Today's New Reason To Believe Archives

January 2005

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Monday, January 31, 2005
Convergent Evolution of High Intelligence

  • American ecologists and psychologists have found more evidence for repeated creation and for the refutation of naturalistic evolution. They assembled an enormous body of field research that demonstrates that corvids (crows, ravens, jays, and jackdaws) in every way match the intelligence of the higher apes. The researchers showed that corvids have the same brain-size-to-body-size ratio as chimpanzees, and a forebrain and prefrontal cortex that is significantly larger than that of other birds except for certain parrots. Like chimpanzees, corvids can make and use primitive tools (such as sticks), manifest excellent spatial and temporal memory, demonstrate social cognition, and engage in planning and strategy in response to social cognition. Evolutionists admit that the natural evolution of such high mental capabilities from low forms of life is highly improbable. For it to happen twice with identical mental outcomes occurring at the same time in two such disparate sets of species strains the evolutionary model to the breaking point. Such outcomes, however, are expected and predicted by a biblical creation model.
    • Nathan J. Emory and Nicola S. Clayton, "The Mentality of Crows: Convergent Evolution of Intelligence in Corvids and Apes," Science 306 (2004): 1903-07.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Sunday, January 30, 2005
Biochemical Design: Molecular Preplanning

  • Processes developed by human designers often incorporate preplanned responses to a variety of scenarios that likely will arise during the process’ operation. This preplanning is also seen in many biochemical operations in the cell. For example, in this report the authors describe a new methodology to define the numerous strategies that the bacterium E. coli uses to avoid fragmentation, and hence damage, to its chromosome. These types of biochemical strategies all anticipate a possible outcome before it happens. The preplanning incorporated into the cell’s biochemical systems signifies that life originated from the Creator’s hand.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Saturday, January 29, 2005
Intermediate Mass Stars in the Early Universe

  • A team of American astronomers has uncovered evidence for another design feature of the universe. Mounting evidence along several different lines of investigation demonstrates that the fine structure constant does not vary over cosmic time. The only apparent evidence for time variation lies in quasar absorption line spectra. However, the team found that this apparent evidence is eliminated if the early universe was particularly rich in intermediate-mass stars. Moreover, they showed how such stars could account for the Milky Way Galaxy manifesting the just-right abundances of life-essential elements at the just-right time so that the existence of physical, intelligent life would be possible. The fine-tuning of the population level of intermediate-mass stars in the early history of the universe to make advanced life possible establishes yet another design characteristic of the universe.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Friday, January 28, 2005
Biochemical Design: Life’s Molecular Machinery

  • A watch requires a watchmaker. And machines don’t assemble themselves. On this basis it logically follows that life requires a Creator. Biochemists have discovered that many biochemical systems function as molecular-level machines. Two are the molecular motors kinesin and dynein. Kinesin operates as a Brownian ratchet and dynein possesses molecular "gears." Both of these molecular motors work in conjunction to move cellular cargo, like organelles, along a network of microtubule "tracks" distributed throughout the cell. Dynein and kinesin transport their cargo in opposite directions along the microtubule filaments. New research describes how these two molecular motors coordinate their activity to ensure that organelles are properly delivered to the desired cellular location. In displaying elegant design and machine-like behavior, dynein and kinesin point to the work of a divine "Motor Maker."
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Thursday, January 27, 2005
Outer Solar System Design

  • A team of astronomers has uncovered more evidence that supports supernatural design of the solar system so that Earth could sustain life for billions of years. They generated the most complete modeling to date of the events surrounding the late heavy bombardment (approx. 3.9 to 3.8 billion years ago). Their model shows that as Jupiter and Saturn gravitationally interact with planetesimals they preferentially toss these planetesimals (small celestial bodies) into the inner solar system. The equal but opposite reaction of such hurling causes Jupiter and Saturn to migrate outwards. However, since Saturn is less than a third Jupiter’s mass it suffers much greater migration. Eventually, Saturn reaches an orbital distance where t circles the Sun once for every two orbits of Jupiter. This 1:2 resonance destabilizes the entire Kuiper Belt of asteroids and comets, resulting in an extremely heavy late bombardment of the inner solar system that lasts for 100 million years. Ongoing interaction between what’s left of the Kuiper Belt and the solar system’s four giant planets results in each of the giant planets attaining orbital distances, eccentricities, and inclinations that turn out to be amazingly fine-tuned to allow life to exist on Earth for the following 3.8 billion years. All of these highly fine-tuned outcomes argue for the supernatural design of the solar system. Also, the intensity of the late heavy bombardment of Earth coupled with extremely rapid appearance of life on Earth after the bombardment argues for a supernatural origin of life.
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    • Journey Toward Creation 2nd ed., by Hugh Ross (VHS or DVD)

