‘ALIVE OR DEAD, THEY ARE FLIPPING GOOD AT IT! Dragonfly backflips described in articles in ScienceDaily 9 February 2021, Imperial College London news 10 February 2021, and PNAS 10 February 2021 doi: 10.1098/rspb.2020.2676. Dragonflies are noted for superb aerial manoeuvres, including flying backwards, but even the most agile flyer can be knocked off balance or flipped upside down. A group of scientists at Imperial College London studied common darter dragonflies to see how they could right themselves after being dropped in an upside-down position. They found the dragonflies righted themselves with a head-first backwards somersault. Anaesthetised (unconscious) dragonflies also did the same backflip, but were slower. Not surprisingly “dead dragonflies did not perform the manoeuvre at all”. However, when researchers used wax to fix wings of the dead dragonflies into the same position as the unconscious dragonflies the dead dragonflies righted themselves, albeit in a slightly more ungainly way. These results led researchers to conclude that the righting process is mainly a passive result, dependent on wing position and muscle tone (live or dead). Samuel Fabian of the Department of Bioengineering commented: “Planes are often designed so that if their engines fail, they will glide along stably rather than drop out of the sky. We saw a similar response in dragonflies, despite the lack of active flapping, such that some insects, despite their small size, can leverage passive stability without active control.” He went on to say: “Passive stability lowers the effort requirements of flight, and this trait likely influenced how dragonfly shapes evolved. Dragonflies that use passive stability in flight are likely to have an advantage, as they use less energy and are better able to recover from inconvenient events.” The researchers concluded: “This lesson from biology can inspire design principles for failsafe attitude recovery in micro aerial systems.”
Links: Imperial College, ScienceDaily
ED. COM. If aerodynamically stable aeroplanes need to be designed so they don’t drop out of the sky, why would anyone believe that aerodynamically stable dragonflies evolved the same characteristic by chance random processes? Particularly when they are dead. Passive stability is certainly an advantage once a dragonfly has it, but, as the experiments with dead dragonflies show, there is only one chance to get both muscle tone and wing position right. Otherwise flipped over dragonflies would drop out of the air and not get any chance to evolve. These experiments are further proof that design is the only way to fly. If you ever had the misfortune to be in an aircraft whose engines failed you would give thanks to the engineers who built a failsafe glide into the design to get it safely back on the ground. Therefore, the lesson to be learned from biology is there is no excuse for failing to give thanks to the Creator Christ for designing wonderful flying creatures like dragonflies that can keep themselves flying even when flipped and dropped.’https://creationresearch.net/
Biology
‘We are saddened by the 500,000 people who have died with Covid-19 in the USA, just as we are fearful of the abject power abuse demanded by many of the politicians boasting their miracle cure will fix it. As one professor of chemistry told us he wouldn’t even trust his own research after only three – six months testing. Ten years of testing would may be help since by then he would’ve found out a little more of what was needed to show it didn’t do what it shouldn’t do as well.
This editor is old enough to remember how long it took to establish thalidomide was a culprit for deformed babies, and to prove tobacco did cancer. No wonder God’s Word advises us to test all things.
No, we are not opposed to vaccination, nor are we opposed to man exercising dominion using scientific and medical research. However, we are opposed to the gross hypocrisy amongst politicians who pretend life is meaningful when all the evidence over decades of policies in so-called enlightened countries has led to legalising the murder of over six million babies in the last two months alone (Worldometer statistics here). We sadly note the same politicians are increasingly pushing for the legalised murder of adults, in the form of euthanasia for those deemed by the medial elite and by themselves as unfit to live.’ An email from https://creationresearch.net/
I believe the entire Bible so therefore I believe the Book of Genesis and the account of Creation. Now, I am not a scientist who wears a white coat but I know some people who are scientists, are Christians and may even wear white coats for what that’s worth! Therefore, the following is interesting to me as a Believer.
‘According to evolutionary theory, living things developed from simpler to more complex organisms over billions of years via several major innovations. One such big step was the evolution of multicellular organisms from single-celled ones. This is a crucial phase of evolution, because multicellular organisms allow for multiple cell tissue types. This in turn permits more variability in living beings, allowing for mutations and natural selection to supposedly create a larger variety of organisms.1
Evolution in a test tube?
You might have heard evolutionists make bold claims about experiments which have supposedly shown this important hypothetical step in evolution actually happening.
