Creation Moment 6/14/2024 - Creation Astronomy does not have this problem

These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens... Genesis 2:4

"James Webb telescope discovers earliest galaxy in the known universe — and its shockingly big (Live Science, 30 May 2024). Reporter Brandon Specktor indicates two surprises with the latest JWST find: galaxies that are too early and too big—"shockingly” big.

According to new research, astronomers using the powerful infrared telescope have revealed what appears to be the two earliest, most distant galaxies in the known universe, dating to just 300 million years after the Big Bang.

Alert readers always notice that the big bang is assumed as a given. It’s too essential as a part of the materialist worldview to question. Creator-denying cosmologists simply squeeze the natural production rate to maintain the belief.
With the larger of the galaxies measuring an estimated 1,600 light-years across, the discovery adds to a mounting pile of evidence that the earliest galaxies in the universe grew up much faster than leading theories of cosmology predict to be possible.

“It is stunning that the Universe can make such a galaxy in only 300 million years,” lead study author Stefano Carniani, an assistant

professor at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, said in a statement.

300 million years sounds like plenty of time to assemble a galaxy, but it represents only around 2.5% of the assumed age of the universe. Astronomers started worrying when the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) began imaging light from galaxies estimated to be 800 million years after the big bang.

In the old days before the HST and JWST, astronomers assumed they had billions of years for the first stars to form and assemble into galaxies. Now, Specktor writes, the light-gathering capabilities of JWST are poised to give cosmologists more to worry about: “the space telescope will soon reveal even older objects in the distant universe, perhaps dating as far back as the first 200 million years of cosmic history.”

Just a quick reminder: creation astronomy does not have this problem. 

In Genesis, early maturity is baked in. God created a mature, functioning universe, with the light from the distant reaches of space visible from Earth on the 4th day of creation." 

CEH

They cried to God in battle

There fell down many slain, because the war was of God.
1 Chronicles 5:22

"Warrior, fighting under the banner of the Lord Jesus, observe this verse with holy joy, for as it was in the days of old so is it now, if the war be of God the victory is sure. 

The sons of Reuben, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh could barely muster five and forty thousand fighting men, and yet in their war with the Hagarites, “for they cried to God in the battle, and He was entreated of them, because they put their trust in Him.” 

The Lord saveth not by many nor by few; it is ours to go forth in

Jehovah’s name if we be but a handful of men, for the Lord of Hosts is with us for our Captain. 

They did not neglect buckler, and sword, and bow, neither did they place their trust in these weapons; we must use all fitting means, but our confidence must rest in the Lord alone, for he is the sword and the shield of His people. 

The great reason of their extraordinary success lay in the fact that “the war was of God.” 

Beloved, 

--in fighting with sin without and within, 

--with error doctrinal or practical, 

--with spiritual wickedness in high places or low places, with devils and the devil’s allies, you are waging Jehovah’s war, and unless He Himself can be worsted, you need not fear defeat. 

With steadfast foot, strong hand, dauntless heart, and flaming zeal, rush to the conflict, and the hosts of evil shall fly like chaff before the gale." 

Charles Spurgeon

Creation Moment 6/13/2024 - The so-called "pseudogenes"

.... the LORD that created thee.... Isaiah 43:1

"For a long time, evolutionists have triumphally invoked pseudogenes. After all, surely no intelligent designer would litter our genome with disabled and non-functional genes. Not so fast. 

Bergman reviews the recent literature on this subject. It shows that some pseudogenes definitely have function. They are in no sense ‘disabled’. 

--In fact, there is now no sharp boundary between genes and pseudogenes. 

--For a long time, genes were defined as genomic structures that enable a protein to be coded and synthesized. So, if a suspected gene cannot encode a protein, it must therefore be non-functional. Now we realize that this is not so. It turns out that a pseudogene that has obvious features that prevent it from coding a protein can, nevertheless, have a different function, such as a regulatory one that uses mRNA.

Bergman expands this consideration to cover all DNA in the genome which has long been dismissed as junk DNA just because it does not code for a protein and because, until recently, it had no known function. 

Now we realize that much so-called junk DNA is transcribed into RNA, which implies at least a possible function." 

CMI

The Great Antitypical Offering

"The history of the system of types and shadows began at the gate of the garden of Eden, where our first parents brought their offerings and presented them before the Lord. Abel showed his faith in the promised Savior by bringing an animal. He not only presented the shed blood of the sacrifice, but he also presented the fat to the Lord, showing faith in the Savior and a willingness to put away his sin.

