Saturday 31 August 2013

Evolution Is Impossible, New Video Suggests

Even the human eye challenges evolutionary thinking. Image courtesy of Wikipedia. (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license).





Joel Kontinen

The laws of chemistry and physics tell us that Darwinian evolution is impossible. What evolutionists are trying to do is to shoehorn scientific facts into their theory. They do not let the facts speak for themselves.

In other words, they are putting the cart before the horse. Things just don’t work like that in real life.

Darwinism has become an ideology that is defended vociferously. But it is a theory that is long past its prime, as everything looks designed.Things like the human eyes and molecular machines defy stepwise Darwinian processes.

This video suggests what is wrong with evolution.

Friday 30 August 2013

The Early Earth Was Blue, New Research Suggests

Our planet may have looked like this from a very early stage. Image courtesy of NASA.





Joel Kontinen

Models relying on evolution assert that Earth was a molten blob in its childhood. Long-agers call this period the Hadean after the Greek word Hades (Ἅιδης/ᾍδης), which also occurs in the Bible as a place of torment.

The problem with this view is that it is probably wrong.

Recently, Judith Coggon at the University of Bonn, Germany, and her colleagues published a paper in Nature Geoscience, suggesting that Earth was much cooler in its childhood – at least “200 million years” after its origin.

Coggon et al. base their conclusion on rocks found in Greenland. They believe that the rocks contain a chemical signature from the mantle hailing from “4.1 billion years” ago.

They see signs of “iron-loving minerals” in the rock. This suggests a more watery early Earth.

Thus, while the dates are gross exaggerations, the trend is roughly in agreement with what Genesis teaches about the early Earth as a partly watery planet.

And God said, 'Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.' And it was so. God called the dry ground 'land,' and the gathered waters he called 'seas.' And God saw that it was good. ” (Genesis 1:9-10, NIV).

This is not the first study to challenge the Hades hypothesis. In 2010, Nora de Leeuw, a chemist at University College London, and her colleagues published a paper in the journal Chemical Communications, suggesting that Earth may have had liquid water from the very beginning.




Source:

Barras, Colin. 2013. Planet Earth was blue long before we knew. New Scientist 2932. (30 August).




Wednesday 28 August 2013

Tiny Living Fossil Unchanged for ”250 Million” Years

The latest living fossils looks a bit like its cousin shown here. Image courtesy of Micha L. Rieser, via Wikipedia. (GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2).




Joel Kontinen

If an animal does not change for “250 million” years, evolutionists should take a closer look at the credibility of their ideology.

Especially when they often use evolution as a synonym for change.

Recently, Finnish researchers discovered tiny tadpole shrimps in a freshwater lake in Lapland. The animal, Lepidurus arcticus, weights roughly 0.3 grams and has remained “structurally unchanged” for “250 million” years.

At the time, man’s assumed ancestor was no bigger than a squirrel. And just over a hundred million years (or so) earlier all were still fish (at least according to Richard Dawkins).

It seems that evolutionists decide which species change and which remain unchanged, until researchers find a fossil that shows all previous speculations were wrong.

There is no shortage of living fossils.

Source:

Holopainen, Hanna. 2013. Elävä fossiili löydetty Enontekiöllä. Yle uutiset (26 August).






Monday 26 August 2013

Evolutionists Want to Censor Book Critical of Darwinian Processes

Dr. Stephen Meyer’s new book addresses a huge problem that continues to trouble Darwinists.






Joel Kontinen


The Cambrian Explosion was a huge problem for Charles Darwin. Now, over 150 years later, it is still an enormous problem for Darwinian evolution.

Animals seem to pop into existence from nowhere. There is no indication of slow, gradual processes.

A new book by Dr. Stephen Meyer reminds us that Darwin’s problem is a very real headache for evolutionists.

It cannot be healed by an Aspirin or two, but major surgery is needed.

Evolutionists have recently gone to great lengths to prevent people from reading the book. Some have posted criticisms that show that their reading comprehension might not be very good, to say the least.



Friday 23 August 2013

G. K. Chesterton: Atheists Have a Doctrine Against the Supernatural


G. K. Chesterton. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.





Joel Kontinen

In his book Orthodoxy, British author G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) wrote on the illogical thinking of sceptics:

Somehow or other an extraordinary idea has arisen that the disbelievers in miracles consider them coldly and fairly, while believers in miracles accept them only in connection with some dogma. The fact is quite the other way. The believers in miracles accept them (rightly or wrongly) because they have evidence for them. The disbelievers in miracles deny them (rightly or wrongly) because they have a doctrine against them.”

Chesterton was right. The only reason for not believing in the supernatural is to reject the supernatural. The apostle Paul wrote:

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” (Romans 1:20, NIV).