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Adult Stem Cells Offer Hope

  • Even though embryonic stem cell research holds potential promise to treat debilitating diseases and injuries, the idea of destroying human embryos troubles many people. A significant breakthrough in adult stem cell research may offer an alternative. New research indicates that adult stem cells isolated from bone marrow can transform into dopamine-producing neurons. These types of neurons are defective in Parkinson’s disease. This advance offers the hope to treat Parkinson’s disease with bone marrow stem cells. Since adult stem cells are not derived from embryos and do not involve the destruction of a human fetus, scientific advance may provide the way out of the ethical dilemma created by emerging biotechnologies.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Deep Ocean Ventilation Design

  • Scientists in Germany have uncovered more evidence that supports the supernatural design of Earth for maximizing the biomass and biodiversity of the planet. They noted that the salinity, temperature, and oxygen and carbon dioxide ventilation of the deep ocean all must be fine-tuned to sustain a maximal biomass and biodiversity in the oceans and to maintain the global carbon cycle, which is critical for all life. Maintaining the salinity, temperature, and ventilation of the deep ocean at the ideal levels requires fine-tuning of at least the following parameters: Earth’s rotation rate, placement and sizes of the continents, depth and sizes of the oceans, tidal force exerted by the Sun, tidal force exerted by the Moon, level of deep ocean subduction, level of deep ocean convection, salinity level of the ocean surface layer, atmospheric pressure and composition, and atmospheric transparency. Such design is testimony for a supernatural, superintelligent Creator.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Monday, January 24, 2005
Biochemical Design: Organization of Simplest Life

  • Only 10 years ago microbiologists viewed bacteria as a "container" of haphazardly arranged molecules with no apparent design. Recent advances indicate that this view is incorrect. Microbiologists now understand that these simplest of life forms possess a remarkable degree of internal organization at the molecular level. New research adds to this understanding by describing the localization in the cell envelope of the enzyme PleC in the bacterium, Caulobacter. This enzyme-far from a haphazard arrangement in the cell-localizes precisely for its critical role in cell division. Such internal organization of the simplest life forms serves as a marker for biochemical design and is expected if a Creator is responsible for life.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Sunday, January 23, 2005
Microscope Technology Breakthrough

  • A team of molecular biologists has exploited a new microscope technology to discover design in certain proteins that previously had been hidden from view. The technique uses neutron crystallography to examine individual protein molecules that are cooled or "freeze-trapped" to 15 degrees above absolute zero. Under these extremely cold conditions the neutron crystallography for the first time reveals the exact positions of hydrogen atoms within the protein molecules. For the sugar-binding protein, concanavalin A, the team found twice as many ordered water molecules than any previous research team had discovered. That is, they found that concanavalin A manifests a level of design and functionality much higher than previously recognized. As this new technique is applied to the study of other proteins, it could significantly enhance the evidence for the supernatural design of biomolecules.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Saturday, January 22, 2005
Biochemical Design: Life’s Molecular Machinery

  • A watch requires a watchmaker. And machines don’t assemble themselves. On this basis it logically follows that life requires a Creator. Biochemists have discovered that many biochemical systems function as molecular-level machines. In fact, some display an eerie resemblance to man-made machines. One is the bacterial flagellum, a literal rotary motor replete with rotor, stator, drive shaft, bushing, and universal joint. This study adds new insight into the structure of the mechanical operation of this motor’s universal joint. This latest example of elegant design and machine-like behavior in the bacterial flagellum suggests the work of a divine "Motor Maker."
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Friday, January 21, 2005
Supernova Remnant Test for Creation Models

  • New measurements by astronomers have provided another refutation of a recent prediction made by young-earth creationists while confirming a contravening prediction made by old-earth creationists. Specifically, young-earth creationist organizations have published a prediction made by Danny Faulkner, a young-earth astronomer, that astronomical evidence for highly dispersed, and therefore old, supernova remnants will prove false and that astronomers will fail to uncover any more evidence for widely dispersed supernova remnants. Such supernova remnants are virtually impossible to detect in the disk of the Milky Way Galaxy because of background noise but they have been detected in the halo of the Milky Way Galaxy and in the Magellanic Clouds. Now, such a remnant has been proven to exist in a little, obscured part of the Milky Way disk. A combination of optical, radio, and X-ray measurements establish that G65.2+5.7 (the supernova remnant) has been dispersing for 300,000 years. Thus, an important prediction of the old-earth creationist model has been vindicated while the corresponding young-earth creationist prediction has been refuted again.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Thursday, January 20, 2005
Adult Stem Cells Offer Hope

