“It is a logical consequence of Darwinian Is there anyone out thinking that man is not alone in the there? universe; that other civilizations exist and flourish out there; that among these must Mankind has a fascination with the be some superior to our own, able and immensity of the universe: is there any willing to instruct us in the elusive art of other intelligent life out there, or are we peaceful coexistence. alone? Surprisingly, the answer may be more easily found but more challenging to “With the opening of the new millennium accept than many evolutionists might we therefore find many eyes turned realize. Prof Vernon Jenkins, a highly heavenwards in anticipation of some non- qualified mathematician, writes the random signal emanating from the depths following: of space that would confirm the existence of such beings. Assuming the fulfilment of these expectations, it is highly likely that regular communication would follow and, in due course, direct contact.

“In the initial stages of this scenario mathematical absolutes - particularly those associated with number and form - are expected to assume fundamental roles. For example, the repeated transmission of a sequence comprising the first thousand or so cubic numbers is highly likely to capture the interest and attention of any intelligent receptor - thereby achieving the immediate purpose of announcing its author's galactic presence. If intelligent life exists among the stars then we might expect to receive signals from some of these civilisations - but so far there have been “However, in their eagerness to pursue none. Image: The Andromeda galaxy (NASA extraterrestrial liaisons and find salvation Marshall Space Flight Center).

1 among the stars, the world's scientific and have found the instruments upon which intellectual elite appear to have overlooked they played, but they stop short of telling a similar message closer to home - one their readers and students about the science expressed in equally persuasive terms.” and Pythagorean level of mathematics that go into the design and manufacture of even Prof Jenkins’ website draws attention to a simple flute. some real and remarkable mathematical phenomena and their far-reaching Not that these flutes were in any way implications. These are associated, in simple. They weren’t. One that was particular, with the Bible's opening discovered at Hohle Fels Cave in France is Hebrew words, the Greek form of the name about 20cm long and 2.5cm wide. It has Jesus Christ (understood by Christians to markings clearly indicating where the be The Creator), and the riddle of finger holes should be drilled (as drilled Revelation 13:18. they were with perfection), and an ingeniously carved end-blown double v- CSM warmly commends readers to view shaped fipple. A replica of it has yet to be these astonishing mathematical facts for made, which does not surprise me. themselves - facts that demonstrate beyond all reasonable doubt that the Bible must The method of manufacture was this. The have been designed by an intelligent Being ivory tusk from which it was made, was infinitely superior to ourselves. See first split in two. Then the bore was carved http://homepage.virgin.net/vernon.jenkins/ out and the holes drilled, and then the two index.htm. halves were put together again and sealed with an airtight glue. Where exactly we could buy a glue which lasts (allegedly) for forty thousand years is a question that Early whistleblowers would interest all DIY and hobby enthusiasts. Moreover, the holes are At several sites now, archaeologists have bevelled, which makes a better airtight seal unearthed flute-like musical instruments for the fingers playing the instrument. Thus, from the so-called Stone Age, and they these ‘Stone Age bone flutes’ are very express surprise that our early forebears sophisticated indeed, and could produce were even capable of making music, let the same range of tones as any modern alone appreciating it. One article on a flute! particular discovery says how the makers would have ripped off with their teeth the As a collector and player of replica raw meat from the bone from which the medieval recorders, I know something (just flute was made, this giving the reader a something) of their complexity and powerful mental image of grunting ape- exactitude of manufacture, and admire like savages getting ready to make music.1 greatly the craftsmen who can turn them out. But let us remember this. Nowadays, If only the archaeologists would finish the once the jigs and lathes are set up to story though. They are compelled to admit prescribed specifications, recorders and that these ancient forebears of ours made flutes can be manufactured by the thousand. and doubtless enjoyed music because they But when you have to make them