Source:

Chesterton, G. K. 1986. Orthodoxy. In Collected Works. Volume 1. San Francisco: Ignatius Press.




Thursday 22 August 2013

Bacteria Turning into Bacteria Is Not Evolution

Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Image courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Public Health Image Library (PHIL), via Wikipedia.





Joel Kontinen

Evolution in action is a very popular mantra that advocates of Darwinism are fond of repeating. The latest episode features a bacterium called Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Science writer Carl Zimmer had a long article on this common bacterium in New York Times. So, what was all the fuss about? A recent study indicated that Pseudomonas aeruginosa had grown additional tails that enabled them to swim faster.

However, they were still P. aeruginosa.

Evolutionists will acknowledge that bacteria have been bacteria for an enormously long time without changing into anything else – and they haven’t changed this time, either.

In other words, only slight variations have occurred. If you remember the changes in beak sizes in the Galapagos finches, you’ll know that something similar has taken place.

That’s not evolution in the goo-to-you sense.

Source:

Zimmer, Carl. 2013. Watching Bacteria Evolve, With Predictable Results. New York Times (15 August).



Tuesday 20 August 2013

Evolutionists Try But Fail to Censor Book Critical of Darwinian Mechanisms

Despite the attempts of some angry evolutionists, this book was published.




Joel Kontinen


Darwinists are fond of asserting that there is no controversy of whether evolution has occurred. However, when controversy occurs, they will do everything to keep it from becoming public.

The latest episode of this sad story features the book Biological Information: New Perspectives written by a number of scientists, who presented papers critical of Neo-Darwinism at a symposium at Cornell University in 2011.

The editors, Robert J. Marks, John C. Sanford, Michael J. Behe and Bruce L. Gordon, are distinguished professors or associate professors at major US universities and the other contributors are also well-credentialed scientists.

Springer had agreed to publish the book but then Darwinian blogger Nick Matzke started a campaign to make the publisher reconsider its decision. Frightened by the publicity, Springer reneged on its promise. The editors had to look for a new publisher.

Recently, World Scientific Publishing issued a press release notifying that it published the book. It states:

This is a milestone book. For over 100 years, it has been very widely believed that the mutation/selection process is sufficient to explain virtually everything within the biological realm. The 29 contributors to this volume bring into serious question this neo-Darwinian paradigm. They use their wide-ranging expertise to carefully examine a series of fundamental theoretical problems that are now emerging. These problems all relate to the exploding field of biological information. Biological information is becoming the primary focus of 21st century biological research. Within each cell there are information systems surpassing the best human information technologies. These systems create what is essentially a biological internet within each cell. The authors, although holding diverse philosophical perspectives, unanimously agree that the mutation/selection process is not adequate to explain the labyrinth of informational networks that are essential for life.”

In other words, there definitely is a controversy about evolution in the scientific community.


Sources:

Luskin, Casey. 2013 Censorship Loses: Never Forget the Story of Biological Information: New Perspectives. Evolution News & Views. (August 20).


World Scientific Publishing news release.





Sunday 18 August 2013

Cavemen Are Losing Their Apelike Traits


Recent discoveries have shown that Neanderthals were not apelike. Reconstruction of a Neanderthal girl. Image courtesy of Christopher P.E. Zollikofer, Anthropological Institute, University of Zurich, via Wikipedia.




Joel Kontinen

In the Darwinian story, the Neanderthals were the original cavemen. The earliest discoveries were made before Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species was published over 150 years ago, and evolutionists have used them to persuade millions of people that their ideology could be supported by facts.

However, subsequent discoveries have painted a very different picture of the Neanderthals. A recent sub headline in Nature news illustrates this trend: “Archaic humans may have invented bone implements still used to make expensive handbags.” New Scientist had a somewhat more general title: “Neanderthals made leather-working tools like those in use today.”

The recent discovery has to do with stone tools known as lissoirs that were found at two Neanderthal sites in southwest France.

According to New Scientist: “At both sites, the team found specialised tools made of polished bone, similar to those still used in some cultures today to process animal hides and make leather.”

This is not something that ape men do. That is what humans do. Cavemen might belong to the Darwinian story, but they certainly do not belong to real history, where apes are apes and men are men.

You can read more about Neanderthals here, here, here and here.

Sources:

Barras, Colin. 2013. First bone tools suggest Neanderthals taught us skills. New Scientist (13 August).

Callaway, Even. 2013. Neanderthals made leather-working tools like those in use today. Nature News (12 August).




Friday 16 August 2013

3,000-Year-Old Text Refutes Sceptical Views on Ancient Israelites

Caravaggio: David and Goliath (ca. 1599). Image courtesy of Wikipedia.




