In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1

Photo: This Primordial Soup is no longer “just right”!

ScienceDaily (Feb. 3, 2010) — “For 80 years it has been accepted that early life began in a ‘primordial soup’ of organic molecules before evolving out of the oceans millions of years later.

Today the ’soup’ theory has been over turned in a pioneering paper in BioEssays which claims it was the Earth’s chemical energy, from hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor, which kick-started early life.”

For 80 years this dumb theory has appeared in virtually every science textbook, has been haughtily repeated in every creation evolution discussion and has been an article of faith in the Materialist’s gospel. Just over a year ago for example Times Online’s Kate Muir wrote basically a love letter about the world’s most famous Atheist, Richard Dawkins, entitled; Richard Dawkin’s Knocks Creationist’s Into the Primordial Soup”. An excerpt:

“The marginalisation of academia is partly self-created by its pomp and obfuscatory language. Dawkins broke out of the ghetto long ago thanks not just to an extraordinary mind, but to a gift for elegant communication and controversy: the English-language version of his recent paean to atheism, The God Delusion, has sold 1.5million copies (it has been translated into 31 other languages).

He is big in airport bookshops. In 1976, when his first book, The Selfish Gene, was published, The New York Times explained the mind-expanding pleasure of his science-lit as “the sort of popular science writing that makes the reader feel like a genius”.

“In these barren, thoughtless times, Dawkins gives people something substantial to chew on. His audience is surprisingly grateful, and also relieved to see someone slapping creationists about and tossing them into the primordial soup, as well as explaining atheism positively.”

Clearly, those who “worship the creature rather than the Creator” (Romans 1) never expected their soup to be spilled by their own congregates–other evolutionary believers. Evolutionists are nothing if not resilient however and will simply adapt the new view in their papers, debates and popularizing science books going forward.

So will they now haughtily decree that life began in hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor as if that was what they had been preaching all along? Not necessarily! On ScienceDaily’s page announcing this twist in the life origin paradigm are links to related articles;

Clay Material May Have Acted As ‘Primordial Womb’ For First Organic Molecules
Diamonds May Have Been Life’s Best Friend On Primordial Earth
Did Comets Contain Key Ingredients For Life On Earth?

Another radical “scientific” theory by Dr Michael Russell of the Scottish Environmental Research Centre in Glasgow, claims that living systems originated from inorganic incubators - small compartments in iron sulphide rocks.

University of Missouri-Columbia researcher Rainer Glaser posits that; life exists on Earth because of a delicate combination of chemical ingredients. Using a theoretical model, Glaser hypothesizes the existence of adenine in interstellar dust clouds. Those same clouds, he thinks may have showered a young Earth with adenine as it began cooling billions of years ago….Physorg.com

Of course, there is Richard’s Dawkin’s preferred alternative; that life on earth was simply “seeded” by Aliens… (youtube video link)

People like Kate Muir, no doubt are excited by the possibilities that this brazen lack of scientific knowledge creates for future articles; “Dawkins Knocks Creationists into Hydrothermal Vents in the Ocean Floor”; Dawkin’s Knocks Creationist’s onto Diamonds” or even “Dawkin’s Knocks Creationists into Alien Spaceship”!

Atheists don’t have any real idea how life began–they are however unshakeable in their belief that God didn’t do it.

The original article on ScienceDaily can be found here.

To post a comment, email it to s8intcom@comcast.net

Photo: Blond mummy in China

1)No one has been more enthralled and interested in the story about Ancient Caucasians (Romans) in China than Stormfront. (See Also: Blond Mummies in China)

Since humans are 99.9% genetically identical, as I’ve said before, one might as well be excited about his historical connection to ancients that also has male pattern baldness.

2)Now, here’s a new story about ancient East Asians in Rome. Who’s going to get excited about that, I wonder? DNA testing on 2,000-year-old bones in Italy reveal East Asian ancestry

Maybe they had some type of burial exchange program?

3) An Extraordinary Discovery. The Remains of an Icelandic Woman, Buried in 1051, with Trinkets, Roman Coins, etc., Exhumed Below the Great Falls of the Potamac_A Remarkable Runic Inscription—America Discovered by the Irish……..The Chicago Tribune, July 16, 1867

Clearly, everyone discovered America! The Africans (Olmecs) the East Asians, the Irish, the Chinese and of course the Vikings have all been said to have discovered America before Columbus in 1492. All those candidates ignore the fact that apparently when America was discovered–there were people here already!

