Saturday, March 9, 2019

CREATION MOMENTS: 3.9.19 (5)

Eating Your Way to a Better Mood


The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?”

Dutch researchers have concluded that you can indeed eat your way to a better mood. It’s not how much you eat, and in some cases the secret is what you don’t eat. But if you are easily frustrated and stressed, you may be able to avoid these moods.
Dutch researchers were investigating tryptophan, which the brain uses to make serotonin, a neurotransmitter that improves your mood. They prepared two chocolate drinks, one that contained a milk protein rich in tryptophan and another with casein, another milk protein. Volunteers who had been pre‑evaluated for their susceptibility for stress drank one or the other of these with breakfast and again later in the morning. At mid‑day, the volunteers spent 20 minutes at a computer doing math problems as loud industrial noise blared in the background. Researchers then evaluated each subject’s mood, pulse rate, stress hormones and brain serotonin levels. None of the subjects who had the tryptophan‑rich chocolate drink showed any stress factor, no matter how prone to stress they naturally were. Other research has shown that sugar or starch‑rich foods also raise serotonin in the brain. Researchers concluded that simple diet modifications that include tryptophan prior to expected times of stress can help the average person respond to stress. They also warn that meat protein blocks the brain’s absorption of tryptophan.
While we can cast all our fears and frustrations on the Lord, it is good to know that He has provided us with a way to better cope with nagging, daily stress.
Lord, I cast all my cares on You, for You care for me. Amen.
 
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Those Clever Siberian Chipmunks

“My defense is of God, Who saves the upright in heart.”
Siberian chipmunks are pretty low on the food chain. Everything from snakes to foxes seek out a chipmunk meal. However, Siberian chipmunks are very clever at using one of their enemies to defend themselves. If a Siberian chipmunk discovers a dead snake, it will be understandably careful in making sure that it is dead. Once it is certain, the chipmunk will chew on the dead snake’s skin. Then, in behavior naturalists call “self‑anointing,” the chipmunk applies the chewed snake skin to its coat. The chipmunks will also self‑anoint with snake urine and feces. Field studies showed that while the chipmunks ignore the carcasses of frogs, birds or lizards, they will self‑anoint in this way from four species of snake.
Further field observations explained the reason for this strange behavior. Snakes are less likely to eat an anointed chipmunk. The snake odor on the chipmunk may also deter other animals that feed on the chipmunks. The chipmunks’ defense strategy raises some difficult questions for those who believe that the living world is a product of chance. How could these chipmunks figure out that coating themselves with the skin of their mortal enemy would protect them from that enemy?
The task of developing this strategy and then overcoming its natural fear to approach that enemy, albeit dead, seems far too large for a chipmunk’s mind. However, it is a small and simple task for the Creator, Who made all things and taught the chipmunks to protect themselves. That same God protects us from that old serpent, the devil, through His Son, Jesus Christ.
 
Dear Father, help me to daily put on Christ to have Your protection. Amen.
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Where Does Oil Come From?
 
The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing.”
 
"Evolutionists have little argument over the question of where oil comes from. In most cases, they would suppose that it came from organic matter – probably from dead plants and animals – several million years ago. Hydrocarbons are, after all, products of organic matter breaking down – and oil is made up of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons, which are compounds of carbon and hydrogen only.
However, organic materials are not the only source of hydrocarbons, especially the simple ones. Indeed, evidence for traces of hydrocarbons has been found in some meteorites. If this is true, then it could point to a possible non-organic mechanism for the formation of oil.
Other clues are available. For example, crude oil contains porphyrin – a class of compounds found in blood. Yet some crude oils (such as that from the North Sea) contain amounts of poisonous heavy metals, such as mercury, which would once again point towards a non-living model.n
Clearly, a creationist model does not have millions of years at its disposal. Perhaps, some have suggested, the pressure of sedimentary rock forming during the Flood could have “squeezed” the hydrocarbons out.
It is oil’s existence as a liquid that causes us to look for its origin. We are so evolutionized in our thinking that it is difficult to conceive of a non-fossil origin for oil. Yet, when we consider rocks like granite, we do not spend time considering how it was made – we suppose that God made it in the Creation Week. It is reasonable to suppose that petroleum could be a creation material, made during the first six days.
Father, You have given us useful materials with which we can live our lives. Thank You for these. Amen
 
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Dinosaurs on the Ark
 
“Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox.”
 
Part of our problem in understanding dinosaurs is the fact that the term does not mean a great deal. In the 19th Century, as fossils were being discovered of large reptilian-type creatures, it was felt that an all-encompassing term would be needed with which to label them. That term was supplied by Sir Richard Owen, founder of London’s Natural History Museum. As many other fossils of extinct creatures were discovered, a word was needed for all such extinct animals – and the word Owen chose was dinosaur – terrible lizards.
As more dinosaur fossils were discovered, their discoverers exercised their rights to have their specimens named the way that they wanted. The problems arise when similar looking fossils are discovered. Are these different species? Are they simply young and old specimens of the same species? Given, also, that many dinosaur fossils are frankly incomplete, even comprising just a minority of necessary bones, the confusion and the possibility of duplications abound. It has been estimated, even by evolutionists, that less than half the named dinosaurs are, in fact, unique species.
For creationists, the most important unit of classification is not even the species, but the kind. God created animals to reproduce according to their kinds. A kind is a much broader term than a species.
Given the over-classification of dinosaurs, it is likely that there are only 50 kinds of dinosaurs in the world. Some are big, but some are very small, and the average size is that of a sheep. Therefore, it is likely that Noah was sent 100 creatures by God, that we would now call dinosaurs, along with the other animals.
We know, Lord, that Your word is true. We thank You that, as we seek to understand Your Scriptures, bit by bit, our understanding of these and other animals increases. Amen.
 

 
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