News to Note, December 16, 2006

1. BBC NEWS: Creation museum pushes 'true history'

From the UK comes yet another article on AiG's Creation Museum, which has been drawing increasing attention even though it won't be officially open until late in the Spring.

2. ScienceNOW: Milk Tolerance Evolved More Than Once

“Recent instance of human evolution!” is the cry of evolutionists this week (that phrase coming from The New York Times), who are cheering an analysis of mutations that have led to lactose tolerance in various human populations.

3. LiveScience: Mammals Might Have Soared Before Birds

Evolutionists now say that mammals may have traveled by air before birds, according to evolutionary interpretations of an allegedly 130 million-year-old fossil. The fossil has given rise to a new taxonomical order and species designation, Volaticotherium antiquus, that “is comparable in size and shape to flying squirrels … [but] is not considered a direct ancestor of these or other flying mammals.” Despite this difference, the V. Antiquus was discovered with a “large body skin … that [was] used for gliding,” similar, perhaps, to a flying squirrel.

4. LiveScience: Snot-Like Microbes Help Carve Caves

Pardon the title of this article, but an interesting discovery is helping challenge uniformitarian ideas about cave formation. Scientists have found that cave bacteria actually “help turn a meager underground residence into an ever-expanding dark palace.” Although this may seem like minor news, it is a perfect example of the problem with using uniformitarian assumptions to try to “date” age (and, even worse, to use such suspect ages to reject Scripture-see The Parable of the Candle). Before this recognition of the cave-expanding role of cave bacteria, a scientist might have exclusively used data on water erosion to extrapolate the age of a cave. Now, cave “ages” will have to change as geologists factor in the role of these microbes.

Really, this is an example for all fallible dating methods-radiometric and otherwise-of fallible humans. Based on a series of assumptions (for example, that the decay rate of certain elements has always been constant), scientists arrive at dubitable dates. But when new evidence forces the assumptions to change, the dates-construed as facts!-change, too.

Would you compromise on the Word of God based on such solid “science”?

5. The Daily Mail: Christmas cards are losing their religious message

This story won't be a shock to more than a few, but it remains a sad reminder of the modern “secularization/neutralization” of Christmas (uh, that is, the Winter holiday). A Daily Mail survey of British Christmas cards revealed that “[o]nly one in 100 Christmas cards sold in Britain contains any religious imagery or message.”

Traditional pictures such as angels blowing trumpets over a stable, Jesus in his man[g]er, the shepherds and three wise men following the star to Bethlehem are dying out.

Instead, scenes of the Nativity has been replaced on cards by designs or jokes with little or no relevance to the Bible story and the true meaning of Christmas.

What can Christians do to counter the secularization of Christmas (i.e., Santa Claus instead of Jesus Christ) and the neutralization of Christmas (i.e., “Happy December” instead of “Merry Christmas”)? One way to start is by making it clear to friends and family where you stand on the issue by distributing cards that emphasize the true meaning of Christmas. Through this effort, perhaps such false theories of the origin for Christmas can be pushed aside. Sound similar to another battle over true origins?

6. National Geographic News: Top Ten Stories of 2006 From National Geographic News

National Geographic News put together a “top ten” news stories of the year (apparently confident the last half of December won't hold anything big!), and although the stories themselves are old news, it is surprising to see how many have clearly direct or indirect connections to the Bible.

For some, the connection is there, though indirectly-see items 10, 9, 8, 7, 3. But item 6 is about another claim of a Noah's Ark discovery; item 5 refers to uncovering an “Eden”; items 4 and 1 discuss the Gospel of Judas; and item 2 refers to the family that walks using arms and legs.

Maintaining a biblical worldview truly influences not only one's behavior and beliefs, but one's interpretation of the latest news and views.