One example involves laboratory experiments with green algae. These algae include single-cell species from the genus (Figure 1). Another algal taxon (group) is called Volvox, which includes multi-celled globe-shaped algae species of up to several thousand cells (Figure 2). Between these two forms there are several other taxa with intermediate numbers of cells (Figure 3);2 e.g. Gonium, which is made up of 8–32 cells. Evolutionists propose that the multicellular Volvox once evolved from a unicellular algal species like Chlamydomonas, through several intermediary stages with progressively greater cell numbers.
The experiment
Researchers took several groups of the single-celled Chlamydomonas and put them into test tubes with a single-celled predator (the protozoan Paramecium tetraurelia) which could consume them. After 750 generations, the researchers discovered that some of the Chlamydomonas had taken on a multicellular form. This way the algae were too big for the predators to eat them.3 They were not ‘fully’ multicellular, breaking apart into single cells before dividing, but seemed to go through a coordinated life cycle. Evolutionists claim that this is a demonstration of at least a significant part of evolution from single-cell forms to multicellular forms, repeating a portion of the history of life. But is it?
The genetics of multicellularity
Chlamydomonas and Volvox are very similar at a genetic level even though they look very different.4 What caused this change from single-celled existence to at least a form of multicellularity in Chlamydomonas? Certain genes necessary for multicellularity exist in Volvox. One such gene codes for a protein which is sticky. The cells secrete this sticky material, which glues cells together, creating a multicellular form. Volvox, the multicellular species, has more copies of this gene than the single-celled Chlamydomonas. It is significant that both species have the same gene, leaving the question unanswered as to how this gene, necessary for multicellularity, supposedly evolved in the first place.
Researchers also found that several thousand (up to 20% of) Chlamydomonas genes behaved differently after the test tube experiments than at the beginning.5 This suggests that the environment (the presence of the predator species) caused the Chlamydomonas cells to take up a multicellular form by switching genes on or off (called epigenesis).
Evolution from microbes to men requires new genes with new functions to arise, but these experiments show no evidence of any such new genes. It was known that the genes for the multicellular form already existed in the single-cell species. In other words, the single-celled form already had the potential for multicellularity, needing only to be ‘switched on’ by this environmental cue. Whether it was enhanced by the natural selection of types with high sticky-protein production or not is an interesting question, but the point is still the same—no new genes, no new information, no evolution.
This process of a single-celled alga becoming multi-celled involves thousands of genes, and it is in any case inconceivable that they would all evolve in such a short time. But it takes only a short amount of time for these genes to merely change their expression and/or be selected for, as opposed to the genes themselves arising over millions of years of evolution.
It is even possible that these algae species devolved from the multicellular Volvox form to the single-celled Chlamydomonas form through genetic loss. This would certainly be consistent with biblical creation, and with the mutational deterioration going on in living things.
Summary and conclusion
Evolutionists would have us believe that they were able to rapidly ‘evolve’ a species exhibiting a type of multicellularity from unicellular forms in a very short time. This would give us the impression that a major and important evolutionary step has been observed happening, and that it can occur easily and rapidly. However, this picture is false, as we have seen. There is no evidence of a single new gene being produced, and not the slightest indication of how the genetic machinery for multicellularity could have evolved in the first place.
When we look at the finer details, as usual we see that the evidence supports creation and not evolution. The evidence implies that these organisms used a highly complex genetic mechanism for switching from a single-celled state to a multicellular state. This mechanism didn’t evolve but already existed, simply needing to be activated. It was created so as to permit this effect.
According to Genesis 1:12, “The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds”. Neither plants nor green algae such as Chlamydomonas evolved, but are rather the result of God’s creation. The Creator designed even single-celled algae to be incredibly complex and with a built-in capacity to adapt to various environments.
What theory, evolution or creation, is backed by real scientific facts? Creation!
My personal opinion is that politicians are less trust worthy with each passing year. As someone has said ‘How do you know when a politician is lying? When they open their mouth.’
‘Greg Hunt the Australian federal government Health Minister was interviewed on the ABC Insiders in regards to the deployment of the Pfizer experimental mRNA injection being rolled out starting today Monday 22 February.
He admitted that if you take the experimental COVID agent, which they call a vaccine (but it is not actually), you are really taking part in a massive clinical trial. He said:
“And we have to look at what is called ‘the longevity’ of the protection with regards to the antibodies that are developed. The world doesn’t know that answer. The world is engaged in the largest clinical trial, the largest global vaccination trial ever, and we will have enormous amounts of data”.
Watch here on the ABC Insiders program. The quote starts about 12:40 mark.