Of all the sacrifices recorded in the book of Genesis, none comes so near the great antitypical offering as the one required of Abraham when God called him to offer his only son. 

The test of faith was not simply in the fact that Isaac was his only legitimate son, but Abraham understood that through Isaac's posterity the long-promised Messiah was to come; and in offering Isaac, Abraham was cutting off his only hope of salvation, as well as that of the world. 

But his faith wavered not. 

He believed that the same God who had performed a miracle in giving him a son, could bring that son from the dead to fulfill the promise that He had made. 

(By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death. Hebrews 11:17-19)." 

Stephen Haskell

On the Streets of Babylon: Transgender Hermits Spotted on the Streets

Babylon is fallen, is fallen,..

Come out of her, my people,
Revelation 14:8/18:4

There seems to be "Transgender Hermits" Spotted on the Streets of Babylon...

"A Kentucky bishop’s decision to endorse a hermit who publicly identified as transgender has raised a number of questions and concerns — particularly from another diocesan hermit and

theologian, who had counseled the bishop in writing nearly two years before that approving the individual as a hermit would “misuse” canon law governing that vocation, and set a precedent that could endanger the future of eremitical life itself.
Sister Laurel M. O’Neal, a systematic theologian, Camaldolese Oblate and professed hermit for the Diocese of Oakland, California, told OSV News she was among those stunned to learn Bishop John E. Stowe of Lexington had received “Brother Christian Matson,” formerly known as Cole Matson, as a hermit — and not only because of Matson’s May 19 public disclosure, made just under a year after profession, of being transgender.
The 39-year-old Matson — who converted to Catholicism in 2010, four years after undergoing transgender medical interventions while in college — described to OSV News a daily schedule that blends prayer, the Divine Office and Mass, as well as regular performing arts work that provides both creative fulfillment and a self-supporting income, as the diocese provides Matson with neither a salary nor benefits.
“Despite the fact that my medical history is more complex, I’m just a regular guy like any other guy, who just wants to serve God. I feel called primarily to be in relationship with God in contemplative prayer and sit before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and be with him and pray,” said Matson, who underwent “hormonal therapy, a double mastectomy and ‘bottom surgery'” and presents as a man." 

OSV

Creation Moment 6/12/2024 - Roman arch Lesson

Let them praise the name of the LORD: 

for He commanded, and they were created. 

Psalm 148:5

"The stone arch is a classic example of irreducible complexity. 

It cannot be simplified. There can be no step-by-step evolution of the arch, because there is no such thing as a quarter-arch or half-arch. It is a ‘jackpot or nothing’ situation: it is either a full arch or no arch at all. Some evolutionists have tried to get around this by pointing out the fact that the arch can be constructed, step by step, by using scaffolding. One stone in the arch is not dependent upon any other stone until such time that the scaffold is removed. Let us take a closer look at this contention.

The scaffold enables a Roman arch to be constructed, and holds the

stones in place, relative to each other, until they are all in place. While the scaffold is in place, stones can be added or removed at will. Once the arch is constructed, and the scaffold removed, the stones in the arch are in complete dependence upon each other, and no stone can be removed without the arch collapsing. 

--This is the irreducible complexity.

Note that the scaffold does not eliminate the irreducible complexity: it merely relocates the irreducible complexity from the arch to the scaffold! Any old collection of wooden pieces will not spontaneously make an arch-constructing scaffold: it takes intelligent design to tailor-make a scaffold that is even minimally suitable for erecting a stone arch. In addition, a suitable scaffold cannot arise from a step-by-step processes. Just as there is no such thing as a quarter-arch or half-arch, neither is there such a thing as a quarter-effective scaffold or half-effective scaffold. 

Either we have a fully effective scaffold for constructing the arch or we have no scaffold at all. 

The ‘jackpot or nothing’ situation has not been overcome. 

It remains." 

CMI

Enheduanna: The A , B & C of Romans 1

And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God [A] into an

image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
They traded the truth about God for a lie. 

[B] So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise!

For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: [C] for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly.... 

Romans 1:23.25-27 [vs. 25 NIV]

"Enheduanna: High Priestess [B] of the Moon....was the daughter of the first king to build an empire, Sargon. 

