CREATION MOMENTS: 12.30.17

WHALES ON LAND

Genesis 1:21

"And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good."
A small boy was asked in class “What family does the whale belong to?” Nervously, he replied”I don’t know sir. No family on our street has one!”

 What the teacher was getting at was the evolutionary idea that whales have evolved from land mammals. In London’s Natural History Museum, one display cabinet shows a mesonychid, thought to be a land dwelling ancestor, on the left, a fossil of a modern-type dolphin on the right, and, in the middle there is a supposed intermediate form—an ambulocetus.

 The display is clearly meant to show the evolution of the whale from the wolf-like mesonychid, through the ambulocetus, to the modern whale. One would confidently expect, therefore, that the oldest fossil on display would be the mesonychid. And one would be wrong!

 The oldest of the three fossils is actually the ambulocetus. This is a huge problem, because the NHM has to justify why it has arranged these three fossils that way. Their justification is this; the ambulocetus is one of the first of its kind, so they draw an error bar accordingly. On the other hand, they have decided that the mesonychid is one of the last of its kind, so its error bar shows that the fossil displayed in the NHM is from just before the species became extinct. The reason for producing such asymmetric error bars? Well, the fossils must be in that order, because that is the order in which they have evolved. In other words, they have been arranged, according to an evolutionary worldview, then the arrangement is offered as a proof for that worldview. This is circular reasoning.

In Your word, Lord, You were clear about how everything happened. Thank You for your great wisdom, displayed throughout creation. Amen.

 

PLUTO

Psalm 8:3-4

"When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?"
Do you feel sorry for Pluto? It isn’t a planet anymore.

 Of course, you might want to point out to me that this is old news. Pluto was reclassified in 2006, being downgraded to the new category of dwarf planet. Thus, the Solar System went back to being a collection of eight planets, just as it had been before the discovery of Pluto in 1930.

 Many people my age were brought up being taught that there were nine planets. Those of us who enjoyed astronomy as children sometimes feel that the International Astronomical Union (IAU) has taken away a good chunk of our childhood.

 Because of the discovery of other large Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNO), the IAU devised a new set of criteria to determine whether or not a body was a planet. Pluto (and, indeed, that other well-known TNO, Eris) fulfill all the criteria for planethood except one. It is this:

 It must have cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.

 When did Pluto fail, and Neptune succeed, in clearing their orbits of debris? Surely this process has not been observed. If the IAU’s criteria suggested merely that the body’s orbit had to be clear of debris to be described as a planet is one thing. To be able to show that the planet has actually done this is a bigger problem which requires one to know what has actually happened in the past. But no one has seen this process occur. It is a supposition, based on an old-earth framework. To be a planet or a dwarf planet requires knowledge of an evolutionary process that never actually happened.

Along with the hymnwriter, when we consider all the works Your hand has made, Lord God, we declare “How Great Thou Art!” Amen.

 

 PLANET NINE

Psalm 8:3-4

"When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?"
When I was a boy, there were nine planets. I remember reports in 1982 about the discovery of a tenth planet. Nobody actually saw the alleged tenth planet through a telescope. However, measurements were made of the orbits of other planets, and perturbations from where they thought the orbits should be were noted. It was assumed that these perturbations were caused by a large planet beyond the orbit of Pluto. Of course, the discovery of Pluto, being such a small planet, did not fully explain the motion of Neptune and Uranus, so further calculations in 1982 suggested the existence of Planet Ten.

 Pluto was demoted from planetary status in 2006, but this did not stop speculation that there might be a ninth planet similar to the newly defined eight. In 2016, scientists once again thought that the discovery of Planet Nine was inevitable. They now had the evidence of orbits of other Pluto-size objects beyond the orbit of Neptune � the so-called Trans-Neptunian Objects, or TNOs. In 2017, all these ideas are on hold again as other scientists think that the perturbations of the orbits of Pluto, Eris and other TNOs can be explained by other TNOs.

