Polystrate Ichthyosaur was just a Kamikaze?

In 1999, geologists unearthed a beautifully preserved fossilized head of the extinct reptile ichthyosaur. It took months to carefully extract it from the strata layers.

One interesting thing about this head is that it is still in three dimensions. Usually, the pressure of the sedimentary layers flattens fossils into a single, 2-D sheet. However, in this case, this had not happened. Why? The head was buried in a vertical, 90-degree nose-down position, preventing the flattening process (see image at right).

What is more interesting about this fossil is that it spans three different strata layers that were allegedly laid down over a period of 1 million years!

This is called a "polystrate" fossil, meaning that it was found spanning multiple strata layers ("poly" for many, and "strate" for strata . . . obviously!). Such a discovery presents a huge puzzle for evolutionists. According to uniformitarian geology, strata layers are laid down slowly, one after another, over millions of years. But no one would posit that this ichthyosaur hung nose-down for a million years while it was slowly buried in sediments!

As may be expected, the long-agers have an explanation . . . albeit a somewhat unsatisfactory one. Dr. Achim Reisdorf, a German geologist, explains that right after this huge marine reptile died, it started to sink. Increasing water pressure caused the lungs and inner organs to collapse, moving the center of gravity right behind the head. This caused the ichthyosaur to tilt onto its nose, making it sink faster and faster toward the ocean floor in a "kamikaze" plunge.

When it reached the bottom, the head and neck thrust into sedimentary layers that had remained perfectly soft over nearly a million years. But before bacteria could decompose the sunken head, all three sedimentary layers suddenly hardened, fossilizing the buried portion of the body. The rest quickly rotted and was swept away, preserving the fossil we find today.

Alright. Sure, that makes sense to me! To start with, dead marine reptiles do not sink. They float. In fact, they do quite a bit of floating. A whale that died off the southern coast of Australian a few years ago refused to sink even after having enough TNT put in it by the police bomb squad to "blow a hole in a concrete wall" (see the AiG story here).

Also, marine carcasses are quickly scavenged by sharks and other fish. The ichthyosaur wouldn't have had time to even start the trip down, much less stay intact!

Even if this reptile had made the "kamikaze plunge" into the sediment, it seems like a mighty big coincidence that the layers had stayed soft for a million years without being disturbed, and then hardened "just in time". How convenient, don't you think?

When scientists hold the preconcieved notion that the earth is billions of years old, look what kind of mental gymnastics they must undergo to keep their theory afloat (or, in this case, make it sink). Think how much easier it would be to allow the thought that maybe, just maybe, this reptile was buried at the same time as the sediments around it. See how much easier life is made when we accept the possibility that Genesis is true?

Story taken from AnswersInGenesis.org.

In Him,

D3

Hurricane Katrina Smashes Into Gulf Coast

Early this morning, Hurricane Katrina made its first landfall in the south Louisiana peninsula. Katrina was a Category 4 hurricane, one of the most destructive of the breed. The most destruction occurred at its third landfall, when 125 mph winds and cataclysmic flooding devastated the Louisiana/Mississippi border. Close by, the New Orleans levee system collapsed under the strain, sending 3 to 8 feet of water through the city. The winds at the Lake Front Airport had reached 86 mph when observations stopped coming. Structural damage covers New Orleans. In the neighboring city of Gulfport, MS, the Weather Channel Storm Tracker reported storm surges of at least 27 feet. Areas as far away as the Florida panhandle were impacted by Katrina. Waves along those beaches could reach from 25 to 35 feet this afternoon. In fact, a buoy 70 miles south of the Alabama border reported wave action up to 48 feet! According to The Weather Channel, Katrina is expected to turn into a Tropical Storm by tonight, but destructive winds and heavy rainfall, along with an isolated tornado or two, are projected to continue up toward Cincinnati, Ohio (see graphic for minute-by-minute details).

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Wow. Yet another incredibly destructive storm has laid waste to our coastlines this year. Ken Ham wrote an excellent article Sunday afternoon concerning the impending disaster. Read it here. As you might notice by glancing through my archives, this is the third article I have written concerning this year's flood of hurricanes (pun intended). It is interesting to note, in the light of previous posts, that Katrina set the 4th lowest recorded pressure for the Atlantic Gulf at 902 mb. Also, it did the most extreme damage to a strip of casinos and gambling halls along the Gulfport, MS seaboard. Take a look at my earlier posts concerning hurricanes: Hurricane after Hurricane: What does it mean? Hurricane Irene? In Him, D3

KLove, Answers In Genesis, Amy Baughman, Carl Kerby, and Yours Truly!

