Creation Moment 12/14/2025 - A Billion-Year Revision: "narrative triangulation"

Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. 

Romans 1:22 NLT

"A team from the University of Bristol argues that gene-duplication events shared by all eukaryotes push the origin of complexity far deeper into Earth history than anyone expected.
Ho-hum. So far, so ordinary.
But then comes a revision of staggering proportions: eukaryotes were apparently evolving complex features for a billion years before mitochondria arrived, all while living in oceans devoid of oxygen.

Evolutionary biologist Philip Donoghue summarizes the surprise:

“One of our most significant findings was that the mitochondria
arose significantly later than expected. The timing coincides with the first substantial rise in atmospheric oxygen… The archaeal ancestor of eukaryotes began evolving complex features roughly a billion years before oxygen became abundant, in oceans that were entirely anoxic.”

The Metabolic Problem:
Readers familiar with basic bioenergetics may pause here. Mitochondria are not decorative extras, they are the ATP engines that make eukaryotic complexity metabolically possible. An archaeal cell attempting to evolve membranes, cytoskeletons, phagocytosis, and all the other high-energy traits of eukaryotes without mitochondria is like a stone-age village attempting to develop skyscrapers before the invention of steel.
The metabolic math simply does not work.

The Narrative Method Revealed:
Q: So what do the researchers do with this contradiction? 

A: They do not open the obvious question – how a metabolically impossible cell could evolve for a billion years – they expand the narrative. The timeline is redrawn, the mitochondria are repositioned, and the new picture is carefully fitted into the broader evolutionary story.

Study coauthor Christopher Kay makes the method explicit:

“It has required the combination of a number of disciplines to do this: palaeontology to inform the timeline, phylogenetics to create faithful and useful trees, and molecular biology to give these gene families a context. It was a big job.”

Indeed, it was.
Each discipline listed already presupposes the evolutionary timeline used to calibrate the others. Fossils inform the molecular clocks, which structure the phylogenetic trees, which reinterpret the fossils. 

The appearance of interdisciplinarity becomes 

a kind of narrative triangulation.

The story confirms … the story:
This is why the metabolic impossibility of billion-year pre-mitochondrial complexity does not register as a conceptual red flag. It becomes a storytelling opportunity. The contradiction is absorbed into a more sweeping arc where complexity, oxygenation, and the rise of mitochondria are harmonized, even if the harmony exists only at the narrative level.

Evolution once again shows itself as a self-correcting story, not a self-correcting science." 

CEH

The Serpent in Genesis 3 SERIES: Did the Serpent Originally Have Legs?

"In Genesis 3:14, God curses the crafty serpent for his role in tempting Eve, “The Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.’” 

Q: Does the fact that God says to the serpent “on your belly you

shall go” indicate that the serpent originally walked on legs? 

A: Many believe the curse on the serpent “on your belly you shall go” is symbolic, as the rest of the verse states “and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.” Since serpents do not literally eat dust, the curse is not speaking about a physical change in the serpent but is a way of stressing the humiliation of the serpent (Isaiah 65:25; Micah 7:17). 

Later in Biblical history, a creature that goes on its belly was seen as unclean (Leviticus 11:42). As part of the same curse against the serpent, Genesis 3:15 also uses symbolic language (“he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel”), which the Lord Jesus fulfills when he defeated Satan through his death on the cross (1 John 3:8).

Nevertheless, the words of Genesis 3:14 containing a symbolic meaning does not necessarily mean that the punishment did not alter the serpent physically. As part of God’s judgment, a physical change took place to the ground so that it becomes more difficult to plant (Genesis 3:17), a physical change took place in plants so that they produced thorns (Genesis 3:18), and a physical change took place with Adam as he would return to the dust of the ground and physical death would come into the world (Genesis 3:19; Romans 5:12). Since these physical changes were part of God’s judgment, it is possible that the serpent also went through a physical change: being reduced to crawling on its belly." 

AIG

Creation Moment 12/13/2025 -What do tRNAs tell us?

For in Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible...Colossians 1:16 NIV

"What is it about the simplest living things that needs to be explained? For example, all self-reproducing (‘living’) cells have a set of very complex chemical units called tRNAs (‘transfer RNAs’). There must be at least one unique tRNA for each of the ~20 amino acids that make up proteins.

