Creation Research

Welcome to 2003AD and an exciting year of Creation Evidence
updates from John Mackay and the Creation Research Team world wide.

Speed of light - hero or heretic?

New Scientist reports (www.newscientist.com, 11th February,
2003): "When physicist Joao Magueijo suggested doing away with the central
tenet of relativity - that the speed of light is constant and unsurpassable - he
risked his career. Magueijo survived, but in his book, he pushes even
harder.  He also reveals his contempt for the underpinning of modern
science. He reckons, for example, that the process of peer review is largely
useless."

John's comment: Read on for more enLIGHTenment on the
subject!

Speed of light - creation politics emerge

as American popular author Chuck Missler writes on
creationist author Barry Setterfield, who since the 1980's has been promoting a
decay in the speed of light (Update, Vol 12:7 p14).  Missler states: 
"there is a reason that Barry's work is not being referenced by mainstream
scientists - or even looked at by most.  If Barry is right about what the
data is indicating, we are living in a very young universe.  This
inevitable conclusion will never be accepted by standard science. 
Evolution requires billions of years.And there is a reason why the major
creation organizations are holding his work at arm's length as well: they are
sinking great amounts of money into trying to prove that radiometric dating
procedures are fatally flawed.  According to what Barry is seeing, however,
they are not basically flawed at all:  there is a very good reason why such
old dates keep appearing in the test results.  The rate of decay of
radioactive elements is directly related to the speed of light.  When the
speed of light was higher, decay rates were faster, and the long ages would be
expected to show up.  As the speed of light slowed down, so the radioactive
decay rates slowed down."

John's comment: Both the above are worth pondering as peer
review power politics is becoming a sad part of the creationist world also, with
some showing little honesty on what is behind acceptance or rejection,
particularly from those who think their answers on Genesis are the only ones!

Four legged chinese feathers fly

after several years of finds mostly from the Liaoning
province (NE China), including a fossil crow-like creature with a stomach full
of preserved seeds, plus the feathered "Confuciusornis", plus the
"fibre" covered "Sinornithosaurus", followed by the distinct
bird Jeholornis prima (see Nature July 25 2002).

Now the ongoing evolutionist argument about dinsoaurs
evolving into birds has been fuelled by a new find.  According to Nature
421, p335 23 Jan 2003 Chinese palaeontologists have found six fossils of a four
winged dinosaur they believe was transitional between dinosaurs and birds. The
fossils consist of skeletons similar to a small dinosaur named Microraptor
surrounded by imprints of feathers associated with all four limbs and the tail.
Scientists believe the creature may have glided, using splayed out feathered
limbs to provided lift, similar to the way squirrels and possums use flaps of
skin to glide between trees. Henry Gee, Palaeontology Editor for Nature
commented: "Four wings is a perfect recipe for gliding, but not for powered
flapping flight. When flight evolved in later dromesosaurs and birds, the
hindwings might have been lost and the hindlimbs reverted to walking and
perching." (Nature Science Update, 23 Jan 2002)

John's comment:. Four points: Firstly: Following the rash
of fossil frauds of Chinese origin we must make the point that if this fossil is
a genuine four-limbed feathered creature, the discovery only proves that such a
creature existed but is now extinct, and seemed to be a fully functional
creature in its own right. Gliding is perfectly functional and effective form of
locomotion  distinctly different from flapping flight. Therefore, we agree
with the first of Henry Gee's comments above. Secondly, the idea that gliding
creatures progressed to powered flight with their forelimbs and re-evolved
walking, perching hindlimbs is pure evolutionary faith. Many gliding creatures
alive today show no sign of evolving to (or from) anything else. 
Thirdly:  This editor breeds chickens and has had many chickens with very
feathered legs, which have been no use for flying or gliding, and can even
hinder walking.

Fourthly, the concept of transitional forms strikes the
philosophical "platypus" barrier that evolutionists are loathe to
admit. "Transition" is an active process that can only be proven by
observing the actual change, and therefore can only be seen in living things.
Fossils are dead things that are not doing anything active.  The living
platypus is indeed transitional in structure between reptiles and mammals, but
shows no evidence of evolving from or to anything in fossil or living specimens.
Fossils therefore can never prove transition from one type of creature to
another, no matter what strange creatures are dug up by palaeontologists. What
can be "proven" from the fossil record is that some creatures (like
this Microraptor) have died out. This is not evolution, it is degeneration of
the living world and exactly what you would see in the world that was created
perfect but has been corrupted, and judged by its Creator.

Sinking crabs change eyes

according to a report in Nature, vol 420, p68, 7 Nov 2002. A
species of crab named Bythograea thermydron starts life as a larva floating in
the middle depths of the ocean but as it matures it sinks down to the deep ocean
floor where it lives around the thermal vents. The crab larvae have compound
eyes similar to insects that can focus an image onto a retina that is most
sensitive to blue light, but as they mature into adult crabs they lose their
lenses and their eyes become naked retinae that are sensitive blue-green light.
The transformed eyes can no longer form an image but they are very sensitive to
the small amounts of light emitted by the hot volcanic vents and the luminous
animals that also live in these very deep waters.

John's comment: This is a good example of adaptation to a
changing environment but it is not evolution; it is forward planning and design.
The eyes of the larva and the adult are precisely what the crab needs for each
stage of its life, but are useless for the other stage of life. Therefore the
information to make each type of eye and the control mechanism that changes the
larval eye to the adult eye at the right time must be built in from the
beginning.

Parasites threaten darwin's finches

according to reports on BBC Online News (news.bbc.co.uk) 8
Nov 2002 and Nature Science Update. Blood sucking fly larvae have invaded the
nests of Galapagos Island finches and scientists fear that at least one of the
13 named species, the Mangrove Finch, will become extinct. Biologists have
fumigated some of the nests with insecticide but are hoping the birds will learn
to live with the parasites.

John's comment: This problem illustrates what really
happens as a result of natural selection or "survival of fittest."
Those finches that are already able to survive being attacked by the flies will
live and reproduce. Those that cannot withstand the flies will die. No new types
of finches will be produced. Whether they live or die, they will still be
finches and natural selection will have only caused the weaker birds to die,
thus decreasing the number of species of birds. This is the opposite of
evolution.

Oldest arrow worm found

as reported in Science vol 298, p187, 4 Oct 2002. Chinese
palaeontologists have found a fossil arrow worm in Lower Cambrian rocks of the
Maotianshan formation in Southern China, believed to be 520 million years old.
It looks just like the arrow worms alive and well in oceans all over the present
world. The scientists who found it comment; "The discovery of the Lower
Cambrian chaetognath (arrow worm) supports the hypothesis that all living animal
phyla appeared in Cambrian times or even earlier, although only one third of
them have been recorded from Lower Cambrian."

John's comment: Arrow worms are an example of numerous
creatures whose oldest fossil looks just like today's live specimens. Such
creatures are often called "living fossils" and are excellent evidence
that such creatures have reproduced after their kind since the rock layers were
formed. This is no help to the evolutionary theory that says life started out
with a few primitive organisms and over millions of years new and more complex
creatures have appeared.