IN the NEWS - Mind Control (Literally)

Q: How long before this technology will one day be used by men on earth for nefarious purposes?

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? Jeremiah 17:9

"Scientists have been able to conduct “mind control” remotely in an incredible world-first experiment.

Now, however, an experiment involving mice has shown how the change of a magnetic field was able to alter the behavior of animals fitted with special “switches” inside their brains.

At the change of the magnetic field, mice were able to be told to feed, socialize with others and act with maternal instincts as researchers targeted areas of the brain associated with these actions.

Researchers from the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) and Yonsei University in South Korea have engineered mice that have nanoparticle-activated “switches” inside their brains.
The technology has been dubbed “Nano-MIND” and combines genetics, nanoparticles, and magnetic fields. It allows researchers to remotely activate circuits of the brain.

It is hoped the groundbreaking technology could provide future treatments for disorders that affect emotions, social behaviors and appetite.
Jinwoo Cheon, senior author and director of the IBS Center for Nanomedicine, explained: “This is the world's first technology to freely control specific brain regions using magnetic fields.” 

Indy100

Creation Moment 8/12/2024 - "Attention"

I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: Psalm 139:14

"Two new studies from the Center for Neuroscience (CNS), Indian Institute of Science (IISc) explore how closely attention and eye movements are linked and reveal how the brain coordinates the two processes.

Attention is a unique phenomenon that allows us to focus on a

specific object in our visual world, and ignore distractions. 

When we pay attention to an object, we tend to gaze towards it. Therefore, scientists have long suspected that attention is tightly coupled to rapid eye movements, called saccades. 

In fact, even before our eyes move towards an object, our attention focuses on it, allowing us to perceive it more clearly—a well-known phenomenon called pre-saccadic attention.......Interestingly, these neurons also showed different activity patterns. "The superficial neurons increased their firing rates, to signal the object that needs to be attended to and prioritized for decision-making," says Adithya Narayan Chandrasekaran.

The researchers believe that uncovering such brain signatures can eventually point to what fails in attention disorders. Sridharan says, "Discovering such mechanisms is vital for developing therapies for disorders like ADHD." 

MedicalXpress

SIMPLIFYING the Day of God's Wrath

"Everyone who understands that there is a difference between right

and wrong, between righteousness and wickedness, and that there is a judgment day when God will reward men according to their deeds, must believe that there is a punishment for the wicked as well as a reward for the righteous. This cannot really be disputed by anyone who believes in the Bible as the inspired word of God.

---Sin is something found only in connection with beings possessed of free moral agency and free will. 

---The germs of sin can thrive only as they burrow deep into the very mind and heart. 

---Thus the destruction of sin necessitates the destruction of those who are determined to hold on to sin.

And, to be clear, God does not take any pleasure in the death of the wicked. (For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord God. “Therefore turn and live!” Ezekiel 18:32 NKJV)." 

F.D. Nichols

IN the NEWS - Playing "god" with God's Sun

Q: Which two descriptions describe the heart condition of a man who thinks he should be able to tamper with God's sun?

A: Answers in green....

For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: Matthew 7:21,22

"Critics are concerned about plans to dim the Sun — and one of its staunchest and most controversial proponents is criticizing them right back.

In an interview with the New York Times, University of Chicago geophysical scientist David Keith said that those critical of his proposal to dim the Sun and blunt the effects of climate change using sulfur dioxide are overblowing the risks of such schemes.

"There certainly are risks, and there certainly are uncertainties," the climate scientist said. "But there’s really a lot of evidence that the risks are quantitatively small compared to the benefits, and the uncertainties just aren’t that big.".....opponents of solar geoengineering cite everything from ethical quandaries to the

potential for backfire — and as Keith and his former colleagues learned the hard way, institutions interested in experimenting with it take those criticisms all too seriously.

"I’m more motivated even now to push on solar geo because the rationalist case for it is looking stronger," Keith told the NYT. "While there are still lots of strong individual voices of opposition, there are a lot of people in serious policy positions that are taking it seriously, and that’s really exciting."
Futurism

Design Patterns SERIES PAGE

Where is the wise?

where is the scribe?

where is the disputer of this world?

