Hibernating

Posted by Jim on Sep 25, 2009
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What do these animals have in common: chipmunks, ground squirrels, echidnas, possums, hedgehogs, hamsters, skunks, bats, prairie dogs, marmots, and badgers? Answer: they all hibernate. This means they endure cold temperatures by sleeping through them. Ground squirrels and woodchucks are true hibernators. When the winter comes, their body temperature and heart rate drop to the point of unconsciousness. It will take hours to wake them.
Hibernation is not limited to mammals. Some fish, amphibians, and even insects survive the winter by this means. Cold-blooded animals also deal with extreme heat through a similar process called estivation. This often involves burrowing into the mud for protection but their metabolism is also reduced.
The bear, however, is unique. In fact, some scientists are not willing to admit they hibernate in the true sense. Instead, they call their method of tolerating the winter denning. During this time, bears do not eat or drink, and avoid bathroom visits by chemically changing their own wastes back into proteins. But though their metabolism slows during winter, it doesn’t slow to nearly the same degree as most other hibernating animals. In fact, they awaken several times during the winter and the females often give birth. Humans who come upon the ‘hibernating’ bear learn how quickly the animal can be fully awake!
If we humans lay around for several months, our bones and muscles atrophy, i.e. they wear away because of disuse. (This is why proper exercise after an injury is so important.) Another danger is that dissolved bones could increase calcium in our blood to a fatal level. However, bears remain strong and healthy during this extended inactivity. Recently scientists have discovered a chemical they think causes the bears to lose no bone or muscle fiber during hibernation. The hope is that it could be used in treating people suffering from osteoporosis.
Here is yet another example of reverse engineering. Scientists look to nature for ways to solve problems. If they cannot solve them with purposeful experiments, how is it logical to think the problems were solved by random accidents as evolution teaches? How much easier it is to believe that our wise God masterminded everything in nature as it is!

Eels

Posted by Jim on Sep 18, 2009
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For 13 years we lived in New Brunswick, Canada just off of the St. John River that flows into the Bay of Fundy and the Atlantic Ocean. Every April the water in our bay would rise several feet as the snows melted. At that time we could count on fishermen setting up several eel traps in the bay. The traps would remain there for a month. I wondered why they wanted eels in the first place but found that this amazing fish is a delicacy in Japan, China, and now in the western world. In fact, some countries have overfished eels and reduced their population 99%! Yum, yum!
Eels are indeed amazing creatures! Some scientists agree that the American eel has the most diverse habitat of any fish in the world. American eels are the only catadromous fish in North America. This term means they spawn in salt water and mature in fresh water, the opposite of salmon that are anadromous.
Exactly how they spawn is still not known. It seems that eels lay their pinhead-sized eggs under seaweed three miles deep in the Sargasso Sea, part of the Atlantic Ocean. The eggs float and are caught by the currents, traveling 1000 to 3000 miles either toward the US or Europe. As they do, they hatch into a transparent, ribbonlike creature with no eyes or mouths. These juveniles gradually lose their transparency and develop eyes and a mouth. (They still haven’t eaten). When they reach land, their bodies adapt to fresh water and they swim up rivers and start to eat anything in sight, dead or alive. “With their relatively weak jaws and many small teeth, eels have developed an unusual feeding process with food that cannot be consumed whole or readily broken into pieces by jerking or pulling. 
 Holding on with their mouths, adult eels spin their bodies to break apart food, and have been recorded at six to fourteen spins per second. In comparison, Olympic ice skaters can spin five times per second.”
“American eels can absorb oxygen through their skin as well as their gills, making it possible for them to travel over land, particularly in wet grass or mud, which may help them move around barriers in streams. Eels also can cover their entire bodies with a mucous layer, making them nearly impossible to capture by hand — ‘slippery as an eel’ is more than just a figure of speech.” (fws.gov)
For the first 8 years of their lives they are sexless. Then they develop both male and female organs. Now, apparently, they never eat again but concentrate on returning to the Sargasso Sea and salt water again. When they arrive, one or the other set of sex organs shrivels up and they become male or female long enough to reproduce and then die.
To explain the still mysterious life cycle of the eel by evolution is complex and speculative. To explain it as another example of the remarkable work of our Creature is satisfying for the Bible says “All things were made by Him.” (John 1:3)