2 individually out of bone or ivory (the Ach 2. The Book of Genesis (4: 21) tells us that Valley flute of Southern Germany has five the “father of all such as handle the harp holes and is carved from the wing bone of and organ,” was Jubal. We take our word a giant vulture), then you need to ‘jubilee’ from his name, which is worth recalculate the maths to account for the remembering in this royal jubilee year. differences in bore, the sometimes varying thicknesses of the bone, its length, Addendum: curvature and so on. Nothing is A videoclip has recently been produced by standardized. Each instrument has to be a professional flute maker that gives designed and the holes calculated (and not further insights into the production and just their positions on the flute, but their playing of the “ice age flute”. See diameters too) individually. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBUFR mQ4eso Constant tuning and retuning is required throughout the manufacturing process, and when I spoke earlier of the Pythagorean level of mathematics required for all this, I Open wide was not joking. Try making one yourself and see. Even if you are already a From time to time CSM has commented on craftsman in the field, you’ll really have the remarkable design of whales - superbly your work cut out. But our ancient fitted for their particular habitats and forebears, the makers of the Hohle Fels and modes of life. Now it seems that even one Ach Valley flutes, they knew how to do it, of the best studied groups of whales, the and could calculate the maths allowing rorquals, can still provide a surprise or two. even for the curvature of the bone or tusk. Reported on the BBC News website Which is all very baffling for the experts, (http://goo.gl/W9mKx, accessed 23 June for not only did our forebears have to know 2012) has been the discovery of a how to make these instruments, they also previously unrecognised organ situated had to know the purpose for which they between the two bones at the front tip of a were making them – the sounding of a rorqual whale’s lower jaw. series of natural notes (on both the pentatonic and heptatonic scales); not Rorqual whales feed by opening their discordant, out of tune notes, but notes that mouths very suddenly, engulfing enormous were resonant and pleasing to the ear and quantities of seawater and the animals senses. This they achieved. Grunting swimming in it. The animals are then savages ripping raw meat from the bone trapped and filtered out from the water by with their teeth? Something tells me in all the whales' baleen plates. Dr Pyenson, a this that Darwin and his modern followers researcher at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, was reported as saying 2 have got it wrong - terribly, terribly wrong. that a rorqual whale's feeding lunge was "one of the largest biomechanical events on Bill Cooper Earth".

References How do such whales control this enormous 1. http://goo.gl/w6Qky gape accurately and without damaging

3 Cuttings & Comments from New Scientist by Dr David Rosevear

7 April p.4 – Bad attitude This short article bemoans the fact that Republican candidates in the US presidential primaries assert that global warming is a hoax, and support the Humpback whales feeding - note the enormous teaching of intelligent design. They are “a gape. Image in the public domain. science-free zone”! themselves? Dr Pyenson and his colleagues “While trust [in science] has remained examined the jaws of fin and minke whales, strong among liberals, for conservatives dissecting them and using high resolution it has gradually declined. The decline is medical imaging to examine the carcasses, not due to ignorance: it has been and so discovered the hidden sensory organ. strongest among conservatives with the "This shows us how they do it so quickly, most education.” Surely that should tell co-ordinating the inflation of the throat them something. pouch with the opening of the jaws... and closing their mouth to prevent prey 7 April p.14 – Brain organised like street escaping - all in under 10 seconds" he said. grid of NYC The sensory organ picks up signals from A team from a Boston, Mass. hospital the jaw as it starts to open. Nerves from the claims that the tens of billions of organ then send signals to the brain, connecting nerve fibres in the human brain triggering the whales' dramatic and are not tangled like a huge bowl of complex feeding lunge. spaghetti. They are laid out like a 3- dimensional grid of fibres that are then folded up. Dr Gareth Fraser, from the University of The grid, revealed by MRI scans, was more Sheffield, commented that the discovery obvious in ‘lower’ primates, with revealed a unique adaptation that mammals progressively more folds and curves of the had made to an "aquatic lifestyle". But 3D grid in ‘more advanced’ apes. “This how could rorqual whales have survived would help explain how brains wire for the requisite millions of years until this themselves…The grid may also help to subtle organ had gradually evolved? The solve the puzzle of how complex brains ability to filtrate small organisms out of evolved.” large quantities of water, the specialised Natural selection acting on chance changes feeding lunge, and the sensory organ that in connectivity is not going to produce triggers it, must all be fully functional at smart monkeys. once for this lifestyle to be successful. This Complex brain structure shouts design. speaks of intelligent design. As the Bible declares, “God created the great creatures 14 April p.5 – Monkeying with science of the sea” (Gen. 1: 21). “Tennessee teachers will be allowed to

4 question scientific concepts like 14 April p5 – Giant feathered beast evolution and global warming in the “It is the feathered equivalent of a woolly classroom, if a new ‘Monkey Bill’ mammoth. At 9 metres long, Yutyrannus becomes law. As New Scientist went to huali is the largest dinosaur yet to sport press, Republican governor Bill Haslam feathers. Yutyrannus lived during a cold had not announced whether he would spell in the Cretaceous and may have allow Senate Bill 893 to become state law. needed feathers for warmth.” A similar bill was passed in Louisiana in It seems that what is imaginatively 2008.” described as ‘feathers’ could not support Where would science be if we were banned this massive creature in flight. More likely by law from questioning scientific ideas; they are fibres for insulation. By especially those based on philosophy rather dishonestly calling it a feathered dinosaur, than evidence? the morally challenged try to give the impression that reptiles evolved into birds.