He appointed his brilliant daughter, Enheduanna, to the position of high priestess at the temple of the moon god, Nanna, in the ancient city of Ur. There she presided for forty years over the prestigious temple in Ur. Holding the most important religious office in the land, she spread her theological ideas throughout the country, writing hymns to each of forty-two major temples.

The name En-hedu-anna, probably either a title or adopted, was apparently compiled from "En" (Chief Priest or Priestess), "hedu" (Ornament) and "Ana" (of Heaven). She was considered to be the Ornament of Heaven. Enheduanna was the first royal daughter known to have been given the title "En" in a line that would extend for five hundred years.

The Disc of Enheduanna

Originally recorded as "limestone". The piece measures 25.6 cm/diameter and is 7.1 cm/thick. The inscription on the back is a

column of eleven letters, and identifies Enheduanna as the wife of Nanna and as the daughter of King Sargon. Although the function of the disc is not noted, it probably served as an architectural and votive element in the temple.
The round shape of the disc is representative of the full moon, an attribute of the Moon god, [A] Innana, whom Enheduanna, as High Priestess, honors. 

The moon is considered the most constant signifier of female deities as well as a moist star, which brings rain and nourishment. (Cornfield) In the pastoral tradition, Innanna provides rains for good harvests or withholds her favor to produce droughts and destruction.

The Hymn to Inanna (also known as The Great-Hearted Mistress) is a passionate devotional work by the poet and high priestess

Enheduanna, the first author in the world known by name. The poem is significant as one of the oldest works of literature extant and for its content elevating the goddess Inanna above all others.
Inanna was the Sumerian goddess of fertility, love, sensuality, procreation, and war, later identified with Ishtar. 

[C] Her clergy were male, female, and transgender with the men and women frequently cross-dressing to embody Inanna's transformative powers.

Her relationship to the goddess Inanna was key to Enheduanna’s

own political role in the wake of the failed revolt. “By evoking myths about a forceful, victorious Inanna, Enheduanna declares that Inanna, who used to be a minor goddess, has managed to surpass the other deities,” Zgoll says. “All of them are now submitted to her authority.”

To emphasize Inanna's significance, Enheduanna reduces other gods who are usually considered her superiors – Anu and Enlil – to secondary roles who "cannot proceed against her command" and the first part of the poem (lines 1-72) focuses on her destructive power as a goddess of war. Lines 73-114 describe the goddess as more powerful than all others and lines 115-218 exalt her transformative powers which tear down, build up, expose falsehood, illuminate truth, and administer justice. The final lines (219-274) identify Enheduanna as the author and appeal to the goddess directly in praise.
---Each hymn ends with an identical two-line colophon, except for

the final hymn 42. There, instead of ending with a colophon, 

---Enheduanna signs her name, saying she herself gave birth to this composition, something never before created.

Enheduanna's hymns were quite popular, as evidenced by the number of copies made and preserved. With Nanshe, the hymn describes her paradoxical character. She is carefree playing in the waves, but also a great storm / strong dark water. The Sumerians had great respect for the whims of nature on whom they so depended.

“The Temple Hymns” are a series of hymns, composed by Enheduana that list each of the temples of Sumer, city by city. Paul Kriwaczete believes this “list” is evidence of Sargon’s intention to unite his empire through religion.

Lament to the Spirit of War

by Enheduanna
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
You hack down everything you see, War God!

Rising on fearsome wings

you rush to destroy our land:

raging like thunderstorms,

howling like hurricanes,

screaming like tempests,

thundering, raging, ranting, drumming,

whiplashing whirlwinds!

Men falter at your approaching footsteps.

Tortured dirges scream on your lyre of despair.

Like a fiery Salamander you poison the land:

growling over the earth like thunder,

vegetation collapsing before you,

blood gushing down mountainsides.

Spirit of hatred, greed and vengeance!

Dominatrix of heaven and earth!

Your ferocious fire consumes our land.

Whipping your stallion

with furious commands,

you impose our fates.

You triumph over all human rites and prayers.

Who can explain your tirade,

why you carry on so?"

World History Encyclodpedia/Jacket2/HyperTexts

The Voice of Elijah

"God has said, Malachi 4:5 

Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.

Said Jesus, Matthew 17:11 

Elijah truly shall first come, and restore all things.

