Thursday, October 31, 2013

Out for the next week

FYI, I won't have access to a computer for the next 9-10 days and won't be making any posts during that time.


Posted via Blogaway

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

The Modern Rise of Paganism - Phil Holden




Edinburgh boasts the largest pagan festival in Europe but what is responsible for paganism's modern rise?

Presented at Edinburgh Creation Group

Downloads

Resolution: 640 x 480 (mp4) (right click to download)

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

So Ya Think Yer a Chimp? CrEvo Rant #181 with Ian Juby



Newer studies blast the lie that human and chimp DNA are about 99% similar.

Random references:

Is the human genome nearly identical to chimpanzee?—a reassessment of the literature
http://creation.com/human-chimp-dna-s...

Genomic monkey business—estimates of nearly identical human--chimp DNA similarity re-evaluated using omitted data
http://creation.com/human-chimp-dna-s...

Chimp/human genetic similarity 70%:
http://www.answersingenesis.org/artic...

http://ianjuby.org
http://christianima.com

Monday, October 28, 2013

Why We Love Dinosaurs - Creation Today



Season 3 Episode 14

We have lots of evidence that man and dinosaurs have always lived together. In this week’s Creation Today Show, Paul and Eric take the Bible, and use it as their foundation to interpret the dinosaur evidence. They also look at how evolutionary presuppositions are seen in media portrayals of dinosaurs and show how language and imagination constitute the only “evidence” that evolutionists have to offer.

Featured Resources

Friday, October 25, 2013

Famous Medical Breakthroughs The Christian Pioneers · Dr. Markus Schichtel



Famous Medical Breakthroughs - The Christian Pioneers

Markus Schichtel
Dr Markus Schichtel looks at the lives and work of three famous scientists whose discoveries transformed medical practice. Joseph Lister with antiseptic techniques, James Clerk Maxwell with electrical instruments and James Young Simson an obstetrician and pioneer in the field of anaesthetics.

Downloads

Resolution: 640 x 480 (mp4) | 480 x 320 (MP4) | 320 x 240 (MP4) (right click to download)

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Taking the Dinosaurs Back - Creation Today



Taking the Dinosaurs Back – Season 3 Episode 13

Two hundred years ago, scientists began discovering and digging up fossilized bones of large extinct creatures. In this week’s Creation Today Show, Paul and Eric show that these creatures were, quite correctly, labeled as dragons, even in scientific literature, and even after the word dinosaur had been coined. As Paul and Eric discuss the history of the discovery of dinosaur fossils, we see that God’s Word accurately records references to such creatures, because God made them along with the other animals in the beginning!

Featured Resources


Wednesday, October 23, 2013

The Greatest Hoax on Earth by Dr. Jonathan Sarfati



HAS DAWKINS OVERREACHED? COULD HIS CHALLENGE BE A HUGE OPPORTUNITY FOR CHRISTIANS?

History may show that Dawkins has done the church a favour, by waking it out of its complacency on the creation/evolution issue. By focusing the battle right at the foundations, and by putting all the evidence he can muster on display, he has provided a chance for Christians to see via this response that they do not have to keep retreating on this issue, for fear of being seen to contradict ‘the facts of science’…

The Greatest Hoax on Earth? meets Dawkins’ The Greatest Show on Earth head-on. Dr Sarfati firmly and comprehensively answers Dawkins’ challenge, chapter after chapter, covering a vast range of disciplines in his trademark crisp, clear style. He convincingly shows, for those with ears to hear, that to believe the Bible’s account of Creation/Fall/Redemption straightforwardly not only does not commit intellectual suicide, it is if anything the intellectually superior position.
In the process, he also ably exposes the types of deceitful tactics utilized in many anti-creation arguments. (Hence the ‘hoax’ in the Sarfati book’s title; CMI of course does not claim that people teach and promote evolution while disbelieving it.)

To the Christian we say—if your creationist fare has been by people with questionable qualifications and a flair for self-promotion using dubious arguments, you will find this book in another league altogether. It is written by arguably the finest mind in creation/evolution and Bible-science apologetics today—backed by a superb team of qualified and experienced colleagues.

