When I Consider! – Mount St. Helens

October 20, 2009 by Lee

When I Consider!

Evidence from Geology – October 13

“When Mount St. Helens erupted on May 18, 1980, the resulting blast cloud snapped off huge trees for 150 square miles around the mountain. At the same time an avalanche of mud sped down from the top of the mountain into Spirit Lake, causing a wave almost 900 feet high which scraped trees from the slopes adjacent to the lake. Many of these trees ended up in Spirit Lake buried at various levels on the bottom as they slowly sank in an upright position after becoming water-logged. Scuba investigations and side-scanning sonar have identified up to 100,000 upright deposited tree stumps buried a various levels of ash and peat deposits at the bottom of Spirit Lake.

Mount St. Helens Eruption by USGS

Since Mount St. Helens continues to be active (depositing more material in the lake with time) these trees will be buried in what looks like separate geological layers, even though they all came from the same forest.

Years from now if sediment were to fill the lake and bury the trees in such a way that they became petrified in their present positions, these trees would look like multiple forest buried on top of each other over tens of thousand years. This is exactly what was assumed to be the origin of the petrified forest at Yellowstone National Park’s Specimen Ridge. Many geologists now acknowledge that the Yellowstone petrified trees were from the same standing forest, transported into their current position by a massive flood catastrophe.”

The Young Earth, p. 115-116 and Search for the Truth, II-9

So He destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground: both man and cattle, creeping thing and bird of the air. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive. And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days. (Genesis 7:23-24)

Additions:
Mount St. Helens – Creation Wiki
Mt. St. Helens Evidence in Support of Biblical Catastrophe
“Is the Lava Dome at Mount St. Helens Really a Million Years Old?” by Keith Swenson
MOUNT ST. HELENS AND SPIRIT LAKE Geoscience Research Institute

More When I Consider!

Ian Juby’s Newsletter – Oct 2009

October 5, 2009 by Lee

Ian Juby just sent out his latest newsletter and it is also available at his blog. The article features the new “Ardi” that is suppose to prove our ancestors were related to this fossil. Personally, I believe it will become another hoax like “Luci,” but time will tell.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. (Genesis 1:27 KJV)

“1) Ardi ar arrr…

Artist’s best guess as to what Ardipithecus ramidus may have looked like.
Okay, so maybe it didn’t stand upright like that, and maybe it didn’t have human eyes like that, and maybe it was a male and not a female, and maybe it….well, it’s close at least!
Drawing by J.H. Matternes

The propaganda machine goes into overdrive:
Got a barrage of emails this week from my honourable news watch team regarding a supposed “Missing link” found this week which “proves” our ancestral relationship to the apes.
In fact, Science magazine even ran a special issue just on this fossil, CBC’s “Quirks and Quarks” devoted a segment of their program to it (downloadable as a 22 meg MP3), National Geographic had a spread on it as well.
Seeing as how there’s been so much fuss over this fossil, I thought I’d devote a newsletter in response.

As is typical, this “missing link” is presented with impressive pomp and circumstance before the emporer comes out wearing no clothes. We’ve seen this before time and again with Ida, Puijila, and even Archaeoraptor – the fraudulent fossil that was brazenly heralded with many bold claims as “proof of evolution” before it was quietly sidelined after it was discovered to be a fake. I still, to this day, occasionally have people bring up Archaeoraptor as proof of evolution. This is the power of propaganda.

Same old, same old.
Before proceeding, it’s probably a good idea to point you to my previous response to the SciAm write up on our supposed “hominid” fossil lineage. In this article, I dealt with dozens of these supposed “half-ape/half-human” fossils that evolutionists often hurl at us: “The Human Pedigree”

As you can see, the whole “science” behind these “hominid” fossils is so speculative and subjective it isn’t funny!
1) Start with the assumption that evolution is true.
2) Interpret the fossil within an evolutionary paradigm
3) Use the interpretation as proof that evolution is true.
4) Return to step #1.