Hey Cyberspace,

You may recall one of my old posts concerning a family who gave $470,000 for the completion of the Answers In Genesis Creation Museum Planetarium in Cincinnati. I sent a news tip to K-Love Radio in the hope that they would mention this on the air.

A few days ago, I was listening to the morning show on K-Love when I heard a Closer Look presentation by Amy Baughman. As it turned out, she had gone to Cincinnati and taken a full tour of the developing Museum with Carl Kerby. She taped the tour and did a three-minute Closer Look all about the new Museum. K-Love put the full, 12-minute version of the presentation online here.

Answers In Genesis wrote a short blogpost about the visit on the Museum Blog. Needless to say, I called K-Love and left a message on Edd Lanane's voicemail to ask whether it was my news tip that triggered the visit.

About 30 minutes later, the phone rings and guess who I'm talking to? Amy Baughman. She told me that they had received basically the same tip a few days before from AiG itself. But, she assured me, they would've done just about the same thing if they had gotten my tip first: "That Museum is wonderful! Have you been up there?"

I was just a little bit shellshocked, but . . . oh well. Brushes with celebrity don't happen every day!

In Him,

D3

The Argument Against Minimum Wage

Minimum wage laws are put in place by the government for a myriad of supposed reasons: stimulating the economy, increasing the take-home pay of the average worker, helping the poor, and so on. However, experience has shown that such statutes rarely benefit those for which benefit is intended. To start with, the role of government was never to control the economy. According to Romans 13, rulers are to punish evildoers and reward the righteous. The economy can take care of itself. History tells us that the more the government tries to influence the economy, the less smoothly the country operates. Communism, the ultimate government control over economical components, has always failed miserably. There is no Biblical rationale for minimum wage laws either. Although we are told to help the widows and the fatherless, God's Word never encourages a fix on contractual proceedings. Rather, we are to uphold the agreements we have made with other people. A prime example of this is found in Matthew 20, where Christ tells a parable about a man who hired many different workers for many different time periods, but gave them all the same wage. When those who had worked the longest complained, he told them that what he gave was his business, not theirs. What about the way these laws really work? Doesn't a minimum wage increase benefit the lower-class worker? Not at all. When the minimum wage is raised or implemented to begin with, the employers don't begin paying more. Instead, they can no longer afford to pay all of their employees! As a result, the less skilled workers are quickly laid off to pay for those in higher positions. When employees are laid off, the company stocks rise due to the drop in payment. This increases the income of the rich shareholders and the owners of the company rather than the poor. Instead of benefiting the poor and minority unskilled workers, minimum wage laws only pay more for highly skilled employees and shareholding tycoons. In Him, D3

Secular Scientist Sternberg Sacked by Smithsonian

Recently, Richard Sternberg, a research associate and scientist at the Smithsonian Institute, published a peer-reviewed technical article in The Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. This article pointed out several logical flaws in the accepted historical theory of evolution as the basis for life. This criticism of Darwinism was met with swift judgement by the Smithsonian Institute. Within days of publishing the article, The Origin of Biological Information and the Higher Taxonomic Categories, he was forced out of his position. The ironic thing about this is that Sternberg doesn't even claim to be a creationist! Yet this is exactly what his accusers suggest. Calling him a "shoddy scientist" and a "closet Bible thumper", senior scientists lashed out at the man. He isn't very happy. "I was singled out for harassment and threats on the basis that they think I’m a creationist,” Sternberg said in a Washington Times article. Sternberg insists that he is agnostic about intelligent design, is not a young earth creationist and believes that science only moves forward on controversy. Although Sternberg holds two PhDs in theoretical biology and molecular evolution, some Smithsonian scientists disseminated so much false information about him and his credentials that one of his colleagues had to circulate his résumé simply to dispel the rumor that Sternberg was not a scientist. A government investigation into a possible mistreatment of Sternberg gave this verdict:

Our preliminary investigation indicates that retaliation [against Sternberg by his colleagues] came in many forms. It came in the form of attempts to change your working conditions. . . . During the process you were personally investigated and your professional competence was attacked. Misinformation was disseminated throughout the SI [Smithsonian Institution] and to outside sources. The allegations against you were later determined to be false. It is also clear that a hostile work environment was created with the ultimate goal of forcing you out of the SI.