1 Corinthians 1:20

Intro

Design Patterns SERIES: Intro (master1844-dc.blogspot.com)

Creational Design Patterns

Design Patterns SERIES: Creational Design Patterns (master1844-dc.blogspot.com)

Structural Design Patterns

Design Patterns SERIES: Structural Design Patterns (master1844-dc.blogspot.com)

Behavioral Design Patterns

Design Patterns SERIES: Behavioral Design Patterns (master1844-dc.blogspot.com)

Sabbath 5-Points SERIES PAGE

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made. Genesis 2:2-3

All of Mankind

Dig Deeper: Sabbath 5-Points SERIES: All of Mankind (master1844-dc.blogspot.com)

Sabbath and “the sons of the foreigner” in the End Times

Sabbath and “the sons of the foreigner” in the End Times (master1844-dc.blogspot.com)

The "stranger"

Dig Deeper: Sabbath 5-Points SERIES: The "stranger" (master1844-dc.blogspot.com)

Good Question

Dig Deeper: Sabbath 5-Points SERIES: Good Question (master1844-dc.blogspot.com)

In the New Creation

Dig Deeper: Sabbath 5-Points SERIES: In the New Creation (master1844-dc.blogspot.com)

Creation Moment 8/11/2024 - Brain-to-Brain Coupling

For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the LORD, to serve Him with one consent. Zephaniah 3:9

"When two people interact, their brain activity becomes synchronized, but it was unclear until now to what extent this

"brain-to-brain coupling" is due to linguistic information or other factors, such as body language or tone of voice.

Researchers report August 2 in the journal Neuron that brain-to-brain coupling during conversation can be modeled by considering the words used during that conversation, and the context in which they are used.
"We can see 

---linguistic content emerge word-by-word in the speaker's brain before they actually articulate what they're trying to say, 

---and the same linguistic content rapidly reemerges in the listener's brain after they hear it," says first author and neuroscientist Zaid Zada.....the researchers were able to observe brain activity associated with the context-specific meaning of words in the brains of both speaker and listener.

They showed that word-specific brain activity peaked in the speaker's brain around 250 ms before they spoke each word, and corresponding spikes in brain activity associated with the same words appeared in the listener's brain approximately 250 ms after they heard them. "This shows just how important context is, because it best explains the brain data," says Zada. "Large language models take all these different elements of linguistics like syntax and semantics and represent them in a single high-dimensional vector. We show that this type of unified model is able to outperform other hand-engineered models from linguistics." 

MedicalXpress

Sabbath 5-Points SERIES: In the New Creation

"Finally, in the new earth, where there will be people of every race and nation, the Sabbath will be kept. (“For as the new heavens and the new earth
Which I will make shall remain before Me,” says the Lord,
“So shall your descendants and your name remain. And it shall come to pass
That from one New Moon to another,
And from one Sabbath to another,
All flesh shall come to worship before Me,” says the Lord. Isa. 66:22-23)." 

F.D. Nichols

Creation Moment 8/10/2024 - Design Patterns SERIES: Behavioral Design Patterns

Where is the wise? 

where is the scribe? 

where is the disputer of this world? 

1 Corinthians 1:20

"Behavioral design patterns focus on the dynamics of reaction networks. Andrews et al. identify eight such patterns. 

For example, there is switching, which occurs when a continuum of input needs to be converted into a discrete output. 

The most common ways of accomplishing this are by using ultrasensitivity or bistability. 

Ultrasensitive switches facilitate a sharp threshold response, ensuring that the system is fully in one state or the other, rather than in an intermediate state. This can be accomplished in different ways. A classic example of ultrasensitivity in biology is the necessary

switch of hemoglobin from binding oxygen in the lungs to releasing it in the muscles. This is performed through the allosteric design of hemoglobin. When the partial pressure of oxygen is high (in the lungs), binding of one molecule of oxygen makes binding of the next oxygen molecule easier. Importantly, when one plots the percentage of hemoglobin bound to oxygen versus the partial pressure of oxygen, the curve is sigmoidal, not hyperbolic. The sigmoidal shape tells us that in the lungs, binding of oxygen is easier after the first molecule binds and release of oxygen becomes easier in the muscle after the first molecule is let go.
Ultrasensitivity, represented by that sigmoidal curve, can be accomplished in another way. Suppose there is a phosphorylation-dephosphorylation cycle where the kinase and phosphatase are working at saturation levels and have rate constants that are independent of the concentration of their substrates. Although it isn’t abundantly clear until this is plotted graphically, the response is also ultrasensitive, i.e., sigmoidal. Given those conditions, the cycle can switch sharply between being almost entirely in one state to being almost entirely in the other state. (Ferrell and Ha 2014b)
Another way ultrasensitivity works is by having multiple phosphorylation sites on a kinase where the kinase isn’t active until the final phosphorylation, and each successive phosphorylation is a little bit easier than the prior one. (Ferrell and Ha 2014a)

A final and somewhat different example is positive feedback. This occurs more frequently in developmental networks than in sensory networks. 