The New Old Find
The “new” find (actually found back in ‘92) is attributed to Ardipithecus ramidus. The famous ‘flintstone fossil’ “Ardipithecus ramidus kadaba-daba-doooooo!” (thanks Teno Groppi), Ardipithecus has now been divided into two fossils, Ardipithecus ramidus, and Ardipithecus kadaba. Good grief – there was barely enough fossil fragments for one fossil reconstruction, let alone two! See my response to SciAm for more details.

So with the unveiling of more of the fossils this week, once again … To see the rest of the article – CLICK HERE

To see more here by Ian Juby – CLICK HERE

Galapagos: Showcase for Creation

August 20, 2009 by Lee

Galapagos: Showcase for Creation, by John D. Morris, Ph.D.* is in this month’s Acts and Facts Magazine from Institute For Creation Research.

Here are a few excerpt from the article:

“The project’s leading question was: Is Galapagos a living laboratory for evolution or a showcase for creation?”

Flightless Cormorant on Galapogos

“Darwin’s finches, “booby” birds, flightless cormorants, flamingos, frigate birds, etc.,”

“Evolutionists trumpet the several Galapagos finch “species” as arising by adaptation from one species. Creationists agree, but this did not happen through evolution. Normally the finch types segregate by lifestyle according to their beak shape, but in times of stress they interbreed and combine. No evolution here. The flightless cormorants are recognizably related to other species of cormorant on other continents, but these have lost the use of their wings. …”
(See Cormorant Family from Bird Families of the World to see the similarities)

For the whole article CLICK HERE.

Darwin’s FinchesEvidence supporting rapid post-Flood adaptation, by Carl Wieland, is an interesting article in the Creation Magazine.

Darwin’s Finches on Creation Wiki has a good article and photos of some of the finches.

When I Consider! – DNA in Dinosaurs

August 11, 2009 by Lee

When I Consider!

Evidence from the Fossil Record – from A Closer Look at the Evidence, August 8.

“As soon as a plant or animal dies, its DNA begins to decompose. The oldest accurately known DNA samples are from a 4000-year old mummy. Based on the deterioration of the molecule from samples of this age. it is estimated that essentially no DNA could survive longer than 10,000 years. However, DNA segments have been found in magnolia leaves (dated by evolutionists at 17 million years), dinosaur bones (dated at 80 million years), scales of a fossilized fish (dated at 200 million years) Evolutionary scientists should be asking how DNA could still be contained in samples this old when more recent samples indicate that the DNA molecule is far too sensitive to have lasted this long. Perhaps there is something wrong with the old-earth dating methods and these fossils still contain DNA fragments simply because they are not as old as believed. These samples have been simply dated wrong due to faulty assumptions of radiometric dating methods.

Dinosaur Fossil from OCR.org

Evolutionists have a similar problem with protein preserved in dinosaur bones. As with DNA, no protein should last 75 to 150 million years; yet protein has been found in dinosaur bones. These plant and animal remains are simply not as old as evolutionists believe.”

In the Beginning, 7th Ed., p29-30

Listen to Me, O Jacob, And Israel, My called: I am He, I am the First, I am also the Last. Indeed My hand has laid the foundation of the earth, And My right hand has stretched out the heavens; When I call to them, They stand up together. (Isaiah 48:12-13 NKJV)

More When I Consider! articles

New Species?

August 6, 2009 by Lee

While working on the Orders of the Birds and finding so many species of birds worldwide, I went looking for more information about them. I came across this interesting article at the ICR.org website. The bolding is mine. I trust you will find it worth the reading.

Cormorant Tree by Dan

Do ‘New Species’ Demonstrate Darwinism?
by Various Authors
Frank Sherwin, M.A., and Brian Thomas, M.S.*

“That species undergo change in this grand system called earth is apparent, but those changes do not occur the way Charles Darwin envisioned. Living things do shift behaviors and physiologies in response to environmental (and other) pressures, but can these minor changes completely rework a creature’s essential form (a concept referred to as “macroevolution”)? Decades of research emphatically say no.

