| ‘SEAHORSE DADS BUILT FOR BIRTH. Seahorses and pipefish males carry developing babies in a brood pouch and give birth to live young. Scientists at Sydney University have studied the process of how males gave birth. They originally thought it would be like the female birth process in other vertebrates that give birth to live young, where the babies grow in a uterus that has layers of smooth muscle in its walls. When the young are ready to be born hormones stimulate the smooth muscle to contract and expel the babies. Smooth muscle, also known as “involuntary muscle,” is the muscle found in internal organs and is controlled by hormones as well as the nervous system. However, the research team found the seahorse brood pouch had very little smooth muscle, and did not respond to hormones that stimulate contractions. They then compared the muscle and bone anatomy of male and female seahorses and found that male seahorses had three bones near the pouch opening. These had robust skeletal muscles attached to them and were oriented so that contraction of the muscles controlled the opening of the pouch. The research team suggest that seahorse males give birth by contracting these muscles and bending their bodies. This combination of movements opens the brood pouch and expels the babies. The researchers wrote: “We propose that these muscles control the opening of the seahorse pouch, allowing seahorse fathers to consciously control the expulsion of their young at the end of pregnancy.” In an article in “The Conversation” they commented: “Our unexpected results suggest male seahorses use different mechanisms to give birth compared to female pregnant animals.” They went on to say: “Despite the similarities that male seahorses share with female mammals and reptiles during pregnancy, it seems seahorse fathers have a unique way of giving birth to their young.”References: ABC News 2 September 2022; The Conversation 2 September 2022; Placenta, 6 August 2022, doi: 10.1016/j.placenta.2022.07.015 ED. COM. These findings confirm the fact that seahorses are a unique kind of fish, with their own distinctive well designed structure and function. As such they are a challenge to the belief they evolved from a general fish ancestor, but confirmation of Genesis, which tells us that living creatures were created as fully functional separate kinds. All the evidence we have of studying living and fossil seahorses confirms they only reproduce after their kind, in their own distinctive way. Creation Research has a connection with seahorses. The seahorses studied in the research described came from Seahorse Australia, a seahorse breeding facility run by our Tasmanian colleagues Craig and Rachelle Hawkins. Next to this is our Tasmanian creation museum. John Mackay and Diane Eager will be joining Craig for the official opening of the museum this weekend. Diane will be bringing three seahorse fossils to the museum. These were originally obtained by our UK colleague Joseph Hubbard, but they had to wait until they could be safely carried to Australia when Diane returned from a trip the UK earlier this year.’ |
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Biology
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‘A Christian teacher who refused to use gender-neutral pronouns at a school in Ireland has been jailed for breaching a court order after turning up to work following a suspension.
Enoch Burke has described the ordeal as “insanity,” after he was arrested on Monday morning for attending his place of work, despite being requested to stay away from Wilson’s Hospital School in County Westmeath, pending an investigation.
During a court hearing, Mr. Burke, who teaches German, history, and politics at the school, told the presiding judge: “I am a teacher, and I don’t want to go to prison. I want to be in my classroom today, that’s where I was this morning when I was arrested.
“I am here today because I said I would not call a boy a girl,” he told the court, adding that “transgenderism is against my Christian beliefs. It is contrary to the scriptures, contrary to the ethos of the Church of Ireland and of my school.”
Mr. Burke was suspended from his teaching duties while his employers conducted an investigation into allegations of gross misconduct, a move he described as “unreasonable, unjust, and unfair.”
“It is extraordinary and reprehensible that someone’s religious beliefs on this matter could ever be taken as grounds for an allegation of misconduct.
“My religious beliefs are not misconduct. They are not gross misconduct. They never will be. They are dear to me. I will never deny them and never betray them, and I will never bow to an order that would require me to do so. It is just not possible for me to do that.”
