Archive for February, 2006

Earth May Have Been Formed in the Wink of an Eye, New Study Says

Science, Sophistication of Ancestors, The Flood of Noah, Uncategorized | Posted by Chris Parker
Feb 27 2006

Earth was suitable for conceiving and developing life forms from the first moments of existence.

A team of Western researchers reject the theories about Earth being completely covered with oceans before the first marine species stepped onto the shore.

In short, the story of the discovery looks like this. A rare-earth metal hafnium combined with the crystals of zirconium was found in Jack Hills, a massif in Western Australia.

The rocks of the mountain range are considered the oldest in the world (estimated age is 4.4 billion years).

Researchers used a radioisotope analysis to find out that the continental crust had formed 4.4-4.5 billion years ago. The continental crust differs from the ocean one by its makeup and thickness. It was previously thought that the continental crust had gradually melted out of the ocean crust.

“Looks like Earth formed in the wink of an eye,†says one of the researchers, Dr. Steven Moses at the University of Colorado. “If the theory proves to be right, all today’s concepts concerning the formation of Earth will have to be completely revised.

Click here to Read Article

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Update: Bronze Age Sky Disc Deciphered

Science, Sophistication of Ancestors, The Flood of Noah, Uncategorized, Unexplained Artifact | Posted by Chris Parker
Feb 27 2006

A group of German scientists has deciphered the meaning of one of the most spectacular archeological discoveries in recent years: The mystery-shrouded sky disc of Nebra was used as an advanced astronomical clock.

The purpose of the 3,600 year-old sky disc of Nebra, which caused a world-wide sensation when it was brought to the attention of the German public in 2002, is no longer a matter of speculation.

A group of German scholars who studied this archaeological gem has discovered evidence which suggests that the disc was used as a complex astronomical clock for the harmonization of solar and lunar calendars.

“This is a clear expansion of what we knew about the meaning and function of the sky disc,” said archeologist Harald Meller.

A thirteenth month?

Unlike the solar calendar, which indicates the position of the earth as it revolves around the sun, the lunar calendar is based on the phases of the moon. A lunar year is eleven days shorter than the solar year because 12 synodic months, or 12 returns of the moon to the new phase, take only 354 days.

The sky disc of Nebra was used to determine if and when a thirteenth month — the so-called intercalary month — should be added to a lunar year to keep the lunar calendar in sync with the seasons.

“The functioning of this clock was probably known to a very small group of people,” Meller said.

Bronze Age science

A slice of prehistory for romantic sky gazers
The 32-centimeter-wide (seven-inch) bronze disc with gold-leaf appliqués representing the sun, the moon, and the stars is the oldest visual representation of the cosmos known to date. A cluster of seven dots has previously been interpreted as the Pleiades constellation as it appeared 3,600 years ago.

The explanation of the disc’s purpose sheds new light on the astronomical knowledge and abilities of the Bronze Age people, who used a combination of solar and lunar calendars as important indicators for agricultural seasons and passage of time.

“The sensation lies in the fact that the Bronze Age people managed to harmonize the solar and lunar years. We never thought they would have managed that,” Meller said.

According to astronomer Wolfhard Schlosser of the Rurh University at Bochum, the Bronze Age sky gazers already knew what the Babylonians would describe only a thousand years later.

“Whether this was a local discovery, or whether the knowledge came from afar, is still not clear,” Schlosser said.

From Saxony-Anhalt to Babylon

The sky disc of Nebra was found near Europe’s oldest observatory in Goseck
Ever since the disc was discovered, archaeologists and astronomers have been puzzled by the shape of the moon as it appears on the disc.

“I wanted to explain the thickness of the crescent on the sky disc of Nebra because it is not a new moon phase,” said Hamburg astronomer Ralph Hansen.

In his quest to explain why the Nebra astronomers created a sky map with a four or five days old moon on it, Hansen consulted the “Mul-Apin” collection of Babylonian documents from the 7th and 6th centuries B.C.

These cuneiform writings represent, according to Hansen, a compendium of “astronomic knowledge from the earliest times.” They also contain a calculation rule for the crescent that looks strikingly similar to the one from Nebra.