That a top scientist would be thrown out of a prestigious consortium for questioning any other dubious historical theory is unthinkable. Yet when one questions the "scientific theory" of evolution, people start getting a little . . . testy. Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science and Education (NCSE), herself a vocal anti-creationist, loudly proclaimed that Smithsonian scientists absolutely had to explore Sternberg’s religious beliefs. “They don’t care if you are religious, but they do care a lot if you are a creationist,” Scott said. Ironically, a frequent criticism made by the NCSE has been that scientists who support intelligent design don’t publish peer-reviewed articles and don’t make their case at scientific conferences. When an article, which is peer-reviewed, appears, then the NCSE objects. To read the full article by Answers In Genesis, click here.

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Why is there such an emotional reaction when someone dares to allow people to even consider that there could be an intelligence behind the origin of the universe? Man ultimately cannot stomach the idea of an intelligent Creator that he must be responsible to. In Him, D3

President Bush Hints at Use of Military Force With Iran

Breaking News In a recent Israeli interview, President Bush hinted that force might be used to dissuade Iran from continuing its radioactive enrichment program. He previously said diplomacy should be used to persuade Iran to suspend its nuclear program and if that failed then the U.N. Security Council needs to impose sanctions. However, Iran has little or no support for the U.N.; Iranian officials ripped U.N. inspection tags off their equipment on the 10th, signaling the start of uranium enrichment. Bush stated that the United States and Israel "are united in our objective to make sure that Iran does not have a weapon." However, if politics fails, "all options are on the table."

"The use of force is the last option for any president. You know, we've used force in the recent past to secure our country."

Many see this as a not-so-subtle hint that Iran faces the U.S. military if they choose not to cooperate. In Vienna, where the International Atomic Energy Agency is based, diplomats said Iran faced a Sept. 3 deadline to stop uranium conversion or face possible referral to the U.N. Security Council. The Council could impose forceful sanctions that, if violated, would be grounds for military action. To read the full story, click here.

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Personally, I wouldn't trust the Iranians, or any other Islamic government, with the tools to create atomic weapons. Europe offered to supply the completed nuclear fuel along with other ecomonic incentives if Iran stopped their program, but Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the new president, called the offer "an insult." There is no reason that Iran needs their own uranium/plutonium enrichment program when they are being offered fuel for their reactors. The Iranians are calling it a "matter of pride", but I call it a matter of prejudice. The Muslims have enough power already; they don't need The Bomb. What do you think? In Him, D3

OakBrook College of Law Paralegal

As some of you may know, I will be taking a Paralegal Certification course with OakBrook College of Law and Government Policy this year. This course will certify me as a Legal Assistant so that I can get a high-paying job during my college years, rather than flipping burgers or bagging groceries.

While reviewing my syllabus, I realized that this one-year course was a real one-year course! It will start on the 22nd of August, 2005, and end on the 9th of August, 2006! It is the equivalent of a two-year associate's degree. Since I study four days per week and attend a co-op on Friday, I will have to study 5 hours a day on the coursework. Whew!

Luckily, I get to have a two-week break every quarter. The quarters are 11 weeks long, and I get a one-week break for Christmas.

As a result of this, starting in late August I won't be able to blog quite as much. I estimate that I will have about 1 hour per day on the computer, but after checking and replying to my email and making one post on this site, there won't be much time for commenting or responding to comments. I believe that I can turn out at least one new post per day, but beyond that. . . .

But don't stop coming!

In Him,

D3

Judges Approve "Eminent Domain" Policy

In a 5-4 decision, federal judges have now decided that the policy of "eminent domain" can be extended to include anything local officials feel would be "beneficial" to the community at large. The concept of "Eminent Domain" means that private land can be bought by the government if it is helpful to the general public. Until now, this was limited to public works projects such as highways or state buildings. But this is all going to change. The small town of New London in Connecticut was facing dire economic problems. To fix this, the New London City council decided to commandeer private riverfront lands for commercial development. State Representative Ernest Hewett, one of the members of the council, explained:

"I am charged with doing what's best for the 26,000 people that live in New London. That to me was enacting the eminent domain process designed to revitalize a city . . . with nowhere to go."

Plans include a commercial development including a riverfront hotel, health club and offices that would attract tourists to the Thames riverfront, complementing an adjoining Pfizer Corp. research center and a proposed Coast Guard museum. When local residents complained that their homes were being unjustly wrenched from them, the case went all the way to the Supreme Court. As may be expected, our liberal bench ruled in favour of big-government. "Promoting economic development is a traditional and long accepted function of government," said Justice John Paul Stevens. But not all of the bench agrees. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor criticized the majority for abandoning the conservative principle of individual property rights and handing "disproportionate influence and power" to the well-heeled. "The specter of condemnation hangs over all property," O'Connor wrote. "Nothing is to prevent the state from replacing any Motel 6 with a Ritz-Carlton, any home with a shopping mall, or any farm with a factory." To read the rest of the story, click here.