YOU have heard the voice of Elijah in the advent doctrine, which has been proclaimed in the spirit and power of Elijah, and will you now turn a deaf ear to his voice in the message of the third angel, crying in the wilderness of the people, 

Isaiah 40:3 

Prepare the way of the Lord, make strait in the desert a highway

for our God. 

Isaiah 57:14 

Cast up, cast up, prepare the way, take up the stumbling block out of the way of My people. 

Isaiah 62:10 

Go through, go through the gates; prepare the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people.

The beast and his image, his mark and worship (Sunday keeping), are clear. 

Also, it is clear the keeping the true Sabbath is the seal or mark of God. 

Those who worship the beast and his image, by observing the first day, are certainly idolaters, as were the worshipers of the golden calf in the wilderness. 

1 Corinthians 10:7.14

Neither be idolaters, as were some of them. 

Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry. 

Satan always gets his counterfeit mark just as near the true mark of God as he can. 

This he has done in bringing into use the first day for the Sabbath." James White

Creation Moment 6/11/2024 - What are Redundancies?

.....and the people which shall be created shall praise the LORD. Psalm 102:18

"Some evolutionists have vulgarized the Intelligent Design explanation as a ‘jackpot or nothing’ one. But that is exactly what it is, and evolutionists have failed to show how the emergence of a complex biological structure can be anything other than ‘jackpot or nothing’.

Evolutionists have argued that biological systems only appear to be irreducibly complex because these systems once had possessed numerous redundancies that enabled the components to function independent from each other. These redundancies have since been removed by evolutionary processes, leaving the remaining components in a state of lockstep dependence upon each other—hence the apparent irreducible complexity.

--To begin with, the explanation is ad hoc. There is no evidence for any such one-time grand redundancies, and, if they are going to pooh-pooh the Intelligent Design explanation, the burden of proof is on the evolutionists to show that they once existed. 

--Note also that spot redundancies should not be confused with the hypothesized grand redundancies that presumably governed the whole. In the Krebs cycle, for example, a few of the compounds can be synthesized by alternative pathways. The fact that parts of the Krebs cycle are redundant is very different from saying that the Krebs cycle as a whole is, or once was, redundant. The fact that there are ‘shortcuts’ within the Krebs cycle is very different from suggesting that the entire Krebs cycle can be bypassed by a shortcut. 

Bergman quips:

“Reducing the cycle by one step does not negate the fact that it still requires the remaining parts of the cycle. It would not be irreducibly complex only if a single quark were responsible for the biochemical results that the Krebs cycle achieves” (p. 123).

An analogy with the automobile may help. 

The car thief can do a ‘shortcut’ around the key-starting system by short-circuiting the wires that lead to the starter motor, and driving away the car. This means that, from a mechanical point of view, the key-starting system is redundant. 

However, this individual redundancy certainly does not mean that the automobile as a whole is a redundant system, much less that the automobile could spontaneously arise, step-by-step, without intelligent design." 

CMI

Neology: Roots of Modern Liberal Christianity

"The term Neology, or Rationalism, has been applied to the actual

creed of a large portion of the members of the German church, who profess a nominal adhesion to the Augsburgh Confession of Faith, while they reject its fundamental principles, and maintain tenets which the Saxon reformers would have regarded as "damnable heresies." (2 Peter 2:1)

Like many other forms of error, 

---Neology did not make its first appearance among the common people. 

---Neology had its birth among those, who held the part of watchmen on the walls of Zion; among professors of theology, whose rank, learning, and talents gave them a controlling influence over the opinions of the religious world. 

These were the men, who applied their strength to rend down the pillars of the temple of truth, who labored by every insidious art of false interpretation to pervert and render 4 powerless that book, which its Author designed to be "a lamp to our feet and a light to our path." (Psalm 119:105)

The time had not arrived when a religious instructor might announce that he believed in no other religion than that of nature. Some latitude might be allowed, on the ground that though he was not a believer of

Luther's school, yet he was a rational Christian, as might naturally be expected of one, who lived in "the age of light." 

He might be a skeptic in heart and life, so long as he pretended to be a disciple of Christ. He must profess to believe the Bible, while he was allowed, by every art of fallacious criticism, to explain away all those doctrines, which hold a vital alliance with the redemption of man.

Such was the origin of Neology. Its form has varied with the changing breath of public opinion and the exigency of circumstances. At one period, it boldly took the field against evangelical religion, and hardly sought a disguise. 