Q: Why is that the case? 

Positive feedback slows response time, which is advantageous for

multistage processes that are time-consuming or include delays. Slower response times can also help reduce noise, which is critical when making irreversible decisions. However, positive regulation can accomplish more than just that. Positive regulation can make sharp decisions between two states and remembering those decisions for a long time, a phenomenon known as bistability. 

Consider positive feedback in gene regulation: once a gene is activated by positive autoregulation, it is locked ON. 

The gene will remain elevated even after the input has disappeared, providing long-term memory that the input existed. This type of switching is employed during development to make irreversible decisions that commit a cell to a specific fate. (Alon 2019)

Q: Why does the switching design motif point to intelligence? Designing an effective switch requires understanding the system and what needs to be controlled “— what needs to be turned on or off at what time?” 

Considering whether control should be manual or automated is needed. Additionally, building appropriate switches requires knowledge about safety. 

Switching is also often necessary in sequential operations. 

The type of switch, 

the sensitivity of the switch, 

the construction of the switch, 

and the switch’s compatibility 

must all be thought through ahead of time. 

Each switch functions a certain way in the system such that it appears to “know” or “anticipate” other switch behavior so that more complex behavior can be produced.

Accordingly, design patterns in cells also provide an outstanding illustration of how design-based thinking can further our understanding of biology."
EN&V/EmilyReeves

Sabbath 5-Points SERIES: Good Question

"Q: How could the Sabbath have been given only to the Jews, when it was made at creation, which was long before the days of Abraham,

father of the Jewish race? 

(Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made. Gen. 2:2-3)." 

F.D. Nichols

IN the NEWS - "Trans Refuge"

And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Genesis 6:5

"Minnesota lawmakers passed legislation to make their state a “trans refuge” for young people seeking sex change surgery.....Minnesota’s leftist Gov. Tim Walz (D), whom Vice President Kamala Harris (D) has reportedly chosen to be her running mate, helped make his state a place where children could undergo sex changes.

The Associated Press (AP) reported on March 23, 2023, “Democratic Gov. Tim Walz signed an executive order two weeks ago to protect the rights of people from Minnesota and other states to receive gender-affirming health care in the state.”
This legislation is meant to ensure that children undergoing gender transition procedures allowed under Minnesota law cannot be governed by child protection laws of other states. It’s a direct response to neighboring South Dakota, where Republican Gov. Kristi Noem signed a law banning puberty blockers, cross-sex hormone treatments and sex-change operations for transgender individuals under the age of 18. “The most insidious aspect of this bill is the language that adds children who are being denied ‘gender-affirming care’ (defined as everything from therapy to hormone blockers, to transition surgery) to what amounts to the definition for a child ‘in need of protection or services’ in Minnesota, allowing the courts to take ‘emergency custody’ of the child." 

Breitbart

Creation Moment 8/9/2024 - Design Patterns SERIES: Structural Design Patterns

Where is the wise? 

where is the scribe? 

where is the disputer of this world?  

1 Corinthians 1:20

"Structural patterns are design patterns based on object-to-object relationships. For structural patterns, Andrews et al. identify six subcategories. 

Of these, the third is common currency.

Across cells, there are many common metabolites, including common storage forms of energy, such as ATP. Traditionally, this has been attributed to common ancestry, but there is a critical design-based reason for it. 

Using a common currency simplifies interactions between objects.

 For example, it’s easier to fill up your car with gasoline when

gasoline is a common currency because no matter where you travel, other people need gasoline for their cars, and so chances are you will find it for sale. Here’s another example: It is easier to buy groceries with a common currency, such as the U.S. dollar, because you don’t have to stop and exchange your money before making a purchase, likely paying a fee for doing so.

