TRUTH MATTERS

“… Baumgardner’s coal samples do show significant radiocarbon above background, inviting explanation.” –Dr. Kirk Bertsche, AMS Expert  At left: Accelerator mass spectrometer (AMS) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (From Wikipedia)

The RATE team from Institute for Creation Research has produced some very interesting physical evidence for a young earth … one of their experiments involves measuring Carbon 14 in coal.  To make a long story short, there shouldn’t be any Carbon 14 in coal that is supposedly 300 million years old.  BUT … there is and Dr. Baumgardner and his colleagues were alert enough to notice.   Link here to Dr. Baumgardner’s paper.  Paul Giem of GRISDA did a literature survey of studies in which “too much” carbon 14 was found.  This prompted the RATE team to do their own experiment and sure enough … they found carbon 14 which was significantly above background.  Dr. Baumgardner argues that the C14 is intrinsic but of course Old Earthers say it’s not.  What are the Old Earth explanations?   Dr. Bertsche in his article at Talk Origins has suggested mobile humic acids, microbial growth and neutron bombardment.  Kathleen Hunt in her article at Talk Origins says …

The short version: the ¹⁴C in coal is probably produced de novo by radioactive decay of the uranium-thorium isotope series that is naturally found in rocks (and which is found in varying concentrations in different rocks, hence the variation in ¹⁴C content in different coals). Research is ongoing at this very moment.

(The fungi/bacteria hypothesis [that ¹⁴C in coal is produced by modern microorganisms currently living there –Ed.] may also be plausible, but would probably only contribute to inflation of ¹⁴C values if coal sits in warm damp conditions exposed to ambient air. [It wasn’t — read Baumgardner’s paper on how the samples were handled] There is also growing evidence that bacteria are widespread in deep rocks, but it is not clear that they could contribute to ¹⁴C levels. But they may contribute to ¹³C.)

…

So, it looks like in-situ production of new ¹⁴C is the best-supported hypothesis;

So this appears to be the leading Old Earth Hypothesis but Dr. Bertsche failed to mention in his article that Dr. Baumgardner had already thought of this hypothesis and had calculated the amount of Carbon 14 this would produce.  His calculations showed that the amount of C14 produced would be 4 orders of magnitude too small.  I challenged people at the Talk Rational forum to show that Dr. Baumgardner’s calculations are wrong and several people tried including Dr. Bertsche.  Here is what he wrote recently …

“When I do the above [calculations on neutron bombardment of 14N to produce 14C in coal] on the back of an envelope, I get a 14C abundance that is too low by about 3 orders of magnitude. LINK HERE.“

So the two are very close.  Dr. Bertsche has come back today (6/1/10) saying that this is not conclusive and “in situ” contamination is not ruled out.  That’s fine, Dr. Bertsche, if you think it’s not conclusive … you are welcome to keep trying with the calculations.  As for “in situ” contamination, don’t you think your friend Dr. Gove has considered those other sources of contamination?  Why else would he think that in-situ production of new ¹⁴C is the best-supported hypothesis?  If Old Earthers would stop ignoring the Elephant in the Living Room — the Global Flood, SOOO many things would be easier to explain … like the bazillions of fossils all over the world which require rapid burial to be preserved, like global sedimentary rock layers, the short history of civilization, legends of a global flood from around the world and so on.  Oh … and Carbon 14 in coal that shouldn’t be there.

A new giant virus has been discovered and the researchers say something rather surprising about Darwin’s theory.

“There is a mechanism of permanent creation going on in amoeba producing a new repertoire of viruses and predisposing giant viruses to become pathogens once they specialise”, Raoult said.

He said the mechanism was not foreseen by Charles Darwin’s theory that life comes from a common ancestor.

“The idea of a common ancestor makes no sense in the light of viruses,” he said.

“That was Darwin’s idea, but he was clearly wrong.”