 As Bible-believing Christians, we are encouraged to stand in awe at the universe because it declares the glory of God. That so much interesting speculation can be made about small movements in the orbits of bodies within this Solar System reminds us again of the greatness of God, who made this entire universe.

Lord, You have said that the making of objects in the universe was just the work of Your fingers. Thank You, our Great God and Creator, for being mindful of such a one as me. Amen.

 

BEARS AND ARCTIC ICE

Genesis 8:22

"While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."
Think of the Arctic and you probably think about polar bears. Those magnificent, big, white carnivores are probably pictured in your mind standing on snow and ice, where they can be difficult to see. The Arctic is the realm of the bear, and this is reflected in its name. The word �Arctic� is derived from the Greek word arktos, meaning bear. There are layers of meaning here. Certainly, the Arctic is home to the polar bear, but also the constellation Ursa Minor, the Little Bear, contains the star Polaris, which is the Pole Star, being directly above the North Pole, so if you were traveling �towards the Bear�, or Bearwards, you would be traveling North.

 Perhaps the most iconic pictures of polar bears published have been those showing one or two bears clinging precariously to tiny icebergs barely able to support them. The implication of such images is that the habitat of the bears is disappearing. What would be the culprit that is melting the ice? Presumably, it would be our old friend Climate Change.

 So what would a bear do if the ice under its feet melted away? I guess it would have to swim! Fortunately, polar bears are strong swimmers. Some bears have been tracked swimming up to ten days.

 Contrary to popular opinion, recent research has shown that many polar bear populations increased during times of receding ice. In the last couple of years, ice sheets have expanded again. Climate Change Alarmists notwithstanding, conditions continue to underline that �while the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.�

Father God, we thank You that You have populated this planet with interesting animals, and You have given human beings the responsibility and privilege of stewarding this world. Help us to fulfill these obligations in places that we live. Amen.

Ref: Crockford, S. (2015), The Arctic Fallacy, (London: Global Warming Policy Foundation). Image: Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 Unported.

 

 EVOLUTION BY EUPHEMISM

Ephesians 5:6

"Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience."
In my book Where Birds Eat Horses, I talk about the way that evolutionists use, or rather misuse, language in order to make their case. One type of language much loved by evolutionists is what we call �fuzzy words�.

 Recently, I discovered a subset of fuzzy words known as weasel words � an idea that seems to have been invented on Wikipedia! Weasel words are designed to convey an element of authority which does not really exist. One such phrase, quoted and criticized on the Wikipedia site, is �a growing body of evidence.� Wikipedia�s weasel word page editor suggests that the phrase should make us ask for the raw data for this growing body of evidence. The implication is that the �growing body of evidence� does not exist and an author using this phrase is trying to shut down discussion.

 One popular science website containing a lot of evolutionary articles has an abundant supply of pages using this phrase. Consider these:

 Growing body of evidence supports use of mind-body therapies in breast cancer treatment.

 A growing body of evidence has hinted at this connection [between global cooling and the evolution of homo sapiens].

 Although there is a growing body of evidence that there was once water on Mars, it does not rain there today.

 Biblical creationists should not be intimidated by such comments. It would appear that there is a growing body of evidence that many evolutionists are leaving logic behind! The Bible, in contrast, uses phrases which are full of meaning and truth.

Thank You, Lord God, that Your words are always true and always reliable. Amen.

 

 

 

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CREATION MOMENTS: 12.22.17

WHERE DID ALL THE WATER GO?

Psalms 104:8

The mountains rose, the valleys sank down to the place that you appointed for them
“There can’t possibly have been a worldwide Flood. Where would all the water have gone after the Flood?” This is a common objection to belief in the biblical account of the Flood of Noah’s time. Did the water drain away, or evaporate?