These tRNAs are essential for the manufacture of all proteins since the cell’s machinery uses them to interpret, from the DNA code, which amino acid is to be used at each position of a protein. 

But these are just a small component of the genetic equipment needed! Dr. Truman researched the biochemical source of tRNAs and noted that their manufacture was coded for on DNA and they must be extracted by special proteins. 

But these proteins could only exist if functional tRNAs were already available to help decode instructions for their manufacture. 

He concluded that tRNAs and proteins could never arise by any natural (evolutionary) process." 

CMI

The Serpent in Genesis 3 SERIES: Was Adam with Eve When She Spoke to the Serpent?

"In Genesis 3:6, Eve invites Adam to join her in disobedience: “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” 

Q: Does the fact that Genesis 3:6 states that Adam was “with her”

mean he was a witness to the entire conversation between the serpent and Eve? 

Q: Or does it indicate that Adam had only just arrived on the scene the moment Eve took the fruit?

Those who believe Adam was with Eve during the entire conversation point out that when the serpent speaks to Eve, the plural form of the verb is used: “You shall not eat . . .” (Genesis 3:2), “you will not surely die . . .” (Genesis 3:4), “when you eat of it . . .” (Genesis 3:5).

When God speaks to Adam after the fall, He addresses him alone (Genesis 3:9, 11). Yet Adam blames God for giving him Eve to be “with him,” which may also suggest that when Eve was being tempted by the serpent he was, at least passively, “with her.”." 

AIG

Creation Moment 12/12/2025 - Entanglement

He existed before anything else,

and He holds all creation together.

Colossians 1:17 NLT

"At COSM this week, author Louisa Gilder spoke about her book The Age of Entanglement (2009), about the bizarre quantum mechanics phenomenon where two particles become linked, such that they share the same quantum state. But it gets a lot weirder, because the distance between the two particles doesn’t affect their entangled behavior.

Under entanglement, measuring a property of one particle determines

the outcome of the measurement on the other particle. It’s been proposed that the correlation between entangled particles happens instantaneously — certainly faster than the speed of light. Einstein famously called this “spooky action at a distance.” This non-distance-related relationship is called “non-locality.”

Initially, many scientists felt that non-locality or “action at a distance” was too spooky to be correct. They proposed that there were “hidden local variables” that cause particles to behave in the same manner. So quantum entanglement wasn’t actually a thing.
This idea of hidden local variables was famously tested in 1972 in the Freedman–Clauser experiment, conducted at Berkeley, which proved that there was no pre-determined, local-variable-governed behavior in quantum particles. Quantum entanglement is real.

But again, it gets weirder. Measuring the state of one particle in an entangled pair destroys the entanglement. All of this has implications for materialism.
First, quantum mechanics shows that the old materialistic conception of a universe composed of billiard-ball-like particles bumping around is wrong. The famous wave-particle duality of matter/energy refutes

that model, but certainly so does quantum entanglement, where particles separated by vast distances behave in the same manner through what appears to be an instantaneous link.
Second, quantum entanglement shows that materialistic, mechanistic causation is not enough and you need to be open to other deeper, layers of reality and causality. These implications are precisely why materialistic scientists initially opposed the reality of entanglement and believed (wrongly) there were alternative “hidden local variable” explanations.

Q: Does this point to unseen dimensions or deeper realities, even immaterial ones?
Louisa Gilder remarked that “The world is so much more mysterious than what we just see.”
Gilder closed by quoting the famous mathematician and physicist

John von Neumann who said, “If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it’s only because they do not understand how complicated life is.”

Yet also mysteriously, the behavior of nature is elegantly described by mathematics — by what was famously called by the Nobel Prize winning theoretical physicist and mathematician Eugene Wigner, “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics.” As he put it: “the enormous usefulness of mathematics in the natural sciences is something bordering on the mysterious and … there is no rational explanation for it “

Q: If these points don’t reveal design in nature, what does?"

Casey Luskin

The Serpent in Genesis 3 SERIES: How Did the Serpent Tempt Eve?