Often, small changes within a kind are referred to as “microevolution,” which has been defined as “evolution resulting from a succession of relatively small genetic variations that often cause the formation of new subspecies.”1 Creation scientists agree that small variations occur, both because they can be observed, and because it is reasonable that a wise Creator would equip His creatures with survival-enhancing capabilities. But these variations do not lead to large-scale changes between kinds. Indeed, “there is no agreement [among evolutionists] as to whether macroevolution results from the accumulation of small changes due to microevolution, or whether macroevolution is uncoupled from microevolution.”2

The confusing array of definitions for the word “species” can obscure deficiencies in Darwinian evolution. As leading scientists have admitted, “The very term ‘species’ is deeply ambiguous.”3 Harvard’s Steven Palumbi said in 1994 that “the formation of species has long represented one of the most central, yet also one of the most elusive, subjects in evolutionary biology.”4

If different species are described as essentially those forms which cannot interbreed, then new species do arise, a process called “speciation.” They do so, however, because of a loss of information–the opposite direction to what Darwinian evolution requires. “…..

To see the complete article – CLICK HERE

When I Consider! – Cheetah

July 27, 2009 by Lee

When I Consider!

The cheetah is truly a remarkable creature. It is the world’s fastest land animal, capable of accelerating from 0 to 40 miles per hour in 2 seconds. The cheetah can reach a speed of 70 miles per hour. How does the cheetah reach these phenomenal speeds? It is designed with a high-performance body containing a uniquely powerful heart, strong large-diameter arteries, and extra-large nostrils for breathing large volumes of air. The cheeta also has hip and shoulder girdles that swivel on its spine. As it runs, the cheetah’s spine curves up and down as its legs contract and extend. When moving at high speeds, the cheetah may only touch the ground once every 23 feet.

Cheetah

Evolutionist would claim that some unknown pre-cheetah creature turned into the cheetah by chance mutations of its heart, liver, arteries, nostrils, hips, shoulders, spinal column, and muscles. Yet the oldest known cheetah fossils reveal an animal that is essentially identical to the cheetahs alive today. Once again, the actual physical evidence supports creation, rather than evolution. The cheetah’s unique characteristics are a result of design. All of the information necessary for the cheetah’s speed was programmed into the first large “cat-type” creature. No series of random modifications could have produced this fast, sleek animal.

The LORD is righteous in all His ways, Gracious in all His works. (Psalms 145:17 NKJV)

“Evidence From Biology”, July 27, from A Closer Look at the Evidence, Richard and Tina Kleiss – Taken from Letting God Create Your Day, Vol.4, p.19

From Creation Wiki:
“The word Cheetah actually originates from a Hindi word, which means “spotted one.” Cheetahs are carnivorous cats that are best know for their spots and their speed. They are found mainly in Southern Africa. They rely on speed for hunting, and not stealth, unlike most cats. Females tend to be solitary, while the males spend their whole lives together. They have smaller teeth than most cats, which helps improve the cat’s respiratory system. A cheetah’s life span in the wild is about 12 years. Ancient Egyptians sometimes kept cheetahs as pets, and used them for hunting.”

Cheethah have small teeth which help it get air in while running at those high speeds mentioned above. They weigh between 80-140 lbs. and are about 32 tall and 48-56 inches long. “Almost every part of a cheetah’s body is built, in some way, to help it run faster. They have semi-retractable claws, as well as special paw pads on their feet to give the cat good traction. As mentioned before, large nostril and a clear intake help get air in and out quickly and smoothly. The cheetah’s spine acts as a spring for its back legs. Their tail is much like a rudder, it gives the cat added agility, enabling it to turn quickly. The cheetah’s top speed is an amazing 71 miles per hour. This speed can only be held out for about 200-300 yards. The cheetah can accelerate from 0-60 mph in 3.5 seconds, faster than many sports cars.”

