LOVING SNAKES
Job 26:13
"By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent."
Mention snakes or other crawly reptiles, and people usually shy away. Typically, snakes have a reputation for being dangerous or, at best, completely unable to show affection. New research shows us that in many cases this isn't true at all.
A number of studies have now shown that at least some snakes take care of their young, have friends and even prefer to hang around with relatives. Mother pythons will stay coiled around their eggs for the two months they take to hatch, not even leaving them for food. Though she is cold-blooded, should the temperatures drop too low, she can generate muscle heat by shivering. A black-rattler mother will stay with her hatchlings for nine days. During that time, she can protect them from predators. The young snakes can barely see at all until they shed their skin at nine days, after which they set off on their own. Cage studies involving non-sibling and sibling rattlesnakes, showed that non-siblings distance themselves from each other. However, rattlesnakes that were siblings would touch each other frequently and often intertwined. Live-bearing skinks, found in Australia, are monogamous for life.
While evolution leads people to think of reptiles as primitive, here we see that their Creator, the God Who is love, blessed them with feelings for one another. This, too, is testimony of His loving nature.
Father, I thank You for Your gift of love through Jesus Christ. Help me show that same love to others. Amen.
Science News, 3/27: 2004, pp. 200-201, Susan Milius, "The Social Lives of Snakes." Photo: Black-headed python at Cameron Park Zoo. Courtesy of Dawson. (CC BY-SA 2.5)
Job 26:13
"By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent."
Mention snakes or other crawly reptiles, and people usually shy away. Typically, snakes have a reputation for being dangerous or, at best, completely unable to show affection. New research shows us that in many cases this isn't true at all.
A number of studies have now shown that at least some snakes take care of their young, have friends and even prefer to hang around with relatives. Mother pythons will stay coiled around their eggs for the two months they take to hatch, not even leaving them for food. Though she is cold-blooded, should the temperatures drop too low, she can generate muscle heat by shivering. A black-rattler mother will stay with her hatchlings for nine days. During that time, she can protect them from predators. The young snakes can barely see at all until they shed their skin at nine days, after which they set off on their own. Cage studies involving non-sibling and sibling rattlesnakes, showed that non-siblings distance themselves from each other. However, rattlesnakes that were siblings would touch each other frequently and often intertwined. Live-bearing skinks, found in Australia, are monogamous for life.
While evolution leads people to think of reptiles as primitive, here we see that their Creator, the God Who is love, blessed them with feelings for one another. This, too, is testimony of His loving nature.
Father, I thank You for Your gift of love through Jesus Christ. Help me show that same love to others. Amen.
Science News, 3/27: 2004, pp. 200-201, Susan Milius, "The Social Lives of Snakes." Photo: Black-headed python at Cameron Park Zoo. Courtesy of Dawson. (CC BY-SA 2.5)
THE POWER OF FAITH
2 Timothy 3:13
"But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived."
The history of science, supposedly supporting evolution, shows the power of expecting to find something, whether it exists or not.
Following the publication of Darwin's book in 1859, there was much speculation over the so-called primordial slime believed to be the origin of life. Ernst Haeckel predicted a whole family of creatures that would lead from the slime to the first one-celled organisms. It was thought that such creatures might exist at the bottom of the sea, and H.M.S. Challenger began taking samples of the sea bottom. Protoplasmic blobs were found in all the sample bottles. Scientists, eager to confirm Haeckel's prophetic words, proclaimed these as "life in the making," naming them Bathybius haeckeli. However, a few years later a chemist pointed out that the preserving agent used in the sample bottles was alcohol, and when sea water is added to alcohol, an amorphous precipitate of sulfate of lime is formed. It had nothing to do with life, but the embarrassment was never reported by the English press.
In truth, if you are convinced that there is no God, it will be very difficult for you to see any evidence of Him. And if you believe that witches can fly on brooms, you will find evidence for it. People did it for generations. Evolutionists continue today to find evidence for what they expect to be true.
Father, let the teaching of Your Word keep me from being deceived by the devil, the world and my own flesh. Amen.
Creation, 12/00-2: 2001, pp. 36-41, "Life from life...or not?" Photo: Bathybius haeckelii was a substance that British biologist Thomas Henry Huxley discovered in 1857. (PD)
2 Timothy 3:13
"But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived."
The history of science, supposedly supporting evolution, shows the power of expecting to find something, whether it exists or not.
Following the publication of Darwin's book in 1859, there was much speculation over the so-called primordial slime believed to be the origin of life. Ernst Haeckel predicted a whole family of creatures that would lead from the slime to the first one-celled organisms. It was thought that such creatures might exist at the bottom of the sea, and H.M.S. Challenger began taking samples of the sea bottom. Protoplasmic blobs were found in all the sample bottles. Scientists, eager to confirm Haeckel's prophetic words, proclaimed these as "life in the making," naming them Bathybius haeckeli. However, a few years later a chemist pointed out that the preserving agent used in the sample bottles was alcohol, and when sea water is added to alcohol, an amorphous precipitate of sulfate of lime is formed. It had nothing to do with life, but the embarrassment was never reported by the English press.
In truth, if you are convinced that there is no God, it will be very difficult for you to see any evidence of Him. And if you believe that witches can fly on brooms, you will find evidence for it. People did it for generations. Evolutionists continue today to find evidence for what they expect to be true.
Father, let the teaching of Your Word keep me from being deceived by the devil, the world and my own flesh. Amen.