"In his temptation of Eve, the serpent begins by distorting God’s Word, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1). The serpent’s words are designed to get Eve to debate God’s command and entertain the possibility that God did not know what was best or that he was withholding something from them.

Eve probably knew of the command through Adam (Genesis 3:2–3).

This would indicate that Eve was the most susceptible of the first couple, and evidently, the serpent knows this. 

It appears that Eve is uncertain about the command God has given Adam, as she replies to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die” (Genesis 3:2–3). Although Eve is partly correct in her response to the serpent, she also shifts the emphasis in several places:

Eve omits from the original command the word “every,” which places the command in the context of liberality.

Eve identifies the tree according to its location rather than its significance.

Eve adds the phrase “neither shall you touch it,” which makes the commandment stricter.

Eve weakens the penalty of death to “lest you die.” The Lord God had said “you shall surely die.”

Eve’s response to the serpent shows that his distorting of God’s Word leads her to doubt God’s Word. The serpent goes on to call God’s truthfulness in question (he denies God’s warning) and his trustworthiness (by challenging his motives).

Instead of obeying God’s Word not to eat from the tree, Eve sees “the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate” (Genesis 3:6). 

The serpent’s deception leads the first couple to judge the fruit apart from God’s explicit command to them. This was an attempt to be like God, and their rebellion resulted in their knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3:22)." 

AIG

Creation Moment 12/11/2025 - Bipedalism

And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, 

after Our likeness: 

Genesis 1:26

"The supposed evolution of bipedalism continues to be a major obstacle in the narrative that humans evolved from apelike ancestors.

For example, in 2024, researchers from New York University reported, “While scientists have long been intrigued by the question of how humans’ bipedal stance and movement evolved from a quadrupedal ancestor, neither past studies nor fossil records have permitted the reconstruction of a clear and definitive history of the early evolutionary stages that led to human bipedalism.”

Recently, evolutionists from Harvard allegedly found “the genetic

clues that let humans walk on two legs,” stating that “two small changes in human DNA may have played a big role in helping our ancestors walk upright.”

According to their interpretation, one of these supposed changes caused the ilium (hip bone) to shift 90° in humans. This is significant because muscle attachment to the pelvis would also have needed to radically change.

Terence Capellini, an evolutionary biologist and study coauthor at Harvard, said these alleged changes were “essential for creating and shifting muscles that are usually on the back of the animal, pushing the animal forward, to now being on the sides, helping us stay upright as we walk.”

Evolutionary explanations are often filled with such just-so stories. 

Q: What are the specific links in human evolution that document such a transition? “Creating and shifting muscles”? How could all of that happen at the same time?

To investigate developmental differences, the scientists examined samples of developing pelvic tissue from chimps, mice, and people, pairing the microscopic samples with CT scans. 

Q: What did they find?

A: Analysis revealed that the difference came from subtle changes in gene regulation—the “on-off switches” that control how and when certain genes are active.
In humans, cartilage-forming genes switched on in new regions, prompting horizontal growth, while bone-forming genes activated later, slowing the hardening process.

Furthermore, sharing many common developmental genes is hardly surprising since humans also share genes with other organisms for breaking down and digesting proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. 

This is evidence of a common Designer,

 not a common ancestor.

God designed people as people, including our distinctive pelvic cartilage that grows sideways, while it grows vertically in apes and chimps. A Nature article addressing the evolution of hominin bipedalism described the difference of the ilia of humans and apes: “One of the earliest and most important shifts was an ilium, or superior pelvic bone, that became shortened cranial-caudally, widened anterior-posteriorly, and aligned parasagittally compared with the ilia of apes.” 

Exactly.

But there was no shift from one into the other. The scientists were simply describing the human ilium as it exists today. They also observed “a unique perichondral pattern of bone formation (both radial and non-internalizing) in human ilia that differs from and is delayed (underwent a heterochronic shift) compared with all studied non-human primates and the mouse.” These descriptions highlight additional anatomical differences between humans and the animals listed.

The same Nature article went on to say, “The ilium changes compared with living primates are an evolutionary novelty,” and it claimed these “innovations facilitated further growth of the human pelvis and the unique formation of the ilium among primates.”5 But terms like “novelty” and “innovation” have no single agreed-upon definition in evolutionary biology. Evolutionist Michael Denton stated that “explaining how novelties come about is one of the major unfinished tasks of evolutionary biology.”

