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Fossil Finds Intrigue
Scientists
"And God created great whales, and every living
creature that moves, which the waters brought forth
abundantly, after their kind..."
Genesis 1:21a KJV ER
A few years ago, soft
bodied sea creatures, such as sea anemones and
jellyfish, have been found petrified in abundance in
China's Yunnan Province. This find excited geologists
because boneless creatures usually rot away quickly and
only fossilize under rare conditions. The deposit was
especially remarkable because whole jellyfish and
anemones have been found complete with tentacles and
nerve cords. Researchers from the University of Montana
wanted to analyze the mineral mixture around the fossils
to find out what caused their amazing preservation.
The evolutionary model of
origins dates these rare fossils to the Cambrian period
about 525 million years ago. Paleobiologists, however,
do not understand how fully formed, delicate and complex
life appeared in the fossil record with little sign of
evolutionary development. "Multi-cellular life just
filled up the sea very suddenly," said UM geologist
George Stanley. Researchers hope to discover more clues
about the development of sea life through China's rich
fossil deposits. At the same time, the so-called
"Cambrian explosion" fits the biblical creation model of
origins. According to Genesis 1, God created all sea
life on Day 5, fully formed and ready to reproduce and
fill the oceans.
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What About Ancient
Kennewick Man?
"So the LORD scattered
them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth..."
Genesis 11:8a KJV ER
In July of 1996, the skull
and hipbone of an ancient Washingtonian were put on display in Seattle
on Sunday. Discovered on the banks of the Columbia River in south
central Washington State, Kennewick Man has been the source of a lot of
controversy. Local Native American tribes have sought to bury the
remains, while scientists have longed to study the extremely old bones.
From measurements of the
skull, anthropologists argue that the bones do not belong to a member of
any local or historic Native American tribes, but may be from an Asiatic
explorer. They would like to find genetic material for DNA tests, but
do not currently have permission to probe for samples. Using a CAT scan
to catch every lump and crack of the original, experts created a
high-tech plastic reproduction of certain parts of Kennewick Man. These
clear plastic models were unveiled in Seattle by a group of scientists
who have been studying the find. The model even shows a stone spear tip
healed over in the man's hip.
Early carbon dating tests
placed the bones at between 8,000 and 9,300 years in age. "That's
unacceptable," said University of Wisconsin geochemist Thomas Stafford,
who wants to do another round of tests. "We really don't know how old
this skeleton is." Through further study, the scientists hope to
determine what Kennewick Man ate, (his teeth are worn down to the nubs),
and how he died.
From the time of the Tower
of Babel, humans spread out over the earth. They traveled to every
continent and even to remote islands in the ocean. Amazingly, a large
number took with them the story of a great Flood that covered the earth.
Did Kennewick Man come from Central Asia, and how long ago did he come
to the Washington state area? Through further testing, scientists hope
to offer insight into the history of Kennewick Man and the first people
to reach North America thousands of years ago.
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Flood
Legends From Around the World
Native global flood stories are documented as history or
legend in almost every region on earth. Old
world missionaries reported their amazement at finding remote tribes
already possessing legends with tremendous similarities to the Bible's
accounts of the worldwide flood. In
H.S. Bellamy's Moons, Myths and
Men, estimates that altogether there
are over 500 Flood legends worldwide. Ancient
civilizations such as China, Babylonia, Wales, Russia, India, America,
Hawaii, Scandinavia, Sumatra, Peru, and Polynesia,
all have their own versions of a giant flood.
These flood tales are frequently linked by common
elements that parallel the Biblical account including the warning of the
coming flood, the construction of a boat in advance, the storage of
animals, the inclusion of family, and the release of birds to determine
if the water level had subsided. The
overwhelming consistency among flood legends found in distant parts of
the globe indicates they were derived from the same origin,
the Bible's record,
but oral transcription has changed the details through time.
Perhaps the second most important historical
account of a global flood can be found in a Babylonian flood story in
the Epic of Gilgamesh. When
the Biblical and Babylonian accounts are compared, a number of
outstanding similarities are found that leave no doubt these stories are
rooted in the same event or oral tradition.
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Evolutionist Quote of the
Month
"The absence of fossil
evidence for intermediary stages between major transitions in organic
design, indeed our inability, even in our imagination, to construct
functional intermediates in many cases, has been a persistent and
nagging problem for gradualistic accounts of evolution."
Stephen Jay Gould (Professor
of Geology and Paleontology, Harvard University), "Is a new and general
theory of evolution emerging?" Paleobiology, vol. 6(1), January 1980, p.
127
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Until
the next time! Enjoy
every second that
God has given you.
For indeed it is a blessing. |