14 April p.10 – Eyeless hydra takes a dim view of its prey The hydra is a centimetre-long marine creature that hunts its prey in the deep using stings that it propels like harpoons. It is handicapped by not having eyes; it is blind. Its genes have been studied and found to include one coding for opsin, a protein that is key to all animal vision. The gene is expressed in a complex of cells connected to the hydra’s hunting equipment. When kept in a tank with changing light levels that simulated the shadows of prey, the hydra let off its harpoons. “This finding is part of efforts to uncover the evolutionary origins of sight.” So who is blind?

14 April p.11 – When early humans left trees to snore on the floor Chimps normally sleep in the trees, away from nocturnal predators. The extinct ape Australopithicus aforensis had arches under its feet, so it may have walked upright a carefully estimated 3.2 million years ago. It had long arms and slender fingers, so evidently also swung from, and maybe slept in, the trees. Researchers from Cambridge University counted ground nests in use today in Nimba, and collected

5 their hairs for DNA identification. Twelve and our special creation story. Such of the 634 nests were chimp sleeping intense instincts could arise in evolution quarters. If chimps can sleep on the ground only by group selection – tribe in Nimba where there are few predators, competing against tribe. For me, the perhaps A. aforensis, an assumed hominin, peculiar qualities of faith are a logical also did so. Those who sleep on the ground outcome of this level of biological sleep more soundly, with REM sleep, so it organisation.’” is hoped this could be a clue to cognitive Wilson hopes there will be an end to these development as they evolved towards religious conflicts by the next century, by being human. So when did humans leave means of education and science. A more the trees and learn to make sleeping bags? certain and blessed hope of ending the “Proving any of this will be difficult, says conflict will be the glorious appearing of Ward (of Missouri U.). ‘This topic is far the great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, into the realm of speculation’.” who is also our Creator. One has to agree with her. 21 April pp.36 & 37 - Letters 21 April p.34 – The full-blown American Here are a couple of reader’s letters of optimist interest - R Miller of Perth, Scotland writes: Here is an interview with Harvard “We talk of antelopes evolving longer legs professor emeritus E. O. Wilson, the to escape from lions, of coloration veteran philosopher who looks at social evolving for camouflage, of evolutionary conflict in terms of evolutionary selection. strategies and arms races, not to “‘We ought to recognise that religious mention selfish genes. It is as if the strife is not the consequence of antelopes deliberately set out to evolve differences among people. It’s about conflicts between creation stories. We have bizarre creation myths and each is characterised by assuring believers that theirs is the correct story, and that therefore they are superior in every sense to people who belong to other religions. This feeds into our tribalistic tendencies to form groups, Legs of antelopes such as these kudu are highly complex - they must occupy territories and have the correct kinds of joints, the right combination of weight, strength, react fiercely to any flexibility, endurance and impact resistance, along with an integrated nerve system and efficient nutrient, oxygen and waste management, intrusion or threat to damage repair and disease resistance - to name just a few factors. ourselves, our tribe There’s far more to them than just a matter of growing! Image: CSM.