  • Embryonic stem cell research holds potential promise to treat several debilitating diseases and injuries, but the idea of destroying human embryos troubles many people. This report announces a significant breakthrough in adult stem cell research that may offer an alternative. New research indicates that adult stem cells found in the olfactory bulb of the brain, which is surgically accessible in humans, can delay the symptoms and death from Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS) in laboratory mice. These adult stem cells replace neurons damaged by ALS. This advance offers the hope to treat Lou Gehrig’s disease with adult stem cells. Since adult stem cells are not derived from embryos and do not involve the destruction of a human fetus, scientific advance may provide the way out of the ethical dilemma created by emerging biotechnologies.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Phytoplankton Biodiversity

  • Dutch microbiologists have found more evidence for optimal design in organisms. They discovered a "dazzling diversity of phytoplankton" where different species utilize different parts of the light spectrum, thanks to a wide variety of complex pigment molecules. Such diversity, they pointed out, allows for an optimally efficient utilization of light energy. It also permits the coexistence of many different phytoplankton species, which serves as a safeguard against extinction and radical population collapses. Since phytoplankton serve as the base of the marine food chain and play the most critical role in the maintenance of oxygen and carbon dioxide levels both in the atmosphere and the oceans, such optimal design features are critical for the existence and well being of advanced life. While from an evolutionary perspective such optimal design features would be extremely unlikely accidents, a biblical creation model would fully anticipate and predict them.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Human and Chimpanzee Genetic Differences

  • Many people consider the 99% genetic similarity between humans and chimpanzees as evidence for evolution. However, a high degree of genetic similarity doesn’t necessarily mean that humans and chimpanzees are closely related organisms. This report demonstrates that while a high degree of genetic similarity exists, the way in which these genes are used (gene expression) differs in human and chimpanzee brains. It appears that the Creator used the same raw materials (genes) to construct both humans and chimpanzees, but employed these materials in a way that generates radically different organisms.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Monday, January 17, 2005
Sediment Bioturbation

  • Marine biologists have uncovered a new design feature for the support of advanced life. Their studies of marine invertebrate communities reveal that sediment bioturbation-that is, biogenic mixing of seafloor sediment-determines the level of sediment oxygen concentration. This concentration, in turn, determines both the biomass and nutrient regeneration for marine coastal ecosystems. Their research showed that the extinction of only a few marine invertebrate species could significantly lower sediment bioturbation-leading to a dramatic drop in the biomass and nutrient budgets for marine coastal ecosystems. Since such ecosystems are the most productive on Earth and are globally important for climate regulation and for sustaining marine food production, the maintenance of high levels of sediment bioturbation is critical for sustaining advanced life. This conclusion implies a new design feature: species that efficiently mix seafloor sediments must exist and they must exist at high enough population levels in order for advanced life to be possible.
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    • Journey Toward Creation 2nd ed., by Hugh Ross (VHS, DVD)

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Sunday, January 16, 2005
Biochemical Design: Organization of Simplest Life

  • Only ten years ago microbiologists viewed bacteria as a "container" of haphazardly arranged molecules with no apparent design. Recent advances indicate that this view is incorrect. Microbiologists now understand that these simplest of life forms possess a remarkable degree of internal organization at the molecular level. New research adds to this new understanding by describing the cytoplasmic localization of enzyme I of the phosphoenolpyruvate:glucose phosphotransferase complex in the bacterium, E. coli. Scientists have long thought that this enzyme distributes evenly in the cell’s cytoplasm. They have now learned that this enzyme’s distribution and localization in the cell varies-far from a haphazard arrangement-as growth conditions change. The internal organization of the simplest life forms serves as a marker for biochemical design and is expected if a Creator is responsible for life.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Saturday, January 15, 2005
Speciation Model Support

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Friday, January 14, 2005
Biochemical Design: Can Man Do It Better?

