Evolution / Creation issues

"New planet
discovered", reports University of Southern Queensland,
Astronomer, Dr Brad Carter in Australian Courier Mail, July 10th,
2003, page 11. British, American and Australian Astronomers using
the Siding Springs Observatory (New South Wales) report the
planet has about twice the mass of Jupiter and circles the star
(HD 70642) about every six years. The star lies in the
constellation Puppis about 90 light years away from Earth.  Dr
Carter said "It's the closest cousin to our Solar System yet and
the best evidence that we are not unique and we may find other
Solar Systems with planets like the Earth and therefore
life".

John's comment:
Dr Carter's hidden assumption seems to be that wherever you have
suitable planets you'll have life, since life is just a natural
consequence of the chemical properties of matter.  We predict Dr
Carter is doomed to find out that life will exist only where the
Creator God put it and nowhere else. Now who said Creationism has
no predictive powers and therefore is not science?

Dis-uniting
church leadership (Australia) accepts homosexual pastors
as the result of a long-time battle led by Lesbian Uniting Church
minister Dorothy McCrae-Mahon. The other result - a conservative
group within the church has now threatened to leave! (Channel 7
News Qld 6pm, 13th July).

John's comment:
This is an expected and natural evolution! From an attitude that
the Bible contains the Word of God (not ‘is the Word of
God’), Uniting Church leaders have logically moved to
regarding Genesis as symbol or myth (not scientific like
evolution), therefore Paul can be accused of expounding Jewish
bias when he spoke against women preaching (1 Timothy 2:12), so
they appointed female pastors, some of whom turned out to be
Lesbian, who have now coerced the organisation into accepting the
evolution of values, hence homosexual pastors. Only one
conclusion is possible - the Uniting Church leadership has ceased
to be Christian and must be treated as a non Christian church
cult by any who are Christians. We sadly predicted this result 25
years ago - our old audio tapes prove it. Creationism does have
predictive power.

"Missing link" confirms
living fossil status for ginko trees, according to
Nature Science Update, 19 June 2003. Ginko trees have previously
been believed to have remained unchanged for 51 million years,
but Chinese palaeontologists have found perfectly preserved
fossil leaves and reproductive organs identical to living Ginko
specimens in the Yxian formation in Northeast China, believed to
be 121 million years old. According to Zhiyan Zhou of the Chinese
National Institute of Geology and Palaeontology the specimens
prove Ginko "morphology has changed little over 100 million
years".  Zhou and his colleagues believe these specimens are the
missing link between 51 million year old specimens and the oldest
specimens of Ginko tree ever found, which are believed to be 170
million years old. The oldest Ginkos had larger leaves and more
seeds compared with the new fossils and living Ginkos.

John's comment:
Finding specimens believed to be 70 million years older than
previously known fossils yet identical to living specimens, only
strengthens the creationist case and puts evolution further back.
Creation Research has collected Ginko fossils worldwide and has
specimens from the giant leaves and multi-lobed forms down to the
present day small bi-lobed leaves. We have long used the Ginko
tree as an example of a living organism that reproduced after its
kind, but has degenerated.  It is good to see secular
palaeontologists catching up with us.

Ape-man posture
energetically inefficient, according to New Scientist,
31 May 2003, p24. The classical image of the half-evolved
primitive human walking with a bent-over posture half way between
quadrupedal and upright bipedal walking has been tested and found
wanting. Scientists at the University of Liverpool walked
normally at different speeds and then stooped over "ape-man"
style. They came to the conclusion that the "stooped posture is
so inefficient that they doubt it would have evolved in the first
place".

John's comment:
It is good to see scientists actually testing common evolutionary
assumptions, but anyone who knows any human anatomy or
biomechanics could have told them years ago that semi-stooped
walking doesn't work. Creationists have certainly been saying
this for many years. Human beings are well designed for upright
stance and bipedal gait (walking and running).  Human bones and
joints are so well balanced around the centre of gravity that
very little muscle contraction is needed to maintain an upright
standing position. When we walk with a normal upright posture our
body's potential energy is efficiently converted to kinetic
(moving) energy because the upper body is well balanced over the
hips. The idea of the semi stooped ape-man comes from the
semi-stooped walking posture that apes are capable of using for
short periods of time. However, this is not an ape’s
natural mode of walking. They use their arms to help keep their
balance and support the body. Their long, strong arms are well
designed for this function. Ape and human movements are
distinctly different and inventing an intermediate stooped
ape-man is now proven to be as foolish as it always was.

Vegetarian ants surprise
scientists. Ants are traditionally considered omnivorous
scavengers, but a recent study of 195 species of rainforest ants
from Brunei and Peru, described in News Scientist online news,
(www.newscientist.com/news) 8 May 2003, suggests they
mostly live on plant food (sap and pollen, not chewed leaves).
Researchers at the University of Utah studied the ratio of
Nitrogen isotopes N-14 and N-15 in ant proteins. The higher up
the food chain, i.e. non-vegetarians, the more N-15 is in an
animal's protein. Ant proteins had a ratio more like a grazing
animal than a predator or scavenger.

John's comment:
Genesis tells us all animals were originally created to eat
plants (Genesis 1:29-31). Since the creation, both plants and
animals have degenerated because of human sin and God's
judgement. Many animals have taken to scavenging and hunting
simply to get enough nutrients. Yet a rainforest has enough lush
vegetation to supply nutritional needs of ants all year round.
Ants therefore have continued to thrive on a vegetarian diet. It
would be interesting to take them to a new non-vegetable
environment and see what would happen.

New Aussie coral reef
found as a team of explorers discover a previously
unknown reef in the Gulf of Carpentaria near Queensland,
Australia, reports David Allerton in an article posted Tue, 10
Jun 2003 15:44 AEST. Dr Peter Harris, chief scientist of
Geoscience Australia expedition, says the living reef was located
near Mornington Island in the gulf during a month-long mapping
expedition which took them from Cairns to Darwin. Dr Harris says
the age of the reef is yet to be determined, but the discovery
reveals how little is known about some of Australia's coastline.
"I think it's an amazing thing to think that in 2003 we can go
out into the marine environment and discover 100
square-kilometres of coral reef that we didn't know existed," he
said.

John's comment:
Despite Space Age satellite surveillance, the world still holds
many mysteries and many unexplored places. Exploration is one of
the logical consequences of the "dominion God gave man" (Genesis 1:26)
when He put the earth into the hands of men. Let's go for
it.

Website: www.creationresearch.net