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Okay. Let me get this straight. I work hard to earn money, while I give a good 20 percent to the Federal Government. Then, I buy a home for myself and my family (remembering Uncle Sam in cash for the privilege). Every year, I pay a hefty property tax to the state and the Feds. Then, some rich kid on the city council decides that my property would make a good HiltonHead Hotel. Bingo! I am now approached with the "opportunity" to sell my hard-earned land. If I agree, they pay me half of what I paid for my own home . . . with the money that I have paid them already. If I disagree, they buy up all the land around me and put in a housing strip or a mall, forcing the value of my home into the dumps and ruining the area. And this is "Constitutional"? "Promoting economic development is a traditional and long accepted function of government," said Justice John Paul Stevens. Give me a break! The function of goverment is to prevent and punish plunder, the very thing that is now being legislated by the Supreme Court! Let's impeach these judges! In Him, D3

"Hurricane" Irene?

Breaking News The tropical storm named "Irene" has almost reached hurricane status. Recent measurements indicate that this massive storm has created 70 mph winds; once the winds reach 74 mph it will be an "official" hurricane. The storm is moving north/northwest at about 10 miles per hour nearly 500 miles off the coast of North Carolina. It is expected to curve away from the Atlantic Seaboard by late tomorrow. For the rest of the story, click here.

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According to MSNBC, there have been an unusually high number of named storms this Atlantic Hurricane season (June 1 to Nov. 30th). Usually, by this time only two storms have been named, but by the 9th of July we had already named Arlene, Bret, Cindy and Dennis. People are still rebuilding from last year's barrage of 9 storms in just August and September, but now, this season's total has been upped to 8 with Emily, Franklin, Gert, and Irene. And the season is only half over! The number of named storms in July alone reached 5, which breaks the previous record of 4. This season tied the 1916 record of 2 for the number of hurricanes in July. According to Forecaster William Gray of Colorado State University, the chances for major hurricane damage along the East Coast is almost twice as high as an average year. He has upped his prediction for the number of named storms from 11 in December 2004 to 13 and now to 15. To put this in perspective, the average number of named storms is only 9.6. Maranatha! In Him, D3

Iran Restarts Nuclear Development

Breaking News On Monday, Iran restarted nuclear testing and research. This comes at the chagrin of the United States and Europe, who wish to suppress nuclear research in the light of the possible nuclear weapons threat. Iran's nuclear reactor is being built in the mountains of Khondab, near Arak. It is ringed with antiaircraft weapons and may contain an undergroud plant. Iranian officials say that the operation is for peaceful energy purposes only, but the European Union and U.S. officials aren't sure. "We have developed this capability. The heavy-water project today is a reality,'' Gholamreza Aghazadeh, vice president of Iran, said yesterday. The heavy-water project is a type of nuclear reactor that, if built correctly, could yield enough high-grade plutonium for one massive nuclear weapon per year. Requests by EU and US officials to use a light-water method less capable of nuclear disaster have fallen on deaf ears. "This knowledge belongs to Iran. Nobody can take it from us. As they (Europeans) see Iran's determination, they will be forced to show flexibility and accept it," said vice president Aghazadeh. Completion of the plant should come by mid-2009 if everything goes as planned. To read the full story, click here. In Him, D3

Time for the Evolution Wars!

The latest article at Answers In Genesis deals with the growing debate over evolution and intelligent design in the public schools. You can read their article here.

With Bush's recent remarks and mounting support of Intelligent Design (ID) in the scientific world, many proponents of secular humanism are starting to be alarmed. The liberals are turning out in full force to, as they would claim, "defend science against religion."

But this isn't a question of "science vs. religion." As I showed in my recent article, teaching of evolution is so scientifically bankrupt as to amount to deception. Proponents of ID only want logical, scientific criticisms of evolution to be presented to public school students so that they can make their own conclusions.

Of course, this is too much for the secular scientific fundamentalists. Rather than showing why evolution is worthwhile, they ruthlessly attack Biblical Creationism and ID, comparing it to belief in a flat earth and reciting outdated and disproven "support" of macroevolution such as the "backwards" retina (see this article for a refutation) and the cop-out that "little differences add up to big changes", totally ignoring the subject of irreducible complexity.

If, in fact, evolution is so supported by the facts, why is the secular humanist consortium so opposed to allowing any alternate viewpoints? It isn't, as they loudly proclaim, an issue of "separation of church and state" (click here for my refutation of this absurd phrase), for ID only points out that life cannot arise without outside intelligence. As Ken Ham questions, "Is evolution so weak that it has to be legislated in order to protect it?"