He insisted the suspension had “tarnished [his] good character” and lamented the fact that teachers around the country “are being forced to participate” in the promotion of transgenderism, claiming “they are being forced to use the pronoun ‘they’ instead of either ‘he’ or ‘she’.”
The school’s managing board said they had no other choice but to request that Mr. Burke be sent to prison, as he simply refused to comply with a court order to stay away from his place of employment.
“It is a coercive order we are seeking, not a punitive order. We are simply seeking to have Mr. Burke comply with the order,” counsel for the managing board told Judge Michael Quinn.
“Mr. Burke is knowingly in breach of this order; he is therefore in contempt, and he has made it clear that if he is not committed to prison, he will attend the school, and the concerns of the school regarding the ongoing disruption to the students remain,” she added.
Mr. Burke was sent to Mountjoy prison and said that he could agree to willfully comply with the court order at any point should he choose to do so.
A disciplinary hearing at the school is scheduled to take place later this month.’https://rmx.news/ireland/christian-teacher-who-refused-to-call-boy-a-girl-is-jailed-in-ireland-for-contempt-of-court/
‘A book in the middle of a big controversy in Florida is a common title available at public libraries across Iowa. It is also available at Waukee Northwest High School, Carlisle High School and Iowa City City High. Readers are encouraged to check their local school libraries to see if it is on the shelf.
The book is called “This Book Is Gay.”
In Florida, the book was discovered in a middle school library. We reviewed a copy of it at an Iowa library. We will be sharing excerpts from it over the next few days or so.
The book is shelved as a “young adult” book. The shelf is labeled as “teen.”
The book has been “updated” from its 2014 version. The author, a person now called “Juno” who used to be called James. The author said the book has “taken the world by storm.”
“It’s been translated into a dozen languages; it’s been banned in Alaska; it’s hit the headlines in the U.K.”
The book tells kids the point of “coming out” is to “have the FREEDOM to be who we are.”
“When did that stop being FUN?” it asks.
The LGBTQ+ club is the “hippest members club in town.”
Kids are told that just because LGBTQ’ers are in the minority, it doesn’t mean they aren’t normal.
“People with blue eyes are in the minority too, but we don’t think of them as abnormal, do we?” it asks.
Kids are told there are three options for people with same-sex “sexthoughts.” And basically ignoring those thoughts is option one.
“But I think these people are probably very sad and angry. I also think a lot of crazy homophobes are lingering perilously close to option one, and this is what makes them so hateful.”
Option two exists, which more people choose.
“You can totally have sex with people who are the same gender as you and not be “gay” or “lesbian” or “bi.”
Option three allows people to be “out and proud and open about their relationships or gender.”
“You have very little choice about your sexual preferences or gender, but only you get to define yourself. Living with stress and secrets is stressful.”
Kids are told “we all CONSIDER sex with both men and women.”
“Why wouldn’t we? We’re surrounded by sexy images in magazines and on TV. People who say they haven’t thought about it are probably liars. Therefore, it’s all about what we prefer sexually. We need to be open-minded at all times,” the book tells kids.
Sexual preference and gender are also fluid, kids are told — meaning they can feel one way now and another way later.
“In fact, when this book was first published, I was a gay man,” the author wrote. “Now I’m a trans woman! That’s just the way it goes, ain’t it.”
Kids are told the following about being “curious” or “questioning:”
“All young people should spend time thinking about desire. I think everyone would be a lot happier if they took a few weeks to dwell on what does it for them. It’d resolve a lot of tension and grief.”
Just like when it compared LGBTQ identities to people who have blue eyes, it compares things you might not think you’d like to food you might not think you’d like.
“I wouldn’t eat prawns until I was 18 — the mere idea of them freaked me out. But then I tried them and it turns out they’re DELISH.”
Transgender is defined as an umbrella term for all people who experiment with or move between genders.
Transsexual is a person who feels they were born into the wrong gender.
Transvestite is a cross-dresser who enjoys wearing clothes traditionally assigned to the opposite sex, mostly for fun.