Cells face similar constraints. They rely on certain producers of energy at certain times and incur a cost for energy interconversions. Thus, ATP is likely a designed solution to the aforementioned requirements. Andrews et al. point out that the topological pattern of common currency has a “bow tie” architecture. 

In this type of architecture, many nutrients are turned into a common currency (the knot) which can then expand to accomplish many different things. 

This design motif requires an intelligent agent because the goals of the ecosystem and organisms must be evaluated before coming up with a currency that can work between lower-level objects. 

This entails an understanding of how everything will interrelate and what is possible in the design space of physics and chemistry, followed by planning and implementation. Only an intelligent agent has these capabilities, which are not accessible to random processes."

EN&V/EmilyReeves

Sabbath 5-Points SERIES: The "stranger"

"The Sabbath commandment itself specifically declares that not only

were the Jews to rest but also the stranger that was within their gates. (Ex. 20:10)

The strangers were those not of the family of Israel; they might belong to any other race or people or nation." 

F.D. Nichols

HEALTH NOTE - Excessive Internet Use Disrupts Key Parts Of The Teenage Brain

Beloved,

I wish above all things that thou mayest...be in health...

3 John 1:2

"U.S. teenagers spent an average of 4.8 hours on social media platforms every day, with girls spending an average of 5.3 hours compared to 4.4 hours for boys.

Researchers defined internet addiction as an inability to resist the urge to use the internet, which negatively affects mental well-being, as well as aspects of social, educational, and work life.
All studies reviewed used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine how areas of the brain interact with each other (functional connectivity) in participants living with internet addiction while at rest and while completing a task. 

The effects were seen throughout multiple regions of the adolescent brain.

The studies showed a mixture of increased and decreased activity in parts of the brain that are activated during rest, along with an overall

decrease in functional connectivity in parts of the brain used in active thinking.
The findings indicate these changes lead to addictive behaviors and tendencies in adolescents and behavioral changes associated with intellectual ability, physical coordination, and mental health and development.
Researchers split the students into smaller groups according to how often they reported checking their Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat feeds.
The habitual user group members checked their feeds 15 or more times daily, moderate users between one and 14 times, and nonhabitual users less than once daily.
The findings indicate that teens who grow up checking social media more often become hypersensitive to feedback from other kids. They also experience fewer or less intense positive feelings from previously rewarding stimuli, which could drive them to pursue more potent feelings through increased reward-seeking behavior." ZeroHedge

Creation Moment 8/8/2024 - Design Patterns SERIES: Creational Design Patterns

Where is the wise? 

where is the scribe? 

where is the disputer of this world? 

1 Corinthians 1:20

Andrews et al. identify five subcategories for creational design patterns. 

The first of these subcategories is templating. 

Cells need to maintain the information in DNA and prevent it from being corrupted by time and chance. The solution to this problem is templating where the original information is faithfully templated or copied. 

Templating in the cell includes 

DNA replication, 

transcription, 

and translation. 

Templating points to an intelligent agent behind its design because it requires comprehension of the forces imposed by the laws of physics and chemistry that would need to be overcome to preserve information. 

Templating also requires foresight to imagine a solution, 

inventing irreducibly complex molecular machines like DNA polymerase, RNA polymerase, and the ribosome. 

Finally, templating requires creation of the information itself, the physical DNA code for the polymerases and ribosome.

EN&V/EmilyReeves

Sabbath 5-Points SERIES: Sabbath and “the sons of the foreigner” in the End Times

"The prophet Isaiah, speaking of the closing days of earth's history,

when God's “salvation is near to come” (Isa. 56:1-2) talks of the blessing that will come upon “the sons of the foreigner” that is, the gentile, who “keeps the Sabbath.” (Isa. 56:6-8)." 

F.D. Nichols

Lesson of the miracle of the loaves

"The miracle of the loaves teaches dependence upon God.

In this miracle,
*Christ received from the Father;
   *He imparted to the disciples,
      *the disciples to the people,
         *and the people to one another.
So all who are united to Christ will receive from Him the bread of life, and impart it to others." E.G.W.

