Archives - Evolution/Creation: The Truth e-newsletter

03/03/2005 - New thoughts about red-shift and info concerning creationist cosmology

Hello all,

A few subjects that might interest you

1. The faint sun paradox
2. The National Creation Conference at Ottawa (not to be missed if you are anywhere near)
3. List of scientists rejecting evolution (or at least questioning evolution)
4. Young creation scientist (18 years old) making the difference
5. Oldest sea turtles unchanged for 110 million years

Don't forget to visit http://www.creationinfo.com to see whether there are meeting happening in your area.

1. The faint sun paradox and the age of the solar system

Most people are aware of the many unique characteristics of the Earth that make life on it possible. These characteristics include such things as the composition of the planet and the atmosphere, the tilt of the axis, the presence of the Moon, the shape of Earth's orbit, and the distance from the Sun. The Earth's distance from the Sun is obviously critical in that if Earth were significantly closer or farther from the Sun, Earth would be respectively much warmer or colder than it is now...

Supposedly the Sun has been a main-sequence star since its formation about 4.6 billion years ago. This time represents about half the assumed ten-billion-year main-sequence lifetime of the Sun, so the Sun should have used about half its energy store. This means that about half the hydrogen in the core of the Sun has been used up and replaced by helium. This change in chemical composition changes the structure of the core. The overall structure of the Sun would have to change as well, so that today, the Sun should be nearly 40% brighter than it was 4.6 billion years ago....

Now that's a problem so the answer may be solved quite easily...

Of course, there is a third possibility. Perhaps the Earth/Sun system is not billions of years old and so there has not been a 40% increase in solar luminosity. If Earth were recently created and designed to have the kind of atmosphere that it has now and the Sun has not changed appreciably in luminosity, then the young faint Sun paradox has been resolved. While the early faint Sun paradox does not tell us that the Solar System is only thousands of years old, it does seem to rule out the age being billions of years.

To read the complete article by Dr. Danny Faulkner - see http://www.icr.org/pubs/imp/imp-300.htm

2. Do not miss this conference in and around Ottawa, speakers will include myself (Laurence Tisdall), Ian Taylor, Ian Juby, Vance Nelson (bringing his rather large travelling museum and combining it with Ian Juby's travelling museum - this alone is worth the visit) and John Cucan (our local creationist astronomer) - see http://www.nationalcreationconference.ca - Starting on the 15th of April through to the 17th. Ian Juby and Laurence will be giving a talk on April 1st called "No fools here - Prove that God exists"

Friday 15th of April evening: Ian Juby, "Creation Science: Welcome to the 21st Century"
(not listed on the brochure) Backup for meeting room 2: Laurence Tisdall, "Faith and monkeys:The Evolution of Man"

Saturday, 1pm-2:15:
Main meeting room: Vance Nelson: Dinosaurs, the bible and today (?) (not listed) Meeting room 2: Laurence Tisdall: "Amazing discoveries concerning the book of Genesis and the Chinese"

2:15-2:45 break

Saturday, 2:45pm - 4pm:
Main meeting room: Ian Taylor "Science: How is it done? How should it be done?" (Listed?) Meeting room 2: Ian Juby, "Water and the great flood: Where did it come from? Where did it go?"

4:30 to 6:30 break

Saturday, 7 pm:
Main meeting room: Laurence Tisdall, "How to debate an evolutionist and never lose"
(not listed) Meeting room 2: Vance Nelson "Biology: The fingerprints of God"

There will also be talks at churches on Sunday - the actual churches have not been decided yet but check the website to find out.

3. The Discovery Institute has a statement of "Scientific Dissent from Darwinism" that has been signed by over 350 doctoral-level scientists since it was written in 2001. 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." See http://www.discovery.org/articleFiles/PDFs/100ScientistsAd.pdf

4. The young creation scientist is following in her father's footsteps showing that real science has nothing to do with whether you are an evolutionist or creationist... but how good you are at observing reality. Maybe what evolutionists need is a reality check :) http://www.christianitytoday.com/tc/2005/001/19.46.html

The Unexpected Scientist

How Christian teen Sarah Mims is rewriting the science journals, and following in her dad's footsteps.

By Denyse O'Leary

Over the last few summers, high-school student Sarah Mims was spending a lot of time driving around, testing the air. Friends wondered why she was so immersed in science that she had little time for the Christian praise concerts and social outings that she loved. In 2003, they were amazed to learn that she had made a major discovery that was later published in a major science journal and featured on two NASA Web pages.

With her parents' encouragement, Sarah started to study the atmosphere in Texas in 2001. She discovered that some of the airborne dust had blown all the way from the Sahara Desert in Africa. But in 2002, she discovered something even more remarkable: Dust from nearby regions was full of soot, and the soot carried bacteria and fungus. These life forms, she found, had escaped from faraway fires. In other words, contrary to what many think, fire did not kill them, it actually spread them. Sarah confirmed her findings in 2003, and they were published in Atmospheric Environment in 2004. If other studies confirm them, the use of burning as a method of clearing fields may need to be rethought. And Sarah, now 18, will be celebrated worldwide for her revolutionary research.

'Are you a real scientist?'

Not many fathers have a teenage daughter who contributes an article to a peer-reviewed science journal. But for Forrest Mims III, a renowned science scholar, his daughter's achievement stirs more than the usual fatherly pride. Her work, together with his own, is a powerful witness for Christians in science who persevere despite attacks on their faith.