According to the ancient Babylonian rule, a thirteenth month should only be added to the lunar calendar only when one sees the constellation of the moon and the Pleiades exactly as they appear on the Nebra sky disc.

Knowledge comes and goes

The sky disc of Nebra was first discovered by treasure hunters
The Bronze Age astronomers would hold the Nebra clock against the sky and observe the position of the celestial objects. The intercalary month was inserted when what they saw in the sky corresponded to the map on the disc they were holding in their hands. This happened every two to three years.

But the German researchers also discovered that in the 400 years that the disc was in use, its status had evolved. The perforations on the edge of the object as well as a ship that was later added to the map suggest that the knowledge about the lunar calendar’s shortage of days was lost along the way.

“That means, that in the end the disk became a cult object,” Meller said.

The disc was found in 1999 by two previously convicted treasure looters. It was seized by the authorities in 2002 along with other Bronze Age objects in a police operation in Switzerland.

DW staff (tt)

Read Prior Article About Sky Disk Here–Bottom of Page

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“Ancient” Triangular Holes Drilled in Granite

Science, Sophistication of Ancestors, Uncategorized, Unexplained Artifact | Posted by Chris Parker
Feb 25 2006

Archeologists love to puzzle over pyramids, stone axes, and such straightforward productions of ancient man. In contrast, simple holes in boulders are hardly the things important scientific papers are written about.

Yet, scattered about the Great Plains are some 300 boulders of very hard rock, each possessing the same rounded triangular holes. Surely such a phenomenon would pique some archeologist’s curiosity!

The holes are made with high precision to the dimensions shown in the figure. They are 6 inches deep, plus or minus an inch. Holes with a rounded triangular shape represent a sophisticated drilling technology.

Steel tools of high craftsmanship are indicated.

Click Here to Read More

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Some Scientists Cast Doubt on Darwin

Science, Uncategorized | Posted by Chris Parker
Feb 24 2006

PhysOrg.com
Feb 20, 2006

More than 500 scientists have signed a statement publicly expressing skepticism about the theory of Darwinian evolution.

The statement reads: “We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged.”
The list of 514 signatories includes 154 biologists, 76 chemists and 63 physicists.

The list was published by the Discovery Institute, a conservative think tank that, among other things, promotes intelligent design and represents evolution as a “theory in crisis.”

Intelligent design posits life is too complex to have been created by evolution and an intelligent designer must have been responsible. Most of its proponents are affiliated with the Discovery Institute.

David Berlinski, a signer of the statement and a mathematician and philosopher with the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, said: “Darwin’s theory of evolution is the great white elephant of contemporary thought. It is large, almost completely useless and the object of superstitious awe.”

Copyright 2006 by United Press International

This is not a new story. We’ve already reported on this some time ago in an article that can be found Here

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“Champ” Video

Crypto, Dinosaurs in Literature, Science, Uncategorized, Unexplained Artifact | Posted by Chris Parker
Feb 24 2006

CHARLOTTE — It’s a flat, dead-calm summer evening on Lake Champlain, the kind of night when the water’s surface looks like a gigantic mirror. Vermonters Dick Affolter and Pete Bodette, Affolter’s 34-year-old stepson, are fishing for salmon just west of the mouth of the Ausable River on the New York side of the lake.

See Video Here
Original Story Here

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Man-sized Scorpion Tracks

Giants in Those Days, Science, Uncategorized | Posted by Chris Parker
Feb 20 2006

GeoTimes
Paleontology

Geologist Martin Whyte of the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom was strolling along a rocky beach in Scotland, when he came upon a stretch of sandstone with some odd-looking indentations.

As soon as he saw it, “I knew that [the indentations] had been made by an animal and that it was big,†Whyte says. A quick examination revealed that the trackway (shown in photo at left, traversing the rock formation) had been made by an animal using six legs, and therefore could not have been made by a mammal, amphibian or reptile.

Whyte reported in the Dec. 1 Nature that a man-sized walking water scorpion, or eurypterid, created the 1- by 6-meter trackway some 330 million years ago.