To the not-yet-believer we say—if you have been exposed to the sorts of arguments that Dawkins musters, you owe it to yourself to read this book (not distorted representations of its contents).
Read it—give it away in bulk—spread this link—help fight the battle where it rages the fiercest.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Full of Hot Air · Genesis Week with Ian Juby (Wazooloo)



In this episode, the amazing design of the lung, the faint young sun "paradox," and a whole mess of viewer questions!

Random References:

Optimisations and evolution of the mammalian respiratory system
Sapoval & Filoche, The European Physical Journal E, September 2013
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Physics Drives Evolution:
http://crev.info/2013/10/does-physics...

Nitrogen Isotopic Composition and Density of the Archean Atmosphere
Marty, et. al, Science, 4 October, 2013
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/342...


http://wazooloo.com
http://ianjuby.org

Monday, October 21, 2013

Friday, October 18, 2013

The Origin of Life, Part 4 - Creation Today





The Origin of Life, Part 4 – Season 3 Episode 12

Join Eric Hovind and Paul Taylor for the last episode of this four-part series discussing the theories of how life began. Most scientists agree on the description and definition of life, but clash head-on when discussing origin of life. Today, Eric and Paul present life’s true origin from a biblical perspective!

Featured Resources

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Crash Course in Biblical Interpretation - Pastor Gino Geraci


On February 8, Rocky Mountain Creation Fellowship's speaker was Pastor Gino Geraci of Calvary Chapel South Denver, who presented a sermon entitled “A Crash Course in Biblical Interpretation.” His guidance and inspiration were very helpful, because proper interpretation of the scriptures on origins is at the heart of the creation/evolution debate in the Church.

gino cropped
Gino began by reading the passage from Luke 25, which records the encounter of the resurrected Christ with two disciples on the road to Emmaus, who at first did not recognize Him. The men were downcast, because they had hoped that Jesus was going to redeem Israel, but the rulers crucified Him. But on the third day, the women had found an empty tomb and saw an angel, who testified that He was alive! Then Jesus reproved them, saying "O foolish ones, you slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken, about how it was necessary that the Christ should suffer these things before entering into his glory.” Then (v.27), beginning at Moses and the prophets, He “expounded,” [interpreting] to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. Jesus was proving from the Scripture that He was alive. It is so important, not only that we read it and reflect on it, but also that we understand it's true meaning. The disciples marveled at how their hearts burned as He led them in this Bible study, and its truth of the Resurrection: our eternal hope, the sustaining principle upon which we lean in times of trial, disease, grief and heartbreak. Gino expressed excitement in contemplating what it would be like to be at that place and that time, and Jesus shows up and confirms that the promises in the Bible are true! In v. 41, we see how the apostles could not contain their joy, when they discovered that Jesus was unmistakably alive, and again He “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.” The verb translated “expounded”, or “explained” is from the Greek, hermeneuo, which means to “explain the meaning.” Theologians use the word hermeneutics to describe the art and science of biblical interpretation. Some impose their own meaning on the text (eisegesis), and some people take meaning from the text (exegesis). How do we determine the true meaning of the Biblical text? That is a debate, between two major views:

 A. The traditional view, which claims that the key to understanding any literature is to assume that the author determines the meaning and the reader's task is to discover the author’s meaning. The Bible teaches that God the Holy Spirit inspired the writers of Scripture, who use their own language in a historical setting in order to convey meaning. So the interpreter is to come to a clear understanding of the writer’s meaning. In order to do that, there is a prerequisite: A necessity to love the Truth. The fact is, the Holy Spirit in you is bearing witness to the meaning. The hearts of the two disciples began to burn within them, because they loved the Truth. What do people do when they don't honor or welcome the Truth? They deny it! Don't ever let a person say, “Look, talk to me about God, talk to me about life and death, but don't use the Bible.” It is sharper than any two-edged sword. The enemies of the Bible would like to disarm you and take away perhaps your most important tool, which is the Revelation of Truth.