In 1989, Mr. Mims was interviewed to write the column "Amateur Scientist" for the prestigious Scientific American. The deal was pretty well sewn up—until Mims happened to mention, in a list of publications for which he had written, some Christian magazines. The editor asked bluntly, "Do you believe in the Darwinian theory of evolution?" Mims said no. Suddenly, the temperature in the room plunged.

The editors pestered Mims frequently during the following months about his religious beliefs. Ironically, as Mims later told the Associated Press, he had never written about creationism and did not claim to know how old the Earth is. As a man who calibrates instruments as part of his work, he is skeptical of some scientific dating methods but still hasn't made up his mind.

One editor worried that a public relations nightmare might ensue if the magazine published the work of a serious Christian like Mims. The editor was right. When the story broke, a nightmare did ensue—but it wasn't Forrest Mims who was condemned; it was the magazine. While media are not always friendly to Christians, they are not fans of censorship either (TG: We wish!) . Still, while Mims appreciated the wide support, his prized column had evaporated.

It was a hard blow because Mims has always been interested in science. Perhaps the defining event was when his father built a crystal radio for him and his brother when he was 11. He recalls, "My brother and I spent our summers reading National Geographic and The Book of Knowledge when we weren't exploring in the woods."

After college, he pursued electronics and atmosphere studies. He became an instrument designer, science writer, and science consultant. He is probably best known for the books and lab kits on electronics projects that he has developed for Radio Shack over the years. He even had a claim to minor historical fame as a co-founder of MITS, Inc., which introduced the Altair 8800, the first microcomputer, in 1975. He also published several hundred articles in science publications. But did any of that matter? he wondered.

Then, while doing research at the Mauna Loa Observatory (Hawaii) after the Scientific American debacle, Mims was confronted by a tourist who asked him, "Are you a scientist? A real scientist?" The tourist only wanted someone to show him how the instruments worked, but for Forrest, the question meant far more. He realized that the doors that shut us out are not wood and steel but ideas and philosophies, including our own. If he did science, he was a real scientist, and that was enough.

He continued his award-winning science writing from his Seguin, Texas, home. And science became a family affair in the Mims household, with Forrest's wife, Minnie, and their three children all helping with experiments as needed. It's not surprising, then, that one of those children would go on to make a major scientific discovery while still in high school.

The God of science

Does science pose challenges to a young Christian's faith? Sarah, who's now majoring in biology at Texas A&M University, says sure; but she believes it could be a healthy challenge. "If anything, I think it would help their faith," she says. "How can a person, especially a young Christian, look around them and see all creation and have their faith dimmed?" She quotes Romans 1:20, "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." In Sarah's view, God proclaims Himself through His creation.

Sarah, of course, doesn't do science all the time. She was president of Business Professionals of America at her high school, and is a seasoned pianist. A member of her youth group and praise team at her home church (First Baptist of Seguin), she hopes to be equally active in Christian organizations at Texas A&M.

As Christians, Forrest and Sarah believe that an intelligent Creator designed the universe, and that therefore they can learn more by looking at it as a planned creation rather than a cosmic accident. For example, Sarah suspected that the fungus that turned up in her samples was not there by chance. Fire is one way that fungus is designed to spread. Scientists who follow this approach are part of a growing movement in science called Intelligent Design.

Does Forrest Mims regret the fact that Scientific American dumped him? Not at all. "Losing the Scientific American column was the best thing that ever happened to my science career," he says. "It changed me from a mere science writer to a citizen-scientist with many peer-reviewed papers." His major interest is still the atmosphere, and his most pressing concern is that citizens get accurate information about it.

Incidentally, things have changed at Scientific American. The magazine has since published a column based on an instrument that Mims designed, as well as a news feature about his study of airborne bacteria in Brazil. Perhaps up-and-coming Christian scientists like Sarah will find the scientific world more open to different perspectives.

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5. Oldest sea turtles unchanged for 110 million years
        - maybe that's because there never was 110 million years to change :)

February 24, 2005

AFP

Australian scientists Wednesday announced the discovery of a dozen fossils from some of the earliest species of sea turtle, believed to be 110-million-years-old.

Paleontologist Ben Kear said the fossils, found late last year in the northeastern state of Queensland, would help scientists understand why sea turtles have remained virtually unchanged for over 100 million years.

"For all intents and purposes, if you were to see one (fossil) they would look basically the same as sea turtles do today," Kear said.

"Sea turtles have hit on the winning design and they’ve stuck to it, they’ve cracked the winning code, as it were, and it’s enabled them to survive when other creatures haven’t," he said.

"They’re one of the success stories of marine evolution – if you think about the marine animals that became extinct, well why did sea turtles survive? That’s the sort of questions we can look at now."

Kear, of the South Australia Museum, said the initial find in far western Queensland consisted of parts of 12 different turtles but that excavations were continuing. The fossils were taken to the museum for research into things like the ancient animals’ diets and why they appear to have resisted climate change.

"What are sea turtles related to? Are they threatened by things like climate change?" he asked.

"We’re just beginning to find out the basics and build information on the really big picture stuff."

The sea turtle fossils are believed to be the oldest found since a single skeleton thought to be 115 million years old was discovered in Brazil in 1998.

"The earliest fossils we know come from Brazil and this consisted of a single skeleton – one skeleton – then about five million years later in the fossil record we get them in Australia," Kear told ABC radio.

"But we don’t just get one – we get hundreds so what we’re looking at is a really, really good cross section of what is the earliest sea turtles in the world."

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-2-2005_pg9_1

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URL has an image of a fossil. The following page has a few more details:

http://abc.net.au/science/news/ancient/AncientRepublish_1303111.htm