Still, there appear to be enough proofs that this Christian woman lived on the continent 1,000 years ago to make one wonder why her story didn’t appear in any history books?

“From the article;

Permit me through your columns to publish the details of the discovery near the city of Washington, of the remains of an Icelandic Christian woman , who died in the year 1051, and of the inscription in the Runic characters which mark her grave, the announcement of which has already sped by telegraph through the New World to the Old—to publish a fact which materially affects the history of the discovery of America by Europeans, by adding one more proof to the many now generally received by historians, of the extraordinary voyages of the adventurous Northmen, without compass or quadrant, to the eastern coast of this continent, five centuries before the landing of Columbus…..”

The author recounts many other proofs of Icelandic/Northmen incursions into America and gives the location of the gravestone in extraordinary detail. He translates the inscription, which he has named ‘the white shirt inscription” as follows;

“Here rests Syasy, (or Suasu) the fair-haired, a person from the east of Iceland, the widow of Kjoldr, and sister of Thorgy, children of the same father…..twenty-five years of age. May God make glad her soul. 1051”

The author Thomas Raffinnson, of the Royal Society of Northern Antiquities then goes into great detail concerning the inscriptions themselves and about the human remains, trinkets and Roman coins found at that site.

He indicates at the article’s end that the reamins and trinkets along with detailed drawings of the inscription had been forwarded to the Smithsonian……

4)Giant Ancient Miners? Relics of Ancient Miners

Bruce Herald, May 16, 1902 Archaeologists were “much interested” in some old tools found at an abandoned, ancient coal mine near Edinburgh. During operations by the Weymess Coal Company and old unused pit was discovered that held among other items some ancient tools.

The discoverers were amazed at the size of some huge blocks of coal that had been cut out with a pick and wondered how the ancient miners had been able to cut blocks so large. Some of the tools found were made of wood.

The huge blocks had been cut out with picks—the handles of which were as large in thickness and in length as the props used at that time to prop up the roof as they went in current mining operations.

Who were these giant miners? One giant man might be a “freak of nature” but apparently due to the size of the cut blocks of coal and the incredible size of certain tools such as the pick axe, it was apparently a common size of the miner of that era and location..

*Historical Mysteries

Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

Popular American culture has an exceptional ability to transmit its attitudes, its mores, and it’s standards both in America and internationally.

It enculturates us with the dominant ideologies and we knowingly or unknowingly tend to adopt its traditions and practices. This is why for example little girls of color can prefer dolls that don’t look like themselves, their parents or their brothers and sisters. This same effect can impact brunettes, who our culture appears to value less than blondes. Thin is in. Sexuality; omnipresent. Youth is good -age and maturity; bad.

Those messages have been received.

How about the messages our media and culture transmit about God and evolution? How is the culture doing in transmitting the dominant ideology there? The culture says that “creationists” are at best gullible and at worst idiots. The popular media reports evolution as fact. Evolution “advances” often lead the news and are imparted as truth.

The culture reports on God and God centered beliefs- like man and dinosaur interraction or Noah’s ark, if “forced” to with a wink and a smirk. Governor Palin was not considered a good vice-presidential candidate by many “cultural elites” in the last National election for among other things, stating that she believed that man and dinosaurs lived at the same time. (Of course some concerns about the Governor were valid.)

If the media and the culture are unafraid of offending the segment of the population who believe in God, Noah’s ark etc., then that group must be a small group of weirdoes and mouth breathers whose offense wouldn’t cause a ripple, right?

So how is the culture doing in transmitting the “evolution is true, God and the great flood of Noah are mythological” ideology to the American public?

“An ABC News poll released in Feb 2004 found that 61 percent of Americans believe the account of creation in the Bible’s book of Genesis is “literally true” rather than a story meant as a “lesson.” Sixty percent believe in the story of Noah’s ark and a global flood, while 64 percent agree that Moses parted the Red Sea to save fleeing Jews from their Egyptian captors. The poll, with a margin of error of 3 percentage points, was conducted Feb. 6 to 10 among 1,011 adults.”…Washington Times

There may be newer polls out there, this one was compiled 6 years ago. I doubt however, if much has changed in the six years since. (That was the latest I could find on belief in Noah’s ark and special creation)

Inside the numbers, 75% of “Protestants” believed in the story of creation, 79 percent in the Red Sea account and 73 percent in Noah and the ark. For “evangelicals” the numbers were 87%, 91% and 87%, respectively. For Catholics, the polling showed 51 percent, 50 percent and 44 percent respectively. Draw your own conclusions from that data.

