Archive for the ‘Biology’ category

Evidence From Earth’s Ecology

September 13th, 2009

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There are several thousand species of wasps that help control crop pests by using them for food. These wasps are a popular form of pest control among farmers and gardeners. Biologists have found that the wasps do more than just eat the pests. The wasps also wage an incredibly complicated form of biological warfare.

Wasps inject their eggs directly into wormlike pest larvae. These eggs are coated with a virus that keeps the larvae from maturing until the young wasps hatch. The virus then seems to move to the larva’s liverlike organ and affects the insect’s immune system. The virus also acts on the larva’s endocrine system to take away its appetite. As a result, the larva destroys less crop, and being starved for food, does not develop into an adult. This gives the wasp eggs more time to develop into young wasps, who will then finish off the pests.

God created this earth with careful balance. Unfortunately this balance was upset by man’s actions in the Garden of Eden. The world we now live in groans with the pain of sin–resulting in warfare at all levels of the plant and animal kingdom. Yet God still designed and maintains a balance in the fallen creation. When mankind takes the time to study this finely balanced and intricately designed world, he can’t help but see God’s hand everywhere he looks.

It is my pleasure to tell you about the miraculous signs and wonders that the Most High God has performed for me. How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders!… (Daniel 4:2-3)

The above was quoted from Lett ing God Create Your Day, Vol. 3, p.216 as depicted in A Closer Look At The Evidence by Richard & Tina Kleiss.

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Evidence From Anatomy

September 13th, 2009

Eye2The eye is an incredibly complex organ that moves 100,000 times in an average day. Numerous muscles and tear ducts are in place to keep the eye constantly moist, protected, and functional. Our eyes process 1.5 million bits of information simultaneously and provide 80% of the sensory stimulation sent to the brain. They receive light images traveling at 186,000 miles per second through the iris, which opens or closes to let in just the right amount of light. These images travel through a lens, made of transparent cells, which focuses them on the retina at the back of the eyeball. The retina covers less than one square inch of surface, yet this square inch contains approximately 137 million light-sensitive receptor  cells. Approximately 130 million are rod cells (designed specifically to see in black and white), and 7 million are cone cells (allowing color vision). Finally, the image is sent at a rate of 300 miles per hour to the brain for processing. How could all of this have come about by some step-by-step, random-chance evolutionary process?

Mankind has designed and patterned the camera after the eye. It is only reasonable to acknowledge that the eye, which is an infinitely more complex instrument, was also designed by intelligence.

The above was quoted from The Human Body: Accident or Design?, p.56-58 as depicted in A Closer Look At The Evidence by Richard & Tina Kleiss.

Ears that hear and eyes that see—the LORD has made them both. (Proverbs 20:12)

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Evidence From Biology

September 13th, 2009

Plattypus

Some animals, such as the duckbilled platypus, have organs that completely confound any evolutionary explanation.
The platypus has a mixture of features from animals completely unrelated to its supposed ancestry. For instance:
1. The warm-blooded platypus feeds its babies milk like other mammals.
2. It lays leathery eggs, has a single ventral opening (for eliminating its waste, mating, and birth), and has claws and a shoulder girdle like most reptiles.
3. It can detect electrical currents like some fish.
4. It has webbed feet like an otter, a flat tail like a beaver, and the male can inject poison into its predators like a snake.
5. It has a bill like a duck.

It would seem that animals such as the platypus are God’s reminder of His unfathomable creativity. These animals
combine features from many unrelated creatures and have no logical place on the “evolutionary tree.” There is no direct evidence that any major group of animals (or plants) arose from any other group. Completely different types of animals are only observed going out of existence (extinctions), never coming into existence.

The above document is from  In the Beginning, 7th Ed., p.7 as quoted in A Closer Look At The Evidence by Richard & Tina Kleiss.

Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom….I will meditate on your wonderful works. They will tell of the power of your awesome works, and I will proclaim your great deeds. (Psalm 145:3,5,6)

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Evidence From The Fossil Record

September 12th, 2009

diatom A microscopic sea creature known as a diatom has a shell which does not decompose when it dies. Instead, the shells gradually accumulate on the ocean bottom; and under just the right conditions they form deposits called diatomaceous earth. Such deposits have been found hundreds of feet thick and can be remarkably free of other contaminants. The existence of these deposits seemed a dilemma for young-earth creationists, because it was not believed that such thick deposits could form rapidly.

A 1976 discovery confirmed that rapid formation of thick diatomaceous earth deposits are possible. At a diatomaceous earth quarry in Lompoc, California, workers of the Dicalite Division of Grefco Corporation uncovered the fossil skeleton of a The Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) is a baleen whale.The Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) is a baleen whale. This fossil is about eighty feet long. Billions of the tiny diatom shells could not have gradually buried the skeleton over millions of years, because the skeleton would not have lasted that long. Dead ocean creatures do not become fossils, because they rot and even their bones disintegrate. In order for a fossil the size of this whale to form, it would have to be buried deeply and quickly. Only quick burial could have sealed the remains from the effects of atmosphere, bacteria, and scavengers. The formation containing this whale fossil had to have been deposited quickly. The better scientists understand the fossil record, the more reasons they have to believe in a worldwide flood and to abandon the old-earth theory.

The above document is from It’s a Young World After All, p.81-83 as quoted in A Closer Look At The Evidence by Richard & Tina Kleiss.

“This is what the LORD says, he who made the earth, the LORD who formed it and established it–the LORD is his name: ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’ ”(Jeremiah 33:2-3)

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Evidence From Mathematics

August 17th, 2009

bacteria-structure1

The simplest conceivable form of life (e.g., bacteria) contains at least 600 protein  molecules. Each of these molecules performs specific functions by fitting into other molecules shaped in exact three-dimensional spacial arrangements. These proteins work like a key fitting into a lock – only a specifically shaped protein will fit. Yet there are multiple trillions of possible combinations of protein molecules * and shapes. How could the exactly required shape find the exactly correct corresponding protein in order to perform the required cellular function? The mathematical probability that the precisely designed molecules needed for the “simplest” bacteria could form by chance arrangement of amino acids (these are the chemicals that link up to form proteins) is far less than 1 in 10450 . Most scientists acknowledge that any probability less than 1 in 10 50 is considered an impossibility. One wonders why this “impossibility” is taught as a “fact of science” to millions of school children each year.

* Editor’s Note: When going to the link on “protein molecules” be sure to scroll down about 1/5 of the way to a box titled “A Deeper Look”.

The above document is from In The Beginning, 7th Ed., p.14 as quoted in A Closer Look At The Evidence by Richard & Tina Kleiss.

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts.”   (Isaiah 55:9)

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Dinosaur Soft Tissue

August 17th, 2009
T-Rex from ICR.org

T-Rex from ICR.org

Dinosaur Soft Tissues: They’re Real!
by Brian Thomas, M.S.*

Paleontologist Mary Schweitzer’s discoveries of soft blood vessels, proteins, various blood cells, and even DNA inside fossilized dinosaur bones have been met with extreme skepticism from the scientific community. It has been well established that such biological structures and molecules should not last beyond a few tens of thousands of years, and could not possibly survive millions of years. So why are they there?

Scientists have made multiple attempts to debunk Schweitzer’s findings. Over the last 15 years, alternate explanations for the soft dinosaur tissue include contamination in the field or in the lab, bacterial activity producing the illusion of blood vessel remains, and the possibility that protein signatures derived from the tissues are actually just statistical artifacts (i.e., distortions or data errors).

In an effort to answer these objections, Schweitzer’s team implemented sterile excavation procedures and had an independent third party analyze their results. They confirmed that the soft tissues could not have come from bacteria. Bacteria do not manufacture products in the shape of vertebrate blood vessels, nor can they produce the kind of collagen found in the dinosaur bones.