 This misconception is because our society is very Western-centered. As a child, growing up in Britain, all pictures of the Earth would have London at their center. This is, after all, where the 0º longitude line is! In America, most similar images would show the United States at the center. But what if we center our image on the Pacific Ocean? Then we will see a hemisphere almost entirely made up of ocean. This reminds us that nearly three quarters of the Earth’s surface is water. What if all the existing water on the Earth could be spread out? French diver and filmmaker Jacques Cousteau used to say:

 Were the crust of earth to be leveled—with great mountain ranges like the Himalayas and ocean abysses like the Mariana Trench evened out—no land at all would show above the surface of the sea. Earth would be covered by a uniform sheet of water—more than 10,000 feet deep!

 This agrees with what the Bible says in Psalm 104:8.

 The mountains rose, the valleys [or deeps] sank down to the place that you appointed for them.

 The rising of the mountains and the lowering of the ocean deeps, at the end of the Flood, easily explains where all the floodwater went. It didn’t go anywhere. It is all still on planet Earth.

We worship You, Lord, the King enthroned above the Flood; enthroned as King forever. May You give strength to Your people, and may You bless Your people with peace. Amen.

 

 TWO LIQUIDS CALLED WATER

Genesis 2:10

A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers
Popular science information websites sometimes reveal fascinating facts. The Science Daily website recently published an articled suggesting that water is not one, but two liquids.

 One would have thought that we knew everything that there was to know about water. It covers 70% of the Earth�s surface. Up to 60% of the human body is made up of water. It is essential for life, and we are familiar with it in our everyday life, in ponds, streams, rivers, lakes, and so many different bodies of water worldwide.

 However, we are also familiar with the fact that water has many anomalous properties, which set it apart from other liquids. A team of researchers at Sweden�s Stockholm University have discovered, using X-Ray analysis, that there are two different arrangements for water molecules in liquid water, especially at low temperatures, just above the melting point of ice. We know that if water had a melting point, consistent with the small size of its molecule alone, its melting point would be very low. However, water molecules associate together, in different formations, because of the so-called hydrogen-bonding between molecules. Apparently, at low temperatures, this can cause such a high association between molecules, that the liquid, or at least portions of it, can become a thick, viscous liquid, just as it freezes into ice.

 That such a seemingly simple material can still have properties for us to research shows something of the creativity of God. At once simple and highly complex, molecular and inter-molecular arrangements in water cause this common, yet mysterious liquid, to do so many things for us, that we tend to take for granted.

Thank You, Father, for Your gift of water to us. You word describes cold water as something that refreshes a thirsty or weary soul. Thank You that You made this unusual material so well. Amen.

 

 CAIN TILLED THE GROUND

Genesis 4:3-5

In the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard.
As a child, attending Sunday School, and listening to so many disconnected Bible stories, I was confused by the account of Cain and Abel. In particular, I found it strange that God accepted Abel�s offering, but not Cain�s. There didn�t seem to be a reason. I remember asking my Sunday School teacher, who didn�t know either. �Maybe Cain wasn�t very nice in the way that he gave his offering,� she suggested.

 But that can�t be the case. Cain offered the fruit of the ground, when it was harvested. This was probably the first and best of the crops. Surely God would be pleased with the best. How can we possibly know whether Cain offered the crop with bad grace?

 Part of the problem was that my Sunday School teacher did not believe that the account of Cain and Abel was genuinely historical. It was more of a legend to her. But, years later, when I had accepted that Genesis was literally true, I realized that the answer was there in the text. Cain brought the best that he could offer, but the best that we can offer is not good enough, because we are sinners. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.

 Abel brought a blood sacrifice. He did not raise sheep for food, because meat was forbidden us, until after the Flood. Abel�s offering recognized his sin, and the need for atonement. Cain�s offering was given insufficient, because we cannot earn our way to God. We need the atoning blood of Jesus Christ.

We know, Lord God, that the best that we can offer is not good enough. Thank You, therefore, for the perfect sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Ref: Taylor, P.F. (2009), Cain and Abel: Worship and Sacrifice, (Toutle, WA: J6D Publications), pp17-20
Image: Ben Peter Scotton, commissioned by the author for his use

 

 THE PROPHECY OF ABEL

Luke 11:49-51

�Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute: that the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; from the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation."
Jesus described Abel as a prophet. He referred to all the prophets who had been killed, �from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah� (Luke 11:51). Prophecy refers to that forthtelling, which comes from the Holy Spirit. The words of the prophet are the words of God. Prophecy can sometimes, though not always, be predictive.