A 2007 Harris Poll of almost 2,500 adults indicated that more Americans believed in Satan and a literal hell than believed in Darwinism. That survey also found that 82% of Americans believed in God - a figure that was unchanged from polling taken the two previous years.

“It further found that 79 percent believed in miracles, 75 percent in heaven, while 72 percent believed that Jesus is God or the Son of God. Belief in hell and the devil was expressed by 62 percent.”….Reuters UK

(Shockingly, Charles Darwin himself now believes that hell is a literal place. Only 42% of Americans expressed a belief in Darwin’s theory of evolution.)

“Born-again Christians are more likely to believe in the traditional elements of Christianity than are Catholics or Protestants. For example, 95 percent believe in miracles, compared to 87 percent and 89 percent among Catholics and Protestants,” according to the poll.

“On the other hand only 16 percent of born-again Christians, compared to 43 percent of Catholics and 30 percent of Protestants, believe in Darwin’s theory of evolution.” ..Reuters UK

Atheists like Richard Dawkins have for some time been mystified by the failure of the majority of Americans to enculturate themselves with this atheistic, evolution ideology. Even insulting and ridiculing those who hold these beliefs has not moved the needle much—except in Europe.

What accounts for the fact that Americans readily adapt, accept and reflect all those other cultural ideologies and beliefs but continue to believe in God and creationism even though those beliefs are portrayed as ignorant, ‘uncool” and backwards?

And why doesn’t the media accurately reflect the truth that the majority of Americans think that the evolutionists and the Atheists are the ones out of the mainstream? (Seriously, if most Americans believe why does the media portray it otherwise? What do they get out of it?) Are you going to believe us (the media) or your own lying eyes, they ask?

How does belief in the God of the Bible survive this toxic environment?

It’s because God exists and His Word is true.

Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? New International Version (©1984)

Photo: How the “caveman” drew himself. A few of the hundreds of alleged stone aged, “self portraits” from Lussac. (Not specifically related to this story; Click this Link for that Story)

From The TimesOnline January 25, 2010

The surgeon was dressed in a goat or sheep skin and used a sharpened stone to amputate the arm of his patient.

The operating theatre was not exactly Harley Street — more probably a wooden shelter — but the intervention was a success, and it has shed light on the medical talents of our Stone Age ancestors.

Scientists unearthed evidence of the surgery during work on an Early Neolithic tomb discovered at Buthiers-Boulancourt, about 40 miles (65km) south of Paris. They found that a remarkable degree of medical knowledge had been used to remove the left forearm of an elderly man about 6,900 years ago — suggesting that the true Flintstones were more developed than previously thought.

The patient seems to have been anaesthetised, the conditions were aseptic, the cut was clean and the wound was treated, according to the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (Inrap).

The revelation could force a reassessment of the history of surgery, especially because researchers have recently reported signs of two other Neolithic amputations in Germany and the Czech Republic. It was known that Stone Age doctors performed trephinations, cutting through the skull, but not amputations. “The first European farmers were therefore capable of quite sophisticated surgical acts,” Inrap said. The discovery was made by Cécile Buquet-Marcon and Anaick Samzun, both archaeologists, and Philippe Charlier, a forensic scientist.

It followed research on the tomb of an elderly man who lived in the Linearbandkeramik period, when European hunter-gatherers settled down to agriculture, stock-breeding and pottery. The patient was important: his grave was 2m (6.5ft) long — bigger than most — and contained a schist axe, a flint pick and the remains of a young animal, which are evidence of high status.

The most intriguing aspect, however, was the absence of forearm and hand bones. A battery of biological, radiological and other tests showed that the humerus bone had been cut above the trochlea indent at the end “in an intentional and successful amputation”. Mrs Buquet-Marcon said that the patient, who is likely to have been a warrior, might have damaged his arm in a fall, animal attack or battle.

“I don’t think you could say that those who carried out the operation were doctors in the modern sense that they did only that, but they obviously had medical knowledge,” she said.

A flintstone almost certainly served as a scalpel. Mrs Buquet-Marcon said that pain-killing plants were likely to have been used, perhaps the hallucinogenic Datura. “We don’t know for sure, but they would have had to find some way of keeping him still during the operation,” she said.

