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Giant preserved viruses, and more preserved soft
tissues in the fossil record - this
is Genesis Week.
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And a welcome to Genesis week, the weekly program
of creationary commentary on news, views and events
pertaining to the origins controversy, made
possible by you, the supporters of CORE Ottawa,
Citizens for Origins Research and Education. We
believe God gave you an intelligently designed
brain so you could use it! And we hope you brought
it with you today for this week's show. Excellence
in pirate broadcasting, we took over the airwaves
on The Miracle Channel in Canada, The Walk TV in
the US, satellites all around the globe, and of
course, you can find us in cyberspace by simply
punching in wazooloo.com (that's me) or
genesisweek.com (that's the show) where you can
find us and subscribe to our YouTube channel to get
extras like CrEvo Rants and full interviews with
our guests. I'm your host, Ian Juby
Many of you intrepid reporters were busy this week!
I had so many people hand me so many articles, this
was one of them: A giant virus ressurected from the
permafrost in Siberia has researchers scratching
their heads.
Claimed to lay frozen in undisturbed permafrost for
30,000 years according to their radiocarbon dates,
when thawed out, the virus was found to
successfully infect amoebas! But this thing is HUGE
- viruses tend to be incredibly tiny; requiring an
electron microscope to see them. This one was so
huge it was actually larger than some bacteria and
could be seen in a standard light microscope.
While this virus is the biggest one found to date,
it only has about half of the DNA that other
viruses have. In a Nature News report, the authors
of the paper expressed their bewilderment:
Interestingly, in a report in Science magazine, the
mention in passing:
It will be interesting to see their carbon dating
results on those soils. How much you wanna bet it
will return young ages?
Viruses are a baffling mystery to evolution all
around: This virus is the latest in a string of
gigantic viruses first discovered only ten years
ago in 2004. There has been ten discovered since
then, these giant viruses have presented one
baffling mystery after another. Some evolutionary
scholars have proposed different models of how
viruses fit into evolution. It was proposed and
some still contend that viruses were the first life
to evolve on earth. This does not make sense
though, because viruses cannot reproduce. They
hijack the reproduction systems of living cells and
cause them to spit out copies of the virus. This is
what we know as "infecting" a cell, and all too
often the infection kills the cell.
But yet even with viruses lacking all of this
genetic information and complex internal systems,
some viruses have MORE DNA than bacteria, which are
completely living, reproducing, self-repairing,
single celled organisms. The first giant virus
discovered - the mimivirus, had some 1260 genes in
its DNA, 50 of which code for things like DNA
repair and transcribing messenger RNA into
proteins.
Even in the PNAS paper, the authors warn:
Yes - wild evolutionary speculations should be
postponed indefinitely, as none of the wild
speculations as to the origin of viruses made sense
in the first place, and the recent discoveries of
these giant viruses has only made the outlandish
speculations even more outlandish.
Instead, how about we focus on actual observation -
you know, good science. Let's learn about these
viruses, what they do, how they do it, etc...
Let's approach viruses from the ideology of special
creation - that the viruses were intelligently
DESIGNED. Such a worldview radically changes the
questions: instead of asking non-sequitor questions
like "How did viruses evolve?" because they didn't,
we wind up asking questions like "What is the
purpose of the virus within the creation?" "Why was
it designed this way?"
Suddenly, your whole perspective on viruses
changes. Because we only know of viruses due to
their negative effects, we never hear of the
POSITIVE purpose of viruses, and their place here
in this world. Even Christelle Desnues, a French
virologist in Marseilles commented in the
nature news article:
Yes, and the implications for evolutionary theory
are negative! As Dr. Jerry Bergman documents in his
1999 paper, viruses that cause problems are an
indication of SOMETHING GONE WRONG - a breakdown of
the originally designed system.
If you'll recall in last week's mailbag, we
answered Josef's question about species on earth -
with the latest estimate being around 8.7 million
species on earth. Viruses were not included in that
number, because they are not considered living
organisms. To give you an idea of just how
prevalant viruses are in nature, a report came out
in September last year that suggested there was
over 100 MILLION viruses in nature - there was no
way we could identify them all!
So obviously then, viruses generally speaking do
not have a negative impact on life. The few
infectious diseases that cause sickness, disease or
death number in the hundreds - no one really knows
the number. But let's be extremely generous and
assume that it's actually 10,000. That would mean
that some 0.0001% of viruses actually cause
a problem.
As Curtis Suttle pointed out in the Nature news
article, you inhale thousands of viruses EVERY DAY.
Go for a swim in the ocean and you will swallow
BILLIONS of viruses. Obviously viruses are
predominantly HARMLESS.
So what then is the purpose of viruses? Why were
they specifically designed to transfer genetic
information between organisms?
