ARE ALL DINOSAURS EXTINCT?
Romans 8:20-21
"For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God."
Dinosaurs are one of the most popular subjects among grade schoolers these days. These fascinating and awe-inspiring creatures seem distant and unreal to our modern world. Because of this, dinosaurs are often seen as proof of the idea that we live in an evolutionary world.
But are dinosaurs really extinct? Many species of dinosaurs have been discovered and classified over the years. Most of the reptiles we think of as "dinosaurs" belonged to the Archosauria or "ruling reptile" subclass. However, at least 21 species and seven subspecies of Archosauria continue to live to this day, though some of them are endangered species. The largest living group of Archosauria is the crocodiles. Most crocodiles grow to be larger than the average extinct dinosaur, which averaged about the size of a horse. Marine crocodiles found off the northern coast of Australia grow to over thirty feet in length – an accomplishment unmatched by most dinosaurs. Crocodiles help us to learn to see the extinct dinosaurs as part of God's incredible creativity rather than as symbols of an ever-changing, ever-evolving world.
But this doesn't mean that change, especially improvement, is a myth. Our Creator wants far more for us than we can achieve for ourselves. That is why He has given us His Word of salvation in Jesus Christ! In Christ is found true and worthy improvement.
Dear Lord Jesus Christ, my faith and trust is in You and You alone. Grant me Your instruction through Your Word that I may not only have life, but so that I may become more like You. Amen.
ARE ALL SCIENTISTS EVOLUTIONISTS?
Romans 1:18-19
"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them."
Evolutionists sometimes challenge those of us who believe in creation with the words, "Just name one scientist who doesn't accept evolution!" Since many Christians are not familiar with the names of notable scientists, the evolutionist then says, "See! You can't name any because there aren't any!"
At one time, most scientists were committed to the understanding that there is a Creator. Then, for a long time, it really did look as though practically all scientists had accepted evolution. However, that trend seems to be reversing. A poll published a number of years ago in the professional magazine, Industrial Chemist, tells us what scientists really believe.
According to this poll of professional scientists, one-fifth, or 20 per cent, completely reject evolution. Half the scientists believe that it would have been impossible for man to have evolved from lower forms without some sort of supernatural intervention. And do scientists think that creation science is hurting science education? According to this poll, 40 per cent said "No."
So evolutionism is not an unchallenged "fact" of science. It seems that scientists are divided over evolution – meaning that evolution has not made its case – even to the professionals! That should help a lot of Christians understand that science does not demand their acceptance of evolution. Christians should also see that the Bible offers an intelligent alternative to evolution.
Dear Lord Jesus, You have known, firsthand, how those who reject You will often lie to themselves and others so that they seem right and You seem wrong. We see that today as well. Give those scientists who know You the wisdom and strength to share their witness with others. Amen.
ARE ANIMALS JUST AS SMART AS HUMANS?
Genesis 1:27
"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."
Over the years, Creation Moments has been introducing you to animals that are superior to humans when it comes to such things as eyesight, hearing and the ability to survive in conditions that are too hot or cold for us humans. But now, some scientists in Australia are saying that animals are smarter than us, too!
According to University of Adelaide experts in evolutionary biology, "Humans have been deceiving themselves for thousands of years that they're smarter than the rest of the animal kingdom, despite growing evidence to the contrary." The scientists have even written a book called The Dynamic Human that says that some animals may actually be brighter than we are.
According to Professor Maciej Henneberg, a professor of anthropological and comparative anatomy, "The animal world is much more complex than we give it credit for. Animals offer different kinds of intelligences which have been underrated due to humans' fixation on language and technology."
No, Professor Henneberg, creationists do not underrate the intelligence of animals. We have always known that God created each animal with gifts, abilities and the necessary intelligence to survive. What truly separates humans from the animals is not intelligence but the fact that God made us in His image. As it says in Genesis 2:7, "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."
Thank You, Father, for setting us apart from every other living thing you created. I also thank You for giving us Your Son and Your Holy Spirit so that we can have eternal life. Amen.
ARE BIRTH DEFECTS GOD’S PLAN?
Genesis 3:8
“And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees in the garden.”
Most creationists are pro life because they see conception and birth as one of the clearest evidences of God’s original role as Creator. Scripture is filled with examples showing that God not only created the heavens and earth in six days, just as reported in several places in Scripture, but that He is still intimately involved with His creation.