  • Yet again, engineers turn to the elegant designs found in nature to inspire new technology. In this case, researchers are exploiting new insights about the protein-folding and translocation pathways of the bacterium, E. coli, to produce bioengineered proteins. Prior to this understanding, engineers have struggled to efficiently manufacture high quality proteins in the correct, bioactive three-dimensional shape. Human designers have not been able to duplicate the processes found inside the cell. Now, thanks to these insights into nature’s designs, they can. Does it make sense to conclude that the designs found in nature stem from random, undirected processes when they are far superior to what humans can accomplish?
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Thursday, January 13, 2005
Silicate Abundance for the Primordial Earth

  • Two German cosmochemists found an important new design feature in the formation of the solar system that enables Earth to support life for billions of years. A particular abundance of silicate on Earth is critical for life to thrive for billions of years and for advanced life to exist. The two cosmochemists discovered presolar silicate grains in the primordial meteorite Acfer 094. The grains bore the formation signature of red giant stars between 1.5 and 1.65 solar masses that had an initial metal abundance close to what the Sun manifests. Consequently, the fine-tuned abundance of silicate on and in Earth for the support of advanced life requires a careful fine-tuning of the abundance, proximity, and type of red giant stars in the Sun’s galactic neighborhood throughout the 9 billion years that preceded the formation of the solar system. This much fine-tuning, together with all the rest of our galaxy’s fine-tuned characteristics, demands a supernatural Creator and Designer.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe - Wednesday, January 12, 2005
Biochemical Design: Molecular Fine-Tuning

  • One defining feature of the cell’s chemistry is the fine-tuning required for biomolecules to effectively carry out life’s necessary operations. Another new study illustrates this feature. Researchers demonstrate the critical importance of the location and identity of two amino acids (arginine) within the transmembrane region of nitrate transporters found in plant cells. These proteins span cell membranes and play an important role in the transport of nitrate, a nutrient, into the plant cell. When the authors of this study replaced the critical arginine residues with other amino acids, the nitrate transporter lost function. Fine-tuning is one hallmark of well-designed man-made devices. As such, the fine-tuning characteristic of biochemical systems signifies that life originated from the Creator’s hand.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe - Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Supernova Remnant Test for Creation Models

  • New measurements by astronomers provide another refutation of a recent prediction made by young-earth creationists while confirming a contravening prediction made by old-earth creationists. Specifically, young-earth creationist organizations have published a prediction made by Danny Faulkner, a young-earth astronomer, that astronomical evidence for highly dispersed supernova remnants will prove false and that astronomers will fail to uncover any more evidence for widely dispersed supernova remnants. Such supernova remnants are virtually impossible to detect in the disk of the Milky Way Galaxy because of background noise, but they have been detected in the halo of the Milky Way Galaxy and in the Small Magellanic Cloud. Now, such a remnant has been proven to exist in the Large Magellanic Cloud as well. X-ray measurements on SNR 0450-70.9 demonstrated that it has been dispersing for 95,000 years. Thus, an important prediction of the old-earth creationist model has been vindicated while the corresponding young-earth creationist prediction has been refuted again.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe - Monday, January 10, 2005
Umbilical Cord Stem Cells Offer Hope

  • Even though embryonic stem cell research holds promise to treat several debilitating diseases and injuries, many people are troubled by it, since this research involves the destruction of human embryos. A significant breakthrough in another type of stem cell research may offer an alternative. Researchers have been able to effectively treat patients with leukemia when they can’t find a match for a bone marrow transplant by using stem cells from umbilical cords. This achievement illustrates the potential utility of umbilical cord stem cells. Since this type of stem cell is not derived from embryos and does not involve the destruction of a human fetus, scientific advance may provide the way out of the ethical dilemma created by emerging biotechnologies.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe - Sunday, January 9, 2005
Nearby Supernova Challenges Hominid Evolution

  • The discovery of iron-60 (a radioactive element, not indigenous to Earth but produced by supernovae) deep in the sea floor challenges evolution and supports the need for a Creator. Here’s how: Through a careful measurement of the amount of iron-60 found on the Pacific Ocean floor, German and Austrian physicists determined that a supernova event closer than a hundred light years occurred 2.8 million years ago. At first, the researchers hypothesized they had discovered evidence supporting human evolution. Why? The timing of this supernova coincides with the retreat if Africa’s tropical jungles and the emergence of the African savannah. Apparently, that supernova destroyed much of Earth’s ozone shield, permitting ultraviolet radiation from the Sun to transform Earth’s surface into a hotter, drier state. These more arid conditions were thought to drive the evolution of jungle-dwelling, tree-swinging large primates into bipeds that walked the savannah. However, bipedal primates existed long before 2.8 million years ago, and a supernova event intense enough to wipe out most of the jungles of Africa would likely have driven down the population levels of large primates to such a low level that mutational advance is impossible. Thus, the iron-60 discovery supports the biblical creation model and challenges the evolutionary model.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe - Saturday, January 8, 2005
Bilingual Brains

