‘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/
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‘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/
What theory, evolution or creation, is backed by real scientific facts? Creation!
Isaiah 22:11“Ye made also a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old pool: but ye have not looked unto the maker thereof, neither had respect unto him that fashioned it long ago.”
‘Since the days of Charles Darwin, over a century ago, naturalists have generally classified living things by their appearance. A zebra and a horse are said to be more closely related than a zebra and a whale. This has been the foundation of all those evolutionary trees that claim to show that all living things have supposedly come from older, simpler living things.
In recent years, some scientists have been comparing another feature that all living things share. Today, scientists are able to look for similarities and differences among the biological chemicals – like hemoglobin. What they are finding does not agree with the evolutionary tree in their textbooks, according to Dr. Colin Patterson of the British Museum of Natural History.
Among the examples Dr. Patterson offered to American evolutionary scientists was a comparison of alpha myoglobin among mammals, birds and reptiles. According to evolution, comparisons between mammals, reptiles and birds should show mammals and birds to be most distantly related. Reptiles should have more similarities to each. However, when humans were compared with crocodiles and birds, birds were closer to humans than were crocodiles – the opposite of what evolution predicts. Dr. Patterson asked, “What’s going on?”
While Dr. Patterson did not become a creationist before his death in 1998, he was definitely dissatisfied with evolution.’https://creationmoments.com/sermons/scientist-says-evolution-makes-bad-science-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=scientist-says-evolution-makes-bad-science-2&mc_cid=6c1db3f0d1&mc_eid=00c1dcff3c
Years ago my family and I visited the Grand Canyon. What a sight it is! The ‘Grand Canyon carves a 277-mile-long chasm through northwestern Arizona. Running from Lee’s Ferry to Lake Mead, the expansive landscape reveals some of the most colorful geology in the world and provides strong evidence for the global Flood.
Lateral Extent of Strata
As you look across Grand Canyon, observe the layers on both walls. The cliffs and the colors match from one side to the other. The gaps between the cliffs were once filled solid, the layers continuous, but the space in between has since been removed by erosion. The bottom flat layers are older and were deposited first; these are called Cambrian system rocks. The youngest layers are on the canyon’s rim; these are identified as Permian system rocks.
An explorer carefully navigates a canyon wall trail, circa 1930Image credit: Henry G. Peabody Photographs, Greater Arizona Collection, Arizona State University Library, Tempe, AZ.
All of these layers were deposited during the rising phase of the global Flood. Powerful tsunami-like waves spread massive, continuous sedimentary layers for hundreds of miles in all directions across this part of North America. Even relatively thin layers extend across Grand Canyon.
Flat Contacts Show Little Time Between Layers
Grand Canyon’s layers are like stacked pancakes. The lowermost flat layer at Grand Canyon is called the Tapeats Sandstone. At about 200 feet thick, it makes a thin, dark brown layer from a distant view. This layer represents the first extensive Flood deposit at this location. The basal boundary of the Tapeats is a special type of unconformity1 called a nonconformity, where sedimentary rock resides on top of pre-Flood crystalline rock. This surface is also referred to as the Great Unconformity (Figure 1).
Figure 1. ICR geologist Dr. Tim Clarey addresses a Grand Canyon tour group with the Great Unconformity behind himImage credit: Kevin Turley
This global phenomenon is found in countless locations where Cambrian system sedimentary layers overlie Precambrian crystalline rocks. Just below the contact, we observe metamorphic crystalline rocks that are oriented nearly vertically, but the overlying Cambrian Tapeats is horizontal. Although secular geologists claim the Precambrian rock surface here experienced over a billion years of erosion, the contact with the Tapeats is almost perfectly planar—it’s flat! Where are the gullies and chasms from billions of years of erosion?
The Redwall Limestone is Grand Canyon’s most prominent layer—a red, thick, vertical cliff that spans the middle of the exposed rock layers. It’s part of the Mississippian system. Right below it, the Muav Limestone of the Cambrian system appears a bit more grayish. The evolutionary narrative claims 160 million years of erosion occurred between these two rock units. But where are the v-shaped channel patterns that gullies and canyons should have carved on top of the Muav? Instead, one flat limestone lies flat on another nearly everywhere you look.
Figure 2. Flat contact shows no erosion and thus no time between the deposition of the Muav Limestone (gray) and the overlying Redwall Limestone (red). The inset shows the Great Unconformity.Illustration by Scott Arledge
A third flat unconformity lies between the Coconino Sandstone and the Hermit Shale. If you look toward the top of the layers in the canyon, you’ll see a thin, light, tan-colored cliff on top of a dark red layer. About a million years of erosion supposedly separates these two units (Figure 2). But if they were really deposited millions of years apart, valleys and canyons should be found between each of these layers. Instead, the contact is almost perfectly flat everywhere we see it.