When I Consider! – Only Two Possible Explanations For Life:

July 10, 2009 by Lee

When I Consider!

There are only two possible explanations for life:

Evolution-which states that life has evolved from simple forms of plants and animals into the more complex forms we find today.
Creation-Which states that God created the entire universe and all of the creatures on Earth fully formed and completely functional.

Paleontologists have found a greater variety of creatures in the fossil record than now exists, including soft-bodied creatures such as worms and jellyfish. However, even in the lowest rock layers, these worms and jellyfish are fully formed and easily categorized into the same kinds of animals alive today.

Maotianshania cylindrica found in China

If evolution is the correct explanation, then there should be thousands of intermediate forms as one type of creature slowly turned into another type. If creation is true, then the classifications of distinctly different types of animals, both living and in the fossil record, should remain essentially the same.

The fossil evidence clearly supports creation. True science progresses when all the evidence is presented.

Letting God Create Your Day, Vol.3, P.247

Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; (2Co 10:5 KJV)

“Evidence From The Fossil Record”, July 5, from A Closer Look at the Evidence, Richard and Tina Kleiss

Interesting related articles:

Fossil of Extinct Armored Worm Discovered from Live Science
Here is an interesting quote from the article:

It’s very rare to find the soft parts of the body preserved, Briggs said. “It has to be buried quickly,” he told LiveScience. “You have to get minerals forming and preserving the outline before the animal decays completely.”

That is exactly what a global flood would do.

Living Fossil, from Creation Wiki, has a great list of “Examples of Living Fossils.”

More When I Consider! Blogs

Birds Aren’t Related to Dinosaurs After All

July 8, 2009 by Lee

A recent “Creation Moments” article is worth reading.

Australian Ringneck by Birdway

“Anyone who has seen the film Jurassic Park knows that evolutionists have been telling us that modern-day birds are descended from dinosaurs. Well, it looks like the scientists have recently changed their mind.

According to an article on the ScienceDaily website dated June 9, researchers at Oregon State University have made a fundamental new discovery about how birds breathe and have a lung capacity that allows for flight – and the finding means it’s unlikely that birds descended from any known theropod dinosaurs.

The article goes on to report that the conclusions add to other evolving evidence that may finally force many paleontologists to reconsider their long-held belief that modern birds are the direct descendants of ancient, meat-eating dinosaurs, OSU researchers say.

‘For one thing, birds are found earlier in the fossil record than the dinosaurs they are supposed to have descended from,” said OSU professor of zoology John Ruben. “That’s a pretty serious problem, and there are other inconsistencies with the bird-from-dinosaur theories.’…”

Here are some more quotes from the “Discovery Raises New Doubts About Dinosaur-bird Links:

“It’s been known for decades that the femur, or thigh bone in birds is largely fixed and makes birds into “knee runners,” unlike virtually all other land animals, the OSU experts say. What was just discovered, however, is that it’s this fixed position of bird bones and musculature that keeps their air-sac lung from collapsing when the bird inhales.”

“This is fundamental to bird physiology,” said Devon Quick, an OSU instructor of zoology who completed this work as part of her doctoral studies. “It’s really strange that no one realized this before. The position of the thigh bone and muscles in birds is critical to their lung function, which in turn is what gives them enough lung capacity for flight.”

“However, every other animal that has walked on land, the scientists said, has a moveable thigh bone that is involved in their motion – including humans, elephants, dogs, lizards and – in the ancient past – dinosaurs.”

“The implication, the researchers said, is that birds almost certainly did not descend from theropod dinosaurs, such as tyrannosaurus or allosaurus. The findings add to a growing body of evidence in the past two decades that challenge some of the most widely-held beliefs about animal evolution.”