Other plants, possibly sage, were probably used to clean the wound. “The macroscopic examination has not revealed any infection in contact with this amputation, suggesting that it was conducted in relatively aseptic conditions,” said the scientists in an article for the journal Antiquity.

The patient survived the operation and, although he suffered from osteoarthritis, he lived for months, perhaps years, afterwards, tests revealed. Despite the loss of his forearm, the contents of his grave showed that he remained part of the community. “His disability did not exclude him from the group,” the researchers said.

The discovery demonstrates that advanced medical knowledge and complex social rules were present in Europe in about 4900BC, and that major surgery was likely to have been more common than we realised, Mrs Buquet-Marcon said.

Clara Moskowitz
LiveScience Staff Writer
Jan 15 2010

Scientists have discovered the earliest known Hebrew writing - an inscription dating from the 10th century B.C., during the period of King David’s reign.

The breakthrough could mean that portions of the Bible were written centuries earlier than previously thought. (The Bible’s Old Testament is thought to have been first written down in an ancient form of Hebrew.)

Until now, many scholars have held that the Hebrew Bible originated in the 6th century B.C., because Hebrew writing was thought to stretch back no further. But the newly deciphered Hebrew text is about four centuries older, scientists announced this month.

“It indicates that the Kingdom of Israel already existed in the 10th century BCE and that at least some of the biblical texts were written hundreds of years before the dates presented in current research,” said Gershon Galil, a professor of Biblical Studies at the University of Haifa in Israel, who deciphered the ancient text.

BCE stands for “before common era,” and is equivalent to B.C., or before Christ.

The writing was discovered more than a year ago on a pottery shard dug up during excavations at Khirbet Qeiyafa, near Israel’s Elah valley. The excavations were carried out by archaeologist Yosef Garfinkel of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. At first, scientists could not tell if the writing was Hebrew or some other local language.

Finally, Galil was able to decipher the text. He identified words particular to the Hebrew language and content specific to Hebrew culture to prove that the writing was, in fact, Hebrew.

“It uses verbs that were characteristic of Hebrew, such as asah (’did’) and avad (’worked’), which were rarely used in other regional languages,” Galil said. “Particular words that appear in the text, such as almanah (’widow’) are specific to Hebrew and are written differently in other local languages.”

The ancient text is written in ink on a trapezoid-shaped piece of pottery about 6 inches by 6.5 inches (15 cm by 16.5 cm). It appears to be a social statement about how people should treat slaves, widows and orphans. In English, it reads (by numbered line):

1′ you shall not do [it], but worship the [Lord].
2′ Judge the sla[ve] and the wid[ow] / Judge the orph[an]
3′ [and] the stranger. [Pl]ead for the infant / plead for the po[or and]
4′ the widow. Rehabilitate [the poor] at the hands of the king.
5′ Protect the po[or and] the slave / [supp]ort the stranger.

The content, which has some missing letters, is similar to some Biblical scriptures, such as Isaiah 1:17, Psalms 72:3, and Exodus 23:3, but does not appear to be copied from any Biblical text.

Click Photo For Higher Resolution

Fossil Under Lens Like Manmade Shoe—
Microphotos Are Made of Freak Taken From Rock Millions of Years Old—-
Stitches Are Revealed. —-Examination by Rockefeller Institute Tends to Upset Long-Accepted Theories
New York Times, August 13, 1922

Chris Parker, Copyright 2010

“Microphotographs taken by the Rockefeller Institute of the so-called Triassic shoe of Nevada have been interpreted by some experts as establishing that fossil, now in the possession of John T. Reid of Lovelock, Nev., as a work of human manufacture.

This fossil or freak, which resembles a hand-welted sole with marvelous definitiveness of detail, was found embedded in Triassic rock, somewhere from 100,000,000 to 300,000,000 years old. The shoe, if it is a shoe, is older than the rock, because the rock must have formed over and around it by the precipitation of minerals from solution”….NYT Aug 13, 1922

The Apostle Paul defined faith as “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”. Merriam-Webster defines it this way in part;: “firm belief in something for which there is no proof (2) : complete trust
3 : something that is believed especially with strong conviction”.

Paul says that faith is based on evidence. Popularly it is said that Christians believe without evidence but that science is wholly based on facts, evidence and substance.