He that supplieth seed to the sower and bread for food,
shall supply and multiply your seed for sowing,
and increase the fruits of your righteousness:
2 Corinthians 6:11 RSV

Van Wert County, OH Obituary Lesson: Dropping the Lantern [1911]

To day if ye will hear His voice, 

1911 Lantern

harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow.
Q: For what is your life?
A: It is even a vapor,
that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
Hebrews 3:15/James 4:14

"Mrs. Joseph Balcome Van Wert. - Mrs Joseph Balcome dropped a
lantern which exploded and set her clothing on fire, causing her death. [The Mahoning Dispatch, Canfield, Ohio, January 27, 1911 - Sub. by Kate Watson]."

Creation Moment 8/7/2024 - Design Patterns SERIES: Intro

Where is the wise? 

where is the scribe? 

where is the disputer of this world? 

1 Corinthians 1:20

"The theory of intelligent design (ID), which suggests that certain

aspects of nature are better explained by intelligent agency than by law-like regularities and chance events, predicts design patterns in nature. 

---This is because design patterns are technically derived solutions — derived by designers — to challenges encountered within the design space.

Here are the three categories:

“Creational” describes recurring patterns for building components of the cell.
“Structural” describes interconnections or relationships between objects in the cell.
“Behavioral” describes the behavior of cellular objects through time."

EN&V/EmilyReeves

Sabbath 5-Points SERIES: All of Mankind

"Christ declared that the Sabbath was made for man. Mark 2:27. 

He did not say “for the Jews,” but for man, and there is no justification for confining the meaning to less than all of mankind. 

If we thus confine the word, we will soon come into great difficulty. For example, we read that Christ is “the true light, which lights every man that comes into the world.” John 1:9. 

Q: Did Christ bring light only to such men as are Jews? 

Furthermore, the Sabbath was given so that men might have the blessing of rest and the worship of their Creator. 

Q: Why should God desire that only a small fraction of His created beings—for the Jews have ever been but a very small part of the world's population—should partake of the happiness of rest and worship?" 

F.D. Nichols

Health Note - Higher Inflammation

Beloved,

I wish above all things that thou mayest...be in health...

3 John 1:2

"A UCSF study reveals that higher inflammation levels in young adults are associated with poorer cognitive performance in midlife, underscoring the importance of lifestyle choices in reducing

inflammation and preventing cognitive decline.

In their study, published in Neurology on July 3, researchers found that only 10% of those with low inflammation performed poorly on testing of processing speed and memory, compared to 21% and 19%, respectively, of those with either moderate or higher levels of inflammation.

When researchers adjusted for factors like age, physical activity, and total cholesterol, disparities remained in processing speed; and the researchers also found differences in executive functioning, which includes working memory, problem-solving, and impulse control.

The researchers also linked higher levels of inflammation with physical inactivity, 

higher BMI, 

and current smoking."

SciTechDaily

Creation Moment 8/6/2024 - Why do bees use hexagons in honeycombs?

For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. 

1 Corinthians 1:19

"Why hexagons--- It’s a simple matter of geometry. If you want to pack together cells that are identical in shape and size so that they fill all of a flat plane, only three regular shapes (with all sides and angles

identical) will work: equilateral triangles, squares, and hexagons. 

Of these, hexagonal cells require the least total length of wall, compared with triangles or squares of the same area. So it makes sense that bees would choose hexagons, since making wax costs them energy, and they will want to use up as little as possible—just as builders might want to save on the cost of bricks.

If you blow a layer of bubbles on the surface of water—a so-called “bubble raft”—the bubbles become hexagonal, or almost so. You’ll never find a raft of square bubbles: If four bubble walls come together, they instantly rearrange into three-wall junctions with more or less equal angles of 120 degrees between them, like the center of the Mercedes-Benz symbol.

Evidently there are no agents shaping these rafts as bees do with their combs. All that’s guiding the pattern are the laws of physics. Those

laws evidently have definite preferences, such as the bias toward three-way junctions of bubble walls. The same is true of more complicated foams. If you pile up bubbles in three dimensions by blowing through a straw into a bowl of soapy water you’ll see that when bubble walls meet at a vertex, it’s always a four-way union with angles between the intersecting films roughly equal to about 109 degrees—an angle related to the four-faceted geometric tetrahedron.

Q: Like all of mathematics, the hexagons are all just a big accident, right?"
UncommonDescent

Mindfulness

"Mindfulness means focusing your attention on what your body is doing: your beating heart, your breathing, the positions of your arms and legs and the like.