The issue has generated such fervor that John Asara of Harvard Medical School, who found clear collagen signatures in Schweitzer’s dinosaur tissues,1 placed his data on line so that anyone could access it. Researchers from Palo Alto reanalyzed the data and published their report on line in the Journal of Proteome Research.2 They verified that four of Asara’s original seven collagen sequences were clearly legitimate, using different statistical and bioinformatics techniques. So far, there is every indication that the dinosaur soft tissues—incredible as it seems—are real biological leftovers from their once-living hosts.

Three options present themselves for the presence of molecules and blood vessels in creatures that purportedly passed on eons ago. Perhaps the soft tissue is some kind of mistake—it isn’t really organic material. But the number of other possible substances it could be is dwindling. Or perhaps there is an entirely unknown natural process that could have preserved soft tissue for millions of years. But this is a special pleading argument, one with strong laboratory evidence against it. Third, perhaps the soft tissue, and therefore the sedimentary rock that encased it, are thousands—not millions—of years old.

Dinosaur soft tissue leaves the evolutionary paradigm, which must have millions of years in order to achieve even remote plausibility, between a rock and a hard place. However, these dinosaur blood cells and vessels fit perfectly into the biblical history of the world, which indicates that man and dinosaurs both were created on the same day in the relatively recent past.3

References
Asara, J. M. et al. 2007. Protein Sequences from Mastodon and Tyrannosaurus Rex Revealed by Mass Spectrometry. Science. 316 (5822): 280-285.
Bern, M., B. S. Phinney, and D. Goldberg. 2009. Reanalysis of Tyrannosaurus rex Mass Spectra. Journal of Proteome Research. Published online July 15, 2009, accessed July 30, 2009.
Genesis 1:24-27.

* Mr. Thomas is Science Writer at the Institute for Creation Research.

This post was taken from the Institute For Creation Research

And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:25)

Evidence From Anatomy

August 16th, 2009
Simple Squamous Capillary

Simple Squamous Capillary

Our blood vessels are an incredible pipeline system which networks our entire body. These vessels come in three basic types: arteries, veins, and capillaries. Capillaries are microscopic vessels that link the smallest arteries to the veins. They are the most abundant type of blood vessels. About 40 capillaries laid end to end measure only one inch. Yet they are so numerous that if all of the capillaries in our body were laid end to end they would stretch around the equator two times!

Blood is pumped into the capillaries with enough force to drive the plasma through the porous walls of these tiny vessels, thus nourishing surrounding cells. However, the pressure is not so great that the red and white blood cells are lost or the capillaries burst. There must be an absolutely perfect balance of pressure between the blood flowing within the vessel, the blood being forced through the vessel walls, and the blood in and around the body’s cells. Without question, the design of our blood vessels and the perfect balance of pressure required to maintain life is testimony to our Designer.

The above was quoted from The Human Body: Accident or Design?, p.42-44 as depicted in A Closer Look  At The Evidence by Richard & Tina Kleiss.

To Him who alone does great wonders, For His loving kindness is everlasting…    (Psalm 136:4 NASV)

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Evidence From Mathematics

August 11th, 2009

simple cell drawingDrawing of a cell membrane from Wikipedia.

At one time living cells were considered no more than empty table tennis balls. As biochemists have learned more about the complexity of life, it has become increasingly apparent that thousands of specific and complex chemicals are required for any form of life to survive. Evolutionist Harold Morowitz estimated the probability for chance formation of even the simplest form of living organism at 1/10340,000,000. By contrast, only 10²º grains of sand could fit within a cubic mile, and 10 billion times more (10³º) would fit inside the entire earth. So the probability of forming a simple cell by chance processes in infinitely less likely than having a blind person select one specifically marked grain of sand out of an entire earth filled with sand.