I'll let Dr. Bergman explain it as he does so well:
Viruses actually have their place in creation and
are BENEFICIAL. But, we are in a fallen world. A
world that is deteriorating and it all started with
the entrance of sin into the world. Our
disobedience to our Creator caused an unbalance in
the creation. Like our own DNA, viruses are also
deteriorating with time. Broken viruses cause
sickness and disease instead of preventing it. In
fact, in our second story today, researchers looked
at "fossil" human poop from a 14th century latrine
in Belgium. Get a load of what they found
inside the load:
The bacteria in your gut are beneficial to you.
It's when things go wrong that they are harmful for
you. For instance, Desnues continues saying
Again, you can see the benefits of viruses which we
always think of as harmful, when in fact they are
beneficial to bacteria AND US. The bacteria as well
are also designed to be beneficial to us - unless
something goes wrong.
But they didn't just find evidence of beneficial
bacteria in this human waste - get a load of what
else they found in the load:
We've heard all the dire warnings about antibiotic
resistance bacteria - and they are a serious
problem. In fact bacteria developing resistance to
antibiotics has been claimed for many moons to be
proof positive for evolution! For example, on the
Berkeley website, under their "Relevance of
Evolution" section where they are defending the
place of evolution in the sciences, they state that
Well if evolutionary theory made that prediction,
then so did creation! That is postdiction,
not prediction.
In our toilet research they found evidence of
bacteria resistant to antibiotics - though
antibiotics would not be invented for another 500
years! Obviously there was no evolution here - the
only change was a change in the population. The
antibiotic resistant bacteria ALREADY EXISTED, they
did not evolve. You kill off the bacteria which are
susceptible to antibiotics, then you are only left
with the bacteria which do have antibiotic
resistance. In fact, this is the opposite of
evolution - it is a LOSS of genetic variation
within the population because you just killed off a
huge chunk of the population!
So rather than being evidence for evolution,
antibiotic resistant bacteria are actually the
OPPOSITE of what evolution requires. It is a
FAILURE of evolution, not a fulfilled prediction -
no matter how much you want to try to make it fit.
Another article that soooo many of you sent in to
me was on the finding of still yet more preserved
soft tissues from Jurassic bone beds of China.
Thanks to all of you who send in these stories, I
really appreciate it. I'd much rather get 50 people
sending me the same story than to miss an important
story. Just as we finished an interview with Mark
Armitage where he showed us stretchy dinosaur
tissues, this report comes out on the Chinese
fossil beds. The report happens to be open access -
meaning you can download a copy of this very
extensive report for free.
These beds are labelled Jurassic in age and have
given up the fossilized corpses of some 30 taxa: 5
salamanders, 1 frog like critter, 2 lizards, 13
pterosaurs, 5 dinosaurs and 4 mammals. You can see
the incredible preservation of fur, skin, even the
external gills of the salamanders. The dinosaurs
documented were actually old news, and there is
debate over the designation of their being
"dinosaurs," and even more debate over their
alleged "feathers." So while the media kind of went
hog-wild over these feathered dinosaurs, the report
was actually just rehashing previous finds - finds
which we have already previously discussed on this
show and in CrEvo Rant # 46, dinosaurs to birds.
The feathers in most cases aren't feathers at all,
but rather fibers that are claimed to be the
precursor to the feather. But, these protofeathers
(as they call them) appear at the same time or
after birds with completely formed feathers - so
the evolution is backwards!
In the paper, much reference was given to the
Epidexipteryx fossil, which was alleged to be a
feathered dinosaur. Again, this fossil was first
documented back in 2008 - there is nothing new
here, and David Coppedge provided his typical,
excellent analysis of the original find here;
Short answer - the interpretation of "feathered
dinosaur" is highly sketchy to say the least, and
this dinosaur with protofeathers appears at the
same time as birds with fully formed feathers. the
evolution is backwards.
What's ironic here is that many anticreationists
will then argue that a dinosaur found with
protofeathers appearing AFTER birds with fully
formed feathers is PROOF that dinosaurs evolved
into birds! Well wait a minute - it now becomes
obvious that the actual evidence is completely
irrelevent, evolution trumps fact no matter what.
If asked for evidence that dinosaurs evolved into
birds, these evolutionists will show you dinosaurs
with the alleged precursor of the feather - a
half-formed feather. when the creationist - or
other evolutionists - point out that birds with
fully formed feathers appear BEFORE this alleged
precursor to the feather, the anticreationists then
contend that these protofeathered dinosaurs are
just simply left over after the evolution.
Notice that the fossil evidence and fossil sequence
is completely irrelevent! No matter what the
evidence is, it is contended to be evidence for
evolution. Even if the alleged evolution is
backwards. Evolution is the paradigm - the a-priori
assumption, presumed fact. The evidence will never
be accepted to refute the a-priori
assumption of evolution.
But coming back to these Chinese fossil beds, we
can deduce numerous, obvious conclusions from these
fossil beds: these animals were buried RAPIDLY.
They were buried so fast that they were preserved
right down to the soft tissues in these very fine
layers. We see multiple biospheres represented:
Lizards which are typically attributed to desert
environments. Amphibians, such as the frogs and
salamanders. Land dwelling mammals and dinosaurs.