B. The contemporary view. In this view, the critics maintain that it's the reader, not the author that
determines the meaning. They argue that meaning only applies as the reader interacts with the text, which excludes the author. Jesus cites the Torah and Prophets as the credible source for the information concerning the identity and mission of the Messiah. He takes Genesis, Torah and the full, collective revelation of God, and says, “This is the source of information about me.” To bring this point home, Gino gave us a one-phrase summary of all the books of the OT, which establishes how they each were a testimonial to the coming Christ. (To view this list, please refer to the appendix on our website.)

If the Bible isn't true in the beginning, how in the world can you believe it is true in the end? The Bible can never mean what it never meant. It's got to have a plan, a purpose and a message. It says God created the heaven and the earth. Therefore, it can't mean He didn't create the heavens and the earth. There is a method called the allegorical method--the idea of bringing novel meaning to the text by spiritualizing, and looking for secret, hidden meanings, even when the meaning is clearly revealed by the context of the Scripture. It was dark, it was treacherous, and it is evil. To the person who loves allegory, Jesus can be seen as teaching billions and billions of years, or even New Age. But remember, you have to bring that to the text, you can't derive it from the text. The Bible has an amazingly, clear, consistent message in spite of the long and destructive history of reading things into the Bible that don't belong there. The Golden Rule of Bible Interpretation is: “If the plain sense makes common sense, seek no other sense.” Gino went through a list of 15 principles we can apply for proper interpretation; for example: Interpret each individual verse with regard to the context, evaluating the unclear by what is clear. (See list below)

So when you open up your Bible, be seekers of Truth, and allow the Bible and the Holy Spirit to do what the Bible was intended to do. God says what He means, and means what He says.

Principles of Biblical Interpretation, from Dr. R. A. Torrey’s The Importance and Value of Proper Bible Study (New York: George H. Doran Co., 1921), pp. 55-90.

1. Get absolutely right with God yourself by the absolute
surrender of your will to Him.
2. Be determined to find out just what God intended to
teach and not what you wish Him to teach.
3. Get the most accurate text.
4. Find the most exact and literal meaning of the text.
5. Note the exact force of each word used.
6. Interpret the words used in any verse according to Bible
usage.
7. Interpret the words of each author in the Bible with a
regard to the particular usage of that author.
8. Interpret individual verses with a regard to the context.
9. Interpret individual passages in the light of parallel or
related passages.
10. Interpret obscure passages in the light of passages that
are perfectly plain.
11. Interpret any passage in the Bible as those who were
addressed would have understood it.
12. Interpret what belongs to the Christian as belonging to the
Christian; what belongs to the Jew, as belonging to the
Jew, and what belongs to the Gentiles, as belonging to the
Gentiles.
13. Interpret each writer with a view to the opinions the writer
opposed.
14. Interpret poetry as poetry and interpret prose as prose.
15. The Holy Spirit is the best interpreter of the Bible.


Tuesday, October 15, 2013

The Relationship Between Faith and Science - Creation Magazine LIVE!




Description

What is the nature of the relationship between faith and science? Can the apparent separation between science and faith ever be eliminated? Many scientists are convinced that evolution happened, does that mean it did? Join the discussion.

The Creation Magazine LIVE! TV program is a ministry of Creation Ministries International. With offices in seven countries and more PhD scientists than any Christian organization this program features cutting edge science that supports the Bible delivered in a non-technical, visually-rich, discussion-based format.

Friday, October 11, 2013

Junk DNA - Dr. Charles Jackson

Part I


(Part II is below)


Rocky Mountain Creation Fellowship's speaker on March 8, 2013 was Dr. Charles Jackson, founder of Points of Origins Ministries, the college ministry division of Creation Truth Foundation of Dallas, Texas. “Dr. J” is an educator, a Mensan, debater in creation science, and dynamic speaker. His presentation gave a historical retrospect covering decades of genomic research that has completely reversed evolutionists’ theory, that the non-protein coding sequences of human DNA are the  discarded residue of evolution (so-called “Junk DNA”).