The fact is that the forces of secular humanism are so wrapped up in their belief system that they cannot allow anything that could possibly suggest a Divine Intelligence.

Personally, I believe in Biblical Creationism. I also believe that it is perfectly Constitutional and academically honest to teach the Biblical account in Natural History classes. But right now, this is something that liberalism just won't allow. Perhaps the introduction of Intelligent Design to the public schools will open up the door to an acceptance of honesty and integrity in scientific criticisms.

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On another note, Eric and I just created a new header for our joint site, The Truth About Macroevolution using Adobe Photoshop. Click on the link to check it out!

In Him,

D3

God in Three Persons: Understanding the Trinity

Many people are easily confused when they hear about God. Do Christians believe in three gods or one God with three personalities? How does this work?

The concept of the Trinity comes from 1 John:

"For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one."

I know it sounds strange. Three can't equal one, right?

Many analogies have been posed to explain this. Some people say that God is like water; water can be liquid, solid, or gaseous, but it always remains water. But this is inadequate, for it would make God seem like one Being with three different forms over history. We know that the personalities of the Trinity are separate because Jesus often spoke about corresponding with His Father.

Another analogy that is often posed is that of an apple. Apples are composed of skin, meat, and seeds, but it is all part of the same apple.

This also fails. True, together these three parts make up an apple, but they are only part of an apple by themselves. Each person of the Godhead is God, not just "part of" God.

So what is God? There is a relatively simple explanation: God is one "what" and three "who-s". But this can be hard to grasp.

The best analogy that I have heard to describe God is as follows:

Space is composed of three dimensions: height, length and depth. Each of these are space; if there is height between two objects, there is 3-D space between them, if there is length between two objects, there is 3-D space between them, and if there is depth between two objects, there is still three-dimensional space between them.

But without any one of the three dimensions, the concept of space is meaningless. Space becomes either a vertical or a horizontal plane when deprived of one of its elements.

And still, each dimension is space in and of itself.

I'll close with a verse from Ephesians that has an interesting connotation when viewed in the light of this analogy:

". . . that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height --- of the love of Christ.

In Him, D3

So What Do I Call This Post?

Hey Cyberspace, I don't really know what I'm going to be writing about today. I hope you can follow it. To start with, my brother Theo wrote an excellent article on his website about Job 40 and 41. Click here to read it. My mom's letter to the editor was published in the Herald-Liberal recently. Since they put past articles in the archives and you have to pay to see it, I'm going to post it here:

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Military Evangelicals

Some people are decrying the fact that evangelicals are playing an increasing role in the military. Those courageous soldiers volunteered. They are willing to give up their lives to protect each American's ability to live in this great land. And even though many Americans slander them, these dedicated soldiers turn the other cheek. Sounds like their stance is a Biblical one. Jesus Christ did the same thing. He overlooked man's sin and took our punishment, raising himself from death to give us eternal life. We must be thankful that we have troops who won't tuck tail and run, scoffing all the way. We can't depend on moral weaklings to do noble tasks. Do the complainers think that there should be a ban on Christians in the military? What will they do when they get their way and Muslim fanatics decide it's time to come to their doors? There will be a Christian there to lay his life down for a friend or enemy. K. MacMillan

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So, what do you think about that? By the way, I've got some good news. StatCounter sends weekly updates about your website with statistics on the number of visitors. For the past week, I had an average of

47 hits

per day! That's right, almost 350 hits over the week! The average number of hits per day has been slowly climbing, and the hits per week has been escalating quickly. Thanks, everyone who visits my site! I have also enabled weblog subscriptions through BlogLet. If you subscribe, the first 60 characters of every new post will be automatically emailed to you with a link to the rest. Don't worry, I won't mob your inbox with junk mail! In Him, D3

