |haphak|"; and in Gideon's dream, "a cake of barley bread tumbled |haphek| into the host |camp| of Midian" (Judges 7:13). A particularly graphic usage for haphak appears in II Kings 21:13, in which God says, "and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning |haphak| it upside down." Of course this offers no proof that Job's usages were meant to be taken literally; it merely opens the possibility. But could there have been a literal overturning of the mountains, and of the earth?

Most freshman geology students are impressed to learn of whole mountain ranges that have been up-faulted by 30,000 feet, often overturning strata on their flanks. Sections of sedimentary rock 1,000 feet or more in thickness have obviously been overturned in true topsy-turvy fashion in Nevada's Basin and Range province. Whole mountains are known to have slid 60 miles or more. Even more impressive overturnings are known in the subsurface of western Wyoming, where oil-bearing sandstone layers have been folded repeatedly, having been overturned by the thrusting (or sliding) of gigantic slices of earth.

These things are truly amazing, yet the average geologist almost yawns with boredom as he declares they happened at imperceptibly slow rates. His confidence, however, is derived more from a faith in the enlightenment dream of uniformitarianism than from observable fact. As reprehensible as it may seem to most geologists, there is nothing in science to forbid the possibility that these events involving overturning were truly catastrophic, and that God had a hand in them. Maybe Job knew something modern geologists don't.

The grandest of "overturnings" may have taken place when continents like Africa and South America moved apart from one another. The most credible geophysical models available to science indicate these movements took place in orchestration with a complete overturn of the earth's mantle and crust over a timeframe of months rather than millennia. Global plate tectonics is best interpreted in the context of a year-long flood. ICR geophysicist John Baumgardner has worked for years to develop this model for catastrophic plate tectonics. (See http://www.icr.org/research/index/researchp_jb_largescaletectonics/)

Geology knows of "overturnings" of mountains. Global tectonic models work best by invoking an overturn of the earth. Job may have been right, if we will dare to take him literally. Perhaps Job had divine geologic insight into events back in Genesis.

*William A. Hoesch, M.S. Geology, is an ICR Research Assistant in Geology.

[Soldier4Christ]

 Supernova Shell Shock
by David F. Coppedge*

They had told us a particular supernova exploded 10,000 years ago. How then, did the Chinese see it in AD 185? The answer is a case study in scientific inference.

Supernova remnants (SNRs) are shells of material expanding outward from stellar explosions. Presumably, one can tell how long ago a star exploded by measuring the velocity of the expanding shell and extrapolating it backward in time. In the case of RCW 86 in Centaurus, the calculated time of explosion was 10,000 years. According to Space.com (9/26/2006), astronomers now realize it was witnessed by Chinese astronomers 1,821 years ago. This means the earlier date was off by over 80%. What happened?

From the Chandra X-ray data, they now believe the expanding shell rammed into interstellar material, slowing it down and making it pile up. Extrapolating the current speed backward linearly was based on a flawed assumption.

One of the most widely dispersed SNRs in northern skies has a similar tale to tell. The Veil Nebula arches into graceful loops over a large region in Cygnus. Earlier estimates of its age were in the tens of thousands of years. In 2001, however, Sky & Telescope (2/2001) reported a surprise. By comparing Hubble views with photographs taken in 1953, astronomers recalculated its age at 5,000 years.

Light echoes from two "ancient" SNRs in the Large Magellanic Cloud were reported in Nature (12/22/2005) to be merely 410 and 610 years old.

Astronomers use supernovas as age and distance indicators. It's hard to have confidence in the pronouncements of professionals who consider it normal to be off by 80% or more. Would this be acceptable in other fields? Yet upsets in astronomy are common. For instance, the behavior of V838 Monocerotis, after its explosion in 2002, caused astonishment. Scientists don't know how to classify this object or what produced the outburst.

Supernova-prone stars were thought to be well understood. Last November, however, one was found more massive than the upper limit permitted by theory. This opens up a "Pandora's box" for theorists, reported a press release from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Nature (9/28/2006) made the comical statement that "Clearly, stars with masses >10 solar masses exist, so there must be a way for them to form."

We should remember that once upon a time all supernovae were thought to be alike. Now they fall into two types, each with several classes and subclasses -- and some types can switch classes.

One final case should be recalled when reading confident claims by astronomers. A pulsar thought to be 24,000 years old was photographed by the Chandra telescope in 2001. Astronomers later realized it lined up with a supernova observed by the Chinese in AD 386. This means the earlier date was less than 7% correct. Hamlet might have the better wisdom: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

*David F. Coppedge works in the Cassini program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. (The views expressed are his own.)