There is nowhere near enough time nor matter in the entire universe for even the simplest cell to have formed by chance combinations. Even if all the correct chemicals somehow came together in the correct place, you still wouldn’t have life. This is exactly the situation every time a living organism dies. Immediately after death, all the right chemicals exist, in the right proportions, and in the right place – yet the creature is still dead!

Five billion years is nowhere near long enough for evolution to have taken place. In reality, all of eternity would not provide enough time for random processes to form the enormous complexity of life.

This document was taken from Energy Flow in Biology, Academic Press, NY, 1968, p.99 and quoted in A Closer Look At The Evidence, by Richard & Tina Kleiss.

I will proclaim the name of the LORD.  Oh praise the greatness of our God! He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all His ways are just. . .  (Deuteronomy 32:3,4)

Dr. Michael Ruse

August 2nd, 2009

MichaelRuse

Michael Ruse, editor of the Cambridge Series in the Philosophy of Biology and founding editor of the professional journal “Biology and Philosophy” is a hardcore Darwinist. Yet he considers both Dawkins and Dennett “dangerous.” Ruse is worried that if Dawkins and Dennett make evolution and atheism one (they do!) then Intelligent Design advocates will have a legal basis for its discussion in science classrooms. Why? Because teaching Darwinian evolution in the classroom as equal to atheism would violate the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Ruse has a valid point. Sooner or later Secular Humanism as a religion will be in the courts, and atheism will be a key element in the discussion. Already the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has declared atheism a religion. But Ruse, who teaches at Florida State University, is even more direct than Dawkins and Dennett, who equate atheism and evolution. In a telling article published in the Canadian National Post (May 13, 2000) he writes, “Evolution is promoted by its practitioners as more than mere science. Evolution is promulgated as an ideology, a secular religion-a full-fledged alternative to Christianity, with meaning and morality …. Evolution is a religion. This was true of evolution in the beginning, and it is true of evolution still today.”

Secular Humanists generally deny their world view is a religion. Their opponents, however, argue that Secular Humanism IS as much a religion as Christianity, Islam, et al, and, therefore, should not be the religion of American public schools. Ruse gives the whole Secular Humanist case away when he says, “Evolution therefore came into being as a kind of secular ideology, an explicit substitution for Christianity. It stressed laws against miracles and, by analogy, it promoted progress against providence …. One of the most popular books of the era was Religion Without Revelation, by the evolutionist Julian Huxley, grandson of Thomas Huxley.”

The above excerpt was taken from The Schwarz Report, April 2009, p.2

GREAT SCIENTISTS

July 25th, 2009

d3fc795f611438ee

It is false to say that you cannot be a true scientist if you believe in creation. The very founders of the scientific methods and the scientists who developed some of the most important foundational principles of modern science were primarily creationists. Creationists find themselves in the company of great men of science such as Robert Boyle, George Washington Carver, Michael Faraday, John Ambrose Fleming, James Joule, Lord Kelvin, Carolus Linneaus, Matthew Maury, Joseph Clerk Maxwell, Gregor Mendel, Samuel F.B. Morse, Isaac Newton, Louis Pasteur, William Ramsay and Leonardo da Vinci. Many scientists, such as Carolus Linnaeus, George Washington Carver and Matthew Maury, claim to have received their inspirational ideas directly from the Bible. There are also many creation scientists today who are top in their fields. Their, belief in creation and a young earth has not proven to be a hindrance, but actually an asset to their scientific endeavors.

The discoveries of these great men of science are a testament to their belief in the Creator of a designed universe. Their Confidence to pursue scientific discoveries was and continues to be a natural outcome of their belief that discovering how the world works is possible because the universe is the product of an intelligent and all-powerful Designer of order.

The above was taken from Men of Science, Men of God, p. 1-3 as quoted in A Closer Look At The Evidence, by Richard & Tina Kleiss.

The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple. (Psalm 119: 130)

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