Charles gave an inspiring testimony about how he was instantly delivered from the religion of scientism and bondage of evolution when he was saved as a highschooler. He instantly knew that the Bible was true, all of it. “I found and met the Creator, who got me and transf ormed me.” As a young college professor, Dr. J. had to walk a tight rope because of his objections to evolution theory, and was eventually fired because he didn’t agree that DNA had “junk”. This idea about “junk DNA” comes from a long history of misdire cted thinking, a history of wildly rampant egos and arrogance that goes back to the 1920’s, when evolutionists falsely claimed that so - called vestigial organs (appendix, tonsils, tailbone) were proof of evolution. Having unknown functions, these organs we re said to be useless “leftovers” from the days when we were fish and rats and worms, and had all these different organs that natural selection hasn't weeded out of us yet. This myth reflected an attitude : “Since we're so smart, and we can't figure out wha t it does, it must not have any function or be doing anything.” It was arguing from ignorance, providing an ignorant hypothesis to an Unanswered Question.

Evolution thrives in the gray areas and the uncertainties; it is cast into the darkness, and then s aid to answer the questions. The amazing part is that after the truth is found, which rejects the hypothesis, they continue in their erroneous thinking. Vestigial organs are still in the textbooks, even though now they are scientifically indefensible. The same faulty logic used for vestigial organs came into play in the 1970’s to explain why only 2% of the human genome had a known function. Eureka! Evidence for evolution: vestigial DNA, or ‘Junk’, left over from a trial and error genetic system.


The true genetic story began to unfold in the year 2000, when we first got a hint that the junk DNA had a purpose, regarding the function of the double X chromosomes in females. It was discovered that there was a DNA sequence that was controlli ng the entire operation, telling which genes to shut down, which to power up and which genes to pump out extra proteins. And it was all being coordinated by DNA sequences that weren't making proteins; they were in the junk region. It turns out that the jun k genes were not making proteins, but telling all the other genes when to do it. They were the main circuit board for the entire operation. By the year 2006, it was public knowledge that junk DNA was probably not junk. Quote Time , 10/9/06: “The non-coding region of the genome, . . is crucial."


It's a fantastically complex, crisscrossing network of gene communications that we have only scratched the surface on. Many genes overlap one another and share stretches of molecular code. A gene that controls the production of a protein - coded gene was often found on different chromosomes.

Then it was announced in 2007 that the entire genome (including Junk regions) gets transcribed, and that both DNA strands are translated. “There is an interleaved structure of overlapping segments with typically 5, 7, or 9 or more transcripts coming from one gene.” The information coding system is so complex, it means the file management system is way beyond anything we understand. The last nail in Darwin’s coffin came in the Sept. 6, 2012 issue of the NY Times (reported in this newsletter, Vol. 77) as follows: “At least 4 million gene switches turn out to play critical roles in controlling how cells, organs and other tissues behave.”


There are master control genes that don't produce any proteins, but stimulate other genes that produce proteins. Dr. John Sanford, the brilliant geneticist and a born - again creationist, says that codes are overlaying within codes and nested within other codes, and are read in both directions. What an awesome Creator!


Thanks to Dr. J. for his expertise and faithfulness.


Part II



Dr. Charles Jackson 
Talk:
Junk DNA
Date:
March 8th, 2013 7:00pm
RMCF's for March 8, 2013 will be Dr. Charles Jackson of the Creation Truth Foundation
Dr. Jof Dallas Texas. Dr. Jackson has four degrees in science and education
from U. of Virginia and George Mason University. From 1980 to 2002, he
taught secondary school sciences, college biology and chemistry, and
teacher education classes. In 2003, Dr. Jackson founded Points of
Origins Ministries and began teaching, speaking, and debating in
creation science education. His emphasis has been in making the case
for the literal interpretation of the Scriptural accounts as being both
scientifically and historically true.