In other words, God did not create the heavens and earth and then leave the earth to spin off on its own in space on automatic pilot as mindless natural laws took over. This means that there is no such thing as chance. Can birth defects, therefore, be ascribed to God’s will?
The Bible also tells us that God created a perfect creation, with no sin, death or defect of any sort. It was we humans who changed the creation when we sinned by abandoning God. He never left us. Unfortunately, our sinful condition brings its own results – including more sin, genetic defects and death. Jesus’ disciples once asked Him about a man born blind, “Master who did sin, this man or his parents?” Jesus’ answer shows us God’s intimate involvement in human life. He told the disciples that the man was born blind to show forth the works of God. Then Jesus miraculously healed his blindness.
There is no worse thing for us than sin and its results now and forever. But the lesson is if we allow God, our Creator, to work, there is nothing so evil that it cannot, in His hands, show forth His mighty works!
I lament, Lord, that because of sin, You no longer walk and talk with us as You did with our first parents before the fall. But I thank You that through Jesus Christ, we are restored to a relationship with You and that You speak with us each day in Your Word. Amen.
ARE ROCKS LIKE VAULTS OR SPONGES?
1 Corinthians 2:7
"But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:"
One of the common methods of finding the age of rocks, and ultimately the age of the Earth, measures the decay of radioactive uranium into lead – the more lead, the older the rock. The method, however, makes some very big assumptions. First, scientists assume there was no lead in the rock when it first formed, but this is unprovable. Then, they assume that rocks are like locked vaults and that no uranium, lead, or the in between decay elements can ever enter or leave the rock.
The fact is, numerous scientific studies show all these assumptions are wrong. Studies have shown that commonly dated rock material can have lead in it as it crystallizes. Other studies have shown that lead, uranium and the other elements important for dating can be removed from the rock by simple weathering or other conditions. In other words, while evolutionary scientists compare rocks to locked vaults, we are learning they are more like sponges. This explains why evolutionary dating methods have found, for example, one part of a rock to be 30 times older than another part of the same rock.
The next time you hear someone say that certain rocks or the fossils in them are millions or billions of years old, just remember that rocks are not like vaults. They are more like sponges that gain or lose elements, making accurate dating impossible. There is no good scientific evidence that the Earth is any older than the few thousand years indicated by the Bible.
I thank You, Lord, that I can trust You as the Rock of Ages. Amen.
ARE WE AS GOOD AS IT GETS?
Proverbs 16:18
"Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall."
Are we, as human beings, as good as it gets? According to several influential evolutionary scientists, human beings are as good as it gets, and evolution has stopped for us. Some dispute this, saying that human evolution is still happening, but it's invisible. Although none of this sounds very much like science, such claims have fueled new debate among evolutionists.
These debates are puzzling, considering man's supposed evolutionary history. According to evolution, modern man evolved in a blink of evolutionary history from some ape like creature. As we have pointed out many times, if evolution and its time scales were true, virtually every generation of our ancestors would have had to have evolved improvements over the last generation. Why would evolution have stopped so suddenly? Has modern medicine, which saves even the weak, stopped evolution? Mutations are also decreasing among us, they point out. In the primitive past, women had children throughout their reproductive life. Older women give birth to children with more mutations. But today, women have their children when young, then stop reproducing.
The claim that we are as good as it gets reveals the pride of earthly thinking inherent in evolution. In truth, we can only be as good as we can get through the forgiveness of sins that comes by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ.
Lord, I thank You for forgiveness, and I look forward to the perfection I shall realize in heaven. Amen.
ARE YOU SUPERSTITIOUS?
1 Timothy 4:7
"But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness."
Are you superstitious? A Harris poll conducted early in 2014 found that: 21 percent of Americans believe that knocking on wood prevents bad luck; 20 percent wouldn't dream of walking under a ladder; 14 percent believe it's unlucky to open an umbrella indoors; and 12 percent think the number 13 is unlucky. In fact, 14 percent of Americans said they believe Friday the 13th is an unlucky day.
Why are people superstitious? For the most part, superstition is caused by fear of bad luck and insecurity in the future, writes Benjamin Radford, LiveScience Bad Science columnist. But as you're about to hear, superstitions are not just foolish, they can be quite dangerous.
In May, a man fainted while driving through a tunnel near Portland, Oregon. This caused a head-on collision that sent four people to the hospital. The driver said he had lost consciousness while holding his breath. According to CarMax, the auto sales giant, "Holding your breath while driving though a tunnel is [America's] favorite driving superstition."
