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[Christian Apologetics Insights]: GIANT GOOSE HAD CROCODILE BEAK, according to reports in FossilScience.com and Times Online 27 Sept 2008. A large bird skull found in clay on the Isle of Sheppey, UK has been identified as belonging to an extinct giant bird named “Dasornis emuinus” – a goose-like bird with a wing span of up to 5 m (16 ft) across believed to have cruised the skies over Britain 50 million years ago. Gerald Mayr, who identified the skull, commented that a bird that size would need strong winds to take off. As well as its size, the bird was also different from living birds in having bony teeth. Mayr commented: “By today’s standards these were pretty bizarre animals, but perhaps the strangest thing about them is that they had sharp, tooth-like projections along the cutting edges of the beak. The beak was so covered in bony teeth that it looked like a crocodile.” He went on to say, “No living birds have true teeth – which are made of enamel and dentine – because their distant ancestors did away with them more than 100 million years ago, probably to save weight and make flying easier. But the bony-toothed birds, like Dasornis, are unique among birds in that they reinvented tooth-like structures by evolving these bony spikes. It’s linked to diet. These birds probably skimmed across the surface of the sea, snapping up fish and squid on the wing. With only an ordinary beak these would have been difficult to keep hold of, and the pseudo-teeth evolved to prevent meals slipping away.”

ED. COM. To say that birds did away with teeth and then reinvented them is another evolutionary “just so” story that bestows the attributes of a purposeful designer onto a mindless chance process. If a toothless bird tried to catch fish by skimming across the sea surface, that would not make teeth grow. A bird that did not have teeth can only gain them when meaningful genetic information is added. Furthermore, the size of this bird and the fact that it is extinct is a reminder that the general trend in the real world is creatures get smaller and die out – the opposite of evolution. (Ref. ornithology, diet, flight)[Copyright AD 2008 Creation Research, Used With Permission]

[Christian Apologetics News]:NOBEL AWARD FOR PLANT DIGNITY, according to articles in Improbable Research, BBC News Online and swissinfo.ch, 3 Oct 2008. Each year the editors of the magazine Annals of Improbable Research (for “research that cannot or should not be reproduced”) present awards to scientists whose research “makes people laugh then think”. This year’s winner of the Peace Prize was “The Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology (ECNH) and the citizens of Switzerland for adopting the legal principle that plants have dignity.” The Ethics committee report was originally published as "The Dignity of Living Beings With Regard to Plants. Moral Consideration of Plants for Their Own Sake". This caused some concern amongst biologists that plant biotechnology research on plants may be hindered. (See Nature, vol. 452, p919, 24 April 2008.) The prize was accepted on behalf of the ECNH by Urs Thurnherr of the University of Education in Karlsruhe, Germany. In his acceptance speech he asked if anyone in the audience had ever forgotten to water their plants, and if the plants subsequently died, he asked, "did that make you uneasy in any way? If so, you may be ready for our paper." Other recipients of Ig Nobels included a mathematical model that showed heaps of string, wires, hair and other strands inevitably get tangled up; research that showed fleas who live on dogs jump higher than fleas who live on cats; a study that showed crisps taste better if they sound crunchier; and a report on the role of armadillos in disturbing archaeological sites and an experiment that proved slime moulds can solve puzzles.

ED. COM. Many years ago one of our colleagues jokingly said we should start a movement called “Plant Rights” to challenge evolutionist vegan and vegetarian Animal Rights claims. After all, if evolution is true, then plants are just as highly evolved as animals and people, so why discriminate against them by eating them or experimenting on them or even mowing the lawn or killing weeds? The Swiss group, who take themselves very seriously, are at least being more consistent in their thinking than the editors of the Annals of Improbable Research who laughed at them. However, we wonder what the Swiss think they can eat or wear if they think plants have too much dignity to be exploited by human beings. Genesis tells that plants are intrinsically different from animals and people and were always meant to be eaten and used (wisely) by human beings. (Ref. philosophy, ethics, politics) [Copyright AD 2008 Creation Research, Used With Permission]

[Christian Apologetics Insights]: NEANDERTHALS MADE SMART TOOLS, according to reports from Exeter University and BBC News Online, 26 Aug 2008. A team of researchers from the University of Exeter, Southern Methodist University, Texas State University and the Think Computer Corporation, have recreated stone tools called flakes and blades. Neanderthals made flakes, but not blades, and it was believed that flakes were more primitive, and indicated Neanderthals were less skilled and intelligent than other stone-age people, and therefore died out because they could not compete with modern man. The researchers tested their tools for how much cutting-edge was created, the efficiency in consuming raw material and how long tools lasted. They found the flakes were just as effective tools as the blades and therefore could not used as evidence that Neanderthals were too stupid to make blades. According to Exeter University, “Many long-held beliefs suggesting why the Neanderthals went extinct have been debunked in recent years. Research has already shown that Neanderthals were as good at hunting as Homo sapiens and had no clear disadvantage in their ability to communicate. Now, these latest findings add to the growing evidence that Neanderthals were no less intelligent than our ancestors.” Metin Eren, who led the study, commented: “Our research disputes a major pillar holding up the long-held assumption that Homo sapiens were more advanced than Neanderthals. It is time for archaeologists to start searching for other reasons why Neanderthals became extinct while our ancestors survived. Technologically speaking, there is no clear advantage of one tool over the other. When we think of Neanderthals, we need to stop thinking in terms of ‘stupid’ or ‘less advanced’ and more in terms of ‘different’.”

ED. COM. What we really need to do is stop thinking that Neanderthals were anything else but humans living in a tough environment. In spite of all the efforts to label them as sub-human to bolster the theory of evolution, whenever scientists study some specific aspect of Neanderthal structure or function they come up with results that fit with fully formed humans. There is certainly no reason to ever think they were stupid. The average brain size for Neanderthals was larger than that of the modern day average. [Copyright AD 2008 Creation Research, Used With Permission]

[Christian Apologetics News]: WHY HUMAN EVOLUTION IS OVER, according to Professor Steve Jones (Times Online, 7 Oct 2008). Evolutionary geneticist Steve Jones of University College London has given a lecture entitled “Human Evolution is Over”. The reasons given by Jones are a decrease in the number of mutations being passed on due to fewer older fathers, and a weakening of natural selection. He explained, “In ancient times half our children would have died by the age of 20. Now, in the Western world, 98 per cent of them are surviving to 21.” He also says the constant mixing between previously isolated people groups has a stagnating effect on evolution. He commented “Small populations which are isolated can evolve at random as genes are accidentally lost. World-wide, all populations are becoming connected and the opportunity for random change is dwindling. History is made in bed, but nowadays the beds are getting closer together. We are mixing into a global mass, and the future is brown.”

ED. COM. All these recent changes to human society are true, but none of them have anything to do with evolution from apes to people, or people evolving into anything else. We also wonder what Steve Jones would like to happen in order to keep evolution going – an increase in mutation caused diseases, or a return to the bad old days when children died before reaching maturity? Jones’ idea reminds us that the processes that are supposed to make evolution happen are actually degenerative processes that cause death and disease. Furthermore, his idea is not new. It is an idea that was floating around when the editors of this newsletter were first researching the creation evolution issue 30 years ago. It was used as an excuse to our challenges as to why evolution cannot be seen in the world today. We considered that a poor excuse then, and it still is. If evolution is not being observed in the world today, belief in it is by faith not science. (Ref. Philosophy, theory, anthropology) [Copyright AD 2008 Creation Research, Used With Permission]