Creation, 12/00-2: 2001, pp. 36-41, "Life from life...or not?" Photo: Bathybius haeckelii was a substance that British biologist Thomas Henry Huxley discovered in 1857. (PD)
REJOICE IN GOD'S GOODNESS
Proverbs 15:13
"A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken."
There are countless scientific studies designed to find out how diet, environment and our habits influence our health. These studies urged us to eat this, not eat that and generally give up bad habits.
Now a study of almost 3,000 people between ages 53 and 85 shows that depressed people in this age group are far more likely to die from heart disease than those who show no sign of depression. The study not only measured severe depression, which often requires its own medical care, but also people who reported feeling helpless, hopeless or apathetic. Study participants were also checked for any signs of coronary heart disease at the start of the study. Then they were tracked for four years. Those with even mild signs of depression died of coronary disease at a much higher rate than those who reported no signs of depression. This was even true for those who had no coronary disease at the beginning of the study. They also noted that the subject's weight, blood pressure, smoking and alcohol use had no bearing on the results.
Scripture reminds us to rejoice in the Lord and His salvation, but only a minority ever do. While severe depression may need medical care, that minority can attest to rarely feeling depressed when they remember what God has given us in His Son, Jesus Christ.
Father, fill me with the joy of the salvation I have through Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Science News, 3. 31: 2001, p. 205, "Depression linked to heart deaths." Lithograph: A man diagnosed with melancholia and at a risk of suicide, 1837. (CC BY 4.0)
Proverbs 15:13
"A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken."
There are countless scientific studies designed to find out how diet, environment and our habits influence our health. These studies urged us to eat this, not eat that and generally give up bad habits.
Now a study of almost 3,000 people between ages 53 and 85 shows that depressed people in this age group are far more likely to die from heart disease than those who show no sign of depression. The study not only measured severe depression, which often requires its own medical care, but also people who reported feeling helpless, hopeless or apathetic. Study participants were also checked for any signs of coronary heart disease at the start of the study. Then they were tracked for four years. Those with even mild signs of depression died of coronary disease at a much higher rate than those who reported no signs of depression. This was even true for those who had no coronary disease at the beginning of the study. They also noted that the subject's weight, blood pressure, smoking and alcohol use had no bearing on the results.
Scripture reminds us to rejoice in the Lord and His salvation, but only a minority ever do. While severe depression may need medical care, that minority can attest to rarely feeling depressed when they remember what God has given us in His Son, Jesus Christ.
Father, fill me with the joy of the salvation I have through Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Science News, 3. 31: 2001, p. 205, "Depression linked to heart deaths." Lithograph: A man diagnosed with melancholia and at a risk of suicide, 1837. (CC BY 4.0)
DINOSAUR BONES NOT ALWAYS FULLY FOSSILIZED
Genesis 1:24
"And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so."
Most listeners to these programs will at sometime have visited a museum to see the dinosaurs. Of course, the tangible remains consist of fossil skeletons and, if one is allowed to touch the bones, they are as hard as rock. Sometimes they are actually cement or plaster since they are copies. However, we are told that over the millions of years, the original bone had been replaced by minerals. Except for the millions of years, this is often true but not always. Fence posts, for example, have been found mineralized at one end and plain wood at the other.
In 1993, Science Research News reported graduate student Mary Schweitzer's reaction when examining a slice of 65-million year old T. rex bone from Montana using the electron microscope: "I got goose bumps … it was exactly like looking at a slice of modern bone … How could blood cells survive that long?" To compound the problem, strands of DNA were later identified within the blood.
What does this mean? Firstly, from the known rate at which the DNA structure breaks down under natural radioactivity, the cells were clearly less than 10,000 years old. Secondly, this is not an isolated case, and a major argument is now brewing behind the cloistered walls of academia.
This is further mounting evidence against the popular but godless doctrine of evolution.
Lord, Your Word is truth. Preserve me in Your truth. Amen.
Science Research News, Sept. 7, 1993, Vol. 261. Photo: Mary Schweitzer’s mobile laboratory in Bozeman, Montana. Courtesy of Vladimír Socha. (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Genesis 1:24
"And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so."
Most listeners to these programs will at sometime have visited a museum to see the dinosaurs. Of course, the tangible remains consist of fossil skeletons and, if one is allowed to touch the bones, they are as hard as rock. Sometimes they are actually cement or plaster since they are copies. However, we are told that over the millions of years, the original bone had been replaced by minerals. Except for the millions of years, this is often true but not always. Fence posts, for example, have been found mineralized at one end and plain wood at the other.
In 1993, Science Research News reported graduate student Mary Schweitzer's reaction when examining a slice of 65-million year old T. rex bone from Montana using the electron microscope: "I got goose bumps … it was exactly like looking at a slice of modern bone … How could blood cells survive that long?" To compound the problem, strands of DNA were later identified within the blood.
What does this mean? Firstly, from the known rate at which the DNA structure breaks down under natural radioactivity, the cells were clearly less than 10,000 years old. Secondly, this is not an isolated case, and a major argument is now brewing behind the cloistered walls of academia.
This is further mounting evidence against the popular but godless doctrine of evolution.
Lord, Your Word is truth. Preserve me in Your truth. Amen.
Science Research News, Sept. 7, 1993, Vol. 261. Photo: Mary Schweitzer’s mobile laboratory in Bozeman, Montana. Courtesy of Vladimír Socha. (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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