Even pterosaurs which fly. All of them are buried
together. Again, this is precisely what we find in
so many fossil beds - multiple biospheres all mixed
together in water-deposited sediments.
I would contend that this fossil bed, like pretty
much all of the fossil beds we find around the
world, is just another remnant of Noah's flood -
one of the greatest judgments ever visited on
earth, the evidence of which truly is global.
Stick around, we'll be back in just one minute!
The Complete Creation video series is just that -
an exhaustive look at the science, philosophy and
theology behind the creation/evolution debate. In
this 12 DVD series, Ian Juby starts off with a 1
hour presentation for the children in God's little
creation. He then follows up with almost 11 hours
of lecturing for the adults as he walks you through
the debate starting at its surprising history, and
examining the evidence from biology, geology,
physics, paleontology and archaeology. Chances are,
any question you have about the creation/evolution
debate is answered in this video series. With open
captions for the hearing impaired, the series is
both entertaining and educational, there are also
free resources, such as question and answer and
proctor sheets for homeschoolers. You can now get
the entire set as an instant digital download, or
on DVD. Visit Ian's bookstore today.
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Wahoo! Mail for me?
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rmpcta1 wrote in on youtube regarding the desert
whales found in Chile:
That is something to be considered, and I'm of the
opinion it was the world wide flood, rather than
some post-flood lake for several reasons: the
geology involved in the fossil beds indicates very
high energy deposits. The whales themselves were
obviously buried in some ways that were pretty
high-energy itself; being buried upside-down, and
overlapping each other for example. That would take
some pretty serious waves and flows. The whales
appeared to have been buried rapidly - something
you would really never see in a lake - in fact, you
never see it in the ocean! Lastly, I haven't looked
into this in depth, but I don't believe there is
any evidence of a sea, such as historic shorelines
or a basin.
Thanks for the excellent question.
Furry Cat Lover on YouTube made me sad:
Thanks for writing in.
In our "Dinosaur soft serve" interview with Mark
Armitage, we showed you actual dinosaur soft
tissues found in a triceratops horn, under the
microscope. Mark showed before your eyes how the
tissues could be stretched and, like taffy, they
would stretch back to their original shape. The
implications are profound, and we received a
ton of comments:
And it should be noted that actually the
evolutionary timescale claims these tissues are
actually pushing 100 million years old - which
makes the unbelievable even more unbelievable!
thanks for writing in.
Tyler has been helping us out big time by wading
through the hundreds of comments we get every week,
and Tyler started his tip top quote of the week.
This week he picked one from Timothy Chapman:
In regards to my comments about Jesus preaching to
the lost before the flood, through Noah, by the
Holy Spirit and warning them of the judgement to
come, Nancy Caffee brought up a significant point
I never mentioned:
Thanks for bringing this up Nancy. She's quite
correct - Methusaleh lived 969 years, was the
grandfather of Noah and died 7 days before the
flood started. He was so named methusaleh by his
father in a prophetic act prophesying the great
judgment to come. So yes, Nancy is quite right -
people were warned for almost 1,000 years of the
judgment to come.
Jesus warned of the next great judgment to come -
the great white throne jugment at the end of time.
That has been a standing warning for some 2,000
years now, and even Peter prophesied that we
would become complacent:
In fact Peter goes on to prophesy the great
deceptions in the end days - such as the denial
of Noah's flood.
But recalling the severe judgment of Noah's flood,
Peter then warns us that, just like the almost
1,000 years of warning of pending judgment leading
up the flood of Noah, God delaying judgment is not
to be interpreted as God not being there, or the
judgment not coming. Rather, this earth and heaven
will be destroyed and new one created:
That Creator is giving everyone a chance to repent
- to change their ways and embrace the free
salvation given to them. That salvation, though it
is free and cannot be bought, does come with a
price. You must give your life wholy over to Jesus
Christ who said that in order to enter in to the
new heaven and new earth, you must be born again.
Jesus could return at any moment - what is stopping
you from turning to him? I wonder what it was that
stopped the people from getting on board Noah's
ark? I wonder if it is many of the same reasons
many of you are hesitant to embrace the salvation
through Christ? Look and see what happened to those
who did not embrace the free salvation. They
perished. Consider these things and then give your
life over to Christ, holding nothing back, living
your life and giving your life to Him, that He may
live through you on this earth before He returns to
do the job personally.
Alright, we gotta call that a wrap, I'm your host,
Ian Juby, saying tata for now - I hope you'll join
me again next Genesis Week. Remember, you can send
in your questions, comments, letter bombs and
offshore banking information to us in a number of
ways:
Don't forget those words of comfort given to us by
our Creator, the Lord Jesus Christ, who said "I am
the way, the truth and the life - no man comes to
the father but through me." We'll see you on
the flip side.
We are a viewer supported program and need your
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Ottawa, ON. Canada, K2K 2P4
While we cannot offer tax deductable receipts
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