Joel Kontinen

Sceptics tend to claim that the Bible cannot describe historical events accurately because they believe that ancient Israelites could not write.

This, however, has become an untenable approach as archaeologists have in recent years dug up ancient artefacts with writing on them.

Recently, Fox News featured a programme on a 3,000-year old text that archaeologist Eilat Mazar's team found last year near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

Acceding to an article accompanying programme,

If Hebrew as a written language existed in the 10th century … the ancient Israelites were recording their history in real time as opposed to writing it down several hundred years later. That would make the Old Testament an historical account of real-life events.”

The article suggests that ancient Israelites lived in Jerusalem earlier than scholars had previously assumed. Douglas Petrovich, an expert on Near Eastern history, told Fox News that the discovery indicates that Hebrew-speakers lived near Jerusalem at the time of David and Solomon.

This is in accord with what the Bible says.

Source:

Bogursky, Sasha. 2013. Message decoded: 3,000-year-old text sheds light on biblical history. FoxNews.com (July 31).





Wednesday 14 August 2013

Science as Religion: “Science Is Not Your Enemy,” Steven Pinker Says in Defence of Scientism


Steven Pinker. Image courtesy of Rebecca Goldstein, Wikipedia. (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.)




Joel Kontinen

Recently, psychologist Steven Pinker wrote a long and passionate apology for scientism. He is obviously worried that many modern-day thinkers take a rather sceptical approach to science’s ability to solve all human problems.

Trying to save the rather tarnished reputation of Darwinian evolution, he says:

Just as common, and as historically illiterate, is the blaming of science for political movements with a pseudoscientific patina, particularly Social Darwinism and eugenics. Social Darwinism was the misnamed laissez-faire philosophy of Herbert Spencer. It was inspired not by Darwin’s theory of natural selection, but by Spencer’s Victorian-era conception of a mysterious natural force for progress, which was best left unimpeded.”

This would be news to many of us, as the Darwinian roots of both Social Darwinism and eugenics – and the holocaust – are well documented. It takes more than a Steven Pinker to re-write history.

Pinker takes issue with the use of the word scientism that he puts in quotes:

Scientism … is not the belief that members of the occupational guild called ‘science’ are particularly wise or noble. On the contrary, the defining practices of science, including open debate, peer review, and double-blind methods, are explicitly designed to circumvent the errors and sins to which scientists, being human, are vulnerable. ”

Perhaps the basic problem with scientism, at least in the way it is advocated and revered by Richard Dawkins, Steven Pinker and some other anti-theists, is that is has practically assumed the role of a religion.

This is something that C. S. Lewis, for instance, warned us about.


Source:

Pinker, Steven. 2013.

Science Is Not Your Enemy: An impassioned plea to neglected novelists, embattled professors, and tenure-less historians. New Republic (6 August).



Monday 12 August 2013

How to Invent an Incredible Evolution Story: Start with E. coli and Speculate on the Emergence of Feathers

Recently, evolutionists found amazing generalizations by watching the metabolism of E. coli. Yes, they believe it tells us something about feathers and dinosaurs.





Joel Kontinen

Darwinian storytelling is often incredibly inventive. A recent letter in Nature speculated on the emergence of traits for which there was little or no use at the time they were (supposedly) invented by blind Darwinian processes:

Some evolutionary innovations may originate non-adaptively as exaptations, or pre-adaptations, which are by-products of other adaptive traits. Examples include feathers, which originated before they were used in flight, and lens crystallins, which are light-refracting proteins that originated as enzymes.”(internal references excluded)

The science part of this letter had to do with the metabolism of E. coli. The researches examined how the bacterium could use alternate sources of carbon. In doing so, they used intelligent design to alter E. coli’s source of food.

It is a huge leap from E. coli to the emergence of flight feathers. The use of fancy words, such as exaptations, cannot explain the origin of traits that require new genetic information.

Information always requires intelligence – something that the blind Darwinian watchmaker does not have.

Source:

Barve, Aditya and Andreas Wagner. 2013. A latent capacity for evolutionary innovation through exaptation in metabolic systems Nature 500, 203–206 (8 August).




Saturday 10 August 2013

Nature: Genetic Adam and Eve Did Not Live Too Far Apart in Time


According to Genesis, Adam and Eve were real people.




Joel Kontinen

Two papers recently published in Science have given rise to a lively discussion about the biblical Adam and Eve. A Nature news article reporting on the studies had the title Genetic Adam and Eve did not live too far apart in time.

However, the article included a warning that the studies do not endorse the Genesis model: “The biblical reference is a bit of a misnomer because this Adam was by no means the only man alive at his time.”