As a former youth pastor and schoolteacher, the work of “Dr. J” has been primarily focused toward Christian youth. Dr. J and his wife, Bonnie, are missionaries to American College Students, and have served Creation Truth Foundation in that capacity since January 2009. They are keenly interested in the liberation of Bible-believing college
students, from the delusion that their faith has been refuted by modern scientific understandings. Dr. J has crusaded against evolutionary dogma on college campuses across the mainland United States, and also in Venezuela and Peru, in lecture settings and academic debates.

Picture
The secret to the success of Dr. J’s ministry has not merely been the God-given gifts of academic and communication skills, but an ultimate dependence upon the Spirit of God, while debating the issues in
the public forum. [ “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God.”James 1:5 ]

Dr. Jackson will speak on the topic of so-called “Junk DNA”, which is definitely not junk.  Join us for this edifying evening.

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Transitional fossils? Where? -- Creation Magazine LIVE!



Description

The 'missing links'—hailed as proof for evolution—are examined and debunked.

The Creation Magazine LIVE! TV program is a ministry of Creation Ministries International. With offices in seven countries and more PhD scientists than any Christian organization this program features cutting edge science that supports the Bible delivered in a non-technical, visually-rich, discussion-based format.
Latest
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Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Fossils Fail to Transition from Dinosaur Legs to Bird Wings

by Dr. Elizabeth Mitchell


ScienceDaily: How Birds Got Their Wings: Fossil Data Show Scaling of Limbs Altered as Birds Originated from Dinosaurs

How did birds get their wings? This “classic major evolutionary transition” fails to take flight in the fossil record.

Evolutionists maintain that birds evolved from dinosaurs but debate just how the transition happened. They are certain it did, of course, because birds exist and, in their view, had to evolve from something. Most evolutionists have maintained that this “classic major evolutionary transition”1 began with the gradual evolution of longer forelimbs among birds’ ancestral dinosaurs. However, careful analysis of the fossil record by McGill University paleontologist Hans Larsson and graduate student Alexander Dececchi, published in the journal Evolution, reveals that there is no such transition evident in the fossil record.

Archaeopteryx
Archaeopteryx, considered an early “basal” bird and a transitional species
between dinosaurs and birds, like other birds and even some genuinely
feathered creaturessuch as the four-winged Microraptor, have
proportionally longer forelimbs and shorterhindlimbs
than their supposed dinosaur ancestors. The researchers  found
no trend among dinosaurs to account for this apparent
abrupt change in body proportions.
Image: H. Raab through www.sciencedaily.com
via commons.wikimedia.org
“Our findings suggest that birds underwent an abrupt change in their developmental mechanisms, such that their forelimbs and hind limbs became subject to different length controls,” says Larsson.1

Abrupt Appearance

 

Larsson and Dececchi set out to determine from the fossil record when and how dinosaur forelimbs evolved into wings. Instead of finding a gradual lengthening, they found that when proportionate changes associated with different body sizes are factored out, there really is no such trend. The longer forelimbs, shorter hindlimbs, and long metatarsals (foot bones that are so long in birds they look like legs) appear abruptly in the fossil record. The skeletal characteristics of birds, in other words, start when birds start. They have no gradually transitioning antecedents in the rocks.

“This decoupling may be fundamental to the success of birds, the most diverse class of land vertebrates on Earth today. The origin of birds and powered flight is a classic major evolutionary transition,” says Dececchi. “Our findings suggest that the limb lengths of birds had to be dissociated from general body size before they could radiate so successfully. It may be that this fact is what allowed them to become more than just another lineage of maniraptorans [dinosaurs presumed ancestral to birds] and led them to expand to the wide range of limb shapes and sizes present in today's birds.” He adds, “Knowing where birds came from, and how they got to where they are now, is crucial for understanding how the modern world came to look the way it is.”