However, although Cain had a few things to say in conversation with God, there is no recording of any words of Abel at all, let alone any words of prophecy. So what was the prophecy of Abel?

 Abel was the world�s first murder victim. If you accept the early chapters of Genesis to be historically true � which you should � then there had been no previous human death. If evolution were true, then there would have been previous deaths, so Abel�s death was nothing significant. In a word, the death of Abel is only significant if it really was the very first human death.

God said to Cain, �The voice of your brother�s blood is crying to me from the ground.� The prophecy of Abel was his shed blood. His blood poured out onto the ground points to the much more important blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to be poured out on the ground for our sins. In Hebrews 12:24, we read, �You have come� to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.�

Thank You for the blood of Jesus Christ shed on the cross to atone for our sins�and not just to cover them, but to wash them away completely. Amen.

Ref: Taylor, P.F. (2009), Cain and Abel: Worship and Sacrifice, (Toutle, WA: J6D Publications), pp32-35
Image: Ben Peter Scotton, commissioned by author for his use

 

 

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CREATION MOMENTS: 12.16.17

 

LIFE ON MARS FOR REAL

Genesis 8:22

While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
David Bowie sang:

 Oh man, wonder if he'll ever know
 He's in the best selling show
 Is there life on Mars?

 Elon Musk, the founder of commercial spacecraft company SpaceX, has expressed a wish to put a city on Mars of at least a million citizens. Though the technological challenges involved in such an undertaking would be immense, it is not beyond the realm of possibility. I remember a short story by Isaac Asimov, in which colonists were able to meet their water supply needs, by finding a large icy asteroid, and towing to the Red Planet, storing it at the planet’s North Pole. Musk envisages a “self-sustaining city on Mars” and suggests that a million inhabitants within 100 years is the minimum that would be required to achieve this goal.

 He is serious about the endeavor, even to the extent of deliberately saving up his own money to finance such a trip. His reason for so doing is that he expects the Earth to become uninhabitable very soon, because of man-made disasters, such as his belief in Climate Change.

 I see nothing wrong with attempting to set up self-sustaining colonies on Mars, but I do not expect the Earth to be destroyed by human activities. It is only God, who can (and will) bring this world to an end. Musk’s dystopian vision is understandable, given the current spiritual opinions of Western countries. As the Christian songwriter, Graham Kendrick, sang:

 Choices crowd his heavy senses
 Keeping up the old defenses
 Oh but he knows how it feels to be dying inside
 Is there life on Earth?

Thank You, Lord, for the ingenuity and talents of men and women, who push back the frontiers of engineering ability. Though they may not acknowledge it, their talents come from You, and we praise You for them. Amen.

 

EGGS AND EVOLUTION

Luke 11:11-12

If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
“The evolution of the amniotic egg was key to vertebrates leaving the oceans and colonizing the land and air.” So claimed a recent article on the evolution of the egg. The article noted that there are different shaped eggs among birds. Researchers conducted a statistical study of the eggs produced by 1,400 species of bird. It was assumed that the shape of the egg was determined by the behavior of the bird, how fast it flies, what it eats etc.

 However, there are some anomalies. For example, the albatross and the humming bird have very similar shaped eggs, yet their life cycles are entirely different, and their genetics will be different, too. So how could these birds produce eggs that are almost exactly similar? To be fair, the study suggested a similarity between the birds; that they are both very powerful fliers. Yet, merely commenting that they are powerful fliers does not begin to recognize the difference between the way that these birds use their power in flight, or how the eggs of other very powerful fliers, such as hawks, have completely different shaped eggs.