In the writings of Fichte and Forberg, and some others of the transcendental school, it would have received the name of atheism, in our land. In the hands of other artists, it has assumed the shape of the Pantheism of the Greek philosophers. Now it is "liberal Christianity," or "Rationalism"-again it is marked by an icy indifference to all revelation.

In all that addresses itself to the conscience of man, he is sure to fail, because, in his own conscience, there is no chord that responds to the touch of truth. If, perchance, he should feel at all, he will be offended with those declarations which announce his danger as a sinner, and his entire dependance on God.

It might naturally be expected, that, in the war waged against the

holy writings, the inspiration of the prophets would be the earliest point of attack. 

The celebrated W. Gesenius, as we have been told by one who heard his lectures on Isaiah, often compared the inspiration of that prophet and the inspiration of the Grecian Homer. In point of strength of imagination, he represented the two poets as nearly on a level.

Semler, Professor of Divinity at Halle, began to lecture and publish on the subject of interpretation, in a manner that excited the attention of the whole German empire. The grand principle by which he explained away whatever he did not think proper to believe, was that which has been called accommodation. He maintained that the apostles and the Savior often admitted representations and doctrines into their instructions, which were calculated merely for the purpose of persuading the Jews, being accommodated to their prejudices; but which were not intended to be a real directory of sentiment. In this way, whatever was inconsistent with his own views, he called accommodation; and thus, at once, expunged it from the list of Christian doctrines.

Thus with Eichorn, the account of the creation and fall of man, is merely a poetical, philosophical speculation of some ingenious person, on the origin of the world and of evil. So, in regard to the

offering up of Isaac by Abraham, he says, The Godhead could not have required of Abraham so horrible a crime; and there can be no justification, palliation or excuse, for this pretended command of the divinity.' He then explains it. 'Abraham dreamed that he must offer up Isaac, and according to the superstition of the times, regarded it as a divine admonition. He prepared to execute the mandate which his dream had conveyed to him. A lucky accident (probably the rustling of a ram who was entangled in the bushes) hindered it; and this, according to ancient idiom, was also the voice of the divinity.' 

The same writer represents the history of the Mosaic legislation, at Mount Sinai, in a curious manner. Moses ascended to the top of Sinai, and built a fire there, (how he found wood on this barren rock, or raised it to the top, Eichorn does not tell us,) a fire consecrated to the worship of God, before which he prayed. Here, an unexpected and tremendous thunder storm occurred. He seized the occasion to proclaim the laws which he had composed in his retirement, as the statutes of Jehovah; leading the people to believe that Jehovah had conversed with him. Not that he was a deceiver, but he really believed that the occurrence of such a thunder storm was a sufficient proof of the fact that Jehovah had spoken to him, or sanctioned the work in which he had been engaged. The prophecies of the Old Testament, are, according to him, patriotic wishes, 18 expressed with all the fire and elegance of poetry, for the future prosperity, and a future deliverer of the Jewish nation.

In like manner, C. F. Ammon, Professor of Theology at Erlangen, tells us, in respect to the miracle of Christ's walking on the water, that, 'to walk on the sea, is not to stand on the waves, as on the solid ground, as Jerome dreams, but to walk through the waves so far as the shoals reached, and then to swim.'

Thiess, in his commentary on the Acts, explains the miraculous

effusion of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, (Acts ii.) in the following manner: 'It is not uncommon,' says he, 'in those countries, for a violent gust of wind to strike on a particular spot or house; such a gust is commonly accompanied by the electric fluid; and the sparks of this are scattered all around. These float about the chamber, become apparent, and light upon the disciples.

At present, the leading German critics (rejecting accommodation, and casting off all ideas of the divine origin of the Scriptures) are disputing with great zeal, the questions, whether a miracle be possible? Whether God and nature are one and the same?

Some time ago, many of their critics maintained, that no Messiah was predicted in the Old Testament; but now, they question even whether the Jews had any expectation of one.

Some of the Germans have taken the position that "Moses wrote nothing more than the laws which are contained in the Pentateuch, and that the historical parts have been added in later ages, from traditions." This position is defended on the ground that miracles are impossible.
Having disposed of the claim of Moses to thy authorship of the Pentateuch, these critics are unable to agree as to the real author. Rosenm¸ller, enumerates no less than twelve theories on this single point, all different, and many contradictory.

We have passed thus hastily through this wilderness of error, not that we take pleasure in tracing the downward course of men, who, abandoning the guide which God has provided, wander on in utter darkness; but, because duty demands that their example should be held up as a warning to others. 

