News to Note, February 28, 2009

1. Life Designed Itself?

Have Canadian scientists uncovered the key that makes an evolutionary origin of life plausible?

University of Montreal biochemist Sergey Steinberg, along with student Konstantin Bokov, were looking to answer the question of how chemicals could spontaneously self-assemble into a life-form. Evolutionists have failed over and over again to answer that question, instead positing a host of wild, unprovable ideas.

2. Dangers of Protecting Darwinism

Philip Skell, a member of the National Academy of Sciences for more than three decades, cautions against protecting Darwinism through censorship.

3. Cod Evolution No-Go

Another example of “evolution in action”—need we even bother examining the reality to confirm this isn’t what Darwin predicted?

Time and time again, we encounter reports of an animal evolving “right before our very eyes.” So far, every time we’ve dug into the details, it turns out the scientists and reporters are—knowingly or unknowingly—pulling a bait and switch.

4. Frozen Mountains Measured

A mountain range the size of the European Alps—larger than anyone expected—has finally been measured.

How could people have missed such huge mountains for so long? The answer is simple: the range lies in Antarctica deep beneath the ice.

5. Obama the Poll Buster

We probably shouldn’t be surprised: new U.S. president Barack Obama is more “popular” than Jesus.

And Don’t Miss . . .

• We’re sorry to report that a recent edition of the comic strip B.C. took a jab at creationists—knowingly or unknowingly—with perhaps implying the appendix is a vestigial organ. Even evolutionists know the appendix has an important function; see the October 13, 2007, and June 21, 2008, editions of News to Note. This is particularly disappointing since the late B.C. creator Johnny Hart was an AiG friend who often included Christian themes in his cartoons and even donated several signed copies of B.C. to the Creation Museum for fund raising.
• Last week the Guardian ran an interesting article covering British creationists. This week, Der Spiegel has a look at European creationists, covering the controversy in Germany, Russia, Italy, Switzerland, the UK, and Turkey. The article notes that the European creation movement “is even less homogenous than the one in the US.”
• We have little doubt after reading this article that plate tectonics will increasingly be a factor in the search for extraterrestrial life. It seems scientists are getting farther from the criterion of “little green men” and closer to searching solely for circumstantial evidence for alien life.
• A Fox News video (hosted by Yahoo!) showcases a modern “caveman” and his cave home in the U.S. state of Missouri. He certainly does more than grunt! (See Kinver Caveman for more on other modern “cave people.”)
• Christian Today reports on new “secularist societies” Richard Dawkins is pushing at British universities. Christian Union communications director Pod Bhogal responded, “Once again, Professor Dawkins is to be thanked for raising the profile of God and faith issues.” Of course, that’s probably not what Dawkins had in mind!
• The photograph of an incredible fish with a transparent head has been released this week, as seen on National Geographic News. The fascinating Pacific barreleye fish lives more than 2,000 feet (600 m) deep and reportedly spends much of its time motionless.
• Religion- and God-mocker Bill Maher made a brief appearance at the Academy Awards last Sunday, attacking “our silly gods” and jokingly pouting that his “documentary” wasn’t nominated for an Academy Award. That would be Religulous, the film for which Maher used an elaborate deception to evade Creation Museum security and invade Ken Ham’s office.
• Evolutionary biologists have looked into the “evolution” of English words, generating a computer model that has computed, among other things, the oldest English words (“I,” “we,” “two,” and “three”). But like evolutionary “science,” the research is based on certain assumptions, and the results are conjecture based on those assumptions rather than supported by independent evidence.
• A fascinating semi-technical article published by Sky & Telescope magazine reviews an interesting phenomenon: some gamma rays may travel through space at ever so slightly below the speed of light. While the difference doesn’t account for distant starlight in a young-earth creation model (in fact, particles traveling slower than the speed of light would take longer to reach earth), perhaps this is still a hint some day we will learn that the speed of light is more fluid than once though.
• This isn’t news per se, but we were encouraged to promote Red Envelope Day, an effort to overwhelm the White House with red envelopes on March 31 to represent those killed by abortion.

Remember, if you see a news story that might merit some attention, let us know about it! (Note: if the story originates from the Associated Press, Fox News, MSNBC, New York Times or another major national media outlet, we will most likely have already heard about it.) And thanks to all of our readers who have submitted great news tips to us. If you didn’t catch last week’s News to Note, why not take a look at it now? See you next week!

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