6 longer legs; and it is not surprising that “A new survey of the stars within 13,000 some people, realising that no creature light years of Earth suggests our patch of actually sits down to figure out an the Milky Way could be free of the evolutionary strategy, think evolution is elusive stuff, yet that would contradict nonsense.” otherwise successful explanations for We would comment that leg length is how galaxies stick together and how our governed and limited by the genetic universe formed…Two other recent information of the antelope, and not by the surveys also suggest a local absence of efforts of those who successfully outrun dark matter.” the lions. These are evolutionary Just So The observations show that the motions of stories, as Miller has spotted. the 400 stars studied were adequately Mr Braithwaite of Redditch, UK sees an accounted for by “just the normal visible inconsistency in a New Scientist’s anti-God matter. ‘The result matches the visible article: mass strongly’.” “You state: ‘Religious claims still wither Predictably, other astronomers are under rational scrutiny and deserve no sceptical. A CDM theorist is quoted: “This special place in public life’ (17 March, is not going to be easily abandoned as an p.3). So somehow it is ‘rational’ to expect idea. I’m not saying they’re wrong, just people to believe that a particle can be in that you’re going to have to work really two places at once and indeed not in hard to convince me.” After all, the only either, and it is ‘rational’ to base an alternative to a chance formation of entire branch of science on the existence everything is the outlawed notion that in of a particle which – as yet – cannot be the beginning God created the heaven and seen, but it is not ‘rational’ to believe in the earth. a deity (can be in more than one place at a time, cannot be seen). 28 April p.10 – Synthetic version of DNA Well done, NS, for publishing these non- created conforming thoughts! DNA is a double spiral of chains, each composed of a sequence of sugar 28 April p.6 – A curious case of missing (deoxyribose) and phosphate, joined darkness together by the bases thymine, adenine, In our May journal we quoted Juan Collar cytosine and guanine. The order of the of Chicago on the problem of finding any bases codes for genes. Now intelligent and of the postulated ‘dark matter’ that should skilful chemists have synthesised six hold the stars in their courses. He said that artificial versions, designated XNAs, or “either astrophysics is wrong, or our xeno-nucleic acids. XNAs use either whole understanding of dark matter is different sugars or even completely wrong.” NS 7/1/12. different molecules. Here we read that Cold Dark Matter, or Starting with enzymes that enable DNA to CDM, has been calculated to “amount to pass on information, “over the years the about 83 per cent of the total mass of the team tweaked them until they produced universe. This dark matter has fed into enzymes that could work on XNAs. Once our understanding of how the universe they had created these enzymes, they formed … were able to store information in each of

7 the XNAs, copy it to DNA, and copy it back into a new XNA. “The question is whether these XNAs can be introduced into cells…Once the XNAs were installed, they could replicate and evolve on their own.” Does this show that evolution could or did take place in nature? This fine piece of chemical synthesis involved a team of skilled chemists, using nature’s templates and working over several years in well- equipped laboratories to make molecules that mimic the work of DNA. This is intelligent design. Even if they managed to get it all to function in a cell, natural selection would weed out mutations, so that it would only reproduce after its own kind.

28 April p.28 – Is it a bird? Is it a dinosaur? This article by Professor Alan Feduccia, renowned expert on fossil birds, is based on his latest book, Riddle of the Feathered Dragons. In 1996, the world was stunned by a photograph of Sinosauropteryx (Chinese Sinosauropteyx fossil showing impressions of dragon feather) sporting a mane of thick fibres but no feathers. Image derived from Sam filaments running from neck to tail tip. / Olai Ose / Skjaervoy, Wikipedia, under “With no microscopy or scientific Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 substantiation, the fibres were Generic licence. proclaimed to be protofeathers… no evidence then or now has emerged dinosaur fossil record. But the current showing that these structures are orthodoxy argues that birds are derived anything other than collagen fibres from theropods, that protofeathers supporting a typical reptilian frill. provided insulation for their hot- “Sinosauropteryx is a standard dinosaur blooded metabolism (for which no with no feathers, and specimens with evidence exists) and that flight true feathers are not dinosaurs but early originated from the ground up [not birds.” gliding from the trees], which is A photograph here of the Sinosauropteryx biophysically improbable. fossil bears out the truth of Feduccia’s “Most disturbingly, current orthodoxy description. dictates that the entire suite of “No flightless bird ever gave rise to a sophisticated avian flight architecture, flying one; the same is surely true in the including aerodynamic wings and