 The general evolutionary assumption is that creatures producing shelled eggs—such as reptiles and birds—evolved from creatures with non-shelled eggs, such as amphibia. Yet the hatching of a salamander, for example, is dependent on the softness of the egg membrane. How would a salamander tadpole hatch from a partially shelled egg? Or how would the first reptile have survived, when its partially enabled shells were broken by amphibian predators?

 Shelled eggs are a wonder, not of evolutionary processes, but of God’s design.

Each example we see of Your creation, Lord, reminds us of how great You are, and how insignificant we are. Therefore, we praise You again, that You consider us. Amen

 

VOLCANOES OPENED JURASSIC PARK?

Psalm 104:32

Who looks on the earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains and they smoke!
It was, they say, the �Great Dying� supposedly 250 million years ago. 57% of all land-dwelling vertebrates became extinct. Yet amidst the death and destruction of this event, a new group of animals arose. We call them the dinosaurs.

 One interesting evolutionary study suggests that this so-called Permian-Triassic Extinction was initially triggered by large scale volcanic activity. An article on the Science Daily website explains it thus:

 Following the discovery of volcanic rocks of the same age as the extinction, volcanic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions had previously been suggested as an important contributor to this extinction event.

 How could they possibly know that these rocks are the same age? Volcanic rocks would be dated by radiometric methods; fossil-bearing rocks, by comparison with nearby other rocks, and estimating the ages by examining the fossils contained within.

 The article is also implying a massive climate change, caused by volcanic CO2 emissions. In short, there is little or no evidence for the climate change, the CO2 emissions, or any correlation between the two.

 The Bible gives a very much shorter timescale than millions of years; a timescale of only just over 6,000 years. Also giving the lie to the evolutionary myth is the fact that death could not have occurred before Adam sinned. Instead, dinosaurs were magnificent land animals, created by God on Day Six of creation.

We are amazed, Lord, at the folly of sophisticated analysis, based on faulty ground rules. Help us to consider Your way first, in all that we undertake for You. Amen.

 

A CONVENTION OF LIGHT

Genesis 1:16-18

And God made the two great lights�the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night�and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
If you fire a beam of laser light at the Moon, how long will it take to get there?

 At first, some might suggest that this is a relatively easy problem. Speed equals distance divided by time, so surely we can calculate how long the light will take. But do we really know how fast the light travels from Earth to Moon? Creationist astrophysicist Dr. Jason Lisle suggests that we don�t.

 What we know is the average speed of light. To measure the speed one-way, we would need a clock at either end. These clocks would need to be synchronized, presumably by sending a radio signal. But that signal itself travels at the speed of light�the very value we are trying to measure. Alternatively, we could synchronize both clocks on Earth, then take one of them to the Moon. But time operates at different rates at different speeds. Therefore, the journey that the Lunar clock makes from Earth to Moon actually desynchronizes it from the Terrestrial clock.

 All we can do is measure the average speed, by bouncing the laser off the Moon, and receiving it back on Earth, where the same clock that registered the start of the laser�s journey can register its return. The speed one-way might, in fact, be very different from the speed the opposite way. This is one possible explanation for how light could travel over millions of light years, while only taking a day to reach the Earth, because the speed from distant star to Earth might, in practice, be much faster than the known average. Other creationists have other models, but all rightly depend on Genesis 1 being literal history.

We stand in awe at Your universe, O Lord. So much is out there that blows our minds! Yet, You made it all, and declared it to be good, so we praise Your wonderful Name. Amen.

 WERE STONE TOOLS PRIMITIVE?

Genesis 11:8-9

So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth. And from there the LORD dispersed them over the face of all the earth.
One of the most persistent rumors of popular evolutionary mythology is the concept of a primitive Stone Age. While serious evolutionists do not view such a time in the same way as the popular thinking, particularly in the media, the idea that there were early human societies that had no technology, save the ability to use rocks, is deeply ingrained. For example, in Douglas Adam�s brilliant comic SciFi novel, The Hitchhiker�s Guide to the Galaxy, a sub-ether talk show host greets his listeners thus:

 We'll be saying a big hello to all intelligent lifeforms everywhere and to everyone else out there, the secret is to bang the rocks together, guys.