It is highly probable that when these writers first commenced their rash speculations, they never dreamed of the results to which they were finally led."
N. N. WHITING 3/1/1844

Creation Moment 6/10/2024 - What is Co-option and Exaptation?

.... and God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:25

"Co-option and exaptation refer to biological structures that supposedly evolved in a response to selective pressures for one function, and then were co-opted by evolutionary processes to have a different function. 

For instance, one theory of bird-wing origins is that wings evolved in order to make birds seem larger and more ferocious, and these were subsequently ‘recruited’ by later evolutionary processes for flight.

We hear that irreducible complexity is not real because the components of a complex system can each have alternative functions. 

This confuses the issue, which is not the function of a component itself, but how the function of the entire system could arise step by step. 

---For instance, the spring in the mousetrap, acting alone, can be used

in many different devices. 

Fair enough. However, the ‘springiness’ of the spring is not the essence of the mousetrap—it is the unique configuration of all the components of a mousetrap, including the spring, that enables it to function as a mousetrap. 

That is what needs to be explained by evolution.

Bergman touches on some of the challenges facing a putative evolutionary explanation, for the origins of complex structures, resulting from the co-option of components originally having different functions. He comments:
“… the availability of these parts would have to be synchronized … the parts must be correctly and properly positioned in 3-D space so they can be properly assembled … . Even if all of the parts are available at the proper time, the vast majority of assembly variations will be non-functional or dysfunctional” (pp. 145–146).

So the irreducible complexity remains." 

CMI

The Beautiful Symbol

"In the midst of the desert heat there was a cool, refreshing shelter

beneath the shade of the cloudy pillar for those who served in the tabernacle or worshiped in its court, while without was the scorching heat of the desert. (Each one will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in the desert and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land. Isaiah. 32:2)

What a beautiful symbol of the covering God spreads over His people in the midst of this wicked world, so that it is possible to dwell in the secret place of the Most High and abide under the shadow of the Almighty One (Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. Psalm 91:1) while in the midst of the turmoil and strife of this wicked world." 

Stephen Haskell

Book Review: The Last Pillars of Darwinian Evolution Falsified

(short) Book Review: A book that may be of some interest....
(Review by CMI)

The Last Pillars of Darwinian Evolution Falsified

by Jerry Bergman

Pages: 274 Publisher: WestBow Press

"Jerry Bergman is a famous creationist author who has extensively published over many decades and who has taught at several

universities. He describes the research that went into this book:
“This project has been for me a lifelong study for which this book is a summary. It is the culmination of four decades of research on the issue of evolution, 41 years of teaching life science at the college level, and over 1,700 publications in 2,400 college libraries in 65 nations and 13 languages” (p. xvii).
In terms of specifics, this work focuses on taxonomy, so-called convergent evolution, irreducible complexity, pseudogenes, and antibiotic resistance. Bergman goes into considerable detail on all of these."

For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. Romans 1:20 NLT

Creation Moment 6/9/2024 - What is Convergence about?

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. Genesis 1:25

"In conventional evolutionary thinking, the more similar two organisms are to each other, the more recent their common ancestor. However, two organisms can be similar to each other even though they are not closely related. 

That is what convergence is all about. Structures are homologous if they are believed to have arisen from a common ancestor that had that structure. By contrast, evolutionists invoke convergence on an ad hoc basis whenever there are unexpected similarities between life-forms that are otherwise thought to be distantly related.

Evolutionists try to explain convergence in terms of life-forms evolving under similar selection processes that derived from being situated in similar environments, coupled with the presumed fact that there is only a finite number of ways a biological structure can evolve into existence. 

This could theoretically explain convergent features that are superficially similar to each other, such as the bird wing and the insect wing. It is quite another thing to invoke convergence for very similar outcomes.

Consider placentals and marsupials. They are each entirely separate lineages of mammals that are very distant from each other on the

mammalian evolutionary ‘tree’. Yet the placental wolf (Canis) and the Tasmanian wolf (Thylacinus) have extraordinary similarities between their respective skulls. Bergman comments:

“A Tasmanian wolf (thylacine) skull, when examined carefully and compared side by side, can be seen to be distinctly different from a North American wolf skull, even though many of their major skull traits and their overall shape are almost identical” (p. 46).