Q: But did the ilium slowly change as unknown primates became human? 

A: No. At least, there is no fossil evidence for this. The human pelvis is designed for upright walking, and that of the chimp is designed for climbing.

Evolutionists are still stumped trying to explain any human-chimp

connection. One evolutionist said, “How and why natural selection favored the transition to bipedal posture and locomotion are likewise ongoing subjects of scholarly debate and conjecture.”

To conclude, chimps have always been chimps and people have always been people. Without fossil evidence, evolutionists do not know what the common ancestor of humans and chimps was, nor when this divergence occurred. 

Q: If that is true, how can they be so sure that our upright walking was due to “two major developmental genetic innovations that shaped the human ilium ”? 

---What they discovered are two more genetic differences uniquely found in human DNA, furthering the divide between man and chimps." 

ICR

The Serpent in Genesis 3 SERIES: Should Eve Have Been Surprised to Hear the Serpent Speak?

"For many modern readers of the Bible, perhaps the most surprising feature of Genesis 3 is the talking serpent. This is partly because of the naturalistic worldview by which they interpret the text. 

Q: But would a talking serpent have surprised Eve? 

A: Some believe Eve’s lack of surprise is an indication that the

serpent itself had the ability to speak. However, Genesis 3 gives no specific explanation for the serpent’s ability to speak, other than it was “crafty.” There is no clear indication in the early chapters of Genesis that animals had the ability to speak. While some animals today can mimic human speech (African grey parrots; beluga and orca whales), there is no animal that can speak in the sense of creating complex abstract language.

Q: Why is it that man can speak but animals cannot? 

A: In creation week, God not only spoke creation into existence but He spoke to Adam and Eve who were made in his image (Genesis 1:26–27, 2:16–17). 

As an image bearer of God, Adam had the ability to speak; he named the animals and thereby exercised his dominion over them (Genesis 2:20). In naming the animals, Adam showed how different he was from them as the animals could not name themselves. This is because animals were not made in the image of God, and unlike Adam, they did not have the ability to speak. 

This is why Old Testament scholar E. J. Young states,

"The actions of the serpent, however, constitute a denial that God has made him. The serpent speaks; it does what animals cannot do. Only man, of earthly creatures, possesses the ability to speak. Yet the serpent acts as a man; it raises itself above the beasts of the field which the Lord God had made and it elevates itself to an equality with man. There is something wrong and Eve should have recognized this as soon as the serpent began to speak."

The very clear distinction between man and the animals shows that a speaking serpent is strange in the context of the creation account. The Bible doesn’t say how Eve reacted when she heard the serpent, but to us, it’s a signal that something strange is going on. And the fact that the serpent immediately attacks God’s Word tells us that Satan is behind the serpent’s speech." 

AIG

Creation Moment 12/10/2025 - A "finely tuned biological dance"

"Little by little, piece by piece, man’s knowledge of the internal workings of plants is growing—akin to the putting together of a large jigsaw puzzle. And speaking of jigsaw puzzles, plants actually manufacture their own—in the leaves. All pavement cells in the leaf epidermis “grow into interlocking patterns resembling jigsaw puzzle pieces.”

Researchers have now identified some of the molecular processes

regulating cell growth so as to form the jigsaw pattern “in a controlled and ordered way”. A group of enzymes known as GTPases (guanosine triphosphatases) play a key role in “a complicated and coordinated series” of chemical interactions. 

In simple terms, these proteins tell one part of a cell to grow outward to form a ‘lobe’ while correspondingly telling the neighboring cell at that point to recede or indent itself so as to form a ‘neck’ that interlocks perfectly.

Controlled, ordered, complicated, coordinated. While there’s still much more to learn about how construction of the jigsaw pattern can be coordinated in such an orderly manner, what is already known about the phenomenon has been described as “a finely tuned biological dance”.

This is not the only time that scientists have referred to the workings of plants in such terms. For instance, when they discovered roots grow in rhythmic pulses, one researcher said, “Everything’s coordinated. It’s like a dance,” with the “entire complicated ballet” repeating every three minutes.