This popular belief is wrong in both respects; faith in God is built on evidence and belief in evolution and materialism is without facts or substance—or else the “facts” have been misunderstood, ignored or twisted.

With respect to God, Romans Chapter 1 says that God’s invisible qualities and Divine nature can be clearly understood by what has been made-so that man is without excuse. Sir Isaac Newton put it this way:

” This thing [a scale model of our solar system] is but a puny imitation of a much grander system whose laws you know, and I am not able to convince you that this mere toy is without a designer and maker; yet you, as an atheist, profess to believe that the great original from which the design is taken has come into being without either designer or maker! Now tell me by what sort of reasoning do you reach such an incongruous conclusion?”

With respect to evolution natural selection has failed as an adequate mechanism to explain macroevolution and there is no known scientific explanation for the creation of life from non-life.

When it comes to the universe itself, the materialist essentially believes; in the beginning there was nothing—which exploded! When it comes to the origin of the universe and the mechanism for the macroevolution of plants and animals, evolutionists have to sustain themselves by faith! After all, the main scientific theory as to the origin of this universe (the big bang) requires one to accept that up to 96% of the universe is “invisible” and undetectable (dark matter and energy). See; that’s faith; belief in things unseen–but where is the evidence?

In 1922, John T. Reid, himself a mining engineer, found the sole of a shoe encased in “Triassic rock” outside Lovelock, Nevada. If accepted, it would have as the NY Times article suggested; upset long held theories. This is why there was absolutely zero chance of the fossil being accepted as a shoe sole either then, or now.

This would be true even after an examination by one of the preeminent medical institutes of the time (Rockefeller Inst.) examined the object under very high magnification and took photographs clearly showing the stitching.

Before the microphotographs were taken, certain scientists pronounced it ”the most remarkable natural imitation of an artificial object they had ever seen”. No doubt they would have said the same thing even if it had had a Nike logo embedded.

Now, science had said that Triassic rock was up to 300,000,000 years old. The Bible says that they are less than 10,000 years old. Somebody’s way off!

But now we have science which we’re told relies on facts and data with the object in hand and with the results of high magnification from every angle with which to produce more facts and data to decide the question. But would science’s loyalty be to the facts and the data or to the paradigm;—materialism, evolution and a very old universe? Faith defines what one believes but therefore also defines those things one cannot believe.

According to the discoverer and others who saw the microphotographs, under magnification, “the holes punched in the sole for stitching show very clearly, and even the twist of the thread used in the welt is developed”.

In microphotograph LH1, the right hand path of the stitching is clearly visible. “The twist of the thread is plainly visible … In micrograph, LH3 the stitching shows as having been doubled up for a portion of the distance around the sole.

In microphotograph LH2 there is a perfectly clear reproduction of the thread used in stitching the sole to the upper, and the spacing is clearly shown until it disappears beneath a portion of the sole”…

Reid, further discussing the results of the scientific testing on the fossil with the NY Times said; “It seems quite unnecessary for me to dwell on the remarkable resemblance to our modern shoe leather, as it appears reproduced here, in that it duplicates exactly in all respects the process that takes place in worn out shoes.”

…”In microphotograph LH2 ½ we have reproduced a portion of that contained in LH2, only on a scale of twenty times the magnification of the original specimen. In this highly magnified picture, the twist of the thread is distinctly visible. Its warp is brought out in unmistakable prominence. This admits of but one interpretation, which to all must be readily apparent, that this is the sole of a shoe that was surely done by the hand of man.”

All but two paleontologists and geologists to whom Reid had taken the fossil prior to the analysis insisted that it was simply a “freak of nature”. Those who accept the current ruling scientific paradigm really had no choice other than to refuse to accept the fossil as a shoe sole. Their faith demanded it.

If the fossil shoe had been confirmed by science, then either modern shoe-making man lived hundreds of millions of years ago—or Triassic rock is quite a bit younger than had been thought. At that time, human civilization was believed to have been between 5,000 and 10,000 years old.

Miners Watch Formation of Anthracite Coal-Supposedly 200 to 300 Million Years Old Form in 4 Months

There have doubtless been many previous discoveries of unexplained artifacts (unexplained by current paradigm) that would give the fossil shoe discovery some support. About 46 years prior to the discovery of the fossil shoe by a mining engineer, in 1876, another seemingly impossible and relevant discovery took place in the Indian Ridge Mining Shaft of the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Co.

This particular out of place artifact was more than 50 feet long with a six inch diameter.