And a drag queen/king is a “performance cross-dresser.”
“Advertisers would like us to believe that being female somehow feels different to being male, but we will never really know,” the book says.
“It sometimes seems bonkers to me to think that a dude would have to be ‘trans’ to put on a skirt or some heels,” the book continues. “Sadly, as most of the world is blind to how small-minded this is, that’s the way the cookie crumbles. For now.”
Mental gymnastics is required to follow the next part — that people choose separate identities for both gender and sexuality.
The author used to identify as a gay man, but is now a straight trans woman.
Kids are told LGBTQ+ people do not choose to be LGBTQ+, but “homophobes and transphobes” who are bigoted choose to hate.
The author writes that they hope they have “sold” the LGBTQ+ thing pretty well.
“I mean, it does sound brilliant, doesn’t it? You get to dress how you like and make out with whomever you want. It’s hip and trendy.”
We’ll release the next story tomorrow further showing portions of this book, which again, is shelved in a section for teens and housed at at least a few public high school libraries across Iowa.
The most obscene parts are yet to come.’https://theiowastandard.com/waukee-high-school-public-libraries-across-iowa-stock-book-causing-major-controversy-in-florida/
Boy, am I glad I am old. When I grew up in Iowa none of this Wokeness was around!
‘Parents Defending Education filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the Linn-Mar Community School District on Aug. 2. Defendants also include the superintendent and members of the Linn-Mar School Board.
The lawsuit is a result of Linn-Mar’s policy of allowing students to create “gender support plans” without parental knowledge or consent.
The lawsuit says Linn-Mar is “flouting” constitutional guarantees that parents have a constitutional liberty interest in the care, custody and control of their children and that students do not abandon their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate.
The policy allows school officials to work with students as young as seventh grade to create such plans for gender transition without parental involvement. It also forces peers to acknowledge preferred gender identities of classmates.
Per the lawsuit, the district can:
*require all employees and students to address the child by a new name;
*require all employees and students to address the child by a new pronoun;
*have the child’s name changed on numerous government documents, including identification cards, yearbooks and diplomas;
*allow the child to use the restrooms, locker rooms and changing facilities that correspond with the child’s gender identity;
*allow the child to participate in PE classes, intramural sports, clubs and other events that correspond with the child’s gender identity;
*allow the child to room with other students who share the child’s gender identity.
“These actions can happen without any knowledge or input from the child’s parents,” the lawsuit states. “Instead, these decisions will be made solely by the child and ‘school administrators and/or school counselors.’”
The lawsuit states the district will withhold the information even if it is specifically requested by parents.’https://theiowastandard.com/parents-sue-linn-mar-over-secret-gender-support-plans-for-students-as-young-as-seventh-grade/
So glad these Republicans stood for TRUTH!
‘The Mahaska County Republicans unanimously voted to censure Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks following her vote in support of a bill codifying homosexual marriage, repealing the Defense of Marriage Act and forcing Iowa to recognize anything another state decides qualifies as a “marriage.”
Here is the text:
“Her vote directly opposes the Mahaska County Republicans policy platform item #6 — family values:
“In keeping with the reality that we are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, and that our nation’s foundation and subsequent blessings flow from adherence to and respect for the Judeo-Christian ethic, we affirm the following: We support an amendment to the United States Constitution stating that “Only marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized in the United States, and that neither the Federal government, any state government, or the political subdivisions thereof may create or recognize a legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage for unmarried individuals.”
“Her vote also directly opposes the Iowa Republican Platform, Liberty #13: “We believe that traditional, two-parent (one male (XY) and one female (XX)), marriage-based families are the foundation to a stable, enduring, and healthy civilization. We encourage the repeal of any laws allowing any marriage that is not between one natural man and one natural woman.”
“There is nothing more foundational to our society than marriage as instituted by God between one man and one woman.