Animal Rights Activism: Stupidity At Its Best

One thing that tends to amuse me is the constant hype of liberal animal rights activists. They're never consistent: they only care about the cute animals. "Oh, the spotted owl is getting injured! Oh, some desert prairie dog is going extinct!" Or my favorite: "The dolphins are getting caught in the tuna net! The dolphins are getting caught in the tuna net!" Oh yeah? What about the tuna getting caught in the tuna net? But tuna are fish, and fish are ugly, not cute. They're inconsistent. "But dolphins are second to humans in intelligence!" No, they aren't. I know, I've watched these guys. They do five shows a day, seven days a week, for a sardine. "Hey Braniac! Get a union!" Besides, they're always talking about how we are being 'in-humane'. The word 'humane' comes from the root 'human'. You want me to treat animals like humans? Guess again, buddy. Have you ever seen those big TV fishermen? They're the most 'inhumane' people you'll ever see! They hang a poor half-dead worm on a hook, catch it in a fish's throat, then drag the fish all over the lake by its vocal cords! "He's a fighter, watch him fight, oooooh he can fight, look at him fihgt, this fell's fighting like mad, he's a fighter . . . whoo he's a fighter." Look, mister, get a thesaurus! "Dinosaurs are dead." No, no, I'm just kidding, the poor guy couldn't read. They yank the fish out of the drink, let everyone take pictures: "Look what I did, look what I did!" then rip the hook out of the side of his face and throw it back in. The fish is thinking, "What was that all about? Thanks to you, now I'm a freak! Eat me, for crying out loud!" A whale comes up on the beach. We spend millions of dollars puttin them back in the water. We fall in the water? The whales eat us. Eat them back! It's their way. In Him, D3 A large amount of the humor in this article is taken from Christian Comedian Brad Stine's speech, Put A Helmet On.

Bush Hints at Support of Intelligent Design Movement

At a recent interview, Bush gave his views on several different issues to different Texas reporters. When asked by the newsmen about the Intelligent Design (ID) movement, Bush was tactically brief. Declining to elaborate on his own views, he nevertheless spoke about the issue in schools. "Both sides ought to be properly taught . . . so that people can understand what the debate is about." Sounds sensible. The President went into more detail: "I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought," he said. "You're asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, the answer is yes." This is an elaboration on what Bush said late 2004 when asked the same question. “. . . . it is not the federal government’s role to tell states and local boards of education what they should teach in the classroom” but “of course, scientific critiques of any theory should be a normal part of the science curriculum." To read the whole article by CNN, click here.

Personally, I would have preferred that Bush be more vocal, but I understand his reservations. With the stronghold that evolution has gained in American education, we must be careful not to be branded as "anti-science".

Proponents of the ID movement and Biblical creationists aren't "antiscience", they just believe that something greater than science exists and is responsible for natural phenomena . . . like the existence of the universe, for example. To see a comparison of Intelligent Design, Secular Humanism, and Biblical Creationism, click on this picture:

What do you think?

In Him,

D3

New Planet Discovered!

Breaking News NASA has located what they believe to be the tenth planet in our solar system. This new chunk of rock, uninspiringly dubbed "2003 UB313", is approximately 9 billion miles from the sun (more than twice as far as Pluto) and is estimated to be 1.4 to 1.6 times the size of Pluto. 2003 UB313 lies near the "Kuiper Belt", but cannot be classified as an asteroid due to its large size. It will be given a new name as soon as NASA is sure they want to classify it as a real planet. To see the link at the NASA site, click here. This new discovery poses several problems for the Big Bang theory and other parts of the secular cosmology. 2003 UB313 not only has a highly elliptical orbit, but it is inclined 44 degrees out of the average plane of other orbiting planets. The secular model for the formation of the solar system claims that the Solar System is a condensation of a huge, rapidly spinning dust cloud. If this were the case, all the planets would have roughly the same inclination and would spin the same direction. We already knew that Venus spins in the opposite direction from most planets, but until now the greatest deviation from the orbit plane was the 17 degrees of Pluto. Of course, I'm sure that evolutionists will propose that some gigantic stellar body supposedly passed close enough to the solar system to pull the new planet out of the usual angle without succeeding in capturing it. This theory will be placed as fact in the textbooks of Americans; to question it will be intolerant religious bigotry. It will be interesting to see whether Pluto is inclined the same way as this new planet. If so, they will use this to say that both planets were aligned together when the huge star passed and pulled them both partly out of orbit, producing the highly elliptical and angularly deviant orbits. If not, they'll say that planetary orbits wobble like a badly-spun top and that the planets were aligned at one time, and the same thing happened. Regardless of the truth, they will find some just-so story that will substantiate their claims (rather than coming up with a new, scientifically valid theory). In Him, David S. MacMillan III

Hurricane After Hurricane: What does it mean?

This post was written while sitting in Detroit Airport watching CNN for hours on end. I just now recovered it. It's neat to see how everything panned out.