Most eurypterids were about 10 to 20 centimeters in length and lived in the water. This specimen, Hibbertopterus, was about 1 by 1.6 meters.

The trackway represents the first known evidence that the creature “could have come out of the water for at least short intervals,†Whyte says, a subject that has been debated for years. Until now, all the eurypterid trackways had been made in water.

The find “adds a little to our understanding of the environment†of the time, he says, when vertebrates were first beginning to walk on land and reptiles were first evolving.

Image courtesy of Martin Whyte.

Megan Sever

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SETI: Search for Elusive Terrestrial Intelligence

Church of Darwin, Science, Uncategorized | Posted by Chris Parker
Feb 17 2006

Alien Engineering: Is It Intelligent Design? 02/16/2006

Source: Creation-Evolution Headlines

The SETI Institute finished airing a 2-part series on the History Channel called Alien Engineering (it will be rebroadcast on Feb. 18). The series, featuring SETI Institute scientists Seth Shostak and Frank Drake, asks the following questions:

“Prepare for an exercise in imagination. Suppose that an alien spacecraft crashed in the desert and we humans recovered it. What could we learn from its engineers?

Using data gleaned from years of UFO sightings, we recreate a typical ship using cuttingâ€â€edge animation, discover why aliens choose the craft shapes they do, learn how they overcome the effects of Earth’s atmosphere, defy gravity, cancel inertia, and travel faster than the speed of light!

Our expertsâ€â€reverse engineersâ€â€show us what’s “under the hood†of alien craft….

With the help of leading physicists, astronomers, and engineers, we’ll decipher UFO technology: inertia cancellers, antigravity devices, wormhole excavators, teletransporters, antimatter reactors and laser weapons.

And, maybe in the process, discover the secrets of the universe… through “Alien Engineering.†”
(Emphasis added in all quotes.)

Creation-Evolution Comment: “If this exercise in imagination belongs on the History Channel, it is history that hasn’t been written yet. But it does lead to an interesting follow-up question that the producers (Workaholic Productions) may not have imagined.

If an alien found human engineering on Mars (e.g., the Mars Exploration Rovers), or on Titan (the Huygens Probe), or on Eros (the NEAR spacecraft) or on the moon, would they be able to reverse-engineer these and learn about us? Would they be able to detect products of intelligence and deduce that these objects had not evolved from the surrounding materials by chance?

SETI devotees hate it when we use their logic against them. Seth & Frank are poles apart from intelligent design people, but how can they escape from this trap they have set for themselves?

They are claiming that we could reverse-engineer products we have never seen, produced by minds we have never known, and are not sure even exist. They are absolutely certain that if alien craft landed on Earth, we would recognize them as designed.

We would be able to discern much about the designers, and we sure would not assume that starstuff had assembled craft by chance that could travel faster than the speed of light or defy gravity. The organization of the parts for function would not only convince us that they were products of intelligence (remember the I in SETI), but would astound us and arouse admiration of the designers, even if we knew nothing about them.

So why is William Paley a has-been in philosophy of science today? Sounds like the SETI Institute should hire his modern counterparts, like Michael Behe.”

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Flavius Josephus . A Jewish historian (37 CE – circa 100 CE ) On Jesus Christ

Religious, Uncategorized, Unexplained Artifact | Posted by Chris Parker
Feb 15 2006


For centuries Josephus’ works were more widely read in Europe than any book other than the Bible. They are an invaluable eye-witness to a momentous turning point in Judaism, Christianity, and Western civilization.

Josephus, Antiquities 18.63, probably in a Christian redaction
Tr. I. H. Feldman, Loeb Classical Library, vol. 9, pp. 49ff.

Greek Version

Re: Jesus Christ

“About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man if indeed one ought to call him a man.

For he was one who wrought surprising feats and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Messiah.

When Pilate, upon hearing him accused by men of the highest standing among us, had condemned him to be crucified, those who had in the first place come to love him did not cease.

On the third day he appeared to them restored to life. For the prophets of God had prophesied these and myriads of other marvellous things about him. And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still up to now, not disappeared.”