“Our Representative, Mariannette Miller-Meeks, directly opposes the expressed will of God and of her constituents and is hereby formally censured for her vote.”
The motion to censure Miller-Meeks was unanimously approved in a voice vote.’https://theiowastandard.com/mahaska-co-gop-censures-miller-meeks-says-she-directly-opposes-expressed-will-of-god-and-of-her-constituents/
Follow the science is what they said for the China virus but when it comes to gender they are delusional!
‘Earlier this year I was astonished to see there isn’t a single Democrat in the Iowa legislature willing to trust the science or side with basic biology.
I also was left scratching my head when soon-to-be-former State Rep. Dustin Hite said bills like the bathroom bill wouldn’t get a hearing in his committee any time soon. Hite was the chair of the House Education Committee. He said that when Republicans talk about “those issues,” they have to make sure they don’t come across as hateful.
What Hite and those Republicans who think like him obviously don’t understand is those who oppose science, common sense and reason on this issue do not care about approach — they care about the message.
The message, no matter how hard-lined or soft it is, comes across as hateful if we’re not willing to go along with preferred pronouns, fake females and make-believe men.
That’s the reality. And it shouldn’t be difficult to figure out.
I know that I lean to the right politically, and there are a few who might think of me as “far right” (I just prefer being right), but of all the issues out there, I know most Americans do not agree with the transgender push taking place across the country — regardless of their political leanings.
The fact that in less than 10 years we’ve gone from redefining marriage to redefining gender is nuts. Yes, the pun is intended.’ Follow link for entire article https://theiowastandard.com/hall-trans-sanity-is-a-losing-issue-dems-and-weak-republicans-should-not-lack-courage-to-stand-for-science/
‘Consider this: If a militant transgender promoter was murdered and can no longer promote their claimed sexuality, DNA tests on any cell in their body will reveal that they never were a male who could be a female, or vice versa. Gender is definitely biological. It is not a cultural construct imposed on people. It is built into our bodies at conception, and nothing that happens afterward by accident or deliberate interference will change it.
It will help in answering this question to go back to the creation of human gender, where we are told: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27) and then in verse 31 the Creator declares this state to be “very good.”
This specific statement about male and female at creation indicates gender matters to God. Furthermore, in Genesis 2 we are told how God made them male and female – by two related acts of creation. Adam, the first man, was made from raw materials (“dust of the ground”); Eve, the first woman, was made from tissue taken from Adam which is why the Bible also regards male and female as “one flesh.” So from the start, gender was built into our biology, and God liked it that way.
For all succeeding generations down to you and I, gender has been determined by two chromosomes (collections of genes) named X and Y. Males have one X and one Y chromosome. Females have two X chromosomes.
The way gender is inherited is as follows:
When reproductive cells, i.e. male sperm and female ova (egg cells), are formed in the father and mother, the pairs of chromosomes in a normal cell are split up. This means each male sperm will have either one X or one Y, and each ovum will have one X.
The gender of any offspring is determined at conception, when a sperm cell from the father unites with an ovum from the mother. If the sperm carries an X chromosome, this will combine with the mother’s X, and the resulting offspring will be female. If the sperm carries a Y chromosome the resulting offspring will have the XY combination, and be male. This means the new human life being formed is male or female right from the very beginning of life, and will remain so for the rest of his or her life, as all the cells in the body are derived from this first cell.
Maleness and femaleness are embedded in every cell in every tissue of the body, not just the reproductive organs. Therefore, there is no such thing as a sex change. Interfering with the body organs by surgery, drugs or hormone treatment will not change the chromosomes. It will only deform the body and usually renders it incapable of reproduction. Therefore, any attempts to defy what God created will not work, and even more seriously will provably displease the God who made human beings distinctly male or female.