For the rest of this article:
Discovery Raises New Doubts About Dinosaur-bird Links – ScienceDaily Article
More Related Articles of Interest:
Warm, Cuddly Dinosaurs?
We Don’t Know More than We Know About Dinosaurs

When I Consider! – Nebraska Man

July 3, 2009 by Lee

When I Consider!

Although claims of ape-to-man links frequently make headlines, rarely is it even mentioned, as these claims invariably are proven false. One of many examples of the poor quality of evidence used to support evolution is the single tooth commonly known as Nebraska Man. This tooth was publicized a genuine “missing link” and was used as evidence during the famous 1925 Scopes “Monkey Trial” in Dayton, Tennessee. A vivid reconstruction was commissioned, based on the only evidence-a single tooth found in Nebraska and a few supposed tools. This was one of the main pieces of hard evidence used to swing public opinion in favor of evolution and riducule the biblical account of creation. Later excavations uncovered the rest of the remains and found that it was not the tooth of a man, an ape, or an ape-man. The new discovery did not receive the publicity it had received when it was presented as a missing link, leaving most people with the impression that an ape-to-man link had been found.

Nebraska Man

The single tooth, used mightily to shake the public’s confidence in the Word of God, actually turned out to be the tooth of an extinct wild pig.

Interestingly, every ape-to-man link used to support evolution during the Scopes Monkey Trial has since been debunked or withdrawn. Despite this lack of evidence, the dogma of evolution continues to be taught as if it were a fact of science.

The Illustrated Origins, Answer Book, P.36

O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge– (1Ti 6:20 NKJV)

“Evidence From Anthropology”, July 3, from A Closer Look at the Evidence, Richard and Tina Kleiss

Related Articles:

“Nebraska Man” revisited, by Ian Taylor
One Dead Bigfoot, Six Teeth, One Big Hoax, by John UpChurch
Faith and Sense in the Origins Debate, Creation Moments

More “When I Consider!” blogs

Did Birds Evolve From Dinosaurs?

June 13, 2009 by Lee

This weeks “Answersweekly” has a very interesting article about two Oregon State University scientist who don’t agree with the bird-to-dinosaur theory. There is a link there for the “Birds Did Not Evolve from Dinosaurs, Say Evolutionists“, with a subtitle of, “Stunning New Research Overturns Widely Held Evolutionary Idea.”

It is worth your time to read the material of both links. As you know, we believe God Created both the Birds and the Dinosaur (that term not used in the Bible – a modern term) during the same Creation Week. That aside, read what these evolutionary scientist say about the anatomy of the two and how the bird could not have evolved from a dinosaur.

All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fish. (1 Corinthians 15:39 NASB)

Latest “Missing Link” in Human Evolution

May 21, 2009 by Lee

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. 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. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. (Genesis 1:24-27)

Creation Moments Responds to the Latest “Missing Link” in Human Evolution

"Ida" the "Missing Link"

Thought you might enjoy reading the lastest newsletter from Creation Moments about “Ida”, the new “missing link.” I had seen this on TV just recently and figured someone would question it.

“It is now May and Creation Moments has been wondering when – during this Darwin’s bicentenary year – some startling new fossil discovery would be announced confirming Darwin’s Theory. Well, the announcement is a bit late – Darwin’s birthday was February 12. And, to put it mildly, the discovery is not at all spectacular.

It’s a skeleton of a lemur monkey a mere 21 inches long, but half of that is the tail. It is claimed to be 47 million years old, and it was found in two parts by an amateur fossil hunter in Germany in 1983…..”

To read the rest of the article from Creation Moments Click Here

Birds of the Bible – Foundation #5

April 9, 2009 by Lee

The birds are now out of the Ark and on their way to becoming all the species we see today. (See Birds of the Bible – Foundation #4 for the links to the others) It would be great to know exactly which bird kinds and critter kinds came off the Ark. We know for certain that 2 kinds of birds were on board. The raven and the dove are both mentioned. (Gen 1:21, “every winged bird according to its kind”) According to Birds of the World, 8th edition, there are 233 families of birds. Also Bird Families of the World from Cornell. There are studies going on by creationists who are trying to find out what the original kinds were. It is called Baraminology and comes from “bara” which means “created” and “min” which means “kind”. That is “baramin” and the study of it is Baraminology. I have listed some interesting articles at the end about this topic.