Badlands Topography Shows Catastrophic Carving
By examining the topography of areas that have been catastrophically restructured recently, we can estimate the effects of the Flood and compare that estimation with Grand Canyon’s topography. A mudflow following the 1982 eruption of Mount St. Helens created a steep-walled, 140-foot-deep canyon system, complete with side canyons, in a single day.2 It looks remarkably like a 1:40 scale of Grand Canyon.
And we see similar deep gorges and butte-and-basin (badlands) topography associated with the flooding that followed the bursting of Ice Age Lake Missoula. This occurred about 4,000 years ago in the American Northwest. Even secular geologists now recognize that this catastrophic megaflood created the Channeled Scablands of eastern Washington and widened the Columbia River Gorge.
Today’s processes do not form broad, flat rock layers or carve such big and clean canyons. Different processes must be responsible—catastrophic processes. Therefore, it’s reasonable to conclude that early floodwaters laid down Grand Canyon rocks while the water was rising, and the receding floodwater carved most of the Canyon.
The present narrative for Grand Canyon’s formation is insufficient. Most of today’s secular scientists assume the Colorado River slowly carved Grand Canyon over a period of six million years. But today’s flow rates simply don’t have the power to push the 1,000 cubic miles of rocks and debris all the way out to the Pacific Ocean. Even after millions of years, we should see a lot more talus and debris. Talus refers to rock piles that lean against the cliff walls where they fell. The canyon’s base looks like it was swept clean. Only catastrophic water flow and water volume many times greater than what flows there today could sculpt badlands topography and wide gaps in the canyon.3
Noah’s Flood Explains Grand Canyon
Secular interpretations still cannot adequately explain why the Colorado River cuts right through the Kaibab Uplift that formed on the western flank of the Colorado Plateau. The Kaibab Uplift has warped an arch of rock about 3,000 feet above the surrounding terrain. Water should have flowed around it, not uphill and through it.4
How do Flood geologists explain this? The year-long Flood narrative in Genesis helps us understand what we see. After sediments like the Coconino, Redwall, and Tapeats were deposited in the rising phase of the Flood, the Colorado Plateau was pushed up 5,000 feet during the receding phase of the Flood. This caused the floodwaters to drain off rapidly. Grand Canyon is on the western edge of that plateau. When packed, wet sand is lifted up, it stretches and cracks. Water naturally follows the cracks and fractures. Some of those would have run through the Kaibab Uplift to create a path for lots of water to flow downhill and carve a vast canyon.
Rapid uplift and drainage of the receding floodwaters provide both the pathway and the necessary volume of water to quickly carve Grand Canyon.4 This was all accomplished before the Ice Age began. How do we know? Because there are about 150 lava flows that originated on the Uinkaret Plateau and poured down into Grand Canyon during the Ice Age. The canyon had to exist before these lava falls poured in.5
The lateral extent of the sedimentary layers, flat contacts between the layers, and vast badlands topography all point to rapid deposition and ultra-high-volume erosion. The rocks reveal the enormity of the global Flood, and the canyon exhibits catastrophic carving from receding floodwaters. Grand Canyon is a reminder of the immense power of the judgment of the Flood.
References
- An unconformity is where some amount of erosion has taken place, removing a segment of the rock record. Unconformities can also occur if there was a brief hiatus in deposition. Unconformities do not imply vast amounts of time since they can form quickly as tsunami-like waves wash across the landscape, eroding the surface as they go.
- Morris, J. and S. A. Austin. 2003. Footprints in the Ash: The Explosive Story of Mount St. Helens. Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 72-76.
- Austin, S. A. 1986. Mt. St. Helens and Catastrophism. Acts & Facts. 15 (7).
- Clarey, T. 2018. Grand Canyon Carved by Flood Runoff. Acts & Facts. 47 (12): 10-13.
- Clarey, T. 2020. Lava Flows Disqualify Lake Spillover Canyon Theory. Acts & Facts. 49 (10): 10-12.’ https://www.icr.org/article/grand-canyon-exposing-the-flood/?utm_source=phplist9319&utm_medium=email&utm_content=HTML&utm_campaign=NEW%21+National+Park+Series%2C+Butterfly+Wing+Design%2C+and+More%21+
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!