 In Langdale, in England�s Lake District, stone tools have been found, along with evidence of product control and management. There also seems to have been a widespread market in these products, throughout the British Isles; Langdale axes have been found in many archaeological sites throughout the islands. Such capitalism is not consistent with the popular evolutionary view of human development, but is entirely consistent with a biblical approach to history. The Tower of Babel incident led to people groups being scattered over the face of the Earth. Refugees arriving in far-flung places, like the British Isles, would have had all the civilization and sophistication of where they had come from, but would not immediately have set up all the required technology. At first, they would have used easier materials, until they were more settled, so the idea of simple tools being used in a sophisticated market economy makes sense, in a biblical framework.

Thank You, Lord, that You have given human beings the abilities for intelligence, wisdom, and knowledge. Help Your people to use these gifts wisely, for Your Glory. Amen.

 

 

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CREATION MOMENTS: 12.2.17

SEA LEVEL DURING THE FLOOD

Genesis 7:19-20

“And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.”
“You can’t possibly believe that there was a worldwide Flood. If the Ark was floating above Mount Everest, the air would be so thin that they would not be able to breathe.”

 This objection to the Flood is a very common one that I hear frequently. It is also one that is most easily disproved. In fact, I am always very surprised that so many people think this must be a valid argument.

 The statement contains two incorrect presuppositions. Let’s deal with the easiest false presupposition first. This is the idea that an Ark floating above Mount Everest would suffer from thin air. But if the Earth’s oceans were all combined and at that height, they would have displaced the atmosphere. Therefore, the surface of the Flood would be the new sea level and the air would not be thin; the surface would be the new sea level, and the air would be as dense as at the coast.

 The second incorrect presupposition is that Mount Everest existed before the Flood. Psalm 104 shows us that the mountains were raised and the valleys, or rather ocean deeps, were lowered at the end of the Flood. Therefore, pre-Flood mountains would have been quite a lot lower than post-Flood mountains.

 It is always interesting to notice that questions designed to ridicule our belief in the literal truth of Genesis are often based on faulty presuppositions. It is not a surprise to us that genuine science is consistent with God’s word.

We love Your word, Lord, and we love that it always speaks truth. We pray that You will guide us as we seek to witness to the truth of Your word to the world around us. Amen.

 

A LESSON FROM THE BEEKEEPER

Psalm 119:103

"How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!"
When I was in my twenties, I had a friend whose father, Peter, kept bees. One day, he invited me to help collect honey. I was fascinated by the paraphernalia that goes with this activity – the costume, the hood, the smoker, and the hives. Peter had ten hives. His bees were very distinctive. They had a deep brown abdomen with a single yellow stripe across the middle of it. After collecting the combs and spinning out the honey, we went for a walk. We walked a couple of miles across meadows filled with willowherb – a flowering plant which is known in the US as fireweed. Bees were collecting nectar. Many of the bees looked like those in Peter’s hives. They were, indeed, his bees.

 Peter explained that when the bees return to the hive, they will do a little dance. These dances are quite sophisticated and give information to others in the hive about the distance and direction of the nectar flowers. For example, the bee imparting the information will include a part of its dance at an angle to the vertical. The angle of the bee to the vertical is exactly the same as the angle between the nectar flowers and the sun. Information like this is then used by the worker bees so that more of them can find their way to the food source.

 Such complex behavior could not have arisen by evolutionary chance. It is far more logical to suppose that this was a feature deliberately designed by the Creator.



Your word, Lord, is sweeter than honey Thank You for providing us with Your word which gives us everything we need for life, learning, and salvation. Amen.

EVOLUTION LACKS LOGIC

Isaiah 43:26

“Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that thou mayest be justified.”
Logic can sometimes be a little difficult to follow without seeing pictures. But if we take this carefully, it should make sense. There is a type of logical sequence called a syllogism, where two premises are made, followed by a conclusion. The conclusion should be based on those premises. For example:

 Premise 1: If it is raining, the streets are wet.