Christians, don't be superstitious. You have nothing to gain by being superstitious. Some people would even say that superstition is just another word for idolatry. As believers, we should not put our faith in objects like rabbits' feet or in manmade rituals like holding our breath in a tunnel. We should put our faith only in the one true God who is sovereign over all His creation.
Heavenly Father, I place my trust in You and You alone. Though superstitions appear harmless on the surface, I know deep down that they do not bring glory and honor to You. Amen.
AUSTRALIAN DINOSAURS
Ezekiel 32:2
"Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say unto him, Thou art like a young lion of the nations, and thou art as a whale in the seas: and thou camest forth with thy rivers, and troubledst the waters with thy feet, and fouledst their rivers."
If the biblical account of history is true, then man and dinosaurs lived at the same time. Some believe that this accounts for the almost universal legends of dragons. In many parts of the world, these legends were passed orally from generation to generation. Unfortunately, it takes only a few hundred years for such legends to become distorted. America was already a country when Europeans got around to settling in Australia. There they found that the local Aborigines had oral accounts of monsters. The Aboriginal people insisted these were real flesh-and-blood creatures.
Aborigines in the northern and eastern parts of Australia tell of the burrunjor. Their descriptions matched that of the allosaurus. As late as 1961 in this part of Australia a tracker reported a bipedal reptile 25 feet long. Aborigines in central Australia tell of the kulta, which is described very much like a diplodocus or apatosaurus. Like these dinosaurs, kulta lived in swamps and ate plants. Cave drawings in northern Australia depict similar creatures. Aborigines refused to settle on Lake Galilee in western Queensland because a monster lived in the lake. This creature, which they called a bunyip, sounds like a plesiosaur.
The fact that the Aboriginal descriptions so accurately match dinosaurs known to the rest of the world show that these are recent memories – exactly what we would expect if the biblical history is accurate.
Dear Father, I rejoice because I can trust Your Word of salvation. Amen.
BACTERIA THE SIZE OF A WHALE?
Genesis 1:20
"And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven."
The abundance and variety of living things that God made continues to amaze scientists. All of us learned in school that bacteria are too small to see without a microscope. That's why, when scientists studied a newly discovered type of bacteria that is visible to the naked eye, they couldn't believe it was bacteria! More study convinced them that the sulfur pearl of Namibia is indeed the largest known bacteria.
The sulfur pearl of Namibia was discovered in deep-sea sediments in 1997. It is part of a strange family of bacteria that generates energy for life by oxidizing sulfur. Such bacteria had been found earlier in sediments found off the South American coast, but they are nowhere near the size of the sulfur pearl. Not only does the sulfur pearl need no light to live, but also it is an excellent reflector of light, which makes it easy to see. The sulfur pearl is so large that smaller bacteria colonize its outer sheath. To give some idea, if the average bacteria were the size of a mouse, the sulfur pearl would be the size of a great blue whale, the largest animal on earth! It is, in fact, about as big as a pinhead.
Despite its great size, it has no more cytoplasm than the average bacteria. About 98 percent of the bacterium's interior is taken up by a fluid filled sack in which the bacterium stores nitrates which it uses to metabolize sulfur. This allows it to go for months without finding new nitrates. God has generously – and creatively – provided for all His creatures, even this bacterium.
Dear Father, we thank You for the variety and creativity with which You have provided for all Your creatures. Amen.
BAD NEWS, WORSE NEWS, GOOD NEWS
Deuteronomy 6:6-7a
"And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children..."
Only four in 10 Americans believe God created the Earth and anatomically modern humans less than 10,000 years ago. That's the bad news, according to the latest Gallup poll. Even worse is the finding that half of Americans now believe that humans evolved over millions of years, though most of these people say that God guided the process.
"Religious, less educated, and older respondents were likelier to espouse a young Earth creationist view – that life was created some 6,000 to 10,000 years ago," according to the Gallup Values and Beliefs Survey. Though the percentage of people who believe in creationism has changed little over the decades, the percentage of people who believe humans evolved without God has more than doubled.
And college only makes things worse. While 57 percent of students who received just a high-school education are creationists, only 25 percent of those with a college degree believe in creation. Evolution's stranglehold on the minds of young people should be a grave concern for all Christians.