The article appeared in the Shenandoah Herald in March 1876. “Strange Statement—The Process of the Formation of Anthracite Coal Discovered in the Indian Ridge Shaft”.

It should be mentioned that anthracite was a type of coal thought to have formed on the latter end of the 200 to 300 million age range given for the fossil shoe.

A pipe had been installed in the mine for the purpose of diverting water from a nearby stream that otherwise would have continuously poured down upon the miners. After some time, this six inch pipe became clogged with reddish brown sediment from the stream reducing the pipe opening to about two inches. At that point, the flow was diverted and a new pipe was installed.

Four months later, a portion of the old pipe was taken down.

“when broken open the wonderful phenomenon presented itself that the sediment was gradually changing into what appears to be anthracite coal. About a half inch of the inside of the sediment lining the pipe had been changed into coal and the remainder was also gradually changing….The process of the formation is plainly seen in the sediment next to that which had already turned into coal.”

“….Samples of coal taken from the pipe have been tried on the blacksmith fire at the colltery, and it makes an exceedingly hot fire, but being of a softer nature then the natural anthracite, it clunkers badly.

Fortunately there are any quantity of samples of the wonderful formation, and those who are unwilling to believe without themselves seeing and touching can be accommodated…..A section of the pipe of about 16 feet long has been left standing in the shaft to see what results will follow…..”

Chances are, you have never heard of this “discovery” and it is doubtful that any follow-up research was undertaken. It should be noted that the discovery took place in a coal mine, so that there were plenty of people there who were very familiar with types of coal. You could imagine that if they had found a way to turn sediment into gold—and it didn’t mess with the paradigm, you would have heard of it.

Finally, the writer of that 1876 Shenandoah Herald article challenges the experts;

“if anthracite coal will form from sediment deposited by water when exposed to the action of the atmosphere under certain conditions for a period as short as four months, what becomes of all the pet theories of the geologist and mining engineers on the subject?

How about the great heat, the millions of years of time and tremendous, pressure which according to the various theories of the heretofore accepted authorities were necessary to account for our deposits of the finest and best fuel yet found?”

These stories have important ramifications in terms of how paradigm shifting or paradigm conflicting data and artifacts are approached by science. We have every reason to believe that few of them will see the light of day and then that even if they do, science will never accept them as genuine, no matter what the objective evidence might show. We have every reason to believe as well that there are dozens if not hundreds or thousands of other paradigm shattering artifacts that have been found that we will never see or hear about.

The shoe fossil discoverer, John Reid, wanted to donate the fossil to some “scientific museum” so that others could see and make up their own minds.

This was unlikely to happen for obvious reasons.

See Also The Stones Cry Out Part 3;
Rock Solid Proof of Dinosaur and Human Interaction?

4th Edition

“God has made every thing beautiful in it’s time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; Yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to the end.”
Ecclesiastes 3:11, said by King Solomon,

“He has built in us a restless yearning for the kind of perfect world that can only be found in a perfect rule. He has given us a glimpse of the perfection of his creation. But it is only a glimpse, we cannot see into the future or comprehend every thing. So we must trust Him now and do his work on earth.” ….Ecclesiastes 3:11. From the Life application study bible (Please do not use as your primary Bible version!)

by Chris Parker

According to a January 11 CNN article entitled: “Audiences experience ‘Avatar’ blues”, certain audience members have been depressed and some have even contemplated suicide because they can not be a part of the beautiful world of “Pandora”, the fictional setting for the movie Avatar. (The studio, director Cameron and any investors are estactic as the movie has already grossed almost $1.5 billion)
From the article;

James Cameron’s completely immersive spectacle “Avatar” may have been a little too real for some fans who say they have experienced depression and suicidal thoughts after seeing the film because they long to enjoy the beauty of the alien world Pandora.

On the fan forum site “Avatar Forums,” a topic thread entitled “Ways to cope with the depression of the dream of Pandora being intangible,” has received more than 1,000 posts from people experiencing depression and fans trying to help them cope. The topic became so popular last month that forum administrator Philippe Baghdassarian had to create a second thread so people could continue to post their confused feelings about the movie.

“I wasn’t depressed myself. In fact the movie made me happy ,” Baghdassarian said. “But I can understand why it made people depressed. The movie was so beautiful and it showed something we don’t have here on Earth. I think people saw we could be living in a completely different world and that caused them to be depressed.”