There you have it. It is still in stage 3 trial and all those out there who take the jab are trial participants. The Health Minister essentially admits that they don’t know if the COVID jab has any effect. He says the evidence is strong on preventing transmission but Pfizer itself said they have no data. It would seem that the “enormous amounts of data” that Hunt refers to, gathered from the public who are unknowingly enrolled in the trial, is what they will use to determine whether it prevents transmission and whether or not it is safe especially in the longer term.
The experimental COVID jab has been approved by the Australian FDA for “emergency use only” because it is currently still in the trial phase. It is not an approved medical agent. Everyone who takes the jab in the next few years is a test subject in the massive clinical trial but without knowing it. This is unprecedented. Except maybe in Nazi Germany. This is experimenting on the population without “informed consent”. I am sure they are not telling those who take it that they are in a clinical trial.
The “enormous amounts of data” will be analysed to determine if the jab is safe or not. Only then can the jab be determined to be “safe and effective” for human use. And that could take years. So it is imperative that all adverse reactions and deaths are reported. Do you see that happening? Never happened before so what would it happen now, there is no mandatory reporting system.
From the reports of many many deaths and serious reactions around the world I can’t see how it can ever be considered safe. One Spanish nursing home has had nearly 50% on the residents dying (46 dead already) or on the path to death within 2 weeks of getting the mRNA experimental injection. The government has halted the Pfizer injections as a result it seems. The carnage is great.
Wake up Australia!’https://biblescienceforum.com/2021/02/22/australian-health-minister-admits-covid-experimental-injections-are-a-massive-vaccine-trial/
Ephesians 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
‘It’s a warm day on the Amazon River. A small fish swims near the surface, looking among the natural floating river debris for some food. As he looks among the occasional leaf or twig in the water, he sees no danger. At the same time, one of the floating “leaves” is waiting for the little fish to move just a bit closer. Then, without warning, the floating “leaf” comes to life, grabs the fish and eats it!
What the little fish thought was simply another floating leaf was actually another fish. The Amazonian leaf fish is carefully designed not only to look like a leaf, but to act like one as well. It has a flat body, very much like a leaf. A black line runs the length of its body, giving the appearance of the midrib of a leaf. A fleshy growth in its lower jaw looks like a leaf stem.
Beyond looking like a leaf, the leaf fish also acts like a leaf. It lies still in the water, drifting with the current. To hide its identity further, it draws its fins close to its body, removing any last hint that it is indeed a hungry fish looking for lunch.
The leaf fish combines deceptive coloring, appearance and behavior into one design so that it, too, can make its living. In this, the leaf fish shows that the Creator makes nothing without also designing a special purpose for that creature. According to the Bible, the same can be said even more emphatically for each human being He has made. Your Creator has a special purpose for you, too, and it begins with His plan of salvation for you through His Son, Jesus Christ.’ https://creationmoments.com/sermons/the-hungry-leaf-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-hungry-leaf-2&mc_cid=1d2b7b36a3&mc_eid=00c1dcff3c
It is amazing (or is it) how people fall for evolution and deny the Creator. Romans 1: 20 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
1 Corinthians 6:20“For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
‘Some creatures seem more wise and powerful in dealing with the problems of living than seems reasonable.
For example, when threatened with parasites, some creatures change their method of reproduction to put the parasites at a disadvantage. Several types of fungus infect some grasses, producing poisons. However, these poisons don’t harm the infected grass. Instead, they protect the grass from insects and other enemies. This makes it less likely that the fungus will lose its happy home.
When fungal parasites take over certain wild grasses, the fungus destroys the flowers of the plant so that it can only reproduce by sending out shoots from its roots. Can you figure out the fungus’s clever strategy? New shoots are genetically identical to the parent, and just as susceptible to the fungus. New plants from seeds, however, might express traits that were present, though unexpressed, in the parent, like resistance to the fungus. So it’s in the fungus’s best interest to restrict the grass to identical offspring.
A New Zealand freshwater snail can reproduce with or without fertilized eggs. However, in those lakes where the snail is threatened by a parasitic worm, the snail uses only fertilized eggs, increasing the likelihood that some of the offspring will be able to resist the parasite.
There is a lot more thought and power to be seen in these examples than worms, snails and grasses could generate. The Creator is even glorified in the relationships between parasite and host!’ https://creationmoments.com/sermons/creative-strategies-for-life-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=creative-strategies-for-life-2&mc_cid=9a8f0cf843&mc_eid=00c1dcff3c
Is a person simply avoiding the really big questions when they believe Genesis 1 and that everything was created by the God of the Bible? No, they aren’t. There are many who have degrees in all areas of science from well known universities who believe Genesis One. The facts show a Creator rather than an accident. Evolution (to me) is based on assumption and fairy tales!