Arabic Version:
The translation belongs to Shlomo Pines. See also James H. Charlesworth, Jesus Within Judaism.

“Similarly Josephus the Hebrew. For he says in the treatises that he has written on the governance of the Jews:

At this time there was a wise man who was called Jesus. And his conduct was good, and he was known to be virtuous.

And many people from among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die.

And those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he had appeared to them after his crucifixion and that he was alive; accordingly, he was perhaps the Messiah concerning whom the prophets have recounted wonders. “

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Darwin’s Warm Pond Theory Tested and Found Wanting

Church of Darwin, Science, Uncategorized | Posted by Chris Parker
Feb 15 2006

By Rebecca Morelle
BBC News science reporter

Daniel 5:27
27 TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.

Life on Earth was unlikely to have emerged from volcanic springs or hydrothermal vents, according to a leading US researcher.

Experiments carried out in volcanic pools suggest they do not provide the right conditions to spawn life.
The findings are being discussed at an international two-day meeting to explore the latest thinking on the origin of life on Earth. It is taking place at the Royal Society in London.

Darwin’s theory

David Deamer, emeritus professor of chemistry at the University of California at Santa Cruz, said ahead of his presentation: “It is about 140 years since Charles Darwin suggested that life may have begun in a ‘warm little pond’. We are now testing Darwin’s idea, but in ‘hot little puddles’ associated with the volcanic regions of Kamchatka [Russia] and Mount Lassen [California, US].”

Prof Ian Smith, University of Cambridge

“The results are surprising and in some ways disappointing. It seems that hot acidic waters containing clay do not provide the right conditions for chemicals to assemble themselves into ‘pioneer organisms.’”
Professor Deamer said that amino acids and DNA, the “building blocks” for life, and phosphate, another essential ingredient, cling to the surfaces of clay particles in the volcanic pools.

“The reason this is significant is that it has been proposed that clay promotes interesting chemical reactions relating to the origin of life,” he explained. “However,” he added, “in our experiments, the organic compounds became so strongly held to the clay particles that they could not undergo any further chemical reactions.”

Martian existence?

While our understanding of the world is rapidly increasing, the answer to how life began on Earth remains elusive. The conference, involving more than 200 leading international scientists, will also explore other theories including whether life arrived from space.

“It is presumed that life arose in a soup rich in carbon compounds, but where did these organic molecules come from?” said Dr Max Bernstein from the US-based Seti Institute. He believes the answer may lie in interstellar dust, and will be talking about the possibility that a comet or asteroid may have provided Earth with the raw ingredients needed for life.

The researchers will also be asking whether life could exist elsewhere in the Universe. Professor Monica Grady from the UK’s Open University will explore the possibility of a Martian existence at the meeting.
She will discuss whether a Martian biosphere once existed by examining research into the carbon chemistry of Mars.

Professor Ian Smith, from the University of Cambridge, the organiser of the conference said: “Understanding how life emerged on Earth within 1,000 million years [sic]of its formation is both a fascinating scientific problem and an essential step in predicting the presence of life elsewhere in the Universe.”

Professor Deamer said that his research, which is not yet published, will help to narrow down the theories about how life on Earth emerged. “One possibility is that life really did begin in a ‘warm little pond’, but not in hot volcanic springs or marine hydrothermal vents,” he added.

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Letter to s8int.com: Speculation About Noah’s Ark Survivors and Genetic Variation

s8int.com, Science, Uncategorized | Posted by Chris Parker
Feb 15 2006



Dear Sir

I’d like to argue the idea that Noah and his family hardly were the only survivors after the flood.

This contradicts Bible if someone insists this book should be understood to the letter.

But if Noah’s family had been the only humans after the flood the distinction among our planet’s races would
have been hardly possible.

African people the Scandinavians are Noah’s descendants? I can hardly accept this assertion.

Besides linguistic drift takes place worldwide and the deviation among languages indicates thousands of years required to cause the present difference between e.g. French or Bulgarian languages.

To my mind the flood has only destroyed civilized countries.

Primordial people remained unharmed. This also points out the possible
difference between pre-flood civilization and ours – the first didn’t
colonize wide areas of our planet.