8 specialised brain structures, evolved in “The pigeon’s biological global earthbound dinosaurs in a non-flight positioning system has been recorded in context, a proposal that is practically action.” Scientists at Houston, Texas have non-Darwinian.” inserted electrodes into the brains of The idea that birds evolved from dinosaurs homing pigeons to record the activity of was a piece of 19th century pseudoscience individual neurons. They found that 53 proposed by ‘Darwin’s bulldog’ Thomas neurons in one area of the brain were Henry Huxley. It is still vigorously activated when the birds were placed in an promoted today. artificial magnetic field whose strength and direction could be adjusted. 5 May p.3 – The irresistible quest for It would appear that the Creator has a prior alien life claim on GPS technology. If pigeons “In less than 100 days, the most ambitious evolved, I wouldn’t fancy their chances of Mars mission ever devised is due to land finding their way home, would you? on the Red Planet… main task is to search for signs of life…” 12 May p.3 - Editorial, The improbable It cost $2.5 billion! ape “Astrobiology is an odd science. It largely With p.10 –The humanity switch concerns itself with studying something According to this most “astonishing” that may not exist.” evolutionary journey, a gene involved in The price of folly! brain development duplicated itself in one of our ancestors, around 3.5 million years 5 May p.10 – Strange fat keeps skin ago. Then, oh my best belovéd, around a waterproof million years later it did it again! “The The molecular structure of that layer of our duplicate genes now play a crucial role skin that keeps water out when we bathe, in the design of our big, powerful brains and blood in, has been identified for the (see p.10).” A handful of other mutations first time. Lipids occupy the spaces such as FOXP2, the language gene, between cells in this outermost layer of changed our ape ancestors into humans. “It skin. Lipids have a water-loving head and is no exaggeration to say they are the two water-repelling tails. These genes that make us human”, reckons the hydrophobic tails normally point in the editor. “It brings home the sheer same direction, but electron microscopy improbability of our existence. The reveals that in the skin they are splayed out essence of humanity largely boils down pointing in opposite directions. The lipid to a bunch of random mutations, every molecules are stacked on top of one one of them happening by chance.” another in an alternating fashion, to form Yet all our observations show that chance an impermeable bilayer. Except where the mutations cannot improve genetic skin has pores, no water can pass in or out. information – quite the reverse. Our skin, the biggest organ we have, is part This sort of pseudo-scientific nonsense is of that ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ being taught in our schools, and echoed on body that David refers to in Psalm 139. our TV screens by professors of zoology. How necessary it is for the creationist truth 5 May p.15 – Biological GPS located in to get out there. pigeons

9 On p.10 we read that a group from the reaction of the pigment with oxygen, so Scripps Institute in California “focussed that these minute marine creatures on SRGAP2. This gene helps drive incandesce like glow-worms. development of the neocortex, which in “A range of unrelated animals use the humans controls higher-order brain same pigment-enzyme pair to produce functions such as language and light, including fireflies, anglerfish and conscious thought. Humans with jellyfish. Bioluminescence evolved mutations in SRGAP2 are prone to independently many times in the bigger epileptic seizures, as are mice that have picture, it ain’t so magical after all.” been engineered to lack it.” See what we Both the pigment and the catalyst are mean! molecules of improbable complexity. Skilled chemists with modern equipment 12 May p.25 – Aperture, Magical would spend a long time doing multi-step minefield reactions, purifying intermediates before This regular NS photographic feature possibly achieving these products in shows a beach scene on a moonless night extremely low yields. I know; I’ve been in the Maldives. The shallows are ablaze there. Left to themselves, the products with bioluminescent protists and copepods decompose. that glow when disturbed. So what are the chances of the This cold light is made by a pigment called interdependent system of luciferin and luciferin (from Latin lux, light) and an luciferase occurring by chance in a number enzyme, luciferase. The latter catalyses the of unrelated creatures? These products arise from the concerted interaction of specific genes with RNA and other proteins. Our Creator spoke the information into existence in the first place in a manner that allowed subsequent generations to reproduce this beautiful effect ‘according to their kind’.

26 May p.16 - On-off switch found for RNA It is known that the addition or removal of methyl groups (CH3) to or from the bases of DNA will switch a gene’s activity off or on. Now scientists at Cornell University, New York, have found that much of the messenger RNA in rat brain cells and in human kidneys contains methylated versions of the base adenosine. M-RNA is the transcribed copy of DNA that encodes protein manufacture. A female glow-worm, Lampyris noctiluca, The more we find out about the genes in a bioluminescing to attract a male. Image: Wofl, Wikipedia, under Creative Commons Attribution- cell, the more evident it becomes that Share Alike 2.0 Germany licence. chance mutations could not possibly make

10 the system or enable it to operate. We, and they could give a chicken the head of a even rats, are fearfully and wonderfully dinosaur. I suspect that Colonel Saunders’ made at every level of study. KFC franchise would find it hard to sell them to their customers, though. 2 June p.4 – Lethal weather The article offers dire warnings about 9 June p.8 –Welcome to the Escher-verse climate change, and begins: “The US A study by “the world’s most famous could end up as full of hot air as the living scientist, Stephen Hawking of the politicians sceptical of climate change.” University of Cambridge” has given rise On the facing page we read: to the idea that the universe has the same surreal symmetry as paintings by the Dutch 2 June p.5 – Roots of denial artist M. C. Escher. His team’s idea “Whatever motivates climate sceptics, it “provides a way to square the geometric isn’t ignorance of science. People who demands of string theory, a still- don’t believe in global warming are just hypothetical ‘theory of everything’, with as scientifically knowledgeable as people the universe we observe. Their who accept it.” calculations rely on a mathematical twist The same might be said about evolution that was previously considered theory sceptics, with even more impossible. If it stands up, it could justification. explain how the universe emerged from the big bang and unite gravity and 2 June p.12 – Bird brains rooted in baby quantum mechanics.” dinosaur skulls It describes a universe resembling a “Modern adult birds have skulls that look twisting, wiggly landscape of saddle-like remarkably like those of juvenile hills. “This is not what our universe dinosaurs, offering an unusual seems to look like… our universe is flat, explanation as to how birds came to have not twisted.” We don’t understand the relatively large brains. Birds are living mysterious entity known as dark energy, dinosaurs, having evolved from but Einstein’s general relativity theory has feathered dinosaurs similar to the a mathematical way to describe the Velociraptor.” These claimed ‘feathered accelerated expansion. dinosaur fossils’ are merely clothed in This seems like what Professor W. R. fibres that bear no resemblance to feathers Thompson described as “fragile towers of and could not support flight. Your reviewer hypotheses based on hypotheses, where has studied them under the microscope at fact and fiction intermingle in the BMNH. inextricable confusion.” Using similar ‘logic’, the article goes on to say: “Adult human skulls look much like 9 June p.34 – Lucky you those of baby chimpanzees, with “Evolution is a game of chance. Clare flattened faces and oversized brain cases.” Wilson uncovers some of the winning A team from Harvard is now trying to mutations that helped us hit the reverse bird evolution, tweaking the genes jackpot… Together, these evolutionary of chickens to make them revert to their accidents led us on a 6-million-year dinosaur ancestors. They say they haven’t journey from a creature similar to a yet found the right genes, but if they do, great ape into us, modern humans.”

11 Human and chimp genomes have some 15 shape…it strengthens the surprising million differences in the nucleotides of the idea that ghostly neutrinos have mass.” genes. Then there are an uncounted number “Neutrinos come in three flavours: of differences in the regulatory regions of electron, muon and tau… Now a second the DNA that act as on/off switches for the tau neutrino has shown up in the beam genes. (These were formerly called ‘junk of billions of muon neutrinos that DNA’, left-overs as we evolved!) Clare OPERA streams from CERN [the LHC assumes that these differences are the result in nearby Switzerland], the team reported of mutations as chimps evolved into at Neutrino 2012 [conference]. humans. “A cosmic ray blasts into the [Subsequently it was announced on July 4th atmosphere at close to the speed of light. that the Large Hadron Collider had It collides with an oxygen atom, detected a particle with the mass and generating a shower of energetic energy expected for the elusive Higgs particles, one of which knocks into a boson. World headlines shouted: ‘God DNA molecule within a living creature. particle exists’!] The DNA molecule happens to reside in a developing egg cell within an ape-like 16 June p.19 – Cells that keep gut bugs animal living in Africa.” The mutated in their place DNA is the first step towards the birth of “There is a fine line between help and Homo sapiens. How lucky is that! harm. The trillions of gut bacteria that Generations later, a mutation in the are important for our health are jawbone led to a smaller, weaker jaw, but prevented from escaping to cause havoc this made room for a bigger cranium. Our in other tissues by special immune cells.” brains are 3 times as big as our ‘closest It has been demonstrated, using mice, relative, the chimp’, though there is no “that the immune cells – innate lymphoid correlation between skull size and cells – confine bacteria to the gut by intelligence. Big brains use lots of energy. barricading the lining of the gut and Humans have much higher amounts of the neighbouring tissues.” digestive enzyme called salivary amylase It takes a special brand of faith to believe that breaks down starch into sugars. A that this barricade, not to mention the vital change in a gene called FOXP2 is supposed function of the gut bacteria, all arrived in to have led to our mastery of language. A mice and men by chance. And that we all change in our hands meant we could use survived and digested properly before it all tools. got honed to perfection must also be And that, oh my best beloved, is how some believed, against all logic. lucky chimps changed into chumps. 23 June p.15 – 47 million years old… 16 June p.16 – OPERA closes in on and still doing it morphing neutrinos Here is a photograph of two conjoined “In the same week that OPERA [a particle turtles fossilised while in the act of mating. research facility in Italy] confirmed once They were excavated from the Messel Pit, and for all that neutrinos don’t outpace a disused quarry in Germany. light, it also announced its second-ever This shows that fossilisation occurred observation of a neutrino changing suddenly, with the pair being immediately buried in sediment. See Matt. 24:38.