Are these people depressed because they don’t have that hope for a better way of living now or for an eternity in God’s “Pandora”; Heaven? Surely there are no Christians who would hope for a world like Pandora when they have a hope for Heaven? Pandora is too much like earth; people sin there, people live and die there. Even among the natives of Pandora there was fear, distrust, competitiveness, and pride. Aren’t these the very things that make earth “grey”.? And if it was a Nirvana, why were there warriors among the NaVi”?

As beautiful as Pandora is drawn in the movie, it is not nearly a match in beauty to what God has promised His Children:

However, as it is written:
“No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him”..1 Cor 2:9

One man noted that his depression was two-fold; the imperfections of this life and his desire to live in a more perfect place like Pandora represented. Man has two problems that can’t be solved by himself alone; the fall of man–the sin problem and death. Our lives are short–like a vapor–yet at the same time God has placed eternity–the desire to escape death and to live forever in our hearts.

In this secular world many have not come to know God and so to have a hope that transcends these two problems. Perhaps Avatar reminded those who do not have a hope for eternal life how bleak their current and future lives actually are. Secular people often either have as the Apostle Paul described it; a fearful expectation of judgment or a hope bleak as it may seem; that after death there is nothingness.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, James Cameron, the director of Avatar, was the Executive Producer of “The Lost Tomb of Jesus” documentary; a lame attempt to portray Jesus Christ as a liar. In Avatar, the natives worship a god there who is an amalgamation of all the creatures of the planet including the planet itself. Some people are attracted to a god like this who can be crafted and worshipped at the whim of the worshipper. The Apostle Paul noted in Romans 1, those without knowledge of God would rather worship the creation than the Creator.

Viewers of the movie may dream of a new 10 foot, blue, physically perfect body and a beautiful pristine world and may become depressed when they realize that it is unobtainable but the Christian lives his life with tools to cope with this present world–and has a hope in the eternal world to come. And about that new body…

“Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.

Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven.

And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” ..Phil 3

Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.

When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?…1 Cor 15

No guarantee that those new bodies will be blue, however. All men deserve to live with hope but that hope is misplaced if it is found in a 2 hour and 40 minute movie rather than in eternal life. Salvation won’t come through Technology but only through Jesus Christ.

CNN Article on Avatar Blues Here

What Does the Bible Say About Salvation, Here

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Did you follow that? Some “non-bird” feathered dinosaurs may have been birds?

Science writer Jennifer Viegas in Discovery News summarizes a research paper which had been published in February 2009 Medical Hypotheses.

What is a non-avian dinosaur? Or more to the point, why are certain of God’s creatures known broadly as non-avian dinosaurs? After all, aren’t all creatures either avians or non-avians?

It’s because in the absence of that description people would think that they were birds! In order to support the evolutionists current dinosaur to bird mythology, however, science needs these birds to be dinosaurs.

Suppose evolutionists had a mythology that t-rex’s evolved into dogs. Certain extremely dog-like fossils would be named; –non-dog-ian dinosaurs. (non-canine-dinosaurs)That way everyone would “know”. .

“Storrs Olson, Curator of Birds at the Smithsonian noted that a cadre of “zealots” were trying to “actively promulgate the theropod dinosaur origin of birds theory in concert with Nature and National Geo”. They were in fact working to convince the public that it was all “settled science’.

Olson called them “highly biased proselytizers of the faith”, which really had to sting. Shortly thereafter, their golden transitional feathered dinosaur fossil, Archaeoraptor, turned out to be made up of Elmer’s Glue, multiple fossils and imagination.”..s8int.com Source

It should be noted that unlike most other scientific journals, Medical Hypotheses does not require that the articles they publish be “peer reviewed” which explains how an article that suggests that birds might in fact be birds–got published in the first place.

Some non-dumb scientists may have been……

Thank you, Chris Z

Some “Non-Avian Feathered Dinosaurs” May Have Been Birds .
By Jennifer Viegas Thu Jan 7, 2010, Discovery News

“So called “non-avian theropod” dinosaurs from the Cretaceous had feathers, nests, laid eggs and roosted like birds. If they were so much like birds, why don’t we just say they were birds?

A paper in the February issue of Medical Hypotheses argues that these “dinosaurs” could very well, in fact, have been birds. The group includes what are now called troodontids and oviraptorids.

All birds are technically avian dinosaurs,(!!!!) but there’s still controversy over exactly how and when the first actual birds emerged.