Bergman adds:
“… the American wolf and the Tasmanian wolf mentioned above, are far too similar to have evolved separately from an ancient common ancestor during the early Cretaceous, as convergent evolution theory postulates … . Their skeletal structures, especially their skulls and teeth, are so similar that, unless compared side by side and labeled, only someone who has previously studied the difference can

distinguish between them. The close similarity is used as part of a museum exhibit in Australia to illustrate the fact that there are fewer differences between the Tasmanian wolf and Canis lupus than between many dog breeds … . As part of their final exam, zoology students at Oxford were required to identify 100 zoological specimens. A ‘dog’ skull that actually was the Tasmanian Wolf Thylacinus, successfully fooled many students until they caught on to the ploy. The examiners then placed an actual dog skull in their laboratory exam, which again confused the students. Dawkins noted that the main ‘way to tell the difference is by the two prominent holes in the palate bone, which are characteristic of marsupials generally’” (pp. 49–50).

Let us take this further. Bergman quotes Harvard’s Stephen Jay Gould, who said human origins “is the product of massive historical contingency, and we would probably never arise again even if life’s tape could be replayed a thousand times” (p. 52).

So evolutionists are being internally inconsistent. 

--On one hand, they say that it is astronomically unlikely that evolution could closely repeat itself. 

--Then evolutionists turn around, and, with reference to the extraordinary similarities between the skull of the marsupial wolf and the skull of the placental wolf, they say that evolution has in fact closely repeated itself. 

Q: So which is it?" 

CMI

The Troas Meeting

"When the exact time of the Troas meeting is noted, this passage in Acts 20 becomes even less convincing as a proof for Sunday. 

The service was held at night, for “there were many lights in the upper chamber, where they were gathered together.” 

The record declares also that Paul “continued his speech until midnight,” the reason being that he had to “depart on the morrow.” His sermon continued past midnight, “even till break of day,” and “so he departed.”
It is a well-known fact that the Bible reckons days from sunset to sunset, not from midnight to midnight, as we do today. (See Gen. 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31; Lev. 23:32) Therefore the dark part of that “first day of the week” was what we would describe as Saturday night.
Conybeare and Howson, in their authoritative work, Life and Epistles of the Apostle Paul, write as follows concerning the time of the meeting:
“It was the evening which succeeded the Jewish Sabbath. On the Sunday morning the vessel was about to sail.” - Page 520 (One Volume Edition)." F.D. Nichols/Acts 20:7-10

Arrogance of Priestcraft

"EVEN the scribes, with all their self-assumption, knew that it was blasphemy for man to assume to forgive sins against God. 

Mark 2:7  Who can forgive sins but God only?
But the Catholic priest goes beyond the scribes and assumes to himself the authority which God alone possesses.

This spirit of evil, however, is the great genius of the Papacy, which, as Paul foretold, has sought to exalt itself… 2 Thessalonians 2:4 ...above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

Therefore this priest says: "Who can do this for him? The priest of

God. He can rescue the sinner from hell, and make him worthy to be received in the heavens; go, therefore, where you will, to heaven or through this earth, you will find only one created being who can forgive the sinner, and that being is the Catholic priest. 

Thus we see that the priest is raised beyond the brightest spirits which God has created or ever will create, and that to him are given powers, which have been denied to the Mother of God, and to the angels in heaven. Are we any longer, then, surprised to hear our Lord addressing those solemn words of warning to the Church at large: “Beware of touching my anointed ones, he who touches them touches the apple of my eye.” Is it any wonder that St. Francis of Assisi should have exclaimed, “If I met an angel and a priest at the same time, I would first bow my knee to the priest, and then to the angel.”

And the difference between the priest of Rome and the angel of God

would be that while the angel would rebuke such adulation (Revelation 22:8-9), the priest would encourage it and even command it. Priestcraft is as arrogant and proud in its claims now as ever in the days of Tetzel and his chest of money, in which the chinking of every golden coin signaled a soul released from purgatory."

E.J. Waggoner

IN the NEWS - How the Woke Mouse at Disney Does It

I have seen the wicked in great power... Psalm 37:35

"The Disney Grooming Syndicate is not playing around when it comes to sexualizing and queering children, including small children. When our editor-in-chief and best-selling New York Times author Alex Marlow related his weekend experience to me, I wasn’t at all surprised (evil’s gonna evil). Then I asked him to tell our readers how a disgusting multinational corporation has made it seemingly impossible for parents to protect their children from content no child should be exposed to:

"I’ll do my best to resist sharing my opinion here, as tempting as it is to rage at the Woke Mouse.