Evolutionists compare the size, shape, and proportions of body parts in order to track the really big jumps in vertebrate evolution—like fish evolving legs and walking out onto land, mammals de-evolving legs and becoming whales, and of course dinosaurs evolving wings and taking to the air as birds. “Interlimb length ratios are widely used,” the authors write, “to derive evolutionary scenarios.”1
 

Extrapolating from Nothing

 

Having “derived evolutionary scenarios,” evolutionists then must explain how these leap...CONTINUE READING 

Monday, October 7, 2013

The Origin of Life, Part 3 - Creation Today




THE ORIGIN OF LIFE, PART 3 – SEASON 3 EPISODE 11

Join Eric Hovind and Paul Taylor for the third episode of this four-part series on how life began. Did life originate from non-living organic compounds? Evolutionists have a number of ideas where life came from that are—well, pretty amusing! Today, Eric and Paul discuss how evolutionists believe that life evolved from a Primordial Soup!

Featured Resources




Friday, October 4, 2013

Evolutionists Call New Plant Epigenetic Study 'Heresy' - Jeffrey Tomkins, PhD



Evolutionists Call New Plant Epigenetic Study 'Heresy'

New research has uncovered a hidden layer of trait-determining epigenetic information that resides outside the DNA sequence in plants. This new discovery challenges the evolutionary paradigms of the scientific community and their long-standing views on how organisms adapt to changing environments at the molecular biological level of the cell. In fact, some are even calling this recent research "evolution heresy."1

For over the past 50 years, Darwinian evolutionists have attributed changes in an organism's traits to the specific DNA sequences that code for them. They never anticipated a hidden layer of epigenetic information overlaying the DNA code to be directly involved in how a plant interfaces with its environment.

Both plants and animals have genetic machinery that modifies the information and function of their genomes without actually changing their genetic code. This modification process is known as "epigenetics." One of the best studied of these epigenetic processes involves the chemical tagging of DNA nucleotides across the genome using methyl groups. These "methyl tags" are attached to cytosine nucleotides in specific patterns around genes and other expressed sequences by a specialized group of proteins called methyltransferases.

This methyl-tagging system (methylation) plays a key role in determining how and when genes are turned off and on along chromosomes. The specific placement and maintenance of these methyl tags is both dynamic and precise. When a cell divides and its DNA is replicated, the duplication of its methyl-tag patterns is also copied, and this complex systems engineering is only now beginning to be understood.

A recent study of the Arabidopsis plant adds to the emerging importance of epigenetics in adaptation.1 In this project, researchers tested 80 different Arabidopsis strains that were nearly identical genetically, except for some that lacked a gene controlling proper DNA methylation patterns. Thus, the test focused on a large population of genetically similar plants that had both normal and aberrant levels of methylation in their genomes. The researchers tested the plants over several generations for flowering time and root growth.

The goal of the study was to determine if variability in these traits was passed along from generation to generation by genetic or epigenetic differences. They found that the DNA sequence in the regions of the Arabidopsis genome that control both flowering time and root length was identical for all 80 plants and did not contribute the observed variability. What they discovered was that the inherited variability for these traits was associated with methylation changes!

This whole scenario presents a variety of substantial problems for evolution...CONTINUE READING

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

From Evolutionist to Creationist by Walter J. Veith



Prof. Walter J. Veith is a university lecturer with a background in zoology, biomedical sciences, and research in archeology and history. He was also a strong believer in evolution. However, through an amazing journey He is now believer in creation. How did this happen?



Watch this video and many more for free at www.beyondpatmos.org

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Are Miracles Scientific? · Dr. Jonathan Sarfati



Presented at Rocky Mtn Creation Fellowship  in2012 | Dr. Sarfati answers the question, "Can observational science verify when miracles occur?"

For more on this topic see http://creation.com/miracles

Get this talk on DVD: http://www.amazon.com/Are-Miracles-Scientific-Jonathan-Sarfati/dp/192164365X

 Dr Jonathan D. Sarfati B.Sc. (Hons.), Ph.D., F.M.

Creationist Physical Chemist and Spectroscopist (Australia)


Education

    B.Sc. (Hons.) in Chemistry (with condensed matter and nuclear physics papers substituted)
    Ph.D. in Spectroscopy (Physical Chemistry)