Robin Eating by Jim Fenton

We have no problem with the birds interbreeding within their kind or as some call it “natural selection.” But the problem comes in with statements like this from a UCBerkeleyNews – Press Release, “Dinosaurs developed feathers some 65 to 100 million years ago and became birds, with the ostriches and emus among the first to evolve, and the ducks and chickens next. That much we know, says University of California, Berkeley, ornithologist Rauri Bowie. But when it comes to the rest of bird evolution, he adds, “nobody had any idea”- until now.” I contend they still don’t know, because they have rejected the Creator who says He created them.

We all have the same evidence of fossils and living birds, but the difference comes with what worldview you start with. What they are finding is very interesting because of studies with the DNA of birds. The study was by The Field Museum of Chicago, which gathered “DNA from 169 species of birds representing nearly all of the world’s non-songbird families.” Because of these studies, it:

“shifts the relationships among today’s birds in surprising ways.”
“For example, parrots and songbirds turn out to be each other’s closest relatives, while falcons are only distant cousins of the other birds of prey, the hawks and eagles.”
“New world vultures like the turkey vulture are no longer classified with the storks, but rather, return to their more traditional placement with the hawks and eagles.”
And hummingbirds and swifts, long known to be closely related, are in the same group as the elusive nightjars and the whip-poor-will.”
“The new relationships often make a lot of sense….For example, hummingbirds, swifts and nightjars all go into torpor at night or during cold weather. It thus makes sense that they are related, rather than having evolved this trait independently.”
“Similarly, many songbirds… learn songs from their parents, just like many parrots, which are now revealed to be songbirds’ closest relatives.”
“although falcons look superficially like hawks, the new data show them to be distantly related. In line with this new phylogeny, falcons are known to have traits, such as acute ultraviolet vision, that distinguish them from hawks and other birds of prey.”
Portraiture by Maji
“These are just simple examples of how people are going to have to rethink the behavioral characters that have evolved,” he said. “The study has raised as many questions as it has helped to resolve.”
“Birds fall into three general groups: land, water and shorebirds”
“With this study, we learned two major things,”… “First, appearances can be deceiving. Birds that look or act similar are not necessarily related. Second, much of bird classification and conventional wisdom on the evolutionary relationships of birds is wrong.”

The Bold in the quotes are mine.

That is just an example of the remarkable things they are finding out. Sounds like a fantastic God created them and we are just finding out some of His Majesty.

You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created. (Revelation 4:11 NKJV)

I had this article ready to go when today’s mail came. There is a great article about “Speciation and the Animals on the Ark,” by Daniel Criswell, Ph.D. in this month’s Acts and Facts from ICR. It is a little technical, but it helps explain more of what this article is about.

Article about Baraminology from Answers in Genesis by Todd Charles Wood. Bara-What?

“Variation within Created Kinds” by Dr. Gary Parker

“Is Natural Selection the Same Thing as Evolution?” by Georgia Purdom

From Wikipedia “Baraminology”

From CreationWiki “Baraminology“

Lee's Birdwatching Adventures Plus

Birdwatching from a Christian Perspective

Tag Archives: Evolution vs Creation

When I Consider! – Mount St. Helens

Ian Juby’s Newsletter – Oct 2009

Galapagos: Showcase for Creation

When I Consider! – DNA in Dinosaurs

New Species?

When I Consider! – Cheetah

When I Consider! – Only Two Possible Explanations For Life:

Birds Aren’t Related to Dinosaurs After All

When I Consider! – Nebraska Man

Did Birds Evolve From Dinosaurs?

Latest “Missing Link” in Human Evolution

Birds of the Bible – Foundation #5

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: