"Things We Know to be True:" "Scientific American" Challenges God (Part 3)

Looking at the same evidence, yet coming to polar-opposite conclusions is what transpires between the camp of faith and the camp of unbelief.  The Sola Scriptura (Scriptures alone) believer understands the wonder of God’s creation through his faith in God and his Holy Bible—this is not blind faith, but faith that can see.  We are commanded in I Thessalonians 5:21:

Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.

The camp of unbelief looks at the wonder of God’s creation attempting to understand it without God—through unbelief—and, instead of seeing a wonderful Creator who made this universe and all its wonderful, living organisms, including mankind, concludes that it simply exploded out of nothing and poof, here we are!  Both see the same obvious evidence, but come to polar-opposite conclusions because both begin their quest for truth from polar-opposite positions. 

Have you yet to be born again as Jesus directs in John 3:3:

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Will today be your day where you begin to seek the face of God through faith, where you begin to experience the wonderment of the redeemed?  Today, everything will be brand-new, even your new name will be written down in Glory.   Will today be your wonderful day?  Click onto “Further with Jesus” for childlike instructions and immediate entry into the Kingdom of God.  NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.  

GOD SAID, Exodus 20:11:

For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

GOD SAID, Proverbs 3:19-20:

19 The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens.

20 By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew.

GOD SAID, I Timothy 6:20-21:

20 O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:

21 Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen.

MAN SAID: We have popped into existence out of nothing, from nowhere, and have evolved into everything we are today.  There is no God!  Creation is a spontaneous accident that happens from time to time. 

Now THE RECORD: The Holy Bible records the entire 6,000-year history of the earth and its universe.  Its final, God-inspired pages were penned nearly 2,000 years ago, and because it is the inerrant Word of the Living God, it is real and relevant—and always beyond the vile carping of carnal skeptics.  Every book ever written must and will bow before this Book of Books. 

Man’s truth is always subject to rewrite.  God and His truth, on the other hand, never change.  Malachi 3:6:

For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

Man’s knowledge, as well as his science, is a moving target:

Samuel Arbesman, in his book The Half-Life of Facts, with the subhead, “Why Everything We Know Has an Expiration Date,” points out some disconcerting facts such as:

1. Medical knowledge about cirrhosis or hepatitis takes about forty-five years for half of it to be disproven or become out-of-date.
2. These results are nearly identical to a similar study that examined the overturning of information in surgery.  Two Australian surgeons found that half of the facts in that field also become false every forty-five years. 
3. John Ioannidis is a Greek physician and professor at the University of Ionnina School of Medicine, and he is obsessed with understanding the failings and more human properties of the scientific process.  He has found that for highly-cited clinical trials, initially the significant and large effects are later found to have smaller effects or often no effect at all in a nontrivial number of instances.  Looking within the medical literature over a period of nearly fifteen years, Ioannidis examined the most highly cited studies.  Of the forty-five papers he examined, seven of them (over 15%) initially had higher effects, and another seven were contradicted outright by later research.
4. …another way to avoid the surprise of changes in knowledge is to simply recognize that it’s not that surprising.  We are getting better at internalizing this.  For example, many medical schools inform their students that within several years, half of what they’ve been taught will be wrong, and the teachers just don’t know which half.  [End of quote]

This is Part Three in a now-four-part series addressing Scientific American’s challenge to the God of the Bible.  Several positioning pages from last week’s feature follow:

The deceivableness of unrighteousness is unashamedly ballyhooed in the November 2016 issue of Scientific American.  The headline on the front cover reads: “5 Scientific Facts (That People Often Get Wrong).”  When you arrive at the multi-page feature inside, you find this headline: “5 Things We Know to be True,” with the subhead, “A compendium of irrefutable facts for these fact-starved times.”  A few sentences from the prelude follow:

Scientific truths are always provisional at some level.  We once believed that the continents were fixed on the surface of Earth; now we know they move.  We thought the universe was static; now we know it’s expanding.  We thought margarine was healthier than butter and that hormone-replacement therapy was the right treatment for vast numbers of postmenopausal women; now we know better.  [End of quote]

GodSaidManSaid would just like to point out a few other things they’ve gotten wrong:

• Ramapithecus;
• Australopithecines;
• Peking Man;
• Java Man;
• Neanderthal Man;
• Cro-Magnon Man;
• Nebraska Man;
• Piltdown Man;
• Lucy;
• China’s fake chicken-lizard;
• Rethink fossilization, after soft tissue was discovered in dinosaur bones. 

And, we should add:

• Raw milk;
• Raw honey;
• Whole wheat;
• Olive oil;
• Salt;
• Eggs;
• Circumcision;
• Breast-feeding;
• The U.S. food pyramid;
• And so much more. 

Now, back to the prelude in Scientific American:

We ordinarily report on the latest advances in scientific and technological research, but we thought it appropriate to take a step back and discuss some of the science’s firmly established facts.  There is essentially no debate among legitimate scientists about these truths, which are based on verifiable evidence, which have been accepted for decades, and which have only become more strongly established as new evidence continues to accumulate.  [End of quote]

Pretty bold talk, don’t you think, when the first of the five “facts” they present is the theory of evolution.  Note: That’s theory of evolution—not fact of evolution, by their own admission.  

An excellent book, by Dr. Grant Jeffrey titled Creation, records the following:

Darwin himself was perplexed and very worried about the lack of fossil evidence.  In his own words:

Why, if species have descended from other species by fine gradations, do we not everywhere see innumerable transitional forms?  Why is not all nature in confusion, instead of the species being, as we see them, well defined?  … But, as by this theory innumerable transitional forms must have existed, why do we not find them embedded in countless numbers in the crust of the Earth?

He expressed his fears about his possible error in the following comments:

I have asked myself whether I may not have devoted my life to a fantasy…I…am ready to cry with vexation at my blindness and presumption. 

Darwin admitted:

If it could be demonstrated that any complex organism existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down. 

[Darwin] honestly believed these fossils would eventually be found in the thousands, and prove his theory to be true beyond a doubt. 

To date, though, every species discovered in the fossil record appears perfectly formed.  Paleontologists have never discovered a fossil showing a partially-formed species or a partially-formed organ.  Despite the fact that tens of thousands of scientists and millions of dedicated amateurs have been searching worldwide for these missing-link fossils to support evolution, they have never found a single example. 

The late Dr. Stephen Jay Gould was an internationally-respected professor of geology and paleontology at Harvard University.  He was a strong and eloquent supporter of evolution.  However, he honestly admitted that the illustrations of evolutionary development found in the university textbooks and television documentaries are actually fictitious inventions of creative artists that do not accurately represent scientific facts. 

Professor Gould admitted that the claim in science textbooks of the fossil record supporting evolution is false:

All paleontologists know that the fossil record contains precious little in the way of intermediate forms; transitions between major groups are characteristically abrupt. 

In other words, Dr. Gould admitted that the fossil record does not actually support the theory of gradual evolution (something that creationists have been claiming for many years).  The new “punctuated equilibrium” theory states that evolution proceeded in rapid jumps that left no fossil evidence, followed by long periods with no changes. 

Professor Gould also wrote:

The advent of the theory of punctuated equilibrium and the associated publicity it has generated have meant that for the first time, biologists with little knowledge of paleontology have become aware of the absence of transitional forms.  [End of quotes]

The lead article in “5 Things We Know to be True” is authored by Michael Shermer.  Speaking of the theory of evolution, Shermer writes:

Finally, vestigial structures are signs of evolutionary history.  The Cretaceous snake Pachyrhachis problematicus had small hind limbs, which are gone in most of today’s snakes.  Modern whales retain a tiny pelvis for hind legs that existed in their land-mammal ancestors.  Likewise, flightless birds have wings.  And of course, humans are replete with useless vestigial structures—a distinctive sign of our evolutionary history—such as wisdom teeth, male nipples, body hair, the appendix, and the coccyx.  [End of quotes]

Psalm 14:1:

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.

Because man’s pseudo-science has cast off the Words of God, you should find his science replete with foolishness, and you do.  Consider this excerpt from the October 30, 2015 issue of The Week, under the heading “Alien Life: An Astronomer’s Intriguing Theory:”

“Poppycock,” said Katie M. Palmer in Wired.com.  “Lots of things look like they could be signs of extraterrestrial life,” but time after time, they “end up being mirages.”  In 1967, astronomer Jocelyn Bell was analyzing quasars when she detected energy pulses she labeled LGM-1 for Little Green Men.  It turned out to be radiation from the first observed pulsar, “a spinning, magnetized neutron star.” 

In 1998, Australian astronomers picked up mysterious radio signals that thrilled alien-enthusiasts.  Not until this year did they figure out the source: “a microwave oven on the observatory’s campus.”  [End of quote]

Not only is man’s science laden with foolishness, it is also fraught with fraud.  Excerpts from various GodSaidManSaid features follow. 

▶ GodSaidManSaid, “When Truth is Truth (Part Two):”

In November 1999, National Geographic, publisher of a cornucopia of lies, trumpeted a report of another so-called missing link that was to connect dinosaurs to birds. It is much of evolutiondom's claim that dinosaurs are still with us today in the form of birds, even hummingbirds. National Geographic reported that a Chinese farmer came forth with the fossilized remains of a chicken with a dinosaur''s tail. In a U.S. News and World Report article published February 14, 2000, titled "The Piltdown Chicken," the following quote was found:

Now, paleontologists are eating crow. Instead of a "true missing link" connecting dinosaurs to birds, the specimen appears to be a composite, its unusual appendage likely tacked on by a Chinese farmer, not evolution.

Xu Xing, a Chinese paleontologist and co-researcher of the find, e-mailed the bad news that it appeared two fossils had been pieced together. Storrs Olson, curator of birds at the Smithsonian Institution''s National Museum of Natural History had warned National Geographic of the dubious credentials of this fossil find before they published the story. In a public statement Olson said, "The public is being completely bamboozled." And in another statement on this subject Olson said:

The idea of feathered dinosaurs and the theropod origin of birds is being actively promoted by a cadre of zealous scientists acting in concert with certain editors at Nature and National Geographic who themselves have become outspoken and highly biased proselytizers of the faith. Truth and careful scientific weighing of evidence have been among the first casualties in their program, which is now fast becoming one of the grander scientific hoaxes of our age—the paleontological equivalent of cold fusion.

The experts, who by the way are funded by National Geographic, gave their new find quite a sophisticated name, Archaeoraptor Liaoningensis. Sounds scientific, but try "chicken with phony lizard's tail." [End of quote]

▶ GodSaidManSaid, “Yes No Yes No:”

Bones discovered in 2003 on an Indonesian island were trumpeted the world over as a new species of human dubbed the Flores Man. Discover magazine, under the headline "Flores Man Denied Status As New Species," printed the following excerpt:

That’s why Robert Eckhardt, a paleoanthropologist at Pennsylvania State University, and a team have intently analyzed the 18,000-year-old bones. The group’s research papers, undergoing peer review, are unequivocal. "Homo floresiensis," says Eckhardt, "is not a valid new human species."

Under the headline "Deception Plagues Medical Research," Discover magazine reports the following:

A study published in June found that an alarming percentage of medical research is not only untrustworthy but also downright deceitful. HealthPartners Research Foundation and the University of Minnesota surveyed several thousand scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health, and a third of the respondents anonymously admitted to one of 10 serious ethical lapses, such as fabricating data or plagiarizing. Even more common, says Melissa Anderson, a University of Minnesota higher education researcher, were minor misbehaviors like dropping conflicting data or withholding results. [End of quotes]

▶ GodSaidManSaid, “They Can’t Handle the Truth:”

The headline in the January/February 2015 issue of Discover magazine reads, “The Year in Fraud.”  Several paragraphs follow:

The suicide of a stem cell researcher in Japan last summer prompted a great deal of soul searching in science.  Yoshiki Sasai’s death came after a scandal involving two papers retracted for fraud—the most high-profile case of scientific misconduct in 2014.  But it was far from the only one. 

Serious questions were also raised about stem cell research by Harvard’s Piero Anversa.  We learned more about Cory Toth, a former diabetes researcher at the University of Calgary, whose lab fabricated data in nine published articles. And we saw the discovery of an apparent ring to generate positive assessments, aka peer reviews, of submitted manuscripts, 60 of which wound up being retracted. 

It might seem, then, that 2014 was an annus horribilis in the world of science fraud.  For many in the public, which pays for much of this research in tax dollars, news of these events may have come as a rude awakening.  But at Retraction Watch, when we see and hear that kind of commentary, we feel a little like the police captain in Casablanca who proclaims he’s “shocked, shocked!” to learn there is gambling at Rick’s, only to be handed his winnings a moment later. 

We started Retraction Watch in 2010, and every year since then, we’ve witnessed at least a few cases big enough to warrant headlines: anesthesiologist Yoshitaka Fujii, record holder for retractions at 183; Diederik Stapel, whose groundbreaking social psychology work was almost entirely fabricated; Joachim Boldt, the German critical-care specialist and previous retraction record holder.  The list goes on.  [End of quote]

Again, from GodSaidManSaid “When Truth is Truth (Part Two):”

In the November 13, 2015 issue of The Week, you’ll find this short paragraph:

Bad Week for:

Economists, after researchers at the Federal Reserve found that the results of two-thirds of economic studies cannot be replicated, suggesting that “the dismal science” is not very scientific.  [End of quote]

Science News, November 14, 2015, under the heading “Cancer Drug’s Effectiveness Inflated in Animal Studies:”

Researchers investigating how well the chemotherapy drug sunitinib works against various types of cancer have overestimated the drug’s effectiveness by an average of 45%, an analysis shows.  [End of quote]

July 3, 2015, The Week, under the headline, “Trans Fats: A Nanny-State Ban?”

The Food and Drug Administration last week implemented a near-zero tolerance ban on partially hydrogenated oils, the main source of trans fats, giving food companies three years to remove the ingredient from their products.  Trans-fats were long considered a healthy alternative to lard, but recent studies have linked them to serious health problems like obesity, memory loss, and heart disease.  This may be the “most important change in our food supply” in decades said Roberto Ferdman in WashingtonPost.com.  While the FDA has banned numerous ingredients over the years, including artificial sweeteners such as cyclamate, none has been “so clearly linked to tens of thousands of deaths like trans-fat.” 

If anything, the “trans-fat saga shows how hard it is to get nutritional science right,” said Sarah Kaplan in WashingtonPost.com.  Until relatively recently, experts called trans-fats “a great boon to Americans’ arteries” and warned us to avoid the kinds of saturated fats found in butter, eggs, and meat.  Now that advice has been reversed. [End of quote]

Consider that thousands of years ago, the Word of God was penned, and not one position has changed.  [End of quotes]

Now back to Scientific American, “Five Things We Know to be True,” and Mr. Shermer’s claim that vestigial structures prove evolution.

▶ GodSaidManSaid, “Vestigials and Wisdom Teeth:”

A vestigial organ is an evolutionary assumption that certain organs in the human body were once needed but the process of evolution has made these particular organs useless. As late as 1960, textbooks listed over 200 vestigial structures in the human body including the appendix, thyroid, pituitary glands, tonsils and more.

Today''s science has reduced the list of 200 useless vestigial organs to a big fat zero. In spite of this knowledge, many evolutionists have failed to upgrade their unbelief and continue to cling and expound on vestigial organs. It is true that one can continue to live without some of the so-called vestigial organs just like one can continue to live with only one eye or one foot, etc., but the quality of life is much better with all body parts functioning well.

For example, commonly removed organs such as tonsils and the appendix, which were deemed as useless, are now known to have very real value. It's now known that the appendix is a gland that removes poisons from the body and that the tonsils also remove poisons and secrete needed iodine into the system.

Regarding the concept of vestigial organs and their being a product of lack of use due to the evolutionary cycle, Scott Huse, author of the book, The Collapse of Evolution, had this to say:

The fatal flaw in the argument from vestigial organs is exposed by modern genetics. Basically the concept of vestigial organs represents a return to Lamarckism where the development or loss of a structure is based upon need. It is now known, however, that organs can only be altered by a genetic alteration in the chromosomes, or DNA. The use or disuse of an organ has no effect whatsoever on subsequent generations. [End of quote]

There are no vestigial organs in the human body—every organ with a place—every organ with a purpose.

The following excerpts are from the GodSaidManSaid feature, "Update - Vestigial Organs and Circumcision:"

Now here comes man's science. The following excerpts are from Yahoo News, published August 24, 2009. The writer is Charles Q. Choi with LiveScience.com:

The body's appendix has long been thought of as nothing more than a worthless evolutionary artifact, good for nothing save a potentially lethal case of inflammation.

Now researchers suggest the appendix is a lot more than a useless remnant. Not only was it recently proposed to actually possess a critical function, but scientists now find it appears in nature a lot more often than before thought. And it's possible some of this organ's ancient uses could be recruited by physicians to help the human body fight disease more effectively.

In a way, the idea that the appendix is an organ whose time has passed has itself become a concept whose time is over.

"Maybe it's time to correct the textbooks," said researcher William Parker, an immunologist at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C. "Many biology texts today still refer to the appendix as a ''vestigial organ.''"