Rest of article can be found here … http://www.physorg.com/news179588551.html

Thanks to Michael Behe, everyone knows about flagellar motors, but how about VIRUS motors. Whoa. Virus motors? Enjoy …

Clockwork That Drives Powerful Virus Nanomotor Discovered

ScienceDaily — Dec. 31, 2008 — Peering at structures only atoms across, researchers have identified the clockwork that drives a powerful virus nanomotor.

Because of the motor’s strength–to scale, twice that of an automobile–the new findings could inspire engineers designing sophisticated nanomachines. In addition, because a number of virus types may possess a similar motor, including the virus that causes herpes, the results may also assist pharmaceutical companies developing methods to sabotage virus machinery.

Researchers from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., and the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., collaborated on the study that appears in the Dec. 26, 2008, issue of the journal Cell.

Evolution has a new wrinkle. So says Science Daily in report that came out this month. I would not call it a wrinkle. I would call it a fatal flaw. But you’ll never get scientists steeped in evolutionary doctrine (yes, I said doctrine) to admit this. Something tells me that they will hear about this and just try to work it into evolutionary theory. It appears to me that most scientists do not want to admit that the evidence for an Intelligent Designer (the God of the Bible) is overwhelming and getting stronger every day. Enjoy …

Evolution’s New Wrinkle: Proteins With ‘Cruise Control’ Act Like Adaptive Machines

ScienceDaily (Nov. 12, 2008) — A team of Princeton University scientists has discovered that chains of proteins found in most living organisms act like adaptive machines, possessing the ability to control their own evolution.

The research, which appears to offer evidence of a hidden mechanism guiding the way biological organisms respond to the forces of natural selection, provides a new perspective on evolution, the scientists said.

Yes … a new perspective. Like perhaps we should quit calling it ‘evolution’ which carries implications of randomness and blind forces. Let’s start calling it what it is … Designed Adaptation. Which of course causes us to ask ‘Who is the Designer?’ Other evidence indicates that it’s the God of the Bible. Read more »

An article just came out this month about ‘junk DNA’ and how that they have now found that not only were they wrong about it’s ‘junk’ status, it’s actually “one of the important ingredients distinguishing humans from other species.”

‘Junk’ DNA Proves Functional; Helps Explain Human Differences From Other Species

ScienceDaily (Nov. 5, 2008) — In a paper published in Genome Research on Nov. 4, scientists at the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) report that what was previously believed to be “junk” DNA is one of the important ingredients distinguishing humans from other species.
…
“The findings by Dr. Bourque and his colleagues at the GIS are very exciting and represent what may be one of the major discoveries in the biology of evolution and gene regulation of the decade,” said Raymond White, Ph.D., Rudi Schmid Distinguished Professor at the Department of Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco, and chair of the GIS Scientific Advisory Board.

Not only that, but the “Central Dogma” set forth by Francis Crick 50 years ago is also wrong. There are now whole websites dedicated to documenting the history of this collossal failure of evolutionary theory, such as this one … http://www.junkdna.com/ and this one … http://www.whoisyourcreator.com/junk_dna.html

Read more »

Evolutionists say that humans and dinosaurs did NOT co-exist, but numerous pieces of evidence indicate that they did, including the Biblical Book of Job, Chapters 40 & 41, legends of knights fighting “dragons,” artwork of dragons and dinosaurs, and fossilized tracks of human and dinosaur footprints together in the same strata.

The evolutionary establishment goes to great lengths to indoctrinate kids with their views about evolution, but apparently, the Lego artists who created this play set didn’t get the message. Way to go, Lego!

Yes, according to two of today’s most vocal Evolution advocates on the web — P.Z. Myers of the Pharyngula blog and Nick Matzke of Panda’s Thumb.  These quotes from PZ and Nick were related by a good friend and fan of mine who goes by CK1 on all the forums where I post.  She is a professional virologist and an editor of several professional science journals and can always be counted on for insightful comments on the topics I start.  Read more »

Life on our planet is dying out. Species are becoming extinct at an alarming rate. Two recent articles highlight this fact …

Scientists alarmed by ocean dead-zone growth

David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor

Friday, August 15, 2008

(08-14) 18:03 PDT SAN FRANCISCO — Dead zones where fish and most marine life can no longer survive are spreading across the continental shelves of the world’s oceans at an alarming rate as oxygen vanishes from coastal waters, scientists reported Thursday.