I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but it’s pride month, so over the weekend, I logged into a family member’s Disney+ account to see what type of gay and trans content The Walt Disney Company is suggesting children consume. Immediately, the rotating banner at the top of the home screen featured a massive “Pride” logo, obviously including the trans colors in addition to the traditional rainbow.

I clicked on the “search” page from the menu. The first tile–the one in the top left corner of the screen–defaulted to (what else?) Disney’s “Pride” collection.

I thought that his was a bit aggressive for a brand best known for its content for children, so I created a new account, entering the birthdate of a four-year-old to see if that would generate less sexualized material. It didn’t. If the hypothetical four-year-old selects the Pride tile, all manner of adult-oriented content is promoted, including drag-themed shows.

One thing that caught my eye is that the controversial Lightyear movie (which flopped) was listed in the LGBTQ+ Love Stories section. Marvel’s Eternals, which also failed, is featured all over the page.

I then set up parental controls (not a quick process!) to top out at a G-rating, and while that did remove a lot of the shows intended for mature audiences, the Pride page still suggests a number of cartoons aimed at children that have GLAAD Awards and nominations."

You tell Disney+ a four-year-old is watching, and Disney pushes gay content on them, including “drag-themed shows.”

Question: What kind of man dresses up as a hyper-sexualized woman and then wants to expose himself to small children?
Answer: A degenerate who has no business around kids.
Question: What kind of corporation aids and abets a man like that in his perverted desire to expose himself to small children?
Answer: A demonic corporation openly grooming and queering your kids.

I’m sorry, but there is nothing okay with exposing little kids to any kind of homosexual content. As you can see, Disney is PUSHING this propaganda on your kids—all kids, including four-year-olds. Disney is PROMOTING a sexual lifestyle with sparkly rainbows." 

Breitbart

Creation Moment 6/8/2024 - Peterson inching closer to God (Romans 1:20 coming into view)

For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Romans 1:20

"In his younger days (or his Jung-er days), Peterson believed the

propaganda about Christianity and science being at war with each other. But more recently he has come to understand that the presuppositions of modern science—e.g., nature operates according to fixed laws which are discoverable, it is good to discover them, to “think God’s thoughts after Him”, etc.—are all from the Biblical/Christian worldview. 

---Science is based on, among other things, the presupposition that there is a good God, a lawgiver who has made an orderly universe that runs according to law." 

David Read

Scripture Speaks With One Accord of the Sabbath Day

"In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week," etc., Matt. 28:1. Here we have New Testament testimony upon the subject of what day should be called the Sabbath. It is the day that immediately precedes the first day of the week, therefore the Sabbath is the seventh day of the week.

But some may say that this Sabbath was past before the resurrection, and that the change in the day could not take place until Christ had risen and appeared to His disciples. 

We reply that the resurrection of Christ has nothing to do with the matter. 

The gospels were all written years after the occurrence of the events....and the names which they give to things must be the names by which the Holy Spirit wishes those things to be known throughout the entire Christian age. 

With one accord they speak of the seventh day of the week-the day immediately preceding the first day of the week-as "the Sabbath."

 E.J. Waggoner

Creation Moment 6/7/2024 - Color of "Beautiful" Chemistry gives "JOY" to Chemists

Lift up your eyes on high, 

and behold who hath created these things... 

Isaiah 40:26

"Promethium only exists naturally in minuscule amounts – Earth’s crust contains just about half a kilogram of the element.

It is now routinely produced, albeit in tiny quantities, from the

radioactive decay of uranium and can be incorporated in simple compounds for uses like luminous paint or nuclear batteries. But its extremely radioactive nature means it is inherently unstable, making it difficult to form long-lasting compounds that are easy to study. The crystal structures that it does exist in also exert forces on promethium’s chemical bonds, obscuring its fundamental chemistry, such as how long its atomic bonds are and how they form with other compounds.

Now, Alexander Ivanov at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and his colleagues have found a way to form a promethium compound in water. This dampens some of the damaging effects of radioactivity and avoids the obscuring effects of crystal structures, allowing the team to study the element’s chemistry in detail for the first time.

“It’s rather beautiful chemistry, and to see the delicate pink color of this complex is a real joy,” says Andrea Sella at University College London." 

Nature