Of course, such finely-tuned, coordinated ‘dances’ don’t fit the no-Designer-was-necessary evolutionary storyline so often paraded today. 

Rather, a very different ‘big picture’ emerges, for those with eyes to see. 

Orderliness, where every piece of the puzzle fits in perfect and strengthening juxtaposition with its neighbors, cannot arise by itself from disorder, but only by design. 

And contrary to atheistic scoffing, recognizing God as Creator gives

more impetus and motivation for undertaking scientific research, not less. 

Q: For who would not want to explore and admire the intricacies performed by the Hand of the Master Designer? As the Psalmist wrote, “Great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in them” (Psalm 111:2)." 

CMI

The Serpent in Genesis 3 SERIES: Who Is the Serpent?

"Genesis 3:1 states, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God actually say, “You shall not eat of any tree in the garden”?’” 

Instead of identifying the serpent, Moses tells us two things about him: (1) he is crafty; (2) he is a beast (animal) made by the Lord God.

The serpent is compared to one of the beasts of the field that the Lord God had made (Genesis 1:25, 2:19), so he is identified as being part of the animal kingdom. 

The serpent was a part of God’s “very good” creation (Genesis 1:31). Yet the serpent is described as “crafty.” 

The Hebrew word here (ʿārûm) is an ambiguous term because it can

have a positive meaning “prudent” (Proverbs 12:16, 23, 13:16, 14:8) but it can also have a negative meaning “crafty” (Job 5:12, 15:5). The negative meaning “crafty” fits the context of Genesis 3 as the serpent’s speech distorts the Word of God (Genesis 3:1–5; 2:16–17). The description of the serpent as “crafty” (ʿārûm) is also a play on the word “naked” (ʿārôm) in Genesis 2:25: Adam and Eve are “nude,” but the serpent is “shrewd.” The serpent’s shrewdness causes Adam and Eve to experience the shame of their nakedness (Genesis 3:7).

Q: Does the fact that the serpent can speak mean he is a mythological creature? 

A: No, the garden in Eden is not the magical land of Narnia. The garden in Eden is a part of God’s very good creation that had real trees with real fruit, a real river, real animals, and real people (see Genesis 2:4–25). Moreover, the New Testament always treats Genesis 3 as real history (1 Timothy 2:13–14; 2 Corinthians 11:3).

Q: How then should we understand the talking serpent? 

A: The only other time in the Bible when an animal speaks is in the account of Balaam’s donkey (Numbers 22:28). 

In that account, God opens the mouth of the donkey so it can speak. Moses was not trying to depict a world in which animals can speak but was describing what was in fact a supernatural act. 

*So the only other example of a talking animal in Scripture implies that it was through supernatural intervention. 

*The fact that the serpent’s speech directly distorts God’s Word and calls into question the trustworthiness of his character suggests there is an evil force behind the serpent (John 8:44).

Although Genesis never calls the serpent Satan, in the progression of revelation the New Testament states that the serpent was Satan (Revelation 12:9, 20:2; 2 Corinthians 11:3, 14).

The serpent was not acting on its own but was in fact used by Satan to be his mouthpiece in the temptation of Eve. This is why both the serpent and Satan are judged by God for their part in the fall of mankind." 

AIG

Creation Moment 12/9/2025 - Gravity: the DESIGNERS tool

And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.
Colossians 1:17

"We enjoy the warmth of sunshine on a beautiful fall day, or the red, orange, and yellow leaves adorning the trees, or the silver light of the moon in its various phases. These, and almost every manifestation of physical nature and life, form a tapestry that sustains and nurtures our souls. The plot thickens, however, when we examine the underlying forces between particles that cumulatively shape all that we see and experience.

If we think of gravity, we often relate it to the weight of something

— more gravity, more weight. Maybe we’ve seen videos of astronauts on the moon, as if they’re walking in slow motion or under water. These effects come from the moon’s surface gravity being about six times less than Earth’s. 

Q: What causes this? 

A: Apparently not just the mass of the moon, since its mass is about 81 times less than the mass of the Earth.