No less than Charles Darwin first suggested that the appendix was a vestigial organ from an ancestor that ate leaves, theorizing that it was the evolutionary remains of a larger structure, called a cecum, which once was used by now-extinct predecessors for digesting food.

However, Parker and his colleagues recently suggested that the appendix still served as a vital safehouse where good bacteria could lie in wait until they were needed to repopulate the gut after a nasty case of diarrhea. Past studies had also found the appendix can help make, direct, and train white blood cells.

He added, "If Darwin had been aware of the species that have an appendix attached to a large cecum, and if he had known about the widespread nature of the appendix, he probably would not have thought of the appendix as a vestige of evolution." [End of quotes]

 ▶ GodSaidManSaid, “New Discoveries Debunk One of the Last Vestigials:”

Have you ever heard of “junk DNA?”  The evolutionary position is—and soon to be was—that junk DNA is an excellent example of evolution.  Evolutionists maintain that vast areas of your DNA are basically junk, and a result of billions of years of deadly, random mutations, a vestigial.  Well, not anymore.  The following excerpts are from Science News, under the heading “Genome 2.0—Mountains of New Data are Challenging Old Views:”

Researchers slowly realized, however, that genes occupy only about 1.5 percent of the genome.  The other 98.5 percent, dubbed “junk DNA,” was regarded as useless scraps left over from billions of years of random genetic mutations.  As geneticists’ knowledge progressed, this basic picture remained largely unquestioned.  “At one time, people said, ‘Why even bother to sequence the whole genome?  Why not just sequence the [protein-coding part],’” says Angela Dutta, a geneticist at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Closer examination of the full human genome is now causing scientists to return to some questions they thought they had settled.  For one, they’re revisiting the very notion of what a gene is. Rather than being distinct segments of code amid otherwise empty swatches of DNA—like houses along a barren country road—single genes are proving to be fragmented, intertwined with other genes, and scattered across the whole genome.  Even more surprisingly, the junk DNA may not be junk after all.  Most of this supposedly useless DNA now appears to produce transcriptions of its genetic code, boosting the raw information output of the genome to about 62 times what genes alone would produce.  [End of quote]

In the November 3, 2012 issue of Science News, another vestigial bites the dust.  A subhead in the feature reads, “A primary cilium protrudes from a cell’s surface.  Once thought of as vestigial, these antenna-like structures turn out to be big players in human health.”  More information from the feature, titled “Nouveaux Antennas,” follows:

Most cells in the body, from light-gathering eye cells to kidney cells to brain cells, sport a single, prominent hair like structure sticking out like an index finger flashing the No.1 sign.  While cells can have other protrusions that serve as propellers or sweep away mucus and debris, the No.1 “primary” cilia don’t whip or wiggle or brush anything along.  For a long time, in fact, scientists have thought about primary cilia the way people think about their appendixes, as vestigial organs that may once have had a purpose, but are largely useless today.

Evidence now suggests that primary cilia aren’t just stray whiskers evolution hasn’t gotten around to shaving off.  Instead, these structures might be among the most important that a cell possesses.  Scientists are coming to see primary cilia as a major means by which a cell communicates with the rest of the body.  A single cilium is a cell’s eyes and nose, GPS receiver, and even weather vane.  [End of quotes]

Vestigial organs?  “Five Things We Know to be True,” Scientific American?  Think again.  It’s time to update your unbelief.

God’s Word is true and righteous altogether—a place to build a life that will last forever. 

 GOD SAID, Exodus 20:11:

For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

GOD SAID, Proverbs 3:19-20:

19 The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens.

20 By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew.

GOD SAID, I Timothy 6:20-21:

20 O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:

21 Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen.

MAN SAID: We have popped into existence out of nothing, from nowhere, and have evolved into everything we are today.  There is no God!  Creation is a spontaneous accident that happens from time to time. 

Now you have THE RECORD.

 

 

References:

Authorized King James Version

GodSaidManSaid, “New Discoveries Debunk One of the Last Vestigials”

GodSaidManSaid, “Vestigials and Wisdom Teeth”

GodSaidManSaid, “When Truth is Truth (Part Two)”

GodSaidManSaid, “They Can’t Handle the Truth”

GodSaidManSaid, “Yes No Yes No”

GodSaidManSaid, “Things We Know to be True: Scientific American Challenges God (Part 2)”

“Alien Life: An Astronomer’s Intriguing Theory,” The Week, October 30, 2015 

 

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