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Damage from Hurricane Dennis is estimated to exceed $2 billion dollars. And it could have been worse. On a scale of 1 to 10, with a hurricane like the infamous Ivan of last year being 10, officials said that Dennis was only level 3. But the danger is not over. Already, meteorologists have spotted a tropical depression off the coast of Cuba. If this storm develops into a full-blown hurricane, it will be named Emily, and is expected to cross right below the same path that Dennis has left. In the past 50 years, our world has experienced more devastation from natural disasters than ever before. With the tsunami of December 2004, the rash of hurricanes earlier that year, deadly mudslides and forest fires in California, and the like, the convolutions of nature are escalating rapidly. In the 20th and 21st centuries alone, the number and intensity of earthquakes have far exceeded previous statistics. Seismologists, scientists who study earthquakes, say that the earth is loosening up in preparation for the greatest, most dynamic activity of all. What does this growing commotion in nature mean? Jesus had something to say on this issue in Luke 21:

". . . there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars, and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven will be shaken."

Maranatha! Come quickly, Lord Jesus!

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In Him,

D3

Pope Compares Israelis to Terrorists

Breaking News

On Friday, the Vatican made a big mistake. After Pope Benedict condemned several global terror attacks last Sunday but conspicuously ommitted reference to Palestinian suicide bombings, Israelis demanded to know why. His rebuke was extremely blunt and somewhat coarse:

"It has not always been possible to follow every attack against Israel with a public declaration of condemnation."

Talk about suggestive! Who does this guy think he is? Read on:

". . . the attacks on Israel were sometimes followed by immediate Israeli reactions not always compatible with the norms of international law . . . It would thus be impossible to condemn the terrorist operations and pass over the Israeli retaliation in silence."

"The attacks on Israel." No, it isn't an attack, it is a ruthless suicide bombing! Get it straight! This guy is intimating that the Israeli retaliations are the same as the terrorist acts that trigger them. Apparently, he doesn't realize the difference between Palestinian suicide bombings that target innocent civilians and precise Israeli retaliatory strikes that only injure terrorists.

My opinion of Benny 16 was pretty high, as popes go, until now. But this overt antagonism against Israel just dropped him quite a ways in my estimation.

It is interesting to note that this would just about put Benny out of the running for False Prophet or Antichrist, because the Antichrist and his cohorts must be on good terms with Israel. Of course, it's always possible that the Vatican will suck up its pride, admit that it was wrong, claim it "wasn't speaking from the Chair of Peter", and patch up relations with Israel. Sometimes a quarrel can lead to conciliatory feelings.

To read the entire story, click here.

In Him,

David S. MacMillan III

The Fate of Space Shuttle Discovery Rests on . . . Ducktape?

That's right, our astronauts have lots of ingenuity when it comes to in-orbit repair. They used a hacksaw, ductape, and some kind of clamp to create a makeshift shield remover.

Some kind of asbestos stripping worked itself loose during launch. This stripping is only necessary during launch; varying aerodynamics make it worthless in return. But now, since it is sticking out, it would cause a huge temperature increase if left in for re-entry. So, the astronauts constructed this little appliance to cut it off if they couldn't rip it off with their thickly gloved hands. The mission was a success. It's just another tribute to the power of Ducktape!

In Him,

D3

Was Jesus a Great Moral Teacher?

“I believe Jesus was just a good moral teacher, but he certainly wasn’t God.” I get this a lot. It seems that many people write Jesus off as just “any other prophet”. Rather than creating a compromise, though, this position ends up making more enemies than friends. Why? In John 8, the local Jewish leaders were asking Jesus questions about himself. He puzzled them by declaring that Abraham rejoiced to see him. “You’re not even 50 years old, and you’ve seen Abraham?” they questioned. Jesus had a ready answer. “Before Abraham was, I Am.” This might seem somewhat mundane to us today. A little bit of bad grammar perhaps, but relatively boring nonetheless. But to the Jews, this was blasphemy. Centuries before, the Lord had appeared to Moses and told him that His Name was Yahweh. Literally translated, this means “I am”. This indicates the transcendent attributes of God; that He is outside of time and space. So when Jesus declared that “before Abraham was, Yahweh,” he was openly stating that he was God. The Jews understood this. After he said this, they picked up rocks and tried to stone him to death. He slipped through the crowd without them seeing him and escaped. So Jesus said he was God. There are two options now: he was telling the truth, or he was not telling the truth. If he was not telling the truth, then either he was lying or he was genuinely convinced that he was God. If he was lying, then he is not a great moral teachers. Great moral teachers who are not God don’t tell people (especially not their enemies) that they are God. If he was that confused, then he was a lunatic; on the level with someone who thinks they are a poached egg. But if he really was telling the truth, then He was LORD. So we have three options for Jesus Christ: Liar, Lunatic, or LORD. You can choose to disbelieve Him, you can shut Him up for a fool, or you can worship Him as LORD of your life. But, in the words of C.S. Lewis, “let’s not have any of this patronizing nonsense about His being a ‘good moral teacher.’ ” Liar, Lunatic, or LORD. What’s your choice? In Him, David S. MacMillan III

The Big Bang: Does the concept make sense?