Sir Isaac Newton discerned the correct relationship for the force of gravity — not only is it proportional to the masses of the attracting objects, but it’s inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. The moon is only about 27 percent of the size (radius) of the Earth, so an astronaut standing on the surface of the moon is nearly four times closer to its center than if the astronaut was standing on Earth. Put it all together, and according to Newton’s law of gravity, the weight of the astronaut on the moon is (1/81)/(0.27)2=1/5.9 (or about one sixth) of their weight on Earth.

Einstein’s theory of general relativity extends our understanding of gravity beyond Newton’s classical theory and introduces us to some of the most bizarre physical effects in the universe. General relativity shows that mass (and even the mass-equivalent of energy) bends space itself, so that light rays following the curvature of space can deviate from a straight line and can even undergo “gravitational lensing.”

Perhaps even more unbelievable is the effect of gravity on time. Einstein’s theory shows that time slows down in a stronger

gravitational field — an effect that manifests in our GPS systems and must be compensated for to allow the positioning satellites to accurately track your position when driving. To appreciate the degree of fine-tuning in this figure, imagine that someone calculated that the universe couldn’t support any life if it was just one second older or younger than it presently is. This would give a fine-tuning in age of one part in 10 to the 17th. The fine-tuning of gravity is ten million times a trillion, trillion, trillion times more delicately tuned than that!

As a force of nature, gravity is the ultimate weakling. Astrophysicists have calculated that the extreme weakness of gravity compared to the electromagnetic force (to the tune of about a trillion times a trillion times a trillion times weaker) is necessary for the gravity-pressure balancing act to make a star like our sun shine and support life on a planet like Earth. To get a stable stellar balance at all requires fine tuning the ratio of the strengths of these forces to one part in 10 to the power of 35.

However, in determining the livability of an atmosphere, a balance must exist between the loss rates of gases that are favorable for life and those that are not. For example, consider methane, ammonia, and water vapor, with nominal molecular weights of 16, 17, and 18, respectively. The average velocity of an atmospheric molecule is inversely proportional to the square root of its molecular weight, and so it’s more likely that methane and ammonia would escape into space over time than would water vapor. 

If gravity were slightly different, our atmosphere could either see a build-up of these unhealthy gases over time, or a higher loss rate of essential water vapor.

Life requires a number of different constants to be related to each

other in unusual and precise ways….Sure, there are many dials. But there are also many requirements for life. Adding more dials opens up more space, but most of this space is dead.
Without gravity, life would be nonexistent in our universe, and the more in-depth we study the effects of gravity, the more evidence we find for its remarkably finely tuned properties to support life."
Science&CultureToday

IN the NEWS - Talk of an AI Christ

Q: What if?....what IF AI impersonated Christ and gained billions of followers? This is SCARY stuff.....
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 1 John 4:1

"The A in AI could stand for “Almighty”, according to a theory put forward by Joe Rogan about what form Jesus Christ could take if he were to return.

Interviewed on the American Alchemy podcast, Rogan gave his views on aliens, the future and artificial intelligence.
Rogan suggested Jesus could come back thanks to technology, telling the host Jesse Michels, “Jesus was born out of a virgin mother, what’s more virgin than a computer?”
He said that if there was a “loving powerful” person who can show people how to live, who better than artificial intelligence to do that?

Rogan said that Jesus can return “with all the powers of Jesus,” such as the ability to perform miracles." 

Newsweek

On the Streets of Babylon: Transitioning taking place on the Streets

Babylon is fallen, is fallen,..
Come out of her, My people,
Revelation 14:8/18:4

There seems to be some "Transitioning"  taking place on the Streets of Babylon....

"A New York pastor surprised churchgoers with the revelation that he

is transitioning into a woman and will now use she/her pronouns.
Phil Phaneuf, a 51 year old man, told his congregation at North Chili United Methodist Church (UMC) during Sun-day service that he has been undergoing a gender transition.
'I get to announce with joy that I am transitioning. I am affirming and saying to all of you that I am transgender,' the veteran pastor, wearing a rainbow stole, declared this past Sun-day.
Phaneuf, who told listeners that his new name will be Phillippa Faye Phaneuf, said he will continue to go by 'Reverend Phil.'" Fulcrum7

IN the NEWS - CANADA: Codified Disdain of God

But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us. Luke 19:14

"Even though the Canadian Charter explicitly guarantees “freedom of conscience and religion,” Ontario doctors with a religious objection to committing euthanasia or abortion were denied conscience

protections by courts, thereby requiring them to kill or refer to a doctor they know will kill (“effective referral”) or face professional discipline. The judge ruled that if they didn’t like it, they should get out of medicine.