Why say that? We know the Creator God has revealed Himself as One who disapproves of any attempts to blur the sexes, or pretend them to be the opposite. This is seen in the Law of Moses given to a society which could not even pretend to give people a sex change except in their attire. Therefore, we read the following God given instruction: “A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this.” Deuteronomy 22:5
This does not mean men and women can never wear the same kinds of clothes, e.g. jeans and t-shirts, where it is appropriate. In Old Testament days the outermost garment was a cloak that was similar for both sexes, but the similar garments were constructed so people were clearly identifiable as male or female. So this rule does mean your outward appearance should be either male or female, according to your body gender, and other people should be able to see what you are. Furthermore, it means no-one should deceive others by dressing in the opposite way in order to claim they can go to the opposite sex toilet because they think they are a different sex, or demand the right to intrude into facilities provided for the privacy of the other sex, e.g. bathrooms, changing rooms, etc.
Our society is currently being bombarded by claims about sexuality made by two loud lobby groups. One group, the homosexuals, are claiming their behaviour is caused by genes and cannot be changed, even though no such genes ever have been found. The other group, the transsexuals, are claiming they can be whatever sex they choose, in spite of the fact that gender is clearly determined by genes. It is interesting that the atheistic secular media is prepared to promote both lobby groups despite the glaring contradiction.
What about people struggling with “gender confusion”?
There are two issues here – one of people with improperly formed reproductive organs, and one of people who have normal male or female bodies but believe they should be the other sex.
Occasionally babies are born with improperly formed reproductive organs which happens as a result of something going wrong during embryonic development, just as can happen with other body structures, e.g. cleft palate, club foot, hole in the heart, etc. People with improperly formed reproductive organs may need surgical and/or hormone treatments, and these may not succeed in making them fully fertile males or females when they grow into adult life. However, the aim should be to help them be as close to their genetic potential as is medically possible. In general, these people are not the ones claiming to be transgender.
Those people who have normal body organs but believe they should be the other gender should be helped to be what their body, and therefore their genetics, indicates they are. Genetic tests for gender are widely available, and can be easily done. The overall principle should be to help people in a gracious, supportive way to be what their genetics indicate they are, and therefore, what their Creator wants them to be.
Our society has become a case of “Everyone does what is right in their own eyes” as was also recorded in the book of Judges 21:25. However, as in the times of the Judges, the result is chaos and confusion. Being deceived into believing you can be whatever you choose in defiance of God’s instructions has been a source of sin and judgement many times in the history of man. The bottom line truth here is that only by living according to the Creator’s design and instructions can anyone find true fulfilment in life.’https://askjohnmackay.com/transgendering-is-it-possible-to-change-your-gender/
‘The Justices wrote that the previous law was incorrect. It had forced “a theory of life” on the nation, defined by the passing of “an arbitrary point in a pregnancy”.
In the June 24, 2022 Supreme Court decision that overturned the 50-year-old mandate for nationwide legalized abortion, there were many excellent points of truth. But the incorrect theory of life is critical and brings up another one of the great evils of evolution theory – underlying as it does so much of what is called “a culture of death”.
The Roe v. Wade Court of 1973 had coined the term “trimesters”. It was a word invented to allow for the dehumanizing of an unborn person during the early stages of pregnancy, and thus the purposeful taking of the life. Justice Harry Blackmun admitted it was their invented “framework”1 so that they could arbitrarily divide the abortion code into three different time-frames. By doing this, they attempted to deal with the inconsistency of allowing abortion when the killing of a human being is murder. There were to be no exceptions for abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy – considered essentially a “non-human” phase of pregnancy.
The theory that human life is not present from the beginning of pregnancy owes its modern basis to the Theory of Evolution. True biological science actually affirms that each individual of any species must start their life-cycle as an exact copy of the progenitor cell. This is understood from the routinely proven biological principles of “Fixity of Species” and the “Law of Biogenesis”. Furthermore, the Bible tells us repeatedly in Genesis 1 that all created life will reproduce in no other way except “after its kind”.