UC Berkeley’s J. Lee Kavanau, the author of the paper, argues that there is ample evidence supporting that troodontids and oviraptorids were secondary flightless birds. These birds, like today’s ostriches and emus, lost their ability to fly, but retained their feathers.

“This evidence ranges from bird-like bodies and bone designs, adapted for climbing, perching, gliding, and ultimately flight, to relatively large, highly developed brains, poor sense of smell, and their feeding habits,” Kavanau writes. “Because ratites also are secondarily flightless and tinamous are reluctant, clumsy fliers, the new evidence strengthens the view that troodontids and oviraptorids were secondarily flightless.”"

The Remainder of This Article is Here

In the Beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth. Gen 1:1

Following is a science article written to inform and to enlighten. It summarizes “new suppositions” presented at a recent American Astronomical Society function.

We were struck by how few “facts” are in the article versus conjecture. It is often said that the Bible is not “scientific” in that it doesn’t try to explain how something was done; i.e. God created the Heavens and the earth doesn’t attempt to explain how He created them.

Here however is a classic “science” article practically devoid of actual facts which is the opposite of what we expect science to be. So what do we learn here? We highlight speculation and or faith versus fact or actual knowledge in the article.

Solar system may be more compact than thought
January 2010 by Rachel Courtland, Washington, DC

The solar system may be significantly more compact than previously thought, according to a new computer simulation of the cloud of comets that enshrouds the solar system. The work suggests the cloud may not contain as much material as once suspected, which could resolve a long-standing problem in models of how the planets formed.

Long-period comets, which take longer than 200 years to orbit the sun, come from all directions in the sky, an observation that has long led scientists to believe that they were nudged out of a diffuse halo of icy objects surrounding the solar system – the Oort Cloud.

The objects probably formed from the same disc of material that gave rise to the planets but were scattered outwards by Jupiter and Saturn a few hundred million years after their birth.

The Oort Cloud is too dim to be seen by telescopes, but astronomers believe it has two components. Long-period comets were thought to originate in an outer portion extending from 20,000 to 200,000 astronomical units from the sun (where 1 AU is the Earth-sun distance).

A new computer simulation suggests this gravitational barrier might instead be “leaky”, allowing a number of objects to pass inside Jupiter’s orbit. Jupiter and Saturn may actually nudge the interlopers onto elongated paths that bring them closer to the sun.

Persistent mystery

The work suggests that more than half of all long-period comets could come from this unseen “inner” Oort Cloud, which would mean that the solar system is much more compact than thought.

“There may not be nearly as much stuff as far out as we thought,” says Nathan Kaib of the University of Washington in Seattle, who presented the RESULTS! on Tuesday at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington, DC.

“The region of the Oort Cloud that is not supposed to produce any comets may be the dominant producer of comets.”

That could help solve a persistent mystery about the solar system. Hundreds of long-period comets have been catalogued, and their numbers had suggested that the outer Oort Cloud might contain about 40 times as much mass as Earth……Source:NewScientist; Excerpted.

Test on Friday?

Proverbs 5

My son, if you listen closely to my wisdom and good sense,

you will have sound judgment, and you will always know the right thing to say.

The words of an immoral woman may be as sweet as honey and as smooth as olive oil.

But all that you really get from being with her is bitter poison and pain.

If you follow her, she will lead you down to the world of the dead.

She has missed the path that leads to life and doesn’t even know it.

My son, listen to me and do everything I say.

Stay away from a bad woman! Don’t even go near the door of her house.

You will lose your self-respect and end up in debt to some cruel person

for the rest of your life.

Strangers will get your money and everything else you have worked for.

When it’s all over, your body will waste away, as you groan and shout,

“I hated advice and correction! I paid no attention to my teachers,

and now I am disgraced in front of everyone.”

You should be faithful to your wife, just as you take water from your own well.

And don’t be like a stream from which just any woman may take a drink.

Save yourself for your wife and don’t have sex with other women.

Be happy with the wife you married when you were young.

She is beautiful and graceful, just like a deer; you should be attracted to her

and stay deeply in love.

Don’t go crazy over a woman who is unfaithful to her own husband!

The LORD sees everything, and he watches us closely.

Sinners are trapped and caught by their own evil deeds.

They get lost and die because of their foolishness and lack of self-control.

Contemporary English Version Click Here for KJV Version