In Quebec, public religious practice is in danger of being further suppressed than it already is. The province previously banned the wearing of religious symbols by public sector employees. Now, the ruling government wants to curtail religious practices more broadly and has filed Bill 9, “An Act Respecting the Reinforcement of Laicity in Québec,” toward attaining that end.

Among its provisions, the bill would ban group prayer in public places like parks:

"No public road, within the meaning of the third paragraph of section 66 of the Municipal Powers Act (chapter C-47.1), or public park may be used for the purposes of collective religious practice unless a municipality authorizes, exceptionally and on a case-by-case basis, such a use in its public domain by resolution of the municipal council."

Another aspect of the bill would ban the accreditation of religious schools and repeal existing accreditations:

"No accreditation may be granted to an institution whose provision of educational services prescribed in the basic school regulation during the hours of activities devoted to those services, or whose provision of childcare services, is based on religious standards or precepts, on the transmission of religious convictions or beliefs, or on religious practice, or to an institution that practices segregation, in particular on the basis of religious criteria, in the selection of students or of personnel members."

An accreditation may be revoked under section 123 for failure to comply with the conditions set out in the first paragraph.

It even bans the use of religious symbols in communications:

"No institution or body referred to in section 3 may prominently display a representation of a religious symbol in its communications, unless that religious symbol is an integral part of the logo or coat of arms used by the institution or body on (insert the date preceding the date of introduction of this bill)."

Science&Culture

Papal Notes - Lebanon bends the knee

"When you listen carefully to the statements made by Lebanon’s leaders during the Pope’s visit, it becomes clear that people are misplacing their hope. 

Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai openly said that the nation is depending on the Pope’s visit to “turn the page” and bring “hope and peace.” 

His words present the Pontiff as the key figure capable of renewing the country, healing divisions, and guiding Lebanon through its “very, very critical moment.”
In Lebanon, many are looking to the Pope as their source of hope, believing that his visit can bring change and a fresh start for their troubled nation. These leaders describe his presence as the key to “opening a new page,” revealing a growing dependence on Rome and its leader as the answer to Lebanon’s crisis, rather than looking to Christ—the only true source of lasting peace, hope, and restoration.
The Bible consistently warns that ultimate hope cannot be found in

man: “Cursed be the man that trusteth in man” (Jeremiah 17:5). 
Revelation 13, 17, and 18 reveal that the world will increasingly turn to the Papal system as the center for global unity, peace, and healing. Lebanon’s longing for the Pope to bring renewal and transformation is a small but significant example of this global trend." 

AdventMessenger

Creation Moment 12/8/2025 - DESIGN or Lady Luck?

Even every one that is called by My name: 

for I have created him for My glory, 

I have formed him;

 yea, I have made him. 

Isaiah 43:7

"Humans have long been drawn to tessellated patterns: “repeated pattern of geometric, discrete elements bound by a joint material.” A brick wall bound by mortar is a simple example; tiles and mosaics are more sophisticated. Artists have incorporated tiles into their creations.

In their paper, “Tiled material systems: Exploring biodiversity and multifunctionality of a universal and structural motif,” Jana Ciecierska-Holmes et al. asked why functional needs of organisms would result in repeating patterns that humans find beautiful.

"Humans are drawn to patterns and hierarchies in nature, mimicking them particularly in decoration and architecture. Natural patterns, however, are never purely esthetic and, since evolution works on a variety of factors simultaneously, natural structural systems are intrinsically multifunctional. In order to understand the roles that structural patterns play in biology (and therefore their potential capabilities and utilization in design, architecture and engineering),

we need to catalog and encapsulate the diversity of examples and the materials involved. Here, we provide a first classification of biological “tilings,” tessellated natural architectures that involve the repeated pattern of geometric, discrete elements bound by a joint material. By examining 100 examples across the Tree of Life, we reveal this natural structural motif is unexpectedly prevalent: we cover a huge taxonomic diversity, eight orders of magnitude in size scale, and myriad morphologies and functions ranging from optics to armor, allowing us to construct a hierarchical system of eight variables to classify form, function, and materiality in biological tilings."

From their investigation of these 100 examples, they created a database “as a multidisciplinary meeting point (e.g. for biologists, designers, engineers, architects)” that could be used “exploring selective pressures and trade-offs and a launchpad for future research and collaborative, cross-disciplinary, bioinspired projects.” 

Q: How does their project impinge on questions of Darwinism vs. design? 

Q: Is there any conceivable “selective pressure” for tiled patterns?

Q: And wouldn’t consideration of trade-offs presuppose the foresight to choose the best set of options?

From well-known examples, we can evaluate potential functional benefits of tessellation that — for whatever reason — we humans find attractive. Beehive hexagons (made by bees but external to their bodies) are stackable, using the least amount of beeswax and the greatest area. Some butterfly scales produce optical effects for mimicry or mate attraction. The overlapping scales on armadillos and some reptiles and arthropods maintain mobility for the animal while shielding the interior. The possible functions of biological tiles are listed in the database:Structural support

Shielding

Surface interaction (adhesion, grip)

Sensing

Separation (regulating inside/outside flux)

Mobility (e.g., armored animals that roll)

Optic (e.g., structural color)

It should be noted that function and beauty are not mutually exclusive. Human architectural projects, including concert halls, bridges, and art galleries often exhibit both.
A functional advantage does not confer upon an organism the desire or power to innovate a solution providing the advantage. Darwinian innovations, remember, are based on chance variations, not foresight. In his new book False Messiah, Neil Thomas discusses at length how Darwin’s chance-based theory deified “Mother Nature” as Lady Luck with imagined causal powers to engineer any advantageous variation."
David Coppedge

The first 4 Commandments and the Mark of the Beast

The Mark of the Beast controversy assaults the first 4 on the table  of God's Commandments:

1) Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Exodus 20:3

It replaces via worship as God with the "Beast".

2) Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any

likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; Exodus 20:4,5

It replaces the worship of God with an "Image" to the Beast.

3) Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Exodus 20:7

It blasphemes the name of God by taking the place of God in adoration, veneration and worship.

4) Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou

labor, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work....For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. Exodus 20:8-11

It replaces God's Holy Sabbath Day (seal) with it's own counterfeit (mark).....the 7th day Sabbath is the Seal that identifies God as CREATOR---therefore He alone is God.

Creation Moment 12/7/2025 - The "Soul": "get out of the materialist paradigm"

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Genesis 2:7

"Last Wednesday, COSM 2025 featured a most interesting panel discussion between neurosurgeon Michael Egnor and historian of scinece Michael Shermer.

The question was, “Does neuroscience show that we are mere biological machines?”

Shermer, executive director of the Skeptics Society, takes the view:

"Humans are biological machines that evolved from previous

biological machines going back billions of years. Mind, sentience, consciousness, intelligence, and free will evolved gradually, elements of which can be found in our ancestors and related contemporaries such as non-human great apes and cetaceans. There is no reason to believe that at some point in the evolutionary process an Intelligent Designer or Deity intervened to direct natural selection in a particular direction. Humans no more have souls than do chimps, gorillas, whales, or my Chocolate lab Hitch."

A key element of his critique is that the soul is not really a good explanation for our human reality.

"How does an immaterial soul register light and sound or move the muscles of the vocal tract, respond to psychoactive drugs. If a soul can animate the body without a brain, what do you need the brain for in the first place? If we can reason and have free will without a brain, then why bother with the brain and body? Why not just be a soul?"

Here’s one general comment Egnor made in response, stressing the non-locality of the soul:

"There’s no from [for the soul], it’s not a location. They are abilities that we have that are not material. “From” implies a location which implies matter. You need to get out of the materialist paradigm. The problem is, if the way you think about the world is a materialist, you try to cram the evidence into this artificial box."

Denyse O’Leary