[Soldier4Christ]

 Adam and Eve, Vitamin C, and Pseudogenes
by Daniel Criswell, Ph.D.*

Every winter, as the influenza (flu) season spreads across America, people flock to stores to get vitamin C tablets to deliver them from the symptoms of the common cold. Vitamin C, or ascorbic acid, is an important cofactor that stimulates the immune system and apparently assists in shortening the length of illness and the severity of flu symptoms (although the exact effects of vitamin C on the flu are still debated). In addition to stimulating the immune system, vitamin C has been identified with several other functions in the human body including production of an important protein, collagen, found in several types of connective tissue including bone and cartilage (Garrett 1999). A deficiency in vitamin C can cause scurvy, a disease that results from deterioration of connective tissue, and prolonged lack of vitamin C can even lead to death (Marieb 1998). Humans are unable to synthesize vitamin C, but are able to store a 30-day supply of this important nutrient. To maintain this supply, a person must ingest about 60 mg of vitamin C each day, or approximately the amount of vitamin C in an average size orange. Although humans, apes, monkeys, fruit bats, and several species of fish (including trout and salmon) are unable to synthesize vitamin C, many other animals are quite capable of making their own vitamin C and do not need to eat fruit and vegetables to acquire this nutrient (Garrett 1999).

Many people, especially in northern climates during the winter, have suffered from a lack of vitamin C throughout history. It's very likely that many people have died from scurvy as a result of being unable to provide themselves with fresh fruit and vegetables during the winter months. If vitamin C is such an important nutrient, and many other animals possess the ability to synthesize it, why didn't God give humans the biochemical pathways to synthesize vitamin C? There are two obvious possibilities why people today cannot synthesize vitamin C: (1) Humans were created without the ability to synthesize vitamin C, or (2) they lost the information from genes that code for the proteins necessary to synthesize vitamin C.

The first possibility is very simple and there is logical Biblical and scientific support for this scenario. From the beginning, Adam and Eve were not created with a biochemical pathway for making vitamin C and were dependent on eating fruit, the best source of vitamin C. We know they were instructed to eat any fruit in the Garden of Eden except fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and yet had access to the Tree of Life. Adam and Eve lived in an environment with many similarities to heaven. However, unlike those in heaven, Adam and Eve were commanded to be fruitful and multiply, and produce little Adams and Eves. Human reproduction would require nutrients to build tissues for the child during and after pregnancy, an indication that Adam and Eve had to eat to provide for their developing children and also for the maintenance of their own bodies. Furthermore, today nutritionists recommend a diet high in fruit and vegetables as being the healthiest source of nutrients, which is consistent with what God instructed Adam and Eve to eat. It is possible that God made Adam and Eve (and us) dependent on fruit as a source of vitamin C as a reminder that they were dependent on Him for food that must be eaten to stay healthy.

Is it possible that Adam and Eve did have the information in their genes to produce the enzymes necessary for synthesizing vitamin C? Are there any remnants of those genes that can be identified in the human genome today? What would a non-functioning remnant of a gene look like if scientists found one? One thing is sure today -- if Adam and Eve did have the information in their genes to make vitamin C, health problems with scurvy recorded as far back as the Roman Empire (Davies 1970) indicate this information disappeared long ago from the human genome.

There are sequences of DNA (in the genome) that are claimed to be nonfunctional remnants of presently functional genes. These sequences of DNA are called pseudogenes, and there are several criteria used to distinguish pseudogenes from functional genes. A pseudogene DNA sequence typically is greater than 70% similar (homologous) to a functional gene but lacks a promoter that would enable the sequence to be transcribed into RNA and finally a protein (Zhang et al. 2003). Pseudogenes also typically have disruptions to the "coding region," such as stop codons that prematurely end the translation of the gene into a protein (Zhang et al. 2003). Pseudogenes are believed to vary significantly from the original functioning gene because they are no longer under selective constraints. In other words, since the cell is no longer using this stretch of DNA, it accumulates mutations at a fast rate -- degrading the original functional gene sequence into a pseudogene (Karp 2002). Many pseudogenes are identified by comparing similar sequences in the genome to functional genes within an organism. For example, in humans there are many functional genes for ribosomal proteins, and there are several human ribosomal pseudogenes that meet the criteria mentioned above (Zhang et al. 2003). To find a pseudogene for vitamin C in the human genome, a comparison would have to be made between the human genome and the genome of an organism that had a functional gene for synthesizing vitamin C.

In 1994, a group of Japanese scientists identified a DNA sequence in humans that had many similarities to the rat gene that codes for the enzyme (L-gulono-γ-lactone) that catalyzes the last step of vitamin C synthesis (Nishikimi et al. 1994). The human pseudogene sequence discovered has four of these 12 exons. (Exons are the modular coding regions of a gene.) These four human exon sequences have many characteristics of a pseudogene. There is a 70-80% sequence homology between the rat and human sequences depending on the exon, and two stop codons. Later analysis confirmed that these four exons are present in other primates as well (Inai, Ohta, and Nishikimi 2003). Humans are missing only the final enzyme for the last step in synthesizing vitamin C, but have all of the other enzymes necessary to convert glucose into vitamin C.