Meditation can be harmful – and can even make mental health problems worse (The Conversation, 19 July 2024). Miguel Farias is

an associate professor of clinical psychology at Coventry University near London, UK. There has been a surge of interest by scientists in mindfulness over the past eight years, Farias says. 

Q: Why? 

“Since mindfulness it’s something you can practice at home for free, it often sounds like the perfect tonic for stress and mental health issues.” Books, YouTube videos and even phone apps make it look beneficial and safe.

Q: But where did this practice come from?

"Mindfulness is a type of Buddhist-based meditation in which you focus on being aware of what you’re sensing, thinking and feeling in

the present moment.

The first recorded evidence for this, found in India, is over 1,500 years old. The Dharmatrāta Meditation Scripture, written by a community of Buddhists, describes various practices and includes reports of symptoms of depression and anxiety that can occur after meditation. It also details cognitive anomalies associated with episodes of psychosis, dissociation and depersonalisation (when people feel the world is “unreal”)."

Red flags should go up immediately upon reading this. Ancient Buddhists in India were not using the scientific method to test what types of mental activity improve well-being. They were following religious texts based on their theological views of the world.

Farias mentioned five types of harm that were reported in the Buddhist “Scripture” by those who meditated in this way, up to and including psychosis. Similar types of harm are being reported by the practitioners of mindfulness today. Some of them are downright scary.

"These studies show that adverse effects are not rare. A 2022 study,

using a sample of 953 people in the US who meditated regularly, showed that over 10% of participants experienced adverse effects which had a significant negative impact on their everyday life and lasted for at least one month.

According to a review of over 40 years of research that was published in 2020, the most common adverse effects are anxiety and depression. These are followed by psychotic or delusional symptoms, dissociation or depersonalisation, and fear or terror."

Such adverse effects, Farias adds, are not limited to habitual practitioners, but include first-time users or dabblers into mindfulness. There are many, he admits, that seem to benefit from mindfulness meditation, but the promoters on social media rarely mention the potential harms.

Mindfulness is an occult practice, not a science! The Bible warns about the occult. Avoid all forms of divination, including the seemingly innocent ones like water witching and palm reading. They are doorways for demons to gain access to human minds that can lead to further deception and oppression later on.

Psychologists who refuse to consider the existence of evil spirits cannot begin to understand what is going on when they merely speak of “unpleasant experiences” by people who have opened themselves up to demonic powers, and are suffering the consequences. Imagine a secular scientist watching the man with the “Legion” of demons in Mark 5, then trying to write it up in a scientific paper in psychological terms! It would be completely baffling to him. He would see only a man acting crazy, but not the evil spirits controlling him. "

CEH

Creation Moment 8/5/2024 - the Boyer book

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
Proverbs 22:6

"The first set of books reviewed is a lavishly illustrated set of five books, three of which I reviewed, written for children from 7 to 12 years old. 

National Geographic Society, the highly respected publisher, has sold many thousands of copies. As evidence of their popularity, these books have over 38,000 ratings on Amazon. 

Positive features of the books include color illustrations on every page and that they are very well written on engaging topics often of interest to young people. The downside is that some volumes in the set contain evolution from cover to cover, much of it having been refuted decades ago. 

An example from the first volume under the subheading “What Is Evolution?” defines evolution as the following:

"The theory of evolution explains how all plants and animals—including humans—slowly change over time to improve their chances of survival. All life-forms are subject to the forces of “natural selection” in which nature favors changes (tougher beaks, sharper teeth, keener eyesight, etc.) that help a species survive and reproduce. . . . Eventually, all of these adaptations add up until one species evolves into a new one. If you go back far enough in Earth’s history, all life-forms—from great white sharks to cherry trees—evolved from a common ancestor. (Boyer 2015, 60)"

On page 60 is pictured the now omnipresent, fictional progression from ape to the neanderthal man ending with modern man. In an

attempt to persuade the reader of the truth of evolution, the author noted that those who disagree with evolution ask, “If humans evolved from apes, then why do chimpanzees and other apes still exist?” (Boyer 2015, 61). The reason given is that apes and humans both evolved from a common ancestor which, they fail to mention, was a nonexistent, hypothetical ape.