  • British and Italian neuroscientists have discovered more evidence for the unique and amazing design of the human brain relative to the brains of all other species and, thereby, developed yet another challenge to naturalistic evolution. For some time neuroscientists have recognized that the human brain not only is unique in its capacity to support a highly complex language, it can also support the simultaneous use of multiple highly complex languages. The British and Italian team showed that grey-matter density in one part of the brain was much more enhanced for bilingual individuals than for monolinguals and that the degree of enhancement was proportional to the individual’s proficiency in the second language and inversely proportional to the age at which the individual acquired the second language. This study adds to the growing evidence that the human brain changes structure and becomes more capable in response to intellectual challenges in the environment (e.g. exposure to mathematics, reading, logic, etc.). Such evidence demonstrates that the human brain, unlike the brains of other animals, was designed in advance to become more capable in response to intellectual challenges and that God’s splitting up the one language of men into multiple languages (Genesis 11:1-9) served a purpose beyond restraining humanity’s pursuit of evil.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe - Friday, January 7, 2005
Adult Stem Cells Offer Hope

  • Even though embryonic stem cell research may hold promise to effectively treat several horrible debilitating diseases and injuries, many people are troubled by it, since this research involves the destruction of human embryos. This report announces a significant breakthrough. New research confirms that adult tissues (in this case, the dermis) possess cell populations that can develop into a wide range of cell-types, just like embryonic stem cells. Since adult precursor and stem cells are not derived from embryos and do not involve the destruction of a human fetus, such scientific advance may provide the way out of the ethical dilemma created by emerging biotechnologies.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe - Thursday, January 6, 2005
Rapid Dehydration of Mars

  • Analysis by Virginia Tech geophysicists challenges the notion that life arose naturalistically on Mars. The team analyzed the jarosite mineral recently detected by the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. Rather than proving that Mars once provided a warm, wet environment conducive for the origin and proliferation of life, the discovery instead demonstrates that liquid water only briefly existed on Mars, in limited amounts, and under chemical conditions toxic for life’s origin and survival. Moreover, they demonstrated that the survival to the present time of jarosite on Mars, in combination with residual basalt, proves that Mars has remained extremely arid since the time of the formation of Martian jarosite. The team’s analysis adds to the weight of evidence that Mars is far more inhospitable for life than previously thought and Earth is much more exquisitely fine-tuned for life than previously thought.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe - Wednesday, January 5, 2005
Challenge to Biological Evolution: Convergence

  • Given its mechanism, chance, evolution should not produce the same outcome repeatedly. However, researchers continue to find examples of repetition in nature. The authors of this research describe the repeated, independent origin of web-building behavior for Hawaiian spiders. Such independent, multiple origins of complex behavior challenge the veracity of the theory of evolution, but find ready explanation if a Creator repeatedly used the same good designs as He brought life into existence.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe - Tuesday, January 4, 2005
Protracted Oxygenation of Biosphere

  • American geoscientists recently uncovered more evidence for the supernatural timing of life’s history on Earth. Since marine sulfate concentration correlates with the concentration of oxygen in the earth’s atmosphere and ocean, the team made careful measurements of marine sulfate levels throughout the Proterozoic era (2.5 - 0.54 billion years ago). The researchers confirmed that oxygen levels in the atmosphere and oceans increased from about 5 percent of present levels to 5 - 15 percent between 2.5 and 2.2 billion years ago. From 2.2 to 0.8 billion years ago the oxygen levels were relatively constant and, thereafter, a relatively rapid increase in oxygenation occurred. These measurements are consistent with a component of RTB’s biblical creation model. This model features a Creator creating an enormous biomass and biodiversity of photosynthetic life with the goal of filling the huge oxygen sinks of the planet as rapidly as possible so that human beings can be brought upon the earthly scene before solar system conditions would make their existence impossible. The research team also made note of the fact that the oxygenation history and chemistry they measured produced concentrated iron and sulfur-bearing ores, which made human civilization and technology possible, and made certain trace metals available for advanced life chemistry.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe - Monday, January 3, 2005
Biochemistry Supports Bible’s Long Life Spans

Today's New Reason to Believe was not published between
December 24, 2004 - January 2, 2005