You might give people in the early 1970s – especially under the pressure of the sexual revolution and women’s liberation – an excuse to have abortions. Both ultrasound scans and genetic science were not as developed as they are today. People learned they could use “science” – taught through the Haeckel embryo drawings – to argue that a fetus was not truly a human life. It is an excuse you will hear to this very day – another great evil, given “scientific support” by the pseudo-science of evolution.
Zoologist Ernst Haeckel drew his infamous embryo drawings in the year 1874. He was a zealous proponent of Darwin’s theory of evolution, and he proposed that human embryos retraced their evolutionary history as they grew in the womb. He coined the technical terminology for this supposed retracing of evolutionary history as life develops: “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny”. Indeed, Charles Darwin himself was convinced of Haeckel’s argument. In fact, he declared that the similarity of vertebrate embryos in their earliest stages – which he thought demonstrated their descent from a common ancestor – was “the strongest single set of facts” supporting his theory!
You can see in Haeckel’s presentation of embryos three rows of eight different species – fish, salamander, tortoise, chick, hog, calf, rabbit and human. By separating them into three rows – showing early, middle and late stages of development – Haeckel conveniently created three divisions for the Roe v. Wade Court to split its ruling into three “trimesters”. In this way, evolution once again promoted a culture of death – as it has in undergirding Nazism, Communism, eugenics, and other false and godless philosophies.
For over 150 years, the drawings have been used in textbooks to proclaim evolution. Yet, they are known frauds with Haeckel’s “embellishments”. For instance, he drew the mammalian embryos with gill slits in place of wrinkles. There are no perforations like gills in the mammalian embryos! And yet, Haeckel said the embryos were going through a “fish” stage of development.
Even the late renowned evolutionist Stephen Jay Gould wrote in 2000: “We do, I think, have the right to be both astonished and ashamed by the century of mindless recycling that has led to the persistence of these drawings in a large number, if not a majority, of modern textbooks.”
But let’s continue to think critically about the argument. What kind of proof is mere similarity? Is similarity of appearance sufficient evidence in a court of law? Or do we need better evidence to draw a conclusion – like fingerprints and DNA? I suppose if you go back all the way to fertilized egg cells, all life would look pretty similar on a macro scale – though hugely different genetically. And, if a developing baby is not “viable” until a more “independent” stage, is a baby not human until his arm and leg lengths are of adult proportions? Or maybe until she can speak? Or when he can feed himself?
We rapidly descend into infant sacrifice, for which the pagan nations around ancient Israel were judged, the Bible says. And we actually have many advocating for essentially that in our society today! On May 16, 2022, for example, after news of the pending decision had been illegally leaked, all 49 Senators of one political party voted for the most radical abortion bill proposed in the history of the United States Congress – including abortion right up to birth.
Like so much agenda-driven “research”, Haeckel did his work with an end-point in mind. In that sense, he was like anthropologist Margaret Mead and entomologist-turned-sexologist Alfred Kinsey. They both laid “scientific” groundwork for increased sexual promiscuity and deviancy through the last century. Both did “research” with an agenda driven by their own deviancy, desired outcomes and evolution-supported worldviews. Both are now thoroughly debunked.2,3 And both have been used for years to justify conclusions desired by those who push a godless and/or subversive agenda of sexual license – as has Roe v. Wade.
1 Desanctis, A., “Little Known Facts about Roe v. Wade”, National Review, Jan 23, 2017.
2 Freeman, D., Margaret Mead and Samoa: The Making and Unmaking of an Anthropological Myth, Harvard University Press, 1983.
3 Reisman, J.A. and Eichel, E.W., Kinsey, Sex, and Fraud: The Indoctrination of a People, Huntington House, 1990.
Image: Ernst Haeckel’s infamous and inaccurate embryo drawings (PD)’ https://creationmoments.com/newsletter/eventually-the-truth-prevails-one-way-or-another/?mc_cid=4265557c07&mc_eid=00c1dcff3c
whatyareckon 