12 23 June p.32 – Life: Inevitable or fluke? complex life, then, seems to hinge on a This 6-page cover story attempts to answer single fluke event – the acquisition of one the question; If life arises wherever simple cell by another… All this might conditions are right, where are all the help to explain why we’ve never found aliens? any sign of aliens.” The Kepler space telescope has already Then again, the LORD may have simply revealed a number of planets similar to created man on the Earth a few thousand Earth, yet we read; “More than half a years ago, while the rest of the heavens century of searching for extraterrestrial were made for signs and seasons, and for intelligence has so far come up empty- days and years, and to give light upon the handed.” Earth. Biochemist Nick Lane thinks he knows why. He says that on Earth, bacteria arrived 30 June p.15 – Ethiopian genes hint at spontaneously soon after the planet formed, truth to Queen of Sheba story but complex multi-celled life only came “The genomes of Ethiopian people hold after an immense period of time. It was a echoes of the meeting between a one-off happenstance that then allowed legendary king and queen.” evolution to proceed. Luca Pagani of the Wellcome Trust in “The enzymes that powered the first life Hinxton, UK, has examined the genomes cannot have been as efficient, and the of a number of Ethiopians and found first cells must have needed a lot more that some folk had components of both energy to grow and divide – probably African and eastern Mediterranean thousands or millions of times as much lineages. “What’s more, the gene flow energy as modern cells… The enzyme probably took place around 3,000 years that makes ATP is a rotating motor ago.” [Is the timing knowable?] powered by the inward flow of protons. “The finding is backed by linguistic Another protein that helps to generate research, which shows that one of the the membrane potential, NADH four language families of Ethiopia dehydrogenase, is like a steam engine, migrated from the same region about with a moving piston for pumping out 3,000 years ago.” protons. These amazing nanoscopic machines must be the product of prolonged natural selection. They could not have powered life from the beginning.” What is ignored is that complex structures tend to break down over time, not build up. According to Lane, some cells acquired mitochondria. About 2 billion years ago, one simple cell somehow ended up inside another and gave up most of its few genes to its host. The lodger somehow invented Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba by the 17th C the APT Synthase to supply enough energy artist Claude Lorrain. Far from being a myth, the for the landlord to build more genes and Queen of Sheba is attested as an historical figure by the Bible. Now modern-day genetics is catching develop a nucleus. “The emergence of up with the fact. Image in the public domain. 13 It would appear that those in the retinue of 30 June p.32 – Bang goes the theory the Queen of Sheba returned with more This 6 page NS cover story by Amanda than just the Wisdom of Solomon. Gefter points out that many cosmologists Incidentally, the use of the term ‘legendary’ are questioning the validity of the idea of shows an ignorance of the very careful cosmic inflation. The first tiny fraction of a keeping of family genealogies by the Jews, second after the alleged big bang start of and not just the royal line. everything, the proto-universe had to expand at a rate faster than the speed of light. 30 June p.27 – One minute with Sanal The uniformity of the microwave Edamaruku compared with frequency thought to be the echo of the big 30 June p.28 – Still waiting for ET to call bang is a problem because parts of the Mr Edamaruku’s very laudable mission is universe said to be 20 billion light years to debunk faked or mistaken ‘miracles’. apart should never have been close enough This head of the Indian Rationalist together to share the same temperature. Association investigated the case of water The article continues with lots of other dripping from the feet of a church statue of difficulties. The simple answer is to accept Jesus that the priest claimed had healing the much more believable statement that in properties. He found that a blocked drain the beginning God created the heavens and nearby was responsible. New Scientist was the earth. pleased to point out that religious folk can be so gullible. The following page tells of Jill Tarter who is retiring as director of the SETI Institute “Quotes” Centre in California after 35 years looking for signs of alien life. Maybe even some “If there were no God there would be no scientists can be just a little gullible… Atheists.” G. K. Chesterton