It would seem from the evidence of a potential human pseudogene for L-gulono-γ-lactone and the presence of the other enzymes necessary for synthesizing vitamin C that humans have lost the ability to make vitamin C. However, there is more to this story. There are only four exons for the gene encoding L-gulono-γ-lactone in humans. Two-thirds of the homologous rat gene is completely missing. Most pseudogenes represent 90% of the entire functional gene. This DNA sequence, labeled as a pseudogene, might have an entirely different function than the rat gene.

Stating that only the last enzyme is missing for the pathway to convert glucose to vitamin C might imply to the untrained individual that there is a biochemical pathway that leads to a dead end. Actually, the biochemical pathway that leads to the synthesis of vitamin C in rats also leads to the formation of five-carbon sugars in the pentose phosphate pathway present in virtually all animals (Linster and Van Schaftingen 2007). There are several metabolic intermediates in this pathway illustrating that these substances can be used as precursors for many compounds in the cell. In the pentose phosphate pathway, five-carbon sugars are made from glucose (a six-carbon sugar) to be used in the synthesis of DNA, RNA, and many energy producing substances such as ATP and NADPH (Garrett 1999). Animals that synthesize vitamin C can use both pathways illustrated in the simplified diagram below. Humans and the other animals "less fortunate" than rats only use the pentose phosphate pathway.

There is no dead end or wasted metabolic intermediates, and there is no need to have the enzyme to make vitamin C since humans are able to get all of the vitamin C they need from food substances.

Thousands of human pseudogenes have been catalogued, but in spite of the similarities to functional genes, the exact role of pseudogene sequences in the genome are not known by any scientist. It is not necessary to assume that pseudogenes are remnants of once functioning genes that have been lost and now clutter the genome like junk in a rubbish heap. It is possible that these regions of DNA do have a role in human and animal genomes and this role has not been discovered yet. Over 100 years ago, Robert Wiedersheim hypothesized that the human body had more than 80 organs that lacked any function simply because it was unknown at the time what these organs did (Wiedersheim 1895). They were assumed to be vestigial or "junk" leftovers from evolutionary history and several of these organs are still presented this way in biology textbooks today. The science of genomics is in the same position today. Just because scientists do not currently know the function of a portion of DNA does not mean that it does not have any function and therefore it is an evolutionary leftover. It has been reported that pseudogenes play a regulatory role in yeast for the functional genes that they share sequence homology with (Hirotsune et al. 2003). There needs to be more research in this area to verify these claims, but at least there are some indications of a functional role for pseudogenes in the human genome.

So, did Adam and Eve have a gene to code for an enzyme that would synthesize vitamin C and was this information eventually lost as a result of the curse, or were they simply created without this information in their genomes? That question might not get answered until Christ returns. But in the meantime, humans require plenty of vitamin C in their diet -- so have an orange!

[Soldier4Christ]

Angst and Anger
by Henry Morris III, D.Min.

"Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil" (Psalm 37:7-8).

We have all "fretted" about the rise of evil and how different things are now. We feel the impotence of helplessness, the frustration of confusion, and even the anger of "why doesn't the Lord do something?"

That's the emotional attitude Psalm 37 is addressing. Our English word "fret" has lost some of its poignancy. The Hebrew word charah means to be "hot" or "incensed" or "burning" -- just plain mad! Fortunately, the psalmist offers a prescription for the pain.

Five Calming Cures

"Trust in the Lord, and do good" (Psalm 37:3). There are two sides to this cure. One is intellectual -- trust (Psalm 118:8-9), the other is practical -- do good (Romans 12:21). One is attitude, the other is action. Remember James' faith and works demand?

"Delight thyself also in the Lord" (Psalm 37:4). The Hebrew verb `anag might well be translated "be pampered." Let the heavenly Father give us "the desires of our heart." Jesus promised in Matthew 6:33 to "add" all things if we would seek His kingdom first.

"Commit thy way unto the Lord" (Psalm 37:5). We are told to "roll" or "wallow" (Hebrew, galal) in the Lord on our "journey" (Hebrew, derek) with Him. See Psalm 119:30-33 as a good Biblical example.

"Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him" (Psalm 37:7). First, "rest" ("keep quiet"), and then "wait patiently." The Hebrew word chuwl means "twisting" or "trembling" or "writhing in pain" (Jeremiah 5:22). Our angst and anger can be remedied when we are stunned into silence by the Creator's awesome majesty (Zechariah 2:13).

"Cease from anger, and forsake wrath" (Psalm 37:. Finally, let anger literally "sink down," and then "turn quickly away" from "fury" (Proverbs 29:22; Ephesians 4:26). The Message (written for young people) paraphrases it: "Bridle your anger, trash your wrath, cool your pipes -- it only makes things worse."

Often we tend to fight emotionally -- especially as we attempt to bring down "every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God" (II Corinthians 10:5). God's prescriptions will strengthen us to be more successful in our spiritual battles.