But there's good news to report. To the credit of some churches, more than two-thirds of those who attend weekly religious services believe in a young Earth, compared with just 23 percent of those who never go to church. We would venture to say that this is due in part to churches that give their youth a solid foundation in the Bible and the truth of biblical creation. Is your church one of them?
Father, I pray that You will help parents and churches prepare their children to stand firm in the faith and stand strong against the false teaching they will receive in school. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
BATS CRY: THAT'S
MINE!
Ephesians 4:28
"Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth."
As you know, bats are able to find their way around and locate their prey using echolocation – high-pitched sounds that they also use to keep from flying into trees and other bats. But scientists have now learned that one particular kind of bat emits another call that warns other bats to stay away from bugs they've claimed for themselves.
A five-person research team from the University of Maryland recently discovered that male big brown bats produce a special sound called a frequency-modulated bout, or FMB, that sounds a warning to other bats. The FMB is an ultrasonic social call that uniquely identifies the bat emitting it. Its sequence of three to four sounds are longer in duration and lower in frequency than typical echolocation pulses that the bats use for navigation. After hearing the FMB, other bats moved away from both the caller and its lunch.
Biology Research Associate Genevieve Spanjer Wright said: "When two males flew together in a trial, it was not uncommon for each bat to emit FMBs. We found that the bat emitting the greatest number of FMBs was more likely to capture the mealworm."
While only a few talented humans have learned to use echolocation, all of us have been blessed by our Creator with a conscience that acts like a warning signal from God. Let us be like the male big brown bat that not only heeds these warnings but also warns others to avoid things that would displease their Creator.
Heavenly Father, I pray that you will make my conscience shout at me when I am about to do anything that displeases You. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
BATTY COLOGNE
Psalm 141:2
"LORD, I cry unto thee: make haste unto me; give ear unto my voice, when I cry unto thee."
When a young man prepares himself to meet his young lady, he slaps on a little cologne, hoping to please her. It turns out that the males of at least some species of bats do the same thing. Researchers have recently discovered how a small North American tropical bat prepares to attract and keep his harem of up to eight females. In late afternoon the bat begins a ritual that takes more than half an hour to complete. The bat starts by licking scent sacs in its wings. Then it gathers secretions, including urine, from various parts of its body, depositing each secretion on its wing sacs. Despite what you might imagine, the resulting odor is sweet and spicy.
Once he is finished primping, the bat goes to his harem and hovers above them like a hummingbird. The bat can hover for up to 15 seconds. As he hovers, he flaps his wings hard enough to disturb nearby leaves, and he chirps at each female. At the same time, his frantic flapping distributes his special scent. The females respond to the scent by chirping back at him. Males will also spread their scent around, hoping to attract more females to their harems. Researchers think this behavior is more than just ritual. They point out that the complex mix of scents in urine can indicate whether a creature is in good health. For example, female mice will not respond to males whose urine indicates that they are ill.
Many creatures communicate through scent. Scripture even speaks of our prayers as rising to God as sweet-smelling incense. But only the cleansing blood of Christ can sweeten us before God.
Thank You, Lord, for taking away the stench of my sin. Amen.
BIRDS EGG EVOLUTION
Job 39:14-15
"Which leaveth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in dust, and forgetteth that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may break them."
The creation is literally filled with millions of what those who believe in evolution call "happy coincidences." But when you encounter millions of instances of what appears to be thoughtful design, the obvious conclusion is that there is a Designer. Take the example of bird eggs.
The shape of the egg makes it strong. This strength comes in handy in a busy nest. Mom and dad are coming and going, and they turn the eggs periodically during incubation. But all eggs are not equally egg shaped, and there is a pattern to their shapes. Birds like robins that build a nice, dish shaped nest tend to lay eggs that are more round in shape. Screech owls, which lay their eggs at the bottom of a hole in a tree, also have round shaped eggs. Birds like the killdeer barely build any kind of nest and lay eggs on the ground where almost-round eggs could roll away. For this reason, birds such as a kildeer lay much more sharply pointed eggs which are designed to pivot on their small end. Likewise, eggs that are laid where predators are not likely to see them are usually pale or solid in color, but eggs laid out in the open are camouflaged. Moreover, baby birds that hatch in protected nests, like the bluebird, tend to be naked, blind and helpless. But the unprotected killdeer hatchlings are ready to leave the nest within minutes of hatching.
All coincidences? It seems more scientific to say that here we have a few of the many fingerprints of our wise Creator!
I praise You, Father, for how Your glory is reflected in the creation. Amen.
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