This, of course, is something that the researchers do not know.

Both studies used a molecular clock approach to date our latest common forebears. They came up with the age bracket of 99,000 to 200,000 years.

Studies like these typically rely on "DNA mutations that arise with each generation” in their estimations.

Relying, as they do, on the assumption that humans and great apes shared a common ancestor, these estimates are bound to be wrong. And, yes, Adam was initially the only man alive in the Garden of Eden, a place he shared with Eve before the biggest tragedy in human history – the Fall.


Sources:

Callaway, Ewen. 2013. Genetic Adam and Eve did not live too far apart in time. Nature news (6 August).

Poznik, G. Davit & al. 2013. Sequencing Y Chromosomes Resolves Discrepancy in Time to Common Ancestor of Males Versus Females. Science 341 (6145), 562-565 (2 August).




Thursday 8 August 2013

Mitochondrial Eve And the Eve of Genesis

Genesis calls Eve the mother of all living people.




Joel Kontinen

Mitochondrial Eve has been in the news recently. Some evolution-believing scientists are adamant that this Eve is definitely not the biblical Eve.

Their view is based on evolutionary assumptions. Believing that humans evolved from an ape-like ancestor, they counted backwards to see when the last truly human ancestor could have lived.

However, assumptions cannot count for evidence. Interpreted correctly, history shows that we do indeed have a common ancestor – Eve, the mother of all living people. Watch this brief video clip produced by Creation Ministries International:


Tuesday 6 August 2013

Everything We Knew About Evolution Was Wrong, Science Website Claims

Darwinian storytelling is increasingly beginning to sound like magic. Researchers can pull interesting conclusions from their hats. Image courtesy of Strobridge Litho. Co., Cincinnati & New York (Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license).




Joel Kontinen

One of the reasons why Darwinian evolution is such a fascinating subject is its inherent inconsistency and its abject lack of inner logic – or any kind of logic.

Often, a single fossil will change everything researchers thought they knew about evolution.

A paper co-written by researchers at the University of Bath, UK, recently published in the journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) caused Phys.org to display an intriguing headline: Scientific study turns understanding about evolution on its head.

Summarising the findings, Phys.org states:

Contrary to popular belief, not all animal groups continued to evolve fundamentally new morphologies through time. The majority actually achieved their greatest diversity of form (disparity) relatively early in their histories.”

Translation: slow, gradual Darwinian evolution does not happen in real life or real history, but most animals basically remain what they originally were.

One might call this intelligent design or perhaps even creation. It hardly sounds like evolution.



Source:

Scientific study turns understanding about evolution on its head.
Phys.org
30 July 2013.



Sunday 4 August 2013

“The Multiverse Idea Is a Radical Departure into Philosophy or Religion,” Astronomer Says.


The idea of many universes is an attempt to explain design without God. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.


Joel Kontinen


What do some secular scientists do when everything in the universe looks like it has been designed? They invoke a hypothetical idea that can never be proved, because they do not accept the idea of a Higher Being who would set the rules.

Astronomer Danny R. Faulkner, who is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of the University of South Carolina Lancaster, has written over a hundred papers in astronomy journals. Referring to Lawrence Krauss’ book A Universe from Nothing (2012), he says:

The now widespread belief in the multiverse among cosmologists amounts to a surrender in the war over design. They have painted themselves into a corner, because, even with their big bang cosmogony they are left with strong theistic implications. Unwilling to accept that there may be a God, they in desperation have resorted to defining away the problem. There is no evidence for a multiverse, nor, by definition, could there ever be.

This is a radical departure into philosophy or religion, but it doesn’t seem to bother these cosmologists. Having painted themselves into a corner, blowing the wall away to make a door to escape through is the only choice that they have. This is a tacit admission that they have lost the design debate for this universe
.”

Source:

Mitchell, Elizabeth. 2013. Are We One of Many, or Did God Design the Universe with Physics That Actually Works? Answers in Genesis (August 3).



Friday 2 August 2013

Scientist Are “Trying to Emulate Design Principles in Nature”

Early – and – modern aeroplanes were built after a design seen in nature.




Joel Kontinen


Darwinian evolution does not look ahead. It does not do any planning. So, where does the very effective design that we see in nature come from?

A recent article at Gizmodo says, “Some of our greatest inventors have looked to nature for inspiration. So it's no coincidence that the earliest known designs for what would eventually become the modern airplane were all based on birds.

Nowadays, biomimicry is a flourishing field of hi-tech engineering. Many robots, for instance, are built after a very intelligent design seen in nature.


Source:

Ha, Peter. 2013. How Nature Is Inspiring a New Breed of Robotic Design. Gizmodo (30 July).