In the section on the origin of languages, the book admits that “researchers can only guess when humans first began forming sounds into words to communicate thoughts” (Boyer 2015, 118). The text adds that “ancestors of the human species possessed the mouth and throat parts necessary to pronounce words nearly two million years ago, but they likely didn’t have much to talk about until they started creating complex tools and building fires more than a million years later” (Boyer 2015, 118). 

The author assumed that Australopithecus afarensis evolved into Homo erectus over two million years ago, and little evidence exists that Australopithecus afarensis could use language. Yet the author stated without evidence that the beginning of human beings was “200 thousand years ago” (Boyer 2015, 59).

Evolution is repeatedly personalized. In answer to the question “why do humans have ten fingers,” Boyer answered: “The process of evolution determined that the most beneficial number of fingers and toes for our survival [was five] . . . evolution determined that five fingers per hand are just right for humans” (Boyer 2015, 28).

In answer to the question “why are some body parts pointless,” the book answered: “Called ‘vestigial’ organs, these useless body parts are leftovers from our evolutionary ancestors, who actually needed them” (Boyer 2015, 14). Among those “vestigial” organs listed was the coccyx, which the author claimed “is a leftover from animals that needed tails for balance or grasping tree branches” (Boyer 2015, 14). However, in actuality, the coccyx functions as an attachment point for various muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Posteriorly, the lateral edges function as insertion sites for the coccygeal muscles, the sacrospinous ligament, the sacrotuberous ligament, and the fibers of the gluteus maximus muscle. Although these muscles have other attachment points, this redundancy provides additional needed support and serves as a critical function of the coccyx. A coccygectomy (removal of the coccyx) creates the risk of loss of bowel control and nerve damage. The surgery is often done to relieve pain, but its removal does not always stop the pain.

Also listed were wisdom teeth which, as is true of all other teeth, are pulled only if they cause a problem, usually if they become impacted. There are no proven health benefits of pulling problem-free wisdom teeth. Removing them is usually unpleasant, and their removal may cause unwanted health side effects.

Human evolution in the Boyer book is taught as an unassailable fact: “Humans have evolved to become less hairy in the past six million years or so, but we still have these clumps of fur above our eyes” (Boyer 2015, 14). Then, after claiming that goose bumps serve no purpose, the author listed several important purposes that they do serve (Boyer 2015, 15). In answer to the question “why do we think baby animals are cute,” the book’s answer is that “we have evolved to think that any creature with a big head, large eyes, and a button nose—features that most human babies share—is cute. . . . Evolution has wired our brains to think babies are cute” (Boyer 2015, 187). Besides personifying evolution, this answer does not answer why we perceive baby animals as cute any more than explaining that we have eyes because we need to be able to see. To claim that we evolved eyes to see the world around us is not an answer. The answer to the question “why am I here” was given two full pages to show how some chemical soup 3.8 billion years ago created life which, after millions of years, evolved into humans (Boyer 2015, 59). Boyer added that our species began evolving 200,000 years ago after natural selection wiped out our less fit ape relatives.

There was not a word about the many controversies related to human evolution—not to mention the fact that almost half of all Americans have concluded that we did not evolve but were created by God (Moyers 2013; Newport 2004). The books openly teach a secular worldview, namely a belief that attempts to answer the questions of where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going—none of which can be answered by science. 

Evolution teaches that we evolved from simpler forms of life, that we are here to survive and reproduce, and that when we die, we are gone forever. This is a secular religion. 

On the other hand, Christianity teaches that God created all life, that our purpose is to serve our Creator God and our fellow humans, perhaps to raise a family, and that our afterlife depends on whether we have asked Christ to save us from our sin." AIG

Gleanings from Genesis on the Sabbath

This is the book of the generations of Adam. Genesis 5:1 

"Q: What is the nature of the book of Genesis? 

A: It is plainly, from beginning to end, a book of history. 

It sets forth a narrative, in chronological order, 

of events from the creation through the death of Joseph. 

Therefore, in the absence of clear evidence to the contrary, we should

consider the various parts of it, the accounts of what men said and did, and likewise the accounts of what God said and did, as being historical incidents occurring at the time indicated in the narrative. 

The account of God's resting on the seventh day of creation week and blessing and sanctifying it fits as naturally into the historical sequence as do any other incidents mentioned in Genesis. 

---There is nothing in the context to suggest otherwise." 

F.D. Nichols