“Evolution is promoted by its practitioners as more than mere science. Evolution is promulgated as an ideology, a secular religion—a full-fledged alternative to Christianity, with meaning and morality. I am an ardent evolutionist and an ex- Christian, but I must admit that in this one complaint … the literalists are absolutely right. Evolution is a religion. This was true of evolution in the beginning, and it is true of evolution still today. …Evolution therefore came into being as a kind of secular ideology, an explicit substitute for Christianity.” (Michael Ruse, How evolution became a religion: creationists correct? National Post, pp. B1, B3, B7 May 13, 2000)

14 “Higher-level animal phylogenetics is hot. Unprecedented funding opportunities, increasingly sophisticated phylogenetic methods, and an accelerating avalanche of new data have combined to make new phylogenies welcome fodder for our revered scientific tabloids. One thing the resulting phylogenetic forest has brought into sharp relief is that never before have we been faced with such conspicuous gaps between the body plans of closest relatives. Barring fortuitous discoveries from the fossil record, many or most of these gaps can be expected to be permanent. With our imagination as the only available bridge across these gaps, it seems inescapable that our scenarios of body plan evolution will remain forever precariously poised on the narrow edge between fact and fantasy.” (Dr Ronald Jenner, in the publicity material for a lecture entitled ‘Please mind the gaps: fact and fantasy in the reconstruction of animal body plan Hexagonal basalt columns of the Giant’s evolution’ at the Natural History Museum, Causeway, Northern Ireland. Image: CSM London, 29 June 2012.) for the Giant’s Causeway opened by the National Trust that is causing controversy. Why? Simply because the NT has had the The Giant’s Causeway courage and honesty to provide not only the usual evolutionist explanation of One of the most amazing sites of origins but also to mention a credible geological interest under the care of the alternative view - the creationist position. National Trust must surely be the Giant’s The inclusiveness of the NT’s policy is Causeway on the coast of Northern Ireland. respectful and sensitive to the realities of Among many interesting features there is the situation: that many people in Northern the huge cluster of hexagonal pillars that Ireland and elsewhere do not believe the gives the site its name. The same formation evolutionist dogma and have robust also appears on Mull on the west coast of scientific and Christian reasons to hold Scotland, but the array of columns on the their dissenting views. Antrim coast is particularly striking. It is understandably a very popular tourist This has not endeared the NT to the attraction. evolutionist camp. Seldom has this writer seen so much vicious and insulting baying As this issue of the Journal was about to go and braying on comment webpages as that to press, news broke of a new visitor centre showered by evolutionists on the NT for

15 having the temerity to give room to an alternative to the evolutionists’ creed. Well Day conference done to the NT for standing their ground, but if you would like to encourage them, On Saturday 3rd November, 10am – please take a moment to write an 4pm, CSM will, God willing, hold a appreciative comment or two to counter the one-day conference on creation and venom they are receiving. See evolution at the Maritime Club, Queens http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/giants- Street, Portsmouth, in celebration of causeway/. CSM’s 80th anniversary. Speakers will include Richard Broadberry, Mark Carter, David Rosevear and Kevin Tuck. There will also be a Q&A session. The From the mailbox venue seats 200 people and tickets (£10 per person) are available from CSM in “Thank you for this brilliant book by Bill advance on a first come, first served Cooper. It has been so helpful and full of basis. The newly refurbished Genesis tremendous information. Well done.” Expo, just round the corner on The Hard, S.Y. will remain open for those attending. The site is close to good rail and bus “I must say you are producing some links and there are large car parks wonderful books and your pamphlets are nearby. Tea / coffee will be served. being put to good use here in Cornwall. Food is available to purchase locally or Hopefully we will meet up sometime at the bring your own. Further details will be museum. God's Richest Blessings.” announced on CSM’s website. L.C.

Meetings

Malcolm Bowden will be speaking on creation and evolution on Saturday 29 September at the Jubilee Community Centre, Charlwoods Road, East Grinstead RH19 2HL; doors open 6pm. More details Scan the QR code above with your mobile from Steve Martin, 01342 322751. phone to go direct to the CSM website. Creation Science Movement PO Box 888, Portsmouth PO6 2YD, UK

Founded 1932, Registered Charity 801745 www.csm.org.uk; [email protected]; 02392 293988

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