Clams

Posted by Jim on Sep 11, 2009
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One of the necessary doctrines of evolution is the denial of a world catastrophe such as the flood of Noah. This is because such a disaster would obviously cause the earth to appear to be much older than it is. Without a very old world, there is insufficient time for evolution to occur here. Clam fossils present embarrassing evidence for such a flood.
Clams are known as bivalve mollusks. Clams are similar to the Venus Flytrap which we discussed in another article. They both have two valves, hinged, with the ability to close tightly very quickly. This makes it difficult for predators to get the clam itself. Clams eat by filtering plankton out of the water as it passes through. They are prey to sharks and squid. If they survive that, clams will live 40-60 years. They grow quickly in the first ten years but slow down to only 1 mm per year after 35.
Most clams are a few inches long. However, in the Pacific and Indian Oceans are found giant clams called the bear’s paw clams. Each weighs over 500 pounds and can be 4 feet long! This is larger than the giant clam shell fossils found in Papua New Guinea that are a little over 3 feet long and weigh 220 pounds. These are estimated to be 400,000 years old. Clams haven’t changed much over the years, have they?
When a clam dies of natural causes, within hours, the shell opens. This is why shorelines contain so many single shells for collectors to find. So if a buried clam shell is found closed, it would indicate that the clam was buried suddenly without time to open.
All over the world fossil clam graveyards are found containing millions of clams tightly packed together with the shells shut. In one such fossil graveyard in Halkirk, Alberta, Canada, these clams are buried in sheets of ironstone. Such fossils are also found at higher elevations, far from the natural environment of clams today.
What does this all mean? Clam fossil beds speak of a catastrophe that would bury millions of marine creatures quickly. The Bible calls it the flood of Noah. Since these fossil clam beds are found all over the world, and high above their natural habitat, it can only mean that a global catastrophe such as described in the Bible has shaped the earth’s geography. As a result the earth appears much older than it actually is. In other words, there isn’t enough time for evolution to have occurred, if it can occur at all.

Diatomaceous Earth

Posted by Jim on Sep 04, 2009
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Though some 200 species of diatoms exist today, an estimated 100,000 species are extinct, known only by their fossil remains. “Diatoms are a widespread group and can be found in the oceans, in freshwater, in soils and on damp surfaces. . . . They are especially important in oceans, where they are estimated to contribute up to 45% of the total oceanic primary production.” (Wiki)
Diatoms are small. The largest are only two millimeters in length. These tiny creatures live in a silica shell, similar to a clam, and, when they die, the shell remains. Yet, in spite of their size, Diatomaceous Earth (soil made up entirely of these remaining shells) is so plentiful, mining it is a major industry in various places around the globe. A 15 million ton deposit is found in Queensland, Australia. Deposits are found in both fresh water and salt water areas. It is a good thing DE is found in abundance for its uses are legion. Here are a few.
As a safe insecticide, DE is used to get rid of a variety of pests such as fleas, ticks, and bed bugs. The sharp edges of the shells cut the insect’s protective covering. This makes it dry out since DE is such a good absorber. If the bugs eat it, it shreds their insides!
This absorbing quality makes DE useful in cleaning up toxic wastes and for things such as facial masks and cat litter. In industry, DE is used in grain storage because it kills pests, absorbs moisture, but doesn’t clump.
In 1866, Alfred Nobel found that when nitroglycerin was soaked in diatomaceous earth, it was more stable. This led to the invention of dynamite the next year.
Diatomaceous Earth is used extensively in filtering. Celite is a brand name of DE used in swimming pool filters. It is also used in drinking water filtration, fish tanks, even in filtering syrups. DE is used to as a thickener for paint, soap, paper, and detergents.
DE has several health benefits. Its qualities of absorbing make it a great colon cleanser. Its hardness works to scrub out the digestive system and restore regularity. More health benefits can be found here: http://www.morethanalive.com/DEP?id=rCTVt9cZ
Evolution explains these tons of microscopic shells deposited around the world as the remains of processes that took place over millions of years. A better explanation is that diatoms lived in abundance before the flood and were buried as the world wide flood waters calmed.
Herein is a wonderful lesson about God’s ways. Billions of tiny creatures died in God’s judgment. Yet, now their remains help to make life better. God brings good from judgment, beauty for ashes, joy from mourning (Is. 61:3). God’s ultimate example of this is the salvation He provides through the hateful murder of His Son, Jesus Christ. Do you know Him?