Thought for the day: Big Bangers claim that the universe's expansion rate is slowing down due to the gravitational attraction of all the different galaxies. One day, they claim, it will go in the opposite direction as gravitational forces overcome momentum, eventually bringing everything together in the Big Crunch. Which necessitates the question: Why, in the speculative idealism of Big-Bangology, would the universe have exploded in the first place? Black holes (high centers of mass) draw things together. Even the entire universe, they say, will one day collapse from its own extreme gravitation. Why, then, would it have done the opposite thing in the first place? I'm sure that they will have some explanation. Perhaps some new physical constant (like the "Cosmological Constant" proposed by Einstein which he later called "the biggest mistake of my entire career") will be created out of thin air to substantiate their theory. Or maybe they will say that in hypothetical hyper-space gravity has the opposite effect, pushing space apart while gravity draws mass itself together, and expansion/contraction happens when this gets out of balance. Since this is all speculation and not science, they can do whatever they want to keep their theory alive. This reminds me of a quote by Mark Twain (aka Samuel Clemens). To modify it a bit:

"The Big Bang Theory is like a frog. You can dissect the thing, but it has the disturbing tendency to die in the process."

Mainstream secular science would tend to agree. Let's keep the Big Bang together without looking at it too closely, and maybe it will fool some people. In Him, D3

Mechanics, Standard-Shift Trucks, and a Letter to the Editor

Hey Cyberspace, Saturday, my dad had me change the oil on our 2002 Toyota Sienna. I enjoy writing, researching, and the like, but unfortunately mechanics is just not my thing. After crawling behind the front tire, thoroughly oiling my back in the process, I searched for the oil pan. Finally, I found a large bolt attached to what looked like a flat pan. Eye-balling the size, I crawled back out of the oily space and grabbed a bag of wrenches. Scraping my nose as I tried to fit back under the car, I tested about 8 wrenches before realizing that I had metric wrenches and I needed standard. I retrieved the standard tools and finally got the right size. I placed the wrench around the bolt and yanked. Nothing happened. I yanked again, harder this time. Still, the bolt stayed tightly fixed. "Hey David!" my brother Theo yelled. "The van's moving!" I groaned as I turned my head, and found that although the wheels were still in place, the chassis rocked every time I pulled on the wrench. Looking over at the other wheel, I noticed an identical bolt-and-pan arrangement on that side. Strange. Does this car have two oil pans? Nope. I painstakingly pulled myself out from under the car, and realized that I had been hard at work trying to disconnect the right-hand steering box from the front axle. Yikes! I finally located the oil pan, and was able to successfully drain the oil. Then, it was a relatively simple (albeit messy) operation to remove the filter and put on a new one. I crawled under the van once more to replace the bolt, but dropped it in the oil draining pan several times before tightening it. Then I realized that the rubber washer wasn't in place. Off came the bolt, and on went the washer. I up-ended the 5-quart bucket above the funnel. Unfortunately, the Sienna oil input drain is very curved, so the oil gurgled back up and out onto the engine block. By moderating the flow out of the bucket, I was able to successfully fill the engine to the top and replace the cap. Done! Or was I? It couldn't be this easy. I realized too late that I had over-filled the car to an extreme. I got a new draining pan and drained out about two quarts of excess oil. Then I added just enough to bring the oil to the perfect level. By now I was soaked in oil and grease. Mechanics is not my thing. Neither is standard-shift driving. Our old '86 Toyota pickup is a five-speed clunker that can barely top 68.5 mph on the interstate. Dad is teaching me to drive it, but it is a slow and laborious process. I can get the whole clutch-accelerator idea, but as soon as I look up at the road I notice that I am 35 degrees off center. Then, the truck dies as I release the clutch, frantically trying to stay on the road. Making a sharp turn from a dead stop uphill is murder. Once I get the car balanced between clutch and accelerator there is no way I can get enough momentum to make it around the turn; at least without giving us all whiplash. Personally, I prefer flying a Cessna. It's much simpler, and there are no pesky bystanders that need waving to (I won't go into the details, but it was pretty messy in the pickup). On another note, my Mom had a letter published in the Lexington Herald-Liberal . . . er . . . Herald-Leader today. It was basically what was said in my last post with some extra satire thrown in for good measure. So, what does everyone think of this no-news, totally-random-thought post as opposed to the usual technical articles? I know that it is a break from the norm, but I needed to let off some steam. I'm totally floored right now. In Him, D3