‘The Washington National Cathedral has been dodging intense incoming missile fire since they apologized to livid LGBTQ bullies for having conservative author Max Lucado preach at its virtual Sunday service recently. The church invited Max to “build bridges,” but his biblical views on sexuality and marriage makes them hold their breath in angst. When those defenders of equal rights at the local Lavender Club started shooting at Cathedral leaders, they, along with the Bishop, folded like a cheap suit as all unprincipled people do.
Church officials blamed their “mistake” on their “straight privilege” and begged forgiveness for the “pain” they had caused. The two gutless church leaders promised to schedule a “listening session” for the LGBTQ crowd who had turned blue from holding their breath.
The Episcopal Church is so twisted that it put one of their bishops on trial for following the Bible! William Love was a very conservative and orthodox Episcopal Bishop of Albany, New York, and was tried by his denomination for being too biblical. The Bishop abides by the traditional Christian doctrine that marriage is the union of one man and one woman. The courageous Bishop was put on trial “after banning gay marriage ceremonies in his diocese.”
Bishop Love is as out of place in the radical Episcopal denomination as Louis Farrakhan at a Jewish bar mitzvah. After enormous pressure from his craven denominational leaders, Love resigned from his bishopric effective February 1, 2021.
Good, now other principled leaders and ordinary church members should leave the denomination as if their hair were on fire.
Frankly, all principled people, with any cursory knowledge of biblical truth, should cut all ties with all the mainline churches that have become little more than social clubs. Most of these churches are very light on the Bible and deep into social justice, promotion of same-sex “marriage,” transgenderism, globalism, climate change, etc. By continuing in apostate denominations, members become participants in the compromise and corruption of their evil deeds.
The Episcopal Church has been dominated by weirdos such as Bishops James Pike, John Spong, and Gene Robinson. Their best-known churches are the National Cathedral and St. John’s in Washington, D.C. Those churches would be empty and used as warehouses if they were not historic places.
I watched two hours of a dialogue held at the National Cathedral dealing with two cathedral windows that depict Robert E. Lee and Thomas Stonewall Jackson. Cathedral officials had been wrestling with this for a long time, and in September 2017, the windows were removed.
The media and the panel discussion I watched were concerned about the windows telling an “incomplete and misleading account of our History.” An official said, “We are committed to finding ways to offer a richer, more balanced expression of our nation’s history.” I’ll buy that; however, I demand some consistency, something that never concerns liberals.
During the panel discussion, the Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas, Canon Theologian at the Cathedral, spoke approvingly of Nat Turner, and another spoke positively of W. E. B. Du Bois. The panelists also agreed that one must know about Thomas Jefferson’s ownership of hundreds of slaves to really know the man. Okay, I’ll accept that, but no one seemed concerned to tell the whole story about Turner and Du Bois, so I will. Maybe the panel, consisting of two white people and two black people, does not know the complete stories of those men.
Nat Turner, a black slave in Virginia, claimed to be a Baptist preacher who always felt destined for greatness, and his parents encouraged him, considering him a prophet. They were convinced of that because of unusual marks on his head and breast! Turner reported seeing spirits fighting in the sky, and he allegedly heard voices. Being a “prophet,” he communicated “revelations” to fellow slaves. I don’t need to emphasize that such is more indicative of a paranoid than a prophet.
Then, when Mount St. Helens erupted on February 12, 1831, nearly 3,000 miles away, Virginia’s atmospheric conditions convinced Turner that God wanted him to kill his white enemies! About seven months later, on August 21, 1831, he and other slaves attacked and killed 55 white people, including men, women, and children–some as they slept. One victim was a baby in its cradle. Some of the victims were beheaded, including children. The killers used axes, clubs, swords, and guns.
Armed citizens confronted the attackers, and Turner was captured, tried, and executed by hanging after hiding for two months. His corpse was flayed, beheaded, and quartered. It seems the slaveholders wanted to send a message to their slaves.
Mindless, guilt-ridden Whites and gullible Blacks seek to make every Black a hero, but surely, no sane person thinks Turner was anything but a monster.