| VAMPIRE FINCHES EVOLVE, claim scientists and David Attenborough, according to articles in Science Alert 16 January 2021, Smithsonian News 22 January 2021 and The Conversation 15 January 2021 and New Scientist 14 January 2021. Finches on two of the most northerly islands of the Galapagos Islands have been found to feed on the blood of seabirds that also live on the islands. The two islands, named Wolf and Darwin, are barren rocky islands with limited food sources, so scientists suggest ground finches named Geospiza septentrionalis originally co-existed with the red-footed and Nazca boobies, which also nest on the islands, and picked off parasites from the feathers of the boobies, as well as eating seeds and insects. In barren years the finches progressed to using their sharp beaks to puncture the skin of the boobies and drink blood from resulting wounds. The researchers wrote in The Conversation: “Natural selection appears to have fine-tuned the vampire finch beak for skin-piercing and blood-sucking, as the birds have evolved particularly long and pointy beaks compared to non-blood-feeding populations on other islands”. They also claimed the finches resort to drinking blood for survival when they can’t find other food sources like seeds and insects. Vampire finches are featured in David Attenborough’s latest series “A Perfect Planet”, which “examines what made Earth so perfect for life”. According to a review in New Scientist the series “looks at the most influential natural forces, including sunlight and ocean currents, that create the ideal conditions to create and support life”. Links: Conversation, New Scientist, Science Alert, Smithsonian ED. COM. The reason the earth is perfect for life is as the prophet Isaiah reminds us, because the Lord God both created it and made it to be inhabited (Isaiah 45:18-19). Therefore, it has all the right physical and chemical properties needed to sustain life. Natural forces such as sunlight and ocean currents cannot create life which requires genetic information. Molecules randomly bashing into one another under the influence of light and flowing water never make anything including DNA. We would also remind David Attenborough that earth was only perfect when God the Creator had completed it and declared it to be “very good” (Genesis 1:31). Since then it has degenerated significantly as a result of human sin and God’s judgement, and is now a tragic mixture of good and bad. The vampire finches, along with the other animals and birds struggling to survive in the harsh conditions included in Attenborough’s series, are a classic example of this. In the beginning, when the world was perfect, all animals were given plants to eat. In that very good world there would have been plenty of nutritious plant food, such as nectar, fruits and seeds for the original created finches to eat. It was only after the world degenerated, especially after the devastation of Noah’s Flood, that finches had to scrape up a living in harsh conditions like the Galapagos Islands. Those that ended up on tiny barren islands used whatever resources they already had to find food, which means those that already had sharp beaks could extract blood from other birds. Those that didn’t have sharp beaks died out when there were no seeds or insects to eat. This is natural selection and the struggle for life at work. These are real processes, but they are not creative processes, and they won’t make anything evolve. They are destructive processes that can only eliminate those living things that are ill equipped for the struggle in a particular environment. Those who want to believe that God used evolution to create need to be reminded that the processes ascribed to evolution, e.g. natural selection, survival of the fittest, only result in death and destruction, and cannot be called “very good”. These processes only came into the world after man sinned and God judged the world. This is one of the most serious problems of the belief of theistic evolution. For more problems with this belief see our report Ten Questions for Theistic Evolutionists here.’ https://creationresearch.net/ |
Aw the beautiful butterfly! ‘EFFICIENT BUTTERFLY FLIGHT reported in BBC News 20 January 2021, ScienceDaily 21 January 2021 and Journal of The Royal Society Interface 20 January 2021 doi: 10.1098/rsif.2020.0854. Two researchers at the Swedish Lund University have studied the fluttery flight of butterflies, which has been traditionally considered ungainly and inefficient. Per Henningsson and Christoffer Johansson commented in their report: “Butterflies look like no other flying animal, with unusually short, broad and large wings relative to their body size”. Henningsson and Johansson analysed the flapping flight of butterflies taking off in a wind tunnel and found their flight was very efficient due to having flexible wings and using a “clap technique”. During the upstroke of the wingbeat the flexible wings form a cup shape that traps a pocket of air. At the top of the upstroke the wings clap together forcing the air out backwards, which propels the butterfly forward. The downstroke of the wingbeat is then “used for weight support”, i.e. it keeps the butterfly in the air. Henningsson and Johansson confirmed the flexible wings and clap technique produced efficient flying by designing and building similar mechanical winged drones and testing them in the wind tunnel. They found “flexible wings dramatically increase the useful impulse (+22%) and efficiency (+28%) of the clap compared to rigid wings”. The researchers suggest the large wings and clapping technique gave them an evolutionary advantage by being able to escape quickly from predators. Per Henningsson told the BBC: “It’s a strong selective pressure then, because it’s a matter of life and death”. The researchers concluded: “Combined, our results suggest butterflies evolved a highly effective clap, which provides a mechanistic hypothesis for their unique wing morphology. Furthermore, our findings could aid the design of man-made flapping drones, boosting propulsive performance”.
Link: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/01/210121132059.htm
ED. COM. Escaping from predators will certainly give butterflies a selective advantage but it won’t make anything evolve. Butterflies that already had such efficient flight didn’t need to evolve. Selection can only eliminate the unfit. It cannot make anything unfit turn into something more fit.
Notice the inconsistency in the researchers’ conclusion: butterflies “evolved” their unique wing shape and efficient clap technique, but man-made flapping drones with the same flying ability will have to be designed and built by intelligent engineers. These researchers, who created their flapping model drones to test in the wind tunnel, are without excuse for failing to recognise the Creator of the natural butterflies, which are not only very efficient but more beautiful and do other things besides fly. Whenever you see a butterfly fluttering give praise the Creator who made it to fly efficiently, fertilise flowers and bring joy to people who see it.’https://creationresearch.net/