 Premise 2: It is raining.

 Conclusion: Therefore the streets are wet.

 This is logically sound. But suppose we swapped the second premise and conclusion.

Premise 1: If it is raining, the streets are wet.

Premise 2: The streets are wet.

 Conclusion: Therefore it is raining.

 This is logically unsound. This is because there are other possible reasons why the streets might be wet, such as a burst hydrant. Now, here is a typical evolutionary syllogism, using comments about similar animal structures.

 Premise 1: If evolution were true, we would expect to see similar skeletal structures in mammals.

 Premise 2: We do find similar skeletal structures in mammals.

 Conclusion: Therefore evolution is true.

 The idea behind this syllogism is that many animals have five bone systems in their hands or front feet.

 The syllogism is logically unsound because there are other reasons why there might be similar structures, the most obvious being that these similar structures were created by the same designer – God.

Thank You, Lord, for giving us Logic, whereby we can discern good from evil. Thank You also for providing for us during these difficult times. Amen.

 

DINOSAURS AND FEATHERS

Genesis 1:25

�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.�
I am a long-time fan of the BBC science fiction show Doctor Who, having watched it since the mid-1960s when the show was in black and white with no computer graphics and Daleks were upturned trash cans with sink plungers attached. One of my favorite episodes of the modern era was entitled Dinosaurs on a Spaceship. The title said it all.

 A lost craft was traveling through space with a cargo of untethered dinosaurs. But not everyone enjoyed the episode. Some well-known evolutionary biologists in Britain complained about one scene which featured a couple of tyrannosauruses. Their complaint was that the T. Rexes should have been covered in feathers.

 In practice, the idea of feathered dinosaurs still does not have solid fossil evidence to back it up. Most of the fossils found with evidence of feathers are clearly birds. A small number of others are doubtful but could easily be assumed to be birds.

 In 2016, it was announced that a dinosaur feather had been found entrapped in amber. However, the feather was not attached to an animal. Later the same year, other amber-clad feathers were discovered that were definitely attached to a bird. Some have claimed that there are fossil T. Rexes that show signs of feather follicles.

 Again, these patterns are open to interpretation. Now, it is possible, perhaps, that some dinosaurs could have had feathers, but this does not provide proof that birds evolved from dinosaurs. What we actually find in the fossil record is evidence of kinds of animals, just as the Bible states. It does not make sense to impose an evolutionary worldview on any of these findings.

When You finished creating, Lord God, You looked at all You had made and declared it to be �very good�. Thank You that all we understand about dinosaurs and other animals is consistent with Your word. Amen.

 

 HOW NATURE SELECTS

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.�
Evolutionists often use a language all of their own. Frequently that language involves reification. Reification is a logical fallacy whereby an abstract concept is treated as if it were something real or concrete. Evolutionists frequently refer to selection of genetic information by nature � the so-called Natural Selection. Nature is an abstract concept. Too often, values, actions, or even moral choices are ascribed to this abstract nature.



 When evolutionists refer to natural selection, they are implying that this is the mechanism by which evolution occurs. Of course, they refer to natural selection with modification, but we have talked about modification before and will do so again. As for the natural selection part, what is being selected? The answer is that genetic information is being selected. It is selected by means of the environment making alternative selections less likely. For example, long-haired dogs living in hot climates are not going to survive as easily as short-haired dogs. Therefore, the short-hairs are more likely to breed and pass on their short-hair genes to the next generation. In future generations, it is possible that the long-hair genes could be eliminated. But we should notice that this natural selection has only selected from what is already there. The dogs may develop into dogs with shorter hair, but they do not turn into cats or anything else. No new genetic information is created by this selection process, so Darwinian evolution has not occurred. Dogs give rise to dogs, and cats give rise to cats because this is how their biblical kinds work.

Once again, Lord, we see that Your word is true. Thank You that we can always rely on Your word. Amen

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