Very likely their technology was sufficient enough to meet needs of ancient people and they regarded earth as a large reservation. So the worldwide knowledge about the flood is caused by the stories which Noah’s descendants were able to narrate.

Sincerely
Serge
Saint Petersburg, Russia

Response from s8int.com

Dear Serge,

Is the Bible to be Taken Literally?

Thanks very much for your note. We appreciate the chance to respond to the questions you’ve raised because many of them come up here frequently -and plus, this gives us a reason to put off actual work for a few minutes more.

The Bible contains various kinds of literature, and I imagine, just as when you speak or write most of what you communicate is to be taken literally, while sometimes what you say is an analogy, or hyperbole or perhaps irony. The person you’re communicating with simply needs to know which type of speech you’re engaging in from moment to moment to correctly understand your communication.

We assume by looking at this particular e-mail that you expect all of it to be taken literallyâ€â€including “sincerely†at the end?

The Bible is the same. Most of it is to be taken literally but the bible student and frequent reader understands when other types of speech are being utilized.

I do believe the account of Noah is to be taken quite literally.

Human Genetic Variation

You wrote: “But if Noah’s family had been the only humans after the flood the distinction among our planet’s races would have been hardly possible.

African people the Scandinavians are Noah’s descendants? I can hardly accept this assertion.â€Â

S8int.com: We’re going to assume that we’re misunderstanding your intent when you differentiate between “primordial people†and “civilized peopleâ€Â.

You are absolutely wrong about the genetic variation among humans and the possibility of the current racial makeup of the planet. In fact, the concept of race is not supported at all in our DNA; it is a recent invention of man.

Don’t you realize that the materialists, atheists and “non literal Bible believers” would be all over Christians and creationists if eight people could not in fact contain the entire human genome? If that were true, the whole Noah’s Ark story could be defeated right there.

On the contrary, however all human beings from a genetic standpoint are virtually IDENTICAL. The average genetic difference between any two people is 1 in every 1000 base pairs. This means that when a “Black man†stands next to a “White man†or an “Asian man, each of them is in fact 99.99% genetically identical!

The human genome has approximately 3 billion base pairs. The .01% difference between humans on 3 billion base pairs comes out to about 3 million genetic differences between individuals. You get 3,000,000 differences on .01% because 3 billion is such a huge number.

Of those 3 million average genetic differences in DNA between individuals, the vast majority of them do not produce visible or even detectable effects on an individual.

Here’s the point. Humans are 99.99% identical. Therefore, all human variation could conceivably be contained in two individuals (as in James Brown and Keith Richards above) . That’s unlikely. On the other hand, it’s barely possible to assemble eight people who together do not contain the entire human genome.

Clearly however, it is possible for the entire human genome to have come from eight individuals. This includes your Africans and your Scandinavians!

Think of it this way; if two individuals both received a 99.99% on an exam, what is the probability that between the two of them they got every possible correct answer? How about three people who received a 99.99%? What’s the possibility that between the three of them that they got 100% of the answers correct?

Humans are so virtually identical on a genetic level that the Author of this science article states:

“We actually found that one single group of 55 chimpanzees in West Africa has twice the genetic variability of all humans,†Gagneux says. “In other words, chimps who live in the same little group on the Ivory Coast are genetically more different from each other than you are from any human anywhere on the planet.†end quote

It’s almost as though we were virtually wiped out in something like a…..worldwide flood!

For more information on this topic, please see:National Institute of Health Education-Human Genetic Variation

Deviation Among Human Languages

This falls on the idea of whether the Bible can be taken literally or not. This language variation, if you remember came about miraculously and instantaneously according to the Bible.

Incidentally, there is evidence of one world wide language in the past and evidence that all languages can be traced back to one “mother tongueâ€Â, all of which support the literal Biblical account.

If you’re like us and Genetically You Are 99.99% Exactly Like Us, you’ll find all this very interesting.

Thanks for the note and we hope that the genetic similarity of all humans will give you a reason to believe that the Bible is the literal, inerrant Word of God.

Amen.

Sincerely,

S8int.com

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