The scientists place the problem on runoff of chemical fertilizers in rivers and fallout from burning fossil fuels, and they estimate there are now more than 400 dead zones along 95,000 square miles of the seas – an area more than half the size of California.

The number of those areas has nearly doubled every decade since the 1960s, said Robert J. Diaz, a biological oceanographer at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

“Dead zones were once rare, but now they’re commonplace, and there are more of them in more places,” he said. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/15/MNLD12ADSN.DTL

Read more »

Over at Kids4Truth International, we recently wrote a fanciful Dynamation to highlight the fact that scientists are looking for aliens but have missed the most obvious “Alien” … the Creator Himself. It appears from the following article that interest in aliens is starting to pick up again.

From The Telegraph.co.uk …

By Tom Leonard in New York
Last Updated: 6:40PM BST 19 May 2008

English students at the University of Wyoming are being encouraged to consider the possibility that humanity might one day make contact with aliens and then not know what to say.

“Interstellar Message Composition”, a creative writing class, is believed to be the first of its kind to engage writers in a potential cosmic conversation, say its founders.

“We’ve thought a lot about how we might communicate with other worlds, but we haven’t thought much about what we’d actually say,” Prof Jeffrey Lockwood, the course leader, told ABC News.

The course, currently being taken by 11 students, is partly financed by Nasa’s Wyoming Space Grant Consortium, which sponsors educational and research projects in the state that support the agency’s missions.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/1989062/nasa-sponsors-course-on-how-to-talk-to-aliens.html

“Nearly one generation after the effort to reduce misconduct in science began, the responses by NIH scientists suggests that falsified and fabricated research records, publications, dissertations and grant applications are much more prevalent than has been suspected to date. Our study calls into question the effectiveness of self-regulation. We hope it will lead individuals and institutions to evaluate their commitment to research integrity.” –Nature 453, 980-982, 19 June 2008 (Illustration credit: J. Taylor)

MY OPINION: External policing won’t work any better than self-regulation. Nothing will change without a change of heart and only the Creator Himself can do that. The Hebrew prophet Jeremiah once wrote … “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Jer 17:9 (KJV). But the good news is that God is in the business of changing people’s hearts. He only requires us to acknowledge that He exists and submit ourselves to Him.

My experience has been that anti creationists accuse creationists of fraud quite often, they are usually not subtle about it, and they almost never provide proof for their accusations. Then they often shout “libel, libel” when creationists like me dare to question scientists’ work even if I’m not making an accusation of fraud (which I have never done). But I do think scientists are human and they are biased strongly by their pre-existing beliefs. So this provides temptation to at least ignore contrary data if not commit outright fraud.

Free Bloomberg News article on this HERE.

Related to this topic, here is an interesting editorial on how academia really works by Gary North …

Academia is a self-certified guild that is funded mainly by tax money. Each year, something in the range of $350 billion goes into higher education in the United States. This figure keeps rising. So, the stakes are high.As with any guild, it must limit entry in order to preserve above-market salaries. It does so primarily by academic licensing.

The primary licensing restriction is university accreditation, which is a system run by half a dozen regional agencies. To get degree-granting status, a college or university must be certified by one of these agencies. They certify very few.

The next screening device is the Ph.D. degree. This system was imposed on academia nationally by John D. Rockefeller’s General Education Board, beginning in 1903, when Congress chartered it. He gave money to colleges, but only if they put people with Ph.D. degrees on their faculties.

Next comes faculty tenure. After about six or seven years of teaching mainly lower division classes that senior professors refuse to teach, an assistant professor comes up for tenure. If he gets it, he can never be fired except for moral infractions far worse than adultery committed with female students. Very few assistant professors are granted tenure. The Ph.D. glut then consigns the losers to part-time work in community colleges for wages in the range of what apprentice plumbers receive. I have written about this glut elsewhere.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north632.html