Creation Science

DNA of Madagascan carnivores suggest they all descended
from a single family that arrived by sea between 18 and 24 million years ago
according to Nature, vol. 421 p734, 13th February, 2003.

Madagascar has a number of apparently diverse carnivores but
DNA tests reveal they are all members of a fairly tight-knit family of mongoose
like creatures that also live on the African mainland.

Africa and Madagascar were once linked by a land bridge but
according to evolutionary theory this was 26 to 24 million years ago and before
the supposed mongoose ancestors evolved.

The scientists who carried out the DNA study suggested the
carnivores colonised Madagascar when a powerful storm blew a tree trunk
containing a family of the animals across the sea. The animals could have
survived the 500km journey by going into a state of semi-hibernation a
characteristic still seen in Madagascan carnivores during times of food
shortage.

John's comment: If we ignore the millions of years,
these findings also fit neatly into Biblical history.

Version one reads: At the time of Noah's flood at least one
pair of each original created kind was preserved on the ark. After the flood
these would have bred to form a family of animals which migrated into Africa,
which for a time was linked to Madagascar by land bridge and some ancestral
carnivores could have crossed it. When the sea levels rose again (after the ice
referred to in the book of Job) they would have become isolated.  Genetic
diversity within the ancestral group would have emerged as the animals exploited
the various habitats and food available to them in their new Madagascan
environment.

Version two: The tree trunk storm theory may also be right,
but this fits Biblical history as well. Many island dwelling animals would have
arrived at their present homes in such a way as they spread over the world after
the flood. It is also interesting that hibernation is suggested as a means of
surviving a long sea voyage Creationists have long been suggesting that as a
means of enabling the Ark's creatures to survive.

Big bang cockroach legs have built-in stabilisers,
according to a report in Science, vol 2097 6 Sep 2002.

Cockroaches are able to run so rapidly over highly irregular
terrain without losing their balance, that they cannot be dependant on signals
from their brains to keep them stable. Biologist Robert Full along with
Princeton University mathematicians carried out experiments that show cockroach
stability comes from the design of its muscles and exoskeleton. To test the
theory Full attached tiny explosive backpacks to cockroaches. While the
cockroaches were running Full triggered the explosions, which should have blown
them sideways but the cockroaches didn't even break stride. Robert Full is using
results of these experiments to help develop a robot that can move over rough
terrain, something wheeled robots are not good at.

John's comment: This is one of numerous biomechanical
studies where scientists are studying living things with the aim of copying some
structure or function for a human engineered machine. Such studies are an
admission that living creatures were designed by a much smarter engineer than
any present human engineer. It's time to give God the glory to His name.

"Frigatebirds are designed for an aerial
life" writes a group of French scientists in Nature, vol 421, p333,
23 Jan 2003.

Using altimeters and satellite tracking technology the
scientists analysed the flight patterns of frigatebirds and found they spend
their lives soaring and gliding using thermals to give them uplift to heights of
2,500m. They even spend the night flying, an unusual characteristic of birds
previously observed only in Swifts. Frigatebirds have the lowest wing loading of
any bird, i.e. a large wing span area for a low body mass, and the scientists
concluded frigatebirds evolved this, and their ability to fly for long periods
of time as "extreme adaptations for finding food in poorly provisioned
tropical waters."

John's comment: We certainly agree frigatebirds were
"designed" for an aerial life, but they didn't get that way by
adaptation. It makes more sense to believe frigatebirds with their superb
aerodynamics were created to soar. As the world's oceans degenerated following
Noah's flood, these birds have been able to exploit a food source that birds
less aerodynamically advantaged could not exploit. "Survival of the
fittest" is a real phenomenon, but it doesn't produce evolution. It simply
enables the already fit to survive. The rest move on or die.

Oldest home put up 10,000 years ago according to Mike
Pitts and Lewis Smith, The Times, 21 November 2002, p.7.

Charred stumps of wooden poles set in circles have been
discovered in Scotland, suggesting the earliest Britons lived in semi-permanent
homes, along with 30,000 pieces of flint discarded by toolmakers. This suggests
a radical reassessment of the lifestyle of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers is
necessary as they had a more sophisticated relationship with the land than
previously thought. John Gooder, an archaeologist, said, "From the amount
of effort they put into this house, they certainly spent more than days there,
probably weeks if not longer."

John's comment: We are not surprised by evidence that
ancient Britons were settled farmers rather than wandering hunter-gatherers. It
fits the Biblical history of human lifestyles. According to Genesis, human
beings were sedentary farmers after the Fall. The first nomad was Cain who was
sentenced to a wandering lifestyle as a punishment for murdering his brother.
Following Noah's flood people resumed their settled lifestyle, turned their back
on God and tried to build a big tower. After God judged them at Babel many who
left Babel became wandering hunter-gatherers because they and the environment
continued to degenerate and this was the only way they could survive. The
hunter-gatherer lifestyle is not the beginning of an upward evolutionary path to
settled city life but the result of judgement and degeneration.

Lion lies down with oryx according a report in The
Guardian, 8 October 2002, p.15.

Kamuniak the lioness continues to baffle wildlife experts by
adopting her fifth baby oryx this year. She protects them from other predators
and allowed the natural mothers to feed them. Theories abound to explain the
phenomenon such as: "not having her own cubs, Kamuniak is lonely; she is
colour-blind and short-sighted and thinks the calves are cubs; the oryx were too
frail to flee, breaking the classic prey behaviour and confusing the hunter;
Kamuniak wants to be a vegetarian; Kamuniak wants to be loved."

John's comment: This is a strange occurrence in a world
corrupted by sin, violence and death. However, it would have been perfectly
normal in the good world that God originally made. Genesis 1 & 2 tells us
that all animals were originally meant to eat plants and there was no death. In
such a world lions really could lie down with lambs, oryxes,  or any other
creature in peace (not pieces).

"Sun's rays to roast earth as poles flip"
according to Robin McKie, Science Editor, The Observer, 10 November 2002,
p.13.

The earth's magnetic field protects the earth from harmful
radiation and particles from the sun, but it is weakening and at the current
rate of decay could disappear over the next 1,000 years. The effect has been
noticed for more than 100 years, but disappearance has been evident most
obviously over twenty years at the poles, "a clear sign that a flip may
take place soon."

John's comment: The idea that the earth's magnetic
field goes through cycles where it declines to nothing and then reverses and
builds up again is an attempt to explain away some very powerful evidence that
the earth is not millions of years old. Scientists have been measuring the
strength of the field for over a century and have worked out the rate of decay.
If they extrapolate backwards to see when the field would have been so strong it
was a threat to life, they come up with an answer of less than 10,000 years.
This is unacceptable to evolutionists who want the earth to be many millions of
years old.