Another black hero is W. E. B. Du Bois (who insisted on being called “Dr. Du Bois”), an impressive intellectual who, in 1895, was the first Black to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard. He was a founder of the NAACP (most of the executive officers were white) in 1909, and he was hired as editor of their journal The Crisis. Du Bois later resigned (some say he was dismissed) in 1934 over the reversal of his segregation position to accepting the “separate but equal” position as a satisfactory goal for Blacks. He had rejected Frederick Douglass’ plea for black Americans to integrate into white society. He also sparred with Booker T. Washington, the number one black leader in America who was highly respected by Whites and Blacks.
Du Bois thought Booker T. Washington was too slow and patient in dealing with segregation. Washington was an accommodator, and Du Bois was an agitator. Du Bois was an effective advocate for civil rights but leaned far to the left, defending and joining many socialist causes. He taught that capitalism was a major cause of racism. Du Bois was a peace advocate and promoted nuclear disarmament. He began to support the Communist Party and warmed to Marx’s atheism.
Many of Du Bois’ friends and supporters shunned him, especially after the FBI continued to investigate his actions, associates, and his advocacies. He ended up joining the American Communist Party, traveled to Russia and China (becoming their cheerleader), and became a citizen of Ghana, where he died in 1963.
I wonder why the Episcopal leaders did not think it necessary to reveal the full scope of Du Bois’ life. Maybe because of the stories of their own leaders.
Bishop James Pike died a bishop in the Episcopal Church, although he said that he was leaving the denomination. In his personal life, Pike was a chain-smoker and an alcoholic. In theology, he was a heretic even to many conservative Episcopalians. Many heresy charges were brought against him with plenty of facts to substantiate them. The cowardly bishops of the denomination refused to pursue heresy charges. Pike did not believe in Hell, the Trinity, and virgin birth.
Pike was a troubled man all his life. He married Jane Alvies then divorced in 1941. He married Esther Yanovsky in 1942, and she divorced him in 1966. They had four children. Pike lived with (but did not marry) his secretary Maren Bergrud until 1967 when she committed suicide after a heated argument with him. Pike performed her funeral in his church.
In 1968, he married Diane Kennedy and went to Israel on an extended honeymoon. They were researching a book Pike was planning to write. While near the Dead Sea without a guide, they had car trouble, and the couple walked away from the car. Soon, Diane went alone to seek help leaving her husband. She stumbled into workers who took her to safety. Pike’s body was discovered a few days later after an intensive search.
Bishop John Shelby Spong is another Episcopalian leader who is very careful that no one would ever mistake him for a Bible-believer. Of course, he, like Pike and other unbelieving Bishops, makes an excellent living preaching the Bible he does not believe. Such people have plenty of chutzpah but no character. Spong teaches that Christ was “adopted by God as his son” in his Born of a Woman, and He rejects the historical truths essential to Christianity, such as the virgin birth and the bodily resurrection of Christ. Neither does Spong believe that Christ is the only way of salvation. He teaches that the Apostle Paul was a pervert. He believes the creation story is nonsense.
When the Episcopal denomination consecrated homosexual Gene Robinson as a Bishop in 2003, the denomination experienced the “worst single outflow of Episcopalians in modern history,” over 100,000.
They should have lost every genuine Christian, but alas, many Christians don’t know what the Bible teaches, or they don’t care.
Every true Christian should leave every corrupt mainline church because without truth, all you have is a cult.’ http://donboys.cstnews.com/principled-people-should-cut-all-ties-with-the-episcopal-church
2 Peter 3:10“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”
‘We live in a world – indeed, a universe – that is in continual change. Things have been designed that way for a very important reason. Unfortunately, some people choose to define evolution as simply change. However, that’s not the kind of continuous change that surrounds us.
The change we see around us serves to keep things the same. Biologists call this “stasis.” That might sound contradictory, but think about it for a moment. A baby is born – that’s change. The baby grows into a child and then a young adult. That’s more change. In the end, though, a new generation is born to replace the last generation, and things are as they were. It’s the cycle of life, common to all living things.
What’s more, the interrelated life cycles of all living things complement each other. Plants use sunlight and carbon dioxide to make oxygen and food, which are needed by the animal kingdom and human beings. Each generation of living things reproduces after its own kind, helping to keep this balance in tune.
The change we see all around us was designed by the Creator to renew the creation so that it might remain stable – the same. We can truly say that the more things change, the more they stay the same. However, this state of affairs will not go on forever. One day – and perhaps soon – the world will end. The Son of God, Who was the instrument of our creation and the instrument of our salvation, will return. Are you ready to meet Him?’https://creationmoments.com/sermons/designed-to-renew-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=designed-to-renew-2&mc_cid=38e629a331&mc_eid=00c1dcff3c
